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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 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.

Once you turn in your Bible to the book of Matthew, you, Chapter 7. Matthew, Chapter 7. I want to explain what it means when he says, Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Matthew, Chapter 7, looking, verse 13, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for why does the gate broad is the way that lead of to destruction. Many there be which go in their act. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.

Few there be that find it. That’ll scare you right there. Broad way, many. Narrow, few that find it. The word of God I believe teaches that there will be more people going to hell than going to heaven. Not because it has to be, but because few will find the truth. Some people will hear the truth but not believe the truth. The Word has gone out to all the world. Then He says in verse 15, beware of false prophets because false prophets have a false message and people that believe a false message still get the consequences of a false message.

And if you believe the false message means you did not believe the true message. And he says, they come to you in sheep’s clothing and inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistle? Even so every good tree bring a fourth good fruit. But a corrupt tree bring a fourth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not fourth good fruit is hued down, cast into the fire, and wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” So the Bible says several times here, by their fruits ye shall know them. And so we have today many people that have become professional fruit inspectors because they’re looking for the fruit to determine whether you’re real or not real. I’ve traveled across this country and listen to a lot of preachers say words that I’m not sure if they really understand what they’re saying but they say them and the lost people are taking it the way I’m going to tell you.

When you hear a preacher use the words turn from your sins to be saved turn from your sins. That may sound so harmless, so harmless because who doesn’t want people to live better? Everybody should want people to live better. So because people are not living as good as they ought to, what’s wrong with telling people to turn from their sins so they can live better? When you tell a person that living better gives them a better chance of getting to heaven, then becomes a wicked evil thing.

Now, I just want to use a brief illustration and he’s my brother so he doesn’t care. Man, just stand up for just for a second. Just stand right there for a second. Now, little man, how old are you? 69 years old. Now, that little girl standing beside you right there, Amber, stand up right there beside you, Amber, just for a second, just stand up right there. Stand and look at everybody, so everybody can see your faces.

There you go. Now, let me ask you this. My brother over there, he’s lived 69 years. Amber how old are you? 11 years old. If you had to decide which one of these do you think deserves to go to heaven? My brother’s lived 69 years. Now, he’s been bad. I mean, I know my brother and he’s to think how long he’s lived and how many bad, bad things he’s probably done in his life. And now, besides him is this sweet little innocent, 11 year old girl.

Now which one, and if you think about it, now you know that little girl, she deserves to go to heaven a lot more than my brother. Now I love my brother, and I’ve known him for 69 years. Now which One of these two deserves to go to heaven more than the other one. The little girl? The guy? Are you trying to tell me that there’s no difference in God’s eyes? See when it comes to perfection, when it comes to righteous, now we can compare them against each other all day long and you and I know she’s never committed half the sins he has.

I mean, not even the bad sins it is. She hadn’t even thought of yet. Yet she has not committed as many sins as he has. So we would in our judgment say, well, maybe she deserves to go to heaven because she’s not as bad as he is. But when the Bible says that none are righteous, he means in comparison to God, they both miss the mark. Though she has maybe committed a few sins, you have committed at least one.

Her grandparents are here she’s not going to own up to it. So, but everybody does things wrong. So, my brother has done a lot more things, but when you compare it to God, they both have come short of perfection. Now, my brother says he’s trusted the Lord, right? And Amber, you say, you trusted Christ, you’re saved, you’re saved, right? So they both would trust the Lord. So now, let’s get out our magnifying glasses. Now we may find that my brother has some areas in his life that maybe not as good as he ought to be.

And she may be exactly the same. We don’t know. But who becomes the judge? Who is this fruit inspector? By their fruit she shall know them. Alright, so we’re supposed to judge whether they’re saved or not because of their fruit. Well, I got my water here. I’ll just put that in for right now. Because you and I know that a person should be washed from their sins. So, man, you go ahead and sit down. Would you just come and stand right here?

Just come up here and stand right here. Now you trust the preacher, right? She trusts the preacher. So all I’m going to do is we want to make sure she gets to heaven. Now there’s some people say that she has to be baptized in water. So all we’re going to do is just baptize her in water. Now you’re a good sport girl. Now water will not wash the dirt off your neck if you don’t use soap with it. cannot wash her clean.

What her can’t do anything for her? It doesn’t wash away her sins. And yet you hear verses of talking about, you know, we must be washed in the blood or wash away our sins. And he was sacrificed for us so that he could cleanse us from our sins. And yet at the same time we know that not all things things are right. If we really get out our magnifying glass and begin to examine a person’s life. Now, this sweet little innocent girl right here, let’s say that this is her first birth.

She is the first birth. This is her flesh. What you see is when she was born, . . . . . . . Into the world. And you can see her. You see her? Now, you know and I know that the Bible tells us in the book of John chapter 3. Jesus said to Nicodemus. Unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. And you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So you can’t see it. You can’t enter unless you’re born again.

So he says that which is born in the flesh. It’s flesh. This birth cannot go to heaven. She was born and is sweet and nice and kind as she looks. She was born with an old sinful nature. Got it from her grandmother. Is your grandmother here? Would you raise your hand grandma? There you are. So that’s where she got her old sinful nature from. And it’s not her fault. But she was born with an old sinful nature. is regardless of how sweet and kind, and regardless of how that old man over there, and God does no difference.

They both must be born again. And as long as we look at them, who becomes the fruit inspector say, well, you’re not living right. So when you tell a lost man, he has to turn from his sins, then automatically you should expect him to turn from his sins. If that’s what he has to do to be saved. And there’s preachers that tell him people to do this. So they got to stop being bad. So if you’re bad, you got to stop being bad.

Well, is that the gospel? Is that the good news? That’s not the gospel. That’s not the good news. That is not the truth. So what we need to do is she has to be a believer. It means that when somebody comes along and explains how that God loves you, sends the down the cross to pay for your sins, and will give you the free gift of eternal life if you trust them as your Savior. So let’s say she comes along and somebody explains to God what she trusts Christ as her Savior.

Now she’s born into God’s family. Now what most people think is that God saved this flesh birth. This first birth, no, he didn’t save this first birth. What God did was give her another birth, another one. But it’s a spiritual birth, that which is one of the flesh, this flesh, that which is one of the spirit, spirit and you can’t see the spirit’s birth. Now, for example, every one of y’all in here, because you have natural physical eyes and you can’t see the second birth.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to take her second birth, you stay right there, and I’m going to move her new birth right here. Now, if you had the right kind of eyes, you’d be able to see her. So I can You can’t see her, you can’t see her, but I got these special eyes. I can see her right there. In the Old Testament, the Bible talks about, you know, one of the Elijah’s servants says, we’re surrounded, what are we going to do?

He said, well, we got more with us than they do within them. So he opened his eyes and he didn’t know that they were already there. So what I want you to do, and if you’ve got to do what I’m telling you to do now, I want you to, everybody close your eyes just for a second, just close your eyes. you hate clothes. Don’t peek, don’t peek. I want everybody’s eyes to be closed. Just stay there.

Now, open your eyes. See there? She is. You couldn’t see her new birth, but now you can see her. See, there’s two of them. There’s two of them. Now, they look almost the same. But see, this is one of flesh, this is one of spirit. And when you understand, this second birth is born of God, because the second birth is born of God. The first birth was born of parents, natural birth. That’s why we have a sinful nature and we sin, we die.

This one was first, and then later she trusts Christ the Savior, now she has a second birth. This is the one that’s born of God. And if born of God, God doesn’t have a sinful nature. So your second birth has to be without a sinful nature. So she doesn’t have a sinful nature. Don’t tell your grandma I said that. You don’t have a sinful nature and if she doesn’t have a sinful nature she can’t do anything wrong because she can’t do anything wrong.

She can’t sin. So she can’t sin. She can’t die. This is why this one will live forever. Now just to kind of give you a rough idea. The Bible says that we can walk in the Spirit Or after the flesh. Now come over here just a second. Now if you look at them this way, you can see them both. But remember this is the body. This is the flesh. The first birth she has a sinful nature. But now we have a new nature.

And now, so you can’t see her, but she’s still there. So where does she live in the same body? She has two birds, two of them living in the same body. And I can see your first birth, but can I see your second birth? I can’t see your second birth, but you still got one. If you trust it, Christ is your Savior. But you see what most people get wrong is they’re trying their best as though this one doesn’t exist.

And so they’re trying to get this one here to change her life. They’re trying to get this first birth, go to church and do all these good things and that’ll be the proof that she’s really a Christian. And so understand this. Just because you go into a garage, that will not make you an automobile. Going to a bakery will not make you an angel food cake, devil’s food cake maybe. and coming to church will not make you a Christian.

So you can look at this person and if she doesn’t turn from her sins because if she gets a little bit older she may be tempted to do a few other things. And the grandparents are going to deal with her. But she’ll have other desires to do other things when she gets older because we grow. And we mature a little bit. We may become a little bit more rebellious and so forth. So then people will begin to question whether she must not be a Christian.

And she might even get what she don’t want to go to church anymore and read her Bible and pray or witness So if you look at her life, you say well, she’s not a real believer But that’s this first birth See what most people don’t get and preachers don’t get this There is two births just because you can’t see this one Doesn’t mean she isn’t there She’s still there. Even though this one may dominate her life and do all kinds of things that she shouldn’t do doesn’t mean this one doesn’t exist.

So the Bible says though she lives in the same body, the body belongs to her. But she doesn’t want to give it up. So you have this battle that goes back in your Christian life. So now God wants to bless her. He says, now I want you to follow me. Not only does she live in the same body, I am, for example, I’m the Holy Spirit. And so where does the Holy Spirit live? When she was born of God, also the Bible says you were indwelt with the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit lives inside. Now the Holy Spirit wants to lead and guide her. but he does so only as he yields to him. If she will listen to me, I can tell her what to do, where to go, what, all these things. So if she will walk in the spirit means follow the spirit. See, I’m gonna walk over there and you follow me. You follow her. All right, here we go. Come on, here we go. See there?

As long as she follows me, everything’s cool, everything’s all right. Now just because she’s walking in the spirit doesn’t mean the flesh isn’t there. Flesh is still there. It says that she has power in her life because she’s listening to me. The Bible says walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I still got the flesh. And it follows you all over the world. As long as you’re in this body you’re going to have this problem.

But if she doesn’t listen to me, then you walk around the circle. She’s after the flesh. See the Bible sees us as in the spirit. Well she walks fast. We’re in the spirit. This is where God sees you. See when you were born into this world, you were in the flesh. When you trust the Christ, God sees you in the spirit. This is where this is your new position in Christ. Now you’re in Christ, you’re in the Spirit, but you’re walking after the flesh.

So God sees us totally different than we see ourselves. So when we talk about fruit inspectors, or I think Yall can go be said, I give them a big hand, I appreciate it. Now go back to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. And notice what he says here in verse 16, you shall know them by their fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bring a good fruit, but a corrupt tree bring forth an evil fruit.

Alright, look up here. The Bible describes two different trees. Now, over here, we had the flesh birth. That is the bad tree. That’s the bad tree. and it says the bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. And what it said, I ain’t making this up, that’s what it said. The bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit, impossible. But it also says over here, the good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit. You see, this one is born of God, born of God, no sinful nature.

It cannot bring forth bad fruit. it cannot sin. The flesh cannot please God. So God says that He’s going to sin His angels into all the world and checking every tree. And every tree that does not bring forth the fruit of righteousness He says it’s going to be cut down. That’s why all of us born in the world have a flesh birth and because we all sin, we’re all going to be cut down. Means we’re all going to die.

Everyone sins, everyone dies. So whenever you trusted Christ as your Savior, this one can’t sin, it can’t die. This tree cannot bring forth one bad fruit. And this one cannot bring forth one good fruit. Now I didn’t make that up, look at it again. Verse 17, even so every good tree, bring a fourth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bring a fourth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bring a fourth not good fruit is huge down cast into the fire, where for by their fruits you shall know them. Now, if you don’t understand the two birth, the two natures, if I was to follow you around with my little magnifying glass, if I find one, one, one little sin in your life, you’re a bad tree. Am I making it upays that what a book says? You should know them by their fruit. You say, well, what if I did all these good things?

But if I find one bad thing, And there’s a lot of good things. He says, mix up on these trees things. Understand as a Christian, because you have two natures, you can bring forth bad fruit, and because you have the new birth, you can bring forth good fruit. Now, wouldn’t you get a little confused, trying to decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? Notice what he says here in this chapter. He’s telling you how to recognize false prophets.

there in verse 15, be aware of false prophets who come to you in wolves, show clothing, but inwardly they’re raving in wolves. What are they doing that’s so bad? They’re telling lost people to trust in their good works. And they have no good works. They’re trusting in their good works. So that’s what a false prophet teaches. He has a false message and his message is, trust in your good works. But the Bible says there is none good, no not one.

So you can’t trust in your works to save you. That’s how you tell a false prophet from a true man of God. The true man of God will tell you it’s not by your works. You’re saved by grace and grace alone. So now you look up there in verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Now I want you to hold your place here and look in John chapter six.

John chapter six. In John chapter six, look there in verse 28. John chapter six verse 28. Make sure you look at it. In verse 28 says, this is on the page 11, 22 in an old school for reference Bible, or when the church Bible’s in front of you there. He says in verse 28, then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered instead of them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sinned.

So what is it that God wants people to do? Believe on His Son. It should go back here, now to Matthew, chapter says. And he says, not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, shalt. The kingdom of, but he that doeth the will of which is in Heaven. So what is the word? The children have. How can he? Now work to okay. Notice this is. Many on the broad way. The people, the people are tied. Many. say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not get this prophesied in thy name?

Is that referring to their good works? Yes. And in thy name cast out devils, is that talking about their good deeds? Yes. And thy name done many wonderful what? So are they referring to what they did in order to get in. Look what we did. It doesn’t show what or who did they trust. They were trusted in their works. And he says, a false teacher has a false message and will get people to trust in a false result. They cannot be saved.

And he says, many are like this. Now think for example, think of how many churches there are in America, in the world. And how many preachers are telling people you’ve got to live better, you’ve got to turn from your sins, you’ve got to stop being bad, and you’ve got to start being good, you’ve got to commit your life to Christ, you’ve got to start serving God and doing all these good things. So many people think, well that sounds reasonable, why does it sound reasonable?

we know in our mind only good people ought to go to heaven and all those bad people ought to go to hell. It just makes sense. It sounds logical as Spock would say. But the problem is God says nobody deserves to go to heaven. Regardless of how sweet and perdient kind and all, you have to be perfect. They go to a perfect place. And heaven is a perfect place. place. There’s no mediocre place. There’s no good heaven. There’s only a perfect heaven and you have to be perfect to get there.

Now look up here. When the one only had the flesh birth and because we sin we all die. But because she trusted Christ as her Savior she has a second birth. So when that physical body dies to be absent from the body present with the Lord. See she’s not going to heaven. Why is she going to heaven? Is because she’s good? No, because God created her perfect without a sinful nature. So if God was to walk into this room and he is righteous, and he says, I will give you my righteousness.

If God gave me his righteousness, that would make me as righteous as God. So we’re going to heaven because he made us righteous in Christ. 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 receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 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 4811 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. Hark, help me to Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.