Bibleline Radio Show – 2016-11-15 – Why A Christian May Be Invisible Pt.2


Transcription:

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. and 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now the Holy Spirit wants to lead and guide her, but He does so only as she 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 going to 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. 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, which 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 trusted 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, I think you all can go be said again my 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 fourth and evil fruit. 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 send 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. It means we’re all going to die. Everyone sins, everyone dies. So whenever you trusted Christ is 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 be a good fruit, I was to be a good fruit. 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 up as that what a book says? You should know them by their fruit. You say, 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 tree 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. See there in verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in wolves, show clothing, but inwardly spokeswoman wolves.

What are they doing that 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 sayeth 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 6. John chapter 6 and John chapter 6 look there in verse 28 John chapter 6 verse 28 make sure you look at it.

In verse 28 says this is on the page 11 22 and an old school for reference Bible or one of the church bibles 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.

So as you go back here, now to Matthew chapter seven. And he says, 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. So what is the will of the Father? That you believe on him whom he hath sent. Now verse 22, notice this is the many on the broad way. These are no doubt religious people. Many will 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 talk of the deeds? Yes. In 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 got to turn from your sins. You got to stop being bad. and you got to start being good. You got to commit your life to Christ. You got to start serving God and doing all these good things. So many people think, well that sounds reasonable.

Why does it sound reasonable? Because 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 to go to a perfect place. And heaven is a perfect 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 sinned, 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? It’s 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. I was born again and if you’re not born again and you don’t have this new birth you don’t get to go. Think of how many people don’t understand this. And they think they’re going to heaven because, well, I go to church and I try to live right.

I talk to people all the time and they’re always referring about how they’re living. They’re doing the best they can. I pay my bills and I don’t want to run on my wife and I work hard as though that has something to do with it. And who told them that? The Bible says, for by grace are you saved. What does grace mean? It’s unmerited. You don’t deserve it. Now you saw a while ago you had this old man up here.

And you had that beautiful little girl up here. Now which one of them deserves to go to heaven? Neither one deserves to go to heaven. But they both deserve to go to hell. Now that’s hard to swallow. And in most people’s mind, well, she’s not as bad as he is. Well, I’ll agree to that. But you see, you have to be perfect to go to heaven, and nobody’s perfect. We’re all sinners. So every individual that’s born into God’s family has a new birth.

Now, I’m just thankful that both of these girls, both of trusted Christ’s Savior, both have eternal life, both love the Lord and both love their preacher. And I love them. and they’re gonna go to heaven when they die. But now this is only an illustration. My brother is not as bad as I make him out to be. It’s a lot worse. No. Not true. But now notice what it says here. Look back there in verse 22, because this is so important to get this.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful, and then will I profess unto them, I used to know you, but you lost your salvation, and I don’t know you anymore.” Is that what it said? That’s not what it said. Then when I profess unto them, I never knew you. But listen, are these people that were expecting to get in?

They thought they were saved. They thought they had it made, and they were given it all they got, and did it in His name? What do they do? they did it for God. And you can serve God all your life and with all your Tsukuyomi and bust hell wide open. You see, it’s not based upon what you do. Not any sacrifice that you can make is what gets you to heaven. You only go to heaven because you trusted Christ and Him alone.

So when you trust Christ as your Savior, that means my going to heaven depends on Him. But if you refer to your work, then that depends on me. You just rob some honor and glory from God. And God says that won’t happen. That no flesh and prosper in His sight. God wants you to trust Him and trust Him alone. Now isn’t it possible, is it possible that people could come to church and settle in the pew and listen to the Word of God and hear all this all the time and still never trust Christ as their Savior.

I read an article the other day, this preacher, it was written in the soil of the Lord, and he was talking about how many people that he believed in his church were lost. He said, I believe probably eighty-five percent of all the people in my church are lost. Now what if it was true only fifty percent of the people that come to Calvary here were lost? Fifty percent. And you look around at everybody then. Not me. He’s got to be talking to the guy behind me.

But what if it is you and you really never did trust Christ to save you? You heard it and just took it for granted, but you never believed that I’m going to trust Christ and Him alone is my only hope. Well, I’m being good just in case. Then you don’t get it. You don’t get it. If in your mind you think, well some people just don’t deserve to go. Nobody deserves to go. It’s only by faith in what Christ did for us.

Now take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Romans in chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Now that you trusted Christ as your Savior, you know you have eternal life. You know that when He says, by their fruits He shall know them. talk about how to determine and detect a false prophet, because you can have a new birth, a spiritual birth, and never see any fruit. But that doesn’t mean the new birth is not there. So as a Christian, how does God see God sees you in Christ?

It means you are in the Spirit. That is a position you are in Him. The first birth is in the flesh. So you notice where it says in verse 5. Now notice the comparisons down through here, for it says in verse 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. So you have a conflict. You see you can walk after the flesh.

That means that you can still live just like you did when you were lost. If you walk after the flesh means you can still walk according to the desires of the flesh just like anybody else can just like any lost man you can commit every sin any lost man can commit until you understand it you’re not gonna get it I’ll get what else he says here they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit so you have a choice now you can be spiritually minded or fleshly minded fleshly minded your mind to fleshly desires and they will control your life and you do what you want to do and go your own way and satisfy your own desires or you can follow the desires of the Lord.

You can begin to read and study that book and you want to please God and you want God to bless your life and you want God to use you and you know that when you get to heaven God’s gonna reward you for what you did. So you’ve got a choice. You can mind the Spirit means you’ll be spiritually minded. Mind the Spirit. Like if your mama says, mind your mother, mind your father, it means do what they tell you to do.

Now you can either do what God says to do or you can do whatever you want to do. But if you walk after the flesh you’re gonna bring chasting of God. God’s gonna chastise you. He’s gonna chase in you. Why? Because He loves you. Not because he hates you, but because he loves you. And he chastens every son who may receive it. So you can’t live as you please and get away with it. You can choose to live any way you please.

You can choose to live after the flesh or after the spirit. It’s your choice. But nobody can make you do anything. No one can make you trust the Lord, and no one can make you serve the Lord. God says, if you love me, serve me. be needed if everybody loved the Lord and you did right because you wanted to please God. And there’s a God of heaven that sees and knows all and he loves you that much and he wants you to.

Now look what he says in verse 6 he says, four to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life in peace. You want life and peace, joy, happiness, then be spiritually minded. carnally minded, it means a Christian yielding to the flesh and the destruction and there’s death. In other words, you’re not going to be happy, you’re not going to be pleased, you’re not going to enjoy the life that you want and you’re not going to have the peace of mind that you want.

Because you see, there’s consequences to your decisions. You can choose to walk out to the flesh and if somebody says you they would think well you know that’s the flesh and they may not ever think about whether you’re saved or lost but some people who knew you that trusted the Lord and say you know she’s she’s not living for the Lord her choice his choice but those consequences and you’re not gonna like the consequences because your heavenly Father could take you home before your time.

And then you’re going to have to stand before the Lord and give an account. God wants us to serve him. Now look what he says in verse 7, because the carnal mind is emmity against God. See the flesh is against God. They can’t please God. But he says here, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now all the lost people are in the flesh.

They are born. In the flesh, they live in the flesh and they will die in the flesh. They were born in sin and they live in sin and they’ll die in sin. But a person who was born in sin lives in sin, but trust Christ’s Savior is now all of a sudden. He’s no longer considered in the flesh. He is in the Spirit. And God gives him a new birth, so he dies in Christ. But a Christian can walk after the flesh.

And this is why he says this. See there in verse nine. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So you are in the spirit, that means you’re in this position. This is a positional truth that can never be changed. Once you become a child of God, you will always be a child of God.

But if you walk after the flesh and you produce the worst of the flesh, people may say, well, that’s a sign he’s not saved. No, it’s a sign he’s walking into flesh. And if I walk into Spirit, if I become an obedient cell of God, it doesn’t mean my own nature’s gone. It’s been eradicated, done away with it. No, it’s still real. Your flesh is always with you until the day you leave this body. Your sinful nature is in this physical body and that’s why you need to understand.

You’re going to have this struggle in your Christian life. You can sit here and say, I know I want to do right and I want to do wrong. I want to be obedient and I want to be disobedient. It’s a battle that you go on and it’s a very real battle. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. This wallet represents all the things we do that’s wrong. See this sin, everybody sins. When we were born into this world, we’re children of the flesh.

We have a flesh nature, sinful nature, rebellious nature. So we have a sins that we do. And because of these sins, that’s the result of what kind of a tree I am. This is the fruit of a bad root. And Every tree that brings forth this bad fruit reveals I’m from a bad root. Therefore, it has to be cut down so the wages of sin is what? Death. Eternal separation from God. Now, to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God knows.

We’ve all sinned and come short in regards to whether you’re 69 and committed a million sins or like this little girl and only did one. It doesn’t matter. If you keep the whole law and offend in one point, you’re guilty. The wages of sin is death and we all have to die. But God loves us. And to pay for our sins, death and hell. So that’s why God does not accept any other payment you offer. Regardless of how much you sacrifice and give up and try to change and stop and do and all that, God accepts no other payment for your debt.

You and I were in debt. The wage of the sin is debt. We owe a debt. So this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So the Bible says that Jesus Christ, who didn’t have to, took the sins of all the world, the little ones and the old ones and everybody in between. Sins of everybody, paid for it on the cross so that he could offer salvation equally to all.

Now, is it harder for God to save my brother than the little girl? No. It only requires the same thing from both of them. If he believes that the Lord did it for him, God save him. If the little girl believed that he did it for her, he’ll save her. It’s not different for anybody. The payment he made was for the sins of everybody. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son Jesus Christ that whosoever, believe it to him, should not perish me, won’t go to hell but have eternal life.

Why did he pay for my sins? So I wouldn’t have to pay for them. So I don’t have to pay for my sins. I can’t go to hell today and I can’t go to hell tomorrow. I don’t have any sins to pay for Christ. I die for all of my sins. Came back from the dead and said, if I would believe He did it for me, He would give me as a free gift. Never last Him life. Now that’s good news because it’s by grace.

Don’t trust in your worst. When the Bible says, few that be that find it. It must mean that most people don’t get it. Even those who hear it because these people heard about Jesus Christ and in his name, they heard about Casenot Devils. They heard about some of these other good things and they did all those things, but they missed the part about trusting Christ and Him alone. I hope you’re not one of those. Let’s pray shout Him. With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around.

If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. Maybe you’ve heard about it, maybe it didn’t make any sense to you. But do you understand that if you don’t trust Christ as your Savior, you don’t get a new birth and you don’t get to go to heaven. It doesn’t matter how good you try to live. You cannot trust in your good works to get you to heaven. This church cannot save you. This preacher cannot save you. You can’t save you, but Jesus can.

And all he wants you to do is the only thing you can do. Believe that what He did on that cross, He did it for you. And He’ll put that payment to your account and you’ll have a payment for all of your sins. You go to heaven on what Christ did for you. And if you’ll believe that, He said He would give you His righteousness and you would go to heaven on what He did for you. Would you believe it?

Would you trust Him? I’m going to ask in just a moment for raise a hand. Raise in your hand does not save you. But I’d like to know so that I could have prayer for you. Because I want to know of people understood what I said. But I’m not going to have you forward and not going to embarrass you. But right where you’re sitting, see preacher that made sense to me and I want to be certain I’m going to heaven when I die and I’m going to trust Jesus Christ and him only as my hope of going to heaven.

And if you’ll do that, he will give you right now eternal life and save you and you will not go to hell in the future. No way possible. He paid for all of your said, would you believe it? His union will also say, yes pray for me, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior this morning. Just let me hand it very quickly. I’m going to write down anyone at all. Yes God bless you man anyone else. Yes God bless you sir.

That’s a sign of good judgment. Only a fool would turn down a freak if there’s no tricks to this. I don’t have to know your name or where you’re from. Not going to embarrass you. Not going to pain you against the wall. Does anyone else says you know that made sense to me? I want to be certain I’m going to have an all song. Would you just slip in it very quickly? Anyone at all? Our Father we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us.

Thank you for loving us enough to make salvation free because no man can deserve it. And thank you Lord for all that you do for us in our Christian life, giving us the indwelling Holy Spirit, and letting us know that, yes, as your children, if we’re disobedient, we’re still your children, but you may have to chasten us, maybe even take us home before our time. But follow me as your blessings upon each person here, And we just thank you for it.

Thank you for each one. Christ, same reprieve. 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 or write to us and request your free copy of The Gospel Driven Man. Mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And 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. God of the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.