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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.

It’s a shame that a word has been so misused that it has produced such conflict, confusion among God’s people, especially those who stand in the pulpit and preach that a person must turn from his sins in order to be saved. Because that is not the gospel and that is not what is meant. And many of the verses that are were found in the Old Testament, I believe, clarify a clear understanding of what it means by repentance. Repentance in the Old Testament.

This message is designed to prove that repentance does not mean turn from your sins to be saved from hell or to go to heaven. And I want to show you that turning from your sins in order to be saved is works for salvation. You can’t cut it any other way. And works for salvation is not the gospel. And though it is proclaimed worldwide that it is. So I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verse 26, this is on page 230 in the Oscofo Reference Bible.

These verses are very important because God laid out to the nation of Israel how He would deal with them. These verses are not verses on how to go to heaven, how to stay out of hell. They’re written to a nation on how to receive one of two things, blessings or curses. So you notice in verse twink, behold, I said before you this day, a blessing and a curse. Verse 27, a blessing, you notice the next word, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, a blessing if you obey.

Very simple, land it out so that nobody misunderstands. Now, as we go through these verses, understand this. The principles laid down in these verses that we’re going to look at can also be applied to you as an individual. You may have trusted Christ as your Savior. That’s why you’re going to heaven. Not because you stopped something or started something, joined something, given salvation is the gift of God, not a works list any man should boast. But God didn’t take you home yet.

You’re still here. Now we’re talking about how you live your life. What is going to determine whether God blesses you or puts a curse upon you? That’s not to determine your destination that’s already decided by the decision to trust Christ as your only hope of going to heaven. Now to the nation of Israel, if they wanted to have national blessings or a national curse, it depends upon whether or not they would do one of these two things. Verse 27, a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God.

Looking verse 28, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord. So whether they got a blessing or a curse dependent upon whether they would obey or disobey what God says to do. So the Lord explains it and tells us what we need to understand here. You and I need to understand that if you want God to bless your life here, then it could be the results of did you obey what he wanted you to do.

And if you don’t, then God’s going to have to beat the tar out of you chasing you, maybe take you home before your time. So how you live life is not what determines your destination, which is totally opposite of what everybody thinks. We’re always under the impression, if you’re good, you go to heaven and if you’re bad, you go to hell. Let me dispel all that. There is none good. There is none good. Now I’m not one. There’s only one that’s good and that’s God and that’s Jesus Christ.

So nobody has ever lived good enough to go to heaven, but we have all lived bad enough to go to hell. So aren’t you glad that God is not going to allow us to all suffer the consequences because He made provision. And those who will accept Christ as Savior can have eternal life and go to heaven. So your destination depends upon you either accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ as your only hope, because you can not earn it. Salvation is not a reward that you get because you’ve been good.

The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of God’s perfection. God is perfect. We are not. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. Therefore if anybody goes to heaven it’ll have to be a gift because if you can’t earn it it’ll have to be free. That’s why the Bible says it is the gift of God. Not a works list any man should boast. Now turning your Bible to the book of Exodus the book of Exodus in chapter 32, the book of Exodus in chapter 32.

Now Moses and the Lord had had a few words. The Lord is just about ready to take them all out of here. So Moses intervened on Israel’s behalf because he God had miraculously used an old man, 80 years old, it’s not that old. And he took him down into Egypt and says, let my people go and lo and behold, after a while they finally consented and here they came. Now Israel had become so bad and did so many wicked things.

The Lord hadn’t got angry and mad at him. And so God was about ready to just destroy the whole nation he told Monies, he said, I’ll just start all all over again and make you the leader and we’ll start all over again. Moses said, no, no, Lord, you can’t do that. What do you think those people down in Egypt are going to say? So he was concerned about God’s testimony. Look in verse 11, and Moses besought the Lord as God and said, Lord, why death thy wrath was hot against thy people, which thou hath brought forth out of the land of Egypt, you with great power and with a mighty hand.

You brought him out. You did that. And everybody’s heard you did that. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth, turn from thy fierce wrath. Now here’s Moses telling God to turn from his fierce wrath and repent of this evil against Thais people. Moses, a man telling God that God, you need to repent. You said, that can’t be in the Bible.

I just read it. He told God, you need to turn from your fierce anger and repent of this evil. Now can God turn from sin? Now this is what makes it interesting because I believe that it’s used throughout the Old Testament and it’s very interesting. So you’ve got to try to understand, well, what is he really saying? So he says, remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by servant to whom thou swearest that by thy own self and saith unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken I give to your seed and they shall inherit it forever.

Lord, don’t you remember making that vow? Didn’t you make that promise? And the Lord, repent of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. Boy, it’s about time we got God to straighten up and fly right in it. Now, aren’t you glad that God finally turned from His sin so we can go to heaven? Do you believe that’s what He’s talking? No, no, no, no, no, no. Remember this. It also makes a statement that God says, and I’ll show you this in a little bit.

God said I created evil. He said, what in the world would that mean? God’s eye created evil. And down here when he says in verse 14, and the Lord repented of the evil. See, repent as you change your mind. Think differently. Reconsider. God had already said this. If ye obey, I’ll do this. If you disobey, I will do this. So when Israel disobeys God, God then is free to chasten his power. people, his nation, because they can’t just live as they please and get away with it.

I believe there’s a principle here. You can’t live as you please and get away with it. You just don’t know the consequences. He ain’t through with you yet. Now when he talks about the evil, you see, the evil is the consequences of your sin. You see, God can bring upon anybody the consequences of their sin. God is free to determine what form of punishment He’s going to made out to you. You can choose whatever sin you want to. Thou shalt not kill.

You can kill. Thou shalt not like. You can lie. You see me acting dull as bad? Of course you can. But there’s consequences. And then God is free to do whatever He wants. He could take your life out of here, put you in a wheelchair, put you in a hospital, take all your money away, God can do all kinds of things. Now I’m not saying He will. I’m not saying what He’s free to do. And sometimes by the mercy of God, you don’t suffer the consequences of your disobedience, because God may have a higher purpose.

He doesn’t always tell us. So God was going to, and He could have been justified because He already told Israel what was going to happen if they did it, but Moses intervened. And so God says he would reconsider by mercy and he gave him another chance. Aren’t you glad that God is the God of first chance, second chance, third chance and fourth chance? How many chances has he given you? And he hasn’t slapped you down yet. And so you think because nothing has happened, you’re free to do more wrong.

Read the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and see how you come out. And he says, some think that that means that God’s not going to do anything because nothing happened. And so if you know the Bible, you know it could happen at any moment. God’s chasing hand. Now, I want you’re you’re looking to book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 45, Isaiah 45, and look there in verse 6. He says, in verse 6 says, that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.

I am the Lord, there is not else. There is not another God. There’s only one God. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. Remember this, God cannot sin. God never sins. God leads no man into sin. God doesn’t tempt any man to sin, but He says I create evil. He creates the results, the consequences of your wrong decisions. In other words, it’s like a law that God has set up.

There’s consequences when you plant the wrong seed, something’s gonna grow from that, God causes that. God can allow the devil to come after you with his permission. God can allow lots of things to happen in your life that you will consider to be just consequences. But God can allow those consequences to be good consequences or evil consequences. if you obey or if you do not obey. See, nobody can force you to know Christ, no one can force you to live for the Lord.

That is a choice that you are free to make. But understand that just because you choose to do whatever you wanna do, there’s no consequences to your decisions. It can happen at any time, and you might as well know and understand. Every man shall give a count of himself to God. And so I believe that that is a very good verse, but you are all right down in your notes if you choose to. The fruit of sin, the evil is the fruit, the results of your rebellion, your disobedience to God.

He says, if you do this, obey my word, I’ll do this and bless. If you do this, I’ll do this. So what God does is a reaction to what you do. And there’s consequences, there’s cause and effect. So understand what God is talking about. Turn in the book of Numbers, the book of Numbers, Old Testament, Numbers in chapter 23, Numbers chapter 23, Numbers 23 and looking verse 19. First 19, now there’s that problem that had been going on with Bailack and Bailam and he was trying to get him to put a and Balaam, and he was trying to get him to pull a curse on Israel.

He was a prophet of God. So Balaam was, I guess you could say any of the money. He said, I can’t curse Israel. I can’t do it. If you try, he couldn’t do it. So this is what he said, finally. God is not a man. He’s already given his word. He didn’t told you, not untold you. God is not a man. That he should lie. That word lie, you ought to just put it in your nose. He cannot sin.

God cannot sin. He can’t lie. God is perfect. God is righteous. He can not sin. Nor the Son of Man that he needs to repent. The turn from sin. I believe that Christ can sin, never need it to repent or turn from the sin. Not there. Have He said in? Shall He not do it? In other words, when God gives His Word, cannot God do what He says He’s going to do? Isn’t faith, we say, the believing that what God had promised He is also able to perform?

That’s a good definition of the word faith. Believing that what God promised, He will do. promise that if I trust him as my Savior, he would give me as a free gift eternal life. And I get to go to heaven on what he did. I don’t have to earn it. You mean I don’t have to be good to go to heaven? No. I don’t have to turn for my sins? No. I don’t have to live right. No. See a preacher that says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, they don’t get it.

They can’t believe that God loves you that much that he would give you eternal life as a free gift and you can go to heaven and you don’t have to promise to serve him. You don’t have to stop being bad and start being good. This is to show how much God loves us, not to show how much we love God. So there’s a clear understanding of what God will and will not do. So God never had to turn from a sin.

But God did repent over and over and over again. But the reconsideration was because if you do this, I will do this. And if you do this, I will do this. It was the consequences of your choice. You see, you are free to choose. God did not make your eye robots. We have a mind we can decide. We can choose to believe in God or not to believe in God. But there’s consequences of your decision. I cannot get ahold of God, bring him down here and say, there he is.

No. But the Bible says there is this light, that light of every man cometh into the world. And this light is the evidence that there is a God, the world itself. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And this Word that was God, all things were made by Him, which was Christ. And in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And that is the proof that there is a God.

That’s the evidence. One evidence? Well, there it is. Did you do it? I didn’t do it. You did you do it? You see, God did it and that’s His evidence. And that’s all the evidence you need that, no, there is a God. Now, if you will accept truth, truth will lead to truth. Take your Bible and Turn with me to the book of Jeremiah chapter 18, Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 18.

There’s several verses here that I want us to look at because he’s talking a little bit about the Potter’s house and how that God is able to take a piece of pottery and if it doesn’t yield itself that he’s able to break it and remake it and to the shape whatever he wants. God says the potter has power over the clay. He refers to the nation of Israel, you are the clay and I am the potter and I will apply the word of God.

And the water of the Word. And you are the one that decides to be teachable, you know, pliable in the hands of God, or you can harden yourself against the will of God. And if you harden yourself against the will of God, then I have the right to break you. And I have the right to remake you. But it’s based upon whether or not will you obey or will you not obey. You are a child of God. You trust that Christ is your Savior.

You’re now going to heaven when you die. The Lord wants to mold you into the image of Christ. by your studying of the water of the Word and applying it, you become teachable, pliable in God’s hands. And God can apply pressure from the world, and He can also apply pressure from the inside of you to the person of the Holy Spirit to mold you into the image of Christ. That’s why He says, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may consider.

Proof, what is this perfect will of God? Now you can harden yourself. Everyone of you in this room, you can harden yourself to what God wants for your life. You can rebel against them. Nobody can make you teachable and pliable. You can have a tender spirit or you can have a hard heart, your choice, but there’s consequences. And you’ll lose out and you’ll never be that vessel that God wanted to use for his power, for his honor, for his glory.

and you’ll be a dishonorable vessel, one that God has to set aside and not use. Where the greatest joys in the world is knowing that you are a vessel fit for the master’s use, that God can use you for his honor and for his glory. Now notice what he says, look very quickly down here in verse four, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter. So he made it again, another vessel.

as Seemeth good to the potter to make it. Then the Lord said, I’ve got a word for you. This is what I want you to know. Oh, house of Israel cannot I do with you as this potter. Sayeth the Lord, Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hands or you in my hands, oh, house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning the kingdom to pluck up and to pull down to destroy God said, I’m still on the throne and I’m still the potter and I’m still in charge.

and you can rebel all you want. Go your own way, do your own thing. But that doesn’t limit what God can do to you. I mean, where can you run that you may hide from the power of God? Look in verse eight, see that small word? If that nation against whom I have pronounced turned from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. see and you’ll notice it in the New Testament also.

Generally when you see the word repent there’s a word thought think, suppose, somewhere close by. You thought this and you had to change your mind. Think differently, reconsider. God says you did this and I’m not going to do this. But if you correct the problem I can change my mind about doing this because you changed your mind about what you were going to do. And so if you change your mind, God says, I changed my mind. I was wishing to know who up you, but you got it right and that I didn’t do it.

See God’s not a sinner. Turning from this evil results, a consequences of your disobedience, but there’s some people who don’t get this and they twist these scriptures and make them say things that they they don’t say. Now get this. This knock your socks off if you have socks on. Look what he says there in verse 9 and at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning the kingdom to build and to plant it. Look in verse 10 you ought to circle that first word there.

If you do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the what? See you can repent of evil and you can repent of good. You see, everybody can change their mind about anything. I’m going to marry this girl. I changed my mind. What did you mean? Because you didn’t marry her. I’m going to go to church today. But you didn’t come. You repented. You changed your mind. I’m going to go to the bar today and get drunk.

And you repented, you changed your mind, you didn’t, you came to church today glad to have you. So you can change your mind about a lot of different things. It all depends on what’s the context. What does God want you to change your mind about? And so when the people of Israel would rebel God would chase in them. You read the book of Judges over and over again and they did that which was right in their own eyes and God would have to chase them.

They cried out to the Lord and God. deliver them and give them another chance. A lot of things you can learn from this. But notice what he says here in verse 10. If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, you notice the obey in the voice or not obey in? That’s your choice. Then I will repent of the good where what I said I would benefit. In other words what happened to you in life sometimes?

It’s not the way it could have been or should have been. You could have changed it. You ever hear that song? Whatever will be, will be. No, it’s not. I don’t believe in Calvinism and fatal predestination. I believe you make a decision. And God can either bless or chasten. I don’t believe that God’s already planned out. Every little thing is going on. I believe I’m making decisions today that can affect down the road. And there’s a God in heaven that can work and bless my life.

I believe the perfect will for God for my life is the very next decision I make. You see, if you’re not doing right and you decide to correct it, that’s as close as the next decision you make to getting back into the will of God. He says, I would have benefited you. I wanted to do good, but you wouldn’t let me because God is a perfect God and see rebellion has to be taken and dealt with. Now nobody can make you obey the Lord, but you can rebel against the Lord.

And if you rebel against the Lord, I want you to learn the principle of God. Later down in the old time, he says, search these scriptures. He says that you can be wise concerning the things that God has taught us, that we can learn from these things. Take your Bible also and turn to Jeremiah 26. Jeremiah 26 and see the importance of every word in the Scriptures. Now, Josiah was a king, pretty good fella. But notice what he said in verse 2.

This is Jeremiah chapter 26. This is on page 799. And in verse 2, he says, Thus saith the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord’s house and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship the Lord’s house. All the words that I command thee to speak unto them diminish not a word, every word important. Then he says in verse 3, If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them.

Now look at the last part of it, because of the evil of their doing. You see, what God was going to do was a result of what they were doing. Now, do I want God to bless me? Yes, I do. Then I need to do what will bring it. And if I decide to go my own way, well, God let me go my own way. Will God let me be disobedient? But should I expect God to do something about it?

Once you understand this, you’d be surprised. It’s the good key to restrain yourself, to discipline yourself, to get as close to the Lord as you possibly can. Men reserved the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpen’s Iron Men’s Bible Study and Breakfast at Calvary Community Church. Join us at 730 for a home-cooked breakfast. Then at 8 a.m. the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style Men’s Bible Study in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and dialogue are welcomed.

The scripture tells us that Iron sharpens iron, and this men’s Bible Study is open to those of all levels, whether new believers or mature Christians. The Iron sharpens iron men’s Bible Study and Breakfast. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. Thanks for joining us on Bible I. 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.