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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.

Turning to Bible to the Book of Romans, the Book of Romans, you know, in camps I always like to have question and answers. I asked the question and they’re supposed to give the answers. No, they give the, ask the questions and I’m supposed to give the answers. I remember I did that a couple times and some kids were, you know, little smarties. Always trying to, they don’t really want to know the answer. They just ask you a smart out of question.

And sometimes I just want to come down just to slap her jaw, you know. But when I got in college, you know, I’d ask anybody got a question. and some people would ask a question. Sometimes I’ve done in church we’ll have questions and answers and people will ask questions. When I first came here people used to ask questions. Now they don’t ask any questions, no they know it all. So they’re just so intelligent and not so smart. But you know when you read the Bible you’d be surprised how many questions are in the Bible.

A lot of questions, a lot of questions. So God put some questions in the Bible to get us to think about what the answer might be. But look into the book of Romans in chapter 6. And look at this one question. This one question is a good question. But he asked the question and right off the bat, he gives the answer. So in chapter 6 and verse 1, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Shall we continue in sin? Now, evidently, this was an issue. Because when you really understand salvation by grace, you automatically understand that that means that regardless of what I do in the future, I’m not going to hell. If you really understand salvation by grace, and really understand you’re going to heaven when you die. And remember I preached a sermon not long ago on, you can’t know you’re going to heaven till you know you can’t go to hell. So that’s how you can know that you’re going to heaven because you know you can’t go to hell.

And the reason you can’t go to hell is because you don’t have any sins to pay for, Christ paid for all of them. Now either day or he didn’t. But that automatically brings up the question, are you just giving people a license to sin, permission to just live in sin? And it doesn’t matter what happens. Well, it seems like that, and it comes across like that sometimes, but you can’t get away from it that once you’re a child of God, you are his child forever.

And either you have eternal life or you don’t. And if he’ll never cast you out and never lose you, and he can’t cast you out, never lose you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t alter it, God can’t alter it, it’s a done deal. And that’s what he means when he says, you have been justified, cleared of all sin. If he only justified me up until the next sin, then there’s no sin’s justifying me. Because how long is it between the time I would be justified until the next sin?

How much time would it take you to commit another sin? And how many would you do? And then how would you know if you got justified fast enough before you died? Well, what if you sinned right before you died and didn’t get a chance to get that? What, a can of worms? But it seemed like you opened up another can. And so the question is, what shall we say then? Shall we continue and sin? That grace may abound? God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now you saw the illustration that I did this morning. You understand the two natures. And so when you have your flesh birth under the law, and when you trust Christ as your Savior, except in his death is your death. So as far as God is concerned, this man died. Bill Mandine, he was crucified. God sees it as dead. You and I, no he’s not dead, but we’re to reckon him to be dead.

To see it as God sees it. We have the new birth, yes. How shall we that are now justified and sanctified and pasteurized and all that, petrified? How are we now to view this thing? Shall then we now just live in sin because there’s nothing to pay for? There’s no penalty. There’s no penalty to us. Well, not eternal, but there are consequences to sin. So a lot of the questions that are asked in the book of Romans is dealing with this issue.

How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer they’re in. Now, you may not live in sin, but you can follow after the flesh. And a lot of Christians appears to live in sin. So how do you explain all of that? Well, Let me ask you a question. I wrote this question down. Does believing a lie make one a liar? If I believe a lie, let’s say Peter tells me something and it’s a lie, but I believe the lie.

Does that make me a liar or does that make Peter a liar? If I believe a lie because I believed it to be the truth, but it wasn’t true. It was a lie. So I believe something that wasn’t true. I was wrong. So if I was wrong, I said I believe something that was a lie. That makes me a liar too. You know the Bible says, let God be true in every man. He’s a liar. Did you realize that not believing, not believing what God says makes you a liar, makes you a liar because you don’t believe the truth.

You’re believing something that isn’t true instead of believing something that is true. And so when you say that that which God says that is true and you don’t believe that, you’re calling that a lie. And that’s a lie. Then it makes you a liar. God takes a strong stand against those who do not believe the truth. Look what He says there in chapter 3 of the of the Romans. Now look what he says there in verse 3, for what if some did not believe?

What if some did not believe? Here’s God who gave the law to Israel, but they had an advantage over the Gentiles, but they didn’t take advantage of their advantage. And so therefore it didn’t helped them very much. And so whether they’re Gentiles or Jews, they were all sinners. I wrote something else done yesterday. Although it was a good question. More of a statement, I did not know my sin was so bad until I saw how righteous God was. Now in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, it makes a statement in chapter 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.

He talks about holy, holy, holy. And how I am so undone and man of unclean lips. So I didn’t realize I was so bad until I saw the holiness of God. Now he was already bad, but he didn’t know how bad. Now we sometimes might not think we are too bad until we compare what we are to what the word of God says concerning the law. So the law is the knowledge of sin. So we know how bad we are because of how righteous the law is.

So I thought of another statement. I did not know how righteous God was until I saw how sinful I was. So when I see how bad I am, now I can see how righteous God is. See before, you can see how sinful you are because of how righteous God is, but you realize how righteous God is because of how sinful you are. It goes both ways. Now, if God is so righteous and He’s so holy, but you can’t see it and it needs to be manifested.

Well, don’t we often say the light shines the brightest in the dark. Is that true? Only from your perspective. Because the light is still just as bright. The stars that dare. And nighttime, the stars, they’re just as bright right now as they always are. It’s that you can’t see them. Does it mean that they’re not as bright? They are as bright in the day or as they are in the night. It’s just that from your perspective you can’t see them.

So, is it true that because of my sin and how wicked they are… It shows you how righteous God is and how holy God is. Well, if that’s the truth and it has a little element of truth there, well then if God bestows upon me grace because of my sins and his grace covers my sin, well if I want there to be more grace, I should have more sin. So if I want people to see more of God’s grace, I ought to live as wicked as I can so they can see how righteous God is.

See how I’m helping out God? Now there’s people who use logic and reasoning instead of thus say the Lord. So there were people who were accusing the Apostle Paul because of this easy-believism. just once saved, always saved, that you have eternal life, he’ll never cash you out, never, well you’ve just given people a license to sin. And said, the accused, and is it true that when we talk about grace all the time, and when you want people to be saved by grace, it’s not of your work, are we advocating in any way, shape or form, for people to continue living their life in sin.

Do we teach that? That we want them to live their lives in sin be as wicked as you can because that shows you how righteous God is the worse you are. We don’t teach that. We want people to live as holy and godly as they possibly can. So what was just a little question that I had? So the question come down is don’t I make God look good? How can that be bad? The worse I am, the better God looks if He saves me by grace.

Are we not going to be God’s little trophies and little trophy case? Trophies of God’s grace. Doesn’t God say Christ made this statement that He who is forgiven much loves much? So if you want to love God more, commit more sins? Now please don’t listen to what I’m saying. When do I start correcting all of this? Maybe never. But I do want you to take your Bible look in the book of Romans in chapter 3. Where it says, for what if some did not believe?

Now you notice when he says those two words, did not believe it did not say could not believe. He didn’t say what if some could not believe. That would be a terrible thing to say. They couldn’t. But you see, God looks at it upon this point of view that what he did for Israel, and I believe some of these scriptures here is referring to the first verse, and also going back to chapter 2 and verse 17 all the way down of chapter 2 when he’s talking to the Jewish people, but now he’s talking about, yes, they had an advantage.

They had the word of God, but it didn’t and profited because they didn’t believe it. But that doesn’t mean everybody didn’t believe it. Should a person’s unbelief make the word of God of none effect? God is still faithful to his word. And so just because some people don’t believe what God’s word says, all right, those who do will still get the benefits of believing. So if I believe the gospel, I get saved. If you don’t believe the gospel, you don’t get saved.

That doesn’t mean that the word of God has no effect. It has effect to the who will believe it. Remember when he starts off this whole book of Romans, he says in verse 16 of chapter one, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believe it. Jew or Gentile, doesn’t make any difference. So the gospel is the most powerful thing. And in chapter one, he goes through and tells you how bad some people are.

He talks about when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, became vain in their own imaginations and so on. And their foolish heart was darkened. So he’s talking about all these people that can go to the extremes and do whatever they wanna do and live as wicked as they wanna live and change the truth of God into a lie. And they believe the lie. And because they believe the lie and people live however they want to live as though there’s no restraints There’s nothing to hold them back and they do whatever they want to do is wicked to him And then you see how righteous the people were in the world supposed to be so he points out how wicked they are and Then he talks about the advantage that the Jew has and he gave him the word of God and They should have been so righteous

And these were so ungodly. But by the time he narrows it all down and gets through talking about it, he says, there is no difference. In other words, as far as people are concerned, he says they’re all like sheep that gone astray. And no man can save himself. So he goes back here and he says in verse 4, God forbid, that doesn’t change the faithfulness of God. God is faithful. So he says, let God be true, every man a liar.

If a man believes something that isn’t true, he is a liar. When you believe something and you’re saying it’s true, well then it’s not true. So you lied. You’d be surprised in your mind, you don’t have to say things. All you guys do is just reject Christ. Most people don’t understand that by not making a decision to trust Christ, they made a decision. Well, I’ll decide later. was a decision, but they make a decision. And so he says, every man’s life, as it is written, now when he says, as it is written, that general election know that it’s written in the Old Testament.

Now remember you know that David messed up and committed adultery and had a man killed and the Bible says that it really weighed upon David. So hold your place right here and just look in the 51st Psalm. The 51st Psalm way back there, but you need to see this. It’s kind of good. And you’ll notice what he said to the Lord. In the 51st Psalm, he is confessing to the Lord his sin. And he says, I was shaping in iniquity.

I was born with this whole sinful nature. And he said, I made decisions. I made choices. They were mine, I was wrong. Restoring to me the joy of my salvation, not restoring me the salvation, but the joy of my salvation. And so he says here in verse three, for I acknowledge my transgression. This is when David was talking to the Lord about his sin. He said, I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me. There’s the guilt.

It doesn’t go away. In verse 4, against the only have I sinned and that thou mightest be justified when thou speaketh and be clear when thou judges. Now, it’s easy for people to always blame somebody why they do what they do. But God says that there are people who will set in judgment on God. And most of us as we go through life are always saying, you know, that’s not fair. you say that’s not fair, whoever could have made it fair and didn’t make it fair, are you sitting in judgment on something?

Who is this something that could have made everything fair in your life? And he didn’t make it fair. Could it be that you’re judging God or you’re just judging people or just coincidences? Or in the back of your mind, God could have stopped this. God could have done this. God, but he didn’t do that. So many people set in judgment on God, but God in any decision that He makes, He must be just. He can’t just make a decision.

He has to be right in every decision He makes. So He has to be just. He has to be when He is judged. When people said in judgment on God, God has all the facts concerning every individual. So He will be justified when He’s challenged. And there’s people who will challenge God, but regardless whether it’s at the Great White Throne Judgment, when some people are going to challenge God, won’t their day in court? I remember a guy named Job, he wanted to, if I could only get a word with God, boy, I could straighten God out because I know I have him done anything wrong and there’s no reason for this.

All I need is just a day to talk with God, and God says, yeah, I got a couple questions for you too. Remember, Job 38-39? Oh, just a whole bunch of questions. But he nails them. And after we got through, Job says, I don’t have anything to say. But people said in John, he says, so that God is justified. So if God justifies me, then God has to be right in doing so. He can’t just say, you know, that Yankee fella?

He is so special. I just got to let him, I’m just going to give him a pass. He is just so good and I just love him more than everybody else, I’m going to let him in.” He can’t do that. God has to be just when he justifies the unjust. He cannot just justify you. That’s why he could not just save you. Why couldn’t he have just forgiven everybody? Because his law demands a death payment. God is just, he must have laws.

There is right and there is wrong. Sin must be punished. So in order for him to justify us, he has to satisfy his law. And so the law demands the death. So that’s why God had to send his son, in order he would take upon himself the sins of the world and make that death payment. come back from the dead and God could apply that death to you and me and be just in doing so. He can justify us and be just in doing so.

God has to be right in everything he does. So you can never say, well, that wasn’t right. God didn’t do that right. I don’t see how God can send all those people to hell. Maybe you can’t, but God can. And then people become judges upon God. Is there any verse in the Bible that says that? I think so. Look there in Hold Your Place in Romans, we’ll get back to it in a minute, but look in the book of James, the book of James in chapter 4.

Look in the book of James chapter 4. When he’s telling you and I to humble ourselves unto the Lord, did you know that when a person does not humble themselves before the Lord, they exalt themselves to do so is setting in judgment on God. Is it possible that Christians can believe they can do what they want or live how they please and get away with it? Or it won’t be that bad, oh it might be that, but it won’t be that bad or God doesn’t see or God doesn’t know it’s not going to make any difference and God says all these things it does matter and a Christian says it doesn’t matter and it does matter then a Christian can even set judgment on God and so I’m not going to serve the Lord and God says we ought to come together not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together as some is and some

people do it anyway God will tell us how to live and how holy we ought to live and some people won’t do it anyway because they know more than God because this will make me happier. I’ll have more peace. I’ll have more love. I’ll have more joy. I’ll have more things. I’ll have more whatever.” And they said, in judgment of God, that God’s way isn’t the best. So I’ll go my own way. So is it possible even for a little sheep of the Lord to go astray?

And many of God’s children go astray. So he says down here in verse 6, but he giveth more grace, Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Those who submit themselves to the Lord, God gives them greater grace. Then he says here in verse 7, submit yourselves, therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Drowned night to God, now this is to the Christian, this is to the lost man, this is to the believers.

And he will draw night to you, cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your heart so you double minded. Remember in the first chapter of the book of James when he says you’re double minded? Let not that man think he shall receive anything on the Lord. And if you ask of God, don’t ask a miss, but be leaving and not be like a ship on the sea or tossed to and fro by every wind that comes along. That’s a double minded man.

I will, I won’t, I will, I won’t, I will, I won’t. Make up your mind, set your face like a flint and I’m gonna serve the Lord and do it. So then he says here in verse 10, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeeth his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. So a person setting judgment on the law.

But if thou judged the law, thou were not a door of the law but a judge, a judge of God. Why? there’s one law giver. So there’s people who said in judgment of what God’s Word says and decide for themselves what they think is the best. And so they’re said in judgment on God. Shall we continue to live in sin that grace may abound? No. That’s not the will of God. That’s not what God wants. Now God can save you by grace.

That’s why it’s called grace. And the payment he may yes for all the sins of the world. But listen, God has a lot more for you than just that. He says one thing to get you a little pinkies inside the pearly gates. But then what? Do you realize that every day all your decisions, every decision, good and bad? Is affecting your eternity. It’s important. Serving God is important. Now go back there to the book of Romans in chapter three.

Where he says, that they’re going to people are going to set in judgment of God. They said in judgment of the Word of God is probably and could be somebody said in here tonight. You’re setting in judgment on God’s will for your life. You can read the Word of God and God will tell you this is what I want you to do and you said in judgment said, I don’t think so. That’s not for me. Well, I don’t think that’s what I should do.

And you be sure how many times you’ll talk your way up because well you just don’t agree with what God says. You’re saying this isn’t for me though. That doesn’t mean me. That means everybody, let me. So some people look for the dog through the Bible like they’re looking for a loophole. Fine, is there an escape clause in here sometimes? Like people get married and they later on they… What are you looking for, honey? Oh, look that’s great clause.

It’s kind of look where we’re way out. No. Look back here now in chapter 3 of the book of Romans and he says here in verse 5, but if our unrighteousness commended the righteousness of God, in other words, if our unrighteousness, the things we do wrong sheds light upon the righteousness of God, isn’t that good? Well, if that’s so good, then why, excuse me, it’s been so bad, because I did some good. Some people’s minds can truly get twisted.

Doesn’t my sin reveal how righteous God is? Because look how righteous God is. You wouldn’t know God was so good if you didn’t know I was so bad. So therefore some people get mixed up. You’re supposed to, as a child of God, mimic God. Be an imitator of your father. In the book of Ephesians in chapter 5 and verse 1, He’s not going to talk about be there for imitators of your heavenly Father. And your heavenly Father is not the devil.

It’s the Lord. And we are His children. We should live like His children. So we should not continue in rebellion to God. God wants His children to serve Him. Now notice what He says here. In verse five when He makes a statement, is God unrighteous who take its vengeance? And He says, I speak as a man. He’s got unrighteous who take vengeance. say for example, who got the whole world? How then shall God judge the world? And that is the question that is asked just like that.

How shall God look in chapter two of the book of Romans and look what he says there in verse three where he says, and thinkest thou this, oh man, that judge us, them which do such things and do it the same, that thou shall escape the judgment of God. You’re going to escape the judgment of God. Dauah needs to understand that God is going to judge the world but then the question is, is God unrighteous to bring wrath upon unbelievers?

Well, He put the wrath upon His Son so that nobody would have to experience the wrath, but what if the individual rejects the Son, then they accept the wrath? So, He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but He that believeth not is condemned already, and He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but He that believeth If not the wrath of God abindeth upon him. Yes, this is all important. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr.

Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics. And we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of The Gospel Driven Man.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you, and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 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 in looking up.