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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn in your Bible to the Book of John, the Gospel of John. There’s a statement that you have heard many, many times. Know the truth and the truth will make you free. See, you knew that. You knew that. But I want you to look there at the context of where this verse is found. And look there in starting in verse 23, verse 23. And he said unto them, ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world.

I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” See a man born into the world is born in sin and he lives in sin. And if he doesn’t trust Christ as Savior, he dies in sins. That is his position. That’s the position of every lost man. So we want to try to get a person who is born in sin to trust Christ as Savior to be free from sin so that he can be alive in Christ.

And then to die is to live. I was talking to Dr. A. Ray Stanford and he says, I’m going to live until I die and then I’m on a live forever. But when we talk about what does he mean when he says, know the truth and the truth shall make you free? Well, in context, I want you to follow it down here just for a second. He says in verse 24 again, I said there for unto you that you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am, he shall die in your sins.

Then said they unto him, who art thou? And Jesus said unto him, even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge of you. But he that sent me is true. And I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spoke to them of his father. Then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself.

But as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things that please him.” That’s a good statement, John, on the land in your Bible. For I do always those things that please him. Wouldn’t it be a good motive or reason for living? Then he says in verse 30, as he spake these words, many believed on him. said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed?

And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” They answered him, we be Abraham’s seed and we’re never in bondage to any man. So evidently there is a mixed audience here. And there’s those that believe and there’s those that do not believe. And he says, very, very, I send to you, whosoever commit of sin is the servant of sin. Now those last three words, the servant of sin, it means you and I when we’re born in sin become the servants of sin, the servants of our old sinful nature.

It is natural for sinful man to sin. To me is to go his own way to be rebellious. And so he makes the statement here in verse 32, know the truth and the truth will make you free, free from being a servant of sin. And not to know the truth, you cannot escape and you’ll never be free. You’ll never free. There’s no way for a person to break the chains of the power of a sinful nature. You’re born with it, it’s powerful.

And a lost man has no power to break the chain. He can’t change himself. But truth can change him. So when he says, know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now look in verse 36. He says, if the Son therefore shall make you free, and that means free from sin, the power of the sinful nature, ye shall be free indeed. So you and I are to understand that this is explained more in detail in the book of Romans in chapter 6.

So that when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, His death is put to ours, and therefore we died to sin. We died because Christ’s death was put to our account. So I died when I trusted Christ as my Savior, and therefore in Christ I am alive, and I am in his hands. As a child of God, there’s a few things I want you to understand. We often talk about it’s great to live in America and have the freedoms that we enjoy.

But you know that you can be in America and still be a slave. Majority of people in America are just that. They’re slaves to the power of sin. They are not free. They live in a free country where you’re free to do certain things, but they cannot escape the power of an old, sinful nature. It can only be done through Christ. And it can only be done because of truth. And He is the truth. So whenever they take Christ out of our school, out of our government, out of our homes, out of our churches, Is it any wonder that people are in such slavery and all the addictions that everybody has?

It’s a shame. But we want the freedom of choice and we want the freedom to sow and we need and we want and desire the freedom to reap. So these three basic things is what all of our freedoms are about. So in a country, man has dreams of what he wants to do or what he wants to be, and he wants to be free to choose what he wants to do with his life. So because of this desire to be free, we are willing to stop anybody from coming into this country to take away our right to choose, because we don’t want someone having the power over us to determine what I become, because I want to be what I believe I want to be.

Now I’m talking as a man, a natural man without the power of God. You see there’s a lot of patriots in this country, a lot of revolutionary patriots that help fight for the freedoms of this country, and yet they don’t have to know anything about God, but they want freedomrencies andasures Diseap- they’re willing to fight for freedom and they want to be able to choose whatever they want, live wherever they want, be whatever they want, they want all of this.

But having that freedom to choose is one thing. It’s just like we often state in our statement of faith of our churches that we believe that the Bible is our our soul authority for faith and what? Faith and practice. Not only to believe, but to perform. The freedom of religion is not freedom if you cannot express or live what you believe. So we want the freedom in America to be able to not only believe something and to choose something but to practice what we want to do.

So the second point is the freedom to sow, because you and I know that you’re gonna reap what you sow. So as an individual, I want the freedom to choose, and I want the freedom to sow, to make it happen. The right to be able to try to plan and prepare So that seed of what will help me to be whatever I want to be so I can be the success that I want in my mind. And this is why there’s individuals that yes they they want to choose whatever kind of business they want to go into.

Therefore they want the freedom to start that business and to operate that business and if they do that they also want the right to reap the benefits of of their labors. So is that wrong? No, that’s why we have a form of government like America. And there’s people that would love to come here because they would like to be able for the first time in their life have the right to choose, to decide. And then to be able to show to work the plant.

To dream. So they can fulfill whatever they want to do. And then to be able to reap the benefits of all of that labor that they put into something. And this is why in America we have people who work hard and they’ve labored and they’ve got them a home maybe and they got them a car and they maybe put some money in the bank or some stocks or whatever they got and they’re planning for the time when they can put up their feet and relax and say into their soul, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet.

Anyway, they’re looking forward to the retirement time. And then when things don’t go right, people are realizing that they’ve lost a lot of their freedom because government passes more laws and more laws to where you can’t choose to do or to be what you want. And then because of government regulations, it strangles out the very life of individuals from being able to have the power to sow the way you want to sow to make it happen, the plant like you want.

And then whenever it’s time to reap, they have confiscated all of your assets. And lo and behold, after 40, 50, 60, 70 years, you find out you don’t own your car and you don’t own your home. You don’t have a job and they’re confiscating all of your wealth and you find out you’re a slave after all. You worked and now you’re ending with nothing. Now that’s the world. That’s where we are in our country. We have people who run for office and haven’t got a clue what the Bible talks about concerning real freedom.

Now you and I need to understand that there’s these same three things that put into God’s Word. laun you’re looking Titus chapter in chapter three. You see when we talk about the freedom to choose, God says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So as we preach the gospel to every creature, they hear, they understand and the Bible makes the statement that because of the payment Christ made on the cross force, we want the right to choose.

We tell people you can either believe it or not believe it. God doesn’t force a man to trust the Lord. God doesn’t keep you from believing it. It’s a choice. And that’s one of the things that we like about being able to choose. So God paints a beautiful picture of heaven. Tells us all about a holy city that we’ve never seen. And streets of gold, walls of Jasper, and streets of gold, and dates of Pearl, and describes this place in no death there, and all these wonderful things that creates within us a desire, I want that.

But he doesn’t just give us this beautiful picture of what we could have, but he also gives us beautiful picture of what we’re going to get if we don’t make the right choice. And that’s why people need to know that there is a literal place called hell. And hell is described into the word of God as a terrible place that nobody should ever want to go there, that it’s forever and it’s punishment, it’s torment and all these terrible things.

So God pays these two pictures and yet you and I have never seen heaven and we’ve never seen hell. And so here we are with the ability to choose. Where would you like to spend eternity? There’s heaven, there’s hell. Where would you like to go when you die? And if a person can believe what God says, that they are real and that they do exist, then an intelligent thinking reasonable, rational man will always choose heaven. But sometimes they’re always looking for facts and evidence and things like that.

So God has given us a world to convince us that it is here and that you didn’t make it and I didn’t make it. Somebody else had to. So the evidence of a creator is everywhere. And the Bible says God has given to us his word. He gave us the world. He gave us the word. One, to convince us by reason, and the other one by revelation. So they were given to us to convince us that what God says, it is true.

But look what he says there in verse 5. In verse 5 it says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. You see, truth can set a man free. And God’s Word says, the truth of the matter is that no man can save himself by his works. Now that’s the truth. And if a man will believe the truth and realize he cannot save himself, but only through Christ being saved by grace.

That he can be saved, then he’s free to choose, and the right choice can make him free. If you know the truth, the truth can set a man free. You see, I’m going to hell, I get an old sinful nature, and I cannot break the power of sin in my life. But if I only knew the truth, that Christ died on the cross, paid for my sins, and if I trust him as my Savior, I can be free from hell.

I’d never have to go there. Now, the second thing is, is understanding that if truth can set me free so that I can go to heaven whenever I die, because there’s no other way, and truth can do this for you. Now, remember he makes the statement here in John that ye are born in sin and you will live in sin and you will die in sin. It means you were born in sin with a sinful nature and you live according to your sinful nature and when you die, if you haven’t trusted Christ, you will die in your sins.

It means that you’re not free. You’re a slave. And he says, you’re a servant of sin. When you trust Christ as your Savior, he says, the truth shall set you free. Now in the book of Galatians in chapter 5 verse when he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty where with Christ has made us free. So we are supposed to, as a child of God, realize we have been set free, stand fast in the freedom that God has given to us.

So number two is true spirituality distinguishes between the flesh and the spirit. You see in the book of Galatians it talks about sowing to the flesh and sowing to the spirit. So as we live our Christian life, if we will understand that if I sow to the Spirit, I’m going to read this. If I sow to the flesh, I will read this. So God tells us in His word that yes, we want the freedom to choose and we want the freedom to sow.

That I am a free man. I am free to sow. I can sow to the Spirit, my new birth, and I can sow to the flesh, my over. And so I am free to choose. God says, I’ve set you free. You can choose. So now as a child of God, how shall I choose? Which one should I do? I’ve got a desire to serve God and I’ve got a desire to live like the devil. Well, this is a tough choice here.

I get my own way over here. Over here I go his way, but I’m free to choose. But God wants us to know that there are consequences to our choices. And if I choose to walk after the flesh and the desires of the world and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, if I choose and seek that, if I walk into flesh, I will not live as a free man. I’ve been set free, but I’m allowing myself to become a slave to sin.

And so therefore a lot of God’s children are not free from sin. Or you won’t go to hell. But the power of sin in your life can totally control your life. And it’s no different than if you lived in America and we all of them because of our lack of participation in our freedom process to preserve our freedom, we lose our freedom, and we become slaves someday and we lose everything we have, all because we didn’t have time or take the time to preserve our freedoms.

And then we lost it. A Christian who does not sow to the spirit, the spiritual life and do what God wants them to do, that individual is going to lose so much if they don’t do it. You see, if I was to serve the Lord, God has promised me so much that I’m going to reap. And see, I want the freedom to sow, to serve the Lord, to live in a country where I’ve got freedom to do what God wants me to do with my life so that I can be whatever God wants me to be.

Go wherever God wants me to go. Isn’t that a wonderful thing living in America? But I can lose all of that. And as a child of God, I want the freedom to sow, and I also want the freedom to reap. No one really can stop you from sowing good seeds and living right and being honoring to the Lord. because God’s the one that says this is a spiritual one. This over here is a physical one. And if I sow to the things of the Lord, see a lot of times in the Apostle Paul, Paul was taken and put into a prison, but he was a free man because he couldn’t lock up his soul though they took his body.

But Paul was a free man in a sense because the sinful nature had not controlled over his life. And even in a prison, he could serve the Lord and he could write his books and he did what he did and he could still pray and all the…and God could sit and pray at any time that he chose and sometime that’s exactly what happened. But he says about the reaping. True service, true service, distinguishes between chastening and rewards so that I know and I understand that as a child of God that if I serve the Lord, I know what I’m going to reap.

And if I don’t serve the Lord, I know what I’m going to reap. You see, in the world, they don’t see it that way. They just wasted your life. You gave up all of what you could have had, temporary. Yeah. A man made a statement one time, he goes like this. A man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep. To gain what he cannot lose. When you make up your mind, I’m going to serve the Lord. Do you realize that the rewards, the benefits, the blessings can’t be lost?

But whenever you give all of that up for the things of the world, you lose it all. And that’s why Christ made the statement, if a man will lose his life for his sake, he shall find it. But if you go the other direction, you will lose it. So it up to the individual. We talk about the freedoms of America and it’s amazing how many people today talk show hosts and on news and things like that are always talking about what a terrible mess we’re in.

But they don’t seem to have a clue on how to get out of it. It’s not just a matter of trying to make some decisions about this. Well, it’s the economy. It’s the economy. No, it’s not the economy. That’s just an evidence of a deeper problem. You see, people have they forgotten God. It’s a spiritual problem. We don’t have people today who will maintain the freedom that God gave to us. We want to get but not to give. Remember a guy in better name of Patrick Henry said along with I regret that I’ve only got one wife to send to the country?

No, it didn’t go quite like that. He said I regret that I’ve only got one life to give for my country. In other words, he said, give me liberty or give me death. Anybody remember that? And the next generation along give me liberty. The next generation, ours, just give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. But no consequences. And we’re going to have to face those consequences. And they’re coming soon. Look up here, this hand represents you and me.

The wall of represents sin. Now we all have sin on us. God loves He loves us, but he hates our sin. And he says, if we pay for this sin, it’s eternal separation from God in a place called hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, you have to be as righteous as God himself. And nobody is. Nobody’s perfect. So God says we cannot go, and because of sin, we can’t get in.

So what are we going to do? God says not by works of righteousness which we have done. done. But according to his mercy, ah, this end represents Jesus Christ. God in the flesh, he came into this world because he loves us, he hates our sin because our sin separates us from him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. So he took all the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead.

And he said, whosoever, believe it than him, do you believe that he did it for you? You would not perish, you will not go to hell but have as a freak you have everlasting life. So whenever you believe that He did it for you, God gives you everlasting life and He says these things have been written unto you that believe. On the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. So can you know you have eternal life?

Of course you can. I know I have eternal life, I know I’m going to heaven when I die. And what I don’t want is like people in America who have been given freedom because somebody sacrificed and gave up their life so that we could live, and they were trying to protect us. And here we are, allowing the damnable doctrines of communism and socialism. That we will put up a wall in a defense and keep Russia or China from coming in and destroying our country.

But we let their philosophy that turn them into those kind of countries, taught in our schools and our universities, and educate our children and teach them socialism. And so instead of having to storm the gates, they just infiltrate. And they can turn our country into a socialist, communist country without firing a shot. Wouldn’t it be a shame for America to go down, to lose everything that so many people and so many wars have fought and died for so that they can’t come over here and get us.

And we allow them to come in and teach their heresy. And all the teachers of Marxism stuff. And it’s right here in America. And I would venture to say over 50% of Americans are today believing socialist. So I don’t believe that. I don’t care. I do. And I believe the Word of God is true and I know where we’re headed. And in spite of what the world does, what America does, I think the only way to save America is to get America saved.

And so I’m just going to keep on the soul-winning path. Let’s pray show him. We’re headed by a nice close and no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you right now just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this? Lord, I don’t understand it often. Nobody does. But I know I’m a sinner. I’m sure you know you are. But do you believe that He died on that cross? Christ died for you, paid for your sins.

He said, if you would trust Him as your Savior, He would give you as a free gift ever lasting life. He had never cast you out and never lose you. The best news in all the world. So we’re here to bow nice clothes. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, I want you to do it right now. I want you just to say this to the Lord. Lord, I believe Christ died for me and I’m trusting him right now to take me to heaven whenever I die.

If any of you’ll do that, God will save you. Is there anyone that will say, yes, pray for me. I’ll trust Christ as my savior and pray for me. Just slip in it very quickly and put a right back down, see what’s all. You know what’s all. God knows your thoughts. Just talk to him and say, Lord, I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died for me and I’m going to trust him right now. Friend, God said, if you do, he would save you.

Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each person here. In Christ and every Christ. Amen. 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. 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.