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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

How to witness to Roman Catholics. We covered part one this morning, but look at the first verse. This verse is an awesome verse because this is really what is going on in the Catholic Church. You see, they can’t get Christ off the cross, and they keep crucifying Him over and over and over again. And every pre-standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can never take away sin. whatever it does, it can’t take away sin. So you can’t and don’t need to ask a priest to forgive you of your sins.

We have a high priest and he’s the only high priest we need and he’s quite capable of handling the job. Look at the next statement, whatever the Catholics might think the sacrifice of mass can do for him. One thing we know it cannot do, it cannot take away sins. And this is really the last thing that I talked about this morning. So it’s just a little bit of a refresher, you know, to kind of review just the pad because I think that is such an important point to cover.

Look at the next statement, it is God’s will that the sacrifice of Christ would pay for all sin and that those who would receive that payment would be made pure and holy in God’s eyes forever. Father, which will we are sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. In Hebrews 10, that whole chapter is one awesome chapter and it really lays it out pretty good. You look at verse 10 and you look at verse 12 and you look at verse 14.

All three of those verses are really tremendous verses. And in verse 11, laying right in the middle of there because no priest can take away your sins except the great high priest, which is Christ himself. Now look at the next statement. I want you to see this verse. Look in the Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 6. Romans and chapter 6. Because the way it’s worded is something to remember and remember. If you witness enough, you’ll find out that believing that, especially with Roman Catholics, that their sins are all paid for is the hardest thing for you to get them to see.

Once they see it, it’s like a light bulb comes on. Because So now they don’t need to, you know, the confession or the priest or the master pay for their sins. It’s already been done. They can know they have eternal life and know they’re going to heaven. But like I said, always try to agree where you can agree. And one thing that they believe just like we believe is they believe that the Bible is the Word of God, so do we.

believe that Jesus is one of a virgin, well, so do we. And they believe that we need a Savior, well, so do we. They believe all have sinned. Well, maybe all of them, except one. And we believe that everybody’s a sinner also. We believe that there’s a heaven and hell. Well, they believe that too. So when you can compliment them and can agree with them, well, they’ll do so. Try to use what we call the sandwich technique. Ray always talked about the sandwich technique.

It means that something nice and then you slap them and then something nice so that you put it in between two compliments, not really slap them. I’m talking about, you know, when you have to correct them or say something that they may not take very well, but you do agree with them on certain things. So if it’s important, it needs to be done, do so. But in Romans in chapter 6, and you’ll notice there in verse knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, see those words?

Diaph, no more. So there is no more payment for sin, no more sacrifice for sin. He’s not coming back someday to pay for the sins that we commit in the future. If Christ did not pay for all of our future sins, He did not help us at all. So when he died 2,000 years ago and I loved that song, when he was on the cross, I was on his mind. Just think of all the people that’s ever lived. He was thinking about Yankee.

Now I don’t know if you thought about you or not, but he did think about me. No, he thought about all of them. So he paid for our sins in advance before we were ever born, before we ever committed a sin. Has Christ already paid for the sins that are in the future? Yeah, if he didn’t, we’re in a heap of trouble. He’s going to have to come back and make a payment. But he dieth no more. He’ll never make another payment because the one payment he made was sufficient for all the sins of every man once and for all.

And they have a problem believing that. Now look in your notes there and you’ll just see because we’re going to have time to cover every one of these scriptures. But I do want you to hit, we’ll hit some of these top one, but look there in the next statement. The problem with the Catholic is that he doesn’t really believe Christ paid for all his sins. And yet the Bible is very clear, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from.

And in your Bible, you ought to mark these things and underline these things because when you’re witnessing somebody, it’s just little statements, little statements. One little word that can drive home a point. And some people think that, You know, when you’re gonna witness, use as many scriptures as possible. No, use as few scriptures as necessary. You don’t have to use a lot of scriptures, just explain a couple of them. Sometimes you can get on Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and you don’t have to go any further.

Sometimes you can just usually, 1 John 5, 13, or John 3, 16. You don’t have to tell them everything in the Bible. Don’t try to impress them with all of your knowledge, just hone in on just a few things, and try to sense whether or not they’re following, you’re not because you want them to trust the Lord. You should have a genuine love and care because even if they’re Catholic, I don’t care if they’re Mormon, if they’re Jehovah’s Witness, whatever their religion may be.

Remember, if you believe in works at all for salvation, it’s poison, it cannot save. And a little leaven, leaven at the whole lung, a little poison in there can do a lot of damage. And so the Bible says that a man is saved by grace, it’s not by works. All the religions must add something to the gospel and they add works to it. They may differ in what the works may be, that’s what separates one religion from another. True Christianity is grace alone.

And so grace means that it has to be free and has to last forever. If one of those is missing, it’s not the gospel. And so people add work to the message. Same poison on the inside, just different label on the outside. So that is found in book of Titus in chapter two in verse 14. Look at the next statement. This is why it is a problem of grace and works. God says salvation is by grace. The Catholics will not deny this, but at the same time he believes he must follow rituals and rules to make this grace of God effective on his behalf.

And this is unscriptural. What verse shows that if salvation is by grace, then it cannot be of works as well? And the verse that I always use, I love the verse in Romans chapter 11 and verse six. Anybody here can quote that verse? All right, go ahead, Tyler. And if I grace it, it’ll never go on. It’ll never go on. What Bible college do you go to? That sounds like a good old Bible college student, doesn’t it? That very good.

I mean, you ought to get an A in whoever got him in this class. That’s right, he’s in my class. He better know that verse. But it is a tremendous verse. You see the one way or the other cannot be both ways. Look at the next paragraph. Do you see that what the Catholic needs most in is for you to go over the plan of salvation with him? Simply and with scripture. Showing him that the Bible says salvation is by grace through faith.

And it may take a while, like I said before, they have been raised to believe what the church teaches, what the priest says. They don’t study the Bible, they don’t know the Bible. Don’t become intimidated by thinking, well, they really know their Bible. If you believe in works for salvation, you don’t know the Bible, you don’t know it. And the most critical thing of all the world is salvation. And if you don’t understand that, the rest of it doesn’t matter.

because you don’t go to heaven unless you can get salvation right. That’s the most critical thing that you’ll ever teach anyone. So anyway, it may take a long time for the life to break through, but be patient. Remember this. His parents, his teachers, his priests, and even the Pope, have been teaching him contrary to the word of God on this subject of salvation all his life. And they just don’t see it. They don’t understand it. And so the Gospel is the light that helps a blind man see.

Don’t mock a man for being blind. You just be thankful that you can see and you have some discernment, but you want the person to think and to know and to believe you really do care about where they’re going to spend eternity. Because if it’s just that you just want to argue with somebody, that’s not worth anybody’s time. Just to try to put somebody down and show them that you’re right and prove that they’re wrong. You want to win the person.

You have to persuade the person. but do it with truth and the Bible says, speak in the truth in, what’s that other word? In love. And that means you feel their hurt in your heart. That’s compassion where you care about that person and they should sense that. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve seen a lot of people, a lot of preachers and I’ve been around for a few years, but the greatest person I have ever seen that I thought that when he talked to a lost man, That person felt like that person really cares about me, and that was Ray Stanford.

When Ray talked and gave the gospel, there was like a tear in his voice, or something that you could sense. And I mentioned this to you before, and it was the strangest thing. Ray had asked Mel’s Carbonell and Walla Morello to be co-directors of Ranch. And after them, me and Mike Schafer were co-director of Ranch. But Ray would come into ranch and he would just tell some stories and it was like he was so unprepared. And he could goof off and all that, and tell jokes at the beginning of it, and then tell a few airplane stories, war stories, and then he could close with the gospel and have 5, 10, 15 people trust Christ as a Savior.

He had to leave town so males had to speak, so males said, yankee, pray for me. considered done and I’d pray for Mel’s. So he’s in ranch and he’s speaking. He gave everything. I mean he did everything right. He gave all the right salvation verses. He did the wall of illustration, poured out his heart and when he got through he gave the invitation and not one person, trust the Lord. Mel’s was devastated. He came to me afterwards and he said, what did I do wrong?

I said no you didn’t do anything wrong. I mean you didn’t say anything out of the way. Everything was right. He says, but nobody trusts the Lord. I said, no, I didn’t understand it either. But anyway, Ray was going to go gaunt, and he’s going to have to speak the next week too. So he got a pair, and he really prepared. Now he was really going to do a better job. He did the same thing, same results. Afterwards, he was almost in tears.

It broke his heart. He gave the same message that Ray gave, same gospel, but nothing. The next week, Ray came back, and he told a couple places where he had gone and spoken to some schools, and so forth and about the singing group, the spokesman that went with him, and just kind of rambled, you know a little bit, and oh by the way, it’s kind of casual, and he told the wallet over here and gave the invitation about 10, 15 people, trust the Lord.

I’m serious. Have you ever seen him do that? There was something about the way he did it that people just sensed. That man really cares about me. I can’t but I do believe that there’s something about making the gospel clear and the God uses the message and the man and The motive so keep that in mind You have the most powerful thing in the world So just give the gospel and trust God to use it just keep so in seeds When it seems like there’s droughts and it seemed like there’s times of harvest Sometimes it seemed like there’s a lot of people trust the Lord and sometimes don’t two weeks ago I think it was on Easter Sunday, we had a, I don’t know, seven or eight trusts the Lord.

And then next Sunday nobody trusts the Lord. Explain it. Well you’ve got to have fish in order to catch fish. So anyway, look at the next statement. Where has, but for some, for your own information, the follower of some heirs, the Roman Catholics theology and the correct teaching from Scripture. The Roman Catholic worships Christ, but worship Him in vain. He says, but in vain do they worship Me teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. That’s also found in the book of Mark chapter 7, but they don’t believe what He said and they don’t believe what He did.

So you’re not really worshiping Christ when you don’t listen to what He said and don’t believe what He did. So they worship Him in vain because they’re still not saved until you trust what Christ said and trust what Christ did. Now what he did was he paid for my sins. What he said was if I’d believe it, I’d have eternal life. So you got to know what he did and you got to know what he said. So that’s part of the good news that we tell people.

Look down at the bottom of the page and I want you to take your Bible and look at this first of all. Look over there in the book of 1 Peter and be there in just a second chapter 5. Peter chapter five. Now, if Peter was the first pope, I remember, and I made that statement this morning, that Jesus healed his mother-in-law and who in the world would want a mother-in-law without a wife. So I do believe that he had a wife.

And then he says something about this hierarchy. And I don’t think that you’ll find what Peter’s talking about here in the Catholic Church. The elders which are among you, I exhort who am our mother. also an elder. He did not say he was a pope and he was one of the elders and if he was, there was a bunch of them that were a two. He wasn’t the only one. So it must have been if they were a pope.

There must have been what, eleven pokes at the same time? I don’t think so. But look what he says. And a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a part take of the glory of that shall be revealed. Fleece the flock of God which is among you. Did I say something wrong? No, don’t fleece the flock. It says feed the flock. Feed the flock which is among you taking the oversight and that means the the duty and the desire and the delight of serving God and serving God’s people.

He says, take the oversight not back in strength. Well, I have to do this, but willingly. Do it willingly. Every position that anybody has in whatever you do for the Lord, do it willingly, cheerfully. With a smile on your face, don’t be grudged doing, well, I have to go to church today and we all stand insane. Smaller while and give your friends a rest. No. As he says, neither of being Lord’s over God’s heritage, but been examples to the flock.

But the verse right before that, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy loocers, but of already mind. You don’t do it just to become rich and to make money. You do it because you love the Lord. And we’re going to be just, so therefore we’re supposed to be servants of the Lord. And so instead of being served, we’re to serve. When we have a pastor the pastors to serve, we have elders, elders serve, deacons, deacons serve. So every position that you may have, you’re looking for an area to serve.

We’re talking about vacation Bible school, we’re trying to find people who want to serve in a little kid. We’re gonna have camp. For all of you, we to have people that will serve. Do what they need. Those kids need your attention. Remember, everybody in the world is a problem. Everybody’s got problems. If nobody had problems, nobody would have a job. So we are problem solvers. Now we don’t try to solve people’s problems with the answer that the world may give.

We seek to solve people’s problems in a spiritual sense. Because I I believe in pretty much all problems are spiritual problems. Somebody’s not right with God. If everybody was right with God, we wouldn’t have as many problems as we have. It’s just a spiritual problem. You know, the husband and the wife fighting, the kids, and all the problems goes on, and the hatred and the bitterness, and the envy and the jealousy, and all those are spiritual problems. So we try to get people right with the Lord.

And we believe we’ll solve problems doing it that way. But anyway, look at page two. Page two, when he says neither has been Lord’s over God’s heritage. That means we’re not supposed to be little bosses over God’s people. We’re not bosses, we’re servants. Look what he says here. The Bible never teaches that the spiritual leader of the flock is to be the boss. The leader is to give positive leadership, but not to try to play God in people’s lives.

And there are people in the Catholic Church hierarchy, whether it’s the pope or the cardinals or the bishops and on down the pre, they play God in people’s life. You confess your sins to Him and He can forgive you. I don’t need Him, I’ve got a high priest. And I only need one. And therefore I have access unto the throne of grace. Come boldly to the throne of grace in the name of Mary. No. I’ve got a way to get there.

I’m supposed to come boldly to the throne of grace and I don’t have to go through anybody. Except through Jesus Christ. He made a way. And so you look there at that first and second Corinthians 4 is 5 right there in your notes. For we preached not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants. Your servants. This is what Paul and I see how he saw himself. We do what we do because we’re trying to find a way to serve people.

I’m always looking for people who want to help serve, who want to help people. Therefore, if you want to help people spiritually, you’ve got to be spiritually strong. You’ve got to be a good spiritual leader because you’re trying to help people from God’s viewpoint. See, there’s always a divine perspective and a human perspective. And a human perspective is not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for a divine perspective, seeing things, seeing people the way God sees them. And you want to study the Word of God so that you’ll be able to use God’s answers,apters, solutions to people’s problems.

So we always use people’s problems to get them to the Lord. If you come to see me and you’ve got a problem, I’m going to try to see how you’re doing spiritually. First thing I do, I use people’s problems to get them to the Lord. Something’s not right. This is where we got to try to get the answer. So this is why you studied the Bible so that you can be a tool God can use and the Holy Spirit can bring things to you.

Remember, he’s the counselor. This This is the counseling book that we use. Look at the next statement. Jesus had much to say along this line, but Jesus called him to him and said unto them, you know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise lordships over them, and they’re great ones, exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you. But whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever will be the chiefest shall be servant of all.

If you want to be great in the eyes of the Lord, be a great servant. Humble yourself to meet people’s needs. Loss men need the gospel. Christians also need a good example. So you’re doing what you do because you want God to use you to reach people. The next statement, For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. He came for others. This is why we studied the Word of God.

This is why we meet together as a church so we can get spiritually strong so that God can use us to help meet people’s needs and people have needs. So look at number three, Matthew 23.9 says, and call no man your father upon the year for one is your father which is in heaven. The Catholics make a great mistake in that they demand reverence of human beings and they claim to be father. I have an earthly father and he’s been dead for about almost 30 years.

And God was not my father until I trusted him as my Savior and I was born into his family. So the fatherhood of God is not true. He is the God and Creator, but he’s not your father until you’re born into his family. So the most important thing you can do is get people to trust Christ as Savior. And then you can deal with them as look, this is what your heavenly father wants you to do with your life.

You deal with them now on you’re a child of God and you have a choice now. You have a choice to be obedient, you have a choice, you can be disobedient, but you’re still his child. But if you’re an obedient child, God will bless and if you’re disobedient, God will chase him. You see, those are consequences to your decision. So every one of God’s children should decide what he wants to do with his life. and you can discern wiser things by studying the book.

So the Bible is to help a man to discern, so he’ll know to go right or left. Go to bed. And this is what he’s talking about in Hebrews in chapter 5. Now look there at number 4. There’s some people to say that, you know, Mary was not a sinner and they call her Queen of Heaven. She’s not the Queen of Heaven. I’m sorry she is not the queen of heaven. Now there is a king of heaven but there’s not a queen yet.

And he says that Mary was blessed among women but not blessed above women. They also liked the teach that Mary did not have any children except Jesus. But that is not true because the Bible tells us that she did have children and mentions those in the scriptures. Look down at the last paragraph on page 2. The apostle referred to the whole group of Christians as saints. Ephesians chapter 1 and the book of Corinthians and Philippians to the saints act, to the saints, to the saints.

This is very important. So look at this. God makes a person a saint. Man does not. Man cannot make a person a saint. He can’t make himself one. How can he make somebody else one? How do you get to be a saint? Now you want to know what a saint looks like? Why would you laugh? I’m in cesarsus of the hard time. Am I? Now be honest. Honest, as far as you know about this book, am I a saint as far as you know?

See there? Now am I a saint? because you say I’m a saint? Then why am I a saint? Because God says so. You see the Greek word hagiyazo means to be made pure and holy and set apart. I have been sanctified. I’ve been called a saint because I belong to the Lord. I am pure and holy in the eyes of God. And it’s God that makes the saint. No man can make me pure and holy. I’m sorry. So there’s lot of different rules and regulations, because remember, any religion that adds works to the gospel is contrary to the gospel.

The gospel cannot contain works to it. So whenever different religions have works added to their message, they simply changed the order or the list of the works, but if it’s works, it still works. And if it’s works, it’s not the gospel. So you have all these religions that teach all these different things, and yet the Bible says there’s only one gospel. You’re going all the way up to every creature. Now if that’s one gospel, all true preachers, religious organizations, whatever they are, ought to have the same gospel.

Since somebody doesn’t have the same gospel as what the Bible describes as the gospel, then somebody is wrong. They can’t all be right. And this is what we talked about this morning. But it’s still true. Look at the next line here. God points out the person as a saint, does not. God sets up the conditions of Ben and Saint, man does not. And neither does the Roman Catholic Church. But you see, you have to explain some of these things because some people, they just don’t know.

They don’t see anything wrong. Well, all the religions, they’re just trying to be good, but that’s the problem. You don’t have to try to be good. Salvation is free. Isn’t it better for me to serve God because I love Him, because of what He did for me, then it made me try to be good to get to heaven when it won’t work. I would rather people just know the truth. I would rather people go to heaven in diapers than not get there at all.

Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel-Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy.

There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 one or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. God up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep in looking up.