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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’ 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 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.

I have a few words that I want to share with you on the subject, object, light for every man, light for every man. The reason for this is because I often get messages, letters, emails from people who want to straighten me out on this idea that Christ died for everybody. You see, there are people in this world that do not believe that God so loved everybody the same, or that He made a payment for all the sins of the world, because He only chose to save some, but not everybody.

And so the ones that He chose to save, they teach that God gave them the faith to believe, because that’s the one that He chose to save. So it’s already been predetermined before the foundations of the world. And so if they believe it is because God gave him the faith to believe. And of course the only way you know you were one of those who really believed is by the way you live. Because if you don’t live it, then you weren’t really one of those who believed it.

So you don’t look at whether or not what the word of God says, you have to look at whether or not does my life prove that I really believe. And if my life doesn’t prove that I really believe because I’ve changed my whole life, then evidently I wasn’t one of the chosen ones. I just thought I was. They’re called Calvinist. I am not a Calvinist. I am not an Armenian. Armenian believed you can lose your salvation. I don’t believe that because I’m not saving me.

He’s saving me. And he told me he can’t lose me. So therefore I don’t believe I can never lose my salvation. But in the book of Ephesians, I want you to take your Bible look there first of all, Ephesians and chapter Ephesians chapter 2. And notice what he says here. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, and you have to be quickened who were dead and trespasses and sin. That means because you trespass God’s law. You have been separated from God because of sin.

sin, sin, and sin separates us. They say, well, since you’re dead, you can’t do anything. And if you’re dead, you can’t believe, if you’re dead, you can’t see, if you’re dead, you can’t do anything. Now, if you were talking to people in a cemetery, I would agree. That God would have to intervene and give them life in order that they might be able to believe. So they’re since you’re dead, you have to be given salvation in order that you might believe.

So he saves you before you believe and that’s contrary to scripture. I don’t believe that. Now he makes a statement down here in verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Being saved coming from death to life is a gift of God. They say that God gives you the faith. So he says in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith.

And then when it says, and that not of yourselves, they said that’s talking about faith. It is not talking about faith, it’s talking about being saved. You see, God did not give you the faith to believe, but not you. But he gave you the faith to believe, but not you. That isn’t true. Well, let’s say before the foundations of the world, God’s already determined who’s going to heaven, who’s not going to heaven. That is not true. God in His sovereignty has chosen to give to you and I.

A free will. That is something that’s very easy to understand when God made the heavens and the earth put two people here pretty nice place. Pretty good people. He gave them a choice of free will to make a decision. They can have anything you wanted, but don’t eat off that one tree. Guess what they did? You heard the story. You must have read the book. They sinned against God. Is God wrong? No. Did God sin? No. God gave to us a will to choose either to obey or disobey.

So all FreeBSDnetflix are rebellious. We all want our own way and we’re hard-headed and stiff-necked. And God says we have all sinned against God. So death is separation. We’re separated from the source of eternal life. But God has placed eternity in our hearts. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of John chapter 1. John chapter 1, I have it right here in your note, but I want you to see the context that it’s in, that it’s right here, and I’ll refer to it in just a moment.

In verse 9 he says, that which, peculiat was the true light which light of every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. So God, by creating the world and creating you and putting you here, has given you the evidence that there’s a God. You are the evidence that there’s a God because people didn’t make you. You didn’t come from a rock or a tree.

Mankind is here. Either he He made Himself, or God made Him. Those are the only options you have. Either you came from God or you came from nothing. Now which should you take your pick? You have been created. There is a Creator. And so He made the world and the world is the evidence that God gave to us because of the things that we can see and hear, a body that can communicate. We know that there is a God because of the creation God has made.

He says, I made the world and everybody that’s in it. And he says, this is the evidence. Now if a person takes the evidence and follows the evidence, you’ll have to come to the conclusion, there is a God. There is a God. So every man has a certain amount of light, evidence. It may not be enough evidence for you to trust in Christ because you have to hear about that, but there’s evidence that you know there’s a God and God knows further than that.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts in chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, follow along this same line, it’s very important. And look what it says in chapter 17. And look at verse 24, verse 24. And verse 24 says, God that made the world and all things therein see that He is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands. God that made the world. So when you see the world, you know somebody made it.

God says, that’s the evidence that I exist. I made it. Because of sin, we can’t see God. Because of sin, God is so holy. If you could see God, you would die because of his glory, his brightness, it would kill you. So God doesn’t allow you to see him, but he allows you to see what he made so that you will know God is real and God exists. In verse 25, neither is worshiped with men’s hands as though he needed anything, seeing he get to give it to all life and breath and all things.

You’ll notice he’s talking about what God has done, what God has made and includes every person in the world. They’re all included. And so he says there in verse 26, and hath made of one blood of all nations, of men, all nations, every man, one blood, everybody, God says he did it. He made them all. And it refers to every person in verse 27, that they should seek the Lord if happily they may feel after Him and find Him, though He’d be not far from every one of us.

So if a person wants to know, is there a God? Yes there is. And it doesn’t take much evidence to prove it. It’s that when you begin to deny the evidence, you want more evidence, more evidence, more evidence. Well, God’s given to every man that comes into this world a certain amount of evidence. And if you’ll take and believe that evidence, you’ll find more evidence, more evidence, and more evidence. It’s kind of like these hearings that’s been gone on in Washington.

They’re looking for the evidence. There’s no crime. But they’re looking for the evidence. And so far, they can’t find any evidence. But when it comes to the Lord, there’s evidence that God is real. Just go out any night you want to and look at the stars, look at the sun, look at the moon, look in the mirror. So what God made, God says, that’s enough evidence for you to know there is a God. You may not accept the evidence, that’s up to you.

That’s because you have a sinful nature and can choose not to accept that evidence. When I was coming along before I was saved when I was 18 years old, I knew there was a God. I never doubted, never questioned. I just knew there was a God. Though my dad never took me to church, my mother never read a Bible, we never had prayer in our home, it didn’t matter. I knew there is a God. And I accepted the evidence.

Now, notice what he says. In verse 29, he talked about, we are the offspring of God. We ought not to think that the God had his life under gold or silver or stone and driven by art and man’s devices. There is a true and living God. You don’t create a little God and then worship that little, you don’t make little idols and worship those little idols. God says, no, I am God. And notice what he says in verse 30.

And the times of this ignorance, God went dead. Because you see, there’s times when people didn’t have a lot of evidence, but whatever is you were given, you’re responsible for. You see, I may not be able to get ahold of God. Bring him down here and say, there he is. You say, well, prove to me God exists. You prove he doesn’t exist. If you wanna prove that there is a no God, you would have to have the ability to know everything there is to know all at one time.

Because if there’s anything that you don’t know could be the knowledge of God. You have to have the ability to be everywhere all at the same time because if there’s anywhere that you can’t be all at the same time, you can’t prove God’s out there. How you doing? So whenever you study the Bible, he says, think not. God is like what you imagine. He says, God says, this is what I’m like. This is what I’ve done. So then he says there in verse 30, he says, now command us, all men everywhere, all men, that would be everybody, certain responsibility to respond to the evidence God given.

But now because, in verse 31, because he hath appointed, a day in which he will judge the world, that would be every person. It’s appointed in every man wants to die and after this, the judgment. And why would he judge you if it’s not your fault, if you had no responsibility. If you couldn’t believe, if whatever, but God knows what you know. God knows the evidence that He’s given. You’re the one that decides whether or not you’ll believe it or not believe it.

You can be hard-headed if you want, seek your head in the sand if you want. Well, I don’t know if there’s a heaven or a hell. You know there’s a God and if you want to know the truth and you seek truth, He says, though He’s not far from every one of us because all you have to do take what God’s word says and follow its logic, follow its reasoning, and you’ll come to the source of eternal life, which is the Lord Himself.

Now even though God made the world and so by the world you can reason there’s a God, but you cannot know who God is and what He is like without the revelation of the word. So God made the world to use your reason and God gave you the word to use the revelation so that God reveals it. And if you can accept this as evidence, you can believe this without any trouble. Because the Bible says that God made the world, made the Word, and they both agree perfectly.

It’s when you don’t want to believe the evidence. Then you get into evolution, atheism, and all the isms and spasms that there is. And so he says because he raised up Jesus from the dead. So raising up Jesus from the dead. See the verse 32, when they heard of the resurrection of that, some mocked. Other says, we’ll hear the again of this matter. So they had a choice, either accept it or believe it. But Christ coming back from the dead was the ultimate evidence that what Christ said and did was true.

And so what he said was he loved the whole world, went to the cross, paid for all the sins of the whole world, came back from the dead and offered salvation to everybody in the whole world, and woe unto the individuals. that go around preaching that God has only selected a few people to save and he really didn’t die for everybody. He just died for the ones that he chose to save and the rest of you couldn’t be saved if you wanted to.

That’s heresy. That’s not the truth of the Bible. God so loved the whole world. Now, look down at the bottom down here in verse number two, Well, we have the one about Romans. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 1.dies Romans and chapter 1. This is why the gospel is so important. The gospel, the good news, is giving people the evidence that they need to believe. That the one who made the heavens and the earth that you could see loves them and he’s a personal God and you can know him.

The Lord is more real to me than the clothes that I have on my back. Now look what he says in verse 18, he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, they resist the truth. He says in verse 90, because that which may be known of God is manifest, get this in them. In other words, a person has eternity placed in their heart.

God says that. And he’s talking about the world that is here is the evidence that every person knows there is a God. For God have showed it unto them. What? The world. God made the world. It’s the evidence that there is a true and living God. Now through the scriptures, we can get to know God, to know who He is, and to know what His name is or know what He did. How much are you loving? What’s He gonna do next?

So God has already laid it out, and we know what’s coming down the road because of the truth of the word of God. Now look what He says in verse 20, for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without what? It means they’ve been given enough evidence to know that God is true, that God is real.

And every person, no, there’s a higher, they just don’t know everywhere on the face of the earth, somebody worship God in some way. And if they can’t find God, they just make themselves God. I’m God. I worship me. And that’s called humanism. And it’s secular humanism, being taught in our public schools. When you teach that there is no God, then that makes you God. You’re the one who controls. It’s your life, do whatever you want, by any means. and it’s permeating our society.

So he says they are without issues. Now why are they without excuses? Look what he says, because when they knew God, they knew God, they don’t actually know him as their savior, but they know that there is a God because he’s talking about people here that doing everything in the book. A bunch of sodomites and everything else. It doesn’t matter whether the Gentiles or whether in chapter three, it’s the Jews. Everybody has sinned against God. And because when you know that there’s a God, you turn against that.

Because you see, you’re going to believe your theology is gonna agree with your morality. How you want to live, whatever morality you wanna have, you wanna develop a religion that frees you up to live according to your sins. You wanna pick and choose. And so a lot of people don’t wanna believe in God because they wanna live in sin. And believe it in God makes you feel guilty. And I don’t want to feel guilty, so I have to deny my desire for sin or I got to deny the reality of God.

Well, is he just deny the reality of God and have fun? But lo and behold, there’s a judgment coming the God talks about. So he says in verse 21, Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, became vain in their imagination, their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became what? So atheism. It’s foolish. A man has said in his heart, there is no God. Who said that? A fool have said there is no God.

So when you hear people say that there is no God, there, beloved, is a fool. Doesn’t matter how many degrees after their name or how much they get paid in the university. There is no God, you’re a fool. You say, you are not saying it so strong. Yes, I will. I don’t want people to misunderstand that I don’t think, well, it’s not that serious. Yes it is, it’s the issue of heaven and hell. And they affect other people because everybody is trying to persuade somebody of their belief, whatever you believe.

Well I don’t believe anybody ought to have any belief. You really believe that. You can’t be sure of anything. Are you sure of that? So the Bible is clear. There is a God. Now look on the back part of your page, top of the page. And Romans in 120, I put it in bowl, something that I wanna bring out to your attention for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world of producing being understood by the things that are made.

So this is the light in John chapter one, God created the world. It’s light that we need. And then he says there without excuse because what he has given is a strong evidence. And then when Christ comes back from the dead, that’s even stronger evidence. Because when’s the last time you saw somebody come back from the dead? Listen, I’ve been doing funerals for 50 years. So far, so far. I’ve never said rise. They did, it’d kill me. I don’t go around trying to raise the dead.

You got a lot of these here, tell evangelist and Benny Hinn and all some of these other ones going around here, these faith healers, and all that. They healed nobody. They’re just stealing your money. Don’t you give one dime to those people. Don’t give me sidetrack. Look at the next statement, because when they knew God so that there was a God, they glorified Him not as God, and this is what people do. So they rebel against the evidence. Now take your Bible and turn to the gospel of John, the book of John, chapter 1.

John chapter 1 and looked there in chapter 1 in verse 1 and verse 1 says, 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. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Wouldn’t that include every man? Everybody? Everybody. And him was life. And the life was the light of men. The light shall not endartness. And the darkness comprehended it not.

Did not understand. You see, whenever a man, because of his sinful nature, he may know there is a God, but he cannot know God because of the world. He can only know that there is a God. That reveals to him, but God says seek God. And if you will, he’s not far from every one of us because the truth of it is just will you or will you not believe it? See, I’ve never seen God. I’ve never seen Jesus Christ.

I’ve never seen heaven. I’ve never seen hell. But I believe it. Well, all my heart did all of us true. And one of the reasons because of there’s evidence. And I believe in God because I realized the world’s here and I didn’t make it. And I’m convinced you didn’t either. So who did? Have you ever seen, and it’s amazing to me, we have right out here in this little well house, there’s a duck, setting on a bunch of eggs.

Now you try to tell me how that other little duckling that’s going to come out of that, of that, how did he get in there? He got a miracle. And whenever they get hatched, that mama’s going to jump down and the other one’s going to jump down and they’ll follow it and they’ll go in here and they’re getting that water. And every time I come in here, there’s about, you know, eight, ten of them and they just all, and they all follow me.

You’re going to make one. You’re going to make a little duck. Give it life and then have the power to reproduce and have another one. You do it. And to believe that it just happened. You’re seeing a little baby. A man in the woman can get together, have their fun and and lo and behold, to become one. And look at that little baby. Isn’t that a miracle? Alright, you just go into your house, go into your kitchen, get everything you got.

Make it baby, put it right there. Just you, just you, put it there. There was a couple of these archaeologists, they said, well, that’s don’t miracle, making a man from the dust of the earth. We can do that too, so they had a contest with God. And so God just, all of a sudden, He made a man from the rest of the earth. So they got together and they got them some time. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, get your own dirt.

Go get your own dirt. You see, everything that was made, God made. And so He says here in the word, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came to bear witness of the light. This was not the light, but He was bear witness of the light and get what He says here in verse seven. Looking at verse seven, the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light which refers to Jesus Christ, that all men, do you think all men would refer to everybody?

I believe it refers to everybody. All men through Him might do what? Might believe. And some people say, well, you know, this is not really your choice. It’s that God has determined who gets, you know, believe by picking certain ones. I believe that the Word of God says God so loved the world. When Christ died on the cross, the book of 1 John chapter 2, that He is the propitiation for our sins, but not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And there’s people who can’t mean that. People have the same problem when God says for by grace or you saved through faith? Well, he couldn’t have meant that. You can’t tell me that’s all you got to do is just trust Christ to save and you get to go to heaven to die because they believe you have to earn it. You’ve got to deserve it. And you know that a person who lives like the devil doesn’t deserve to go to heaven.

True? Anybody who lives like the devil doesn’t deserve. Well, every person who tries to live like a saint doesn’t deserve it either. You don’t go to heaven because you deserve it. Nobody deserves it. Christ died to pay for all the sins of all the world because all have sinned and come short of God’s perfection. And so because God so loved the whole world, He told His disciples, go into all the world and preach to God’s blood on every creature.

Why preach to God’s blood, everybody, if they, you know, are even a possibility of them believing. God says, this is what you do. Now look what He says there in verse 9. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Wouldn’t every man that cometh into the world refer to every man that cometh into the world?

You got a problem with that? Wouldn’t you think every man that comes into the world? Well, that doesn’t really mean that. That means just the elect. What did he say that? And verse 10, he was in the world, the world was made by him and the world knew him not. Do you think I would refer to everybody? When Christ came into this world, remember, He came into the world to down the cross so that everybody could have the free gift of everlasting life.

This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically.

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.