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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.

Well, I want to talk to you about an interesting subject. Because sometime it comes up and you might as well know, who can forgive sins? I would always say only God, except you can forgive sins if somebody sins against you. Doesn’t the Bible say forgiving one another? Evidently you have the power to forgive. You can forgive those who wrong you, and they can forgive you for when you wrong them.” You say, well, if I ever did. But everybody, believe it or not, has the power of forgiveness.

It’s a power that you have that most people don’t like to use. Because somehow we think it takes away from our pride, I guess, or something, but that’s something that’s a very hard difficult thing to do, to forgive somebody that wrongs us. Now I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Ephesians and chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And look there in verse 29. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29. And it says in verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.”

Now what kind of communication would be corrupt? We see you can build or you can destroy. You can help or you can hurt. You can encourage or you can discourage. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying. Now the word edify means to beautify what’s there and add to it. Beautify what’s there and add to it. Now a lot of people think that the word edify means edify. You know where you fry them.

You cook them. You’ve ever heard comedians get together and they have a roast. They roast somebody. It means they say all kinds of things about the person but you’re supposed to know it’s not true. They’re just joking, just having fun, saying things in jest. Well the Bible also has a little warning about something like that about well, look on in verse 4 of chapter 5, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient. Yeah sometimes we like to use humor and we say things in jest but it should be convenient.

In other words they should know that you’re funing and you’re enjoying things and it’s not to be taken seriously. That’s where you have to learn how to draw the line. Some things to say, some things not to say. It’s so easy to be misunderstood. You ever say something and somebody take it the wrong way? Yeah boy. In verse 29 up there in chapter 4, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And that means to create a desire to serve, to create with individuals a desire to want to improve, to do better. It’s what the word edify means. Teaching the Word of God in such a way that causes people to want to improve their situation. So it’s a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with it. Now look what he says in verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Remember the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. Now where does the Holy Spirit live?

Inside of your body. So you have the Holy Spirit living within you. Because the Holy Spirit lives within you, it says, grieve not the Holy Spirit. Now, if he’s just like smoke, oh smoke God in my eyes and it was an influence. No, the Holy Spirit is not just an influence. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit can grieve. So there’s things that you can say and do that grieve. the Holy Spirit.

What is it that will grieve the Holy Spirit? Well, he just mentioned in verse 29, things that are corrupt communication, things that destroy and doesn’t build. That’s not pleasing to the Lord. Then he also says here in verse 30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now get this verse, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor evil speaking be put away from you with all malleth. Now verse 31 are those are things that comes from the new birth or the old birth.

The old birth, the old man, the old nature. Look what he says there in chapter 4 and notice what he says there in verse 22. That ye put off concerning the former behavior, the old man. Now the old man is your old sinful nature. Your old sinful nature has the flesh nature and the sins of the flesh is bitterness and hatred and variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, emulations and all these things that are wrong, that’s that guy. So God says put him off and put on the new man.

You see what he says here in verse 22? The old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful up. So the corrupt man wants to use corrupt communication, things that are detrimental, not only to you, but to the Holy Spirit that lives within you and to the people that you’re trying to minister to. He says that it may minister grace to the hears. So the things that we say and do, our testimony itself, should be something that encourages other people to do right.

Now if you don’t do like it says, you’ll encourage people to do wrong. You can provoke a person to anger. Provoke a person to envy and bitterness. Now Now bitterness is because somebody has hurt you and you didn’t forgive them. Then bitter lately. Have you ever been bitter toward something or something? You can even get bitter at God. But bitterness is because you have been hurt. Whether real or fictitious in your mind. You imagine. Have you ever imagined something that wasn’t true but you acted upon it like it was?

Have you ever thought somebody said something then they really didn’t say it but you thought they did so you’ll make them pay? Bittleness is like cancer on the inside of you. It can ruin your whole day. It can ruin your whole life. So he makes the statement about this in verse 31. all bitterness and wrath and anger, anger, all these things. This is not the Spirit, this is the flesh, this is not the new man, this is the old man.

And he makes a statement here, and clamor, extreme hatred, evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice, and be You kind one to another. See, that’s totally different from verse 31. But notice the key in verse 32. And be a kind one to another tender-hearted. And what’s the next words? Forgiving one another. So you have within you the power of forgiveness. You cannot forgive anybody, the sins they commit against God. That’s between them and God. But you can forgive someone who wrongs you.

But you can’t forgive them for what they do against God. God will have to forgive them for that. So you see, sometimes we commit sins against each other, but of course, God’s the one that knows all about it. And you’d be surprised what God will let you go through when you are unforgiving. And when you’re unforgiving, you harbor bitterness. Bittleness is like a root that springs up and many become defiled. Hebrews chapter 12. So that’s why he said, lift up your eyes and lift up your hands and get a spring in your step and a smile on your face and a song in your heart.

It’s strengthened those feeble knees like you’re walking around like you know you’ve been baptized in lemon juice or something. So God wants us to do that. But now notice the key for forgiveness because forgiveness is what does away with the bitterness. Because if you forgive a person, well, you may struggle with whatever it means, but whatever it is, you’re supposed to do it. Just like I had a person one time when I was, says, you know, the Bible says, we’ve all sinned.

Well, I don’t know about that. Name a sin. Well, I don’t know if I can name a sin, but whatever it is, you did it. Whatever sin is, you’re guilty because the Bible says everybody’s a sinner. So you figured out what you’ve done. God says you did. And when you come to forgiveness, don’t get so technical. Just forgive somebody as though they didn’t do it. So that it doesn’t cause you to be bitter toward the person. Otherwise, it harms you and it will destroy you.

People don’t get it, but it will. It will ruin you. Now notice what he says. Forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Why should I forgive somebody who wronged me? Because God forgave you. Did you ever wrong him? All of us have wronged the Lord and God forgave us so if we can have forgiveness from God, why can’t we pass that along? And I believe that’s exactly what the Lord wants us to do. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew in chapter 9.

Matthew in chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9 and look there in verse 1, verse 1. And it says, and he entered into and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Oh, great. Now, this is not talking about what he did to Christ, but what he did to God.

God can forgive sins, but no man can do that. but no man can forgive another man’s sins that he sins against God. And behold, certain of the scribes sit within themselves. This man blasphemes. Jesus knowing their thoughts. Wouldn’t that be terrible to be around somebody that can read your mind? I mean, wouldn’t that be? I mean, if I knew that Peter over here could really read my mind, I would want to be around him. I don’t mind him thinking whether he thinks I’m thinking, but I don’t want him to know know what I’m really thinking.

And everybody in here is the same way. But Jesus knew their thoughts. And so He says, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? He knew that what they were thinking was not right. He says in verse 5, for whether is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and walk. They both would take a miracle. I mean here is a person who can’t walk, seek the policy and he says take up thy bed and walk.

Would that take a miracle? For God to forgive us of what we’ve done wrong took a miracle. Did you know that in order for him to forgive us of our sins, our sins had to be paid for. So Christ had to go to the cross, die on the cross, pay for sins, come back from the dead. Did you know that coming back from the dead is a miracle? He did that so that our sins could be forgiven, and only God can forgive sins that we sin against God.

Now have you ever tried to say, Lord I forgive you for wronging me. Has God ever wronged you and God had to come and beg your forgiveness? Have you ever thought God has wronged you? I mean after all God has all power. He can do anything he wants. And he lets a lot of things happen to me in my life and if I was God I wouldn’t have done that. Am I better than God? Because if I was God I’d have made me better looking, a better physique, I’d have made me with more hair.

I mean, if I was God, I’d have gave me a million dollars. I mean, if I was God, I would be better to me than God. The real God is to me. So therefore, I have reasons to question God’s goodness. You’d be surprised as how many people question the goodness of God. And they have been hurt in life. And believe that God could have prevented the hurt. And because they did get hurt, they got bitter because they have an unforgiving spirit.

And you can’t say, God, I forgive you, but you can learn to accept things from the hands of God because you believe God really loves you. And love will take away that bitter spirit that you have, but you can get better toward God. You can have hatred toward God. And some of God’s children do. But anyway, as we’re moving right along, he says here in verse 6,onyms, but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.

Then said he to the sick of the Paulseam, rise, take up thy bed,apeshifter, and go into thine house. And in verse 8, and when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. God allowed this man to say to a man that’s been sick and was lame, take up thy bed and walk. They knew that took America, but the same thing to be able to forgive somebody of their sin. This is why one of the greatest powers that we have is the power, the right, the authority.

to forgive someone who wrongs us. As you live your life, remember this, there’ll be times when it might be your wife who needs forgiveness. Sometimes it’s the kids that need forgiveness. Sometimes it’s the dad that needs forgiveness. Sometimes your employer. Sometimes maybe a deacon. Maybe an elder. Maybe the pastor. Maybe anybody. Everybody who works close enough with somebody sooner or later is going to wrong somebody. The longer we work together sooner or later we’re going to offend each other.

You can mark it down because we all have sinful natures. And because we have sinful natures we wrong each other. We’re supposed to know that. in a sign of maturity is that we know it, can accept it and forgive. Don’t that make sense? Ah, that’s easy preaching. Easy preaching. Look there in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24, when Christ came back from the dead, he had a message for the disciples. And you and I know, by studying the Word of God, that salvation involves the forgiveness of sins.

Everybody in the world has sinned against God. So God found a way to keep His justice, His holiness, His righteousness by being able to justify the unjust, to forgive them of what they did in breaking his law. They violated his law. They transgressed. They offended a holy God. All sin is an abomination to God, and God was able to forgive because he had his son come into the world and pay for all sins of the world. Paying for the sins of the world didn’t save everybody.

But the message that goes out to the world is the message of forgiveness. God can forgive everybody on the basis of the son’s payment. Now look what he says here in verse 46 of chapter 24 Luke. Verse 46, And said unto them, Thus it is written, And thus it be who Christ to suffer, And to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

what they were to declare, but they did not forgive the sins, but they were to go and to preach forgiveness. So they were to declare unto all the world that God will forgive. means wipe the slate clean. It means hold nothing against you. That’s grace. But why can God forgive you of all of that? You don’t deserve forgiveness. Nobody does deserve it. But because of what Christ did, and for His sake He tells us to live for Christ and the gospel’s sake because of what He did.

Now get this. Where’s that? And that repentance and remission of sins. Remission of sins means the forgiveness of sins. To remit of sins means the sins are taken away forgiven as though you never did them. Pretty good. You see believing is man’s part. Forgiving is God’s part. All we have to do is to believe it and I will be forgiven of of everything that I owed. You see, whenever you wrong somebody, there’s a debt to pay to the person to satisfy the offense.

And so God says, my son paid your debt and you can go free as though you never did the crime because someone else paid for it. Repentance was a change of mind about how one is saved. We talk about, you know, you got to change your mind. But Ray used to say, you know, I never changed my mind about sin. I thought adultery was wrong before and I still do. I thought murder was wrong, I still do. I thought lying was wrong and I still do.

So I never changed my mind about sin. I always thought wonderful things about God. So I didn’t have to change my mind too much even about God. But every man has to repent, change his mind about the way of salvation. Every man has to realize he cannot save himself by his works and trust Christ’s Savior. So every man is to repent. Change your mind about how a man is saved. Therefore every man has to change his mind about the same thing when it comes to salvation.

He cannot save himself and he trusts Christ as his Savior. You put in this rightful place, it’s an easy thing to understand. But he says this, ye are witnesses of these things, the payment that was made, Christ’s death. Now go into all the world and preach this wonderful, wonderful message. Take a Bible look here in the book of Matthew in chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18 is a simple little statement here, and it makes this statement in verse 15. But just look at this real quick, I want to spend a lot of time here.

Peter kind of got hung up on this. I guess it was good in view of what he wanted to do later. But anyway, in verse 15, moreover, if my brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell everybody about it. I mean just get your megaphone put it on the internet tell everybody what he did. That what it says? Oh go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear the diascane that brother that’s reason to do it.

But if you will not hear then you get somebody else and so forth. And then in verse 17 and if he shall neglect to hear thee then you have to tell the church. And if he neglect to hear the church then well you’ve got to treat him like a heathen and man and a publican. Verily I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind on her shall be bound in heaven. What server you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Whenever you make decisions here, let’s say for example, you wrong me and I’m never going to forgive you if it’s the last thing I do. That decision that I made I’m going to have to answer for when I get to heaven. If I forgive you, I will be blessed by God when I get to heaven.” See, there’s a God in heaven that keeps the record. And there’s things that you can do. There’s things people that you can forgive. I’ve actually had people tell me, I’ll never forgive them until the day I die, I’ll never forgive them.

What they did to me. All right. Did you know that God knows the decision you made? And in this enthus life is when we’re supposed to make things right as much as possible, but you see sometimes people don’t. You declare, for your decision will be honored in heaven, and God will judge you and chase you accordingly or bless you because you do. There’s opportunities God has given to us as His children to do like our Father has done. We wronged our father and he forgave.

When they wrong his children, his children are to forgive. Our Father loved the world. His children are to love the world. You see, whatever he was willing to do, and he sacrificed his life, that’s why God asked us to be a living sacrifice, a sacrifice our life because, well, because, you see, he did. He was our example of the believer. So we do what God says that we’re supposed to do. And so as you go down through here and he talks about, you know, how many times do you forgive him 70 times 70 and all that, you know, just just stay at it.

Let me show you that take your Bible look here in Matthew chapter six, Matthew and chapter six. There’s an interesting portion of scripture here, but we can kind of relate it to the dispensation of grace. But Jesus says, don’t be like the heathen with vain repetition, making long, pretentious prayers as though you’re holier than somebody else. And you just wrote memory, but there’s no feeling there, no sincerity. Like you know that one that we always do, and you probably didn’t even just grow enough.

As I lay me down asleep, I pray to Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray to Lord my soul to take. Amen, John Ben, shout a root to kill the end of the chicken died, root to cry, and don’t be satisfied. So you say that prayer, and if you really understand what you’re saying, and you really know the Lord, do I have to pray Lord if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

He has to take me. He don’t have a choice now. But when I didn’t understand, now you say prayers and you repeat them over and over again, And they don’t have meaning, not in reality, but we become conditioned to it. So he makes the statement in verse seven, but when you pray, you’s not vain reputation as the heathen dupes, but they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like unto them, for your father know of what things you have needed before you ask him.

After this manner, we’re for pray ye, our father, which art in heaven, I’ll be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, I want your will to be done here as it is there. And if I really want God’s will to be done here, then I should want it to start with me. Maybe the world won’t do it. Maybe you won’t do it, but why can’t I have God’s will done in me here?

And so sometimes you can’t control other people and the only one you can answer for is you. Is God’s will been performed in you? 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, 3 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. Taught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Leaving that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.