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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. 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 do have some things I wanna run by it tonight. So turning your Bible to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And while you’re doing that, let me read something to you. I wrote this and put it in a newsletter that I had just sent out. And somebody that I had led to the Lord years ago out there in Colorado, but anyway, he copied it and put it in a Facebook thing. And the next thing you know, he’s gotten a few comments.

You think, well, nobody could find fault with what I wrote. I mean, it’s impossible because it was so well written. Oh, well, this is what I wrote so that you’ll know. He posted it. I said, friend, I get accused of preaching an easy believerism. It is a badge of honor that I wear proudly. I have never met a saved person who has done more than just believed to be saved, and you haven’t either. You have never meant anybody that is saved that didn’t any more than just believe to be saved, because that’s all you can do to be saved.

They can’t do anything else to be saved. And that’s why if you make it simple and clear, it ought to be easy for people to believe it. Why should we try to make it hard for people to understand? But anyway, going on here, if anyone must do more than believe, which is trusting what Christ did, it would require works, which is trusted. What man can do? To tell a lost man to turn from sins to be saved, to tell him to stop being bad.

To tell a lost man to commit his life to Christ in service in order to be saved, he is telling him he must start being good. So some people teach that you have to stop being bad and start being good. They just do it with different terminology, but they’re saying the same thing. You tell a lost man you got to stop your sins. means stop being bad. And if you tell a man he must commit his life to Christ, it means start being good.

And most people can see that’s not right. Then salvation would have to be by your works. It can’t be by grace because if you’ve got to stop and start, then it depends on you. But anyway, moving right along. So the good news of the gospel is that it is free by faith alone. This is easy even for a child to understand. When you add one work to a free gift, it opens a whole can of worms. What right, preachers included, does anyone have to add works to the gospel?

When we make the gospel clear or easy to understand, shouldn’t it be easy for a person to believe? What would be our purpose in making it hard to believe. Remember, believing on Christ is not a commitment to serve but a decision to trust. In that statement, most people never get. They think that being saved is a commitment to serve. No, it’s a decision to trust and they don’t get it. They don’t understand that. But anyway, I wrote that and this guy named Jimmy put it on his Facebook and then somebody else wrote and says, And yet my works are my gift back to my God for saving my soul.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what you say, they got to correct it because you didn’t say enough. Yes, but you’ve got to do good works or say something that you’ve got to change your life or a reference toward it in any way. It just seems like they can’t let it go. That it’s just my grace. They got to give it just a little twist in there that, you know, opens up that door for the evidences to prove that your faith is really genuine.

So another one wrote in and said this, the problem with easy-believism is about not confronting a person with their sin. It’s this, pray this prayer and trust Jesus with no concept of the need to be saved. Is that what I said? Did I confront the sin problem? Jesus took care of the sin problem. But see, that’s not good enough. You must be, you know, confront the sin problem in your life and be willing to quit it. And they won’t let it go until you commit yourself to stopping your sins.

Until you change your life. Until there’s fruit in your life. And they won’t let it alone. And so it doesn’t matter what you’re going to do. you say to it, they’ve got to come back with a little quip. Yes, but it’s like you could quote to me, fae-jungs to eight-night. Yes, but they were trying problems with John 3 16. Yes, just believe and you will not perish but have everlasting life smirks. But well, the point is the knowledge that only Jesus can save me from the sin that has me captive.

He used to believe his own skips this and says, hey, just believe that Jesus loves you and sin a prayer can save you. Is that what I said? No. That’s not what I said. But that’s how they twist what you say. They don’t really listen. But they’re commenting about what I left out. But they’d be saved. I didn’t leave anything out. And this is the damage that they do. Whenever you add one work to the gospel, this is a measure that’s hard to explain.

an impossible for a lost man to perform. That’s why it makes it hard. One work to the gospel opened up a whole can of worms. All right, what work? How long? What if I don’t? So you just open up a whole new door into a dark room that gives no light, no security because that’s not the gospel. Another one wrote and said this, the gospel is simple. All we have to do to be saved is believe in Jesus and accept Him as your Savior.

But this is just the beginning. Sin has to be confronted. There needs to be a change in the new believer’s life. See, we’re not talking about the Christian life. We’re talking about the person getting the life that makes him a Christian. But see, did I get into the way of Christians are supposed to live? Now, do I teach people that you should serve the Lord, dedicate your life to Christ, commit your life to Christ and all that? Yes, I do.

Do I tell Christians that they ought to depart from iniquity? Yes, I do. Not to be saved, not to stay saved, not to prove you’re saved. But anyway, it says there needs to be a change in the new believer’s life. The former things are passed away. Sometimes that change happens at the altar, sometimes it happens gradually after, but the point is the change needs to happen or begin. You can’t just believe and accept Christ and then continue living the way you’ve been living.

See, that’s the point. And because they have changed their life, They set themselves up as the judge, you must live like me. I am your model. And if you don’t live as good as I lived, it’s a sign you probably are not saved. That is heresy. It’s heresy. So he says, and yes, works comes into play after salvation and it is necessary to have works at this point. Faith without works is dead. James chapter 2. So a lot of people use James chapter 2 that you’ve got to have the works to get saved and they’re saying you’ve got to have the works to prove you’re saved.

What’s the difference? looking at works of man. So anyway, turning your Bible to first Corinthians in chapter one. Butormon”:{“here in the book of first Corinthians in chapter one, look in verse two, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that aresaintified in Christ Jesus, called saints. With all that in every place called upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here were some people that had trusted Christ as Savior. Paul had gone to them, preached a wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet this church had a lot of problems. You would think that there wouldn’t be any problems, but they did have problems, quite because they got people. Any church that got people in got problems in it. But I get this. Look in verse 7. Verse 7 says, so that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So these people had every gift that the church could have. They had it all. So what was their problem? They ought to have the most wonderful, joyous, peaceful, loving, caring church there is. But what he says in verse 8, who shall come and come in a Christ, who shall also confirm you unto mosqu the end. So, once you trust the Christ as your Savior, you have been sanctified. That means to be made pure and holy and you are confirmed by the Lord until the end, until Christ comes back.

So, that is a guarantee. So, as he goes into the rest of this book, regardless of how they’re it cannot change what God has said. And now he says in verse 10, now I beseech you brethren, so they’re brethren, they’re believers in Christ, but these brethren were not all on the same page, just like these are not all on the same page. And I have been in other discussions where they’re not all on the same page. And so he says here in verse 10, now I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Does God want His children to think the same way, to be of the same mind? It appears so. It’s like God wants us all on the same page. We should believe the same thing because if you listen to God and I listen to God and somebody else listen to God, then we ought to believe the same thing. The Bible makes this statement, mark them which caused divisions among you and teach doctrines contrary to the doctrines that you have received.

And what does it say? Join them? Avoid them. So that’s why sometimes I avoid those who have a doctrine that’s contrary. Now I’m not to join them. I am to avoid them. But anyway, he says during verse 11 that there was contentions there among them. Then he says in verse 12, Now this I say, every one of you said, I am a Paul, I am a Apollo’s, I am of Cephas and I’m of Christ. And he uses these names as an illustration.

Look there in chapter four, 1 Corinthians chapter four. And look there in verse six. And these things brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollo’s for your sake that you might learn in us not to think think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be popped up for one against another. So he says, what do you have that you did not receive? Everybody receives things from the Lord. So in that sense, you were all in the same boat.

We’re all dependent upon the Lord. We did not manufacture our gift. God gave us different talents and abilities. Now what I want you to say, go back to verse 17 of chapter 1. 1 Corinthians in chapter 1, 17 says, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. So baptism in gospel is not the same thing. But they didn’t say that it was wrong to baptize. It simply says that I didn’t want somebody to say I baptize in my own name, for my honor, for my glory, as in competition with somebody else.

He says, I’ve only baptized a few people. But he didn’t make this statement, and he says, I was sent to preach the gospel. It didn’t mean that you can’t baptize, that’s because the other one was a done-so. He didn’t say it was wrong. He didn’t say he stopped or anybody else that was wrong, it was wrong. No, but it means that the gospel does not include water baptism, the look in verse 17. But to preach the gospel, not with words.

The gospel message God gave to us was done in such a way that it eliminates the pride of man. Whenever anyone has one word to the gospel, it’s out of pride. I did something. Or I was able to perform this. I get credit for something. I don’t care what it is, you’ve got to do something. And of course, they are. Because after all, if the preacher stands in the pulpit and says that you’ve got to live a certain way, Well, he’s evidently saying he is.

Right? He wants you to know I’m living up to whatever this standard is. I qualify. That means I have real genuine faith. Therefore, you need to listen to what I have to say. Now, me as I stand before you, I am a dirty lousy good for nothing. Blow down rotten center. I ought to go to hell and I know it. But who said amen? But I’m going to heaven. And it’s not because of my works before, during, or after.

Nothing that I do is going to secure my salvation any more than that night, 53 years ago in that little old living room in Athens, Georgia. That’s when I was saved. So when he says here about the wisdom of words, it means not the wisdom of man. Man wants to add something to it because it makes and seems like he is wise. I’ve often wondered when God now made this plan of salvation. And here’s this wonderful scheme of things that whenever he did this, the Bible says that after the counsel of his own will, of course he counseled himself, he didn’t ask you or me to come into that private chamber and discuss and debate this issue with him.

Now wouldn’t it have you been honored if he had done that? But he didn’t. And the reason is he didn’t need you need your input, he did not need my input. Because you see, he had all the wisdom that there is. Who is going to advise God? Who’s going to counsel God? If you look down a little bit further, look down in verse 26. For you see, you’re calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble to call them.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world that can find the wise, chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, base things of the world and things which are despised, have God chosen yay and things which are not to bring to not things that are, well those are wonderful words. But let’s just pretend like you know the room is full and I’m God. And over here on this side we have some rich people sitting down here and then we have some old mighty people sitting right there and we have some very intelligent strong.

This is the side that you would be impressed with. These are people that are smart, they’re wise, they’re strong, they are gifted, talented, you name it, they got it. Now on the other hand, over here, these are the common folks over here. These are the down and the outers. These are the base. These are the humbled. These are the ones that are, let’s just say, the base short of life. They’re over here on this side. So there is a division here, but God says he hath not chosen many that are wise and many that are mighty and many that are, you know, great noble.

He didn’t choose many of them. So God in his foreknowledge, looking down to that telescope of time, he reached over here and he got just a few of y’all and just a few of y’all and just a few of y’all. But he got a lot more of these over here. So that’s how God chose to do it. See God is free to choose however he wants. So not many of these are chosen, not many of those are chosen, not many of those are chosen, but more of these are chosen.

These down and out are these no gooders over here. Isn’t that wonderful that God has predetermined ahead of time who he’s going to save? Now this is how some people put it. This is what they think. But the truth of it is, how does God determine all of this? And I’ve often wondered, but I think I’ve got the answer. I think the reason I have the question is because God wanted me to know the answer. So I think He has the answer and I kind of overlooked it for a while.

But there’s two things that are mentioned here in these verses that I think really makes it clear. Look what it says there in verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. The reason some of these mighty people over here don’t trust the Lord is because they don’t think they need the Lord. Not many of these wise people over here will trust the Lord because they think they’rekok wise enough they can do it on their own. And those that are noble think, well look who we are.

So because of who they are and what they’ve done and what they know they don’t need the Lord. But more people will know I need the Lord. And the common people, even when Christ was here, heard him gladly. And he told John disciples to go back and tell John the Baptist that, yes, I’m raising the dead, making the blind to see in the death of the here raising the dead and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. The poor.

He didn’t say the rich, he said the poor. But why? Well, what’s going on? God says this, that no flesh should glory in His presence. No flesh or glory means I don’t want people taking credit for what I do. Pride is what destroys. Now, there’s a lot of people because of pride, they don’t think they need to hear the gospel. I don’t need that. I don’t need that. You can talk to a lot of poor people. Yeah, that makes sense.

And they have attention to listen more. So God has chosen simply to save all of those who will believe the gospel. So He has called, but a lot of people won’t listen. But those who will listen, he didn’t say he didn’t call any of those that were wise or any of those that were mighty or any of those that were known. He just said, more of them won’t respond. But a lot of other people will respond because they simply hear the gospel and will believe it.

There’s people that just can’t believe that the gospel is free. They can’t believe that it’s simple enough that all you had to do is trust. They want to get somehow some credit for what’s being done. So God says that no flesh or glory in his present and then look at the verse verse 31 that according as it is written he that glorious or brags let him glory in the Lord. In other words, all the religions of the world, think of how many there are and they’re all adding something to the gospel.

And when they add to the gospel, that’s pride. They’re adding in, we’re going to help. We can do something. And God says that no flesh, no person. Now that works good in the simplicity of the gospel so that no lost man can take credit for his salvation. But look at something else. Look at verse 18, where it says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.

What makes the gospel foolish? Is it because it eliminates the efforts of man? And now he explains what he means by this statement. He says, if the princes, the nobles of this world had known what they claim to know, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. See there in chapter 2 and verse 7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

So now, when it comes to serving the Lord. I know that salvation is free, even Ephesians 2, 8, 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast, or any man get credit, any man get glory. God gets all the glory for our salvation. But you notice that as I read this, everyone will say, yes, but, yes, but, man’s got to get some glory in here somehow. And so they say, well, you’ve got to have this changed life. I would venture to say that over the years the preachers who correct me and tell me that I have this easy-believism, I always thought it should be easy.

I mean Christ did to work and all I have to do is believe it. So what’s hard about getting saved? It’s not. It is easy. But it’s easier for people if they clearly understand what you’re saying. But if they don’t know what you’re saying, it’s hard. When you add works to it, now you’ve complicated it tremendously. It means you’ve opened up a whole new can of worms and people can’t get it. That’s why I understand this statement and always remember that I gave it to you at the beginning when I started.

Believing on Christ is not a commitment to serve but a decision to trust. You have decided to trust the Lord to save you. If you had to be saved by committing your life to Christ, that means you are trusting your performance. You get then the credit. You helped. That’s pride. And there’s anything that God hates. It is pride. So now once you trust Christ is Savior, aren’t you glad that you don’t have to deal with pride anymore? It’s all gone.

Well, doggy, after you have trusted Christ is Savior and you’re born into God’s family, you’re having eternal life and God will never cash right, you can never take credit for your salvation. God did that. But now for your life that you’re going to live. Is it the will of God that we as His children? Serv him. Yes. But there’s a lot of people who will not serve the Lord. So that must mean that they weren’t really saved. Is that what it means?

No, it means you’re disobedient. It means you’re a rebellious. That doesn’t affect your salvation because that was based upon what God does. Now, after you trust the Lord, God has promised things to those who will serve him. Not good what he says during verse 9 of chapter 2. Chapter 2 in verse 9 says, But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that are saved.

No, it doesn’t say that. This is though that love him. Can you be saved and not love the Lord? Yes. You were saved because God loved you, not because you loved him. God’s word tells us over and over again about how we should love God, how we should love one another. It’s not automatic. We don’t automatically love each other. Some Christians even hate each other. I admit a lot of those. Christians can still get upset with each other and argue with each other and do all kind of thing.

Christians can do all of this. That doesn’t affect their salvation though. But God promised certain things to those that love Him. And if you will love Him, here’s what God has done. God has chosen to save those that trust Him. And then there are those that God has chosen to bless in a certain way, rewards you when you get to heaven if you love Him. But you don’t have to love Him. And if you don’t, well then you’re not going to have the blessings of this life like you should.

You’re never going to have the joy and the peace that you could have You’re not going to have the rewards in eternity that you could have had. So in verse 9, the things which God has prepared for them that love. So God has prepared something different. I don’t know what it is. I don’t care what it is. I just want it. And therefore I believe that if I serve the Lord, I believe God will have to keep His Word and God will do what He says.

Now hold your place here and look there in the book of Romans, the book of Romans and chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, you’ll remember there’s a verse that everybody claims as their favorite verse. Favorite verse in the book of Romans. Chapter eight verse 28. Understand in verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that saved. No, that loved God. So say, you can be saved and not love the Lord. But there are things that God will do for those that do love Him.

But then He tells us something that’s wonderful. He lets us know that regardless of anything that happens in life, nothing can ever separate you from the love of God. See up here, He’s talking about us loving Him, but you look down here in Put down here in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Are you a new? 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. And 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.