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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible, turn to the book of Galatians, the book of Galatians. We’re going to take a look at a few key things here in the book of Galatians in chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. I have many times spoke on the subject about salvation, how wonderful it is, and that we sometimes call it the greatest story that’s ever been told. When you stop and think about it, the Bible tells us some great stories throughout the the scriptures that people remember today.

And when they go to Sunday school, or you know they go to camp meetings and so forth, they always hear the stories of David and Goliath or Daniel and the lion’s den. And when you think about heaven, there is no place in all the world that ever describes a place better than what the Bible describes about heaven. And there is no place better than that. And then the Bible also describes a place It’s the worst place anybody could ever think of, and that’s the place called hell.

So the two extremes, God talks about it in his Bible. And so we should understand that when you think about the Bible and the story, and you realize that this story involves the greatest number of people that there is, because it involves every person that’s ever been born into this world. So this greatest story that’s ever been told is one awesome story. Not only that, this story had been put together in coming up to the cross, took about 4,000 years in production.

Think of how long it did, take all these things that had to be done to be brought forth at the right time, and all these things were fulfilled. Jesus Christ been put to death was the greatest display of wickedness that the world has ever seen. It’s ever been recorded in human history. But here I want you to see their encolations in chapter 3 and verse 8 where he makes a statement. Now, of all the promises anybody’s ever made in all the world, and even the one that your wife might have made to you, and the one you made to her when you got married.

Remember that? Well, the greatest promise every given was the promise that God gave to Abraham. And verse 8, and the scripture foreseen that, and you’re on the line, just if it’s not underlined in your Bible, God would justify the heathen through faith. Now, when God told this to Abraham, there was no nation of Israel. There were not the twelve tribes. Everybody was a heathen. The whole world was a heathen. And so before the nation of Israel, God had already declared and preached the gospel to Abraham saying that the heathen shall be justified by faith.

This was 430 years before he ever gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. So this is the greatest promises ever been made, and God made it. And he says that he was going to justify, that means declare righteous, the heathen by faith, not by their works, by faith alone. So this promise that God gave to Abraham is the greatest promise. But now how is God gonna be able to fulfill this promise? Well, he says this. He says that the whole world is guilty before God.

And that no man can save himself by his works. So if any man is ever going to be saved or justified before God, it has to be by faith alone. It cannot be by his works. This promise was made before God ever gave that law. So then that means that Abraham did not have to keep the law to go to heaven. Abraham didn’t have to do good works to go to heaven, to have eternal life, to be saved, to become a child of God.

God says this. He says, force seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, priests before the gospel and the Abraham saying, these shall all families or nations be blessed. Now, I want you to look there in Galatians in chapter four, looking Galatians in chapter four. The Bible says it, but when the fullness of time was come, and then the words after all these years in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son. Now this son was the greatest son that has ever been born.

The greatest son that’s ever been born. Now you may be able to stand up and say, my son was a doctor. My son was a lawyer. My son was a bootlegger. My, well that isn’t a good. My son was the president of the United States. My son was, and God can say, My son was perfect and nobody is in that class. The greatest son that’s ever been born on the face of the earth. But why did God need his son to come into the world?

Because he made a promise. That promise was he was gonna justify the heat and by faith, faith alone. So why don’t they have to earn it? Well, because God gave a law. The greatest law that’s ever been given in the whole world is the law that God gave, Tomosus on Mount Sinai, and that law condemned the whole world. So that if the law was the greatest law, the greatest condemnation included everybody in the world, so everybody is condemned. Everybody has no hope.

Everybody has to die. Everyone has to be eternally separated from God. Man had no hope, no hope. So God had his son made of a woman, and look what else he says, made of a woman made under the law, made under the law. In other words, Jesus was born at the time where the covenant of law had been given, and Jesus had to keep the law perfectly. He could not do one thing to violate the law, or he would have sinned, and he could not been a Savior for anybody.

You see, He has to be innocent, not have to die, in order to be a substitute for the whole world. So in order for God to keep His Word that He would justify the heathen through faith gave the law so that everybody in the world would realize they can’t save themselves by their works, but only by faith in what Christ did for them. So Jesus has to come into the world, die on the cross, pay for the sins of all the world, come back from the dead, and said that only thing we had to do to go to heaven was to believe that he did it for us.

And when you believe that he did it for you, he gives you as a free gift everlasting life. So the Son had to come, had to be made under the law, had to live a perfect life, had to die, pay for the sins of the world in order for God to keep his word, to justify a person by faith. Because see, God can’t just forgive you of your sins. They have to be paid. Your sins had to be paid.

That’s why when Christ came back from the dead, He sent out His disciples to preach the forgiveness of sins. The only way your sins can be forgiven is because the debt has been paid. So when Christ died and paid the debt that man owes, God can forgive anyone who will accept that payment for their sins. And Christ was the payment. So when you accept Christ, you’re accepting the payment for all of your sins. He died for you. So his death became your death.

You died and you paid for all of your sins. But you really didn’t do it. He did it for you in your place as a substance. Now, Galatians chapter 3, look what he says here in verse 6. Because there are people who are always trying to add words to salvation. Now, whenever somebody was to say concerning the law, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. Thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself.

There’s things to do. That’s good. And there’s also things, he says, in the law, thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not commit murder. thou shalt not, thou shalt not. There are things not to do. So the law is referenced to things good to do and things bad not to do. Today we don’t have people trying to put you underneath the 10 commandments, but they still try to put you under the law. And what is meant is this.

When you tell a lost man, a lost man, God’s He promised He’s going to justify Him by faith, not because of His works. So there’s nothing good, good works that He has to do in order to be saved. And there’s nothing bad He has to stop doing in order to be saved. Because you’re going to be saved by grace. Grace means you don’t deserve it. The law means you do deserve it. The law means you must earn your righteousness.

But grace means you don’t. have today people who say you’ve got to turn from your sin to be saved. Turn from your sin. If you have to turn from your sin, that means stop being bad. That’s putting them a person under the law. You can’t do this. And when you say you’ve got to commit your life to Christ, that means you’ve got to promise how you’re going to live. That’s a promise of how you’re going to perform. So this means works for salvation and that puts people right underneath the law that God condemns.

So no man has ever been saved because he turned from his sins, not one. And nobody’s ever been saved because he committed his life to Christ, not one. Because nobody is saved because they promised God how they’re going to live, whether what they stop or what they start. That putting people under the law. But look what the Bible says. I want you to see this. When he makes a statement here in verse 6, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

When Abraham, who did not have the law, he didn’t know Moses, that was 400-something years later, Abraham was justified. He was a heathen. And he believed what God said about the seed, which was Christ. And that seed was Christ whom he believed in, that God, through his loins, was going to have, through Abraham, he’s going to have a son down the road that was going to be the payment for the sins of the world. Because God said, when he offered up his own son, when Abraham did, he says, God will provide himself a lamb.

God will provide himself a lamb. God will be the Lamb. And that’s why John says, behold, the Lamb of God which taken the way to the center of the world. So Jesus Christ was the seed when he says the seed, the promise. And he didn’t say as on the plural as the many is one. And I’ll show you that. So you see here in verse 7, no ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

You’re born by faith into God’s family, Abraham believed by faith was justified. God gave him his righteousness. When you and I believe by faith, God gives us his righteousness. Abraham was saved looking forward to the Lamb. We’re saved looking back to the Lamb. But Jews and Gentiles on both sides are all saved by faith and faith alone. And that’s why he says, and the scripture, which means the Old Testament, Forcing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel on the Abraham.

God preached this good news to Abraham. God preached it. And that good news was that a man is not justified by his works, but by faith and faith alone. Yet you’d be surprised how many people are still trying to earn their way to heaven by how they live, thinking their salvation depends upon how they live their life. How you live your life has absolutely nothing to do with going to heaven. I’m going to heaven. I have eternal life. I have been justified by faith by putting my trust in Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not a commitment to serve. It’s a decision to trust. I made a decision to trust Jesus Christ as my only hope of going to heaven. Later I decided I want to commit my life to him, but that’s after I’m saved and not to be saved. Now get this. So he makes the statement here that God foreseen, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which are a faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, those that be a faith are blessed.

The same word is also used as being happy. In the Old Testament, blessed, happy. We can verse 10 and here’s the reason why you should understand this For as many as are of the works of the law are under the blessing or curse You’re under curse Because that means you’re depending upon your works For your salvation. It doesn’t matter What kind of works they are Just because we’re not trying to put people underneath the 10 commandments When you tell people they can’t do this and they have to do that, you’re still putting them under law.

Because if you don’t do this and you don’t do that, you don’t get saved. You don’t make it to heaven. That means your destination heaven depends upon how you perform. Your salvation, going to heaven, has nothing to do with you performing. That’s works for salvation. That’s the law. You’re not saved by the law. And that’s why in verse 10, it makes a statement for as many as are of the works of the law of the law are under the curse.

Look what he says, for it is written, cursed is everyone, everyone that continue if not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. In other words, you have to continue all your life, time you’re born to the time you die and you can’t break one law. You have to fulfill every law. You want to be under the law, you’re under a curse because you can’t keep it. The law was given in order to show man that he cannot save himself by his worst.

That’s why when God gave the law to Moses, God also gave him the ceremonial laws, the sacrificial laws, the moral law. He gave all these law away because if you don’t keep this law, you’re going to have to make this sacrifice in order for your sins. God already knew you ain’t keeping it, bud, and you’ve got to keep these sacrifices. The sacrifices never took away sin. It only had toned. It appeased God. Because they did that, looking forward to one day, there’ll be one person, a high priest, be able to go into that holy of holies and present the blood of Jesus Christ, the incorruptible blood that’ll last for all eternity and never has to be done again.

That’s why Jesus Christ give eternal life because his death was for everybody in the world and he paid for all my sins at one time forever. So no more sacrifices have to be made. That’s awesome. That is just awesome. Now look what he says there in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law on the side of God. What does it say? No man is justified Bible law. It means not by your works. Epheses 2, 8, and 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works. Some people can’t see that. Not of works means not of works. Not of works means you don’t earn it, you don’t work for it. I’ve had people say, you can’t tell me, you can just trust Christ, you save it. That’s all there is to it. If I can’t tell you that, then God can’t tell you that, and I guess you can go to hell if you want. But that’s the only salvation there is.

There is no plan B or C. There’s only plan A, there’s only one way. And it’s either by grace or you don’t go. There is no other way, now get this. Look what he says there in verse 13. This is very important. First part of this verse you ought to underline it in your Bible. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by redeeming us from the law. You see, I’m removed from the curse of the law because God removed me from the law.

You see, when I was born of this world, I was born with a sinful nature. I sinned naturally. Nobody ever had to teach me how to sin. I don’t know who I learned it from. we all have a sinful nature. We’re born under this law because God says that everybody is guilty. The whole world is guilty before God. So we’re all guilty. We broke in God’s law. I told the college kids just the other day I says in James chapter 2 and verse 10, for whosoever shall keep the whole law is guilty of Oh, didn’t know college kids remember that?

All, whosesoever shall keep the whole law and offend in one point is guilty of all. In other words, a good illustration, man’s hanging over a cliff, ten links and a chain. You’re hanging on to this last link. How many links in the chain have to break before you fall? Now, this is difficult. I know. This is very difficult. Just who said one? Just one. And does it matter which one? Well, I never did this, this and this and this and this.

Yeah. did you ever do this? Well, all I want. It was a little white light too. Whosoever keeps all of the law in one point you’re guilty of all white. You’re still mashed potatoes. Still die, same penalty. And so God says the law every man has broken it and all must die. And because every man has to die, we’re under the curse of the law. Well, Christ was born under the law, made of a woman, under the law. But the law couldn’t curse him.

Why? Why? He didn’t break the law. So the law couldn’t kill him. The law could not demand his death. That’s why Jesus was innocent and he can voluntarily give himself as a substitute for my, you know why I couldn’t pay for your sins? I had sin on my own. You know why you can’t You can’t pay for somebody else’s sake, because you’re guilty of your own. So a man who’s guilty can’t pay for somebody else’s, but Jesus did not sin.

Therefore, he was free from the law. And why did he go ahead and die as a payment for everybody else that was under the law? That he might redeem us from the curse of that law. And so by you putting your faith in Jesus Christ, you remove from the curse of the law into the grace of God. And once you’re in Christ, you’re no longer under the law. So that’s why he’s telling these Galatians, don’t put yourself back under the law because that’s not putting yourself back in a blessing but a curse.

That’s why he says, where’s your happiness? Where’s your joy? There’s no happiness and no joy when you go to church because you have to. But, buddy, there can be a smile on your face you do because you want to, duh. Now look at it. Curse it as everyone that hangs on the tree. Then he says this, in verse 14, why did Christ die and pay for the sins of the world? Because God made Abraham a promise that he would justify a person by faith and faith alone.

So you look at this verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham, what is the blessing of Abraham? salvation by grace. You’re saved by grace by faith alone. That’s the blessing of Abraham. And he says that the blessings of Abraham get this might come on the Gentiles. Not just the Jew, but the Gentiles get this that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. We receive this promise, the fulfillment of this promise by faith and faith alone in what Christ did on the cross force.

Now look what he says in verse 16 because God made a promise. In verse 16 now to Abraham and his seed singular were the promises made. He sift not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ. So when God was talking to Abraham, God told Abraham about Jesus Christ. The Bible even tells us in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, that Moses, esteemingly reproach of Christ, greater treasures than all the treasures of Egypt, made up his mind by what he was going to do.

Moses knew about Jesus Christ. Abraham knew about Jesus Christ because there is no salvation without Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not a first and last name like Ralph Arnold. Jesus is Jehovah. Christ is the anointed one, the Messiah, the one who came into this world was God in the flesh. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And without Him was not anything made that was made and the Word became flesh and dropped among us.

Jesus is God. He is Jehovah. He’s God Himself. Now notice it. He says in verse 14 that this seed which is Christ, there was a promise made that this seed which which is Christ was going to become the payment for the sins of the world. Then look in verse 17. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before God in Christ, the law which was, get this 430 years afterwards, cannot disenow. The law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai did not disenow the promise that God made to Abraham 430 years earlier.

And why did God give the law? Because it was convincing to the people that they cannot save themselves by their works. The only reason you will trust Christ as your Savior is when you find out you cannot save yourself. Why should I trust Him to do what I can do? So God shows that you can’t do it. Why? You ought to be perfect. How are you doing? See, there is no good heaven. There’s a perfect heaven. And you have to be perfect to get there.

But heaven is not a reward for you being good. Heaven is the destination of those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Now, look at the last part of this verse. This is an awesome verse. The law which was 430 years after can not dis-annul that it should make the promise of none effect. The promise was that you’re saved by faith. The law cannot annul that. All of your good work, bad work cannot help your salvation.

Yes, I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior 57 years ago, but I go to church and I read my Bible and I pray, I try to live a good life, a righteous life. I love my wife, I love my kids, I give to missions, I do all the things I’m supposed to do, but I don’t do any of that to go to heaven. I do because I’m going to heaven. I am a child of God. And I am totally trusting in what Christ did for me.

I do not have any confidence in any of my good deeds to get me to heaven. Why? Because I’m not seeking to be saved. Because I already am. You see, if you’re already a child of God, you don’t try to do something to become a child of God. I don’t have to do anything to get eternal life. Why? I already have eternal life. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. You got it already. Why trying to work for something you already have?

If I’m already saved, I’ll have to try to be saved. Now get what he says here. You’ll see this down there in verse 21. The law is the law then against the promises of God. Get this, God forbid. And you’re on the line this part of the verse. See that little word? If, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, Verily, righteousness should have been by the law. In other words, if a man could earn his way to heaven, that’s the way it ought to be.

But no man can earn it because you gotta be perfect and nobody’s perfect. Cause we are all born with sinful nature. So it doesn’t matter. If the desire’s there, the will is there, the spirit is there, but you just can’t perform. How many of you can honestly raise your hand and say I have lived a perfect life so far? I’m waiting. Your wife is watching. So you see, it was hopeless. That’s why God did it, do I? He did it.

Why? So that a man can know he has, he’s going to have a wife. He made it free. Wouldn’t that good of God just make it free? Just give it to you because he loves you. And all you had to do is believe that he did it on the cross for you. 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. Hot up can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day.

Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.