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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 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.

You know there are some things in life that you only get one chance to do some things. You only get born in this world one time. No reruns, no instant replays, no nothing, just one time you’re born into the world. And as far as your life goes, you only get to live life here one time. You don’t get to do that over again either. So what you do, you did and that’s it. You don’t get to do it over again.

The Bible also tells us that one day we’re going to die and we’re only going to do that one time. So we’re only born once. We only live once and we’re only going to die once in this whole world. Somebody asked me one time and says, how come you only finished the tenth grade? Well, I didn’t want to go into the eleventh grade. My dad was in the eleventh grade. Now, I don’t want to be in the same grade with my dad.

Of course, you know, that was just a joke. But there are some people who had to repeat, you know, the first grade and the second grade and the third grade and repeat a lot of grades. But sometimes you have to take and repeat a class. Now, there are some people that even get married. I mean time suppose you get married well once if a person died you can get it married again But sometimes people get married. Well, it didn’t work that time.

We’ll try it again And then if that doesn’t work we’ll try it again There’s some people in life that you know, you can try this little religion and you don’t like that one Well change to this religion and don’t like that Well change to another religion and they can just change and change and change But the day will come when you you run out of time and And hopefully as we go through life, we have found just exactly what we’re looking for and it’s the right one And you can stay on track all the days of your life Well, sometimes that works and sometime it doesn’t look there in Romans in chapter 7 in verse 15 When it comes to the Bible There’s a lot of times people believe that You know if I try harder if I can just get there the right religion and the right rules and if

I obey these rules and regulations and someday I’m gonna make it. I never saw my mom and dad in church. I’m not talking about growing up for 18 years. I never saw the minute church. I never saw them read a Bible and I’ve never seen them pray. We never had none of that in our home. So I wasn’t raised in church. My daddy was a bootlegger. That means he whole corn and jugs. But I was a little bit like it is right here.

Look what he says in verse 15, for that which I do I allow not. For what I would that do I not. And what I hate that do I, well that was me to a tee. I had been told and what I’d heard was that if you’re good you go to heaven, if you’re bad you’re going to hell. So I figured if that’s true I’m going to bust it wide open. But I thought I want to try to do the best I can.

So I know I never drank, I never touched to try to test the drop. I never swore a cuss word and I never smoked and I figured, you know, if anybody makes it, surely I will. But I didn’t know God. I didn’t go to church. I didn’t read the Bible. And I prayed though, but I really didn’t know who I was praying to. I was hungry for the Lord. I wanted to know if it was true. I wanted to know that.

But I didn’t want to get trapped in some man-made religion. If then I do that, which I would not, I can send unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but send that development me. And I knew that the harder I tried, the worse things seem to get. And even if you say, I’m not gonna try, I’m not gonna do anything wrong. I’m gonna do right from now on. You fail, you keep failing and you fail miserably.

We don’t live up to our own standard because most religions are nothing more than a different name, a different set of rules and regulations. And so you can go to this religion or this religion or this religion or that religion. And there you have a few things that required maybe a little different than the other, but principally it’s the same thing. What? You got to do this to get there. And if you don’t do this, you ain’t going. And so I didn’t know what the rules were.

I’d heard that you’re supposed to keep the Ten Commandments, but I have to do it. So I said, we got to believe the Bible. Well, I believe the Bible, but I had no clue what it said. But I did want to go to heaven when I died But nobody ever told me explained how I could know now look what he says in verse 18. This is a very revealing verse though this verse and these verses I’m reading right now is about the Apostle Paul after he had been saved for about 25 years It still is showing you the conflict that we have in our life with the if you’re a lost man that means you’re a man that doesn’t know where you’re going and you try to earn your way to heaven by trying to keep the law because all this is talking about obeying the law.

And as much as you want to obey the law God says there is no flesh to be justified by the law in the sight of God. Why? Because nobody can keep it. Nobody loves the Lord thy God with all thy hard mind body soul and no body does. Thou shalt not covet everybody does. Thou shalt not lie. Everybody does. They say well I haven’t done all the other ones so you have to keep the law perfectly or you don’t keep it at all.

And it doesn’t matter which one you break because the wages of sin is death, the soul that sin shall die. So everybody sins and breaks the law so everybody’s condemned so that’s the condition of the whole world. So the law cannot save a man. The law just shows you how righteous God is and how unrighteous we are so no man can keep it. And this is for the frustration in most religions is they’re trying to earn something, God says is free.

Look what He says in verse 18, for I know that in me that is in my flesh, it’s so body we have, develop no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform, that which is good, I find a how to perform. Okay, I’m going to keep the law to go to heaven. Well, the problem is there’s nothing wrong with the law. See, the law says over there in verse 12, where for the law is good, the law is just, the law is holy, the law is spiritual because God gave it.

But there’s no wrong with the law. It’s just the problem is it’s me. I can’t keep it. So I find in me that is in my place. I got a problem. I got a sinful nature. I sin naturally. I mean, it’s it’s not against your nature to sin. It is within the realms of your nature. We all do things wrong. We think wrong. We have lustful thoughts. We say wicked things. We hurt people and we are very covetous and so we’re very materialistic and we think about the things of the world.

So we have a problem here. In verse 19 he says, for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do. So I wind up doing the very thing that I don’t want to do. It would be great if I say, you know what I am going to live for God for the rest of my life and I’m not going to do anything wrong from not starting today. Right now I’m not going to do anything else wrong.

How long you think I can last? How long you think it would be good for? Now I’ve got to call what’s good, what God’s call is good, and I’ll have to call bad what God calls bad. But I preached the other night talking about it’s not that bad. Remember it’s not that bad. Because we don’t think that what we do is that bad. But what that bad is is very wicked in the sight of God. God requires perfection to go to heaven and people can’t get it.

get it. See, to go to heaven, heaven is perfect. For me to get there, I got to be perfect. Well, heaven is perfect. God is perfect. And to go to heaven, I got to be perfect. Well, am I perfect? No, I can’t go. Okay, who gets to go? Nobody. You mean nobody’s gonna be in heaven? Not lesser perfect. So you can’t get to heaven. Nobody in the world. So trying to obey a bunch of rules and regulations and all the religions of the world, religion comes from two Latin words, re and legal meaning to bind back.

There’s people trying to do all these good deeds, trying to bind themselves back to God by what they do. And God says it’s not that way. Have you ever got a job and you didn’t like that job? You didn’t like the boss or whatever it is. So you got another job. Anybody ever done that? I’ve done that a lot of times. And I’ve got another job. What about a doctor? You go to a doctor and he tells you something’s wrong.

I don’t like you. I’m going to go to another doctor. And so we go to another doctor. And we don’t like this medicine. We can get some more medicine. So So you get chances and opportunities, isn’t it wonderful? We can change our mind a thousand times. And we can keep making corrections all that we want to, but now look there in the book of Romans in chapter three. I want you to look in Romans in chapter three. You’re right there, just turn back one page.

And look at verse 23. For the wages of sin is death. Death is the wages. That’s what you receive because of sin. See, if you didn’t sin, yet you wouldn’t die. You didn’t sin, you wouldn’t die. Why does everybody die? Because everybody sins. Sin came into the world because of one man and death by sin. But if we didn’t sin, we wouldn’t die. The death is not the punishment. Death is not the punishment for sin. But the wages, that’s what you earn.

You earn the right to die. That’s a wage. You go to work and you work for a week. on that Friday gives you a paycheck, well you earned that. Well God says to die, you earned that, you earned the right to die. That’s physical death. So we all die because we earned it. But punishment in the book of Hebrews in chapter 9 verse 27 is appointed unto every man wants to die and after this the what? Judgment. The judgment is the punishment.

So everybody’s going to die, But there’s a judgment after that. If there’s anything that you and I ought to be right on because you don’t get another chance Something you can change your job and you can even get another woman You can get another boyfriend or get another girlfriend and You can you know do a lot of things like that get another doctor on this issue of how to go to heaven Once life is over you better get it right Do you understand the consequences if you don’t get it right?

You get one chance at this. In this life and this life only you got one chance to get it right. And look of how many religions there are. And you got one Bible and look how many different translations that you can come out with and how many different views you can come out with. You say, how do I know which one’s right? If you’re a Mormon and born in a Mormon family, guess what your Mormon parents are going to to teach you to be.

Mormon, if you’re born and your parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses, what do you think they’re going to try to teach you to be? And if you have parents with Catholic, what are they going to try to teach you to be? And not on down the line, every religion tries to convince their kids and anybody else they can, they’re right. And if they’re right, they’re wrong. All religions can’t be true. They can all be right. Somebody’s right. Somebody’s wrong. How do you know?

Oh, I got my little old people ain’t up here. And I got all these thoughts and these real various religions. How do I know which one’s right? Well, God broke it down so we could understand the truth of it and how easy it really can be. So take your Bible and look there in the book of 1 John chapter 5. First John and chapter 5. I love this verse. I didn’t know it was in the Bible until I was 18.

But in first John chapter 5, look there in verse 13. And look what it says, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have what eternal life. So does the Bible say that you can know you have eternal life? It says you can know it and it says there, these things have I written unto you that believe. It’s not to those who join the church keep the Ten Commandments, you know it’s just those that believe and it’s written to those that believe on146 somebody on the name of the Son of God which is Jesus Christ.

Do you believe on Jesus Christ, these things have I written unto you that do that. He didn’t write to everybody to believe whatever they want to believe. Only those who believe this that you can know you have eternal life because not everybody else can know it. If you try to earn your way to heaven, he never said you can know you’re going to heaven if you aren’t it. He never said if you went to church you can go to heaven.

No, he He didn’t say that. Ephesians chapter two verse eight and nine, these are two very important verses. Look what it says in verse eight, four by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the what? Get of God and get verse nine, not of works, lest any man should boast. So we know this, can you know you can go to heaven? Yeah, can you know you have eternal life? Yeah. Can you earn it? No, not of works.

So not of works means not of works. Somebody said, well, it all depends on how you interpret it. Okay, how would you interpret not of works? I interpret it, not of works. Means you don’t earn it. If it says not of yourself, that means there’s nothing that I do, nothing that I do. That will save me. Another one is nothing that I have to depend upon me doing or getting done. Trusting means that I am dependent upon somebody else to do the work.

So if I trust Christ, then that means my going to heaven depends upon Christ. Not upon me depends on him. Now he said he would save me. He will give me as a free gift everlasting life. And if he gives me everlasting life, it will last for how long? It lasts forever. And that way you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Look in Titus in chapter three the book of Titus in chapter three Where it makes the statement in verse five not by works of righteousness Which we have done so there’s not I’m not say because I did some works of righteousness not because I did something I’m no, I’m going to heaven because I did no not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the Washington of Regeneration and renewing of the

Holy Spirit. And so that in verse 7 that being justified by his grace means unmarried. It means you don’t deserve it. Grace means you do not deserve to be saved. And God says you’re saved by grace. If you’re saved by your works then it can’t be grace. Remember the illustration I gave you not long ago? My coat on that’s works. Now I code off, well that’s grace. So he says that if it’s by works, then it can’t be by grace.

Otherwise work isn’t work. But if it is by grace, then it can’t be by works. Otherwise grace isn’t grace. See how simple that is? If God says it’s free, that means you don’t earn it. No code. But if you believe this by your works, well then see that messes it up. Now is there if it’s free or you got to earn it, but it can’t be both ways. You see, God gonna save me in taping heaven and don’t cost me anything.

He did all the work, He saved me by His grace and it’s a gift. It’s not by my works. And He’ll give me eternal life. Well, if He gives me eternal life and it’s forever, then where am I gonna go when I die? Well, I’d go to heaven. But if it’s by my works, how would I know if I’m trusting in my works to help me? All you gotta do is if I don’t do the things right, I don’t have the works.

Well, I still go. Now, if I won’t get there because I didn’t perform, then I was trusting in my works to get me there. Because if it’s totally by grace, there’s nothing that can keep me from going to heaven. Either he paid for all my sins or he paid for none of my sins. If all my sins are paid, how many would I have to pay for? If he paid for all of them. None. Let me show you a simple illustration.

This hand represents you and me, while it represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says we all have a sinful nature and so that’s why we produce the sin. But to get to heaven, I gotta be perfect. I can’t have no sin. Well, that’s the problem. I can’t get into heaven because God won’t allow sin into heaven. So that’s why I can’t go. You can’t even. So what happened was God says, The wages of sin, because you sinned, you deserve something for that.

So God says, I’m gonna pay you. And the payment for this sin is dead. You get to die. That’s physical death. Everybody died. But when you die, it also cares with it. Eternal separation from God in a literal fire burning hell. So there we are. We cannot save ourselves. We can’t change the situation. We can’t do anything for ourselves. God says, you cannot save yourself. It’s not what you can do. So you don’t have to go to church to go to heaven.

And you don’t have to give money to go to heaven. You can’t buy your way there. Well, how can I get there? This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in the place came into the world because He loves us, but He hates our sin to call this separates us from Him. So what Christ did for one person, He did for everybody in the world. He took all the sin, paid for them to cross, came back from the dead, and said that if we would believe that He did it for us, it put that payment to our account, and we would go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

That’s a gift, that’s free. Where am I going when I die? I’m going to heaven. Why? Because see, my sins have all been paid. He paid for how many of my sins? All of them. And when Christ died on the cross 2000 years ago, how many of our sins were in the future? All of them, because we weren’t even born yet. Well, can he pay for our sins before I commit him? Well, he did, but he hasn’t died since I’ve been born.

That means if he’s already died to pay for all of my sins, he paid for my sins from the time I’m born to the time that I died. He made a payment for my sins, all of them. So if I accept that payment he made for me, then I have a payment for all of my sins, not past sins, not just present sins, but all my sins. So I have a payment for all of my sins and he puts that payment to my account.

I get to go to heaven on what Christ did for me. That’s a gift. That’s free. I didn’t earn it. Didn’t work for it. If I offered you my wallet and you accepted, what would you have? Empty wallet. And if I offered you my Bible and you accepted it, you would have a Bible. When would you have it? When you accepted it? So this is why salvation is of the Lord. You don’t earn it, you can’t work for it, you cannot buy it.

Now, one of the best illustrations I believe that’s ever used in the Scriptures to explain how a man is saved. And remember this, there is no illustration in the Bible, none anywhere in the book, that ever says that God saved a man, And then the man got lost and then got saved again. No question the Bible. So once God saves a man, he saved for how long? However, because God said, they’ll never cast you out. John chapter six, he said, I’ll never lose you.

He says, and I give him the eternal life. No man is able to fuck you out of my father’s hand. What it means is this, here’s the Lord, here’s me. When I trust Christ as my savior, He saves me. So that means my going to heaven depends upon him keeping his word. So if I trust him, he said he’ll save me and he said he’ll never cast me out. He said he won’t lose me. He said no man can pluck him out of my hand.

Me or anybody, you can’t pluck yourself out of his hand. So this is how I know I’m going to heaven when I die because my going to heaven depends upon him keeping his word. Does God lie? No. He says, He that believeth on behalf everlasting life. Now religions, all religions, you can add them into this category. Is that they believe here’s the Lord, whatever they want to call them. And here they are. They believe that if they get a good grip on God, I believe on God.

And I turn from my evil ways, confess all my sins and repent it and all the rest And now I’m going to walk out straight and narrow away, and I’ve done everything, but if I start doing anything wrong, I can slip away. See, I’m sliding away. Now I’m lost and I’ve got to get saved again. And then if I don’t do right, I’ve got to pray through, hang on, let go, let God. And there I am again. See, this isn’t worth the quarter because this means I am saving me.

But of course I’m talking about God. I can talk about Jesus Christ and how I’m trusting Christ. I’m trusting Christ to take me to heaven. Am I trusting Christ to take me to heaven? No. My salvation depends on me because this is why people in this world, they believe you can get saved today and go to hell tomorrow. If they can lose their salvation, that’s because it’s in their hands. It depends on how strong they are. Can they hang on?

can they endure to the end? See their salvation doesn’t depend upon him, depends upon themselves. That’s not the Bible. That’s man-made religion. So all the religions that teach you have to do something by the way you live, you’ll get to heaven. Or you got to keep that way and don’t, oh yeah I’m trusting in Jesus Christ. He’s the only way and all that I’m trusting Him and grace and by no works and so forth. I know you say all that but see your salvation doesn’t depend on Christ depends on you because you believe you can lose it.

They either believe one or two things. See, you don’t believe in Christ. Men, what he said or did what he said he did. What did he say? He said, if you trust me, I’ll give you everlasting life and never cast you out. All right. That’s what he said. Do you believe it? The other one was you don’t believe he did what he said he did. What was that? He paid for all my sins. Well, if all my sins are paid, what sin can condemn me to help?

If all my sins are paid. All of them paid. I think I said, well, you can commit suicide. I said, is that a sin? He said, yes. Paid. All sins paid. You believe it or you don’t believe it. I said, you don’t believe the Bible. Jesus Christ tells the story of the man hanging there on the cross right beside of him. And he said, Lord, remember me when thou cometh into thy kingdom. And Jesus says, today, shout thou be with me where?

In paradise. Here’s a man hanging on the cross. Had he done anything wrong? Oh, yeah, he was a thief. He was one of those that was hanging there He was down on the cross. What did he do? Did he have to join a church? No, I joined the church. I was 18 years old. You know what church was the first church I ever joined? Northside Baptist Church right here I trusted Christ as my savior right here 46 years ago down here in part of the apartment and Betty’sblogs Dad got me to come out to church since I come out here and this is where I joined the church But you know what I had to do also have I ever been baptized?

Yes, I was baptized where? Right there in this bad history. 46 years ago. So what I’ve had, I’ve been baptized. But you know, it’s the joint in this church. This church can’t get me to heaven. Or the church would be my Savior. If I, the man that baptized me, his name was Virgil Edwards. He was the pastor here. Well, if I had to be baptized in water to be saved. Well, the man that baptized me, would be my savior.

Because if I can’t be saved without being water baptized, were the one who baptized me, did they work for me, I owe him my salvation. Is my salvation should be owed to a man? No. But was I baptized? Yeah, I was baptized. But you see, that doesn’t save you. Doesn’t give you eternal life. It’s a picture. Me and my wife, we ran away and got married. Anderson, South Carolina. There was no photographers there, nobody there taking pictures and so forth and we signed little paces.

It was the justice of the peace. I found out later it was a secretary of war. But anyway we got married 18 years old. We have had a lot of pictures since then but when people get married it’s because you know they take pictures. The picture doesn’t marry you. It’s only a picture of your marriage. When I stand in the water, that’s a picture of Christ on the cross. And when I go under the water, that’s a picture of my burial.

When I come up out of the water, that’s a picture of my resurrection. So when I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, buried, rose again for me, and because I believe that, then every person who believes that is to be water baptized. I’m placed under the water. I come up out of the water and that’s a picture of my death, burial resurrection. But this doesn’t save me. I do this because I am saved. Joining the church, am I a member of the church?

Yes, I join the church, but I don’t do that to go to heaven. That little deed that I did in a little, little living room, I was born in the God’s family that that day, that minute, that very second. God became my Heavenly Father. I became His child. He said, He’ll never cast me out and never lose me. That was the best news I ever heard in my life. Because see, if you’re going to heaven depends upon anything that you have to do, you don’t never know if it’s enough.

You won’t know when you die if you’re really gonna go to heaven. You’ve got to hope all your life. I have known, then they shav it out. I know I have eternal life. I know I’m going to heaven when I die. Best news and all the world. That’s what being saved, being saved means you’re saved from something to something. I will save from hell to heaven. He that, believe it to me, you have it, you got it. It’s so simple.

It’s free. It’s a gift. 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. book The Gospel Driven Man covers all those topics and we want all new listeners of Bible line 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. 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 looking up.