This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.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.

Teaching from the book of Galatians, well, let’s say this, most of the time most of the time we start in the book of Galatians, but book of Galatians chapter 2. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to Galatians in chapter 2 and look there in verse 16. Now I believe that there is a continuation of the conversation going on between Paul and Peter and he makes a statement to him. He says, now we we know that we are not justified by the works of the law.

He says, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have been justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. And so it’s a very interesting book, very interesting chapter, a very important verse. It kind of comes in the middle of this chapter, but it’s a very strong verse. I’ve used it many, many times on individuals who believe they’ve got to do something.

So I want you to look there in your notes under Galatians chapter 2, verse 16. And I want you to look at the small letter B, justification, justification. Because you’re going to see this word justification use many, many times. The just justification justify and it’s important to know what it means. Because when you really know what that word means then you shouldn’t have any problem with adding works to the gospel. You shouldn’t have any problem with believing that you’ve got to do something after you’re saved to keep your salvation if you understand the word justification.

So it is a judicial act of been declared righteous. In other words, when God looks upon you, if He has justified you means He has declared you righteous. Now you are not made righteous by your works, any good deeds that you’ve done, but God is the judge and you have appeared in a court of law, you are found guilty, but God has declared you righteous. You’re just as if you had never sinned because there’s someone else who paid your fine.

You get to go free. Now, the next line says a good way to remember the meaning of justified is, and there’s nothing wrong with it. You’ll always find somebody who wants to be a little bit more spiritual and say, well, it doesn’t really mean that. Yes, it does. Just as if I had never said, but it means that, but just a little bit more. However, it actually has a further more profound implication. And this line is very, very important.

If you want to highlight it, you can. I just simply underlined it for you. Justification means as though I had always been righteous. this is though I have always been righteous. Now remember this, there was never anything against me to be justified. It’s like there never has been anything against me. That’s passed. It’s like there’s now nothing against me. Nothing can be charged to my account even today. And nothing in the future can ever be added to my charge, as though I’m guilty in the future.

Because all of my sins… We’re laid on him and he paid the whole debt. And God has because I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as the payment for my sin. God has declared me righteous. Now he can’t declare you righteous until you’ve been justified. And there’s a reason for that and we’ll show you that in a minute. The next letter, see, justification is the only way in which a righteous and judicial God can reconcile an unrighteous and guilty world. BecauseDeliveryDate we have all sinned, how can God be just and the justifier of those who are wicked?

So God has to be just when He justifies the ungodly. and He is, and all because of what Christ did on the cross force. Remember this, God preached the gospel to Abraham in the Old Testament in Galatians chapter 3 verse 8 and God foreseen that he would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel of the Abraham and said, in these shall all families of the earth be blessed. So He made a promise. All He then, Jew or Gentile, everybody, because the Jews didn’t exist at this time.

Everybody would be justified the same way. By faith alone in Christ, alone for the payment for their sins. So the Son, Jesus Christ, had to come and make the payment for sin because of the promise that God had made to Abraham. So then after the promise was made then God gave the law and the law was the mirror so that everybody could see how unrighteous they are. The law was never given to save a man. The law cannot justify a man.

The law can only curse a man because it proves to man that he is guilty of breaking God’s righteous law. God is perfect, he’s just, he is holy. Man is not. So I want you to notice this word here in Galatians chapter 2 verse 16. It is the word justified. Now look at this word justified again. And when we say the word justified, if it means just as if I had never sin. So when we read the word justified, put that meaning into word.

You see in verse 16, knowing that a man is not just as if he had never sinned by the works of the law. But by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have been justified or that we might be just as if I had never sinned, by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be just as if they’ve never sinned. See how easy that is?

It makes them good sins. When you understand the power of that word, justified. Verse 17, but if why we seek to be just as if we never sinned, well then you’re admitting that you’re not yet justified. So you’re seeking to be justified, not only by Christ but by your works by being placed underneath the law and you cannot justify yourself. Now look in chapter 3 and look in verse 8 where it says in verse 8 and the scripture foreseeing that God would make you just as if you had never sinned, preached before the gospel and Abraham sinned and these shall all families be blessed.

So God has said all of this. Now look in verse 11 because you see the word justified is used through the book of Galatians, and Paul is letting them know, don’t you understand when you were justified and how you were justified? Don’t you understand that when you were justified, you paid your debt to the law. Why is somebody trying to put you back in debt? So in verse 11, but that no man is just as if he had never sinned by the law in the sight of God.

It is evident for the just those who have, or just like they’ve never sinned, shall live by faith and keep explaining the difference between law and grace. Grace means it’s only by faith in what Christ did. The law means you have to earn and work for it. But what does he say there in verse 10? When he talks about and the law, see there in verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law, are under the blessing, they’re under a curse.

You see, if you want to be blessed, well that’s in verse 9. See verse 9 says, so then they would be a faith are blessed. Those that be of the law are cursed. See the difference? The law never could save anybody and yet there’s people always trying to put people back under the law. You do not have to keep the law to go to heaven. If there was a law given, I guess that maybe should be the way. But look what he says there in chapter 3 in verse 19.

Excuse me, verse 21, is the law then against the promise of God? Because God promised to save a man by faith. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if, if there had been a law given which could have given life, that, very righteousness should have been how? If a man could earn it, then he should have earned it. But there is no way of earning it. So that’s why you look now in chapter 2 and look down in verse 21.

Look in verse 21 of chapter 2. Paul says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. It means that I do not set it aside for if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain. He would not have had to die if a man could earn his way to heaven, but evidently he can’t. And that’s why we have a Savior. So that verse is important. Now look in verse 24 of chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 and look in verse 24 where it says, wherefore the law was our school master or like the school bus that takes it to the school, but it doesn’t, it’s not the teacher.

It just brings you to the school. The law was to bring us to Christ. See what he says? That we might be just as if we had never sinned by faith. By faith, and what Christ did for me, I would be just as if I had never sinned. Not just if I have never said, it’s just like, well, I have always been righteous. So I’ve been perfect all my life. That blows my mind. But that’s how God sees us in Christ.

We were born into God’s family, a perfect child. Clear of everything that’s ever been known or done by the flesh. So now take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 3. Romans in chapter 3. Romans chapter and there’s a couple verses I want you to look at here. Romans chapter 3 and look in verse 20. In verse 20 there is a word that’s used here also called justified. Therefore in verse 20 therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be just as if I had never sinned.

In other words, the law cannot produce that. The law is the knowledge of sin. So the law becomes a magnifying glass that really makes all of your sin stand out. It magnifies your sin. In other words, we may think we’re pretty good until we see the perfect righteous law of God and it’s like looking in a mirror and we see ourselves, but like I told others, when you look into the bathroom mirror and you see that, well, you need to shave.

You got turtleneck sweaters on your teeth. You got cobwebs in your hair, but you don’t take the mirror off the wall and wash your face with it. That’s not the purpose of the mirror. It’s just to reveal what’s wrong, but it can’t solve the problem. The law reveals what’s wrong, but Christ is the solution to the problem. So the law leads us to the soap and the water, to razor blade, and to brush our teeth and calm our hair, it solves the problem, but the law only reveals the problem, but it cannot solve it.

So somebody trying to get you underneath the law, it will not work. It strips away your security because you never know if you do enough. And it causes you to lose your joy. It takes away that joyful anticipation of being with the Lord because you’re not sure if you’re going to make it or not, because my behavior, well, that is what determines whether I make it or not, because you’ve added it to the gospel of grace and that will not work.

Now look what we have here in verse 24. Verse 24, see those words, being just as if I had never sinned, freely by what? grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus. In other words, because of the payment that He made. So Jesus Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. If I’ve been redeemed from it… I’m free from it. Why would I want to go back to it? You don’t do that. And so when he says there in verse 25, whom God had said for it to be a propitiation, that means he’s the payment, the satisfaction for ours.

God, God was satisfied with the payment Christ made for my sins. So if he was satisfied, well, then I’d be crazy not to be satisfied too. No, I’m not satisfied with that. I can do better. You can do better than what Jesus did. And that’s what people are saying. He’s necessary, but they don’t know He is enough. Jesus is enough. Now, look what we have here in verse 25 and 26. Verse 25 talks about the payment Christ made for us.

And in verse 26 to declare us at this time, his righteousness that he might be just, because he, God cannot justify me in an unjust way. He can’t be wrong in declaring me righteous because people are going to judge God. God has to be right in whatever he does. See, that’s what he’s talking about over here in verse 4 of chapter 3, see in chapter 3, And verse 4, God forbid God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and might have overcome when thou art judged.

You see, people judge God. Is God fair? Is God righteous? I mean, look how hard I worked. I did all these good deeds. I mean, I’ve done marvelous deeds and I’ve cast out the devil and I’ve spoken tongues and I did and you just let him go for nothing. He didn’t do anything. That’s not fair. And God’s going to show you that he is just in saving a sinner. Now, so in that verse 26 that he might be just and the justifier.

He’s the one that makes me as if I had never sinned. me that does it, it’s God that justifies me. God is the one who declares you are justified. He can declare me righteous. Now once that is done, once that deal is done, it is forever. Otherwise it’s double jeopardy. I can never be hauled back in court again on sins that have already been paid and forgiven and I’ve been He can never undeclar me. Can’t unjustify me because God has to be just.

And that would be unjust. That would be like sin. My son never really did pay for all of your sins. Or make a complete payment. You had to make some payment for it and you didn’t do it. So therefore it’s null and void. He can’t do that. That’s why I can say I know I have eternal life. Know that I’m going to heaven when I die because Christ paid for all of my sins. paid for all of my sins and I have been declared righteous by God himself.

Now look what he has here in verse 28. Now look in verse 28 Romans chapter 3, therefore we conclude that a man is justified just as if he had never sinned by faith or by works. It’s always by faith. Man is not and cannot be justified by his works. No amount of works. Now let’s say for example a man walks in here and he drinks and he smokes and he cusses and he does everything in the book and he says right down here.

If I tell him if he wants to be justified and declared righteous and go to heaven he has to be willing to give up his sins. Have I added something to the gospel message? Because if he doesn’t do that then God can’t do what he wants to do. If it is free justified freely by his grace, does that sound like grace? That’s not grace. That means if he does all these things, well now how long would he have to give up his sins?

If God gave him 15 years to live, does he have to turn from his sins for 15 years? If he has to turn from him, if he smokes and you got to turn from it, I’ll get 15, I’m going to let you live for 15. That means you can’t do it now. And you can’t use any profanity for 15 years. What about envy? What if I just get angry? Well, I’m glad we don’t do any of that. No row range here.

. . . . . . . . . . . Aren’t you glad that none of that has any effect on God just? But if I will buy my faith in Christ and what He did, God will declare me righteous. That’s grace. That’s mercy. That is compassion. The other way, he has to earn it. He has to deserve to be saved because of some deed that he does. And yet this is what multitudes of preachers are preaching every Sunday morning.

And many, I don’t believe, are aware of what they’re doing. If they are aware of it, shame on them. Now this is so important. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 4, chapter 4, and look in verse 25. Romans chapter four and verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses, that means the things we’ve done wrong. That’s the same verse you’ll find in Colossians in chapter two and verse 14. All those things were against us and were nailed to his cross and was raised again for our justification.

In other words, if there’s no resurrection, there can be no justification. Christ coming back from the dead is our only way of knowing that the check cleared the bank. He died on the cross, made the deposit. Now we gotta see if it clears the bank. When he came back from the dead, God accepted that blood offering because it was placed upon the mercy seed. And because of that, God can declare me righteous just as if I had never sinned, just as if I had been righteous all my life.”

Well, I like that. Now, look in chapter 5, look in verse 1, does the Bible have anything to say about being justified? It sure looks like it. Therefore, in verse 1, therefore it being justified by faith, that’s a done deal. It’s all, it’s done. justified His past tense. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have been justified. I’ve already been justified. God has already declared me righteous. I’m good to go. When did He declare me righteous?

Yesterday? Well He’ll do it tomorrow. He did it 58 years ago when I was in that living room and I trusted Christ is my Savior that day, that moment. God says that payment I made is put to His account, He’s good to go. He has declared righteous. Justify, just as if I had never committed a sin, just as if I have always been righteous. Now that’s grace. And the thing is when you really understand that you know that I don’t need to do anything else to secure my salvation, there is nothing else to do.

When he says, it is finished, then it is finished. And he sat down because the work was done. And all he wanted us to do, going to all the way in priest, the gospel, the good news of what he did for us. So all we have to do is buy faith except Christ as our Savior, and He would give us as a free gift everlasting life. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts in chapter 10.

The book of Acts in chapter 10. The apostle Peter, because we have dealt with the apostle Peter in the last couple lectures, because of the conflict that he had with Paul and the church there in Antioch. But notice what Peter knew because he preached the sermon and he says here that he was talking about Christ. Look what he says here in verse 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, where God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. You know. If you went around with somebody for three and a half years and you saw that person get crucified and you know he was dead and in the grave for three days and he comes back, you know, that might make you a little on the cocky side.

A little bold. Have a lot of confidence. He’s who he claimed to be. If you could kill me and I’d come right back from the dead, I don’t think I’d mind if you tried to kill me. I’d come right back. But this was real. They were eyewitnesses. They saw him. Over 500 brothers at one time and they could walk with him and talk to them and he ate with them. And then to stand there and watch him go up in the air without a spaceship.

Just go up in the air. No rockets, no Nassau, no Houston. Hey, I got a problem. He went right up into the sky. and they saw Him disappear right on their side. Now wouldn’t that eliminate a little fear in your life? And those scared disciples that were locked in their room, scared for their life now went out and God used them to change the world, preach the gospel everywhere because they knew it was true. And then in verse 42, And he, the one that came back from the dead, commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead, the living and the dead, the saved and the law.

To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believe it in him shall receive remission of sin. To have all your sins taken away is to be justified. You will be justified if He takes away all of your sins. If He forgives you of all of your sins, He forgives you of everything we’ve ever done because Christ paid the debt. You see, God could not forgive me of one sin if Jesus hadn’t paid for it because God would demand I have to pay for my sin.

And there is no other way unless Jesus did what He did. You know, I’ve made a little statement that Jesus, why did he down that cross? Well, he down on that cross to pay for my sins. Why? Because he didn’t want me to do it. And he paid for my sins because he loved me so much. He’d rather die than live without me. But he would rather die just to give me the chance. Think about it. He died on that cross just to give me a chance because without that, there was no chance.

There was no option. It’s not like blocking Jews to go that way or another way. There is no other way. And that is something we need to be very thankful for. Are you a new listener to Bible Eye? 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, 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 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend one day it will happen the trumpet will sound and we will be changed caught up to meet the Lord in the air so that today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up