Bibleline Radio Show – 2019-07-16 – The Error In The Sword Of The Lord Pt.2
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.
Getting saved has nothing to do with how you have lived, how you are living or how you will live in the future. That has nothing to do with salvation. Salvation has nothing to do with the works that you, have done, good or bad. Your works that you’re doing, good or bad. The works that you might do in the future, good or bad, has nothing to do with that. I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. He meant business.
Now, she replied, if I must choose between Jesus Christ and dancing, I will hold on to my dancing and let Jesus Christ go. It says, what an awful choice. But that’s not really the choice. They lied to them about the choice. You see, the trust Christ or not trust Christ, that’s the only choice you have to make. It’s not because well I have to give up my drinking or I got to give up my dancing, I got to give up Elvis Presley and I got to give up country music and I got to give up, no that’s not the issue.
You don’t have to give up anything, nothing. You don’t have to promise God anything. Another reason people go to hell, there’s all these reasons people go to hell, but you’ve got to give them all up. The fear of man is keeping many, a man and a woman from coming the Christ and obtaining eternal life. But how many? There are who, when the invitation is given, would like to stand up, but they think, if I should do this, my friends and business or society would hear about it and would, what would they say?
You keep your seat and you reject Jesus for fear of what they would say. Who says they have to even know that you trust the Lord? Well, because you’ve got to stand up, then you’ve got to come forward, then you’ve got to confess, public in front of everybody. Everybody’s going to know, is it possible for a person to get saved without raising their hand, without coming down to their front, without confessing anything? Yes. They build a straw man and then they attack the straw man and it’s not real.
It’s a straw man. It’s an issue that has nothing to do with salvation. my sins. However bad they may be Christ took care of the sin problem. I don’t have a sin problem about going to heaven. I have a belief problem. Will I believe that he did that, paid for my sins? Well, if he paid for my sin, that’s not an issue. Does that mean I don’t want people to serve God? I don’t know any preacher who wants people to serve the Lord more than I do, or to live a holy of Godly life, because I do.
But I can’t mix that service in with salvation. Salvation is a gift. It’s free. But when you talk about the other part of service, don’t put it over there with salvation. It means that together you got a confused message and it becomes a false message. So in Proverbs 29, 25, we read the fear of man bringeth a snare. It is bringing a snare that is landing many in a path that leads to eternal ruin instead of to Jesus Christ and eternal life.
I would a great deal rather that men would laugh at me down here for doing a wise thing than that the devils in hell should laugh at me for all eternity for doing a foolish thing. Laughing has nothing to do with nothing. an issue that’s there’s no point has nothing to do with being saved. Next statement. We have in our country a very foolish custom. It is called April Fools Day. On the first day of April, all the fools in America tried to make fools of all the other fools.
I tell you that a day is coming for those men and women who laugh at you because you have, you choose Christ in eternal life. When they will say that you have made a wise choice and they were the fools. Don’t let them laugh you out of life eternal. That one of my missions I asked of woman, how she was getting on. She replied, I am not getting on at all. I am perfectly miserable. Why is that? I don’t know.
Another says, I can tell you why it is. She has never told her husband that she has accepted Jesus Christ. Is that so? It is. But you stood up in the meeting, yes, but not when he was present. What you must tell him, you must. I can’t tell my husband. He would laugh at me. Never mind how much he laughs. I can’t do it, she said. So anyway, it’s foolish talk. It’s jibber jabbard. And this is the man who was the president of Moody Bible Institute.
This is his gospel. See anything wrong with it? This teaches doubts for salvation. This teaches Calvinism, perseverance of the saints. This is talking about works for salvation. You got to get rid of all of these things. Be ready to turn from all of your sins to qualify for God to say, God can’t save you the way you are. You have to be willing to change.
Well, anyway, an unforgiving spirit is another thing that is keeping men and women from coming to Christ. They know they cannot come and bring a heart full of hate. So they choose bitterness and hatred and death instead of Christ in life. One afternoon after Mr. Moody had been speaking in Cleveland, he brought me to a lady to show her the way of life. I don’t think it was a wise move. I had been speaking to her, trying this and that passage to see what was in the way of her accepting Christ.
When suddenly I turned to her and said, is there somebody you cannot forgive? She looked quickly, it means says, who told you? I said, nobody told me. What is salvation going to do with her having a bitter spirit towards somebody or angry at anybody or not having a forgiving spirit? That has nothing to do with going to heaven. Absolute nothing, but it has everything to do if you have to turn from your sins in order to be saved. If you’ve got to turn from your sins and you harb in that bitterness and that envy that jealousy, you got to get rid of all of that.
You see, then salvation in presenting the gospel is not the easiest thing in the world because now you just can’t tell me Christ died for you and paid for your sin. You trust me, have you turn life. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, because now you got to get them to be willing to change their life and turn from their sins. So that’s going to take some time. That’s why some people can’t leave people to the Lord in a few minutes.
They’ve got to have days and weeks and months. No, no. There are a great many people in this world who are not willing to surrender their wills to anybody. So if you left off something, you got to surrender your will. It won’t be told me recently, I cannot give my will up to anybody. What foolishness. Who is this God to whom we ask you to surrender your will? Is that what we have to do to be saved? Surrender your will to do whatever you want and do only what God wants.
So now you must make him the Christ, the Lord, the master of your life. It is not wisdom to surrender our will, is it not wisdom to surrender our wills to infinite love and wisdom? All the folly of those who will not surrender their wills to God and his love. See, that also sounds spiritual, but it’s trash. It’s trash. This is from the fundamental Baptist fellowships That support this and this is what they’re doing. I can’t believe that Shelton Smith allowed this to get into the sword So you should have wrote in my letter I Did he says some of you are not willing to lay your pride in the dust You’re not willing to throw your pride to the winds and go to God and seek pardon through the atoning blood of Christ You will never be saved any other way A lady came to me and says, my
Christian experience is not satisfactory. I says, I don’t think you have any Christian experience. Why? I have, I am the widow of a minister and a member of a church. Well, I don’t think that you ever were saved in your life. No, you never were. Well, because she’s miserable. She’s not satisfied in the Christian life. And miserable. So this is a sign you never saved. But anyway, I don’t think that you ever were saved in your life. No, you never were.
For you never saw yourself as a lost sinner in your life. How does he know she was saved or not saved? Yes, you’re assuming. He says, let me deal frankly with you. You are just full of conceit. Unless God opens your eyes to see that you are not essentially better than the Valus Center and unless you come to God and cry for mercy. This is why they got to tell tear jerking stories at the end of the sermon so they can get people to come down to the front and weep and well and ask your teeth because they got to get results.
So that changes their whole message. What you believe about the gospel, is it important or not? It’s very important. It does make a difference. But pride operates in another way. Oh, that by the help of God, I could tear those awful scales from your eyes. Pride makes people sit themselves not to do certain things which they are asked to do. I am not coming to the meeting. They say, or I am not going to the front seats, or I am not going to the inquiry room.
A person can be saved without that. They can be on the doubt. But if you make it a point that you won’t do something of that kind, you won’t be saved until you do. It says you don’t have to, but if you make it a point, then you can’t be saved until you do. Isn’t that clear? I don’t know. It says, if you say you won’t do a thing, you will never be saved until you do. You’ve got to lay your pride in the dust before you can find Jesus Christ.
Some of you men and women think your position in society society is too exalted for you to come up to the front with common folks and accept the Savior just as ordinary men and women do. But if you think that, you will never be saved until you humble your pride in the dust and are willing to go anywhere to find peace and pardon. Let us throw away everything that stands between us and Jesus Christ. What stands between us and Jesus Christ?
are unbelief and that’s the only thing. He paid for my sins and they’re saying all these things and then they’re putting it in paper and it goes everywhere. There’s preacher law across this country probably say, boy, that’s a great sermon. I’m going to copy that and preach that this coming Sunday. I know preachers, I know what they do. This will be one sermon I will not preach except against it like tonight. So anyway, that’s what he says. I wrote a letter.
I thought I’d just read you my letter. You can handle that, can’t you? I will probably not be invited to speak at another sword conference. I have a good idea. Dr. Smith, editor of the Sword of the Lord. I am Ralph Genki Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. I was a friend for a number of years with Dr. Curtis Hudson. I had the privilege of speaking with him in a South Texas Sword of the Lord conferences in San Antonio, Texas.
One of the sermons that I preached was called the Clarity of the Gospel, which he put into the sword back in the early 90s. Dr. Curtis Hudson took a very strong stand on the clarity of the gospel. Now he passed away in about 95. I was greatly saddened today when I read the article by R.A. Torrey, a sermon titled, You Will Not Come the Main. Well, they can’t because he told them not to come. I told them every which way they can’t come.
Unless they become perfect and good enough, they wouldn’t even need to save you then. Anyway, he clearly preached a false gospel that anyone who preaches salvation by grace alone could have clearly detected, and it should never have been put into print. I was under the impression that the soul of the Lord did not believe that a person must turn from his sins or be willing to turn from his sins in order to be saved. He stated a number of reasons on page 23 and 24.
Why men will not come to Christ? In every case, he stated that a man would be lost because he would not turn from his sins. For sake his sins, or hate his sins, this is clearly not the good news that we tell a lost man. This is clearly a counterfeit gospel, and I am ashamed that you have allowed it to be put into the sword. the you you you you you you After Dr. Hudson passed away, I never attended another National Sword Conference.
I was privileged to speak at the Grace Conference at the Quentin Road Bible Baptist Church in Chicago, pastor by Dr. James Scudder for the last eight years. I once again attended the National Sword Conference last year in order to see if the sword of the Lord was still on track concerning soul winning and evangelism. I arrived on a Saturday in order to attend church services that Sunday morning through Wednesday. If I had been a lost man, I would have left as a lost man.
Because after hearing over 10 messages, not once was the gospel given or made clear on how to be saved. I left early with a broken heart. When I met you in the cafeteria, I wanted to share my thoughts with you. I noticed that you were very busy and I reconsidered about discussing this matter with you. This was your ministry. and not mine. So I quietly left, drove back home to Tampa, Florida. If you deem my comments out of place, please forgive me.
I met no harm, just disappointed. Then I wrote this. When Christ died on the cross, He died to pay for all my sins. When He came back from the dead, the only thing He wanted me to do was to believe that He did it for me. He loved me so much that He would rather die than live without me. How I have lived or how I am living or how I will live in the future is not the issue in salvation.
No man can know that he is going to heaven until he knows he cannot go to hell. The reason I cannot go to hell today, tomorrow or any time in the future is because I do not have any sins to pay for him. Christ died to pay for my sins. Period. Thank you and God bless. That’s my answer. I’m patiently waiting for a response. I don’t know if I’ll hear anything, but I sent it about three days ago. Do you raise your hand?
I had, I honestly believe, a good impact upon Dr. Curtis Hudson’s clarity of the gospel. in the habit of giving an invitation and the man could talk you into doing anything. He was good. And he did it very persuasively and he would invite people to come down to the front and then they would show them how to be saved so far. And so after one meeting I saw him out there in Colorado and I told him that I was very disappointed that he got his doctorate from Florida Bible College because I didn’t think he deserved it.
He just had the fastest growing Baptist Church in America that year, and forced Baptist Church, I think it was called. Anyway, you got it from Fort Bobbacolle because of Dr. Mark Cambron. And I said, you’re not FBC. And I said, I greatly disappointed in what I saw. This was about 85 or 80, I don’t know what, back in there. And he came to speak at these South Sheridan Baptist Church Ed Nelson was the pastor. And so I asked him, can I talk to you after one of the services?
And he said, sure, he was nice. But I didn’t really know him that well at all. I said by name and they didn’t know me at all. And so it didn’t matter if he liked me or didn’t like me, and they can cost me nothing. So I just hit him right between the eyes of it. I said, you’re not FBC. You should never have gotten a doctorate from FBC. He says, what do you mean? I says, what you’re doing here tonight?
And those men you get on your platform, I says, they’re not clear. They teach turn from sin and lordship salvation and some Calvinism. And I says, and you didn’t give the gospel at night. I said, Florida Bible College, a graduate, would haveSummary given the gospel. I said, you talked about it. Now we need to get it out, but you didn’t give it. I said, if I was lost, I’d still be lost right now. And I said, and you’ve given invitation.
I said, all of y’all, you’re faithfully given invitation. I said, but an invitation is not the gospel. You inviting people to come down to the front and you’ll show them how to be saved. That’s not the gospel. You may give them the gospel down here, but they didn’t hear no gospel because you invited them to come down and you’ll get them the gospel. And I says, there’s a lot of independent, fundamental Bible, even missionary-minded churches that don’t give gospel.
They give invitations to hear the gospel. And I says, that’s not given the gospel. I says, many churches don’t even hear the gospel. And I said, I don’t think it’s wise. I said, if you’re going to have a forward invitation, give the gospel first. Get people to trust Christ to save me. And if you want to come down for prayer and give them a book or inquiry room or whatever you want to do, that’s fine. I’m not against that.
I said, I’m against you saying, this is what you’ve got to do or give that impression in order to be saved. I said, because that’s not true. That’s a counterfeit. And so anyway, I thought that’ll be it. We talked a little bit more next, and you know, we came to Colorado Bible Church and spoke at our church. And it was riding down over the hill from our church, right where the old grains used to be, and we used to have our first meeting in that grain.
And I was talking to my sister, by the way, I want to ask you a question. I says, you remember that wallet illustration that you saw me do? Did you ever learn that in Florida Bible College? He says, I never saw that before. I says, wait a minute. You went down to Florida Bible College and you spoke and you’ve never seen the Wall of Illustration. He said, never ever said. I said, something’s wrong here. I said, you don’t go into Florida Bible College and you don’t speak in chapel and you don’t do all that without what’s in the Wall of Illustration.
He said, I’ve never seen it. He said, pull it aside, you pull it aside, you pull it aside, you pull it aside, you pull it one more time with him. We wrote a nice, good and clear. I got through. He says, I like that. That’s good. I said, you never seen it before. He said, I never seen it before. I said, you said, you went down to FBC? He said, I did. He spoke. I never listened to regular message either.
So anyway, I’m not sure if you ever told the truth or not. But he wanted to doing the invitation and people would trust the Lord because the guy was awesome. He really was. He was a great man of God. And some people, you can kind of give them a little rebuke and they’ll take it. And there’s other people, that’s it buddy. You don’t rebuke some people. But I didn’t care. So I’d swim for it. And He did change a few things and he got super clear.
And man that guy could preach like nobody. And so in the sword, and he started just like it was, you thought this would put up a for the Bible college when he was doing it and did a great job. And so I was pleased to speak with him in a few sword conferences and so forth. But anyway, I thought I’d share that with you tonight. I hope that they will change that and make a correction on that, but it didn’t sort.
They ought to correct that because that ought not stand. And in a way I appreciated if y’all would pray to that end. Already, let me show you something you’ve never seen. This morning there was a lady that showed up here and she was going to do some community service. So we had to wait a little bit and so sitting in there and not the library, but the other little, the bookstore room. And so I, so I got to ask you a question.
I said, I’m going to preach. I got to do my job. You want me to do my job, don’t you? I said, where are you going to go and you die? She just looked at me kind of cross-white. I thought, but maybe she didn’t hear me. I’m the one with the hearing aids. I said, do you know where you’re going to go and you die? I said, you that means you don’t really know. I’m pretty good. I say, oh, so you’re going to go to a pretty good heaven.
I says, I don’t think there is one. I think there’s a perfect one, but they’re not a pretty good heaven. She didn’t think that was cute either. In other words, sometimes it just don’t work. Anyway, I kept on until she finally, she trusted Christ as Savior. And it was kind of strange because I figured I hadn’t told her all I could. And she was kind of like, you ever see something that’s frozen? They don’t ask the question. They don’t carry on.
They don’t just listen to you. You can ask them a question. So I figured I’m not getting through. So I said, I pulled up my heaven track and I gave it to her. I even told him that was my picture on the front. Yeah. I mean, this is really a dud. This is really a dud. And so I said, OK, open it up. And I showed her the first shot on 5, 13. I showed her a vision straight. And I said, now look, I’ve got to go and get some things done.
You take this test right here. So I came over to my office and did a few things. And I think Greg was in there. So anyway, I walked back in. I looked down there and she had the track just laying in there. She looked at me and she says, none of those things are any good. I says, really? She says, no, none of those are any good. I said, how do you know? She said, according to what you told me, you said it was free.
And all this is work, work, work, work, work. She was listening. She heard everything I said. I registered. And I said, well, where are you gonna go in your door? I said, if I came in 10 years from now and I asked you, where are you gonna go in your night? What would you say? She says, heaven. I said, well, how do you know? Try to pay for all my sins. I said, you understand that? Duh. That is so neat.
That is so neat. Sometimes you think you’re not getting through it all. They don’t want to wear them all. They listen and they just don’t respond the way you think they ought to. But in case there’s somebody watching by internet tonight, this hand represents you and me. The wall represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us, but he hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. So once you die, you’re eternally separated from God, and there’s no way to ever get back.
So you have to make the decision to trust Christ before you die, because once you’re dead. It’s over. You can never get back because you’re eternally separated from God. So God says to go to heaven, we have to be perfect. Well, none of us are perfect. We’re we’ve all sinned. And the Bible says you cannot save yourself, not by your works list. It’s just not impossible. You can’t save yourself. Now, this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin because our sin separates us from him.
So Jesus Christ. Didn’t tell us, stop all your sin and I’ll save you.” He said, no, no, no. I’ll just take your sin from the time you’re born to the time I took all your sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And all he wanted us to do to go to heaven is believe that he did it for us. So when I believe that, he gives me as a free gift, eternal life, and I go to heaven on what Christ did for me.
It’s not a matter of me, will I be willing to be willing to be made willing to be willing? I’ve heard it all. and preach those that keep on until they try to keep get everybody down to their front. You want to be prayed for the night. You come down here. You’ve got a problem in your life. You want to pray for your husband, you want to pray for everybody. And they can keep on until they’ve got everybody in.
And so a few people still sitting out there, well, they must be totally ungodly. But anyway, I’m so glad that nobody has to walk and out. They don’t have to raise their hand. I asked them to raise their hand, but I always made sure they heard what I said. It’s just to let me know, and I like to have prayer for them. And that raising your hand does not save you. You hear me say that? Raising your hand does not save you.
It’s just letting me know that you trust the Christ of Savior. And the only way I can know is that you’re telling me. So when I said we had five people said they trusted Christ and said, well how do you know that? Well, they said so. If anybody is lying, it’s not me, it’s them. Is it possible they can lie? Well, of course they can lie to me. But they said that they were trusting Christ as Savior. So if you got to probably go talk to them, don’t talk to me.
Let’s pray, show them. Every head bound, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re here tonight, or if you’re watching, especially by internet tonight, right where you are, the only thing you have to do to go to heaven is to believe, yes, you are a center. And yes, Jesus Christ paid for your sins. And if you believe he paid for your sins, that means you don’t have to pay for them. He paid for your sins. You are simply accepting what he did for you.
And he loves you that much. He said he’ll never cash-shot, never lose you. That’s why eternal life is the gift of God. It’s not a works list, any man should boast. And if you will trust Christ as your savior, right on the screen it says, yes, I will trust Christ as my savior. If you will, I’d like to have you. Click it on it, let’s us know that somebody out there was listening and trust the Christ as their Savior.
Father, we thank You again for Your blessings. Thank You for all You do for us. What we do pray for a good ranch meeting tomorrow night and for those that are college kids coming back in a little bit of time, a couple of weeks maybe, that we can have just the right place for them to stay and work out all the details. We ask Your blessings upon Bob that You’ll give them safety as He comes back and get things started once again and get all the things done for the registration.
Or you’ve been good to us and we thank you for it. We ask your blessings upon kids that are still trying to make up their mind about coming to college. We pray that they would. We just commit them to you. Thank you. It’s time to gather Christ and every prayer. 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 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 4081 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 beJUSTined. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day.
Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.
