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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I’ve got a few interesting things I want to share with you. This morning I want to talk you just a little bit on the two covenants that you’ll find in the Bible. And it’s not that one replaces the other. I don’t believe in replacement theology. I believe that there’s something that God revealed in progressive revelation whereby He takes a lost man and convince him that he is a sinner. Nobody likes to be convinced of that. I don’t know why.

You like somebody proven that you’re wrong. This is what God does. God is proving that He’s right and we’re wrong. That’s what makes us feel so guilty. And we don’t like to feel guilty. So instead of us correcting the problem, we just change the law, change the rules, so it doesn’t seem so bad. Oh, I feel so much better now. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book Exodus and chapter 19, the book of Exodus in chapter 19.

As you know, God in Moses was getting long, pretty good. And he’d go see him every once in a while and they’d have a talk. Wouldn’t have been wonderful though. Be able to just have a talk with the Lord. God come down, ring your bell, talk to you, say, Hey, you’re standing on Holy ground, take off them shoes. Yeah, yes, sir. But here in the book of Exodus in chapter 19, look there in verse 3, the Lord says, Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle’s wings and brought you unto myself.”

That’s a good statement. There’s a sermon in there some ways. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed. Now see that word if that means it’s conditional upon somebody else’s participation. So it’s not just a one-sided, it’s they’re agreeing to this. So it says, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then, ye shall be able to cure ye, he treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and of a holy nation.

These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Moses came and called for the elders of the people, lay before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. In verse 8, and all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And then in chapter 20, he gives them the 10 commandments.

Well, as you know, for about 1500 years before Christ came, before Christ came, how did they do? Did they keep their word? No, they didn’t keep their word. They did not fulfill these commands. One of the best ways to understand the law and grace, the covenants and all these things. Picture here’s a lost man’s sin right here. The lost man has a sinful nature because he has a sinful nature. Then God has put the lost man under the law so that he knows what is required of him.

He is to live a perfect righteous holy life. And if he broke any of those laws, then he had these sacrificial laws to make up for the law that he broke so that, you know, something innocent has to die to pay for what he did just so he can live. So the lost man is under the law. And so for 1500 years, a man never kept the law.

And as you look at this little diagram I have here, the old covenant, the new covenant. Now, we know that this was at Mount Sinai. Well, there’s another one. And so over here is the new birth, person that’s born of God, the child of God. See the child of God is born of God. It doesn’t have to be under the law because it has no sinful nature, so it doesn’t do anything wrong. And since it doesn’t do anything wrong because it’s perfect in Christ, the new birth is under grace and the man that’s lost, see in the flesh, is under the law.

And so this he has to perform Over here, he doesn’t have to worry about performing. And see, this is natural. This is the way it’s supposed to be. And so you have these two individuals. So there’s lessons in the Old Testament where God gives us stories that illustrate these New Testament doctrines. It’s not that they’re totally different. It’s that they explain things. And so God has laid it out in such a way that we have illustrations. that helps us to see vividly what God is talking about.

So take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter eight. Hebrews and chapter eight. Hebrews and chapter eight. This is an interesting portion of scripture because it’s very simply laid out here. And if you’ll look there, in verse 6, in verse 6. And it refers to these two covenants, but see they’re in verse 6. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant. So God didn’t say that the lost man could be saved by his works, but using the law to show that a man can’t save himself by his works.

So the law, according to Galatians chapter 3, was given to show a man that he cannot save himself by his works. And so the law leads a man to Christ to something better. You see, most people will never or look for something better if they think they’re good enough. And if it’s sufficient, well then you don’t need anything better than that. So this is why we have the opportunity of preaching the gospel because the gospel lets people see there’s something better and that your works are not good enough.

So you’ll notice there in verse 6, he is the mediator of a, and you ought to underline those two are better covenant, which was established upon what? Better promises. You see, under the law it was do and you shall live. But under grace is you are alive, therefore live. This is done and And it’s based upon what Christ did, and the law is based upon what you do. And so since nobody has fulfilled the law, the law condends everybody.

So there has to be something better. It would have been a shame if God had told everybody in the whole world, you have to save yourself by your own good work. There is no better way. There is no other way. You know, there’s a lot of churches today that preach there is no better way than you’re trying to earn it. And so they believe you’ve got to go to church, you’ve got to live a good life. And in the back of a lot of people’s mind, they’re trying to be sincere.

They believe that good people ought to go to heaven and bad people ought to go to hell. They just simply believe that. For example, just drunk. They got on the bus. Stagger down the aisle and sit right beside this little old lady. She looked at him, stirred him up down. He says, you’re going straight to hell. He says, oh my stars. He says, I’m on the wrong bus. But there’s always somebody who can see whatever anybody else is doing in a judging by how they live.

You’re not living good enough. By the way, I have to thank Len for that choice a little He gave me the day. Thank you, Len. I love it when people help my ministry. You know, they’re always trying to… I used to hate it whenever at Christmas time, the teenagers, you know what they do? They’d get me a little joke book. And so I needed it. I thought the jokes that I told were good enough. And they’d always tell me, yeah, you need to get some new jokes.

I said, no, I just need new kids. So much easier, you know. But look what he says in verse 7. He says, for if that first covenant had been faultless, well, what was wrong with the first one? The weakness of man. See, there’s nothing wrong with the law. It’s perfect, righteous, just. The only fault in the law is the man can’t keep it. So therefore he says, and that word faultless, it being faultless, then should no place have been sought for a second.

If a man could have saved himself by his work, it ought to be that way. But no man can. So that’s why you had to have something that’s better than that. So the law was used to point people to Christ. And look what he says in verse 8, for finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days come, say it the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in my covenant.

Didn’t they say they would? All that he promised we will. And then he gave it to them in chapter 20 and they didn’t. So for 1500 years they never kept the law. No man never been saved that way. You see, was that how they were saved in the Old no, God never saved one person that away, because nobody earned it. Nobody was worthy. So if a man had to be saved by keeping the law, nobody was saved in the Old Testament.

Think about it. If you had to keep the law to be saved, and nobody did, then nobody was saved in the Old Testament. So evidently, if anybody was saved in the Old Testament, they had to be saved by grace. Are there Old Testament people that were saved in the Old Testament? Yeah. So then they had to be saved by grace because nobody saved themselves. Because if one man could have, all men would be required to. But anyway, so he makes a statement here.

I want you to look there in verse 11, called the days will come, the days will come. And they shall not teach every man is neighbor and every man is brother saying, no the Lord. Because it’s not what we do. Do you know the Lord? Do you know the Lord? Do you know the Lord? Or what we mean, do you know the Lord? Do you have eternal life? Have you accepted Christ as your Savior? We want everybody to know the Lord because not everybody knows the Lord.

I was 18 before I knew the Lord. Well, he says, there’s a time coming when you don’t have to say that. a time coming when you don’t have to witness. But he says, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. And in verse 12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their inigities, will I in your underlyingness. Remember no more. Remember no more. It’s not that he forgets me, he forgets my sin.

Remember there’s some who knocks at the door. Lord, Lord, have we not? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah he says depart for me I never knew you. Now he’ll forget my sins I don’t mind that but I’m glad to know he’ll never forget me. We have this seal the Father know of them that are his and so in verse 13 says in that he said a new covenant he had made the first ole now that which decayed and waxes old is ready to vanish away.

So as you go through the book of Hebrews, which I will do eventually one of these days, because there’s so much good stuff in the book of Hebrews that explains the gospel and salvation by grace and how that no man was ever saved by his works. So anyway… I want you to notice that on both sides there’s Moses and there’s Jesus Christ. And Moses, according to Hebrews chapter 3, it’s not in your notes there, but talks about the house that is built upon the sands of what Moses gave in the Torah.

But now you’re talking about what Christ said. Christ says that a man is saved, by great, and then He gives us an illustration. So take your Bible and look into the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians real quick. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4, look in verse 22. In verse 22 it says, “…For it is written, Abraham had two sons, one by bond made, how the byfree woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise.

So you have two women, here’s the law, there’s Hagar, and there’s Ishmael, law, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh. So whenever you talk about the new birth, all right, Isaac was born as a miracle child because it took God to do this one by faith, and Abraham’s stagger not at the promises of God through unbelief but was strong and believing. So Isaac was born as a result of faith, faith alone. So you have a child by faith and you have one by law.

This one God says ishmael is not the air and will not live forever. See this is flesh flesh flesh and the law condemns flesh. When you trust Christ as your Savior, you’re born of God. And this is based upon something totally different. This, if a man had to save himself by his works, then he has to fulfill the loss of the law, will not condemn him to die. But if it’s by grace, then it’s free and given to you.

Here you had Mount Sinai, and here you have Jerusalem. Here you have Flash, here you have spirit. It is your spiritual birth that’s born of God. And because of that, God gives us an illustration of two people that lived. And what happened to them and bought their moms? See, it’s not just people that lived and died. Their whole life tell a story. These are stories from the Old Testament that taught doctrinal truths. So you’ll notice what he says there in verse 24.

He said, but which are an allegory, or just characters that are taught at types. And for these are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, which gender to bondage, which is Hagar. And this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answer to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with their children. So today, which one represents the law and the flesh?

And that is the line of Ishmael. And so today you have the Arabs, and that’s what it represents. It’s a type. Doesn’t mean that individual Arabs can’t be saved because they can. And doesn’t mean that all the Jews have trust the Lord because they haven’t. Because even though they’re called the children of God. But the siege have be called those that are in faith that believe on the Messiah. trusted Christ as Savior that have the new birth and are considered to seed, the real seed of Abraham.

A lot more involved than what I can get into at this point. But notice up there in verse 26, but Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice thou barren, that beareth not, break forth and cry, thou that travaileth not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath the husband look at it today. Are there many more of Ishmael than there is of Isaac? Just look in the world man.

She has a lot more children and you’ll find out that there’s in the book of Matthew chapter 7 there’s many more on the road to destruction because see they are trying to say this and you take people today Look, I mean in churches there are, but majority of churches are not teaching that you’re saved by grace and grace alone. They’re teaching that you’re saved by your works the way you live and So your righteousness will not work. So see there in verse 28 He says now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise and words you believe the promise That God had preached the gospel before under Abraham, saying, indeed shall all families of the earth be blessed.

And when he also makes a statement that he had preached the gospel, you know, a for time. And talking about the heathen shall be justified by faith. In the Galatians chapter 3 and verse 6, Abraham believed God and it was counted him for righteousness. So the promise is believing what God said. And so whenever you and I simply believe the promise that He will give to me eternal life, if I simply believe, then see we are the children of promise.

Because it’s based upon His Word, and under the law, it was based upon their Word. They had to do and perform, and nobody ever did. he ever did. So a man cannot save himself and it is the epitome of arrogance. See, for an individual to think for a moment that he can save himself by his works. To think that he is living so good and so holy as to be without sin and he’s going to go to heaven because of how righteously he lived.

Somebody needed to slap their jaws. But anyway, makes a statement here in verse 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit. Isn’t it true that today is that the nation of Israel that is persecuting the Arab countries or is it the Arab countries that are trying to persecute Israel? Yeah. You see, the type is still as real as you can see. I mean, it’s evident. But whenever you trusted Christ as your Savior and received a new birth, does the new birth persecute the flesh or does the flesh persecute the spirit?

It’s the flesh that persecutes the spirit. So inside of you, and I hate to put it this way, you have like a little Arab fighting against a little Jew and it fights all the time and it’s a battle that goes on and it is a type of the flesh. This is why God says in the book of Malachi and also in the of the Testament. It talks about God says that I loved Israel or Jacob and hated Esau because Jacob represents the second birth and Esau represents the first birth, the flesh.

God hates the flesh but he loves the spirit, the new birth. And so when that was mentioned in the book of Malachi, see they’d already been dead for a thousand years. So you don’t have to worry about, you know, the individuals themselves. God says in His Word, the flesh can not save itself. The first birth can’t deliver Himself. Look at number 11. Number 11 on the left, God says, if He will, that’s the law. On the right, God says, I will.

This is grace. You see, it’s based upon what What Christ did under the law is based upon what you can do, and every man ought to understand that he cannot save himself. It is totally impossible. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews in chapter 9, Hebrews in chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Now there’s other verses in here that y’all can look at later, but I want you to see these chapter 9 verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear.

The second time without sin unto salvation. Christ is coming again. If he’s coming again, that means that he had to come back from the dead and he had to send into heavens in order to come again. But he is coming. But the next time he is not coming to make a payment for sin. Why? Because the payment he made 2,000 years ago had to have paid for all the sins that were in the future. You see, if Christ has not already paid for the ones that I haven’t done, then pray, how will they get paid for?

If I have to pay for them, even one of them, then he really didn’t do me any favors. If he only paid for my past sins, he hasn’t helped me at all. Because it’s totally impossible for me to live without sin. And God says to him that said, they have no sin, he is a liar. And I don’t want to be a liar. I still have a sinful nature. And I would venture to say, so do you. But aren’t you glad that when Christ died, He paid for all the sins of all the world, even the ones you have not done yet?

You know what’s hard for some people to get? They said, well, you mean I can go out here and commit this sin and that sin and that sin and still go to heaven when I die? Like that would be totally impossible. But if I wait until the end and trust the Lord, I’ll get now, he can save me. He can then, but he can’t do it now. If I’m still gonna do those bad things, but if I wait until I, you know, right before I die, oh, he can save me now.

And I still did all those same bad things. I’m so glad to know that when Christ died 2,000 years ago when he was on the cross, you know that song that says, when he was on the cross, I was on his mind. I love that song. I love that song. Have we ever had anybody sing that here? Anybody ever, have you ever sung this song there? Who did? You sung this song? Sing it again. I love that song. It’s like, you know, there’s the whole world out there, but they don’t count.

It’s that he, I was on his mind. He was thinking about me. Don’t you feel like he was thinking about you? And he died for you to pay for all of your sins. And the only thing you have to do is believe that he did it for you and God will save you and give you as a free gift everlasting life. Anyway, if you had trusted Christ as your Savior, it’s because you could not save yourself by the law.

You saw that you could not earn it by your good deeds because there weren’t good enough So you trusted Christ as your Savior, you are saved by grace. As a child of God, you are to talk to your heavenly Father, to examine yourself, and see whether or not as a child of God have you been walking in the flesh and bringing forth the works of the flesh. And God says we need to confess that to him. You see, he forgave you as God, the judge of the world.

But as your heavenly Father, you sinned against him. I can send against Peter and he can forgive me. I can send against James Eismurd. He can forgive me. But see, now he’s not just God in heaven. He’s my Father. And so you want to keep things clean and right between you and your heavenly Father. All right, let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. We’re thankful for the body of Christ.

You said in your word, a body has not prepared me. And we know why, because you will not bear the sins of the world upon yourself. And as you made that payment, that payment in full came back from the dead. We thank you for the question. 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. 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.