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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I shared a few thoughts with the college kids the other day, and I thought I would kind of hit a couple of those thoughts for you today. It was kind of like on the lines of God’s spiritual freefall. And using the illustration that you’ve seen people jump out of airplanes and they’ll follow certain ways and they’ll get together and people will join hands and they just free fallen and you know that when they get to a certain point they got to pull their parachute, the rip cord so they can slow them down so that they don’t just hit the ground.

And that must really be an awesome thing to jump out of a plane and just let it rip and just fall. But being able to know that you’re largeDownload gonna be able to keep them hitting the ground. See the fall is not the problem, it’s that sudden stop that’s going to get you. Well, when it comes to the Lord, sometimes God has a way of teaching us how to live by faith. We may not like the way he teaches us, but the Bible does say that faith is the evidence of things not seen.

You don’t see how God’s going to do everything God’s going to do, but by faith you trust him and you believe him. So since we’re children of faith, then God wants to teach us how to live by faith. So I believe it’s important. I want to explain something to you because as you read, especially the book of the Gospel of John, it talks an awful lot about God loving us and how He showed us His love, manifested His love, proven His love.

And so just an awful lot about love, love, love, love, love, and that God is love. And also how that we are supposed to love one another. But a question that I have because there are so many people that teach that, well, God does love, but not everybody. And if God doesn’t love everybody, how do you know He loves anybody? If you don’t know He loves everybody, how do you know He loves anybody. And if he does love somebody, but not everybody, how do you know you’re one of those that he loves?

That would be hard for you to figure out. Here’s all of y’all in here and you represent the whole world. And because you represent the whole world, they teach Calvinists that God doesn’t love all of you. He only loves half of you in this room. So there’s one half of you in this room that he loves and there’s say a half of you that he doesn’t. Alright, now let’s just pretend that that’s true. Which half is it? Somebody was ready for that.

How would you know which half it really is? Is it because you are better than this half or is this half better than this half? What would be the reasons why God would only love half of you and you wouldn’t know which half you really are in? God loves those that He chose. How do you know which one God has really chose? The one that He elected. Which ones are those? The ones He chose. But how do you know which one it is?

How do you know you’re the one that God elected to save? How do you know for sure you’re the one that God chose to save? How do you know God’s the one that really loves you? What are you using as is a criteria because you believe it. I know I’m going to elect why because I believe it. Is it possible that some people believe that they were going to heaven when you read Matthew chapter 7? That thought they were going to heaven?

I’ve had some people tell me, said, well, you know you’re one of the chosen ones if you really have the desire to be saved. Because you wouldn’t have the desire to be saved unless God chose to save you. So He’s given you that desire. Well, what about all those people, the many that he says you didn’t believe, but then they expect to get in. They had the desire, they wanted to go, they were expecting to go, they were the desires of going, but he says, I never chose you, depart from a ye that work in equity.

So having the desire to go to heaven, wanting to go to heaven, believing that you’re going to heaven must not be good enough. So then what is it? How do you know for sure you’re one of those that God has chosen? Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing? Or would it be easier just to know that God loves everybody? And I believe that’s what He’s done. Think for a moment. Here’s the whole world. Everybody in the world. If God can choose to save some, but not all.

Is it because it’s easier for God to save some, but it would be hard for God to save everybody. Since when does it become so hard for God? In other words, if God could save 25% of the human race and he chooses them, look how easy that would be. But if he went to 50%, well then it’d be harder. If he went This is 75, it’s even harder. In other words, it’s just too hard for God. So think about this.

Salvation, you know, going to heaven, which everybody wants to do, is going to heaven hard or is it easy? Is going to heaven being saved? Is it hard or is it easy? When you tell people that you have to earn your salvation the things you do by your good works. Some people say, well, that’s just too hard. Okay? You tell them it’s free. That’s just too hard to believe. So it’s too hard either way. It’s too hard to do it and it’s too hard to believe it.

What chance do we have? Well, maybe it’s a combination of both. You do a little work and you believe a little bit. See, there isn’t a good compromise just the ideal way it ought to be. In other words, you work and then you trust and hope that you worked enough and maybe you’ll make it. Is anything too hard for the Lord, anything too hard for the Lord? I want you to take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew chapter There was a rich young ruler came to Jesus. Says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? By the time Jesus got through talking to him, they came to a conclusion in verse 23, then said Jesus unto his disciples, verily I send you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the king of heaven, hardly. Oh, it’s hard. Oh, it’s hard. Then in verse 24, and again I say to you, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

Oh, it’s easy. It’s easy. Now is it hard or is it easy? Well, what are you talking about? When it comes to going to heaven, is it hard or is it easy? If it’s hard for who? Is it hard for a man to go to heaven or is it easy for a man to go to heaven? Now in verse 25 when his disciples heard it they were exceedingly amazed and who then can be saved? It’s impossible. It’s hard. In verse 26 Jesus beheld them and said unto them with men this is impossible.

It’s impossible for a man to save himself so yes I guess it would be too hard. It is too hard for a man to save himself. It’s impossible. But with God, it says all things are possible. So this is actually a picture of everybody. It’s everybody in this room. It’s impossible for anybody in this room to save themselves. But with God, it is possible for any man to be saved. By God. It’s possible by God, but impossible by man.

So when you see that and understand that, why do some people want to tell people that God doesn’t love everyone? Because if he doesn’t love everyone, you don’t know if he loved anyone. Now think about this. In the Garden of Eden, God been sovereign. He could have done anything he wanted to do. He’s God. Now God can’t do wrong. God can do right shall not the judge of all the earth do right. So God who has the will to do whatever he wants, chose to give man a free will.

In other words, so man can make a choice. And the first thing they did in the garden is he gave him a choice or if they could choose. Now, if God had made us robots, then man would not have had choices to make. We look at all the things that are gone on in the world, and they don’t look pretty. All over the world, that’s not the result of what God has done, that’s the result of what man has done.

See man has made some bad decisions. And he says, all we light sheep have gone astray. It means everybody has made decisions and they were wrong ones. Gone astray means he made the decision, but he made the wrong decisions. Adam and even the garden made decision, but they made a wrong decision. So down through time, God did something for man. He gave us the power of choice, the be able to have a will that’s free to choose. So man has been able to make choices.

Now if what Calvinists say is true, that God has chosen some to be saved and some to be lost if I’m God and I chose to save these but not these. I just took away the free will of all of you because see what I’m telling you is that you can’t be saved because I didn’t choose you and if I don’t choose you you can’t be saved. So therefore I didn’t necessarily I don’t have to love you and I didn’t have to pay for your sins because you can’t be saved anyway.

The only ones I had to pay for was these over here because these are the ones I’m gonna save. So you see my love is not universal. It’s not for everybody. I picked and choose. So what God did in the garden is giving man a free will and then according to Calvinist he has taken a wayman’s free will so that you can’t choose. You’re destined for hell and there’s nothing you can do about it. You have no choice in the matter.

These over here, I took away their free will because I chose them to be saved and so I have given to them this irresistible grace where they can’t say no. they’ll want it. They’ll desire it. They’ll seek it. They’ll find it because that was my will for them, but not for you. So what man then has a free will? Then it’s whatever will be will be. And no man made a choice. They didn’t choose and y’all didn’t choose. I call that heresy.

And yet today, this message is going to be preached in thousands upon thousands and thousands and thousands of churches all across America around the world because they don’t believe that God so loved the world and that God gave his son so that everybody can choose. God does not take away our will to choose, to take away our free will. He gives us the ability to make decisions and we’re always making decisions. And also that in the book of John chapter 1 when he says, this is the light that lighteth every man that cometh unto the world.

So there’s truth that every man has. There’s a little light that every man has, not the spark of divinity where if you just fan it long enough, you know, all of a sudden mature into a nice, brilliant, little Jesus boy, but every man has truth. And if a man will follow truth, follow light, light will lead to more light. Now there’s people who will turn against light, turn against truth. But we haveidepress the the freedom of choice. God wants us to choose.

Take your Bible and turn the book of Isaiah 59. The book of Dagia, chapter 59. And Isaiah, chapter 59. There## verse here that says, Behold in verse 1, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. His hand is not so short that it cannot save. In other words, I believe that God is able and capable of reaching to every individual. In chapter 53, when he talks about the arm of the Lord that reaches out to the ends of the earth, it’s because God is willing and able to save anybody, but he cannot take away man’s free will, to save him against their will.

God wants a man to trust him, to accept him, to believe that he loves him, to believe that that He paid for their sins and trust Him to save them and give me eternal life. So God does not override a man’s free will. God will allow a person to be a lawyer or a banker in a three-piece suit and reject Christ and spend eternity in hell. God will not make you trust Him to believe Him. He’s created the heavens and the earth and He says it declares the handy work of God.

that you know there is a God and you sent the message throughout the world, the gospel, through the Bible, through people. And you’d be surprised how many people have had someone witness to them and they tell them to shut up mind their own business, leave me alone. If I want to go to hell, I’ll go to hell and don’t preach to me and so forth. And they have rejected God’s advances of love where God wants to get the message to them and he uses people who use circumstances and hardships in life to drive a person to the Lord and yet a person doesn’t always respond correctly.

So there’s a price to be paid. Take your Bible and turn to Jeremiah 32. You’re right there real close. Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah chapter 32. Look there in verse 17. Jeremiah 32 17, verse says in verse 17 this is on page 807, says, “‘O Lord God, behold thou hath made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm. There is nothing too hard for thee.'” Jesus coming into the world, dying on the cross. Jesus did all the work.

Whatever was hard, he did it because it was impossible for us to keep the law, impossible for us to live a perfect life, impossible for us to come back from the dead. All that was impossible but not for Christ. He did the work and then asked us to accept that work that he did as our work. So when you’re trying to earn or You’re not accepting the work He did. You’re trying to earn something that’s already been paid for.

So is the arm of the Lord too short that it cannot save? Is there people God can’t save them? God can’t save anyone who will not trust Him. But anyone can, because the payment He made was for everyone. While you’re right there, look there in verse 27. Jeremiah 32 verse 27 says, says induvents says, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is thereelly anything too hard for me? You see, it’s not too hard for the Lord to save a person.

But God cannot and will not save a person against their will. Now take your Bible and turn toBrew Exodus, the book of Exodus in chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19, the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 19, and you’ll notice there’s an interesting verse here. The Lord is already taking the children of Israel out of Egypt. They crossed the Red Sea, gone into the wilderness, gone Mount Sinai. And then he says here in verse 3, and Moses went up under God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did under the Egyptians and how I bear you on Eagle’s Wings.

And brought you unto myself. Now, there wasn’t this great big old eagle come down out of the sky. And two million people get on the back of that eagle. And a real eagle soared over the Red Sea. And a real eagle soared into the… No. But in God’s eyes, God says, this is what I did for you. I carried you. Y’all have heard that poem where the guy talks about, Lord, there was two sets of prints in the sand.

When me and you were walking together and having such wonderful fellowship, and then in the darkest days of my life, there was only one set of prints. And you forsook me, you left me. The Lord says, no, no, no, no. That’s one set of prints. That’s when I was carrying you. That’s when I was carrying you. Now, there are times in a Christian’s life when it will appear. Yes, God has saved you and did something for you that was totally miraculous.

Saved you by faith, not by your works, regardless of how well intended, but by grace through faith alone. And what Christ did for you, he did the work because it was impossible for you and I to do it. But see, once God saved us, we were saved by faith. Then he says in Colossians, he says, As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Now God wants you to walk by faith, live by faith. With your trust in the Lord.

You see, when they came into the desert, they didn’t have the ability to produce water. They couldn’t produce food. They couldn’t produce anything. They were totally dependent upon God. And God says, I carried you as an eagle. And He says, I did this for you. I bore you along. I did this for you. I’ll have to admit, there’s been times in my Christian life. When I seem like, I’ve seen the Lord, you know, kind of like put me on the back of His great big old wings and sore me up there, mile high, two miles high.

And sometimes you sense like, Man, I’m on a mountain peak. What of you? For how great God is, how wonderful everything is. And God has just been so good. And then it seemed like all of a sudden, for no reason at all. God just dumps you off, and then like a little baby egalith that just fighting for its life. Struggling, flapping the wings, and yet can’t fly. and falls all that distance, flailing and wondering, mama don’t you love me anymore?

And the closer you get to the ground about 500 feet, it comes with big old mama eagle and hiss. Catch his them back up and then what did she do? Takes them up and do it again. And when she gets tired of it, well then she’ll get ahold of daddy and daddy takes them up there a couple miles high and dumps them off and, It’s called free fall. They’re just falling. And you’d be surprised how many times in my Christian life I felt like I am in free fall.

I said, Lord, you have dumped me off. You even forgot who I am and where I am. Lord, do you see the mess I’m in? Do you see what’s going on in my life? And you’re just a tumbling and totally no control. And you can’t make some things happen. you just can’t change. But living by faith is, I believe, I believe that the Lord is going to deliver me before I hit the ground. You’ve seen those guys when they jump out of those planes and they’re on their way down.

You know there’s a certain point of no return. If they wait too long, it’s all over, mashed potatoes. I would jump out of the plane with my hand on it and pull it immediately. But these people that go into the military and they’re paratroopers and they do this, I admire them. They’re dumb. I would never do that. Step out of a safe plane into the mid-air for that one little moment of glory. The wind hitting face? No, I’ll just stay in the plane.

But God blessed those few individuals that has the courage to step out and by faith, trusting their equipment. Who packed this? John Henry, he packed it. Trent, he packed mine. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And There you are on your way down. At some point, you begin to panic because if it doesn’t open at the right time, when you think it should open up because of your expectation, and the closer you get to the ground, you know the ground is not going to move, it’s going to stay right there.

And you know there’s a problem here, and we have deadlines. This is really a deadline. And we have deadlines. We have expectations. God, you’ve got to do something by this point. By this point, Lord, now, Lord, and you begin to see whether or not do you really trust the Lord to do the impossible things in your life? Or do you take matters into your own hands? Well, where does the worrying start? How bad does it get before you have this nervous breakdown?

You know God, He loves you so much that He can give you eternal life. But whether can He take care of me in my life? Can I trust Him? Or you’re about ready to give up and try to deliver yourself because you can’t trust God anymore. Now, I’ve been in this free fall over and over and over again. And I’ve often wondered, Lord, how are you going to get me out of this? And it’s amazing that he always seemed to come through in just the nick of time.

The Lord can do that for you. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. when the Lord teaches you how to trust Him. It’s not always going to be such an easy thing, because we love to see, see, feel, but trust God that I cannot see, to do something that’s impossible for me. You’d be surprised how that it can bring such stress upon you, despair, hopelessness. And many of God’s children live like they, but he says, like I bore you on Eagle’s wings.

This is what he’s talking about. And when you have those little eagles in the nest, they start pushing the sticks up so that it’s very uncomfortable. We love our comfort zone, but God sometimes wants you to get out of that comfort zone. He’s going to stir up your life. He’s going to shake up your world. And sometimes things seem like They just go along. This is nice and so smooth and all of a sudden it seems like total chaos and You’ll say what did I do wrong?

What did I do wrong? You may not have done anything wrong Is it God wants to show you how much further you need to go? How much more you need to trust it? 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 4081 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.