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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

You hear the phrase, turn from your sins. And so many people believe that’s what the word repent means. So it becomes another message. And if just trusting Christ’s Savior is not enough, then they add on, you gotta do this too. So that means that the message of salvation by grace is not really by grace alone, it’s plus something. So when you add something to grace, grace is no longer grace. That one work messes up the message of grace. So when you tell a lost man that he has to turn from his sins in order to be saved, that’s putting people back under the law.

You see, when you talk about the law, the 10 commandments, the moral law, there were some of them that talks about, you know, the first four about loving God. And the other six about your relationship to man. That’s why he says, what is the first commandment, the greatest commandment of all? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. Have you done that? No, you haven’t. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. You hadn’t done that either.

So we break the law. And so whenever you take people and you say, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to love the Lord. So they tell them you’ve got to make Christ the Lord and the master of your life. Submit yourself to the authority of God and promise to serve God. You’re placing people under the law. They got to perform or they can’t be saved. And when you tell them to stop being bad, turn from your sins, you see, that’s both extremities.

Stop being bad. Start being good. Promise to serve God. Do right. Do good. And don’t do bad. That is bondage. That is law. And God says, be not entangled again with this yoke of bondage. What I trust in Christ is my Savior in 1960. God gave me as a free gift, everlasting free gift. It wasn’t contingent upon how I lived. So how I live has nothing to do with getting it or keeping it. me by grace. I did not deserve it.

I was under a curse. I could not save myself and I could not keep from dying. I could not deliver myself. Or anyone else. And because of what Christ did for me, I now have eternal life. And so I am not going to place myself back under this law. You see, a man in the flesh, he cannot produce a spiritual life. That’s why this person born in the flesh is under the law. Why should I who had been set free from the law placed myself back under the law?

And this is why in Galatians he says, why don’t you have this peace or this joy, this happiness. It’s all been taken from you. Look down to the bottom of the page there. To preach that a lost man must turn from sin or make Christ the Lord and master of his life is to annul the sacrifice of Christ. It puts a person back under the law and demands how he must perform. If true, this becomes a life of do’s and don’ts.

This is a return to bondage. I don’t serve the Lord because I have to. I serve the Lord because I want to. And if I don’t want to, I still have eternal life and I’m still going to heaven when I die. And I don’t have to worry about, well, are there evidences of salvation? I don’t have to give any evidence to anybody that I’m saved. I’m saved because of what he did for me, because I believe what the Scripture says, he doesn’t believe it to me, half everlasting life.

Based upon what he says, that’s all the evidence I need. God said so. How do I know I’m saved? Because God says I’m saved. He said, if I trust him, he gives me eternal life. How do I know I have eternal life? life. He said, if I trust Him, I have it. And He says, I have it because I trust Him. I got it. And I don’t determine whether or not I’m really saved and gloriously saved because, well, I’m a preacher.

That’s how I know I’m really saved. Well, what about all the people who are not preachers? Well, I go to church. I give money. That’s the proof that I’m saved. No, it’s not. A lost man can go to church. Now, a lost man can give money and a lost man can do all these things just like you can. Does that mean he saved? No. Salvation is the gift of God. Now, notice there in the book of Galatians and turn to chapter one.

And notice what he says. In verse six, Paul says, Now, there were people who were trying to put the believers back under the law. He said, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, which is the gospel of Christ. You see, the gospel and grace are the same. The gospel is good news. And the good news is it’s saved by grace. And And grace means you’re not saved by your works.

And the pest of grace is no works. If there’s works added to grace, it’s not grace. Now there is a verse in the Bible. And it makes a statement in the book of Romans chapter 11 and verse six. And if it’s by grace, it cannot be by works, otherwise grace is not grace. But if it be by works, it cannot be by grace, otherwise work isn’t work. Isn’t that simple? That is. In other words, without my coat. That’s grace.

With my coat. That’s works. And the Bible says, if it’s by grace, well then it’s not by works. Otherwise grace isn’t grace. But if it is by works, it can’t be by grace. Otherwise work isn’t work. It’s simple. It’s either one way or the other. You cannot earn your salvation. Erden, it means you deserve it. Grace means you don’t deserve it. And yet there’s people that say, well, you gotta deserve it. Don’t let people put you back under the law.

Don’t you trust in your lifestyle as the proof that you’re saved, or whether or not that proves your law. You’re saved or lost because you either did or did not accept Jesus Christ as your savior. Now, we’ll talk about serving the Lord at a different time. But if I had an invitation to go and see the president of the United States, Donald Trump, Betty says, yank, you don’t forget to wear your coat. Yes, dear. Now, I’m gonna go into the office to see the president.

Now, don’t get smart with me. But if I was to ask you, and you would be honest, you don’t go by what somebody else says, and the only thing for yourself is my coat. Is it on or is it off? Is it on? Or is it off? Now be honest, in your own mind, how many think my coach on? Let me see in. All right? How many think my coach off? Oh, they got more. How many are confused? We got three times more people confused.

And the reason is, it’s because I’m mixing law and grace together. And when you mix those together, It confuses people. Well, it’s free, but no, it’s free. That’s all. And don’t butt it around. So when you trust Christ and Savior, you’re saved by grace or works. Have you ever heard of a verse that calls, I’m gonna need some help in a minute here. I feel like I’m trying to put on a strict jacket.

But once you trust Christ and Savior, you have ever lasting life. But notice when you add works to the gospel of grace, the only way you can change grace is by adding works to it. You can’t change grace no other way. If it’s free, it’s free. No strings attached. But you ought to do this and you, maybe you ought to do a lot of things and you should do a lot of things. But I don’t have to. That’s the point.

I am free as a child of God to be an obedient child of God, if I want. and to be a disobedient child of God if I want. But I also know that if I’m obedient, God will bless my life and reward me when I get to heaven. I also know that if I’m rebellious to the Lord, still is child. But he’ll have to chase it in discipline, maybe even take me home before my time. But I’m still is child.

See, a lot of people tell you, no, no, no, no, no, no. You see, you don’t have this choice. If you’re really saved, you’re not going to want to go out here and do those bad things. Well, I wouldn’t if I wasn’t still living in my old sinful body because my sinful nature is still in my body. God never changed that. You see, He didn’t change this old man. All He does give me a new birth. And if I don’t walk in the flesh, if I don’t, doesn’t mean that He don’t exist.

If I walk in the Spirit, doesn’t mean this one doesn’t exist. Or if I walk in the flesh, that this one doesn’t exist. They both exist. I have two births, two different natures. This one, my new birth was born without a sinful nature. If you have to be perfect to go to heaven, you see how that this is the one that goes to heaven, the new birth, not the old birth. If I went to heaven with my old birth, then I would sin in heaven.

And so would you in heaven, it would be messed up just like it is down here. God says none of that. Only those who accept Christ as Savior and have this new birth, born of God. All of these people born again from above are made perfect in Christ. You see, what’s a perfect person look like? Well, you can’t really see my new birth, but it’s real. I have a new birth. And so God says in verse seven, which is not another, there’s not another, But there be some that trouble you inward pervert the gospel of Christ.

How do you pervert the God? Add works to it. So we’re not to add works to the gospel of grace because that involves what Christ did. Now look there in the book of Galatians in chapter 2 and verse 21. Chapter 2 verse 21, Paul says, I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If you can get your righteousness by your good works, then why did Christ die?

He didn’t die just to show you about a way to live, how do you go to heaven? No. Without him, you don’t go to heaven. Has nothing to do with how you live. I’m a sinner and I ought to go to hell. But he loved me and he died for me. Now I’m not going to heaven because I love God. I’m going to heaven because God loves me. After I trust Christ is my Savior. And I may study the Bible and verse here, the verse there.

And I may occasionally go to church and a little bottle of I learned some things I find out. You know, he really did love me. And I begin to fall in love with the Lord, grow in love for the Lord. Then it can change my whole life. You see, when he makes the statement in the book of Romans in chapter 12, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies and living sacrifice. This is to those who already are saved.

So you see, if I had to do that before I was saved, why is He telling me to do that after I’m saved? I’d have had to already do it. But after you’re saved, does God want me to present my body as I live and sacrifice holy, acceptable, and the God which is my reasonable servant, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will have God.

That’s after you’re saved. You don’t make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life in order to be saved, that would make salvation by your work. Because if you don’t perform, you don’t get it. You don’t tell a lost man you got to turn from your sins to be saved because then you have to tell him, okay, which sins? How many of them? For how long? And then you got to perform before God will save you? Or does He save you based upon the promise that you made?

And if you don’t keep your promise, He’s going to take it away from you. That’s law. That’s you saving you. not be saved by grace. I have eternal life and I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did on the cross for me. And that’s the difference. Now, I want you to notice what He says here in Galatians 2 and verse 19. This is one of the verses that’s on your pavers, but in verse 19 He says, for I through the law am dead to the law because the law condemns and Christ was condemned in my place.

And I died in Christ. Now the law cannot touch me. I’m dead to the law. The law can never condemn you again. See, look up here. This new birth over here shall not come into condemnation. Never can be condemned. There’s no condemnation to those that are had this new This new birth can’t send. It doesn’t send. It’s perfect. Whenever I sin, it was this old man. That’s why I was in. He made me do it. I didn’t want to do it, but he made me do it.

And God said, I’m going to hook the tar out of you because you let him make you do it. And so can a Christian still sin? As long as you have this old physical body, you have an old sinful nature. And that’s why I’ve told kids, especially the teenagers, when you got up this morning and you looked in the mirror and you were ugly and you trusted Christ as your Savior. go back and look in that mirror. You’re still ugly.

And the reason because he never changed your body, you didn’t look different. Oh, I’m 10 years younger by trusting the Lord. No, it didn’t work that way. He didn’t change his whole body. That’s why he says, in Christ, this is a new creature, new creation. This and over here, he says, you once were a child of the devil going to hell, now you’re a child of God going to heaven. And there’s the difference. And so look there in verse 10 of chapter 3.

In verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the Lord. In other words, trying to earn salvation by your good life, trying to turn from all of your sins and trying to make Christ the Lord and the master of your life. If you want to try to go down that trail of what he says. You’re under the blessing or a curse. You’re under a curse. Why? For it is written, curse it is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

You have to fulfill everything in order to save yourself by turning from your sins. How many sins would you have to turn from? Every sin. They’re now on and you can’t mess up and And you have to make Christ the Lord and Master of your life in every area and obey perfectly, not close perfectly. So you’ve got to be perfect in both areas. How you doing? Would you want to try to earn your way to heaven? Not this boy.

When I heard it was free, man, I nailed that. No string detect, I’ll take it any day. I would be a fool to turn down a free gift. So that day when I heard the gospel I was 18 years old and I trusted Christ as my Savior. Smartest decision ever made in my life and God promised that He would give me eternal life and I’d get to go to heaven whenever I died. And for the rest of my life, whatever I got left, I’d say I want to serve the Lord but I don’t serve the Lord to get to heaven.

I love the Lord because of what He’s done for me and And my motive for wanting to serve the Lord is very simple. It’s not because of what I can get from God, from here on out. But I serve the Lord because I love Him, because of what He’s already done. You see, He died and paid for my sins. He delivered me from the curse of the law. And I know I won’t have this old body very long. I’m running out of time.

And I don’t have to fear death. Because see, my Newburgh can’t die. Oh, I’ll leave this old world and this old body, but death here is just an escape from this world. It’s just the doorway into heaven. You know, the best thing that can happen to me is to drop dead? Don’t vote on this. This was not for you to vote on. I wound up in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and I got a get-will card from the Deacon Board.

Five-four and three against. I’m so thankful that I know I have eternal life because I know where I’m going when I die. But the only reason I can know that I’m going to heaven is it doesn’t depend on me. If it depends on the Lord, it’s a sure thing because I can trust God because He can’t lie. And you know what? He says it’s free. Now, if I offered you my Bible and you accept you’d have a Bible. When?

When you accept it. If I offered you this microphone and you accepted, you’d have a microphone. When? But when you accepted. If I offered you my wallet and you accepted, what would you have? An empty wallet. When would you have this empty wallet? You’d have all my sins. You’d have all my sins. But if Christ walked in here right now and offered you eternal life, and you accepted, what would you have? Eternal life. So can you know you have eternal life?

and you know you’re going to heaven when you die? Yeah, right, it’s free. All you gotta do is believe it. Believe what God said, that it is true. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bound, every eye closed, and no one looking around. When it right now, and the quietness of this moment, just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this. Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I know I cannot save myself, but I believe Jesus Christ went to the cross that he died and paid for my sins, and right now the best I know how, I will accept him as my Savior.

I’m going to trust him to take me to heaven when I die. And friend, God said if you trust him, he would save you, give you eternal life, and you can know that you’re going to heaven. I’m not going to have you forward, nugging embarrass you, but right where you’re sitting, I’m going to ask for a raise a hand. Raising your hand does not save you. It’s just like if I was asked you, would you trust Christ as Savior?

You say yes. Well, I can’t talk to you individually like that right now. So I have to do it as a group. So I’m going to ask you, will you right now accept Jesus Christ as your Savior? You can all hollow out, but you can just let me know by slipping your hand up. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you and you say, preacher, I trust you Christ as my Savior this morning and I just want you to know and I’d like to have prayer for you.

I really would. bless you back in the back. Anyone else? Just slip you in it very quickly. So that made sense to me and I’ll trust Christ right now is my Savior and I’d like you to pray for me. If you’ve never done so would you do it right now? Just slip you in it very quickly put it right back down. Other others. Our Father, we thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us, for giving us a free gift of everlasting life.

And the Father, according to your word, you say do not become entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Thank you that Now that I’m saved, I gotta stay saved by how I live. Now we stay saved because of the power of God, not because of our power. And bless the one that indicated by Nepali that hand that they would trust you as Savior. We ask your blessings upon the service in Christ’s name. Amen. We are not through. I got something I wanna show you because we should be so thankful that we live in America.

And I wanna show you this, it’s about five minutes long. I think it’s you will enjoy it. I want the Lord to bless America because of the believers in America, not because of the wicked that are doing what they’re doing. I don’t want that to be blessed, but I do want God to bless us because of there’s a good number of righteous people in this country that appreciate our country. And also there’s people the day that says you shouldn’t pledge allegiance to the flag.

To me, the flag represents our freedoms that we have. And I’m from one person, one preacher, that loves our country, I love our military, I love the freedom that they have gotten for us and what they’ve done to keep us safe. You ready? Yes, sir. He was getting old and punchy and his hair was falling fast. And he sat around the beach and he was telling the stories the past of a war that he had fought him and the deeds that he had done in his exploits with his buddies.

They were heroes, everyone. And though sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke, all his legion buddies listened for they knew where of he spoke. He will hear his tales no longer. Fro Bill has passed away. The world’s little poor, or soldier, died today. He will not be born by many, just as children mis-wife. For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life. He’ll have a job and raise the family quietly, going his own way. the world won’t notice passing.

Or a soldier died today, when politicians leave this Earth. Their bodies lie in state. While thousands note their passing, and proclaim that they were great. Papers tell their whole life stories from the time that they were young. But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung. is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land, a guy who breaks his promise in cons as fellow man. Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife goes off to serve his country and offers up his life.

A politician’s stifle in the style in which he lives are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives. While the ordinary soldier who is offered up his all is paid off with a medal, perhaps a pinch of smoke. It’s so easy to forget, and for it was so long ago that the old bills of our country went to battle. But we know it was not the politicians, with their compromises and ploys, who won for us the freedom that our country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger with your enemies at hand, would you want a politician Would this ever shift in Stan? Or would you prefer a soldier who has sworn to defend his own, his kin and country, and would fight it till the end? He was just a common soldier. And his ranks are growing thin. But his presence should remind us we may need his life again. Countries are in conflict. Then we find the soldiers’ part Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians stopped.

We cannot do the honor. While he’s here to hear the praise, then at least let’s give him homage at the ending of his days. Perhaps just a simple headlining in a paper that would say Our country is in mourning when the First Soldier died. 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. 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.