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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.

What I want to do is I want to show you some verses that you usually don’t go to for the Christmas story. story. Most of the time whenever you’re going to tell the Christmas story, you know, you go to the book of Luke and Matthew, right? That’s even in our Sunday school lessons. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians, Chapter 2, Philippians and Chapter 2. We talk about the birth of Christ, we call it the incarnation, where God became flesh.

God took upon flesh. He came into the world and inhabited a body. But I want you to see this in Philippians chapter two. And notice there in verse five, chapter two verse five. Many people don’t always use these verses for, you know, the Christmas story, but without the birth, there can be no resurrection. He had to live, he had to die, or who got resurrected? Well, he had to be born and he was. See in verse five, let this mind be in you.

All right, what kind of a mind are we supposed to have? What kind of mind that he had? How did he think? Remember, he left heaven’s glory and came into this world. So there is another place. There’s another life somewhere else. There’s another world that we never seen. And he came into this world that we do see. And he told us all about what was gonna happen before he arrived. So that’s good news. So he came into this world and he says, up there in verse two, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded.

Having the same love, one accord, one mind. Now when you think about God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, they all have the same mind. There is no conflict. There’s no warring. There’s no jealousy. There’s no envyings. There’s love and it says, God is love. So God is love, then the Father’s love, the Son is love, the Holy Spirit is love, and they love each other. And he wanted to demonstrate that love toward us. So he said, let this mind be and you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Now look what he said. Verse 6, who being in the form of God, he was God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now here’s God and here we are. Are we equal with God? No. See he is so holy, so perfect. What about us? Well we’re not perfect. So therefore we are not justified. We’re not on the same plane. We’re not on the same level. So the question always comes is how can a man at the center be just with God?

In other words, just as if you had no sin, just as if he was as righteous, as holy, as God. Well, we’re not. So we couldn’t come up to God. So what God did was come down to man. So we send His Son into the world to take our sins so that we could have eternal life and go to heaven when we die. So somebody had to pay for all the bad things we’ve done. Well if you pay for them you’re separated from God forever.

So there is a mindset here. Now look what He says there in verse 7, but made Himself Christ made Himself of no reputation. So when He came into the world there wasn’t a lot fanfare. I mean, they didn’t roll out the red carpet. He wasn’t born in a palace. Now, whenever you have them over there in England when they have the king and the queen and all that, and this young couple got married and they had a baby, did anybody know it?

I mean, was it on the newspapers and the cameras and all that? All man was it everywhere. Now, the little kid had a certain little outfit on and people had gone wild trying to get that same little outfit for their kid. Now, Jesus was born in a stable. He was someplace elsewhere. He didn’t have all that fandere, all that glory. He was out there with the animals. Would you say it was a very sanitary place? Now look where the people have their children today.

You would go to the hospital and everybody washes their hand, everybody’s clean and so forth and so perfect. momma now she had all six of us kids at home on the floor well I don’t know if it’s on the floor bed on wherever my mama was that’s where I was born the reason I was born at home because that’s where my mama was anyway we’re moving right along verse seven but made himself of no reputation took upon him the form of a servant was made in the likeness of men so this is telling you a little bit about Christ and who He was and why He came.

So He says in verse 8, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We often call this the crib, then the cross, and the crown. That’s a pretty good little outline. But Christ was born and and he was gone to the cross and then he died and then he was resurrected and there was the crown. You and I, we were born, we live and God says carry your cross, bury your cross.

And later on after we get through with this and we leave this world then God’s going to reward you and there’s certain crowns that God wants us to wear. So look what happens as a result of his obedience. See there in verse nine, where for God hath given him a name, highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every nation bow, things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth.

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. This isn’t talking about you, you gotta make Christ the Lord in the master of your life and serve God in order to go to heaven. No, that one day everybody’s going to recognize who he is. So when he came into this world as a little baby, people didn’t believe that was God. And even when he lived for 33 years, they didn’t believe that was God.

When he was on the cross, they still did not believe that’s God. But when he came back from the dead, that kind of changed things. That changed things, that changed everything. And that’s what we’ve been preaching about for 2000 years. I’ve been preaching it for a little over 50 years, so I believe it. All right, take your Bible also and look there in the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 3. 1 Timothy, chapter 3. Makes you think of John 3, 16, but here is just a little bit different.

In 1 Timothy, chapter 3, and verse 16, now you would probably be able to think, now this is not a Christmas verse over here, but look what it says. verse 16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. That’s the Christmas story. God revealed himself in a physical body. The Bible says that it was going to happen and it did. And not only was he manifested in the fact he was justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up in the glory.

There’s the whole story. There’s the whole Christmas story right there in one verse. We often just go to John 3 16. Well, if John 3 16 is a great verse it really is. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, believe it in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. So whosoever would believe that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. And He came for a reason. Now why did He come?

Well because He loved a little me. Well, He loved the low you too. And He paid for your sins. How many of your sins did He pay for? All of them, He didn’t pay for all of them. He didn’t do any favors. If He left one sin unpaid. He didn’t help you. So that means he had to pay for all of your sin. I’ve had people say, well, what if you go out here and commit suicide? Okay, you commit suicide.

Okay, I sinned. You would say that’s murder and I’d be dead, right? So how do I get forgiveness of that sin if I’m dead? So now I’m dead and I just committed suicide. So, well, wait a minute. Is that a sin? Paid. Paid. Even when does he get to pay for it? Because you didn’t you just did it and then you couldn’t get forgiveness for it. Wait a minute. When does he pay for those sins? 2,000 years ago When Christ died 2,000 years ago all of your sins were in the future They’re all in the future So that means if aolars born a hundred years from now did Christ already die for him?

Well, why wouldn’t that include my sins on this side of me? He paid for his What didn’t he pay for mine? Well, he did. So when I accept the payment he made that death payment That was a death payment for all my sin not up to the time I believe And now I got to work on these here as though he saved me on the installment plan. I have to keep making these payments There are no payments to make He paid for it in full gave me the free gift of eternal life and that’s why I’m going to heaven when I die and that’s why it’s so called good news.

It’s the gift. Now think it, Christmas time, virtually every home will do something about Christmas or their children. Not everybody, but most people are. Do you think they really understand what Christmas is really about? Or is it Christmas is just really about giving a present and receive in a present. I’ll get you one if you get me one. You didn’t get me one? You ain’t getting one. Have you ever told me, look, times are hard, the economy is bad, don’t get me anything.

Yeah, right. And you know you better or else. Now, everybody wants to get something. Isn’t it wonderful getting a gift? I love getting gifts. I love them. I even love reading the cards that I get and every time we get a card I can read every read. And so I enjoy it. I love the attitude, the spirit, if you do it without expectation of receiving because if you give and you don’t receive you’re gonna be one disappointed individual because you’re expecting something that depends on somebody else and people will always let you down.

Sometimes you get something you didn’t expect and that always nice. So you have to be careful. The reason is God so loved the world that He gave the greatest gift of all. What was this great gift that God offered to the world? His Son. And He that hath the Son hath life and He that hath not the Son hath not life. So whether you have eternal life or not, depend on whether you have the Son because the Son is eternal life.

That’s why you can’t get one without the other. It says in 1 John chapter 5, this is the true God and eternal life. Jesus Christ is eternal life. Hate that half the Son half life. If you don’t have the Son, you don’t have eternal life. It’s Him. Jesus Christ is the gift that God offers to the world. So So by accepting this gift, you have eternal life. So 54 years ago, sitting in the little old living room, I wasn’t in a church, my father will explain this to me.

So I accepted Christ as my Savior. So if I trust Him as my Savior, I got a Savior. What’s He going to do? Save me? Save me from what? Hell. That’s why I can’t go to hell. Why? I got a Savior. And my Savior promised that if I trusted Him, He would never cast me out and never lose me. He said He will never cast me out for any reason. You mean for no reason at all? There isn’t anything that can cause me to go to hell in the future.

I can’t go to hell in the future. I can’t go today. I can’t go tomorrow. I can never go to hell. Why? He promised. Now either He is God who cannot lie or He’s a fiver. He’s deceitful. He said, if I trust Him, then my going to heaven depends on Him. It doesn’t depend on me. And so how do you know when you’re really trusting the Lord, when you’re not trying to earn your way to heaven? So if you’re not trying to earn it, it’s because you already have it.

If a person is trying to earn your way to heaven by how good they are and I go to church and I sing in the choir and I do all these good things, okay, let’s take away all those good works. Will you still go? Well, unless replace all those good works with bad works, where would you go? Oh. Then you don’t understand it. Because see, people think that you’re going to hell because you’re so bad in going to heaven because you’re so good.

There is none good. Nobody is perfect. You have to be perfect to go to heaven. So this is why God explains it in his word. And he says, he was believed on in the world. Look what he says in that life. part of that verse. Believed on in the world, in this world, in this lifetime, the only thing that you have to do is believe this, that when he came, he did this, and then later on he was received up into glory.

Well, what’s going to happen to us? Well, if that’s where he is, remember he made this statement in the book of John in chapter 14. He says, be not afraid. He said, you believe in God? Believe also in me. He says, in my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. But I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.” And then he makes the statement.

He says, “…no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” So you can’t get there except through Christ. You reject Christ, you can’t go there. And where he is, there you may be also. So if he was caught up in the glory, this place of perfection where no sin dwell is because you and I have believed on Him while we’re in this world at this time. So that’s why it’s important. All right, take it by looking in the book of Galatians chapter four, Galatians and chapter four, Galatians chapter four.

Remember, Jesus had to come at the right time. He was prophesied that he would come. But Lord, you know, working in strange and mysterious ways, getting everything under control. Lo and behold, they just automatically, for some reason or other, the Roman government decided to tax everybody in the Roman government, just a coincidence. And that means that they had to go back to their hometown and had to pay their taxes. And here’s Mary and Joseph up in Galilee about a hundred miles away, eighty-five to hundred miles away and they have to at this stage of her pregnancy go almost a hundred miles and got there and there was no place for them and they were out there in the cave.

I’ve been over to Israel and I don’t believe as much as a stable as a stable was in a cave light and that’s where Jesus was born in stable. and a little manger, you know, feeding trough and laid him. All this was told about and it happened. No big fanfare, a few shepherds. The wise men, when did the wise men get there? When Jesus was born? No, maybe a year and a half, two years later, the wise men showed up and Jesus at that time was a young child.

Whenever he was born, the wise men weren’t there and all that. They always put it together in the same scene, but it doesn’t belong there. But here in Galatians 4, look in verse 4, but when the fullness of time was come, in other God says the time is coming and the time came right on schedule. Now get this. In the Old Testament, the last book is Malachi. 400 years later, all these 400 years God never spoke, Israel, no prophets.

And the Bible says in the book of Malachi and it says, suddenly he shall come to his temple. Four hundred years past, nothing. Rome has now conquered Israel and they’re from servient to them. And you have John the Baptist comes on the same. And he was the forerunner of Christ and he went around telling, hey, he’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming, get ready, he’s coming, he’s coming. And Jesus was coming. So he was born right after John the Baptist.

And next thing you know, Jesus lived for 30 years and He was a carpenter’s son, but Joseph was not his real father. And then they see, you know, Jesus comes on the scene. He goes to see John and John’s baptized in telling people about the baptism of repentance. That if they believe the message that he preached about the one that was coming Christ, they were to be baptized in water because they believed that he was coming to pay for their sins.

And that’s why when Jesus did show up, he says, behold, the Lamb of God, which takeeth away the sin of the world, that part of his message. That was at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, not the end of it. So John the Baptist, that was baptizing. Water baptism does not wash away sin. It doesn’t even wash away dirt if you don’t use soap with it. So it doesn’t wash away your sins. But if they believe the message that he preached, and that was, you must believe on Jesus Christ, you must trust him.

Because in Acts chapter 19, that is explained. But look what he says here. God sent forth his Son. That means his Son existed before this, before he was born in a manger, the Son already exists. He sent forth his Son that was with him. How can God the Father be an everlasting Father without an everlasting Son? Most people never think about that. So So that means that the Son had to be in existence from the very beginning of time or eternity.

And that means no beginning. This is why in the book of Micah chapter 5 and verse 2 it says, but thou Bethlehem Ephraeth, thou thou be little among the thousands of Judea, yet out of thee shall he come forth, that is to be ruler in Israel, who is going forth, have been from old from everlasting. the one that’s going to be born in Bethlehem has always been and will always be. So God sent forth His Son and His Son came right on schedule.

And notice what the next part says. It was His Son made of a woman. So here’s a woman that God had used to bring His Son into the world. that child, the Bible says in the book, the look was a holy thing. He didn’t have a sinful nature like we do. Remember last Sunday we had all the children sitting down here and they were so precious, but I mentioned this I said, when Jesus coming to the world, He was prophesied, He was promised.

He was precious, but He was perfect. Now these children are precious, but not a one of them is perfect except my grandkids. But only one was perfect and that was Jesus Christ the Son of God. Now turning to Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, just to kind of give you this idea because it’s so important we talk about the resurrection of Christ and Christ was God. Well he couldn’t be resurrected if he hadn’t been buried and he wouldn’t have been buried if he hadn’t died and he wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t taken our sins.

But he did. And the only thing he could take our sins is because he was perfect and hadn’t none of his own. So he had to be as prophesied in scripture born of the flesh of the line of David prophesied because he’s to be the king in Israel he has to be of the line of David so look there in verse 3. Let’s just look in verse 2 which he had promised to form by his prophets in the holy scriptures.

In verse three, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So we’re not talking about just some body’s little baby was born. Now this was a unique child. This was the son of God prophesied in the Old Testament that he would come.

And that according to the scriptures, all the types of the lambs and the sheep and the goats and the bulls, the calves that were all sacrificed throughout those 1500 years. Well, they were only a type of the lamb that God was going to sin. They were sacrifices that were made for the sins of the people. So instead of God killing the people because of their disobedient, God killed an innocent animal. And they were a covering, a tomement, but it was a covering.

It didn’t please God, but it appeased his anger so that whenever this lamb, took all the sins of all the world, God was able to pour out all of His anger, all of His wrath upon His Son. And you wonder why did He do that? Well, because God wanted to demonstrate to us that He really does love us. How much does God love you? Enough that He would die for you. That’s love. He would die for me. Now let’s say for example, I’ve been alive now for over 72 years.

Now if I was 20 years old and let’s say for example we take Lynn back there and Lynn got caught stealing so they were gonna head him up in front of a firing squad and just shoot him. Now let’s say Lin was a pretty good guy and here I am and I don’t even know this man, but he was a pretty good guy. That’s what they tell me, except he just messed up. Would I be willing to take his place and die in his place?

I mean just to let myself die and all that I’ve done since then and all my endurance, I’m going to give all of that up so that Lynn could live. And he doesn’t deserve it. I do. Why should I give up my life for Lynn? You see, because you love him. No, I don’t. Am I going to die in his place? No, I won’t. Now, when people go into battle to serve their country, they volunteer as a go-to boot camp and get some training, and then they ship them off to some country, and he has to be willing to die for his country.

That means I want my country to live and I’m gonna sacrifice my life. That means that I may not get married, I won’t have any kids, I won’t get rich, I’ll never have any dreams fulfilled, I’m gonna give all of that up so that y’all can live. Now, when those young guys go into battle or go into the service, they probably never really think about that. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader, then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa.

With traditional and online classes taught by instructors, with years of experience, Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you. To learn more, visit online at florida-biblecollege.us or call the Register of Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. That’s 8502275325. 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. Tada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.