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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 found out that the most important thing in all the world was knowing the clarity of the gospel. The message is so important. And so I wrote a few questions down, as you know, I sit and think sometime and I wonder. Bob says, go in the, all the world and reach the lost man. So you think about this. Look at the first statement here. The world was told how to recognize the Messiah when he came into the world. But they failed to see, didn’t God tell the world how to recognize the Messiah?

Wasn’t it recorded in the Old Testament? how to recognize Him. Even told Him when He was going to be born where He was going to be born the year He would be born and even told the town and all that you know of the right lineage son of David and the tribe of Judah. And yet when He came they just couldn’t believe it. God has told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

But what I find out is that most Christians don’t know what a lost man looks like. Look the next line I have. The believer has been told how to recognize the lost man but have difficulties in finding him. You know there’s some Christians that can live their whole Christian life and can’t find a lost person? Evidently because that is the main purpose of our living, our lives is to seek the lost man and some people can’t find any. Well maybe you didn’t know how recognize one so I thought I’ll just help solve the problem.

So I made a list of how God says you can recognize a lost man. So what do they look like? Or they’re real weird. The question I have done here is how does God describe the lost man? It’s a good question because if you and I are to seek the lost man we ought to know what we’re looking for. We ought to have an idea. Well maybe in the Word of God God describes what they’re like. So if there’s anything we’re going to learn how to do the will of God, we ought to be able to recognize the lost man.

Now think about this. When you see and understand the description that God gives as a lost man, why should God love us? Look at our description, but there is one word that kind of gives it all away. So the verse I want you to look at before we start here is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9. Look their Ephesians 2, 8, 9, 9. We know that these are familiar verses, but they’re not familiar to everybody. Not everybody knows Ephesians 2, 8, 9 is in the Bible.

I was 18 years old and I had never seen Ephesians 2, 8, 9. I didn’t know John 3, 16 was in the Bible when I was 18 years old. But in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, I want you to notice what it says. And then I want you to think, I wonder what that means. You see in Ephesians 2, 8, 9 verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith. By grace are you saved through faith. That’s what it says by grace are you saved through faith.

So we know what it says. Now what does it mean? By grace. What is grace? What is grace? It’s not a girl. Unmarried to faith. It means you don’t marry. You don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve to be saved. By grace are you saved through faith just by believing. Well that’s too easy. It doesn’t matter what the world says. It’s whatever the book says. God made, heaven, God made, hell and he’s the one that says by grace are you saved through faith, not of your words.

Now if it says not of works, looking verse 9, not of works, lest any man should boast. Because he says it’s the gift of God, not of works. So if it’s not of works, I wonder what that means. Can you figure that out? What would he mean by not of works? Could it be referring to it’s nothing that you can do? You mean I don’t have to be good to go to heaven? Well, if you do, well then it would be by your works.

And it’s not by your works. You mean I can be bad and go to heaven? Well, you are bad. You are. You mean I can be a sinner? It’s what you are. And yet, why does God love us? And yet He does. So I want you to look there at your notes here. Number one, how does God describe the lost man? He describes the lost man as lost. Isn’t that easy? Where does He say that a man is lost?

Well, I give you two scriptures here, but I want you to know that God is a man. you look at the one in Luke chapter 19, look in the book of Luke chapter 19. When he makes a statement in verse nine, you notice that there is a connection between the salvation in verse nine to the lost in verse 10. You see there in verse nine, and Jesus said unto him, who did he say this to a little fellow named Zac Dias?

So he says here in verse nine, this day is salvation come to this house, salvation. In verse 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, and evidently Zacchaeus is lost. And he came to seek and to save that which was lost and your loss and salvation has come to this house. So Jesus came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. That’s us. That’s the whole world is lost.

But the description that God uses is he says he’s a lost man. How do you know a man’s loss. Well, where are you going when you die? I was at the golf course one day and I asked this man, I says, where are you going to go when you die? He says, I’m going to heaven. I says, are you sure? He says, I sure am. I says, is there anything you can do between now the time you die that could keep you from going to heaven?

He said, well, of course. I says, you don’t know where you’re going when you die. He said, well, I’m saying if I die right now, I’m not talking about it. Now says, when you die, I didn’t say you’re going to die today. Do you know where you’re going when you die? Well, I don’t know when I’m going to die. And that was the point. You don’t. But do you know if you’re going to make it to heaven, when you die, whenever that is out there?

And you know, if you don’t know where you’re going when you die, you’re lost. You don’t know where you’re going. You’re lost. You don’t know the way. If a man believes, just listen, follow me. If a man believes that he can be saved today and maybe lose it down the road. Well, he doesn’t know he won’t lose it. If you can, you don’t know you won’t. So in reality, you don’t know if you’re going to lose it or not.

And if you can lose it because of something, you really don’t know the way. You don’t know how to be saved. You don’t know the gospel. You don’t know the good news. If you believe that you can go to hell in the future. You don’t know the truth. You don’t know the way. Because see, you don’t know. Well, that’s not good. It’s not good for a man to live and not know where he’s going when he dies because every man’s going to die, but he doesn’t know when he’s going to die.

So it’s important for a man to know where he’s going when he dies. Look there in the book of Matthew in chapter 11, but let me just tell you about this one. Because they came to Jesus and want to know, So are you the Messiah or do we look for another? He says you go back and tell John the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Now just understand this. In the book of Revelation in chapter 3, it talks about even believers.

He says, but you’re poor and you’re naked, you’re blind, but they don’t see themselves out of way. Do you believe that a lost man consider himself poor if he’s got a million dollars in the bank? And if he’s got a home and he’s got cars and he’s got security and all that and he’s got good health and everything is got. And yet in God’s eyes, there stands before you a poor man. And there can be an old beggar, a beggar like Lazarus.

And there was this rich man and there was this beggar. But did knowing God’s eyes, the beggar was richer than rich men? That the poor man was really the rich man. You see, when you miss out on the treasures of heaven, you’re a poor man. You see down here people think they’re rich because of the accumulation of the goods they have. But in God’s eyes God sees differently than man. You see, the greatest treasure you can ever have in this world is I know the Lord.

I’m a child of God. I’m a child of the King. So why should you live and act and think like a pauper? Do you know who you are? Do you know what you are in Christ? You’re a child of the King. Act like a child of the King. Talk like a child of the King. Now in the book of Isaiah in chapter 55 verse 1 also over there in the book of Revelation and it makes a statement, chapter 22 and verse 17, talks about, let him that is thirsty, come, yay, without money, and you can have it.

It doesn’t cost you anything. He, that is thirsty. God looks upon the lost man as a thirsty man. A man that’s thirsty for something, but he doesn’t know where it is that can satisfy that quench, that desire that he has. You see, God has placed it within every man the desire to want to live forever. We don’t really look to die here. We would just like to be happy and have everything we want and enjoy life in the quiet and peaceful life.

But that’s what we’re going to do. what we want and we don’t know how to get things because of our old sinful nature. And because I don’t know how to get my happiness and the things that happened to me are not good and everything happens to you is good and you got more than you need, I’m gonna just take some of it. So there’s always somebody who’s willing to relieve you of some of your misery because they want some of it.

They want some of your money and that’s why people rob, that’s why they kill. That’s why they connive because they’re not satisfied with what they have in the Lord or what God has for them. They don’t know that. They don’t know something better. And so yes, there’s people that are thirsty. The lost man. So when you and I are to go into all the world, we’re supposed to be looking for a thirsty person. A person that’s really thirsty. Sometimes you find a person that’s hungry, that’s thirsty and wants something.

And you’ve got the answer of what they need. The next statement I have down here is John 635 is, they are hungry. They even came out to see Jesus and it wasn’t because they were so impressed with who He was but what He could do. He could supply them with fish sandwiches. See, some people just wanna use God. They got their own purpose and plan in life and they wanna use God when they get in a hard time. Hey, I’m in trouble, help me again.

But they don’t want not to do anything with Him. I want to live my life.” You see, many of them followed him because they saw the people, all these miracles. Just like people who love our government because of what the government gives to them, you wouldn’t think people would come all the way up here and thousand miles and pay all that money and get across our border to come here if there wasn’t nothing here for them, but they believe there’s something here for them.

And most of it is free. So they come. But there are people that are hungry. He also describes it this way in the book of John chapter 9, the lost man blind. Now there are people who can’t see, but there’s a lot of people who got 20-20 vision and can’t see. They’re blind. So you and I have this wonderful opportunity God’s given to us and He wants us to discern to look what is it that people are looking for?

We know what they need. And God has given us something that will meet the need of every man. Did you know that the power of the gospel is sufficient to meet the needs of every person? Because eventually if a man trusts Christ as Savior and he gets to heaven, has all of his needs been met? And so you just don’t know this old body of mine is getting old. Wait, you trust Christ as Savior? He’s going to give you a new one.

Well, I’m starving to death. But you know when you trust Christ as Savior, you’ll never hunger again. You’ll never thirst again. Because God’s gonna take us to heaven. The first thing he’s gonna do, we’re gonna sit down and eat for a thousand years. I’m looking forward to that. It’s a marriage supper of the lamb. I’ve often wondered what we’re gonna have. Chocolatey clairs. Yeah, I can’t wait. So anyway, the next one is John 3.18. How does he describe the lost man?

I want you to look there in this verse. John chapter 3 and look at verse 18. And verse 18 says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. So if you believe on Christ you are not condemned. You’re not condemned today and then in John 524 you shall not be condemned in the future. Isn’t that something that if you believe on Christ you cannot be condemned to hell today? and then in verse 24 of chapter 5 I cannot be condemned in the future.

I can never go to hell. Why can I go to hell in the future? I don’t have any sins to pay for Christ, paid for all my sins. And I don’t deserve that. That is the goodness of God, the grace of God. Now the Bible tells us in the book of Mark chapter 16 verse 15, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every what? Now, to me, this is one of the things every one of us is a creation of God.

In spite of everything that we have done or will do, how bad we may be, we are the creation of God. And I believe that’s why God loves us. He created us. He created us because God wanted something to love and He wanted somebody to love Him back. God is love, but you have to have an object of love. You have to have something to love. And then isn’t it true that every creation of God wants love and wants to give love?

You want to love and you want to be loved. Otherwise none of us would ever get married. And if we never got married and we didn’t love them, there wouldn’t be no kids. There would be no next generation. We’d have been annihilated a long time ago and we’d have done it to ourselves. but that’s a wonderful thing to know. God loves man. And the lost man, God loves him. So why do we reach this lost man? That when God describes him, there’s nothing that he describes that says that they’re worthy to be saved.

Look at the next statement. In Romans chapter five and verse six, he talks about the ungodly. What does it mean to be ungodly? It means you’re not like God. God said, I want you to go and reach the lost man, and the lost man is not like me. God is godly, God is God. The lost man is not like God. But what does God wanna do? I wanna make him like me. That’s how he did it in the beginning.

God wants the lost man to live with him for all eternity. And there’s only one thing that can solve the problem, and that’s the gospel, the good news, this message of what Christ did in order for us to do this. So he says to go to all the way and preach this gospel to every creature. So there has to be a message that can solve the problem or the gospel is powerless. If the gospel can’t do what needs to be done to get the man to heaven, then the message is no good.

It’s insufficient. It’s powerless. Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, the Bible tells us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners. Not saints. Why we were sinners. He did this for us. In Ezekiel 3, 18, though it’s talking about on the wall and watching people that were wicked, living wicked, there is a still thing that God describes us as the wicked. wicked shall be turned into hell. And though the man is wicked, he’s a sinner, he’s all these things, and as we’ve covered this morning in the book of Jeremiah 17 where he says, the heart of man is deceitful, desperately wicked.

That’s how God describes us. And God says, I want you to go into all the world and reach all these people and he describes them. And so by the time we listen to the descriptions of the lost man, you would think we would be He hear long enough to recognize one of them. Have you ever seen one yet? Have you found anybody yet like that? I wrote down here something, and as I was writing this down, I saw that, that’s a good statement.

Look down here, see where it’s on the line in your notes here? Can an unbeliever deceive a Christian into believing they are a Christian? Can a lost man deceive you thinking they are a Christian. Have you ever thought you were a Christian and you found out you were not a Christian? Has there been a time in your life when you thought you were and you found out I’m not. Anybody in here like that? Let me see you in. Alright there’s a bunch of you.

So look there at number two. Number two they don’t believe in eternal security. Now I want you to be careful right here. I I never try to say something that’s going to purposely offend anybody because I don’t want to do that. But I want you to put on your thinking cap. I wrote something down here and I want you to really look at it and really think, look what he says, I have it in the brackets here. Eternal security is the only true test of grace.

What does it mean to say, you’re saved by grace? How many of you believe you’re saved by grace? I’m Zing. I’m saved by grace. But what does that mean? It means I’m saved without my works. What I do and don’t do how I live and don’t live has nothing to do with saving me. Because if it does, then you can’t say you’re saved by grace. Either I’m saved by grace or I’m saved by my, how I live, my behavior.

And it’s difficult for people to understand that how you live is what God condemns. you cannot save yourself by your works, not of yourself, not. So you can’t you eliminate that. Now if you eliminate how you live, good or bad. The only thing left for you to do is totally to trust Christ and Him alone as your only hope. True? It’s got to be one way or the other. But if a man is saved by his works, you can’t be saved by grace.

But if you’re saved by great, well then you can’t be saved by your works. You can’t be saved by both because they’re opposite. Grace means no work and worse means no grace. So either you’re saved by grace or you say by works, but you can’t be saved both ways. ways. One way or the other. But what does the Bible say? Not by works of righteousness which we have done. So look there in the next little paragraph there I got.

One of the best The best way to find a lost man is to see if he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt if he’s going to heaven. So whenever I’m seeking the lost, I don’t worry so much about how he’s living. And if he went to church and he had on a three-piece suit. a tie and he looked clean cut. Well then he must be a Christian, right? Now doesn’t make a Christian. A man can come in here on the hands of knees and he’s an old wino.

I mean he does everything in the book. He’s on drugs, he’s alcoholic and stinks the high heaven, had had a bat in six months. But do you know if that man ever in his past ever trusted Christ is his Savior. That’s a child of God. That man’s going to heaven when he dies. And this man in his three-piece suit carries his Bible under his arm and looks holy, sings all the songs and even kneels in prayer. If he hasn’t totally trusted Christ as his Savior, that man goes to hell and this man goes to heaven.

And most people can’t believe that. That’s not fair. not right. No, what’s not right is nobody should go to heaven. All of us should go to hell. That would be right. That would be just. But because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever changes His life and lives a good life and goes to Calvary Community Church and pays 50% inflation. No. Look at the next little statement. I want you because it’s very important.

The word think means think. Think. If you believe you can lose salvation, you don’t know how to get to heaven. Think. If you believe you can lose it, then you don’t know how to get to heaven. You’ve got to think what I’m saying because that’s the truth. If you think you can lose it, you don’t know how to get to heaven. You don’t know the way. The next point, if you believe you can lose salvation, it must be under your control.

That means you can lose it. If you can lose it, then you are in charge of it. That means that you are the one that decides whether or not you go to heaven or hell. See, look up here. Here’s the Lord. Here’s Yengie. So all these years ago, 53 years ago, I trusted Christ as my Savior. He saves me. He has taken me to heaven. So my going to heaven depends on Him, not Me. But if a man was to say, I’m trusting my own works, which they don’t say, but now I can lose it.

That’s because their salvation depends on them and not on the Lord. So does it make a difference? Yes, it does. Look at the next statement. If you believe you can lose salvation, it must be according to how you live or don’t live. Think about it. If I can lose my salvation, it has to depend upon how I live or don’t live if I can lose it because the Bible says God said I’ll never cast you out and what he said he says I’ll never lose you isn’t that what he said he said I’ll never cast you out and I’ll never lose you well if that’s true then how can I lose my salvation unless it depends on me so the gospel is so important look at number three number three you know the gospel is the only cure the gospel satisfies all the description of the lost.

John 1028 says, if I trust Christ as my Savior, He gives unto me eternal life and I will never perish. That means never in the future go to hell. Never go to hell. And so as you look at some of those words up there in the description, it is the gospel and the gospel only that is the for hunger, for thirst, for blindness, all these things, for being unrighteous, for being wicked, for being ungodly, everything that I’m supposed to look for that describes the lost man, the gospel is to be the remedy for all of this.

Do you believe that? I believe that. So in the last thing, 1 Corinthians 1, 18, the gospel must solve all these problems or it has no power at all. If I have to be perfect to go to heaven because heaven is a perfect place, then the gospel in order to get me there, It must make me perfect. If the gospel cannot make me perfect, I don’t need it. It can’t help me. Because by my works I can’t be perfect, so I got to have something that will make me perfect.

Very quickly and closing. This is when we’re born in the world. Old sinful nature. We never do anything right. We sin. We die. That is the creation of God. When you and I were created into this world. So because we all sin, we all die. and will be eternally separated from God. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, He gave you a new birth. This new birth born of God. If it’s born of God, that means God’s the Father.

Does God have a sinful nature? If He has no sinful nature, the child of God has no sinful nature. If He has no sinful nature, it cannot sin. If it cannot sin, it cannot die. So whenever God saves you and gives you eternal life, He says, I’ll never cast you out. I’ll never lose you. And you have eternal life. And Zupan can pluck you out of man. You have a new birth. When you got up this morning and you looked in the mirror and you saw that you were ugly.

And then you trusted Christ as your Savior. And you go back home and look in the mirror, you’re still ugly. God never changed this birth. This is still the same. This is the one that you say, well what if I sin tomorrow and the next day and the next day? Well which one of these is going to do the sinning? That guy over here, this is the one. You got two birds? This is one that I was born into the world with and that’s 72 years old and this is over here, it’s only 53 years old.

So I trust he Christ is my Savior. When I die physically, this goes to the grave. from the body, President of the Lord. And the gospel, this good news of how to be born again is the only thing that can make an ungodly man godly in the eyes of God. You see, he’s not godly because of how he lives, he’s godly because he’s in Christ. God sees me in Christ. And one of these days when it’s all over and I stand before the Lord in heaven, I will be, I’m as perfect and as righteous as God himself.

Am I here now in heaven because of how good I was? No, I’m here in heaven because of the grace of God. God loved me that much. He saved me, gave me eternal life. Now, if God walked in this room right now and offered you eternal life and you accepted what would you have? Eternal life. If it’s eternal life, how long does it last? Well, if it lasts forever and all of your sins are paid, where are you going to go when you die?

They’re dying. They’re having, isn’t that good news? That’s why God says, going to all the world and preach to God for every creature because the gospel is the only hope of any man. We have the greatest message in the world, the greatest power in the world. There’s nothing that can compare to what we have and what mankind needs. We just need to do more, more loving. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Lord, 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 tool 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 Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 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.