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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 pre-support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. 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.

There’s a lot of people that were barbarians, Hall goes and wins them to Christ. Then whenever he would leave, then these legalistic Judaizers would come behind them and try to take the people that he reached and change them. See, they don’t go out and try to reach their own. They want to take somebody else’s fruit. There’s a lot of people that talk about the Calvin and so forth. They’re not strong on soul winning, but they couldn’t build anything if they didn’t steal somebody else’s fruit because they got to get them from somewhere.

So soul winners are so shallow and they’re so deep. So let those evangelists out there go ahead and win them to the Lord, but we’ll teach them. And so that’s what they do. And they try to seem like there’s so much more spiritual. They’re so deep. And guys like Yankee and Hank and Lee and they’re shallow. They’re so shallow because I’ll always talk about soul winning given the gospel. They get into the Hebrew and the Greek get way down deep.

But if you go down deep and come up dry, what’s the value? And so understand, if you really love the Lord and you’re really close to the Lord and you’re really spiritually minded, you’ll be a good soul winner. And if they’re not winning souls or something wrong, follow me and I’ll make you what? Expertise. Now, notice what he says. Last part of verse 7 says, and you would pervert the gospel of Christ. That means to reverse it, to change it, to twist it.

Make it into something that it’s not. And how would you change the grace of Christ, the gospel by adding works to it? You can’t change it no other way. There’s no other way to change the gospel of grace, except by adding something to it. Because grace means it is free. So that means you gotta charge. Somebody’s gotta pay a price. More than what Christ did, you gotta pay something too. And that is not the truth of the gospel. So he says in verse eight, but though we are an angel from heaven.

So if an angel comes by and preaches something different like the angel Moroni, they’re supposed to with, you know, Joseph Smith and producing these special eye glasses, the urine and the thermon, he found some old place in Redmond, lo and behold, they were into King James. But anyway, reveal all kinds of stuff, but the gospel is different. But though an angel from heaven preached any other God. So if that’s false, that’s why the whole religion of Mormonism is wrong, because their gospel is wrong.

And it came from an angel. I don’t care who it came from. He says, even though if we preach something contrary to the gospel, we’re wrong, the gospel is wrong. And this is why in chapter two, you have Paul, rebuke and Peter, because not so much is what he said, because of what he was doing, causing and producing hypocrisy as though these legalistic Judaizers had, you know, some legitimacy to them as though they were authoritative. And we got to honor them.

And so he would withdraw from the Gentile Christians and even Barnabas was carried away with it and Paul had to rebuke them to their face. Paul was quite a man. Now notice what he says in verse 9. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man, any man preach any other gospel, which there is no other gospel, it means it’s a by-works righteousness, not a by-faith righteousness. You only got those two choices. Either you say by your works or you say by grace.

If you’re saved by grace, it’s because he gave it to you free. If you’re You’re saved by your good works. You’re lost. There is no salvation. There is no other way. There’s no option be. Well, I’ve had people say, yeah, I trust Christ, but I’m going to be good just in case. No, you don’t get it. You can’t do it just in case. That means you’re not really trusting him. You’re going to depend upon you. I let a person deliver one time by giving a simple illustration.

I says, here you are, and you’ve got a foot on the water, another foot on a float, and it can support, you know, your weight. So if you put one foot on that float, now put the one foot on the water. Now, would you spill it half and half? What would happen? You can’t put any confidence in the water. You’ve got to put it totally upon that float to hold you up. It supports you. And so there’s people who don’t want to do that.

They want to split it. Well, you don’t get either one. You’re going down. You’ve got to trust Christ completely. And so he says, if you go back now to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15. So there were those who want to produce trouble, to twist. Remember, they can’t get their own fruit so they got to get somebody else’s fruit. That’s why they’ve always got to try to find ways to get to people that are already, and it says a religious and try to win them to their way of thinking.

We like to try to win new people to Christ. But anyway, here in the book of Acts, notice what he says up here in verse 24. He says, for as much as we have heard, that certain went out from us, have troubled you with words subverting your souls saying, this is what they said, you must be circumcised and keep the law. Now look at the last part of this, you’re not unliners in your Bible. To whom we gave no such commandment.

And that’s why in the book of 1 John chapter 2, they were not of us. They went out from Jerusalem, yes, but they were not of them. And their message was not the same. And they were false teachers because it says those that went out from them had a false message and they were anti-Christ, they were against what Christ taught. So we’re supposed to know this, understand this, believe this. So he says, and I just want to show you this very quickly, but look there back in verse 1 of chapter 15.

In verse one, notice, certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren. And what were they saying? Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. So you got to be circumcised. Well that puts you under the law. That looked what he says up in verse 5. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

So they had a difficult time because there’s the temple. They were making sacrifices. And all of a sudden many of them trusted the Christ of Savior, wouldn’t know how to get out of Judaism. And there were questions and problems. And some of them had no knowledge about what to do. Some of them were told. Some of them believed. And it’s amazing. You have somebody like Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night, a rule of the Jews. And he says, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that thou dost accept God be with him.

And Jesus says, I am very impressed. Thank you. I appreciate that. No, he says, unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. You can enter the kingdom of God. And John 3 16 was the answer on how to be born again. Now, this is why all of this is so important. But now notice what he says here, and look down their end verse 9, in verse 9 of Acts chapter 15, and put no difference between us and them, Jews and Gentiles, purifying their hearts by what?

By faith. So how do you purify your heart? By your words. No, by faith. Then in verse 10, now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. 1500 years and they never kept the law. They didn’t keep them. Why are you requiring Gentiles to keep the law? When you as a Jew, you didn’t keep the law. And so you’re not saved by your works.

You’re not saved by keeping the law. And so in verse 11, notice what he says now. But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. The Jews will be saved just like the Gentiles. We’re saved the same way. Jews and Gentiles, you’re not saved by the law. Is it true that there are people like the Seventh Day Adventist? That are teaching you have to keep the law. And they believe the sign of the mark of the beast is those who go to church on Sunday.

You go to church on Sunday, that’s the mark of the beast. And look how many people have received the mark of the beast. Now, it was interesting. Just recently I had somebody sent me something, so I looked at it. it. And it was about the the president’s prayer breakfast that he just had. And so, and there was a guy there that was a speaker and he was a preacher of the seventh day Adventist. And he preached, he’s very articulate, said a lot of good stuff, and then underneath it, that there were people making comments.

And I was totally surprised when I saw some of those comments by people who had gone to Florida Bible College. And what they said was, I can’t believe how great he was. This was awesome. Everybody needs to hear it. And it’s amazing that He is going to be my eternal brother in heaven. If he’s a Seventh-day Adventist, he doesn’t believe the same gospel, I believe. I don’t care how well-dressed he was, how articulate he was. I don’t care about nothing else.

His gospel is a by-works righteousness. His gospel is keeping the law. His gospel is you can lose salvation. And there was a bunch of FBC people coming about how wonderful it is. And everybody ought to hear it. I thought, what in the world is happening? I can’t stand it when I see people compromising on the truth of the gospel. Just because somebody stands up and they say something wonderful doesn’t mean everything they teach believe is the truth. But when you say that they are a Christian and they are of the same faith and we’re all in this together and we’re going to be together in heaven.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, not so fast, Charlie. Does he teach the gospel that you’re saved by grace, not by your works? Do you have to take and go to church on Saturday? Do you have to keep the law? And I had one that I talked to right down here not long ago. And he had a vehicle out there like an old bible Boston I was going to check with him on it. So anyway, he came down there and Jesse was with me.

And it didn’t take me long to realize that he’s a 70-odd minister. And he’d mentioned to us that going to church on Sunday is the mark of the beast and that you got to keep the law and go to church on Saturday. And I says, well, have you ever failed? He said, well, everybody fails. I said, oh, okay. I says, have you ever failed in keeping the law? He said, Oh yeah, everybody does that. I said, then how come you’re still standing here?

I said, suppose it’s stone you. It’s suppose it’s stone. The law is that if you violate, you’re supposed to die the death. Why are you still here? I said, so you didn’t keep the law on that. So you haven’t kept the law. And I looked around for some stones. Just for a fun. But anyway, there’s people who have a false message. And this is why if you ask a person that if you trust Christ as your Savior, how long are you saved?

Is it forever or is it until you sin again? Well, how long would it last? I’m saved till I sin again. Oh, well, I don’t know if I kept it two seconds. There is no limit on it. Grace means grace. You’re saved by grace. And I had a man tell me, say, you mean to tell me you can just go out here I said, you know, if you’ll live like you please still go to heaven and I also of course is a lot of the way that the size of two If I did trust Christ as my Savior, and if He did pay for all my sins, and if He did give me eternal life, and if I did go out here and live like the devil, and if I did die, and if I did go to heaven, I said, that’d be grace, wouldn’t it?

Wouldn’t it? Are you saved by grace? Well, if you’re really saved, you’re not going to want to. That dog don’t hunt either. Then why is people still sinning after they’re saved? Because they want to. Because you still got an old sinful nature. Now the reason that I can’t go to hell is because I don’t have any sins to pay for it. That’s how simple. It has nothing to do with emotions, nothing to do with love, hate, nothing like that.

It has to do with the facts. A judge God has declared a judicial review of my case and I was found guilty, but Jesus paid my payment and I get to go free. That’s grace. I don’t deserve what he did for me. So God says, case closed. I have a payment for my sins, and I can never be condemned again. I can never be tried again in the court of law. It’s over. And that was done 56 and a half years ago.

I have eternal life. My case is closed. I have eternal life, and God will never cast me out. He’ll never lose me. I’m going to heaven. Now, does that mean that I can just go out here and live like I please? Yeah. But does that mean I can get away with it? No. because by Heavenly Father can chasten me and discipline me. I’m still going to heaven when I die, but the Bible tells us an awful lot about what I will get if I obey Him and what I’ll get if I don’t obey Him.

I just come to the conclusion, I’d rather obey the Lord and serve because I want to, not because I have to. And if you’ll understand that, it’ll help you tremendously. Now go back to chapter 15. And look there in verse 25. She gave no such commandment. In the words, keeping the law is no such commandment, not required. Then he says there in verse 25, it seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord. It means all the head honch shows the apostles, the leaders there in Jerusalem, and all the elders, they agreed.

It was unanimous. One accord to sin, chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazard their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why do they hazard their life? Because they want people to know this wonderful message of salvation by grace. If it was salvation by works, it ain’t worth a quarter. It’s just another religion. In other words, if you live like, you know, good enough and maybe you’ll make it someday.

But no, go in all the world and tell you can know your heavy turn of life and know that you’re going to heaven and you can know it now. I’ve known and it’s sort of blessed thing in the world that I’m going to heaven and I cannot go to hell. I love that. Notice what he says. In verse 27 and he says, we have sent therefore Jesus in silence who shall also tell you the and you’re the underlying of the same things by mouth.

See we got to open our mouth and speak boldly and go and share and so forth. But sometimes you You just gotta open your mouth and speak. Notice what it says in verse 28, for it seemed good, seemed good. To the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, and to us to lay up on you no greater burdens than these necessary things. That you abstain from meats offered to idols because it ruins your testimony. Even though you can do it, and you can have the right to do it, and it’s not gonna condemn you in any way, but it’s not gonna help your testimony.

If you eat the meat that’s been offered to idols, because there’ll be people think that you’re doing in honor of their idols. So this is why Paul says, if eating meat causes my brother to offend hourly, no meat while the world stands. And so… There were things that like that. And also, blood, life of the flesh is in the blood. And there’s just a good thing even today, and doctors will tell you, stay away from eating blood. I remember one time I was with the Indian campsite in Chantawera, Arizona.

They decided to kill a goat. And they had this great big old pot. And just for the fun of it, a couple of them got, was going to get Betty and put her in the pot. And I says, oh no, you ain’t. So they got a hold of me. Put me in the pot. Anyway, they killed the goat, made some blood pudding. And we were told in Florida Bible College, when you go to the foreign fields, wherever you go, you just got to fit into the culture.

And I thought, oh no. Not to eat anything with blood. So blood pudding or not, I’m not eating no blood pudding. Now how many of y’all would have have eaten blood pudding before? Let me see your hands. Now if y’all have had any, I don’t know if it’s good or not. I’ve never ate it. Am I going to? So I told him no, I had to go. But anyway, look what he says down here. In verse 29, you abstain from those things, but look at the last part of verse 20.

From which if you keep yourselves, you shall do well, fair you well.” In other words, it’s mainly your testimony, they do what’s right. And then in verse 30, so when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle, which when they had read, get this, you ought to underline this, they rejoiced for the consolation. Because see, when you add works to the gospel, it causes confusion. It causes mental disturbance.

causes you to be worried and concerned because, am I really saved now? Do I have to do that? It puts people under a burden that’s totally unnecessary. So they’re such great peace and joy and happiness if they don’t have to do that. So when they were told this, what it says, they rejoiced for the consolation. We don’t have to keep the law. In verse 32 and Jews and Silas, being prophets also themselves exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them.

And after they had carried their space, they were let go and peace from the brethren unto the apostles. Not with standing it pleased Silas to abide their still. Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord. with many others also. And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do. In other words, this is a follow-up ministry.

Followed up to see, we did all of that, but now let’s follow up with them and see how they’re doing. In other words, let’s inspect what we expect. And so in every ministry we try to inspect what we expect. You teach people what to do and then you want to say, are they doing what they’re supposed to do? And so I think it’s a great thing. I teach that to the college kids. Notice in verse 37, and Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.

Now, Mark evidently was a young fellow and you’ve read the Gospel of Mark. And Paul thought, well, maybe we don’t need to take him with us. Evidently they had been before and Mark for some reason didn’t I want to go. He just went back, left. So you see there in verse 38, and Paul thought not good to take him with him, who departed from them from Pambilla and went not with them to the work. So now you’re going to have two ministries instead of one.

There’s a division, there’s a problem, there’s contention between two good godly men. See, it was Barnabas that came alongside as a person who helped and comfort him and introduced him and helped him an awful lot like that. But now he wants to take Mark with him. And so that’s produced a problem. And so he says, we’re not going to have him go with us. And so Barnabas says, well, if he doesn’t go with you, I’m not either. People can influence others.

But Evidently, somewhere along the line, now we don’t hear too much about Mark after this, but later on in the ministry, Paul says, in brain Mark with you, or he is profitable under being the ministry. So something happened in the meantime, and maybe he needed some time to have somebody else who’s not as, see Paul was a driver. He was a straightforward, always result oriented, Barnabas was more people oriented. And so God can use different people to do different things.

Paul can go out and to the wilds and when people and start churches and blah, blah, blah. And then sometimes he can, Lord can use other people that are more passive. Good God doesn’t use everybody that’s exactly the same. Now you know the way I am because you’ve seen me at church, right? Would you say that Dr. Polson has exactly the same temperament that I have? Would you say that? He doesn’t. She says, well, it’s smiling her face like, you know, but everybody’s different.

You’re different. And so it makes the statement here in verse 39, and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other. So Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto cypress. Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he went throughout Syria and Silesia confirming the churches, so that’s what they did. And God evidently used them both. So we’re moving right along throughout the book of Acts. Look up here.

Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says that he loves us, he hates our sin. And for us to pay for it is eternal separation from God. But God loves us. wants us to go to heaven. But to go to heaven we have to be perfect. As righteous as God, none of us are perfect. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. So God says you cannot earn eternal life.

You can’t work your way to heaven. Bless any man you’d boast. So God says I’m going to do something for you and I’ll make it free. That sounds pretty good. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He was the Lord. So He came into the world, lived 33 and a half years, didn’t sin. So He didn’t have to die. But because He loved He took our place. He took our sins. He paid for it, came back from the dead, said that if you and I, if we would believe He did it for us, He would give us as a free gift, everlasting life.

His death for my sins would become my payment. I don’t have to make. So now I have eternal life and I’m going to heaven whenever I die. But I’m not there yet. So the Lord, order to live here gave me his power. The power of his mind, the Holy Spirit, to end dwellers. And if you will yield yourself to him, he’ll teach you how to live. The Lord can teach you how to live. How to handle every trial, every tribulation, every temptation, he can teach you everything you need to know.

But you got to let him. He will take you through his word and he will highlight things as you read and study it. And a lot of it, you won’t even get it. It won’t make any sense. You won’t understand it. But all of a sudden there’ll be a verse that says, this is for you. This is for you. This is all you need right now. And then next time you’ll read it, ah, I didn’t see this before. And it’ll teach you something else.

It is the living Word of God. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, you can do that right where you are. You don’t have to stand up, you don’t have to come forward, you don’t even have to raise your hand. All you need to know is, I’m talking to the Lord and God sees and He understands. He knows those who will believe it.

Will you believe it? If you will believe that when Christ died, He died for you. He’ll give you as a freak gift everlasting life and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you. Would you trust Him? If he will, God said he would save you. You can know you’re going to heaven. If you’re watching by internet on the screen, there’s a little button up there and says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. Would you do that?

Would you trust the Lord? Would like to know. It just sends us a message that says, yes, I trust Christ as my Savior. And that’s such a blessing. So we had about nine, close to anyone all before we closed. So yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight and preach. I’d like you to pray for me, any one at all. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, how are you doing in your spiritual life? Are you growing spiritually?

Are you getting stronger and stronger? Did you know that you have within you the Holy Spirit to teach you, to lead you, to guide you? And helping you to do everything he wants you to do. He can walk with you through all of these trials that you have, and we have them. We have a lot of lust on the flesh. He can give you the strength to desire the right things. Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us.

Thank you for your word. We ask you to strengthen us as we need to be. Each one of us are different, but same always been. In Christ and we pray, 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. Taught 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.