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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. 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.

Here in the book of Romans, chapter one, the gospel is powerful. And God in the next couple chapters explains very clearly and very simply those that are influenced only by creation that they see, but not the God of creation, so that there’s no restraints upon their life. There is no God that become vain in your imagination, No restraints. Do whatever you want to do. Whatever extent. Then in chapter 2, you have about man’s conscience. A man’s conscience that knows there’s right and wrong.

A man that knows that there’s a God. He just doesn’t know God. But he tries to restrain himself in certain areas of of his life. So the one group, they have no restraints. Some have a few restraints based upon what they can observe. And then you have chapter 2 verse 17 down through them. You have total restraints. The restraint upon the Jewish people, the circumcision, and they still are not righteous. So there’s no restraint, a little restraint based upon conscience.

And then you have total restraint where they’re under the law and seek it to abide by the law and they restrain themselves and a lot of do’s and don’ts. So you would look at all of these people and say, well, these people are really, really bad. These people are not quite as bad. And these people are pretty good because they don’t live like these people over here. So it’s interesting. So take your Bible and look there in chapter 3 of Romans.

In verse 4, he makes the statement, God forbid, let God be true, but every man, a liar, look up here. Let God be true. Every man. He just re talking about these. Okay, we’ll include these in. Or do we include all of them? Every man, a liar. You see, when you look in chapter 1 and it talks about how bad these people are, it’s like God showing you the most wicked the vilest thing that people can do. And he says up there in verse 25 of chapter 1, who changed the truth of God into a lie, worshiped the creature more than the Creator, for this caused God gave them up to vile affections and so forth, women with women, men with men.

You can say whatever you want to and say whether the Supreme Court says, and that the law says that everything is fine and it’s okay. It is not okay and it’s not fine. This book has not changed. Does this mean God gave them up? So that means they can’t be saved. No, God gave them up to their vile affection. He didn’t say they couldn’t be saved. There’s times when you may cut the streams and say, okay, you kids, I’ve raised you for 18 years.

Now you’re on your own. And you gave them up to do whatever they want. It’s their life. Let them do whatever they want to do. You’re tired of fighting with it and you’re going to let them do it and suffer the consequences of their bad decision and enjoy the blessings of their good decisions. Haven’t you done that yet? You will. Now here they were so bad and then he talks about those that had a conscience and and the tonter is framed in self-allure.

And then you had those who had the law, see they’re in chapter three and verse one. What advantage then hath the Jew? What prophet is there of circumcision? Much every way. They had the word of God. They knew right. So just because people knew to do right, they didn’t. People with conscience, no one was right wrong. Still did wrong. And then there’s people who didn’t care about what was right, they just wanted to do wrong. So, how does God judge the world in chapter 3?

Look there in verse 19. Now we know that what things, so wherever the law says that, say after them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, then all the world may become guilty before God. All the world? of them, everybody, let God be true. Every man is a liar. I’m sorry. So are you. So am I. We have all failed. We’ve all come short of God perfection. So you see there in verse four of chapter three, this is what he said.

And then you’ll notice what he says down here in verse nine. What then are we better than they know and know wise? For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they’re all under sin. Seeing the first couple chapters is the proof that everybody has sinned. Nobody is perfect. Everybody’s done things wrong. When I was talking the other night to the little darlings in vacation Bible school, I said, here’s God. He created the heavens and the earth, and He put people on it, and there was nothing wrong with what He made.

But man said, now we live in a wicked world. We got no sinful nature. We do wicked things. So God says, this world is going to be burn up, renovated by fire. But then there’s going to be a new heavens and a new earth, a new heaven. So God is only going to let into that new heaven, those that want to go. You know you didn’t ask to be born into this world, did you? But you showed up. Who you are.

Well, I didn’t ask to be born. Who did? None of us did. we were born here without a choice. But God says, I have a heaven. It’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth, a holy city. It’s a place that’s perfect, but it’s only for those who want to go. God will not make you go to heaven. He will not force you to go to heaven. He will let you rebel, reject it, not believe it. You can do whatever you want.

You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to go. But he describes it for us and tells us what it’s like. Now what if this God that created this new heavens and a new earth so we could have righteousness forever and pleasures forevermore into the eternal joy of the Lord? But you have to be at least six foot tall to go. Now you know why I say six foot. I’m six foot. What if this God would only let those that are six foot and taller get to go to heaven?

Now I don’t personally see anything wrong with that. Would you have a problem with that? All right. Let’s change it. Okay. What if God had said only the male gets to go to heaven? Only the boys and the men get to go to heaven. Now, what’s wrong with that? Is anything wrong with that? If God has said, only the guys get to go. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Why? Because I’m in the group. Because I’m in that group.

What if he just says, only the girls? Only the girls. I don’t have no yay in down here now. Only the girls get to go to heaven. How would you like that? I don’t think there’s a guy in here to go for that. We already know that women won’t be there. It says there was silence in heaven for a half an hour. What if God had said anybody who weighs over 200 pounds can’t go? Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Or maybe he cut it down to 150. But you know God has this all figured out. And you don’t have to worry about, am I included? What God did since He says all have sinned. And that he so loved the world, then God would have to do something that would include everybody in the world. He can’t exclude somebody because then it wouldn’t be grace. Grace is unmerited, so those that are six foot can’t merit because, well, I deserve to go, I’m six foot.

I deserve to go because I’m a male. I deserve to go because I’m a woman. I just said, Joe, gotcha. Don’t go. I deserve to go because I’m underweight. Now there can’t be anything. It has to be the same for everybody. All have sinned, and the Bible says that there is no difference. No difference. Look in verse 22. Romans chapter 3 verse 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all those that are over six foot.

under all and upon all them that believe for there is no what? No different. Look up here. Here’s those really bad people over here. Well, if God can’t save those bad people, God can’t save anybody. I’ve had people say, well, I can’t believe you can’t tell me the Hitler could go to heaven. Son of Hussein, they can’t go to heaven. People like that are really bad. They can’t go to heaven. If they can’t go, you can’t go. You see, they don’t deserve it.

Neither do you. No one deserves to go to heaven. You have to understand that. For the power of the gospel to be so powerful, it has to be for everybody. It can’t eliminate anybody. That’s what makes good news is that Christ died for everybody and that everybody can have eternal life. Everybody can go to heaven regardless of how bad you’ve been. So those who didn’t have the law, those who only just had conscience to guide them and those that had the Word of God but didn’t obey it because they never kept it perfectly.

They gave them the law but they didn’t keep it for 1500 years. So God says they’re all the same, what? You’ve all come short of perfection. You see, God is perfect. Heaven is perfect. Nobody is righteous. Nobody is perfect. So you look what He says here in verse 24, being justified freely by His, what? Grace. That means that nobody, none of them deserve could be saved? Did you deserve to be saved? Well, look how good I am. You didn’t deserve to be saved.

Nobody deserves to be saved. Everybody has come short. Everybody fails. But the gospel is so powerful. You see, you don’t have to try to bring people to church so they’ll get saved. You already know the message. You already got the gospel. You can You can tell people this anywhere you are. Wherever you go, you can explain the gospel to people. It will work. There’s power in this message. God’s just looking for people to explain them. But if you don’t have that courage to do that, by all means, bring as many people to church that you want to.

And, Lord, will I now try to make the gospel clear and simple so people can understand it and get saved? Because we’re all going to die. going to be out of here in one of these days. Wouldn’t it be a nice to take a few people with us while we’re on our way? If God gives us a little time here, let’s just see how many we can win. We may not change the world, we may not change our own country, but we can still win people to the Lord.

Now look what he says here in verse 28, verse 28, very important. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by what? Faith without what? Without the deeds of the law, without the works, without doing something. That’s why this is so important. You cannot save yourself. You see, whether or not they had the word or they lived as wicked as possible, no man deserves to be saved. saved by grace. Grace means unmerited favor. You didn’t deserve it. So that’s how God chose His love for everybody because everybody’s in the same boat.

Nobody is righteous. Nobody is perfect. Now, look in verse 20 of chapter 3, where He makes a statement, therefore, therefore, by the deeds of the law. Trying to earn it, trying to work for it. You see, turning from sin is the deeds of the law. Committing your life to Christ according to Mark chapter 10 is trying to earn salvation. That’s the deeds of the law. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy hard mind, body, soul, and strength.

That is the commitment that some people try to get you to make that you’re going to do this and live for the Lord. That works for salvation. That’s law. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. You see, God is just and we’re not. We’re unjust. How can a man be equal with God? Where God finds no fault in the man. So God says, what I will do is give to you my righteousness. I will look at you through the eyes of my son.

I will see you in him. And my son is perfect. My son is righteous and when you are by faith alone placed in Christ, God sees you in him having his righteousness. Not yours. Does that make a difference? Oh yes, it does make a difference. Now take your Bible and look there in chapter 4 of Romans. And notice what it says in verse 5. Verse 5, but to him that work if not, but believe it. believe in is not a work.

But believe it on him that justify at the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness. God gives you his righteousness when you put your faith in what he did on the cross for you. Look what he says down here in verse 22, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. In other words, God’s righteousness was put to his account, Abraham the count because he believed by faith alone. Then he says in verse 23, now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also get this to whom it shall be imputed if we keep the Ten Commandments and obey the Golden Rule and go to Calvary Community Church and pay 50%.

Well I wish, oh not at all. If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead if you believe. So by simply believing what he did was for you, God will put his righteousness to your account. You go to heaven on what he did, not what you do. Isn’t that simple? Isn’t that clear? You got that? Now turning your Bible to the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, look in verse 21.

If this verse is not underlined in your Bible, I think you ought to underline it. Draw lines to it, a map, highlight it. It is a tremendous, tremendous verse. But look what he says, for he hath made him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might be made or made the righteousness of God in him. Look up here. This is you and me. This is sin. have sin on us. This is Jesus Christ.

He’s perfect. He’s righteous. Has no sin. So He takes His righteousness. This is His righteousness. What God did is very simply, He says, for God has made Him Jesus Christ, who knew no sin to be sinned for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God. We go to heaven on His righteousness. He gives it to me. Now if God gave me His righteousness, that would make me as righteous as who, as God. So when God sees me, He says, I was unjust, but Christ died on the cross and paid for our sins that He might bring the unjust to God.

So that’s how we get to go to heaven. Now look in Philippians 3 and 9. To some, these are familiar verses to those who have maybe never heard them, or not as familiar with them. It’s like a light bulb that comes on. And Philippians in chapter 3, look what he says in verse 9, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, is of the law. That which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God and by faith.

God says, be not found having your own righteousness. In other words, trusting in what you do. Do not trust your good works. Well, I go to church and I’m singing a choir and I give money and I pray that has nothing to do with going to heaven. You won’t get to heaven because you do those things. No more than a man who lives in a gutter and is a wine or a wine or a wine. drunk, cut off the street.

You are in no better condition than he is spiritually. You’re both dead spiritually. Physically you may be a lot better, but not spiritually. You see, we’re spiritually dead. We mean we’re spiritually separated from God. So whenever you accept Christ as your Savior, it’s on the level that anybody can have it. Even little children can understand it. It was wonderful the other night talking to little kids. and sin little kids can understand what most theologians can’t get to their mind.

Kids get it. But you see, for he God made him Jesus Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God and him, so that whenever you believe that what Christ did for you, he gives you his righteousness. This is you and me. This is sin. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. And to go to heaven, we have to be perfect, because righteousness is God, no sin.

But everybody sins. We cannot save ourselves. It’s not by the deeds of the law, not trying to earn your way to heaven. See, most preachers are not making this clear to people. They’re confusing people. Jesus Christ came into this world. He had no sin. He didn’t have to die. But because he loves us, he hates our sin. Our sin separates us from the Lord. So we’re spiritually dead. Sin separates us from God. So all people, regardless of how you live, whether you’re really wicked over here, you’ve got good conscience of trying to guide your life and what you think and so far, all those who knew the law and yet they’re not perfect by it because you’re separated.

All of us are the same. There’s no difference. when you’re spiritually dead, we’re all the same. So we can only become spiritually alive by accepting the payment Christ made. So what did Christ do? He took our sins and he paid for it. He was my payment for my sins. So when I accept him as my Savior, I have a payment for all my sins. He paid for all of my sins and the scars in his hands is the living proof of payment.

It’s a receipt. I have an eternal proof of payment, an eternal receipt. All my sins are paid. And I get to go to heaven on what Christ did. Did I deserve that? No. It’s by grace and grace alone. The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. This is the message that every one who knows Christ as Savior needs to tell.

You can do this. You can do this. You may not win everybody. Nobody does, but you might win, son. Wouldn’t it be better that when you get to heaven, you at least had some? You may not have had thousands, but shouldn’t there be some fruit on your tree, a tree of life that you shared the gospel with somebody, wouldn’t you like that? Or you get to heaven and God says, you know, there’s nobody here because of you. You never let a soul to Christ.

Didn’t even try. You never gave to missions, you never gave to anything that would do in soul. You went to church but you never gave. You just, on the sideline, you didn’t make anything happen. Use the power of your life, the power of your influence for this message. That’s why I want you to pray for the college that we can have kids that will learn how to give the gospel. So many people don’t, and we can’t take it for granted.

We’ve lost some good people that were clear on the gospel. Dr. Stanford was excellent. Hank Lindston was one of the best. You’re talking about some people that are no longer here, but we still gotta have people take their place. Do you pray for the college that they have a place to stay, that they have the finances and you know what I had? I kept thinking yesterday I was sitting in the office. I wish we had a little bit more money for the college, because we got some kids that come and we don’t have really much money to work with.

Even for the college teachers or anything, and yet some of them have sold their homes and come here so they can help us. And here we have a great opportunity. This morning the guy came here envelope, had a check in for the college, $3,000. Isn’t that wonderful? Friday I was sitting in mob, I think it was Friday, and I was thinking Lord, I’m so thankful for the total amount that we have that comes in for the church and the various ministries.

ministries. But the budget has been down. And when the budget is down, that puts a a noose around our name. Something has to be cut. And I’m sitting there thinking, Lord, it sure would be nice. Somebody could just come along. And somebody came to the door and the next thing you know, came in the office. You don’t believe me. You gave me an envelope with some money in it. Just cash. And so I said, thank you, and God bless you.

He won the incredible credit for it. He didn’t even really want to give me his name. He says, this is for the Lord. And I didn’t want to ask him how much. I couldn’t wait for him to leave so I could find out. So I, who was to know? It was about, somewhere around $2,500 was in cash. This is in cash. So I’m in Dr. Paulson, went to Burger King. But something so simple, we just thank the Lord for all he’s done for us.

And we have to live by faith. Trust in the Lord, he’s going to work through his people, for people who care what we’re doing. And so I want a lot more of these letters that people are being influenced because of the clear gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed, if you’re here and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you put your trust in Him? Would you say, I don’t understand at all, but I believe Christ died and paid for my sins.

And I’m gonna put my confidence in what He did on the cross for me. And friend, if you’ll trust Him, He will save you right now and give you eternal life. I’m notartmenting to have you forward and not gonna embarrass you. But right where you’re sitting, say, preacher, that made sense to me today. And I wanna know that I’m going to heaven. So I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and I’d like you to pray for me. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a wrap back down, say, well, it’s not.

Then what it’s not. You’ve already trusted Christ, you don’t have to do it again, but you are in possession of the greatest story in the world. The greatest power is in your hands. Let people know what God has done for them. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. We’re thankful, Lord, that as your children, we can have a communion service. service, or we simply are thankful for what you have done for us, that you took our sins upon your body and paid for them.

And the Lord, you shed your blood because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and you shed your blood in order to make that payment for our sins. You gave your life for us so that we could have eternal life. And we thank you for that. In creation and repair. Amen. 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.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forgetbleacher 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. caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep in looking up.