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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 BibleInemistries.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.

Be turning your Bible to the book of Romans, a book of Romans. of Romans. I love studying the Bible. I love teaching the Bible. I don’t know if I always communicate what I want, but I do try and I hope that you learn. But I would recommend that you always have a nice pen, maybe even a piece of paper, so that you can write down some things. Because did you know that God is going to hold you responsible for what you know and he’s going to hold you accountable for what you could have learned and didn’t study because he knows what time you have.

He knows what you’re doing, not doing. He knows that, well, I’m just too busy Lord. Can we be too busy that we don’t have time to do what God wants us to do? Be very careful. But anyway, here in the book of Romans, chapter Romans chapter 9. One of the things I’m going to be talking about is this election of grace. I’ll say a little bit about it tonight, but not a lot. This has to do with God answering some questions.

He asked somebody hard questions because he anticipates what you want to know, because how is all these things pose a word together for good to those who love the Lord? If I love the Lord, I don’t see how all these things can work together from my good. So before we get into chapter 9, just take another look there in verse 28 of chapter 8, because this is a familiar verse. It’s a well-known verse. People love this verse, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And we know that God has a purpose in everything that he does. Then you look in chapter 9 and look in verse 11, for the children be not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God. So I believe that this purpose in chapter 8 is related to the purpose in chapter 9, but God is going to explain what he means by the purpose of God. So God has a purpose in everything that he does.

And sometimes we read the study of the Bible so we can understand what is the purpose of God. We always want to know why does God do this? Why did He allow this? And so He made the statement in chapter 8 verse 29, for whom He did for know He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, then we also called and whom he called, then we also justified and whom he justified, then we also glorified.

And then here’s this big question. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And then there’s another question. Look in verse 32, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things. So there’s some things that God has mentioned. And then in verse 34 he asks another question. Who is he that condemneth? So the question is what can separate us from the love of God down in verse 35?

Another question. So there’s a lot of questions that God anticipates us wanting to know the answers to them. So I believe chapter 9 helps to answer a lot of these questions that we have. We may never ask them out, but inside you wonder, you know, why God does certain things. So if you look there in chapter 9, you’ll notice that he does say how he’s going to do this. Now, you saw that he’s whom he did foreknow, he predestinated and he justified and so forth, and he’s gonna glorify, and he called.

He called them. Well, look what he says there in verse 11. The last part of verse 11 says, according to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. So here you’re finding the Scriptures talking about, yes, God calls the question, how does God call? Did he call you on your cell phone? Did he call you? you by Telstar? Anyway, how does God call you? Well, He calls through the gospel. Now, hold your place right here because it’s good to do Bible study.

You know, you read a little bit and you hold your place here and then look over here because the Bible teaches itself. You don’t have to have really a thousand commentators. You just need the Bible. And believe it or not, if you just look and compare and if you come across a verse that you don’t understand, All right, just skip that verse, go on, keep getting all you can. And then after a while you’ll find there’s another verse that goes back and explain that verse.

There’s a verse that explains that verse. So it’s like getting one verse is like a knife and another verse is like a fork and you go back to that other verse and you rightly divide the word of God. And then you can be able to chew it and eat it. You can feast up on the word of God. But when he’s making the statement here that you recall, look there in 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians and chapter 2. Second Thessalonians chapter 2.

And notice what he says here in verse 13. Second Thessalon chapter 2. Notice in verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord because God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Now most people stop right there. It looks like out of all the people who are God rich down there looking and said oh that Yankee he’s special. I’m going to choose to save him. Keaton, let him go.

But God didn’t do that. God has chosen how he’s going to choose and then he tells us how he does it? From the beginning, chosen you to salvation, get this through sanctification of the Spirit and what’s those next words? Believe of the truth. Now you’ll notice that He’s bringing in judgment upon those people after the rapture and the judgment is because they believed not the truth. Well if God didn’t choose to save them, then it wouldn’t be their fault.

God has chosen to save all who would believe and He puts the blame right where it falls. Look there in verse 12, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth. So there’s people who will believe the truth and there’s those who will not believe the truth. So whether you believe or not depends on your choice. But this is why you preach the gospel to everybody and it’s their choice. Whether or not will they believe or not believe?

Now look there in verse 14. Where until He called you by what? Telephone, telegraph, by email, no, by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we know that God uses the gospel message, that good news, that God so loved the world, that who so ever be believe it. Well, that’s good news, especially when they hear that it’s not by their works. So that’s why we don’t tell people you’ve got to be good to go to heaven because that’d be terrible.

That’s not good news. You don’t have to be good to go to heaven. You’ve got to be perfect to go to heaven. And no one’s perfect. That’s why we needed a Savior. So Christ died on the cross paper. So it’s because you believe the truth. God has chosen from the foundation of the world to save all of those that believe the truth. That is his choice. Now is God unrighteous for doing it that way? Because some people are going to sit in judgment upon God.

And especially God says that when he judges he can be justified because God knows that people are going to judge him. Is God being right? Is God just? Is God fair? And God says because you’re going to judge me I’ve got to judge righteously. So what God says and what God does, He will be right in what He does and the way He does it. Now go back to chapter 9 of the book of Romans. Notice the question there in verse 14.

Verse 14, what shall we say then is their unrighteousness with God? No. What about all those people that have been so bad, done so many bad things, and God will save them and they get to go to heaven. And then there’s some people that have been so good. I mean they love their wives, they love their kids, they go to work, they pay their bills, they don’t go on murdering people and committing adultery and doing all these wicked things, and they do all these right things.

They went to church and dole out there and then they go to hell. Well, that doesn’t sound right. So, Is there unrighteousness with God? Because if God saves by grace, then it doesn’t matter what a person has done in their life, good or bad, that determines their destination. That doesn’t sound right. You see, if man was going to devise a plan of salvation, how would he have done it? Would he have made salvation a gift? Or would he have made it by works?

Look at all your religions. Look at all your religions. There’s only one that separates from all the religions of the world. Christianity is just by faith alone and Christ alone. You’re saved by grace. You don’t earn it. It’s the gift of God. It’s not of works. Regardless of what you’ve done, it’s free. And all religions of the world add works to their message. You’ve got to deserve it. that they may change the list, but it’s got the same poison on the inside of the bottle.

So is God unrighteous for choosing to save a person who doesn’t deserve to be saved? That just doesn’t seem fair because after all, look how good I’ve been. Therefore, it ought to be, you’ve got to earn it. You’ve got to be as good as me. And God says, it’s by grace. None righteous, no not one. Now, notice what he says, and then he uses an illustration. So you know that in verse 14 when he asked the question, he’s answering these questions that’s over there in chapter 8 and verse 28 to 34.

So then we have here verse 15, for he’s safe to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So the Lord says I can do this if I want to him. After all I’m the potter and you’re the clay and I can shape the clay any way I want. I can do whatever I want to do. So there’s a lot of people who get bent out of shape on these verses because they believe that God is like, well, we just puppets on a string.

He’s up there just manipulating. And you really don’t have a choice or a will and God has done everything He wants done, but His own way and He’s just doing it behind the scenes and man really doesn’t have a choice. And that God has predetermined everything a happen God pretty term in it and everything is the will of God. No, that’s what they teach in the religion of Islam. All the will, all the will, it’s the will of Allah.

They blow your way, it’s the will of Allah. Now we don’t believe that. So what I want you to know, look there in the book of Jeremiah chapter 18. Look at Jeremiah, just so that you know that this This is in the Bible. It’ll serve you well later down the road. Jeremiah in chapter 18. And look in verse 1. This is a little story about the potter and the clay because we’re going to get into it in chapter 9 of Romans.

And verse 1 says, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, a rising go down to the potter’s house. There I will cause thee to hear my words or to understand what I’m saying. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he robbed a work on the wheels, the potter. But now this is supposed to just something. You see, the Lord is having to deal with Israel. And the Lord wants to bless Israel. Israel has been disobedient.

Israel has hardened itself against the will of God. Israel has not stayed teachable and pliable in God’s hand. So God says Israel has become hard clay. So there’s a illustration here about the condition of the nation of Israel. In verse 4, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again, another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, Oh, house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord.

Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning the unnation and concerning the kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and destroy it. I can make a nation come up. I can bless them, chase in them, scourge them, destroy them. I can do whatever I want with a nation. I can do the same thing with you. But if I do, who is he that finds fault with the potter?

Doesn’t the potter have the power to do what it wants with the clay? Who has then resisted his will if God’s will is performed in everything there is? Well, this is what he says. In verse 8, if, if you ought to circle that word, if. If that nation, against whom I have pronounced it, is not the word of the Lord, is not the word of the Lord. If you are a person who has been If I do, who is he that finds fault with the potter?

Doesn’t the potter have the power to do what it wants with the clay? Who has then resisted his will if God’s will is performed in everything there is? Well, this is what he says. In verse 8, if, if, you ought to circle that word if. If that nation against whom I have pronounced turned from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. .

. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning the . . kingdom to build and to plant it. If it do evil in my sight that it will obey not . . my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. . . So you see how God works with the clay depends upon will you obey or disobey my .

will. So God has already decided that He will chasten a nation who is rebellious and He will bless a nation that is obedient. Isn’t that what it says? So He says yes I as the potter have the power to do this but what I’m doing with the clay depends upon is the clay been shaped by my hand? Is it willing to let me form it, shape it? Or does it rebel against me? So God says, as we learn these lessons, what are we supposed to do?

And we can harden ourselves to the will of God. Go back there to the book of Romans. Back to book of Romans. So now He says there in verse 16. So then it is not of him that willest, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now just hold your place here. I’ll let go into other places sometime. Hold your place here, but look there in the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John and chapter 1.

And you’ll notice that there’s another verse that kind of gives you insight into what hate could mean by this. So in the gospel of John in chapter 1. Look what he says in verse 11, he came unto his own and his own received him not. So he came to them, but they didn’t receive him. So if they rebelled against him and they reject the king, could the king not set up his kingdom? Is he wrong because he didn’t go ahead and do it anyway?

God in your own personal life wants to bless his children, but God doesn’t bless disobedience. If you will serve him, he will bless. If you disobey him, what is he going to do? He’s going to chasten you. Now is God wrong in doing it this way? God says before you were ever born, did any good, did any bad? God already decided how he’s going to do things. And he says, I am going to bless them, that obey, and chasten them, that disobey.

When it comes to salvation, God’s already decided it will not be by your works, it will be by grace. Why? So that he could save anybody and everybody. If it was by your works, he couldn’t save anybody. If a man had to earn his way to heaven, there’s nobody that God could save because he can’t earn it. You don’t meet the requirements and you cannot because you got a no-sin for nature and you sin against God so you fail.

So he makes a statement here in verse 12, but as many as received him, see it’s their choice. It’s not like God chose who’s going to believe and who’s not going to be God determined that. No, God did not determine that. God calls by the gospel and you can accept it or reject it. But he said as many as received him, because some will, some will, to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Even to them, that word even means chi, it’s even or specifically, to them that believe on His name.

Get this, which we’re born. Not of bloods, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Your new birth is a birth from God. It’s not because you Not because you ran and you think you qualified and you earned it. That’s not how a man is saved. If you come to Christ you believe on Him. As many as receive him to them gave heed the power to become the Son of God. There is no other way.

There is no other option, as we were talking about in our Sunday class this morning. There’s no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And you must be saved to go to heaven. You’ve got to be saved. But there is nobody else that qualifies. There’s no other option. There’s no plan B. Plan A and that’s the only plan there is. It’s the only way. Now go back their Romans and you’ll notice there in chapter 9 where he makes the statement in verse 17.

He says, for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised the yup that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, my power. You say, now why did God want to show his great power and how he dealt with Pharaoh down there in Egypt. God wants people to know who he is and what he can do in his great power. See, this is why God made salvation by grace so that people could see his great power because you didn’t have the power to save yourself.

So if God does it, you have to marvel at what he did. But since you can’t earn it, There’s nothing the marvel over. Why do you think He says for by grace or you say through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works? Why? Lest any man should boast. And then the Bible tells us in the book of 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7, He says that we have this treasure, the gospel, in urban vessels that the power may be of God and not of man.

that you can’t take credit for your salvation. So that’s why up there in verse 11, see in verse 11, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works. So God chose to save a person, not of works. He chose to save by grace, and that’s mentioned in chapter 11. this one verse. In Romans in chapter 11 and verse 5 where he says, even so then at this present time, also there is a remnant according to the election of what?

Grace. Because the election of works doesn’t exist. God never chose to save a person by their works. He chose to save a person by grace. Now look there in verse 6 of chapter 11. And if by grace, then there’s no more of words. Otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be by work, it cannot be by grace. Otherwise work is no more work. It’s either by grace or by work, but it can’t be both ways. This is why so many preachers are so messed up and they’re confusing people because they say it’s salvation is the gift of God.

All you have to do is qualify. You’ve got to turn from all your sins. You don’t turn from your sins, God can’t save you. You’ve got to make Christ the Lord and Master of your life. So they’re adding things on that you’ve got to do. Well, wait a minute. Is that been saved by grace? If you saved by grace, do you have to turn from sin in order to be saved? Is it by grace or not? Do I have to commit my life to serve the Lord?

I’ve got to promise that I’m going to serve the Lord. Well, if I do that, then the salvation by grace, no, because that annulls the message. See, the devil takes people who have a burning desire to want to serve God and give him a false message. You don’t care about your burning desire, he just give you a false message to preach. And there’s a lot of preachers that are telling people things that they don’t have to do to be saved.

You’re saved by grace. It’s a gift free. And they just can’t believe it’s, can’t be that free. God just couldn’t do that. And so they don’t tell God that. They tell you and me that. You’re trying to tell me I can trust Christ as my Savior and live like the devil and still go to heaven when I die. Yes, exactly. And any preacher who tells you otherwise, don’t get it. They don’t get it. So does that mean I’m trying to teach everybody to live a dirty, lousy, stinking rotten life?

No. I want people to live for the Lord with all their heart, but not to be saved. To be saved is by grace. I simply accept what he did on the cross for me. But now once you’re saved, yes, as a child of God, I should, but what if I don’t? You know, you ought to go to church, you have a what if I don’t? Or you ought to read your Bible, you have a what if I don’t? What you ought to witness, you have a what if I don’t?

And most Christians don’t. But they know they should, right? Isn’t it true that to him that no if to do good and do it, not to him, it is sin. What, whoever’s not in faith, is sin. That means if it’s not because you’re doing it, because you believe that this is the will of God and you don’t do what God says to do if it’s not in faith, it’s sin. So a lot of Christians are not living this holy life just because they think, well I don’t lie and I don’t steal and I’m not here shackin’ up with somebody and I’m not doing those bad things.

You’d be surprised how many people go into church or fill with envy and bitterness and hatefulness and jealousy and all the sins of the mind. True? And they’re just as mean and ugly in the sight of God as the person that’s out there shackin’ up with somebody. Sin is sin and it’s wicked and it’s all wrong. But aren’t you glad you’re saved by grace? Well, if you’re really saved, you’re not going to want to do those bad things. Oh, really.

Oh, really. You’re not going to want to. Oh yes you do. You have an old sinful nature that goes with your physical body that’s going to be with you until the day you die and it’s a battle. Alright now go back here to the book of Romans chapter 9 verse 17. He says, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Now I want you to take your Bible and go back to the book of Exodus with me.

There’s three verses back there I want to show you. And Exodus in chapter 8. Exodus chapter 8 and there’s verse 15. Chapter 15. Chapter 8 verse 15. And look what he said in verse 15, this is on page 79 in an old school for reference Bible or one of the church bibles there in you. Look at verse 15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he, you got to unline it, he hardened his heart. Well doesn’t it say in chapter 9 that God hardened his heart?

You know just by the fact that God forced him to make a decision.psc. God forced him to make a decision. He hardened his own heart. But God hardened his heart because God forced him to make a decision. He could have said yes, but ten times he had hardened his heart against God. Look in verse 32. Verse 32, and Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also. Neither would he let the people go. What had God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

And he says, I will not. And then sometime he said, Yes or well? And then he changes my new one. So is God wrong in saying that I want to declare my power? And God has power to forgive, to bless, to show compassion, show mercy, show grace, or show wrath and anger? See, all of those are part of some of God’s attributes. So if God wants to show his wrath against sin, is he wrong in taking those people who have rebelled against his will, cannot God put out his wrath upon those people that would not obey him?

Is the potter wrong for doing that with the clay? And why did God do it because of the hardness of their own heart? 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 Maine. 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 it that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.