Bibleline Radio Show – 2018-12-05 – The Greatest Freedom Known To Man Pt.1
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
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.
I want to talk to you a little bit about somebody else else that’s been into the service that did an awful lot for us, lest we forget. We also want to honor the one who died to set us free from the bondage of sin, death, and hell. And no one could do this except one person who came into this world. And when I stop and think about all the people that have lived upon this planet that have fought, died, shed their blood, all of them all put together, did not accomplish as much as this one man did.
And that one person who did not even deserve to die voluntarily gave his life for us because no one else could. So we don’t want to forget also the greatest person that’s ever lived, the greatest soldier that ever lived, the greatest sacrifice that’s ever been made, what made by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1, because of what He has done for us, He says, stand fast therefore in the liberty where with Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
In other words, maintain your freedom. Once you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, and God’s eyes, He has made us free from the penalty of sin. We’ll never have to worry about hell. We are being saved from the power of sin by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and as we yield ourselves to Him and walk with Him, then we have power over that sinful nature that we have, and the lust of the world and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
And also one day he will come and take us out of here. He’s coming for his saints and we will be delivered from the very presence of sin. So that is the greatest to me victory that’s ever been won. Of all the armies that have ever marched, of all the men who have ever died and of all the blood that has ever been shed cannot compare to the value of that one called the Son of God. One drop of blood from the sacrifice of Christ accomplished more for the cause of liberty.
While the wars of man were victorious until the next war, they always had these wars to end all wars until the next war. I remember hearing about they fought to end the battle of all wars. So they’ll never have another one, and then we have another one. And it looks like we may be facing another one. But when Jesus Christ went to the cross and died, He only had to fight this battle one time, because He was so victorious.
Nobody will ever be able to conquer Him. He’ll never be defeated. And we are victorious because we are in the one who won the victory. It isn’t over yet. We’re looking for the day when we stand with the Lord Jesus Christ. A thousand year reign upon this earth when it comes back in power and great glory. And every eye will see Him. But while the words of man were victorious until the next were the enemy or the victory of Christ was for all eternity.
And that’s why we know That the greatest freedom in all the world is what He saved us from. There’s a lot of churches a day, a lot of preachers that do not want to mention This word, hell, because it’s offensive to so many people. And yet you can’t talk about Jesus Christ the Savior without talking about what did He save me from. When we talk about I am saved, it means something. It means that I’m not going to a place called hell because someone saved me from it.
You take away hell and you don’t need a Savior. Why do you need someone to go to the cross and die and pay for your sins to keep you from going to a place that doesn’t exist? Hell is real. And therefore I want to make sure that we do not forget that the reason we talk about Jesus Christ is because if we do not win people to Christ, if they are not persuaded to put their confidence, their trust in Jesus Christ, they will spend an eternity in a literal fire burning hell and that’s just the truth.
As much as I would rather just always talk about the love of God and I never want to talk about sin. Anything that makes people feel uncomfortable but I believe it’s time that God’s children were made uncomfortable. I believe that it’s one aspect of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is the great comforter when you do right and the great discomforter if you don’t do right. So salvation from hell is the greatest freedom known to man because every man needs to be saved from this.
All the battles that we have fought for thousands of years, well it’s always temporary because you see there’s another generation of people that come and they are just as mean and ugly and greedy and want to take something from somebody else. And there’s always somebody says, no, that’s mine and you can’t have it. And there’s battles that have been fought. But the greatest battle is then the battle for souls, the souls of man. He says, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation chapter 20 verse 15. Is that verse true? Is that really in your Bible? If that verse is in your Bible, is that verse true? That hosts so ever who does not have their name written in the Lamb’s book of life, gonna really be literally cast into a lake of fire. If you believe the Bible, you have to believe this. Now, there’s a lot of attacks upon the doctrine of hell because no one wants to believe that there could be such a place where individuals will spend eternity with no escape and yet always remember that in spite of all of this and the teaching of hell there’s also a great compassion shown by God Himself because of His great love for man.
There is just His justice. There’s his righteousness, his holiness, that he cannot look upon sin, tolerate sin, and sin has to be dealt with. And the wages of sin is death. And death is not just an eternity separated from God, which we often say it’s a separation from God, but in a literal fire burning hell. Universalism, Annihilationism, purgatory, maybe words that you’ve heard, but there’s views that people have to do away with this doctrine of hell. Because if you do away with the doctrine of hell, you don’t need a Savior.
You don’t have to worry about reaching anybody. There’s nothing to be in the fear of. There’s no danger ahead. But if there is a real literal hell, then everything matters. is really important about the gospel of Jesus Christ and reaching people. Now, universalism, I won’t get into what we did last Wednesday night. We had a little fun with that, but it just boils down to a very simple little thing is there are those who believe that everybody is going to be saved in the end.
That Jesus went and died and paid for all the sins of the world, so all the sins are paid for and everybody’s going to be saved and everybody’s going to have hot chocolate and we’re going to set a run and party. That is not a true position to have. You see, there’s verses in the Bible that… Makes it very simple, very clear. He says, when Jesus Christ comes back in power and great glory, he says, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that no, not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So there are people who will not trust Christ as their Savior, they will not believe it. But God says He’s going to take vengeance upon them. It is not an honor or tribute, a blessing to reject Christ’s Savior. It might look good in the eyes of other people, that I’m not one of those people that believe the Bible. Or I’m not a Christian. They may recognize you now as some intellectual giant. Maybe too smart for your own good. But when all of life is over, and you stand at that great white throne judgment and cast into the lake of fire, it won’t be funny anymore.
It won’t be a joke. It won’t be that, well, when we get on here, we’ll just get all the badges together and we’ll take up a collection and air conditioner place and skate around the ice. Are you gonna bust into hell and swing open those bar room door and a’s? Set it up, I’m here. No, no, no. That’s what you do here. That’s what you do now. But if hell is real, then the gospel is so important. The good news about how to be saved from hell.
I’ve talked to a lot of people over the years, are you saved? Yes I am. Where are you going when you die? Well I don’t know. Do you have any time? What this being saved means? If you’re not saved from hell, you’re not saved. And I told a person not long ago, I even preached a whole sermon on it, you cannot know you’re going to heaven until you know you cannot go to hell. So the busy possibility you can go to hell, you cannot know that you’re going to heaven.
You see, I don’t have the possibility of going to hell. I couldn’t go to hell if I tried, I haven’t tried. I can’t go to hell. Because see, 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid for all of my sins, all my sins are paid. I don’t have any sins to pay for it. You say you don’t deserve that. That’s why he says for by grace, or you say through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works.
I don’t have to work for it. I don’t have to earn it. I don’t have to deserve it. No, I do not have to go to church to go to heaven. And I do not have to give money to go to heaven. Why I don’t have to earn it, I cannot pay for it. There’s no payment that I need to make. Why, it’s free. It’s the gift of God. Now, that’s fun in Second Thessalonians, but also he says this, who shall be punished, get this, with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
So it’s not just that you’re going to be totally annihilated, no, that’s not going to happen, but be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. And one of the things that most people want in life is to be able to see God being His present. I want to see God. I want to look at Him face to face. I know about Him from the Bible because it’s His Word. It’s His mind on paper. So I studied the Bible.
I’m studying about God. I know a little bit about how He thinks because He wrote it down. So when you study the Word of God, you’re studying the mind of God. How God thinks. Now there are some people that a man named Rod Bell who had a great big old church and came out on the book, love wins. It means that everybody’s going to be saved. There is no hell. Da-da-da. But he has since changed his mind. And I think the closer you get to that stage when you’re going to leave this world, you might change a lot of your thinking.
But to be annihilated, there’s people who believe you’re just going to be annihilated. It’s the view that whoever and whatever cannot be redeemed by God ultimately is just going be put out of existence. That’s a good idea. I asked a man one time, I says, where are you going when you die? He says, Tennessee. So you just believe that whenever you die, you’re going to the grave and that’s it. He said, that’s it. I said, have you died before?
He said, no. I said, then you don’t know that’s true, do you? You hope that’s true. I said, but it’s better than that. You can know you have eternal life. Know you’re going to heaven when you die. I’d rather die and know that I’m going to heaven based upon what this book says I got it made, made in the shade. I’m going to heaven and I’ve known it for 57 years. One man in all these years that I’ve lived came across my path only one in 75 years and he explained the gospel to me and I trusted Christ as my Savior.
So is it important? Yes, there’s seven day add-ins that do not believe that there’s a hell. There’s Jehovah’s Witnesses, they don’t believe that there’s a hell. Does that change how you present the gospel and that you don’t even have a gospel? They don’t have any good news. That’s why there’s this by works and they’re out working themselves to death trying to earn their way into the kingdom or into the heaven or whatever they want to go to. Some evangelicals, I’ve even talked to people who claim to believe the Bible and believe in heaven, but I don’t believe in hell.
They believe the good part about the Bible. They believe the bad part. We’ll see the one who told you about heaven spoke more on hell. So which part are you going to believe? You either take it all or forget it, or take your Bible, throw it in a trash and walk away. But if this book is true and I believe it, I believe every bit of it. So these teach that there is no hell. I hope that you that are here today.
Why don’t we come to church? Why don’t we pray or why don’t we give? And all these wonderful things is because we want to tell people that it’s true. There’s a hell to shun. And eternity is long. Hell is hot and it’s for eternity. The annihilationist argument, well, you know, God’s too nice to send people to hell. God is too good and kind and loving. He’s not going to send, would you not get the door to hove us witnesses?
Man, do you have a fireplace? Well, well, yes we do. You have children, yes we do. Would you throw your children in the fire? No! And neither would God. Can we come in and have a Bible study with you? What come right on here? Take them off your sidewalk and not into the street and have nothing to do with it. There is a hell. And God is going to send people into a literal fire burning hell. Well, destruction, that means you just totally annihilate it.
You know, it’s still like going to bed at night, and you’re annihilated. You don’t even know anything. Not in my case. I dream all night long. I have never, I don’t remember a night when I’ve gone to bed without dreaming. Kind of like this farmer, he took hate of bed with him so he could feed his nightmares. and fear not them which killed the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
So you see, the body may die, but that’s not the end of the soul. It’s not annihilated. And then when life is over and when you have died, the Bible says, and it’s appointed unto every man once to die. And then after this, what? judgment. And there’s going to be this great white throne judgment. And if it’s going to be a judgment, there’s going to be a conclusion. There’s going to be the results of the judgment. You see, people who think they’re good enough to go to heaven or save themselves by their good works, God’s going to show you that you’re going to be judged by your works and your works were not good enough.
And you don’t have to wait until this judgment. He’s already told you in advance, not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to His mercy, He saved us. Then He says in Philippians 3, 9, and B, not found in having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. There’s a by works righteousness, where you try to earn your way to heaven, and there’s a by faith righteousness, one that you can have by faith in what Christ did for you.
And so yes, you have to be as righteous as God to go to heaven. But what he does is he gives you his righteousness, and that makes you as righteous as God. You go to heaven on what Christ did for you. You see, if this teaching isn’t true, and I didn’t believe it, I never went to Bible college. of this burned in my mind, I couldn’t get out of my mind. I kept thinking about my mom, and I thought about my stepdad and my brother and my sisters, my relatives.
I didn’t want them to go to hell. And I kept thinking, well, why don’t somebody reach them? And as I know of all of our relatives, I was the first person never trust the Lord. I never met a person in all of our relationships that ever talked about the Lord, knew the Lord had nothing to do with it. And I determined I’m going to try to get the God. And if it wasn’t for believing in this, I could not fathom the idea of my mama spending eternity in hell.
My brother, my sisters, well, it wasn’t that bad with my sisters. No. But I didn’t want any of my relatives, none of my family. I wanted them to know the right. I wanted them to go to heaven. That’s why I decided to go to the Bible. That’s why I wanted to become a, well, I didn’t know I was going to be a preacher. I just wanted and tell people how to go to heaven. Because there was a passion there.
There’s a burning desire. And mainly because of this, this thing that you see on the screen. There is a man-made place. What is? But purgatory. Purgatory is not in the Bible. It’s in the Apocrypha. Those are some of the books in between the Old and the New Testament. But they are not in the canon of Scripture. They’re not inspired of God. And so those are not in our Bible. This is a man-made place that doesn’t exist. It’s supposed to be a temporary holding facility for those who died until sins have been purged by time or served by you know payment from friends in the Roman Catholic Church or still alive.
No, some people can do good work from putting your account and pay money. That’s just a good way for a religion to make money. It has nothing to do with the Bible. They may be sincere but they’re sincerely wrong. It’s not in the Bible. There is no purgatory. You see, well, what is purgatory? Well, that’s because there’s people that believe they’re, you know, you’re not good enough to go to heaven, but you’re not bad enough to send to hell.
So there has to be this middle place. You know, there’s a heaven, there’s a hell, but you’re not that bad, but you’re bad, but you’re not that bad. I mean, you’re good, but you’re not that good. You are not that good. You are that bad. You have to be perfect to go to heaven. One sin will do you in. Adam and Eve only committed one sin and what did, what happened to them? God kicked out of the garden and died.
One sin. How many of you done? Don’t answer that. I bet it’s more than one. I remember one time I told a white lion. But then I found out it was colorblind. You see, in the Maccabees, it says, they call it the Apocryphal Book, but this is not in the Bible. So you don’t have any validation for the teaching of purgatory. There is no purgatory. And the other thing to remember is this. If you want to take and have a good answer, you just take and go to the Scriptures.
But you see, purgatory is not mentioned in the Old Testament. It’s not mentioned in the New Testament. It’s salvation by works. You see, you weren’t that good. So that means your works were not that good. You weren’t that bad. So you mean that your works weren’t that bad. It’s all about works. And if you will do better works, you see, you’re going to go. So your salvation depended upon your works has nothing to do with Christ. And that’s why you need to understand after you die.
It’s appointed that every man wants to die, then the judgment, no second chance. There’s not gonna be another time, well when I die I’ll just stand before God and I’ll put a tear in my eye and I’ll just smile at him and you know he’ll let me so he’ll let me write on it. It ain’t gonna happen, Captain. Be not deceived, it will not happen. That’s not the way God wrote it in his book. He’s told us. He’s the one that made heaven.
He’s the one that made hell. And he tells how to escape hell and go to heaven. You say, I didn’t ask to be born. Who did? Who did? I didn’t ask to be born, but I was born. And this is the state of the affairs. This is reality. And people can live in a dream world what they want to and deny that there is a God and deny. Yeah, they can do all that they know they want to, but they ain’t gonna change the facts.
You sin and you’re going to die and God is holy and he is all powerful. And he’s already been told you how it’s gonna end up. Gave do you an eye, gave us a choice. Now, the Bible says this in the book of Hebrews, chapter one, verse three, who be in the brightness of his glory. Jesus Christ and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins.
So I don’t have to go to a place and try to work off my sins or pay for my sins or do anything or depend on anybody else. He’s already purged my sins by himself. He doesn’t need my help or anybody’s help. He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high because the job is done. The work is done. In other words, what all I needed to do to get to heaven has been accomplished. All he wanted me to do when he came back from the dead was believe he did it for me.
I can handle that. But, you know, there’s this, it’s sincerity to Council in all to all the religion, the new by sincere. Since Saturday is not a substitute for truth. If that was all that was necessary, then don’t have to worry about it. Just let everybody alone and look how many people are going to go to heaven because look how many religions are and they’re religious because they’re sincere. So everybody’s already going. So Christ says, go into all the world and preach to the gospel.
Everybody, unless they’re sincere in their own religion. No. Another of you. Well, God will say based upon the light they had, you know, they didn’t know. Think about all the people that they don’t know. You know, this really bothered me. This is one another reason why I decided to serve the Lord. Well, God will say based on light revealed. Well, God saves him based on what Christ did. And here’s the reason for wording this this way. Because some people, well, they didn’t know and they knew a little bit more and they knew this, but they didn’t know about Christ.
So God’s going to save them based upon the light they had, you know, without Christ. Because a lot of people never heard about Christ. What about all the people over in Africa? I don’t know why they’re always over in Africa. All the law people are in Africa. Get this. Now God will judge according to the light one has received, but God will not save according to light received. God will judge at the great white throne judgment based upon the light you had and if you accept the light the truth the evidence that God gave he would have gave you more evidence and evidence leads to a conclusion but when you reject light you’re rejecting truth you’re rejecting the path to righteousness.
But God will only save a man according to the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Did you or did you not accept that? God saves him based all upon this one thing alone. There is no other way, no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is only one person you can trust in for eternal life and that’s Jesus Christ. And without Him, there is no hope. Now, the only proper response to the state of the unevangelizes that they did or lost without Christ, this is supported in several ways.
You see, why you are without excuse? Are there people that are without excuse? No, the Bible says everybody that’s condemned, everybody’s condemned. But he then believeth him is not condemned. That’s those who believe in Christ. But those who haven’t believe he says you’re condemned already. But why is a person without excuse Romans chapter one and verse 20? This is what he says through the outline words here. Reality, reason and results. And I want you to look in your Bible very quickly with me.
Romans and chapter one, the book of Romans chapter one and look in verse 18, verse 18, this is what he says. In verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. In other words, God is letting the world know that he is against ungodliness and that his, and the unrighteousness that people do, God sees and knows everything. He knows every individual and what every individual has done. And then he says in verse 19, because that, which may be known of God, is manifest in them for God has shown it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Don’t miss out on all the fun! Join Pastor Jesse and Kyla Martinez on Thursday nights from 7-9 p.m. for Tampa Youth Ranch and Calvary Community Church. Tampa Youth Ranch is a great mix of live music, games, Bible study, food and fun, where teens 13-18 get to know God and the Bible with their friends.
Check it out online at tampayouthranched.org and see the cool pictures from past activities and all the fun you’ve been missing! No right, no problem. Call 813-334-4655 today for information on getting a ride to Tampa Youth Ranch. 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 4 2011 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 in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up
