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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn your Bible to the Book of Galatians, the Book of Galatians in chapter 1. Galatians in chapter 1. I want to share a few thoughts with you that I believe will help you to have a greater appreciation for the Word of God. Because everything that we do is because we believe the Bible. So what does the Bible say? In Galatians 1, I want you to look there in verse 11. In verse 11, these words are from God. use the Apostle Paul, but he makes the statement that the message that he preached did not come from man, didn’t come from the other apostles in Jerusalem.

He didn’t get it from any individual. He says in verse 11, but I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Man did not come up with this message. Man’s message is always you have to earn your way to heaven. Good little boys go to heaven and bad girls go to hell. That’s what I’ve heard all my life. Well maybe not exactly like that. But that is if man makes the religion. He always has works into it and so there’s some people who deserve to go to heaven and there’s people who deserve to go down.

And most people think that away. It’s just a natural way to think. Bad people should not get to go to heaven. I mean, everybody knows that. And good people, well, they ought not go to hell. So what’s the problem? Well, one is there’s no such thing as good people because there’s no good heaven. Now, there’s a perfect heaven, but that’s only for perfect people. So you see, the only people who get to go to heaven are perfect people. How you doing?

That’s what I was afraid of. So he says in verse 12, but I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. This message Paul preached was strictly by grace and came from the Lord himself. Now look what he says there in verse 6 where he says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel, which is not another. But there’d be some that troubled you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

So there’s those who have added to the message. And remember, the test of the gospel is grace. If it’s really the gospel that Paul preached that he got straight from the Lord, it was all by grace. It means that you didn’t earn it. you didn’t work for it, you can’t buy it. So the truth of the gospel, it has to be free, or it’s not the gospel. It has to last forever, or it’s not the gospel. So the gospel must be free and last forever.

If it doesn’t last forever, it’s not the gospel, period. And there’s a lot of preachers, a lot of churches preaching everything but the gospel. They add to it. And when you add to it is no longer the good news. The good news is that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to whosoever believe it than Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So you can know you’re going to have a not turning your Bible to the book of 1 Peter in chapter 1.

1 Peter chapter 1. And look in verse 10. First Peter chapter 1 and verse 10. Very important to look at the Scriptures. I know you have a photographic memory and you’ve got it committed to memory. I know that. But you’ll make me feel better, if I at least see you looking in your Bible and turning the page. First Peter chapter once says of home salvation. Of which salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched diligently in the Old Testament, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching water what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.

So there’s these two things, the sufferings of Christ, the glory that should follow. And they had to study the scriptures in the Old Testament, seeking to understand what the Spirit meant when it signified beforehand. They couldn’t put the thing together, but the Messiah had to come the first time like a lamb to pay for the sins of the world. The next time He comes, He comes as the lion and He’s going to set up His kingdom upon the earth and rule with a rod of iron.

So this grace that was prophesied is only because He would suffer and be a substitution for every individual so that you and I could be saved and have eternal life. Now look what he says in verse 23. When he says being born again, not bored again, born again, born from above, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. So the word of God is the seed by which when it’s planted and a person believes, he lives forever.

So your new birth was born of God by the seed of the Word of God. So your new birth was born of an incorruptible seed. So the new birth cannot sin and if it cannot sin, it cannot die. And if it cannot die, it lives forever. So when I was born into this world, yes, I was born of a corruptible seed. Everyone in this room, look around just for a second, just look around. Look at everybody. They’re corruptible. They were born of a corruptible seed, the flesh.

And that’s why the older you get, one of these days you’re going to die because you can’t live forever from a corruptible seed. You and I, when we trust the Lord, were born from the Word of God, which is the incorruptible seed. And that’s why it makes the statement in verse 25, look in verse 25, but the Word of the Lord endured for how long? Forever. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you have a new birth that came from a new seed.

See, it wasn’t the fruit that was the problem, it was the root that was the problem. You see, when we were born in this world we came from a bad root and that’s why we had bad fruit. So, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, God gives you another root to bring forth more fruit, right kind of fruit, but He didn’t take away the old tree. You and I still have an old sinful nature with that old root problem and we still have all the sins that we’re not supposed to have and don’t like, don’t want, but they’re there.

But you have a new birth given to you. He didn’t do away with the old when He gave you something new. So remember that. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew 12. Matthew 12. And look in verse 40, where you see if Jesus Christ is the Lord and He is God in the flesh, you’ll notice that He put His stamp of approval upon a book that’s greatly questioned today. The book of Jonah. Now you know that this whale didn’t swallow a man, but the Bible says it did, and it’s a book written in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ said this in verse 38, then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees asked him and says, master, give us a sign.

So he says in verse 39, but he answered instead of them, this is the sign you’re gonna have an evil and adulte’s generation seeketh after a sign, but there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For his Jonah was three days and three nights in the Will’s Bell, even so shall the Son of maybe three days and three nights and the heart of the earth. So did he say that the book of Jonah was accurate?

Yes, he did. So that means that Jesus has put his stamp of approval upon a book in the Old Testament, and that book is true. And what it said, it is true. Now either Jesus is who he claims to be, or he’s deceived, and he’s deceiving us. Or he is God, and he says that really happened. He ought to know. He said, I was there when it happened. And I guess I ought to know. And he does know. Because it’s a stamp of approval upon the Word of God and what God’s Word has to say.

Look in Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4. When we talk about the preciousness of the Word of God, and why should I read the Bible? This is not a regular book written by a regular man. This is a book that was written by God. God is the author of the Bible, and the Bible, God used many different writers, but there’s only one author. He says in verse 4, and he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by get to every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

So Jesus used the word of God. The Old Testament says this is the word of God. You and I will never be a strong Christian if we doubt that this book is the word of God. It is the word of God. If it’s not true, throw the thing in the trash and do whatever you want to do. But if you’re going to say I believe the Bible, didn’t believe the Bible, and believed every word of the Bible. I don’t believe the Bible contains the word of God, I believe it is the word of God, and therefore we are supposed to believe it.

Look in Matthew 24, Matthew chapter 24, Matthew 24, and look in verse 35. This is what Jesus has to say about the word of God himself. This is what he had to say. So if we believe the Lord is the Lord, well, let’s listen to what the Lord said about his word. So he makes the statement in verse 35, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. If it can’t pass away, then it’s because it’s eternal and nothing can be eternal unless it’s perfect.

And if it’s perfect, then the Word of God, the whole scripture is perfect. It is the perfect Word of God. That’s why for you and I to go to heaven, we have to be perfect. And to be perfect, we have to be born of an incorruptible seed. And so the incorruptible seed in order for not to be corrupted has to be perfect. So the Word of God is perfect and the Word of God can make you and I perfect.

That’s because you and I have to be perfect to go to heaven. And there’s only one thing in the world that can make us perfect. And that is the word of God. So when you start questioning the word of God, then you’re not going to have a perfect word in which to leave people to Christ. Believe that this book is true. Don’t question it. Don’t doubt it. Believe it. Faith is believing that what God says is truth. Now look there in the book of Luke in chapter 24.

The book of Luke in chapter 24. Jesus has died on the cross, came back from the dead, and He’s taken a little walk down the road and joined along a couple of guys and had a conversation with them. And He says, why is your countenance so down? He said, don’t you know what’s happened? He said, well, what happened? He said, well, this guy named Jesus, we thought he was going to be the one that was going to be the Messiah and all that.

And now, you know, everything’s gone wrong. who he says are in verse 19, and he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people. And now the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be crucified, condemned to death, and they have crucified him. But we trusted, we believed it had been he, which should have been the Redeemer of Israel. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.

And they’re done having a pity party. Nobody loves them all alone. It’s a bad day in their life. And this was the day. Hadn’t they heard? Hadn’t they believed anything? Jesus said, so he makes this statement down here in verse 25. He said to them, oh, fold in slow of hearts to believe, get this word, you ought to underline it, all. All that the prophets have spoken. So when you study the Old Testament, all the prophets, and the law, first five book, and the Psalms, He says, He puts His stamp of approval upon the Old Testament, the law, the prophet, the Psalm, all of it.

It’s all the Word of God. Now He didn’t say one word about the apocrypha books or the pseudopaedicpha books, the homile of gumbulah books down in between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He said nothing about those books because they don’t count. But what we have is the Word of God. And He says in verse 20, ought not Christ to have suffered these things, enter into his glory and get this. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded into them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

So do you think Jesus knew the scriptures? Evidently, he was pretty knowledgeable. He’s the one that gave the word. And the Holy Spirit’s the one that wrote him down to using men who are moved and guided along by the Holy Spirit. Yes, this is an unusual book. This book can do things. No other book can do. This book can get you into heaven if you’ll believe what it says. It says, this Bible, which is a perfect book. And when it says that no man can add to the gospel the good news and it came straight from the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord.

that a man is saved by grace. Grace is unmerited. And when anyone simply believes that when Christ died, He died for them, God is bound by His word. God has to save that person because He promised it, if you’ll believe it, you have everlasting life. God can’t refuse salvation to anyone that will trust Him. Isn’t that good news? that’s good news. And then when He saves you, it’s not good news if He just saves you until the next time you sin.

How long would it last? It wouldn’t last very long. But when you believe on Christ, He gives you eternal life and it lasts for how long? Forever. And if it’s forever, that’s a long time. That’s forever. And He never casts you out and never loses the best news in all the world. Now, Now look what he says in verse 44. And he said unto them, these are the words which I speak unto you that while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written.

Were written. He’s talking about the written word of God and he’s getting on them for not believing what the word of God says. He says which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms. So evidently those must been inspired of God and there’s no reason why any person should not believe that this is true. I don’t have trouble about believing in creation because I believed in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

If you can believe that much you don’t have any problem with anything else. Take God out of that verse and you got all kinds of problems because here we are. How do we get here? Where do we come from? What are we doing? Where are we going? And so He says in verse 45, then open He their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. You don’t understand the scriptures unless the Lord opens your understanding. That’s why when you trusted Christ as your Savior, God gave you the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit never leads you contrary to the word of God. The Holy Spirit never leads you to do anything that’s unholy. So don’t live an unholy life and say I’m serving God. Nobody believes you. You might deceive yourself, but you’re not deceiving anybody else. You can only live a holy life by the leading of the Holy Spirit who is teaching you from the Holy Book. Sound doctrine comes from sound words. And that’s where you get sound doctrine. Sound doctrine can give a person a sound mind.

He says, God hath not given to us the Spirit of fear. but a loving of sound mind. That’s what God wants everyone to have. And that comes because you have the sound word of God. And you must believe that the word of God, it is true. And God can use that. Now, I want you to look in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 15. Turn back to your left, just a few pages. Matthew and chapter 15. Some people question the book of Daniel.

Don’t believe the book of Daniel correct Monstrous. Well, we have a solution to that problem. Daniel and the lions didn’t eat them up. You believe that story? Three Hebrew children were thrown into a burning fiery furnace and they didn’t get burned? Who in the world is going to believe a story like that? Me? Because see, when you believe in God, you can believe that God can do anything. God can do anything He says He did. what he says here in verse 15.

Matthew 24 and verse 15. He says, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by who? Jesus is telling them when you read what Daniel says back there in the book of Daniel in chapter 9, this is what’s going to take place. Jesus puts his stamp of approval upon the book of Daniel. So the stories in the book of Daniel, the book is true. You can believe the book of Daniel. And Daniel talks about things that are going to happen in the last days.

Daniel and Revelation, and understand this. If the New Testament had not been written, and only the Old Testament, we have a serious problem. Because there were many prophecies given in the Old Testament That would have never been and has never been fulfilled if the New Testament isn’t true. You see, they promised that the nation of Israel will always be a people. They’ll always be the people. This is why there’s been so many attempts trying to annihilate them, but they’re still here.

They haven’t been annihilated yet. Are there people that are making moves toward the nation against the nation of Israel in the time in which we live? Yes. The Bible says they will do that. But you see, the Bible says that a virgin shall bear a son. a virgin shall bear a son. And he would be born in Bethlehem, Ephraeter, though there’ll be little among the thousands of Judea yet out of these shall he come forth. That is to be ruler in Israel who’s going forth and been from old everlasting.

Tells us where’s he going to be born? But if Jesus is not the Messiah, how will those verses ever be fulfilled? If the New Testament isn’t true in Christ isn’t who he’s supposed to be, you have all these streams coming out of the mountain and there’s no continuity. They don’t come together. There’s no climax. There’s nothing. There’s no ending to the stories. It prophesied about a Messiah that’s never showed up. That tells us all kinds of things that’ll never happen.

And so the New Testament comes along and lo and behold, the New Testament is bringing all of these streams out of the mountain and put them into one gigantic rushing mighty river that climaxes all the way over there in a book of Revelation. So we need the New Testament because it fulfills the Old Testament. And without the New Testament, the Old Testament has no meaning. It’s not complete. Too many things left hanging. And yet God has given us so much.

You and I are to believe the Word of God, the trust in the Word of God. Now take your Bible and I want you to see this. John chapter 5. John chapter 5. John chapter 5, Jesus is having a little conversation and not everybody believes him. Only what he says in verse 39, John chapter 5 verse 39, he makes the statement, search the scriptures. Why would he tell them to search the scriptures? Now remember, the New Testament has not yet been written, but it has searched the scriptures so he’s talking about the Old Testament and get this, for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me.

You don’t get eternal life without me. And those scriptures talk about me. And if you reject me, you don’t get eternal life. And then he says in verse 40, and he will not come to me that you might have life. You say you know the scriptures, you believe the scriptures, but you don’t know the scriptures because you don’t know me. I am the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the same was in the beginning with God. And all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So he says, you will not, he didn’t say you couldn’t come to me, he said, you won’t.

And we have a wonderful, wonderful book. But this book is of no value to people who don’t believe that it’s the book, that it’s the Word of God. You see, you have to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior to get eternal life. But if you don’t believe that, you’re not going to trust Christ as your save you. You have to understand you are lost in order to what to be found. I realize one day, a few years ago, 53 years ago, I was a lost man.

I didn’t know I was lost. I knew who I was. I mean, I was. I knew where I was. I knew where I was. I’m in Matthew, Georgia. I ain’t lost. I know where I am. But somebody asked me the question, where are you going to die? I don’t know. You’re lost. I’m lost. If you don’t know how to get to heaven, you don’t know how to get to heaven. You ever have anybody asking for directions? Get on here to the third tree.

Turn to the right there’s a brown cow out there in the field. Turn to the left and there’s still an eagle sitting. Well anyway, that’s about how some people tell you how to get to heaven. They really don’t know. Most people don’t know how to get, they don’t know the way. They don’t know the way. One of the greatest joys of my life has been I can tell people the way. I can tell people how to get to heaven.

And there’s nothing better in this whole world to live for because you have the opportunity to tell lost people how to be found. How to go to heaven when they die. Let me show you something. You’ve never seen this before. This hand, let it represent you and me and this wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. The Bible says that God, he loves us but he hates our sin, God loves us. But all of us have sin.

We’ve all done things wrong and to pay for the wrong is eternal separation from God and hell. But God loves us. But to go to heaven, you see, we have to be perfect, no sin. And with sin we can’t get in. So God says you have to be perfect. There’s only a perfect heaven. There’s not a good heaven or so so heaven. There’s only a perfect one. And you and I don’t qualify. So the Bible says you cannot save yourself.

Man makes up his own gospel. Just tells you to have more good deeds than you do bad deeds and you get in. He has no chapter in verse. There’s no verse in the Bible that says that. No verse in the Bible that says, if you’ll be pretty good, I’ll let you go to heaven. You have to be perfect and none of us are, and we have a debt and it has to be paid. 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 God.

See, we’re separated. That’s what God calls dead in sins. Because of sins, I’m separated from God. I’m separated from Him. I can’t get to Him because of sin. He can’t get to me because of sin because He’s pure and holy. So Jesus Christ who had no sin did not have to die. He came into the world and because of His love He’s gone, if He takes my sin, He has to die. So He took all the sin of all the world and died on the cross.

Paid for it came back from the dead. He says, if you and I, if we will believe that he did it for us, he would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven. I want Jesus Christ did for us. I enjoy telling people, God loves you so much. He would rather die than live without you. He loves you so much. He’d rather die than live without you. This is what he did. He would rather die than live without you.

Because without that, you and I had no chance. That’s how much he loves you. You’re worth something in his eyes. He does care about you. He does love you. And so the most important thing you will ever do in your whole life is to believe he did it for you. If you reject Christ, you’re rejecting the love of God. Jesus Christ is the love of God. What man would reject the love of God and turn down this free gift of eternal life to live forever with the Lord in heaven and no sin forevermore.

I can’t see a person doing that, but people do it. They’re blind, deceived, but I hope that you that are here are a little bit more intelligent. It’s a wise person, a smart person. That was the Ama Center, and I can’t save myself, and I’m gonna trust Christ as myself. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free.

One 800-576-3771. That’s one 800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible and programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. 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. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, 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, and just keep looking up.