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

Alrighty, I want you to take your Bible and turn with me. You should have a copy of my notes by now. And I want to continue the thoughts that we had last Sunday night on the introduction to the book of Galatians and then Wednesday night on Lecture 2 and tonight lecture 3. And so I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke chapter 24 because I still want to have you convinced that salvation has always been by grace because if it ever has been by works, then why couldn’t it be by works now?

And works are salvation that depends upon our works and how we live, then it brings a lot of insecurity, a lot of questions, a lot of doubts, and a lot of people become very worried because they’re not at peace, because anytime that your salvation depends upon your good works, you will have questions about your good works. Because you’re the only one that can wind up judge and say, yes, I am doing it or I’m not doing it. And then you become the judge of your own salvation, not good.

That’s why we want to trust the Lord and what He’s done. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, He came back from the dead and He was walking on a road. And there There was some two guys that were walking on this road, the road to Emmaoulus. And I want you to look there in your Bible to verse 25, verse 25. Jesus come the long and He talks to these two individuals and said in verse 25, then He said unto them, O fools and slow of hearts to believe.

All that the prophets have spoken. evidently whatever Christ did, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and the why, was supposed to be understood by the prophets that had already lived and preached and wrote it in the Scriptures. So they were supposed to believe the Scriptures. He says in verse 26 that the Old Testament saints, the prophets, they were supposed to believe them because it says in verse 26, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory.

So the death, the barrel, and the resurrection of Christ was taught in the Old Testament by the prophets. And why were they so slow of heart to believe? Because that’s all they had to do was believe. Because they were looking forward to the day the payment would be made. And the sacrifices that were made was simply a a waygesto that something innocent had to pay for vend someone that and it all pointed toward the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world.

And then he says in verse 27 and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself to say there’s many things throughout the Old Testament Scriptures we have not discerned yet, but are there. I would love to set at the feet of Jesus and have him teach me evaluat of the Old Testament. It would be eye opening and that’s exactly what. To them. Their eyes were open and they and they understood.

Now. Also here in these scripts, I want to look in verse 44. A.m. A.m. A.m. contemplates that there are no more. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. A.m. then they were being blessed out because they didn Scythe believe what the Prophet said about him. And then he says, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms concerning who. So evidently Jesus Christ is in the scriptures and they were supposed to know these things.

Now you remember of course they’re in the book of John chapter three. Well you’re just a couple pages away. So just turn to your right a couple of pages and you’ll be lo and behold in John chapter 3. And here’s a teacher, a Pharisee. The same came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know the tower the teacher come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. And Jesus says, I am impressed.

Now he says, you must be born again. And then he didn’t understand what do you mean? You mean I got to get back in my mother’s womb and born again. Now you would think an older man would have had a little bit more sense than to say that. But that’s what he said up there in verse four. Nicodemus said to him, how could he be born when he’s old? That’s your first birth. That would be one of the spirit of spirit.

That’s your second birth. So he’s talking about it. And so he says on in verse and I, Nicodemus, and said to him, how can these things be? So Jesus says to him, our Thawah master in Israel, in verse 10, and knowest not these things. So evidently, Jesus expected this man to know and understand these things. So as he explains to him what it means to be born again, he goes down to verse 14, look in verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, Now what is Jesus doing here?

He’s going back to the Old Testament scriptures. And what’s the purpose of going back to that Old Testament scripture? He is explaining the gospel because there is a story there about everybody who had been bit by the serpent. Well, they’re gonna die and they put a serpent, brazen serpent upon a pole and who’s who would look with what? Would live, look and live. And that’s all they had to do, look and live. Even so must the Son of man, he referred to himself, must be lifted up.

So you see, there’s not a separate gospel here. There’s not another gospel. And I listen to a lot of preachers already, and you know, an article that I get and how people were saved by the law in the Old Testament, or some other way, you know. And they’ll be saved a different way during the tribulation period. Mankind can only be saved one way. And it’s by grace and it’s by trusting Christ. that alone. So the Scriptures teach that and makes that very clear.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts in chapter 2. This is the very next book to you right because this was something that happened right after Christ was crucified. He was raised from the dead and sent it back into heaven. And so Peter is now preaching, but he’s preaching to the Jewish people that had come there because of this special Passover Day they’re having the Pentecost and you’re talking about you know people come from all the different nations they spoke different languages and so yes they had the tongues of fire but look in verse 22 and notice the content of his message this is Peter the prophet of God who was preaching, he was an apostle, to the people after the resurrection of Christ.

Ye men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye yourselves also know. Him, been delivered by the determinant council and and for knowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding the bid.

So death could not hold him down. Jesus Christ came, was crucified by the hands of sinful men, but by the foreknowledge of God. Did God know in advance what mankind was going to do to the Son of God? Of course, he’s God. Did God already know what they were going to do to this lamb? They were going to slaughter this innocent lamb. Now, so that you know that God from before God ever made the first man God already had a plan, but now notice what it says in verse 25, referring to King David who lived under the law.

And now here’s Peter in his preaching. Now, He can’t refer to the New Testament scriptures because they weren’t written yet. So He used the Old Testament scriptures and see what He says in verse 25, for David speak it concerning Him. Who is Him? That’s Christ. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer, thine holy one to seek corruption.

David saw all of this in the Old Testament, 1,000 years before Christ came in the 16th Psalm. And then he says here in verse 28, thou hath made known to me, the ways of life. That’s life is eternal. You have made known unto me the ways of this eternal life. So did David know how to have eternal life? Yes. Read the 22nd Psalm and the 22nd Psalm that also talks about the resurrection of Christ. Says, and shall be proclaimed by the people that shall be born.

So Christ, when he suffers, not only pays for the sins of those up to him, but those who are going to be born after Him. So that payment He made was for all sin of everybody and everybody must need Christ. No man gets to heaven any other way than through Jesus Christ. Now I’ll note to what it says there in verse 29. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and His Separachah is with us unto this day, therefore being a prophet knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, that through his loin, David, get this, that of the fruit of his loin, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ, the Messiah, to sit on his throne.

Did David know in advance that the Messiah was going to come through His line. That’s what it says. And in verse 31, He’s seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of who? David knew the Messiah was going to come from His line and was going to be crucified and going to be buried and come back from the dead. And when you read the 22nd Psalms, it describes the crucifixion. So this Jesus in the Old that they know about Jesus Christ.

Yes, He was the Messiah. And it talked about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. And many of the Old Testament prophets, they studied the Scriptures to see when is this going to happen? Because is there going to be two Messiahs, two comings, or what’s going to happen? They didn’t know. And so they were confused. And And so when Jesus Christ came, He came to suffer as a lamb. The next time He comes back, He comes back as a lion.

And so in the Old Testament, did they know about the resurrection of Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, evidently, they did. So I believe these things are important to note. Now look there in your notes. A few things I wanted just to read to you, because this is still in defense of the gospel message that we have. We should believe that the gospel that God has given to us is not a new gospel. It’s not a, you know, after the resurrection, that’s a new gospel, not a new gospel.

It’s the same gospel they preach in the Old Testament. Mankind can only be saved by faith in Christ. Now. In the bold letters that I have there, if they could not be justified by the law now, in the Old Testament or New Testament, and they could not be justified by the law, then in the Old Testament, then how were they justified? If you could not be justified by the law today, and they couldn’t be justified by the law in the past, then how could they have been justified?

If you can’t be justified by law, there’s only one well the way they could be justified, and what would be that way? It would have to be by grace, wouldn’t it? I want you to hold your place where we are here. I don’t have to hold you, but just turn over there with me and look in the book of 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter and chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3, and I want you to just look at this verse here.

I believe this is important because this kind of goes back just a little bit to the time before the flood. But notice something here in verse 18. First Peter chapter 3 verse 18, for a Christ also hath once suffered for sin. How many times he going suffered for sin? One time. Why does Christ only have to die once because man only dies. It’s appointed and every man wants to die because man only dies once. So he says, the just for the unjust, now who’s just?

Well that’s the Lord. Well who’s the unjust? Well that’s the people right? You could assume that’s us. Get this, that He might bring us to God. So why was Jesus Christ suffered for our sins so that He could bring us to God? That means there was no other way to bring us to God. We couldn’t get to God. And then He says this, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which some time were disobedient.

Well, when once the suffering or long suffering of God weighed in the days of Noah. And so I just want to bring this point out to you. Though Noah preached, the Bible says he was a preacher of righteousness. Evidently, Noah was also a preacher of righteousness or Jonah, not Enoch. And And so it says that in the book of Jude. And so we have the New Testament telling us about these people that lived at that time. So they preached the gospel before the flood.

And those who were sometimes disobedient. In other words, they could have been unbelievers hear the gospel and believe. Now just because they were given a 120 years to preach and only eight got in the yard didn’t mean that there could not have been other people that had trusted Christ as Savior before the flood. And when they died, they could not go to heaven because the sins hadn’t been paid for. So they went on the layaway plan until the payment was made.

So they were, I believe, in a place maybe like paradise. So when Christ told the thief on the cross, “‘Today shall thou be with me in paradise.” So his body was in the grave, but Christ went to the place of paradise. And when he went to paradise, he took these people that were before the flood. See, just because it’s gonna be a flood. God still showed his mercy, and there could be many of those people because I believe Methuselah could have been a believer.

And it was before the, he could have been a believer. Probably was. And many of those people, but they could have died before the flood. But I don’t believe they were alive at the time of the flood and got killed by the flood because the Bible says, the world came in upon the young Godly. So I believe that they had to believe in Christ. And this was talking about Christ and the gospel that was preached before the flood. And there’s other scriptures that we can take the time to look at, but look there back at your notes here.

So I submit to you that the Old Testament saints had to believe the same gospel message that the New Testament saints believed today. The only difference, which is not a part of the gospel message, was their faith was based upon a promise to be fulfilled. And our faith is based on the fact that has been fulfilled. They had to trust that the payment that was to be made by Christ, the Messiah, was for their sins. They were saved looking forward to the payment that was to be made.

And we are saved by looking back to the payment that has been made. On both sides of the cross, grace through faith saves both. Christ is the payment for our sins, Christ is the payment to be accepted, our salvation rests only in the person of Jesus Christ. And I believe that’s the truth. I believe that’s the truth. And I, somebody would say, would you like to debate that with anybody? No. I state my position. I’m not interested in debating it.

Don’t read not to debate it with somebody because I think maybe I’m wrong. And I don’t think I am. But anyway, Romans chapter one, the scriptures, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Now the gospel of God has to be when he says also, my gospel in chapter two of the book of Romans and the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of grace has to be all the same thing.

So he says which he had promised, he had promised to form by his prophets in the Holy Scripture. So Paul was preaching the gospel that was promised in the Old Testament about the Messiah. It’s not a different gospel, it’s the same one. But we’re talking about Christ who has made a payment and come back from the dead, and they were talking about a payment that was going to be made. They were looking forward and we’re looking back, but both looking to Christ.

Look there in the little square box that I wrote here. I submit to you that David’s salvation message is our gospel. He looked forward and we looked back. Read these scriptures this way. Paul was separated unto the gospel of God concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made from the seed of David and was promised before time by the Old Testament prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Now Romans 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ so there’s the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, my gospel, and the gospel of grace, and the gospel of Jesus, it’s only one gospel, one good message that can save a person.

And that will you or will you not accept Christ as you’re saved. The good news is that a man can be justified by faith. Christ died for the young Godly, that the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Those scriptures are so clear. But when he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel Christ, for it is the power of God in the salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Now, I am not against people saying, you know, first of all, we need to reach the Jew, then we can reach the Gentile. You know, the gospel to the Jew first, and then we can go to the Gentile. So we have to win the Jews to the Lord before we can win Gentiles to the Lord. I don’t think so. Or we should witness to the Jews before we witness Gentile. No, I don’t worry about whether a person is a Jew or a Gentile.

I just say, you’re a person and you got a soul, I just want a witness to him. Now I have one Jewish people of the Lord and I’ve won some Gentiles to the Lord and a little bit of everything else I guess you could say. But notice the next statement, Christ was not here in the flesh to preach a new gospel to the Jews but to validate the Old Testament salvation message. So when Christ came he validated the whole message of the Old Testament.

And said, I’m not telling the same good news going to all. We’re in peace, the gospel, the good news to everybody. Because now see the payment has been made and everybody can have salvation. But they could have salvation back then. The Jews were supposed to be the light of the world, but they didn’t know they. But there’s There’s still times when God was sinned a person to some Gentile place. Here, I read Jonah, and Jonah wanted to go right to Nineveh.

He did want to go reach those Gentiles, right? Now he didn’t want to go. Now note the next statement. Is it possible that the phrase to the Jew first does not necessarily mean for us to preach the gospel to the Jew first as we go into all the world, but that the gospel was preached to the Jew first in Old Testament times, and that salvation was of the Jews? And then that’s true. Although God meant for the Jews to reach the Gentiles in the Old Testament with the salvation message, the church is required to preach the gospel to every creature without reference to the Jew first.

So Peter, he was a preacher to the circumcision or the Jews and Paul was to the uncircumcision, which was the Gentile, but was the same gospel. Look up here, this is you and me, this sin. We all have sinned. God loves us. Hates our sin, but he loves us. Always one people know God loves you. You don’t like your sin, but he loves you. And the Bible says that to pay for the sin is eternal separation from God because the way sin is death.

So we’re all going to die and be eternally separated in a literal fire burning hell. You see, that’s why I need to be saved. I don’t want to go there. If it was just to be annihilated, I don’t guess I could mind that too much. I don’t remember anything, you know, 80 years ago. So that didn’t bother me none. So if I didn’t exist anymore, that’s not going to bother me. Why? I don’t exist. But if there’s a hell that I’m going to, now that bothers me.

So God says he loves us once to go to heaven and go to heaven we have to be perfect. Nobody’s perfect. We’re all sinners. So the Bible says you cannot save yourself. How do I know I can’t save myself? Well, he gave the 10 commandments. Try keeping those. Because that’s the standard of God’s righteousness. I’ll not lie, how you doing? I’ll shut not covet, oh you’re doing real good huh? And so all you gotta do is just be perfect.

And so one of the things I used to use in ranch, especially I just say look, here you are, you’re hanging over a cliff, 10 links in a chain, and you’re hanging on the last link in the chain. Now, how many links in the chain have to break for you to fall? And this is complicated, I know it’s very hard, it’s really complicated. How many links will have to break before you fall? How many? Well, you got it right.

Y’all are so smart. Okay, does it matter which one? I never broke that commandment. I never killed anybody. Does it matter which one? It doesn’t matter which one. One sin, mashed potatoes. It’s all over. And we have all sin. So we’ve all broken God’s law. And the law is something that’s like a mirror. You look into the mirror and you see what you look like. And lo and behold, when you’re looking at the mirror, you see you got cobwebs in your hair and you got turtleneck sweaters on your teeth, you got madder in your eyes.

And you need a shave, guys. And so what do you do? Well, you take the mirror off the wall and watch your face with it. Now that the mirror just reveals the problem. It doesn’t solve the problem. The law doesn’t solve any problems for you and I. It only reveals the problem. We can’t keep it. Let’s us know we need a Savior. So we go to Christ and we trust Him as Savior. And so when you trust Christ as your Savior, believe in that He paid for your sins and came back from the dead.

He puts that payment to your account. You go to heaven on what He did for for you. So simple. I’ve got to be able to say, that’s just too easy. That’s just too easy. Well, if he said, preach the gospel to every creature, that means even children should be able to understand it. How can it be so hard and complicated that nobody could get it because they wouldn’t understand it? But everybody ought to understand a free gift if I offered you this microphone, you accepted it to have a microphone, I offered you my wallet, I have an empty wallet.

Christ come in here and I offered you eternal life and you accepted you’d have what? Eternal life? Well, if it’s eternal life and it lasts forever, where are you going to go and you die? Heaven. So, can you know you’re going to have me for you die? Of course. That’s the best news in the world. That’s why it’s called good news, glad tidings. Let’s pray show him. Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, if you’re watching by the internet, just remember the only thing you have to do is the only thing you can do is would you believe that when Christ died, He paid for your sins.

Came back from the dead and all he wanted to do was believe he did it for you. And he’ll give you as a free gift eternal life. And you can go to heaven and know that you’re going to heaven because he loved you that much. He said he’ll never catch you out and never lose you. Follow me, thank you again for this time together. Thank you for all you do for us. Thank you for our church. Thank you for each person here in Christ’s name.

Men, reserve the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpen’s Iron, Men’s Bible Study in breakfast at Calvary Community Church. Join us at 730 for a home-cooked breakfast. Then, at 8am, the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style men’s Bible study in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and dialogue are welcomed. The scripture tells us that Iron sharpens iron, and this men’s Bible study is open to those of all levels, whether new believers or mature Christians.

The Iron sharpens iron men’s Bible study in breakfast. We all miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. Thanks for joining us on Bible I. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. and we will be changed. God, I can meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.