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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 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 BibleInemistries.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.

I received an email from someone that knows me, knows about our college, knows our document statement. And anyway, they brought out a book of the past that was written maybe 150 years ago. And they love it so much, they repurner it because too many people today, and preachers today, compromising the gospel by compromising their stand on repentance. And so if you’ll look at the top of it, preachers of the past, are they heretics? Well that’s because I made a statement in our doctrinal statement.

I think it was already in one for the college here and the church here before I ever did it because Dr. Hank Linson had exactly the same statement of faith that I had and it’s Florida Bible College has, is Hank Winston or Lee Patton or Wally Morello. We all had the same document statement. So we all said the same thing. But anyway, he starts off with in this day of great compromise, a Florida so-called Christian College, believed this concern in the doctrine of repentance.

And this is a statement that’s right out of our Thoughtful statement. We believe repentance is necessary for salvation. The Greek word for repentance, matinea, which translates into English means to change one’s mind. It does not mean to turn from sin, since that would mean works for salvation. Because if you don’t turn from sin, can I still get saved? If I can’t, then it’s works for salvation. If I still can’t get saved by grace, still can’t get saved by faith, because I didn’t turn from my sin, Why can’t I get saved?

Because I didn’t do this. That means I’ve got to do something to qualify for God to save me. I can see that. They can’t see that. So repentance for salvation means a change of mind from man’s ideas of salvation and religion to an acceptance of God’s worth salvation. It just simply means a man can’t save himself. So he needs to change mind and don’t try and trust Christ. So it’s so simple, so easy. And then we also have this, many teach repentance for salvation incorrectly by including some form of a human effort or righteousness such as willingness to turn from sin.

In other words, are you willing to turn from sin? Well, what if I’m not willing to turn from sin? Well, you’ve got to be willing to be willing. Well, it all sounds good, but then you open up a can of worms. How many sins do you have to turn from if you had to turn from your sins? And who’s the judge of whether or not you turn from enough of them? And for how long do you have to turn from them?

And how serious do you have to be of turning from them? Well, what if you forgot one? You see, you don’t have any security. Anytime salvation depends upon you, you will have a reason to question and doubt your salvation. So we have it in here. This is heresy and has confused many people because it has worked to salvation. This is Galatianism, which is a counterfeit of the gospel and is completely unscriptural. Now about the time I was on Florida Bible College, right before I started my third year, He was a young man.

Well, he was older than me though. Jack Weaver, and he had A-plus exterminators. So before I became a preacher, I was a hired killer, because I had to go around and kill bugs. And so I got to spray Dr. Stanford’s home and the school and so forth, and so he paid me to do it. So the last two years I had a fairly good job, and it worked out great, and I praise the Lord for that. But he wound up having to defend me because of some people on the job.

And he told me, he says, you’ve got to kind of cool it down a little bit. He said, my first day on the job all I had was, well, this Jewish lady called in and told him, says, that preacher was trying to preach to me and told me I was going to hell. And so Jack told me, says, you can’t do that. And I said, I still had to eat Trussel Lord, though. He says, what? I said, I had to eat people Trussel Lord today, though.

He said, well, just be careful how you do it. I said, yes, sir. So because I was doing it, and he hadn’t been doing it, because he had just Trussel Lord not long because of Ray Stanford speaking at a Republican meeting. And he was in charge of the Republican party down in South Florida. So Jack was very involved in government and stuff like that. great man. So he wound up going to Florida Bible College, wound up on the board, and started a church and was able to reach quite a few people.

And one of those young men that came out of his ministry is Tom Jacuzza, who started to work up there in Minnesota. But he’d come out to Colorado and he worked with us in our ministry and he married one of our graduates, Succo. In any way they’ve got three beautiful daughters and doing a great one of a work. But we’ve all had to pay a price for taking this stand. And so they’ve come out with this book again in the appendix of J.

Thornton’s book. Repentance is this quote by Charles Spurgeon. Now Charles Spurgeon is known as the Prince of Preachers. But I’ve never been really impressed with him, though he could preach great sermons. And right, I mean, it’s incredible, but he was a Calvinist. And that bothered me. And so when you’re a Calvinist, you become fruit inspectors. When you’re a Calvinist, you’ve got to turn from sin because you have to persevere in the faith. And so you’ve got to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life.

So it adds to the gospel. And we’ve always taken a stand against that because see if we don’t do it. Who’s going to do it? And so in order for the truth of the gospel to remain, then you take a stand, but you’re going to get shot at. And so there’s a little statement here by, you know, it says, just now some professively Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that repentance is only a change of mind. I don’t know who is referring to except this so-called Christian college down here in Florida that has this doctrine statement.

Well, I know who that was referring to. It is true that the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind. But the whole teaching of scripture concerning the repentance, which is not to be repented of is that it is of a much more radical and complete change than is implied by our common phrase about changing one’s mind. The repentant that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving grace that is wrought by the Holy Spirit.

God given repentance makes men grieve in their inmost souls over the sand they have committed and works in them a gracious hatred of evil in every shape and form. We cannot find a better definition of repentance than the one many of us learned at our mother’s name. Repentance is to leave the sand we love before and show that we in earnest grieve by doing so no more. So if you tell a lost man that and he’s already maybe We tried to quit smoking and drinking and profanity and this and that and the other.

Oh why even try? That just makes me hypocrite. And so many times when I’ve witnessed I’ve come across people and said I’ve tried that before. I said this is the thing you have to try. And well when I mean business, when I mean business, God meant business and he made the plan of salvation, simple or even children can understand it. Look at the next statement down at the bottom. Now this was by Dr. Harold Sichler. Dr. Harold Sichler used to come to Northside Baptist Church.

I’ve listened to him preach. I’ve listened to Oliver B. Green. I’ve listened to a lot of people that are well known in the Christian circle. But this This is what he says. Recognizing his guilt, there is a turning from sin. There is a turning to God. The actual word repentant, may they complete turning around, change of course, a change of mind to think of repentant that does not cause the sinner to turn gladly from his sin is impossible. I know that we have a shallow religious movement in our time that will allow men to profess faith in Christ and at the same time continue to live in the world.

Such a shallow religious faith is not real. are mere professors and have no part with God in salvation. Now that sounds very intellectual and it sounds very spiritual, but the only thing is though is wrong. And I had to decide years and years ago, what does it mean? So I have not formed a view based upon some man in the past or any man in the present. I’ve studied the Scriptures. I find out the Bible and what does God’s Word has to say.

And I know that anything that compromises or contradicts Ephesians 2 8 9 is wrong Because God says by grace are you saved? That means I do not have to qualify to be good enough for God to save me That God can save me just as I am Isn’t amazing how many churches will have everybody standing that’s saying just as I am and they don’t mean it at all I mean just as you ought to be. Now you’ve got to promise that you don’t stop this and stop that and so on.

And it’s works for salvation because if you don’t stop those things and you can’t be, that’s why people have questions and doubts about their salvation. So anyway I did write him a little note and he answered me back. And when he wrote a back he simply let me know that he disagrees with my position. But he hasn’t mentioned my name or our college by name, except for the ones who wrote in and wanted to know who is it so he told them.

But I know who he’s talking about. And now you know. And so he says, that doesn’t mean that I won’t use your name, and I won’t use your college. But I am not ashamed of the truth of the gospel. And that doesn’t bother me one eye-o-a, except for the people that it confuses in messes up. So this is why when we study the book of Galatians, and we’re studying this in defense of the glorious everlasting gospel message, there’s only one saving message.

And it is the message that you’re saved by faith, and what Christ did on the cross for us, not by our works. So look there at their first statement. If they could not be justified by the law now, talking about in the New Testament, and they could not be justified by the law then in the Old Testament, how were they justified? How has anybody justified? Well, that’s what we want to look at. Now, take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 15, 1 Corinthians in chapter 15.

The Apostle Paul is writing to some carnal Christians, carnal Christians, fleshly minded Christians, rebellious, disobedient, 14 major problems that they had. And at the same time, he doesn’t question their salvation. He questions their spirituality, that they’re not walking with the Lord like they should. Because I’m so strong on grace, does that mean I want people just to live any way they want? That’s what we’re accused of. You’re just giving people a license to sin. I’m not giving people anything.

The world already lives however it wants. And when people trust Christ as Savior, it is the will of God that we all, that know the Lord, serve Him. And God will bless you here and reward you when you get to heaven. And if we don’t, God will chasten us here. Maybe take us home at a time. So God still deals with us because we’re still His children. Even when we are rebellious children, we’re still His children. And He still loves us.

God never hates His children. He loves His children. Now look what He says here in chapter 15. Chapter 15, 1 Corinthians, looking verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you. So from the time he started, he preached the gospel to them, which also you have received wherein you stand on the great truth of the gospel, by which also you are saved. So he’s telling them these worldly carnal Christians that if you look at their life, you would say, well, they can’t be a Christian because, you know, if you’re a Christian, you don’t do that and you don’t go here and you don’t.

No, no, no, no. Just know that and understand that. But it’s not God’s will that his children live like the world. So he says here in verse 2, by which you are also saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain. So some people have a problem with that unless you believed in vain. How do I know if I believed in vain? And you believe in vain if Christ did not come back from the dead.

If he didn’t come back from the dead, then our faith is in vain. Look what he says here. Look there in verse 12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? And if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is what? Your faith is in vain and you believe in vain if Christ did not come back from the dead.

Because how can he save anybody if he’s still dead? But did he come back from the dead? So he is alive. And our faith is not in vain. Our preaching is not in vain because it is the Word of God. Now look there in your notes. Where we have 1 Corinthians 15 right in the middle, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached. So where did Paul get his gospel according to the book of Galatians in chapter one?

Where did we say he got his gospel? He got it from the other apostles? No, he got it straight from the Lord. Straight from Jesus Christ himself. So whatever gospel Paul preached was the one that Jesus Christ gave him. Now who is Jesus Christ? Why? He’s having to be God in the flesh. So he got it straight from God. So where did Abraham get his gospel? Well, he got it from God the Father. So if God the Father in the Old Testament gave the gospel to Abraham and Jesus Christ, the Son of God gave it to Paul in the new time.

Do you think Jesus and the father, they must have had a different gospel? Or maybe it was the same message, which I think it was. And I believe that. Look at the next paragraph. Paul is declaring the gospel that he had preached to them, to the believers. He said they received it, they stood upon it and were saved. Past They’re saved. And they still stand upon it if they remember what Paul had preached to them at the beginning, unless they had believed in vain.

Our faith in Christ is in vain if he did not come back again from the dead. No payment was made. And so that’s why you can trust Christ in vain if Jesus Christ is dead because he didn’t pay for your sins. Our only proof that he paid for our sins and he came back from the dead because everything hinged upon him coming back from the dead. because if he didn’t come back from the dead, he was just like any other man who died.

He died as a martyr, a good cause, good trailblazer, way shore, a Davy Crockett or a Daniel Boom, he blazed the trail, but it was all in vain, and that is not true. Look at the next statement. Our faith in Jesus for eternal life, without believing in the death, the Berlin resurrection of Christ, will produce a multitude of problems because you won’t have a foundation for your faith. You can’t just believe in any Jesus. You have to believe in a Jesus who is called Christ.

And that is why that verse that’s found in the book of John in chapter 20 is so important. And that talks about that these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, by believing in Him, you have life through His name. That’s why the whole gospel of John was written so that you know that this is not just any Jesus, which is, there are people a day, say you don’t have to even know who Jesus is, just trust in Jesus for eternal life.

Well, that’s all we have to do, but it’s not all we need to know. We didn’t know who is He and what has He done. And that’s why that is so important. So look right there in the middle of the page. Paul’s gospel included the death, barrel, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the foundation for their faith. He preached the death, barrel, and resurrection. That’s what he says right here, that he did preach that. And it was the gospel.

Now, look at the next statement. In verse three under 1 Corinthians 15, therefore I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to what? to the Scriptures. What Scriptures? What Scriptures? The Old Testament. So that means that whatever he was preaching was based upon something that was mentioned in the Old Testament. And that is the gospel that he rose again, buried, rose again according to the Scriptures. So that means the death, that barrel in resurrection was mentioned in the Old Testament.

Look at the next statement here. Number one, Paul is stating. That his gospel is giving is the gospel he received from Christ himself, Galatians chapter 1 verse 12. He says, I received it not of man. Neither was I taught it, but I received it by the exact revelation from Jesus Christ himself. So his message was the message that Jesus had told the apostles, going to all where and preached the gospel. And Jesus told Paul. So Paul is not preaching a separate message that the other apostles had.

You’d be surprised how many people have wrote books and they’re teaching all kinds of things, but they’re not putting things together the way that I believe the scriptures tell it and they’re changing things instead of letting God’s Word say what it says. Now look at the next statement. Paul is declaring that his gospel message not only included the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but is the very foundation for the gospel because if there is no resurrection there is no Savior.

No resurrection, no Savior. No payment was made and your trusting in Christ is in vain. So to just tell people just believe in Jesus without knowing who He is, that He was God in the flesh, who made a payment for the sins of the Lord came back from that is not to believe that, then what is your foundation? This is why so many people have questions and doubts about where they’re going to go and they die. I’ve had a lot of people tell me, oh yeah I’m saved.

Where are you going? Well I hope I’m going to heaven. Well I mean I thought you said you were saved. Well if you’re saved is a word, it means something. Save means I can’t go to hell. If saved doesn’t mean I can’t go to hell, then saved has no meaning for us.” The next statement, number three, Paul’s gospel was based upon what was taught already in the Old Testament. His was not some new message, not a new message. Can a man be saved and not believe in the payment?

Death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, for a second. Why do you think Florida Bible College made such an impact because of the clarity of the gospel? The wallet illustration, every time it’s given, so it’s about the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because our message was clear. People understood. Our opening statement would always be, if you could know, you could have eternal life, wouldn’t you like to know? Well, the only way you can know is it’s got to be free and it has to last forever.

Because if it’s not free, you can’t know. If it does to last forever, you can’t know. So is it important what that gospel is? And has anybody ever taken the Bible and showed you how to have eternal life? Those are questions that well, but we always spoke with authority and we were clear. And this is why people who had gone to Florida Bible College were able to make such an impact upon people’s lives because we didn’t tell them that you have to be good enough to qualify.

We said, just as a sinner, and that’s what we are. Just like you are, you are a sinner. I am a sinner, and God will save you just like you are. Will that stop in anything? Promising in thing? Couldn’t join? No, you don’t do nothing. It’s the gift of God. It’s free. And people cannot believe that God loves people that much. One statement that Ray Stanford used to always make, and I don’t know many people will remember it, but I heard him say it about a thousand times.

this is why I remember it. When he had gone to this Bible study in the home of a man named Clifton Arrow Fowler, he had given the gospel and Ray was sitting there. And so he looked at Clifton Arrow Fowler and he says, you mean to tell me I can trust Christ as my Savior and he’ll give me eternal life. And I can go out here and live like hot plays and still go to heaven when I die. Clifton Arrow looked at him and says, that’s a crude way to put it, son, but God loves you that much.

And Ray slammed the table and says, that’s for me. And he’s given that test more over him. But listen to what he was saying. If Clifton now father has says, no, no, no, no, that’s not true. He would have never accepted Christ as Savior. Because it was a gift. It was free. And can I, as a Christian, here I am right now, Can I live as I please? Yes, I can. But then God also is able to do what he pleases to.

And I don’t know exactly how he’s gonna get me or what he’s gonna do, but he will. So I can expect my heavenly Father to chase in me. Not because he hates me, but because he loves me. He always loves us and he loves his children. But not a preacher will say, no, no, no, that’s a sign you’re not really saved. If you’re really saved, you’re not gonna wanna go out here and do this and their siness and that.

Then why is everybody doing that? Because they do want to do it. Because you still have an old sinful nature. On my website, the YouTube, they’re always putting in there. Well, when you trust Christ to save you, you’re a new creature and you’re not going to want to do those things anymore. Well, they’re not thinking about God never changed the old man. He didn’t change your old sinful nature. He never took it away. He gave you a new birth.

This new one, born of God. This one’s not a new one. born of God. And that’s why you still have the lust of the flesh. You can still commit everything in the book. Why? Because of the first birth. But God gave me a second birth. And just because I walk in the flesh doesn’t annul this birth. And if I decide to walk in the Spirit and obey the Lord and serve God and love him with all my heart, that doesn’t do away with this birth.

I still got him. And that’s why at any time this old man can walk up and slap you upside the head. That’s why you you cannot trust your sinful nature. But now look down at the bottom. Can a man believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and not be saved? Yes, if you don’t know who he is and what he’s done, but it’s kind of a hard question to answer. Because there’s a lot of people, you take for example, Catholics, don’t Catholics teach to death, burial and resurrection of Christ?

The next statement, when he does not see this as a payment for all his sins, his future sins will cause him mental anguish and doubts about his salvation. Many religions believe Christ died and rose again, but they don’t truly trust him as their Savior. You’ll have all kinds of religions that’ll teach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So that means they’re going to heaven. No, how they don’t believe salvation is by grace. They don’t understand. If he died for my sins and really believed that, then that takes care of eternal security.

because I know that all my sins he paid for. So if I don’t have any sins to pay for, then where am I going to go when I die? I get to go to heaven. And it eliminates all questions and I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t have doubts. I haven’t had them for 55 years or more. Why? Because I know that what Christ did, and I know what he said is all based upon this resurrection of Christ from the dead, look down at the bottom of the page.

What Jesus did was pay for our sins by his death on the cross. What he said was, I could be saved by faith and given the free gift of eternal life. If I believe what he did, he died from me. All that he promised based upon what he did, Christ died for my sins. So if that’s true, and I have a payment for how many of my sins. When Christ died 2000 years ago, how many of my sins we’re in the future.

They’re all in the future. Well, what about the ones I haven’t done yet? Are they still in the future? Well, wouldn’t that include them too? Because he’s not coming back after today and pay for my sins that I haven’t done yet. How many sins did he pay for? All of them from time. I’m born to the time I die. He made a payment. I have a payment for my sins. That’s why I can’t go to hell because I don’t have any sins to pay for.

He paid for my sins and he said, if I believed it, He put that payment he made to my account. And that makes sense. Men reserved 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 and breakfast. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.