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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now, God is absolutely holy, and He’s just. And no sin, Revelation 21, 27, no sin can enter therein, because heaven is a perfect place. You see, God made Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve chose to sin. They chose to sin, so you get the results of sin. But God didn’t change, God is still perfect. God is still holy, God is still just, and He has a perfect heaven. He don’t have a good heaven. He’s got a perfect heaven. And in this perfect heaven, He says to live forever with the Lord, He can’t have any sin.

That’s why every one of us has been eliminated. We cannot go to heaven. There is none righteous, no not one. There’s none good, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory or short of the perfection of God. So how are we ever gonna get to heaven? They say, well, perish. That just means to be annihilated. You know, nothing exists. All right, parish is physical death and separation from God. So yes, one of these days I’m gonna die physically.

And I’m gonna be separated from this whole body. And then what? And then what? And so no, I’m not gonna say that that’s the end of it. I’m just annihilated and I’m just like an animal, throw him in the grave and that’s it. That’s all that dust to dust and that’s it. Well, sometimes I ask the question like, well, when you die, you’re dead, that’s it. That’s all there is to it. So I asked the question one time, the guy says, how do you know?

Have you died before? Well, if you haven’t died before, you don’t know that’s all. You were probably totally surprised to be in this world. And you didn’t do anything about that. And look, well, all this year, and this is real. How do you know that death ends at all? If you haven’t died before, you don’t know. You’re just hoping so. Well, what if there is no hell, ha ha ha? So I usually come back. What if there is, huh?

But I don’t do that. I thought that sounded a little cold. So I just changed a little bit. What if there is? Eternity is a long time to be wrong. Don’t you agree to that? Eternity is a long time to be wrong. Do you wanna be wrong? Have you ever heard somebody say, you know, there’s a place called purgatory. There’s religion that use purgatory. Well, what is purgatory? Well, you’re too bad to go to heaven, but you’re too good to go to hell.

So there’s this mediator place where you gotta go and you wait there until something happens. Either somebody’s gotta add some good works to your case or solve something or pay some money or do something for you. So what is it? In addition to the word of God that gives a false hope to people who must depend on someone else to pay, pray, or do good works to get them to heaven. Stop and think for a minute. Do you really want to go to purgatory and depend on somebody else, praying, paying, or doing good works to get you out of there?

But you don’t know how long you’re gonna be there. But you know, you’re right in the limbo, you know, you’re not good enough to go there, you’re not bad enough to go there. So this is where you go. And you’d be surprised how many people will swallow that. You see, was that in the Bible? No, it’s not in the Bible. It’s in a place called Second Maccabees, where it refers to purgatory. Those are the books, like the pseudopigrophy books, the homologumen books, and the apocrypha books that lies between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and usually it’s just history of the Jewish people and so forth, but that’s not divine scripture.

It’s not in the canon of Scripture. It doesn’t belong in the Scripture we call inspired of God. It’s never referred to by Christ or any of the disciples or any of the writings. It doesn’t belong in the Bible. Not good enough for heaven, but not bad enough for hell. Now, you need to understand and I thought I’d tell you the truth. Everyone is bad enough to go to hell. New Revelation. And no one is good enough to go to heaven.

Now that’s the truth. You say, who said that? I did. You just heard me. I said that. If they can say to the other, I’m gonna tell you, this is what the Bible says, that none are good enough to go to heaven. So we all need a savior. Now, in Hebrews chapter one and verse three, there’s a very important verse. And this is what it says, who be in the brightness of his glory referring to Christ. And the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when, and this is what he says.

I’ll put it in white, it’s in brackets, but it’s in the scriptures. He had by himself purged our sins. See, I don’t need a purgatory. My sins have already been paid for, purged by himself. No man can do this for me. I can’t do it for you, you can’t do it for me. Christ has already by himself took care of the sin problem. All of us have a sin problem. He took care of it. There’s nothing else you can do about it.

He already made the payment for the sins of the world. Pay for mine, pay for yours. The only thing we have to do is accept what he did. So if we accept what he did, what he did is put to our account. Now I have a payment for all of my sins. That’s why I don’t have to pay for my sins. You mean in spite of how bad you are or in spite of how bad I may be? He paid for all of my sins and put that payment to my account.

And I get to go to heaven on what it did for me. And the reason he’s set down is because the work is done. There’s nothing else needs to be done about our sins. In order for a man to be saved, There’s nothing for him to do except believe on Christ. Believe that he did it for you. That’s what it means to be leave on Christ, to accept Christ. It simply means to you accept what he did on the cross for you.

And that’s how I know I’m going to heaven. It depends upon what he did. If your salvation depends upon what you have done, you’re trusting the wrong thing. It’s only through Christ and him alone are we saved. The church here, you can come every day of your life. All the churches give all your money and still go to hell because you must be saved. But it’s only through Christ, the book of Acts in chapter four and verse 12. Now get this, there’s no need for a purgatory.

So that’s a man-made religion that does well in getting money out of people and getting people to come to church, living in fear and I’m going to tell you this because it’s really happened. This is the truth. In 1969 or 70, I was working in the downstairs of our little ranch room that we had and I was working on my big old chart that I have and man came in and he wanted to know where a certain place was left.

So I told him where it was at and he looked and he says, what is that? I says it’s a prophecy chart. It’s a survey of the end times. He says really where did you get all that from. I said, the Bible. He said, that’s in the Bible. I said, yeah. I says, can I ask you a question? He says, sure. I says, where are you going when you die? He said, well, the best I can hope for is purgatory.

He said, what about you? I said, I know I’m going to heaven. And he stopped. He says, what? He said, how can you know you’re going to heaven? He says, I’m the priest in the Catholic Church. And the best I can hope for is purgatory. I says, well, I know that I’m going to heaven. He says, how do you know? Well, funny, he should ask. Funny I should answer him. And so I told him the gospel. He says, is that in the Bible?

I said, yes. I said, haven’t you read the Bible? He said, I’ve never read the Bible. He says, I have read the catechism. I studied the catechism. I know everything about the catechism. He said, I’ve never read the Bible. I says, you ought to read it one time. It’s in there. So I believe it’s good even Catholic priests trust Christ as Savior. Rebuddles to purgatory. It’s salvation by works. Totally, you’re not dependent upon Christ. You’re dependent upon what you do or what somebody’s done for you.

And… . . . . . . . It’s because of some book that was written by a man but not written by God. And you’ll find out that lo and behold, the Bible teaches. It’s appointed that every man wants to die and after this, the judgment. There are no second chances. Like, I’m dead and I went to purgatory, but I still got a chance. No, you know, there is no more chances. You eat the trust, Christ, the Savior, before you die, or there is no hope.

absolutely no chance at all. This is why it’s so important. I saw this and I thought this is great. Hell is well at least I won’t have to go to work tomorrow. You think when I die at least I won’t have to go to work tomorrow. Yes but do you understand the seriousness of the situation? Why study and teach about hell? Because there’s something God wants us to know. It reveals the grace and the mercy of God. You see, what’s the difference between grace and mercy?

They’re both found in the Bible. And all we say, grace and mercy be unto you, grace and mercy. Because, you see, grace is God given us what we do not deserve. Mercy is God not given us what we do deserve. You see, we have all sinned. So we all deserve to go to hell. We haven’t done anything good to go to heaven. We don’t deserve that. We do deserve hell. But when we talk about grace, grace is I’m going to get heaven.

I’ll get that. I don’t deserve that, but I’m going to get it. I do deserve hell, but I’m not going to get it. So grace and mercy came through Jesus Christ. And the only reason He can give us grace and mercy is because Christ went to the cross, paid for our sins, so that I won’t have to pay for them. That’s mercy. But to give me eternal life so I can go to heaven and be with the Lord for all eternity, that’s grace.

And He says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a works list. Any man should boast, as Freddy Colle will say, ain’t that good? Ain’t that good? That’s good. What is hell like? The Bible describes it. It is eternal. And there’s a lot of verses on that. And it says that those in Matthew chapter 25, they were into everlasting punishment, everlasting fire. It’s a total separation from God’s present for all eternity.

That’s what we read while we go in 2 Thessalonians in chapter 1, verse 9. And then we have, the Bible talks about this, out of darkness. See, people think, well, when you go to heaven, hey, I see, hey, Bob Gilbert over there. No, you’re not going to see anybody in hell. It says it’s totally dark. There is no light there. Total darkness. And we think that the devil is going to be down there ruling hell. And then when you haul out for water, he’s going to jab you with that pitchfork.

Boy, you ought to hear what I used to hear before I ever trusted the Lord. I always thought that he was running around in some little red union suit with a fork and tail and a pitchfork in his hand and horns. Anybody ever seen this pitch? I saw his pitcher. So we all know what he looks like. That’s Okay on the pot and meat cans, but that’s not the way he is. The Bible describes the unquenchable fire, forever burning, forever dying and never died.

He also used that same phrase in forever people that are forever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth. It’s just like some people there forever sharpen their necks and never cut down a tree. Forever learning and never come to the truth. But to be forever dying, the Bible says and describes the book of Mark and their worm die if not, it’s like you’re always dying, it’s always corruption, it’s not something that I would want. And this is why when I started understanding this, I didn’t want my mom to go to hell.

And I said I had to win my mom. Took five years but I finally got my mom. Then I went after my sisters and I went after a lot of my relatives. I’ve been on this trail for over 50 something years. And I don’t think, and I’m gonna stop until the race is run. And that’s why it’s always so important to do it and take advantage of the opportunities that we have. And some of you might come to church and you always see me do that little wallet deal.

We’re talking to the people up there on the internet, trying to get them to trust the Lord. Why? Because I believe there’s a hell. And I don’t want Christian getting to the place where that’s just all the stuff. I don’t heard that so many times. maybe you just need to go to a church where they don’t say these things. But how do I teach the Bible and not cover it? If Jesus is real. Then hell is real, and all this is true.

So we got to do what we can. Some people think when they go to hell, it’s going to be smoking or not smoking. You see, degrees of punishment in hell, yes, this is why every lost man will be judged. To determine the amount of punishment they receive in hell. Shall not the God of all the earth do right? He is a righteous judge. No one will go to hell that did not deserve to go to hell. No one. But think of how many could have gone to heaven, because I’m going to heaven and I don’t deserve to go.

Christ made a way. He died on that cross. He paid for my sins and all I had to do was believe that He did it for me. And God said, if you will, then He will save you. When you get to hell, who’s going to be the boss down there? Well, you don’t need a boss there. Why? There’s nothing to do. The most destructive thing in my life has always been born. But I don’t hardly stay I used to be bored, but haven’t been bored in the last 50 years.

Before that I was bored all the time. What is there to live for? What’s there to do? You get tired of doing this, get tired of doing that good tired of that. But when I found the Lord, I should say the Lord found me. I found something to do for the rest of my life. And it’s never stopped, doesn’t have to change. And the older I get, the more I want to do. Because I came across this little saying, I don’t know who said it.

I don’t know who said it first. Don’t be bored. Serve the Lord. Don’t be bored. Serve the Lord. If you’re bored, good. If you’re miserable. Great. You chose it. Or you could choose to have an exciting, wonderful life. And that is to dedicate your life to the Lord and serve the Lord. Take the rest. Talk to people. Well, I’m afraid they won’t like me. I’m afraid they’ll do this. I’m afraid of them. Grow some spine. Get a little backbone.

Do you realize where the lost are going to spend eternity? Well, I would have told you about hell, but you know, I didn’t want to offend you. Is it literal or is it just figurative? I mean, when you stop and think about it, if it’s just, I had people that, well, you know, it’s just a picture, just a picture. If it’s just a picture, a picture of what? Snow is hell, a teaching that tells us what snow’s like. Or is it telling you what fires like?

I want you to see this in your Bible. Turn it in your Bible to the book of Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. This is one of the worst things about hell and that’s having a memory. Cause if you don’t have a memory, they don’t know nothing, you just suffer, but a memory, having a memory. Luke, what he says in verse 19. Luke chapter 16 verse 19. Now understand, this is not a parable. Jesus is speaking here. You know that sweet little baby that was born in this world and we talk about it at Christmas time and he died on the cross and paid for saying, came back from the dead and ascended into heaven.

This is what he said. This is why he came. This is why he was born. So that we don’t have to go to a place called hell. Now get this. There was a certain rich man which was clothed purple and fine-lint fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogsthat was the dog’s name, moreovermore over the dog came and licked his sores, and he came to pass that the beggar died, was carried by the angels and neighbor, Hemphusim.

The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes. Now the rich man died was buried. The body is buried, but that’s not where he was. He was in another place. The lives of died. The body is buried, but that’s not where he was. Death is separation from the body when you leave that body. And one of these days you’re going to leave the body. And then where do you go? And so he went to Abraham’s bosom, which is a place called paradise.

And rich man, well he died, but he went to a place of torment. And he says, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, been in torment, and sith Abraham before off, and Lazarus in his womb, and he cried unto the Father, Abraham said, sin, Lazarus, that he may come and dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Well, that’s just a picture of what? Is it possible that Jesus is telling the truth.

And this is the most important thing in your whole life you ought to get right. We’d love to make everything right in this world. So I have all the problems in this world. But I got news for you. Our confidence is not in the White House. It’s not in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party. Our confidence is in the Lord. And governments come and governments go. But we have responsibility. Now I’ll be talking about that tonight. But what’s more important than that is that people are going to die and they’re going to spend eternity.

Where? Whereby you must be saved. It means from this place. God does not want you to go to hell. but he will not force you to trust him. It’s your choice. People choose to sin. You can choose to reject Christ. You can choose to accept Him and you can choose to go to heaven. Doesn’t cost you anything. No price to pay. All you have to is believe that when He died, He did it for you. And He’ll put that payment to your account.

You go to heaven or what He did. There’s nothing for you to do. Not a thing. He loves you that much. and get what he says. Down in verse 24, and then cried, and Father Abraham, have mercy on me, sent a lads with that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am toward minute in this flame. Now is that really what you would like to experience for the rest of eternity?

Never end, no end to this, it’s forever. And there’s people who have never heard the gospel. And that’s why it just blew my mind last night, Friday when Jackie got me the opportunity to go up there and explain the gospel and I’m standing in that room and there’s people all around me and they were against the wall against the wall over there against the wall over here and all of a sudden there’s about 30 of these pure leaders in there and I thought well when would I ever get a chance to witness this many people at one time and it’s like a captive order what are they going to do where are they going to go?

I have got them for the next 20 minutes at least and to give them the gospel the best news in the all the world. Now, to me, that’s better than the chocolaty clear. I can’t think of what would be better than that. And one of these days when we get to heaven and we’ll see all those faces of people who trust the Christ of Savior. Is it important? I think it’s important. Now, get this. He says in verse 25, but Abraham said, Son, remember, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise, Lazarus evil them.

Now he is comforted and thou art tormented.” You see, one is in one place because of what he believed. The other one is in the other place of what he believed. So then he says, send him that he may go and talk to my five brothers lest they also come to the state of mine. No, this place. And you notice Here’s what he says here in verse 28, for I have five brethren that he may testify in them lest they also come into this place of torment.

This is the man, he’s non-nolated, his body’s been placed in the grave, and he can feel the pain. He can see, and he can hear, and he can remember, and he can speak, but he’s dead. separated from his body, separated from God for all eternity. And this is why he says that in verse 31, the last part, he says, neither will they be persuaded. See, persuading is trying to convince a person to trust Christ to save you. We call it soul winning, winning a person to Christ.

Soul winning, persuading a person to trust the Lord. Being able to give to a person a reason why we believe what we believe. This is why it is so important. So who will go to hell? Those who reject Christ. If you reject Christ, you cannot go to heaven. The gospel is the only good news on how to escape hell. There is no other message. Nobody can even come close and let’s, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the gospel has to be by grace.

And grace means it has to be free and it has to last forever. Or it’s not grace. You see, we don’t deserve to go to heaven. But God says every one of us can go to heaven. Whosoever believe it. Why? Because Christ died for the whole world. And everybody can have eternal life. And everybody can go to heaven. But he asked, will you believe that I did that for you? I paid your way. Will you accept it? When we give the gospel, the simple little message, think about this.

All the power and the authority of heaven stands behind this message. God must honor it. You see when he says, 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, if you believe it upon the authority of God, you cannot perish. You cannot go to hell. But have everlasting life. God stands behind that truth. It’s the greatest message in all the world and all the authority.

Of God in heaven stands behind the power of that message. Now let me just show you this one closing. What’s the difference? Grace, given us what we do not deserve. Mercy, not given us what we do deserve. And this is why you can choose to go to heaven or you can choose to reject Christ as your Savior. But there’s a price to pay. Look up here one more time. You must be saved because there is a real literal faith.

fire burning hell. And if you don’t trust Christ as your Savior, that’s what you’re going to get for all eternity. And you’ll have all eternity to remember, to remember. You were so close. You sat there, you heard it, and you walked off the doors and thought, well, maybe later. Or I got time. I need to think about this some more. You don’t need to have any more time. You don’t think about it anymore. You need just do it. Remember that Nike commercial?

Just do it. This hand represents you and me. Walla represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. He says you cannot earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us. So Jesus Christ, He loved us so much he He rather died than live without us. So He took our sins and died in our place, came back from the dead.

And says, the only thing I want you to do, believe I did that for you. Can you handle that? Can you handle that? Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now? I’m not going to have you stand up or come forward, but right where you’re sitting, see a preacher that made sense to me. I don’t know if I ever was really saved in the past.

I don’t know, but I wanna be sure that I’m going to heaven. So today I will accept Jesus Christ and Him alone as my Savior, and I’d like for you to pray for me. I’m not gonna have you forward, not gonna bash you like I said, but I’m gonna ask you in just a moment to raise your hand, raise in your hand does not save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. And you say, preach that that did make sense to me, and I will trust Christ as my Savior.

friend, would you just slip you in it very quickly, put it right back down. And with all, just very quickly just slip it up and put it right back down. Wait just a second. Yes, God bless you. Anyone else? Just slip it up and right back down. We’re not going to bother you. Not going to pin you against the wall. Not going to try to do anything to you. It’s over and done with when you make that decision. God sees, God knows.

I ask for a raise of hands because I want to know if what I said made sense. And I’d like to have prayer for you. And when asked before we close. Our Father, we do thank You so much for loving us, giving us eternal life. And we pray, Lord, that we would be diligent about this matter. We just don’t want people to go to hell. And I pray Your blessings upon the one indicating that they would trust Your Savior.

We know that by doing so, the Abi eternal life. We thank You for all You do for us. Christ, name we pray. Amen. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. 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 Name. 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. Taught 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.