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

God invited the whole world to come to heaven. He opened up the door where everybody in the whole world is invited. Can you get any greater of an invitation than that? Who does it exclude? It doesn’t exclude anybody. Everybody who so ever will may what? Everybody who will may come. The biggest invitation in all the world. No greater invitation has ever been given to mankind then, whosoever, whosoever will. I also want you to notice when he says, believe it in him, believe it in him.

Now you and I know and we understand that when a man dies without the Lord, he is going to spend an eternity in hell. And the easiest escape that’s ever been offered to any man from the greatest danger in all the world is whosoever, believe it, believe. Can’t get any easier than that. If God had made salvation where a man had to earn it, then that would be hard. If he said you had to go to church every Sunday, that would be difficult.

That’s difficult for some y’all to come once a month. It’s difficult for people to pray every day if you had to pray. What if God told you you had to pay at least 10% of all of your money that you’ve ever made or you’d go to hell? A lot of people wouldn’t go to heaven there either. That would be hard. But God made salvation easy. He says, all you have to do believe. The easiest escape from the greatest place, hell, to heaven is made so easy for everybody in whole world.

For God so loved the world that He gave has only been gotten, son, that whosoever, believe it in Him should not what? Should not perish. Divine deliverance. It means that you will not perish. You will not go to hell. Think of the consequences if you don’t believe. Look what you get if you do believe. It is a divine deliverance where God Himself, they created the heavens of the earth will deliver an individual from hell and let that person go to heaven and he does it all for us.

And then he says, but have everlasting life, everlasting life, the priceless possession, the greatest thing you and I could ever wish for, ever want is to have eternal life. The greatest possession that a man can possess, he can have it and it’s free. This is why the whole Bible was written because God so loved the whole world that he gave his only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The whosoever anybody, believe it then him, should not perish but have everlasting life.

Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me and this wall of represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God loves us. He hates our sin. The Bible says that if we pay for this sin, it’s eternal separation from God in hell. But God wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect just as righteous as God and none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. That’s why we needed a Savior.

Jesus Christ came into the world. This hand representing Christ came into war because he loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord. So Christ took it, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And now the payment for the sins of the world had been paid and everybody is invited to accept the payment that he made for them. So only by faith, by believing alone, they can have eternal life and go to heaven on what Christ did for them.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believe it than Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is what Christ did for us. I want you to look at this in John 3, 16, when he says, for God so loved of a world, God loving the world is the richest possible mercy. The richest possible mercy, why? Because what has the world done to deserve being loved? And not just what has the world done that would deserve God loving us, what has the world done that deserve God saving us?

You ever thought about that? What is it about you? That is so wonderful. What makes you so great? Why does God love you? Can you explain it? And yet the whole world has sinned against God. The whole world was condemned. And God’s so loving, the world, every person in the world, all the same. God loves them all. God loves the thief. God loves the homosexual. God loves the murderer. God loves Adolf Hitler. God loves the man who bombed that building in Oklahoma.

God loves all these people because of how many they have killed or raped. God loves them. God does not love their sin. God does not love your sin, but God loves you. And God can save every sinner, every sinner, all sinners. There isn’t anyone that God doesn’t want to save. God wants to save the whole world. That’s why He died for the whole world. You and I would like to blow them away. We’d like to part their soul in eternity.

We’d love to send a few people to hell, but God isn’t like us. He loves them all. He loves the whole world. He loves the people that you can’t stand. The ones you despise and when you look down on. The ones you think deserve to go to hell. Have you ever seen somebody that, well they deserve to go to hell. Did anybody other go to hell? They ought to go to hell. Well, if that’s true, so do you. You deserve to go to hell.

And that’s why God so loving the world is the greatest possible mercy that can ever be demonstrated upon mankind. The gift of his only begotten son. That’s the highest possible price that could ever be paid for something. What would you be willing to pay for your salvation? If you really believed there was literal fire burning hell. What would you be willing to pay not to go there? Would you be willing to give all your money? Would you be willing to give your wife and your kids?

Just the wife? What would you be willing to pay in order to go to heaven to escape that place? What would it be worth to you? Would it be worth it for you to try to live right if you thought that would get you there? The highest possible price it could be paid was the life of God’s only begotten son. Remember Jesus Christ being born of His work was His only son that God fathered. He fathered a child. He had a child, his own child.

He only did that one time. He only had one son and he gave him to be the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. That And whosoever, that means you, me or anybody else, might not suffer. That’s the largest possible number that you could ever reach, numerically concerning people. Every person is included in this number. It exempts nobody that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, anybody, the largest possible number, that he says that we shall not perish.

Shall not perish. That’s the darkest possible doom upon any man. Think for a moment. You may not have good health. That’s not the worst thing in the world. You may not have any money. That’s not the worst thing in the world. You may not be married. That’s not the worst thing in the world. You may not have your will. That’s not the worst thing in the world. The worst thing that could ever happen to you is to go to hell.

There’s nothing worse than that. That’s the darkest doom upon any man. And God says that when you trust him as your Savior, you are delivered, you will not perish. You will not perish means you will not be lost in hell into a literal flaming fire for all eternity. The Bible does not describe hell as a place of light but a place of darkness, place of darkness. To be delivered from that will not perish. when he says, but have everlasting life or eternal life.

That’s the greatest possible blessing that any man can ever have. Think, isn’t it nice to be married? Isn’t it nice to have children? Isn’t it nice to have good health? Isn’t it nice to have good clothes? Isn’t it nice to have a good house? Isn’t nice to have a good job? And all those things nice, but there is no possession greater than the gift of eternal life. It’s the greatest possession you can ever have. I have that possession. I can lose everything else but I cannot lose the greatest possession of all.

I can lose my health. I can lose my house. I can lose my wife. I can lose my kids. I can lose everything. But one thing that means more to me than anything else in this world is knowing that I have eternal life and I’m gonna be with the Lord forever and I can’t lose that. The greatest possible blessing. When he said, who’s so ever believe it, that’s the easiest possible terms. God put it on the level that everybody can have it and everybody can do it.

Only believe. God says it’s not by your works for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not a works, lest any man should boast. And you know what? All this is based upon the greatest security of all. What’s the greatest security of all of this? God said it. God’s Word. Who said verse 16? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. God said it and that’s the greatest security you and I will ever have because of the Word of God.

I know that I’m saved, not because I feel I know I’m saved because I’m living for God. No, I’m not. I know I’m saved because God’s word says I’m saved. I Know a heavy turn light because God’s word says I have eternal life. I’m God’s child because God’s word says I’m God’s child That’s how I know this and this will never change. I want you to look there in verse 16 again when he says for God God is the author of our salvation He’s the author of it who designed this plan of salvation man did not design it.

Man did not come up with a scheme. Man’s ideas of religion is always man doing something to get right with God. Man trying to live a certain way. That’s all the religions of the world is man trying to attain unto something by his own efforts. Christianity is where God reaches down to man. Religion is where man is trying to reach up to God. It was God who took the initiative and came into the world. This plan of salvation was designed by God.

He’s the author of it. He designed it. He’s the architect. He’s the one that provided the way of salvation because no man can save himself. I want you to also notice that phrase that says, so loved the world. That’s the affection of salvation. It It means in spite of all our sins, in spite of all that we’ve done wrong, in spite of everything that’s contrary to the will of God, God still so loved the world. And that includes all the nations of the world.

God so loved the world. Are you in this world? Then He loves you. He said, yeah, but you don’t know what I’ve done. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You don’t know how bad I’ve been. It doesn’t matter how bad you’ve been. It doesn’t matter. God loves you and He loves you that much. The affection of our salvation is that there is a personal loving God who wants you to be saved. It’s not a machine. This is not just mechanics.

There’s a personal God that has feelings. And I cannot tell you and I cannot explain to you if I could, I would, why God loves us. Why God wants us saved. All I know is it’s for His honor, is for His sake, that He does love us, and that He does care, and that He wants everyone to be saved. I don’t know why God would love a murderer or a thief, no more than He’d love a liar, but He says He loves us all.

I want the person. That might be listened even to the broadcast. I want that homosexual to know that God loves that man, that God hates his sin. God loves that murder, but God hates his sin. You see, God loves that person that’s living in adultery, but God hates the sin. God loves people. You and I need to keep it in mind as we look at people and we deal with people. God loves those people. He hates their sin. Sometimes we get kind of mixed up sometime and we hate the person instead of hating the sin.

Also want to let you know when he says that he gave, that he gave. That’s the agony of salvation. When he says he gave his son, he didn’t just, okay, I gave that. He knew that by giving his son what his son was going to have to do, he knew what he was going to have to endure. When you stop and think about it, did his son, his only son that he gave into this world, did his son deserve to be slapped?

Did his son deserve to be slapped with the hand? Did his son deserve to have a crown of thorns upon his head? Did he deserve all of that? No. Did he deserve to be spit on and to be beaten with a stick? No. Did he deserve to be placed upon a cross and nails driven into it? And he deserved any of that? No, well, what did he deserve? He didn’t deserve anything like that. But by God doing what he did and letting him have his perfect righteous son into this world shows you how wicked sin really is.

See, it’s one thing when you try to compare a hog with a hog. They’re both hogs. But when you put a sheep in amongst the hogs, you can see the difference. They’re not the same. You and I sin. I wrong you, you wrong me. But here comes God’s Son who wronged it. No man did nothing wrong to anyone who was perfect. He was righteous. Had no fault, no flaws in him. And to see what the world did to him shows you how wicked we are.

Because see, when they hit him, we hit him. they lied against him. We all lied against him. When they hit him with their fist, we all hit him with our fist. When they drove the nails in his hands, we all drew the nails in his hands. You see, when they crucified him, we all crucified him. See what? Because he did that for us. If I had no sin, he would not have had to die for me. If you had no sin, he wouldn’t have had to die for you.

He’d have just died for the ones who had sin. But since the Bible says he died for all the world, that means all the world had sinned. And all the world deserved to die. He was given the agony of salvation. He says his only begotten son is only be gotten son. He’s the advocate of salvation. We know that in the book of 1 John chapter 2, we have an advocate with the Father. But you know, there had to be a time when the Father and the Son in the plan of salvation that the Son’s Father, if I go down there and if I pay for their sins, If I die and pay for them, will you save them for my sake?

Will you save them? If you go and you do that for them, I’ll accept that payment you make as a payment for their sins. I’ll do that for you. I’ll do that. What a plan. No man could have sat down and wrote this story. You’re not capable of thinking like this. These thoughts are not our thoughts. These ways are not our ways. This is beyond you and I. We could not have come up with a scheme like this. This was designed in the mind of God.

Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a council of three, the Godhead. They did this, and he is an advocate who pleased another’s cause. In other words, God said, if you’ll pay for their sins, I’ll let them come to heaven on that payment. And that’s why. Jesus Christ did it. That’s why God says, I’ll justify them on the basis of what you did for them. You and I have done nothing to deserve heaven. We’ve done no good works worthy of God’s saving us.

It was all because of the plan of salvation God did it all. Another thing I like to mention two years when he says that whosoever, That is the availability of salvation. Means it’s available to every individual. If God had said He had only saved a certain percentage or a certain number, I wouldn’t know who to witness to and who not to. I believe it’s my responsibility as a Christian to try to reach everybody I can and every way that I can.

And to pay or to sacrifice anything that I have and whatever I can do try to reach people. And I believe some of you here believe the same thing. This salvation is for whosoever and that includes you and me and everybody you know and everybody you don’t know. Believe it then Him, the acceptance of salvation. It means that all you have to do is believe that when Jesus Christ died, He died for you came back from the dead. If you’ll believe he did that for you and trust him as your Savior.

You can hear that he died and paid for sins and you can know that he did it for the sins of the whole world, but you must believe he did it for you. When you believe he did that for you, he puts that payment to your account and not before. So salvation is only for believers. Will you believe it? It’s the easiest escape you’ll ever have from the darkest doom that you can ever escape from. And the easiest man or possible simply by believing.

The alternative of salvation is that you should not perish. Because it means that if you refuse to believe it, you refuse, then you will perish. When you read John 3 16 that whosoever believe it, then him shall not perish, mean that whosoever will not believe will perish.” Isn’t that true? If you don’t believe it, you will perish. It means you will be lost. That there really is a literal fire burning hell for all the unbelievers. Now look there in John chapter 3 and verse 18.

He that believeth on him is not condemned. That means if you believe it, you’re not condemned because you see he died in your place, He was condemned for you. His payment is put to your account. So you’re not condemned. You’re not going to be punished. You’re not going to go to hell. You’re not going to perish. But he says, he that believeth not. If you do not believe, you will perish. You will perish. He that believeth not is condemned when?

You’re already condemned. You’re not waiting for some day to stand at some judgment and to find out if you’re going to be condemned or not. The Bible says you’re already condemned. I’m not the judge, I’m just telling you what the judge said. That everybody in the world is already condemned, they’re just waiting for the day of execution. But he says those that will believe it, it’s made on the level that anybody can have it. to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

If you believe it, you have everlasting life. Now look in the last part of verse 18, but he that believe if not is condemned already and here’s why, because he hath not believed. Nobody can believe for you. Nobody can get saved for you. No one can accept that payment Christ made for you. No person can do this for you in your place. Every individual has to do it then self. You have to trust Christ as your Savior or perish.

There is no alternative. Trust him or perish. Believe him or perish. And that perish does not mean that you’ll be annihilated someday. it means you’ll perish in a literal fire burning hell and you’ll be in conscious torment for all eternity because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is an abiding salvation.

Because he says he that believeth on him should not perish but have what? Everlasting life. It means that if you do believe it, you do have something. He that believeth on me, hath, present tense, hath, right now everlasting life. Look there in verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. If you believe it, you have what? Everlasting life. When do you have everlasting life? When you believe it. If you believe it now, you have everlasting life.

Now, if you believe it, you have it. How do I know when I really believe it? When you can say, I have it. If you cannot say, I have it, it’s because you don’t believe it. If you believe it, you have it. Isn’t that simple? Look in John 647. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. If you’ll believe on him, that means you believe that Jesus Christ was God’s Son. God into place came into this world, died on the cross, paid for your sins, came back from the dead.

You believe he did that for you and you accept him as your payment, as your Savior. God saves you from hell, gives you as a free gift everlasting life when you believe it. I’m not waiting to do it someday. I’m going to get eternal life. I have eternal life. I have it now. I am God’s child now and it’s something that I cannot lose because it’s a free gift. It’s the gift of eternal life, not temporary life. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, what do you have?

Eternal life. If it’s eternal life, how long will it last? Forever. If it lasts forever and all of your sins are paid, where are you going when you die? The heaven. Do you have to wait until you die to find out where you’re going? No. You can know it right now. And if you have not trusted Christ as your Savior and Him alone, you don’t go to heaven. You can hear about it. You can quote all kind of stuff.

Whole Bible. But if you have not trusted Christ as your Savior, you’re lost and you’ll go to hell when you die. But God loves you. So do I. And I want people to have eternal life and to go to heaven. I hope that you do. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads by nice clothes, no one looking around. If you’re here this morning, if you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, would you trust him right now? I’m not asking to trust me or this church, not even trust yourself, your good works.

You can’t depend upon anything or anyone except Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh. He died, he paid for your sins. You must believe he did it for you. And if you’ll believe that, trust him right now, right where you are. You don’t have to come forward. You don’t have to come up here to the front. You don’t have to confess anything to me. You could talk to the God and confess to God, Lord, I am a sinner.

That’s what you are. That’s what I am. I’m not perfect. I believe Christ died. He paid for my sins. And right now I’m gonna trust him to take me to heaven when I die. And for any God’s that if you’ll believe he did it for you, he’ll save you and give eternal life. If you trust Christ as your savior right now, and God saves you right now, gives you eternal life right now. You’re his child and your sin are forgiven.

You become his child. 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. 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. God up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.