Bibleline Radio Show – 2017-07-11 – God\’s Scale Of Justice 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. 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.
And so the key thing boils down to is when does God give to me eternal life? When does He divot to me? Well, when we get to heaven, we’ll get it. You need to understand what He said. Now look what He said in verse 24. He says, half, present and half, right now, half, what? Everlasting life. And then look at the last part of that verse. shall not come into condemnation. That’s in the future. You cannot be condemned in the future.
You see, God’s word is true. So he says, he that hereth my word, looking verse 25, fairly, fairly, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. So those that are, yes, in the grave, they’re going to hear his voice. And he’s going to say to those who already believe on Him, they’re going to, bodies are going to come from the graves. The other ones, they won’t until about a thousand, seven years later, at least.
And they will stand at the another judgment of resurrection for here when Christ comes back and all the believers of the Old Testament. So they’re going to be resurrected, their bodies, especially from the tribulation period. We are taking out here the rapture, but Jesus is coming back and He is going to sound forth His voice and those who hear, there’s going to be a resurrection. Those that have done good unto the resurrection, but what is this good? He’s talking about the voice, looking in verse 28, marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice.
He just said in verse 24, he that hereth my word and believe it. So those who have heard the voice, heard his word, heard what he had to say. Well, what did he say? He that believe upon me, hath everlasting life. Now take your Bible looking John chapter three, the gospel of John chapter three. Remember, He makes His statement over and over again as to when you receive eternal life. So when do I get this eternal life? Because once I get it, He guarantees on the authority of His Word, you can never lose it.
You cannot lose eternal life. It would be temporary. It’s eternal life. So He says here in John chapter 3, look at verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up on the cross. And then in verse 15, that whosoever anybody believe it in him should not perish. That means will not go to hell. But have everlasting life means go to heaven. So every person who trusts Christ will have everlasting life, had when you believe it.
So when do you get eternal life? When do you get it? The moment you trust Christ as your Savior. I am not going to get eternal life, I already have eternal life. Understand this. The Bible says in the book of 1 John chapter 5, it makes a statement, this is the true God and eternal life. Jesus Christ is eternal life. He that hath the Son, hath wife, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. So having the Son is having eternal life, he is eternal life, and he said he will never leave me.
You know what he said? He’ll never leave me. He won’t. I have eternal life from now on. When did I get it? The day I trusted Christ as my Savior. This is why He says, as many as received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God. You became a son of God the very moment you trusted the Lord. And all of God’s children have eternal life. And if it’s eternal life, yeah, I’ll never catch you out and I’ll lose you.
So do I have to wait. in the future to find out where I’m going. No. You see, I’ve already made that decision. I don’t have to wait till I get there to find out if my good outweighs my bad. You see, the only reason that’s for them, that’s to determine the amount of punishment they receive in hell. It doesn’t determine their destination. They’re already going to hell. When you trust in Christ as your Savior, you’re already going to heaven.
There’s no judgment in the future that determines your destination. Your destination was determined the day you trusted Christ. You made that decision at that moment in time. If you wait until you get to heaven to think you’re going to get a second chance, it’ll never happen. Your choice to be able to choose God in His sovereign He chose to give us a free will. You make that decision in this life. If you wait until it’s too late and you die without out Christ.
You will go to a Christless hell and eternity separated from God and it doesn’t have to be that way. You see, I’m a kind of old-fashioned. I still believe the Bible is true. I believe there’s a heaven and I believe there’s a hell. And the reason I’ve been certain alert for 55 years is because I just don’t want people to go to hell. Not when they don’t have to. Most of them just do not understand. They’ve never heard the gospel made simple and clear.
So how do you explain this? They that have done good in the resurrection of life, those that have done even to the resurrection of damnation. We’re talking about those who hear. What’s the good thing for you to do when you hear it? Believe it. There’s those who will not believe it. So you see this in chapter 3 of John. Luke, he says in verse 16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever Believing in him should not perish but have everlasting life and then in verse 17 where he says For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him Might be saved.
Now. Who did you do this for? The whole world the whosoever in the whole world God does not want you to die and stand at the great white throne judgment to be judged by God to determine the punishment you receive in hell. You see how a man lives is very important. It doesn’t determine your destination, but it does determine the amount of punishment a person receives. You’d be taken in the consideration the amount of life that a person has.
Does God know what you know? Does God know what you could have known as you sought? He says, seek the Lord with all your heart and you shall find Him. People who really, you want to know God, you can know God. All you have to do is follow truth, follow light. It always goes back to its source. Now notice what it says here. In verse 18, he that the leeveth on him is not condemned. But he that believeeth not is condemned when.
So you see, you’re not waiting for some judgment and eternity to find out whether or not you’re condemned or not. God says, the whole world is guilty because everybody’s sinned and everybody is guilty. Everybody’s condemned. But He says, they that believe are not condemned, but they that believe not are condemned already. So we’re not waiting for this judgment to determine this. It’s determined by the decision you make now, will you believe or not believe? That word believes it means to trust to rely upon it.
Will you rely upon what Christ did on the cross to get you to heaven? See if you don’t trust that, you’re going to have to trust your works. But God says, by your works, no man is justified. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works. But any man should vote. If he says it’s not all works and no man can be saved by his work, why do you think God will let you stand in some judgment to determine whether you go to heaven or not by your works?
You’re already condemned. Every man who stands in that judgment is already condemned. You see, you and I as Christians, we will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That’s a rewarding stand. That’s where God is going to reward you for what you did for him. So we’re going to be judged. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10. We’re going to be judged, but it’s a reward. He’s going to see the rewards that you’re going to get because of what you did for the Lord while you were on the earth.
They’re going to be judged according to their works, but not for rewards, not for salvation, not for punishment. Now get this. But what he says in verse 19, this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world. Men love darkness rather than light because they’re deeds were evil. Now get verse 20 and 21. You see, the Scriptures will always be explained in the Scriptures. The Bible teaches itself what it means. Verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil and wrote verse 21, but he that doeth truth or good.
So you have these two words used right here. And you read these before you get over there to chapter five. Doesn’t chapter three come before chapter five? I thought it would. So here in chapter three, he says, everyone that doeth evil, hate at the light, neither comeeth to the light, or who is the light? Who’s the light? Jesus. But before I just tell you that and you not believe me, look there in chapter one, don’t you see this? Look what he says in verse 7 of John chapter 1.
The same, talking about John the Baptist, just same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might what? The light. You come to the light in order to be saved. Might believe. In verse 8, he, John the Baptist, was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not.
Are we talking about Jesus Christ here? And down in verse 14, and the word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. This is Jesus Christ. He says, and you’ll notice that he’s claimed to me, the light of the world. He says in chapter eight of John, I am the light of the world. So he says here in chapter three, go back to chapter three.
And verse 20, for every one that doeth evil hated the light, neither comeeth to the light, lest his deed should be reproved. Verse 21, but he that doeth truth, doeth good, comeeth to the light. So who’s the one that does good? The one that comes to the light. Well, who’s the light? That’s Christ. And why did he come to the light? that he might believe. And he believes that what Christ said was the truth. So when he says, those that have done good unto the resurrection of life is those that have trusted Christ’s Savior, that have believed on the Lord.
Those that have done evil are those who have rejected the salvation that God’s offered. So you see, it’s the evil that is gonna stand at this judgment. Not those who have believed on Christ. You see, Christ took our judgment. He paid for our sins. We will never hear or there give a count of sins. Heaven for us is where God is going to judge according to your works. And that is for every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Now notice there in chapter 6 verse 37. These are some familiar verses, but I want you to know that what God said if applied at the great white throne judgment or after we’re dead and we’re in heaven and He says to you, I now give you everlasting life. You wouldn’t have no problem with that. But I’m dead. I’m in heaven. If He said, I’ll never cast you out. Well, you can believe that. And I’ll never lose you. You can believe that, but because He gave it to you before you died, all those promises.
Well, is there any difference in the Word of God today than later? Which would have more value to it? Truth is still true. So I don’t wait till I die to get eternal life. Then He’ll never cash me on. Now He won’t never lose me. No. 55 years ago in a little old living room in Athens, Georgia. this dungard 18 year old smart aleck know it all, teenager. Trusted Jesus Christ as a Savior. And God, Dave Me, eternal life.
It had absolutely nothing to do with how I lived my life. It wasn’t contingent upon me earning it, deserving it, been worthy of nothing. He gave it to me because he loved me. He gave me eternal life and gave me his word. I’ll never cast you out. That doesn’t start when I get to heaven. That starts when he gave me eternal life. That day, that moment I have eternal life. And he says, I’ll never lose you. I have his word on that.
Now either his word has meaning or has none. If you can’t believe what he says, go home and take your Bible, go in the trash. Or believe it, stand on it. Look what he says in verse 37. John chapter 6 verse 37, all that the Father gives me shall come to me and him that come up to me, I will in no wise cast out. But this is when you come to him. And when you come to him, you come into the light.
Why? That you may believe in having eternal life. So I came to the light. I came to the truth. I understood what Christ did on the cross for me and I accepted him as my Savior. He died and paid for my sins. Why? Because he didn’t want me to do it. He paid for my sins because he’d rather die than live without me. And he did the same thing for you. And who sof would believe it? See, in the mind of most people, they just can’t believe that you could trust Christ as your Savior here and then it not have to require you to deserve it for the rest of your life.
Isn’t that wonderful? You didn’t have to deserve it until the day you trusted Christ. Now you have to deserve it to keep it. I didn’t have to deserve it to get it. Why should I have to deserve it to keep it? Was it free or not free? When Christ died on that cross and paid for my sins, did He pay for all of them? Or just up to the time I trusted Him as my Savior. Then how is I’m going to get these paid for?
Does he going to come back tomorrow and pay for what I did yesterday? No. He paid for all my sins. See, that’s why I can’t go to hell. I don’t have any sins to pay for. He died and paid for all my sins. I couldn’t go to hell if I tried. And any preacher that won’t tell you that, he ain’t worth a quarter. And he doesn’t believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he doesn’t believe that salvation is truly by grace and grace alone.
either it’s free or it’s not free. Look what he says in verse 39. This is the Father’s will which have sent me that of all which it given me. I should lose what? Nothing. Looking verse 47, barely, barely I say unto you, he that believeth on me is going to get eternal life after he dies. Half, present tense, half, when? Right now. Look in John chapter 10 verse 28. John 10 verse 28. And verse 28 says, and I give unto them eternal life.
I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish. Is that a promise or not? They’ll never perish. That’s the same parish that you find in John 3 15 and John 3 16. Never perish. But then maybe God didn’t really mean what he said. Maybe if you slipped, do you think God is capable of meaning what he says? And saying what he means. This is why I see some people say, well, you know, all the churches, they preach the same thing.
I’m afraid not. I wish they were because there’s only one gospel. And the true gospel is the man saved by grace. The only way you can have another gospel is you got to add work to it. You have to add something to it over more than just believing. So the only guy to do it is go to heaven is believe it. Well then when you’re going to add something, you’ve got to add works to that. And no man say, you don’t touch it.
God is God and he’s already spoken. But here in John’s chapter 10, when it’s the state, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. This is why it’s so important. Now, as you go through and you look at these verses and so forth, we’re back to reality. You see, that day hasn’t come yet. it beDEF to have to wait until you die and stand before the judge to find out if you’re gonna make it or not.
Now what if you didn’t? What are you gonna do about it? What if you lived all your life and hope that you were gonna make it? Maybe if I just put a tear in my eye, I mean God knew my heart. He knew how sweet I was. He knew that I loved him. And God says, depart from me. He occurs in the everlasting fire. I never knew yet. He can only know you, it’s if you’re his child. And that can only come by the new birth, born into his family.
See, the only ones that go to heaven are only those in God’s family. And none of God’s family can go to hell. That’s why once you trust Christ is your Savior, yes, your God’s child. You say, what if I don’t live like that? That’s your choice. I mean, you still gotta have it? Of course. Of course you’ll go to heaven. It wasn’t contingent upon how you live. Well, then what’s my motivation? I guess mine is I just can’t get over how much he loved me.
I just can’t fathom this idea that he would make it like this. You see, if I was God and I was in charge, I’d make you sweat every moment. You did anything wrong. I’d just take it away from you. If I was on the cross, I’d have came down, slapped a few jaws and then went back up. But he did it because he loved me. And I haven’t got over that yet. I serve him because I love him. And I love him because he loved me first.
I really believe he loves me. I don’t think he just gave me a chance to earn my way to heaven. He died so I could have a chance to earn my way to heaven. No, he died so I could have eternal life and that was the only way to get to heaven. You have children. Do you want your children to love you because they want to and because they really do or do you want to make them. You want to force them.
Or you want them to choose to love you. You want that wife of yours to love you. Or you want to make her. You better love me or else. You want them to do it because they really love you. You want to be faithful because they really care. And nobody can make you feel like that. I chose myself that if I’m God’s child, I realize that if I serve the Lord here, that he’ll bless me, and I get to have it, he’ll reward me.
And I also know that if I’m a rebellious, disobedient child, the God will chase him in maybe taking him home before my time, and that I’ll be ashamed before him and just come in there. And I don’t want the Lord to be ashamed of me. I don’t want to be ashamed of the way I’ve lived. So I just come to a decision that doesn’t it make sense to be obedient and disobedient? Think about it. If you’re so smart, you’re so wise, then why don’t you serve God?
Only who would turn away from the certain Lord. So you don’t serve them to get to heaven but because you’re going to heaven you should one serve a Lord. But if you don’t, you still go to heaven but you’re rebellious. Now you explain that. You explain. I haven’t had one person ever given me a good reason why they should not serve God. I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve been a lot of nursing homes. I’ve talked a lot of older people.
I’ve never had anybody tell me, you know, I really regret serving God. I have a lot of people who know I regret that I’ve wasted my life. That’ll make a lot of wrong decisions. But nobody can make you do right. That has to come from you on the inside. Do you love Him? After all He’s done for you, don’t you love Him? To know that you have and have you turn like, know that you’re going to be in heaven with the Lord for all eternity.
What could Satan offer you in this world that would be greater than what God got from you? This is where you reveal your wisdom by the choices that you made. A man who waits till he gets to heaven, rejecting salvation by grace, and tries to earn his way how foolish. Then think about the Christian, those who know the Lord, who waste their lives chasing the things of this world and it’s all going to be destroyed. Everything in this world why waste your life for anything you can lose.
Let me show you something. It’s been two weeks you probably forgot that I do this. You won’t believe this. I haven’t got a credit card. You know what that credit card is a sign of? Not money. It could be a sign of debt. I mean Maybe I’ve got more than just one dead, two deaths, three deaths. It could be a sign of I owe something. So yes, the wallet is perfect to use as a sin dead. This hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin.
The Bible says that we have all sinned. We have a sinful nature. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. We’re all in debt. We got a whole bunch of credit cards. and you owe God. See, when you were born you owe God a life of perfection. How you doing? Well, not so good. But not as bad as Peter and Otto. Oh, then you must be pretty good. But I don’t think that’s gonna work either.
And God says you cannot earn your way to heaven. That’s why you need to save your Jesus Christ. This hand represented him. Came into the world. He had no sin, didn’t have to die. So he He says, He loves us, but He hates our sins. So He said, our sins separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And He says, the only thing we have to do to go to heaven.
Believe me, did it for us. There’s no works. You don’t deserve it. Nobody has ever lived good enough to deserve the good of heaven. We’ve all sinned, but God loves us. And he made that payment. And see, I don’t have to wait until some judgment to see if my good outweighs my bad. It never will. There are no good works. There are none. That’s why we need to save here. So Christ died, paid for your sins and says, if you’ll believe he did it for you.
That payment he made, he put it in your account. You go to heaven and what he did. You don’t deserve that. And so that’s why we can know we have eternal life because it gives us eternal life. The moment you believe it, if you trust Christ right now is your Savior. God gives you eternal life right now. And if it gives you eternal life right now, he said, I’ll never cast you out. I will never lose you. You are guaranteed heaven.
That’s why we call it eternal security. You see, if you’re not secure forever, you’re not secure at all. Don’t that make sense? Let’s pray, show him. With every head, bottom, every eye, closed, no one looking around. Would you right now in the quietness of this moment? Or if you’re watching by internet, realize that God loves you. He paid for your sins because he doesn’t want you to go to hell. He gave you the freedom. He gave you an option, made it simple, made it clear.
It’s by grace or it’s by works. He says, by grace, He said, you know, it’s free. You don’t have to report. Would you trust Jesus Christ as your savior? You may have heard about it all your life, but have you honestly said, yes, I will trust him. God said, if you’ll believe it, he would give you as a free gift. Eternal life. Would you trust him? If you will make that decision. And I’m going to, I’m going to, I just a moment.
If you’ll raise your hand, raising your hand doesn’t save you, it just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. And I’m not going to have you forward or embarrass you. But right where you’re sitting, is anyone at all saying, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior and preach I like you to pray for me. We’ll just live that very quickly and just God bless you, anyone else. Just slip it up, put it right back down.
Remember, once you trust Christ the Savior, you never have to do it again. He can only save you once. in your eternal life once haha., once you trust him, he saves you. Andarnaev a a a a a a a a a a a a a a afailed a He ones that indicated that they would trust your Savior would know positively in their own mind, I’m going to heaven because today God gave me eternal life and I’m His child. And Father, we ask your blessings upon each one here.
Help us to serve you, not to get to heaven, but because we love you for what you’ve done for us. In Christ’s name we pray, 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. 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 Main. 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. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.
