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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now look over there in chapter 7. Chapter 7 you’ll notice in verse 6 where it makes the statement. But now we are delivered from the law delivered from the law. How? By death. You died. So the law can’t touch you. The law can’t condemn you ever again. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit. You’re on the line. in newness of spirit, because now God expects you and I to walk in newness of life by the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

And so the Holy Spirit lives in the new man to teach us his word so that he can lead and guide us because see we want all things new. Now you’ll see that in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 was that if any man be in Christ, all things are passed away. Why? Because the old man died. Behold, all things become new. That’s the new birth. You used to have, you see, you were a child of the flesh going to hell, child of the devil.

Now you are a child of God with a new birth going to heaven. It’s a totally new different condition that you have. Therefore, he says, because he did this for us, the love of Christ should constrain or motivate us because we thus judge. You think like this, that if one died for all, then all were dead, then they which live, those who do believe should not henceforth, now one live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them. So he died for us to give us this new life.

When does our new life begin? When we leave here and we get to heaven, then God gives us eternal life, right? When does he give it to you? When the new trusted Christ is your Savior, you were given eternal life. That’s when you became a child of God. So when do you think God would want you to begin walking in newness of life tomorrow? That never comes. It’s now. You’re supposed to learn how to think differently. Choose differently. Walk differently.

Act differently. Why? Because you are different. You’re not the same person you used to be. Now you may act like that old man for the rest of your life. But you did that on purpose. You could have made a choice. You can walk in the spirit or follow after the flesh. So He gives us a beautiful illustration of what God wants us to do. So go there to chapter 7, and notice the illustration that he gives us here. He makes a statement, now this is to those who knew the law.

There’s a lot of things God says to those who knew the law, and if you follow that, are you going to be so glad you’re not under the law? You’re going to be so glad that you are not of Israel, living back in certain times, because, buddy, you could die quickly. I mean, very quickly. They could stone you to death. Children could be stoned to death by their parents. You know, they kept a lot of kids from being disobedient.

I guess it was scary in half the death. But now there are several things that I want you to see because of this word law and those that are under the law. It’s not just an illustration on marriage. It’s more than meets the eye here. This is talking about an illustration about the Christian life and you need to see that. So hold your place right here and look with me at a few verses. Look in the book of Acts in chapter six.

The Book of Acts in chapter 6. Remember, when Christ was here, they did their best, the Pharisees, trying to trap Jesus Christ. And they tried to get him to, well, oppose the teaching of Moses. They would bring up things about the law, trying to trap him, seeing if they could get him to say something and then hold him to his word and trap him in his words, you know. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and he knows the book, he wrote it.

So they couldn’t trap him. That was so foolish, but they did it anyway. And now you have a young man that’s preaching, and it may be his only sermon. Well, we know it was his last sermon, but notice what he says in verse 51 of the book of Acts in chapter seven. He makes his statement. Now I’m gonna go over to another one. Go over there to verse eight of chapter six. First mistake I’ve ever made. Verse eight of chapter six where he says, and Stephen, full of faith, power did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Then there arose certain of the synagogue. So if it’s a synagogue, you know that you’ve got to mess with the Pharisees, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and the Cyreneans and Alexandrians and of them of Cidilesia, and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spanked. Then they saborned men which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses against God. So this is what they worked on.

They tried to do this with Christ, but Christ was able to manipulate out of their midst and so on, and they wanted to stone him at times and push him over a cliff at times. But he was always able. Now, Stephen, he just stood there and stoned him to death. But notice, they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him, caught him, brought him to the council. And he says, he’s trying to destroy and say and blast some mistakes against this holy place and against the law.

So there were those who knew the law and the ones that knew the law were supposed to be the Pharisees, the Sadducee. They’re supposed to describe. They didn’t know the law. Well, they didn’t always do what the law says. So look there in the book of Matthew in chapter 5. Matthew and chapter 5, because this is the subject that comes up in the book of Romans chapter 7. And by the, I believe the apostle Paul making the statement there because it was something to help us understand the thing about the Christian life.

You say, what’s that got to be with the Christian life? You’ll sit just a minute. See there in Matthew in chapter 5, you look there in verse 31. Now he already had said of in verse say 27 of chapter 5, You have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I send you the whosoever looked upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. How many people do you think that condemned?

Not looking too good, is it? Well, see, some people were using the law to show how righteous they were, how good they were. And that’s why he says in verse 20, he says, but I send you that except your righteousness shall exceed righteousness of the scribes of the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then he says, you have heard, you have heard, you have heard, and then he makes it a little bit tighter.

Going beyond what the law said, he was going to the spirit of the law, and that they had never entered into. And so nobody knows what a man’s thinking. Okay, most men are the same, Most women are the same in how you’re thinking about life. You just make choices, good, some, bad others. So he made the statement here that you’ve already committed it just the lust. So a lot of people have stolen, though they may not have stole any particular item, but you still stole.

You can hate somebody and hate somebody. He says this was like murder. and thou shalt not covet.” Anybody here never covet it? So who has not broken the law? All of us have broken the law. So he goes down here in verse 31 and says, it hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorcement. But I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, save him for the cause of fornication, cause of her to commit adultery.

And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committed to adultery. Now he’s dealing with Pharisees, law keepers, and explaining you’re not as holy as you think. And buddy, I believe he made a lot of people very angry and very mad because they were trying to use Moses’ law on the Bill of the Boardman, can a man divorce his wife for anything or any reason. had gotten to the place where it didn’t matter what the cause was. Whatever cause. Now we even have no cause divorce, no cause, you know, car insurance.

It doesn’t matter who did it, you cover it. No fault, they call it. No fault. It’s nobody’s fault. Everything can happen. Nobody’s fault. But if I don’t do away with responsibility, but anyway. So he goes down to here and he hits all these issues, but he’s using the law that’ll tell him this is the way it was. So he’s not attacking Moses, but people who are supposed to know the law. Now, look there in chapter 19 of the book of Matthew.

We’re not going to cover everything about this stuff, but just to give you an idea of what he’s talking about, so when we go over there, you’ll really understand it. You’ll see it very, very clearly. In chapter 19, you’ll notice in verse 3, the Pharisees, might have known that’s who it was, the Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Now, if they knew the law, they should have already known the answer to that.

They’re trying to find some way to get against him, to turn to people against him, because he’s defined the law of Moses. So how’s Jesus going to get out of this? He’s trapped. He’s trapped. The poor man, they outsmarted him. So he says, have you not read that in the beginning it was not like that. See there in verse four, he says, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and transvestites and all the rest of it?

Now the Bible says he only made male and female. Now that’s the only kind of people there are. You say, what about the transvestite? There are no such things. They don’t exist. You’re either a male or a female. You’re one of the, you’re a male or a female. I can get sidetracked here because buddy isn’t in a hot issue today and nobody knows what to do with all these kids that want to go to the wrong bathroom. It is ridiculous.

But anyway, he says in verse 5, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, father and mother, not father and father, not mother and mother, but father and mother. That must mean that a family’s pose exists because of a mother and a father and shall cleave to his wife. Usually a wife refers to a female, but of course they change in everything these days and they too shall be one flesh. In other words, these two shall be one flesh, they can make a child.

Two becomes one. But anyway, it’s more than that. But he says, wherefore they that are no more two but one flesh, what therefore God have joined to get a God joined together, let not man put us under. That means that no man in no court, no law was supposed to divide it because this was recognized by God. So he says that verse 7, they said unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of the enforcement and to put her away.

He said in the then be Moses because of the hardness of your heart because of sin, your hard heart. You will not make it work. You will not do. You will not forgive. There’s reasons, but then he goes on further and he says, but from the beginning it was not so. Now what did Jesus say that was wrong? What did he say that was wrong? They couldn’t nail him because he quoted the scriptures He wrote them. He know what it was like.

He said what to do. Now you can go through this. Now just look over there very quickly in the book of Mark. Mark chapter, Mark chapter, we can mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10 and notice what he says here. Let’s just start there in verse 2. And the Pharisees, see that Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put his wife away, tempting him. Now when you say put her away, it doesn’t mean a lot of people like to read that into the scriptures.

It means to divorce that person. So he says in verse three, and he answered instead of them, what did Moses tell you? They said Moses permitted to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. Jesus answered instead of them, for the hardness of your heart He wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made the male and female, and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they too shall be won.

And he says the same thing that he says for him, but he added a little bit extra to it. Now look in verse 11. And he said to them, this is because this is written to those who are under the law to the nation of Israel, and they understood the law, whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another committed adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committed adultery.

Now this was under the law that they were supposed to understand, and they were taught the scriptures all the way up. Well now you have all the Gentiles, it’s never even heard any of this stuff. And what was right or what was wrong? Now, while you’re right here, look in the book of Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter 16. There’s one verse I just want to show you right there very quickly.

Luke chapter 16, Jesus is once again, and every one of these instances you’ll see he’s talking to the Pharisees. They consider themselves justified by the law. So that’s why when you go to the New Testament, or I should say to the local Romans, he shows them that they Jews did not justify themselves by the law. But because they thought they did, he uses one good thing to prove it to them over and over again. He says this in verse 14, and the Pharisees also, who were covetous, covetous, is covetiness in, who were covetous, heard all these things and they do right at him, them.

Set and date them ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The long the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presses into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. Verse 18, you see, well what’s just got to do with this?

Because he’s talking to the Pharisees. He’s proven to them that they are not the great law keepers they claim to be because they were so much of this going on. He said, who’s whoever put it away his wife, Maris another, commiteth adultery. And who’s whoever, Maris heard that is put away? Her husband committed to throw there’s no escape clause here. There’s nothing that he just puts it out there. It says that because in the beginning this is the way it was and it was wrong.

Now go all the way over there to the book of Romans in chapter 7. Chapter 7, look there now in verse 1. No, you not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he what? This is talking about as long as he lived. When two people got married, they were supposed to be together until one of them died. So he’s using the truth of the law to show them what he’s talking about.

How shall we then live? Why shouldn’t we be going back under the law? And he’s telling you why. It was against the law to be married and for any reason you got divorced and then you got remarried and then one of them dies to ever go back to your first husband. Now if you get married and then you divorce you can always go back to your first husband. No problem. It’s when you married another. Then you can’t go back to the first one.

And there’s a reason because these are types to teach by. God knew what he’s doing. But now notice what he says here in verse 2, for the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead she is loose from the law of her husband. In other words all she has to do is wait for him to what? The die and then she’s free. So all the woman has to do is Lord take him home.

He would be so much happier there. Don’t you do that. Lord my wife is so wonderful. Wouldn’t you like to have her up there with you? Now does God know your heart. Yes, he does. All right now. So in verse three, so then if while her husband liveeth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulte. But if her husband is dead, she is free from that law so that she is no adulte, so she be married to another man.

All right, we have Jesus Christ. We were slaves, we were in sin, and we were a lost man. We were under the law and so God says, you can’t accept another man until you’re free from this man. So one of you has to die and the law can’t die. So the Bible says the law died or sent someone to die in your place. Christ dies for you. And if you accept His death payment as your death Well, if you’re dead, the law recognizes that death payment being made, you’re dead, so you’re free from the law.

That’s why now you are free to Mary Christ. You’re the bride. That’s why you’re no adulterous because your husband is dead, that old man dead, crucified. And so therefore you can now be married to Christ and you can obey Him and submit yourself to Him. And He can be the Lord and the Master of your life because you’re free from the curse of the law. So, thou, you look there in verse 4, wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law, how?

By the body of Christ that ye should be married to another, to who, to him who is raised from the dead. Why? That ye should bring forth fruit unto God. Wasn’t it wonderful this morning? When we had a young married couple, I married them together in their home a couple years ago and lo and behold them too became one and we saw this little girl this morning. Now that little child is fruit. That’s fruit. The Bible also refers to it as happy is the man whose quiver is full of them and we often have one or two and something enough.

But in the old time, and even a hundred years ago, they wanted at least 12 to work the farm. You know, free farm labor. And they said, what about child labor law? They didn’t have that law back then. And so you and I, once we trust Christ of Savior and any married couples, generally, if it’s possible, then you have children. That’s the fruit that you have. So God says, now, you couldn’t bring forth fruit before because you were not his child.

You were not with the Lord. Now he says you’re free from the commands of the law. So now that you’re married to Christ, you don’t go back to the old man. You don’t go back to that first husband of yours. You don’t go back to him. He’s dead. Remember, he died. He was crucified. So that’s why God says, don’t go back under the law by living in the flesh. So you have an old flesh nature. When you let the flesh nature control your life, you’re putting yourself back under the law.

As though the law has dominion over you and the lust of the flesh, the law condemns. And you’re gonna find yourself being chastened by the Lord. Now, the rest of this is very interesting. How many of y’all remember when I preached a sermon one time and I first came down here on Mr. Law and Mr. Love? Almost every one of y’all remember that. I preached that I think within the first three months that I started coming down here, and I had somebody illustrated up here.

I need to do it again one of these days because I want it on video. I don’t have it on video because they didn’t have the video working like then. But we need to do that again. So I’ll have to preach it again and you’ll have to pretend you have not heard a word. But this is a wonderful illustration showing you why you’re no longer under the law because you see you died. That old man is dead. Now let me just give you this verse before we close.

Look there in the book of Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, there’s a wonderful little portion of scripture here. the book of Colossians in chapter 3. It talks about here in verse 5, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Talking about your flesh, look at all those things. Then down in verse 7, in the which you also walk, sometimes when you lived in them, but now you also put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the, what’s that word? The old man with his deeds. That old man. Then look in verse 10, and have put on the what man. Now see, I didn’t make this up. It’s the Bible. You’ll see the same thing mentioned in the book of Ephesians when he talks about this very same thing. Now, this is why it’s so important for people to understand. The law was not given to save a man, but it lets us know that we cannot save ourselves by our works.

So this hand represents you and me. Waller represents sin. We all have sin upon us. Now God loves us, but He hates our sin. Since we have all sinned, we may not have all sinned to like, but we have all a like sinned. So everyone has failed, and we’re all guilty under the law condemned. And therefore we must all die. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came into the world because He loves us. He loved us, but He wants us to be free from the law.

But can’t get free from the law because I’m married to the law. I’m under the condemnation of the law. He has authority over me. He can master me. He can tell me what I can. He cannot do. And then He’s going to kill me when it’s all over with. And I can’t deliver myself from the law. I have no power. I’m trapped. But He wants me, He loves me. So the only way that He can make me free so that I can be with Him is He’s got to take and pay the debt that I owe to Mr.

Law. So the only way because Mr. Law, he can’t sin, he can’t sin, he can’t die. The only one between men the law can sin and die is me. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. So He came into the world and He took all the sins of the world, all that I owed. and he paid for it on the cross. And when I believe he did it for me, that death payment is put to my count.

I am free from the law the very day, that very moment that I accept Jesus Christ, his death for my death. I am free from the law. The law considers me dead, but alive in the God. Therefore, I get to go to heaven whenever I die because see I have a new birth. Therefore, this one, born of the Spirit, is to walk in newness of life. Let’s pray, shall we? With his bow and eyes closed and no one looking around.

If you’re here tonight, or if you’re watching by internet, understand that God loves you. And I mean, really loves you. He loves you so much that he wants you to have eternal life and they go to heaven to be with him. So he made a payment for your sins because he didn’t want you to have to make it. And he came back again from the dead and said that the only thing you had to do was believe he did it for you.

You can handle that. You can do that. And in your own mind, just between you and the Lord, say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust him right now as my Savior. And God said, if you would trust him right now, he would save you and give eternal life. You get to go to heaven whenever you die. You will be free from the law, free from the law of sin and death.

And God sees you as his child. And as a child of God, it is his desire that you walk in newness of life, not to get to heaven, but because you’re going there. Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you do for us. We ask your blessings upon each person here. Give us an enjoyable time tomorrow. And we pray, Lord, we’ll have a good group and good fun and good food and good fellowship.

In Christ and 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 Mail. 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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.