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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 Continue on 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 BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Let me read something to you while we’re doing this. And the question that I asked today is God confusion. confused. Does it look like God really knows what He’s doing? Have you ever thought that God doesn’t know what’s really going on and not going to do anything about certain things? If God is not confused and He wrote us the word of God, why are we so confused? If in the word of God He tells us how to go to heaven, how come everybody don’t understand it?

But it’s amazing that a lot of people are confused. Let me read this to you. It says, Dear Pastor like this this morning. I thought this just goes right with what I’m picking on. Sir, I have a couple of questions for you, but first I want to thank you for proclaiming the true gospel. May God bless and reward you immensely. I am all the way in Nigeria, by the way, but I listen to and save all your videos to my playlist.

I also have a father who is in his 80s. I have preached the gospel to Him and He has believed. But in order to grow and to be firmly rooted in the faith, I’ll let Him listen to your videos. We don’t listen to any other pastors. Why? I realize that many pastors are mixing works with grace. Or they start off with grace and somewhere down the line introduce works or some other down the boheresy. Sad and scary. So we stick with just your videos.

One-some pastor is all we need. I sayGGGGGGGGG, amen to them. So here’s my question. ////////CERG, can you kindly do a video on this so as to put an end to this confusion? So that’s another video that I’m going to work on. confirCERG, amen. And another question was how can God discipline us? Or how does He discipline us? And how can we differentiate? discipline from the normal consequences of living in a fallen world. And how can one deal with the pain of knowing that a loved one may lightly be in hell?

I lost my mom to cancer about five years ago. With the things I know now, I doubt very much if she heard and consequently believed the truth, gospel. The psychological pain that I go through daily is just too much. I am hurting and crying inside daily. I wish I knew back then what I know now. Then lastly, could you please pray for me? I have lost a lot of weight and I’m still losing weight. I have done numerous tests from cancer tests to even HIV tests.

The doctors found nothing I have prayed and don’t know what else to do. God bless you, sir, and then she gives her name and so I will be answering a number of her questions. But the question is, is God confused? Why are so many people confused? And she listened to a number of preachers, but not every preacher says the same thing. It seemed like if there’s only one way to heaven, we ought to get that right. There ought to be options.

It ought to be simple and it ought to be clear. So I want you to take your Bible and look there in 1 Corinthians and chapter 14. 1 Corinthians in chapter 14, because God is not the author of confusion. Look, they’re in verse 33 and 1 Corinthians chapter 14. God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints. In other words, he’s not teaching one thing and somebody else, a different thing, All being taught exactly the same thing.

We’re supposed to believe the same thing. There’s not to be a lot of different doctrines taught that are not in agreement with what the word of God has to say. And so, there in your notes I gave two little scriptures also that’s found in chapter 14 verse 8 verse 9. They’re also right there in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. You can read them there in your Bible or you can read them from the notes, but look at this. for if the trumpet given uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle.

Another way of saying that is if the preacher doesn’t give a clear gospel message, who shall prepare themselves for eternity? Or how can they escape the damnation of hell? And most preachers are not making the gospel clear and simple. There’s a lot of greater preachers in the world I know that. But the one thing I try to hone in on, because I just want people to know how to go to heaven, because to me that’s the most important thing that anybody can ever know.

Because if you were to die today, where would you be tomorrow? Do you know positively that you have eternal life and know for sure you’re going to heaven when you die? I wrote this down and you can look at that right there in the middle. God is not the God of confusion. If our messages are not true and clear, our people will be unstable, confused, and filled with doubts. I’ve traveled all over this country. I’ve preached in a lot of different churches and there’s so many people that are so confused.

But the one thing you should not be confused on is salvation and service. What do they mean? And so I believe that they need to be understood and very clear. And just like she said in this letter that when you listen to my sermons you’ll always hear a distinguishing effort made between salvation and service. Because if you ever mix those two together you will be one confused individual. And I believe there’s a lot of that going around. Now I have here in the middle of the page.

Main issues that the lost man must understand to be saved, and the saved man must understand to grow. You see, I try to simplify things, even complex scriptures to study them in such a way that I can explain them clearly. Because if I speak for two or three hours this morning and you don’t understand what I said, I wasted my time And I don’t want to waste my time or your time. You see, what I preach and teach is not clear until the person setting out there listening understands what I’ve said.

Because if I was to say everything clearly, but you’re sitting there and you speak Spanish and I didn’t say it in Spanish, we may have a problem. You didn’t understand it. I’ve got to speak where you can understand it. The Bible says, feed my sheep, not my giraffes. you put the food down on the lower level so that everybody can understand it. So, the first thing we talk about, that you people have got to understand, and this is for your own clarity, because if you don’t get this straight, you will be filled with doubts and confusion, and you will be unstable in your Christian life.

Because see, this is so important. Salvation always deals with this subject. is either by grace or it’s by works. In other words, it’s a result of what you believe. So you got one thing is what do you believe? That’s salvation. What you do, that service. So you need to believe right before you can live right. So you’ve got to get your belief right. Do you believe the right thing? when Christ says, He that believe it in me, hath everlasting life.

Do you believe that you have everlasting life? See, everlasting life is the result of how you believe. Now, has nothing to do with how you, what you do? In other words, it’s difficult for people to believe something so simple. You gotta do something. Salvation is always by grace. It’s never by works. This has nothing to do with going to heaven. How you live your life has nothing to do with how to go to heaven. It’s the result of what you believe.

Not what you do, and a person needs to have that understood in their mind. It’s gotta be clear. Take your Bible and turn to Ephesians chapter two. The book of Ephesians chapter two, and verse eight and nine. We will not be able to dwell very long on any one of these points, or I will never get them all done. So here in Ephesians chapter 2, look in verse 8 and 9. 4 by grace are you saved. Through faith, faith means what you believe.

It’s not what you do. It’s what you believe for by grace are you saved. You’re saved from something to something, from hell to heaven to a place that’s incorruptible and undefiled that faith if not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith. Because of what you believe, you can have something that’s called. salvation. It means you have eternal life and you get to go to heaven because you believe right. Now get the next part of the verse.

It is the gift of God not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. That’s because it’s free. Look at verse 9. Those those first three words ought to solve the issue, not of works. Why? Lest any man should boast. In other words, it’s by grace means unmerited, you didn’t deserve it. It’s by faith in what Christ did on the cross for you, not what you do for Him. And He says, it is the gift of God, and it’s not of works.

So you have to know what salvation is in order to know what it is not. Salvation is by grace. It is not by your works. In the book of Romans in chapter 11, it says, and if by grace, it cannot be by works. Otherwise, grace isn’t grace. But if it be of works, it cannot be by grace. Otherwise, work isn’t work. It’s one way or the other. It cannot be both ways. And so therefore a lot of people are trying to earn something that is a gift and it’s free.

And if long as you’re trying to earn your way to heaven, you never know if you did enough. You become confused. If it was free, that simple, it’s done, it’s over with, and I know it. I know I have eternal life, but I know I’m going to heaven because of what I believe. Not what I do. How I live has nothing to do with my destination. And that’s very difficult for people to understand. So they become confused. They think you got to believe and do.

Put them together. But anytime you add what you got to do to grace, you annulled grace. It is not free. But if it is free, it cannot be by works. They’re not the same. So your security in Christ can only be by grace, but if it depended upon how good you live, how do you know if you ever lived good enough? How do you know if you went to church enough? And a lot of the things you probably justify in your life, God would call an abominable sin.

And you can live your whole life, believe in your good enough and it not be. So therefore you’ve got a problem. Now let me show you this. Pretend for a moment. There’s a woman over here. This woman, her name is Israel. And because God didn’t take all the people in the world, He took certain people and He chose them to be an illustration for Him, to use. And it was for several other things to bring the Word of God into the world and to bring the Messiah into the world and to be a light to the world.

So here’s this woman. This woman came out of Egypt, and this woman was at Mount Sinai. And God took this woman to be his wife, and she said, all that he commands me, I will do. So the first thing he did was lay down the law. She promised to obey her husband, and lo and behold, found out that everything he told her to do, she did not do. She failed miserably. She was Mrs. Israel, but she was Mrs. Center under the law, and she could not satisfy the rightist demands of the law.

So the law says the wages of sin is what? She has to die, but she doesn’t want to die, but she has to die because the wages sin is death so she has to die. So she appeals to the law and the law cannot forgive her. The law has no forgiveness. The law has no compassion. The law has no grace. Law is law. You did not obey your husband and your husband told you to do this and this and this and this and this and this and this and you didn’t do it.

you fail. She said, I’ll I’ll try harder. And because of how hard she tries, she is not perfect. See the law is perfect. She always thought that she could just find the perfect husband, like some people I know. I mean the happiest woman in the world. No you won’t. It’s like a person trying to find the perfect church. Don’t join it. Don’t we be perfect anymore? So here’s a woman who wanted a perfect husband. She got a perfect husband.

She can’t find any fault in the law. The fault is her because she is a sinner and she cannot keep the law perfectly. So the only way she can be free from her husband is one of them has to die. Oh, she has to do his way for him to die, but see he can’t die. Why? He doesn’t sin. Waunders of sin is death. She has to die. The law doesn’t die. So lo and behold, how in the world is she ever going to get free from this husband?

She can’t get free. The only way she can get away from the law is she has to die. So here’s a woman who is totally incapable of delivering herself from the law. The only thing she can do is die. And then she’ll be separated for all eternity in a literal fire burning hell. She wants to go to heaven, but she’s married to this Mr. Perfection. And the only way she can get free from is that she has to die.

So how does she get out of this dilemma? But alone comes another man over here. Oh, this man over here. He’s what she’s been really looking for. Mr. Grace. He’s Mr. Love. There’s Mr. Law. Now here’s Mr. Grace. Mr. Love. And he looks over here at this woman in her plight and he realizes, well, he’s in love with her. He loves her. He loved her from the very beginning. But she chose the law and so he loves her but she’s under a condemnation She can’t be free So she can try to turn from her sins But that doesn’t get her away.

She turning from her sin doesn’t free her from the condemnation of the law She’s still condemned She can’t commit herself to this other man because she’s not free from this man. Since she can’t have two, she can only have one. And the only way she gets free from this one is one of them is dead. Well, Law isn’t going to die. She has to die. And so over here’s Mr. Love. He was born in this world without a sinful nature, but he was born underneath the dominion of the law, and he kept the law perfectly, and the law could not condemn him.

The law couldn’t touch him because he was perfect. He was righteous. He did no wrong. So the law couldn’t touch him and so he voluntarily chose to take her place. So he, under the law, went to the cross and was condemned and he died, came back again from the dead and he did it for her. He was crucified that he might redeem her from the curse of the law, and she has to be free from the law. So when she believes that what he did, he did it for her.

Then the Bible puts his death payment to her account, and as far as the law is concerned, she paid her debt. She died, and she came back again from the debt, because he did for her. The law is satisfied. God is propigied, means he is satisfied because when she trusts Christ as her Savior accepts Him as the payment for her sin, then in God’s eyes she died and now she’s free from the law. The law cannot touch you why?

Because the law can never condemn a dead man. She’s dead. Law can’t touch never be condemned again. There’s no condemnation to those that have trusted Christ the Savior. So she is in God’s eyes someone who has accepted that payment Christ made. She now is to walk in newness of life. Now here’s Mr. Love. You see she could not commit herself to Christ. She was deserving, obey Him, do anything for him because she was married to this other man. Now as a believer in Christ, she can now decide to serve him.

She can’t serve another man as long as she’s married to this man, the law. So now that she is free from Mr. Law and he can never have any more claims on her because she’s dead. Death of Christ was put to her account. She is now considered a dead person. Now she’s alive in Christ. And Jesus tells her, says, this is what I want you to do. And he tells her to do the same things that the law said.

She says, what in the world have I done? But he also says, I’ll never leave you and I’ll never forsake you. I will be with you always. And he always forgives. He has love. He has compassion. See, Mr. Law never had any of that. So now this person can have eternal life and know they’re going to heaven because see 58 years ago almost I Was this man under the law? I Was condemned I could not save myself I heard about Christ and his death on the cross and he paid for my sin So when I believed that he that believe it in him hat everlasting life you pass from death under life Now I see I was separated from God.

I’m not separated from him anymore. Me and God are unionized together. We are one and he says I’ll never leave you and never forsake you. Now this is the truth of the Bible. Understand the difference between grace and law. I was saved by grace not because of what I did but because what he did for me and all he wanted me to do is put my confidence in what he did, my faith in what he did to believe he did that for me.

So when I believe that I have the free gift of everlasting life and I’m going to heaven whenever I die. And that’s why I say I can’t go to hell. It’s impossible why? Because the law can’t touch me. The law cannot condemn me. You say, what about all those bad things you do? Paid? What if you send tomorrow? Paid? What if you send right before you die? Paid? What if you commit suicide? Is that a sin? And yet paid, paid.

Either he did or he didn’t. It’s a matter, do you believe what Christ actually said? Do you believe what he actually did? And when you believe that, that payment is put to your account. Now, now that we understand what salvation is, look at the next statement, service. Service has to deal with the flesh and the spirit. So when you trusted Christ as your savior, God did not save that old man of yours. See, when you were born to the world, that which is the fleshest flesh, that which is born to the spirit of spirit, we all have a flesh birth.

That’s what I see in front of me. Is your physical birth? When you’re born in this world, you have an old sinful nature. You sin naturally. That’s why you like to be in, well, rebellious because you want your own way. All we like sheep have gone astray. Do whatever we wanna do. And God says, that’s the flesh. These are not the children of God. See, all those that were under law, those are not the children of God. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, you became a child of God.

No, you’re born of the Spirit. So you had these two natures. I’ve been born twice. Once when I was born in the flesh, physical. And then when I trusted Christ as my Savior, spiritual birth. And never mixed the two. They’re separate. See, a lot of people think God saved this old man And so we send him the church and if he don’t live right, then you have every reason the question this man ain’t saved Well because look what he does look how he lives Well, that’s the flash birth See when you trusted Christ God gave you a new birth Didn’t change this one gave you a new one this one is born of God And if it’s born of God, it doesn’t have a sinful nature born of God God doesn’t have a sinful nature that has no sinful nature it cannot sin.

If it cannot sin, it cannot die. If it cannot die, how long will you be a child of God? Forever. It’s separated. And in the scriptures, you’ve got to separate this. And if you don’t, you’ll put it all together and think of God saved that old man. Well, if he got saved, then why is he still doing what he’s doing? See, I have this old flesh. He’s still sinful, still wicked. I can’t trust him, but I also got a new birth.

And so I can walk in the flesh and live like a lost man. I can walk as a child of God in the Spirit. And that’s the way it is. That’s the truth of the Scriptures. Look at the next statement. The results of this, the results as a child of God. And I usually tell this to a person I’ve led to the Lord. Over there at the hospital with Betty at five or six that indicated they would trust crisis or savior.

Then I will always say this. Now look at me, let me show you. When you’re born into God’s family, you’re a child of God and you have a choice. You can be an obedient child. This is a obedient child, but you’re still God’s child. Just like I’ve got children born into my family. Once they’re born into my family, they’ll always be my children. And so if they’re obedient, they’re mine. If they’re disobedient, they belong to my wife. No, they’re still mine.

So I got a choice. I can need to be an obedient child or disobedient child. It means I can walk in the spirit or I can walk in the flesh. If I walk in the spirit and if I decide as a child I’m going to serve the Lord, God will bless my life here, reward me when I get to heaven. If I’m disobedient here, then God’s going to chase in his disobedient child. See how simple that is. clear that is you have a child born into your family.

Once you’re your child, they’re always your child. You can’t unborn them, try it. And don’t. They’re always your child and if they will obey you, you’re happy if they’re not, you’re not happy and somebody’s gonna get a whooping. So you have a choice. If you obey your heavenly Father, he’s gonna bless your life. And he’s gonna reward you when you get to heaven. See, going to heaven is already taken care of. That’s because of what you believe. Now we’re talking about what you do.

If I do the right things, God will bless, and if I do the wrong things, God’s gonna chase in me and maybe take me home before my time. So that’s an understanding of the chasing and rewards. And you have to understand that in your mind, or you’ll be really confused in your Christian life. You’re always saved by grace. Once you’re saved, you’re God’s child. Then as a child of God, God wants you to serve him. And if you do, God will bless.

If you don’t, God’s gonna maybe take you home before your time or he can chase you in a lot of ways. Now, look down to the bottom of the page. I wrote a few things down here, is points of clarity for a reason. These are little statements that I have made over the years. And so I thought I would just make a list of some of these things and hopefully they’ll make some sense to you because they help to clarify these things in your mind.

The first thing that you cannot know, you’re going to heaven until you know you cannot go to hell. You see, if there’s always a question that in the future I could go to hell, then you can’t say you know you’re going to heaven. If there’s a possibility of going to hell, then you can’t be sure you’re going to go to heaven. I’ll say, yeah, I’m sure I’m not going to do anything. I’m only going to do the right thing.

I made up my mind. I’m not going to do that. I said, it is impossible. It’s possible. But what I’m not going to, I said, I’m not talking about, I’m talking about if there’s a possibility of going to hell in the future. Why? Is that is that possibility vend. Oh, I could do something that I’m not supposed to do. So I’m really bad sin. Well, wait a minute¯¯¯¯ when Christ down on the cross, he paid for all sin except the really bad sins.

I mean, if it’s really bad, he didn’t pay for those. When he died on that cross 2000 years ago, how many of your sins were in the future? All of them. Well, if I’d ten years from now, can I roll out really bad? Well, isn’t that still in the future? But isn’t that covered? I mean, I got an insurance policy here. Is it good? Jan, is it good or not? She works at an insurance. She’s all to no insurance.

It’s covered. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader? Then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa with traditional and online classes taught by instructors with years of experience. Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you.

To learn more, visit online at floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. at 8502275325. 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. He’s holding it today and every day.

Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.