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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.

I want you to take your Bible, turn to the book of Galatians in chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. I want to distinguish between the first covenant and the second covenant. If you look up here just for a little bit, once you’ve found Galatians in chapter 3, from the microphone here, this is the cross, okay, the cross. And before that is the law. This side of the microphone is grace. There’s two major covenants that God gave in his word. The first covenant was the law and the second covenant was grace.

And they are both very important to understand the purpose of both of them. Why God says He did away with the first covenant because He made something better. There was something better with the covenant of grace that the covenant of law did not solve. There’s problems with mankind. If we were to take today, forget everything you’ve ever done, and let’s just start fresh anew today. And God was to put you underneath this old covenant of the law and demanded that you become a righteous individual by the law.

So if you live by the law, you will die by the law. And if you’re under the law as a standard of righteousness, then God says we all die because the righteousness of the law condemns everyone that’s not perfect. But God’s going to give you a chance and you want that chance, right? Wouldn’t you like to have that chance to prove that he’s wrong? So God can let you live under this law and that’s what he did for Israel for about 1500 years.

So they had the law. And so if you look there in Galatians in chapter three and verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, not under blessing, you’re under curse. Because as he says here, for he’s written cursed is everyone that continues, if not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So you are responsible to keep the whole law and to offend in one point is to be guilty of all of it, because the command is to be righteous and by your works you will not be righteous.

The law will condemn you. Therefore there’s nothing wrong with the law. The problem is you and I fail to keep the law. So therefore the law cannot save us. But God had made a promise before this law that he gave to Moses, he made a promise to Abraham and the promise that he was going to justify us by faith alone. But people are not going to just trust the Lord for their salvation if they believe they deserve it. So God will let you work yourself to death.

Be frustrated, total despair, trying to accomplish your perfection. And many people think they’re doing a good job until they actually find out what God requires. He doesn’t want you to do a pretty good job. He wants you to do a perfect job and you cannot fulfill the law. So the law condemns everyone that doesn’t keep it perfectly. So God says in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident.

The just shall live by faith. So it’s not going to be because of what you have done that will save you. So God… Had a better way, something better than the covenant of law, which no man was able to fulfill. Take your Bible now and turn with me to the book of Galatians in chapter two. Just turn back to you left there, just a page. And you’ll notice to be saved by grace is to live by Christ. A totally different concept.

Look in verse 20. Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ live it in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Jesus Christ was crucified for my sins, so He paid my sin dead. So I am not trusting under the law what I can do because I fail. So God wants us to believe that what He did by dying on this cross, and we trust Him as our Savior, and He gives us everlasting life.

So when I trust salvation by grace, I live by Christ. If you live under the law, then to live by the law is to die by the law because the law curses every man that doesn’t keep it perfectly. But grace can bless every man if a person simply accepts the payment Christ made for Him. Therefore we live by grace and not by works. So the Bible makes it very clear for by grace are you saved, that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now you understand Ephesians 2, 8, 9. So lay not perfectly in God’s Word. Take your Bible now and turn all the way over there to the book of Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, in verse 31, verse 31, the Lord, even in the Old Testament, promised through Jeremiah the prophet that God had a better way than man trying to earn salvation which he cannot do, God had a better way than man trying to earn it.

It wasn’t that the law was bad, it’s just that man was, and man can’t earn it. So what God did was simply, out of the human race, take a biopsis. Now you’ve been to a doctor enough to know that they think there’s a possibility of cancer, they take a biopsis and they send it off and they come back and say whether it was or it wasn’t. Well see, there’s the whole human race, and so God took the nation of Israel and he took a biopsis.

And with Israel for For 1500 years, and God gave a conclusion. The conclusion was very simple. See, he run a test. He used the law. And the law came to the conclusion that it’s contaminated. Man is sinful. Man can’t improve upon himself. Man can’t cure himself. Death is the result. So what God did is, has a better plan than man trying to earn his way to heaven. You know there’s still people today trying to earn way to heaven by their good deeds and yet it’s totally impossible.

So God says here in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 31, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which by covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and in verse 34 and they shall teach no man every man is neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more.

This is the the new birth. It’s the new birth under grace and what God will do and it’s going to be another covenant because it’s going to be so much better, so much better than anything they have ever had. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts in chapter 7. The book of Acts in chapter 7. In these scriptures, as far as we know, he is teaching his first sermon. And Stephen preached quite a sermon. So what did he get for?

Well, they stoned him to death. But boy, he really laid it on while he had a chance. But look what he says in verse 51 of Book of Acts in chapter 7. You stiff neck and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye. He had a hard time expressing himself. They kind of got the idea. He let them know how he really thinks. In verse 52, he says, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?

they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom you have been now the betrayers and murders who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Those last words have not kept it. You received the law 1500 years you haven’t kept it. So God says you broke the covenant. All those individuals even to this day that think they can be saved by their works, just don’t get it.

You have broken the law. You’re not as good as you think. Well, I go to church and I sing in the choir and I’m a deacon and I’m this and that and the other. Your works cannot save. Do you understand that? No works. No man has ever lived good enough to be saved. If you started today and wanted to live a perfect life, you can’t do it. Your desire doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. It’s impossible. That’s why God has a way, but you’ve got to let the world see.

You can’t save yourself. So God gave a perfect law. See how you do it. And no man has deserved to be saved. No man has kept the law that deserves to be saved. So God has laid it down how he wants it done. Now take your Bible and turn there to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in chapter 8. And look at verse 1, he lays out some things here so you can see it and understand it and follow it.

In verse 1, now of the things which we have spoken, this is the Psalm. We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. Now he’s already gone through and showed you a little bit about the high priest and how that Jesus Christ is our high priest. That’s somebody who speaks on behalf of God to the people. And so a mediator is a in between, a go between.

And there’s only one mediator the Bible says that we ever needed between men and God. That’s the man Christ Jesus. So these priests in the Hebrews in chapter 5, well they had problems. They were limited in what they could do. They were sinners themselves. They have to offer sacrifices for themselves and for the sins of the people. And then they had a problem with how long they lived. They would die and somebody else would have to do it. And then they had to do it in some cases daily and then once a year for themselves and for the sins of the people.

So there was no end to it. And there wasn’t anything And the wrong way of what they were doing is just it wouldn’t make the comer unto perfect. It could not solve the problem. So God says, I’m sending you a high priest. And this high priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. So He was a prophet, a priest and king. He came as a prophet because He fulfilled the prophecies and He prophesied and He is a priest and that’s what He’s doing now in heaven.

And one day he will be king, so he is our prophet, priest, and king. So here in verse 2 of chapter 8, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. So we’re not talking about the tabernacle that was on the earth that Moses did, and then later on they built temples, Solomon’s temple and all, something better than that. He went into the real one that was made by God in heaven.

Moses when he made his tabernacle in the wilderness, it was made on the order of the one that God told him to make it because there’s a real one. And so in verse 3, for every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, where for it is a necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. What is this high priest going to offer? So when Jesus Christ was here, what did he offer for his sins? And And did he have to offer cows and bulls and goats?

What did he offer for his own sins? He didn’t have any sins. But if he’s going to be our high priest, the priest is supposed to go into the holy of place, and they’re supposed to have these sacrifices made in the holy of holies. What is he going to offer? The high priest was to go in there and offer the blood of these animal sacrifice upon the altar for the people. So we have a high priest, and he is supposed to make a sacrifice.

But remember, their priest had to make one for themselves, but it was never themselves that was the sacrifice. Jesus Christ was the lamb that was sacrificed. He offered himself as the sacrifice. So therefore, there is a lot of difference. Now look in verse 4, for if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offers gifts according to the law, who served unto the example in shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.

For C said to him that thou make all things according to the pattern, show to thee in the mount. So whatever he made down here was because there was a real one up there, and that was only a type of the real one. All the priests in the Old Testament, they were a type of another kind of a priest. But this priest, Jesus Christ, was different than the priesthood of Aaron. He was made after the order of Melchizedek. You see Melchizedek, the Bible doesn’t record anything about his mother, father, length of days and all that stuff.

And whether or not you want to believe he was pre-ventilization of Christ or just a man that didn’t record the things about him, I believe that there’s more to it than that. So I believe that Jesus Christ, had no beginning, had no ending, so that He could become the sacrifice and He was the one that is forever. You see, He has the power of an endless life. There’s nobody to take His place after Him. There is nobody else. He is the only sacrifice that was needed to be offered.

All those Old Testament things were just pipes of sacrifices of these sacrifice that one day would be made and Christ made that. So now notice what he says in verse 6. And now, hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. This was going to be based upon his word alone, not anything that we have to do. See under the law all that he hath commanded us, we will do.”

And they didn’t. Under grace, there’s nothing we do. It’s not based upon us, not based upon our promise. It’s based upon His promise. He will save all those who simply trust Him by faith and has nothing to do with how you live your life. There’s preachers today who still don’t get this. That you can’t tell people they can just trust Christ as their Savior and then live like they please. If you can’t, it’s not grace. If you can’t live as you please, it’s not free.

Either it is or it isn’t. You say, well, you shouldn’t. Shouldn’t is one thing. Have to. That’s annulls the gift. I’m saved by grace, not because of any good thing that I’ve ever done or any good thing I ever will do. I am saved by grace because of what Christ did for me. He died on that cross and paid for how many of my sins? All of them. So once you believe that He gives you eternal life. Now look there in this verse 7.

For if that first covenant had been faultless and what was the fault, not the law, the fault was the people, couldn’t do it. You can’t earn it. it. Then there would be no place for a second. If you could earn your way to heaven by your good worst and that’s the way it ought to be, but God says nobody can. He even experimented for 1500 years. Nobody ever did. And you haven’t either. And you’re not going to. So he says in verse 8, for finding fault with them, he said, behold the days come.

Now he’s quoted in that scripture found in the book of Jeremiah where God had promised there’s going to be another way, a better way. Now they could have trusted Christ as their Savior if they understood the purpose of the sacrifices that they made. Looking forward to the day that payment would be made. But all this has to be laid out in time in the process of time. So look what he says in verse 8. He says, say, the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

Because they continued not in my covenant. They didn’t keep their word. But what about a promise made only by one? And usually a covenant has to have two. But God says, it’s sworn by my immutability to change. And that there’s nobody greater than me. Two things that’s found in the book of Hebrews in chapter 6. But he says, and I regarded them not, sayeth the Lord. For in verse 10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days, sayeth the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and write them into their hearts and I will be to them at God and they shall be to me of people. The last part of that verse you’ll find that even mentioned in the book of Revelation, the last chapter. When he’s talking about I will be there God and they shall be my people. This is when it’s all over with. But these verses are talking about you won’t have to worry about you know witnessing to this person at that point.

He says for they shall all know the Lord. Know the Lord is salvation and those who have trusted Christ as Savior I will put my Spirit within them and when we trusted Christ as our Savior the Holy Spirit of God comes within us. We have the knowledge of what God’s Word has to say. And one day, even we will know as we are known. But now get what He says here. In verse 11, For they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, know the Lord for all that know me from the least to the grace.

All of his sins in verse 12, they’re all gonna be forgotten. They’re gonna be forgiven. So this is why it’s so important to understand the plan of salvation. God did this for us. This is why Jesus Christ came into the world and made a payment for all the sins of everybody because nobody can save themselves and we have a debt payment to pay. And Christ died for us, for all my sins. You know what most people do and how they think in their mind?

When you trust Christ as Savior, okay, that means you’re saved now. Christ has forgiven you of all those things that you’ve done. I don’t know how bad they are. Now you’re saved. But whenever you live in the future, you know tomorrow. And then if you mess up, you gotta get forgiveness again. You gotta get saved again. And then you gotta keep confessing all the way for your sin, otherwise you go to hell. No, no, no, no, no. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, by faith, you were accepting a payment He made for all of your sins, past, present, future.

Not just these in the past, by faith, I’m accepting a payment He made for my sins. I’ve already done and by faith, I’m accepting a payment that I haven’t done yet since I haven’t even committed yet. He made a payment once and for all. He’s not going to make another one. So those sins had to be paid in advance and all that we have to do is to trust Christ as our Savior. And when we do so, we have as a free gift everlasting life and get what he says.

Now look there in verse 11 of chapter 9. For Christ, being come and high priests of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, his own blood. Now what makes his blood precious blood? Because it held a precious life. The life of the flesh is in the blood. If it’s precious blood, it was precious life.

This was the God flesh, the God man. And he gave his life this precious life that did not deserve the die. And the scriptures that J. Red just about a moment ago talked about for a righteous man, some would venture to die and so on. And a good man, but wait a minute, but God committed his love toward us in the way we were yet sinners means nobody would want to die for you. I mean, may our righteous man or a good man but a sinner?

A man that he deserves to die. You would want to give your life for that? But Jesus, when he came, he says, you deserve to die. You deserve to go to hell. You cannot save yourself. You have offended a holy righteous God. But Christ died for our sins. Best news and all the world. news and all the world. If He paid for my sins, why did He pay for my sins so that I wouldn’t have to pay for my sins?

Should I pay for my sins? Yes. I committed to Him. But He died in my place. And like I’ve told so many people, He loved you so much He would rather die than live without you. And if He paid for all of my sins and I accept that payment, then how How can I go to hell in the future? All my sins are paid. I don’t have to pay for any sins. He paid for all my sins. You see, that’s the only way you can be certain of going to heaven when you die is that you can’t go to hell impossible.

If you can’t go to hell in the future, you can’t have any eternal security today. You’re either saved forever or not saved at all. Eternal security is not a separate doctrine in salvation. It is the gospel. It is the truth. Eternal security. One saved, always saved. And there’s some people that call that a dandable doctrine. And yet it is the gospel itself. It’s the best news in all the world to know that you’re saved, know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die.

I am not ashamed of the gospel. I am not ashamed to say I believe in eternal security. If I’m ashamed of eternal security, I’m ashamed of the gospel. You say, well, I don’t want to give people a license to sin. They’re going to sin without your permission. You don’t need my permission or anybody else’s permission. Most people already live the way they want to live. Here you are. God created this whole earth. Isn’t that wonderful? Now God, you’re not going to create people to be born into this world and then let them live like they please, are you?

The, what did he do? Doesn’t he let you live and make whatever decisions you want to make? Yes, are there consequences to your decision? Yes. Here’s Mommy. She’s out there eight and a half months. You say, have you got the kid to promise how they’re going to live yet? Well, you’re not going to have a child and then have that child grow up to live however they please are you. I plan on it. But when the child is born, then you talk to them about how to live life, but the choice will be theirs.

When it comes to salvation, you mean to tell me you can just trust Christ as your Savior and live like you please? Well, of course. Now 99% of most preaching will never tell you that. They’ll want to slide around that thing, deny that. And say, well, that doesn’t really mean that. Well, you’re not going to be, well, if you’re really safe, you’re not going to want to go. Well, if you’re really born, you’re not going to want to do anything wrong.

Does that work? No, then you try to teach them. So God gave us His word to teach. Hey, there’s blessings if you obey God. And there’s chastisement if you don’t. But the penalty for my sin in hell has been paid. I can never go there. But there’s consequences in life to my bad decisions that I may make, but they can never condemn me. There’s no condemnation to those that are in Christ. So as you go through all of these things in the book of Hebrews, it’s wonderful because we have something so much better.

Would you rather be saved by your works or by grace? If you want to try to be saved by your works, go for it. See how you do. But I don’t have to wait till the end of life and stand in some judgment to find out how wonderful I made it. I can already tell you the answer. You didn’t. And you’re not going to make it. Because he says, not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his mercy he saved us.

For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourself, not of yourself. Did you get it? Most people never get it. I have eternal life. I’m going to heaven when I die. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. I’m saved by grace. I’m a dirty lousy stinking rotten sin in all the bust hell wide open, just like you. But I go to heaven. Not because I love God, but because He loved me. He loved me so much that He would give me.

Eternal life is a free gift. And He promised that He’ll never cast me out and never lose me. That’s the best news in all the world. 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 by the line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free.

1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line 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 1030. And at 6 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. 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, and just keep looking up.