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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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 5. The book of Ephesians chapter 5. I want to speak to you on the subjecttif of understanding the two natures, understanding the two natures. The Lord that can promise us victory can deliver. There are problems that you and I face as Christians with understanding our problems, whether they come disguised as temptations or trials, very just kinds of problems, whether it’s marital or with the children, jobs, finances, health. There’s many battles that we have to face because the devil is out for one thing.

That’s to get you and I not to serve the Lord. So if you are here and you have trusted Christ as your Savior, but you’re not serving God, then it’s because you’ve lost a battle. There’s a battle, a skirmish, somewhere in the past that you lost, that you did not depend upon the Lord, to give you victory. And you could have. You see, you can serve God all the days of your life. You don’t have to quit and you don’t have to lose.

But lo and behold, there’s a lot of God’s people that do not have Christian victory, victory in their Christian life. I’m glad that I don’t have to win any of these battles in order to go to heaven. I go to heaven because Jesus Christ went to the cross and won a victory there for me. He paid for all of my sins. I trust Him. I have eternal life. Now here in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5 verse 17 it says, wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

There are people that are not wise. They do not understand what the will of the Lord is. Now we’re not talking about at this point on how to get to heaven. We’re talking about you as a child of God, understanding the will of God. To understand the will of God, what He wants, you have to understand the word of God. And when you understand the word of God, you’ll understand the way of God and the work of God, so that you’ll know what you and I are supposed to be doing in this little old time frame called life upon this planet.

And so the question is, is what am I doing here? What’s the purpose of all of this? What’s the goal of life? Well, I believe the word of God tells us, be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Genesis. Now you can follow me as you follow your notes and then turn to the book of Genesis and chapter five. I want to show you a couple of things there very quickly.

is chapter five, I want you to look there in verse one. This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created Adam in the likeness of God, made him. So this is talking about the book of the generation of Adam. And you’ll notice that the Bible says in verse five, and all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. We’re down in verse nine, excuse me, verse eight, and all the days of Ceph were 912 years and he He died.

Verse 11, and all the days of Venus were nine hundred and five years and he died. Regardless of how long they lived, what was the conclusion of all of it? They all died. Because see, when we’re born into this world, we are all children of the flesh. And because we all sin, we all die. So we’re not here forever. We’re born into this world and we’re to understand we’re going to die. We’re not going to stay here forever. So the goal of our life is not to see how much can I accumulate while I’m here.

That’s not the purpose of life. I want you to take your Bibleline, turn to Romans in chapter three. Romans chapter three, all the way over there in the New Testament, the book of Romans, after the book of Acts, Romans chapter three, and then look there in verse 10. Romans chapter three verse 10. But in verse 10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Also look there in verse 12. They are all gone. out of the way they are together become unprofitable.

There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Who said that? God did. God says, up here in verse 4, God forbid, yet God be true and every man, a what? Every man’s a liar. Every person sitting here is a liar. Who said so? God did. God said there is none righteous, not one. All All have sinned. The Bible says there’s none that doeth good, not one. Now I want to use a simple illustration. I used it many times, but I want you to follow because this is the first time I’ve ever put it on notes that people can have.

And to follow it and understand because it will help you in understanding the greatest battle of all. And that is the battle that goes on in your own Christian life. once you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior. Now, this arm over here, this arm. Now, I’m not trying to pick a fight with anybody, I’m just trying to show you. This is an illustration. This arm represents our first birth. This is our first birth when we’re born into the world. This is a flesh birth.

It means that we were born of the flesh. And everybody who has a body is a child of the flesh. So this child, the Bible tells us, these are all sinners because we’re all born but they send for nature. This is what he’s saying, all have sinned. So we’re all in the same boat, all the people that have a flesh birth, they’re all the same in God’s eyes, no difference. Not one good, not one. Of all the people that’s ever been born, we’re all the same.

Now take your Bible and turn there to the book of Romans in chapter nine. Romans in chapter nine, Romans chapter nine, look there in verse eight. In verse eight. And notice what he says in verse eight, That is, they which are the children of the, what’s that word? Flesh, these are what? Not the children of God. These are not the children of God. Look up here. These that are children of the flesh. Those who are born into this world where they body, these are not the children of God.

Last night I spent probably an hour or more out here debating with an individual who believe that everybody is the child of God. Everybody is God’s child. And I says, no, we’re not all the children of God because God said they’re not. He says, we’re all the children of God by faith in Christ, Jesus, only those who have put their faith in Christ, those are the children of God, but when you’re born into the world, you are not. Look there in Ephesians chapter two and verse three.

Ephesians chapter two and verse three. Ephesians chapter two, verse three tells us a little bit about ourselves and why we do the things that we do. And if you will look there in verse three, he says, among whom also we all, we all, inclusive of everybody. We all had our behavior, our manner of life, and time passed and the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind and whereby nature, the children of wrath, even as others, it is our nature to be children of wrath.

Every child born into the world, every little baby is born with a sinful nature. You don’t have to teach people to commit sin. It comes naturally. Nobody has to be taught to be deceptive, to lie, to steal, everybody can do it on their own. It is a nature that we have. God says that we’re all born with a sinful nature. Look there in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23. Just turn back to your left, back to the book of Romans, but make sure you look at these verses.

Of course, unless you’ve got the Bible totally committed to memory, then you are exempt. In Romans in chapter 6, look in verse 23. Verse 23 says, and the wages of sin is what? Is death? But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. All right now look up here. This is you and me. We have a flesh birth. We’re children of the flesh. We have a sinful nature. We’re not the children of God. There’s none of us that do righteousness.

We are all sinners. There’s none righteous. No, not one. We all do that, which is wrong. God says so. Now, some people wonder, well, how can I inherit eternal life? But look there in 1 Corinthians in chapter 15. You need to see this verse. Very important. 1 Corinthians, just a very next book to you right. 1 Corinthians and chapter 15. You see, we believe here at Northside Baptist Church in using the Bible because I could stand up here and spout off for, you know, two or three hours, but I have to be able to back up what I say with what the Bible teaches.

And so that’s why you need a Bible and you ought to check the Bible. And when you go home, you read the Bible and verify what’s been said. Today, there’s churches don’t even use a Bible. They don’t need a Bible. But we recommend that you bring the Bible to Northside. Look there in verse 50. Verse, Corinthians in chapter 15, verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither death, corruption, inherit, and corruption.

Now look up here. God says flesh and blood cannot inherit eternal life. You cannot inherit that which is eternal. This, as he says right here, neither death corruption inherent in corruption. It cannot inherit it like it has a right to it. God never promised this first birth anything eternal except a place in our literal fire burning hell. I want you to understand when the Bible says all of this about the first birth, how are you supposed to get out of this mess that you’re in?

This is why you need a new birth. What if, what if, you could be born the second time, except the next time you would be born, you could be born without a sinful nature? Wouldn’t that be the key? Well, then you could live a perfect life. You could do everything right. If you only could be born without a sinful nature. Well, the second birth is exactly that. When I trusted Christ as my savior, I became a child of God.

Over here, this is my second birth. This is a second birth. This is a spirit birth. He said, that which is flesh is flesh, that which is spirit is spirit. This one is born of God. Well, when does this happen? In order to save time, if you’re noticing your notes there, the generation of life, if you take your Bible and you was to look there in the book of Matthew in chapter one, you’ll notice it starts off. This is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.

So you have this phrase mentioned twice, one in the first book of the Bible, in the Old Testament, this is the book of the generation of Adam. And everybody who’s born of Adam, have a sinful nature all die. Now in the New Testament, it starts off, this is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, and all those that are mentioned there, there’s no deaths recorded, no deaths recorded, because it’s a different book. It’s a different book. When you and I are born into this world, we’re born in place into the book of a living.

When you trust Christ as your Savior, your name is written in the book of life, eternal life. That’s a different book. That’s why you’re to rejoice that your names are written in the book of life, the Lamb’s book of life. But the key is is you have to born again the second time. This is brought out in the gospel of John, John 3, chapter 3, Verse 3, 16 is the answer to Nicodemus’ question on how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? And Jesus says, our ruler in Israel, and you don’t understand these things? Evidently not. And there’s a lot of religious people that don’t understand this. So I want you to take your Bible, look in Ephesians chapter 4, the book of Ephesians and chapter 4. chapter 4, but do look at the verse because you’ll see what I’m referring to. Remember this, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, and why do you do that?

Look up here. This is you and me, flesh. We all have sin because this is the result of a sinful nature. This did not make us a sinner. Being a sinner is why we produce this. These are the bad things that we do. We commit all these bad things for the simple reason we’re born with a sinful nature could be rebellious to seek our own way. But God loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us. And so the Bible says to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

We’re not perfect. None are righteous. There’s none good. No, not one. And the wages of sin is death, and since everyone has sinned, everyone must die. So it’s a point under every man wants to die and after this is a judgment. But the judgment isn’t to determine where I’m going. It’s to determine the punishment you receive when you get there. So a man cannot save himself. You don’t save yourself by promising God that you’re going to try harder. I don’t care how hard you try, you’ll never live good enough to get to heaven by your good deeds.

So you need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us so He took our sin, paid for the one the cross, came back from the dead. God said, if we’ll believe He did it for us, you must believe He did this for you. And the Bible says in the book of Romans in chapter 4 that when you believe it, His righteousness is imputed to your account. He takes your sins and He gives you His righteousness.

And if God gave you His righteousness, you would be as righteous as who? As righteous as God. You go to heaven on His right, His perfection, not yours. So the only reason we’re going to heaven is because God gave me His perfection. Because you have to be perfect to get there. I don’t have any, you don’t either. All of our righteousness are its filthy rags. So when we trust Christ as our Savior, we’re born into God’s family. Now here in the book of Ephesians chapter 4, looking verse 24, and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Now look up here. You trust Christ as your Savior. God doesn’t do anything with your first birth, your old sinful nature. What he did is he gave you a new birth, like being born again. This one has a new nature, a divine nature created as he says here in righteousness and true. This one is born of God. God fathered this child, my second birth. And God fathered this child and gave me his nature and his righteousness. I am as righteous as God.

I am perfectly holy in God’s eyes. that this one is born of God and has no sinful nature, then it cannot, it cannot sin. If it cannot sin, it cannot die. That’s why once you’re born into God’s family, you are God’s child for how long? Forever. And if you’re God’s child, forever, you can’t go to hell. Because see, this one can’t sin. God can never send a child of God to him. So here you are living your life and you have within you two births.

And so I’ve got these two natures living within me in one body. One day I’m going to get the other body to go with the other birth. But right now I’m sharing it with my second birth. If you understand this, you can understand why you as a Christian, you still have an o-centful nature. God didn’t eradicate the o-centful nature. It’s still there. You can still desire the things that are wrong. Now look there in your note and I want you to look at the scripture.

Second Peter chapter one, this is very important. Second Peter and chapter one. Second Peter chapter one, do look at the verse and look their in verse four. Second Peter chapter one and verse four. And notice what God has given in verse four whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the, and you are done on the land these two words, what? The vine nature. Now look up here. This one has a sinful nature.

This one has a divine nature. That’s opposites. That’s two extremes. This one can’t do anything right. This one can’t do anything wrong. This one sends. This one can’t send. This is going to die. This one can’t die. That’s why Christ says, if a man be leaving me, he shall never die. But if he die, yet shall he live. You see, it’s the flesh and one of these days, if we wait around and God taries, we’re going to go to the way of the grave.

They’re going to bury this body of flesh. But the Biapson from the body is to be what? Present with the Lord. That’s the second birth. In John chapter 6 verse 47, we won’t turn there, but listen, he says, very, very, I send you, he that believeth on me. Half everlasting life. Now, which one has everlasting life? The one that’s born of God. In the book of 1 John chapter 3 verse 9 says, that which is born of God, whosoever is born of God, does not commit sin.

For his seed remained it in him and he can not sin. Doesn’t practice sin. He says he cannot sin because his seed remained in him and he can not sin. Whosoever is born of God. Cannot be. sin. This birth born of God can’t sin. Can’t sin, can’t die. Now that we understand that the conflict that goes on in our life can be understood by having only one body and two births living within it. And that’s why you’ll want to do what’s right and you also want to do what’s wrong.

It can really play games with your mind. You’ll want to go to church and you don’t want to go. You want to read your Bible and you don’t. You want a witness and you don’t. So how do you get to have victory in the Christian life? You have to starve the flesh and feed the new man. Now the new man to grow strong, he doesn’t get strong on Mad Magazine, Playboy Magazine, the filth of the world, he can’t get strong on the word of God.

That’s why he says, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may what? grow thereby. You can grow by it, but you can’t grow strong spiritually on the wisdom of the world. Over here you have this whole sinful nature. And he says, I think I’m gonna have me a a can of beer. Okay, well he’s gonna have no can of beer. And here’s this other nature. He says, you are not doing that. Shut app and he’s stronger because he’s been fed and his desires become strong and he’s weak because you haven’t been feeding him and the reality of it is a lot of Christians they try to satisfy both.

They try to go to church on Sunday and feed him a little bit and give him some little pabble and then the rest of the week they live like the devil and you see them and you say, ah, hippo crit. Hey, we always got one more in church. There’s always room for one more. And so what should a person do? Well, I want you to take your Bible and turn there to the book of Galatians and chapter five, Galatians and chapter five.

And you’ll notice that there is a conflict, the conflict here in verse 17, Galatians chapter five or 17, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit. Look up here, the flesh lust against the spirit, the spirit lust against the flesh. They hate each other. They despise each other. They war all the time and they’re both fighting for the control of one body. And who gets it is the one that I say sick them to. I’m the one that determines who gets to control me.

I can yield to the nature of the flesh, and I can yield to the nature of God, my choice. And God said, be not deceived. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If I sow to the flesh, then the flesh is going to have some results. So there’s the works of the flesh that are mentioned. If I yield to the Holy Spirit and let the Lord control my life, there are some fruit that the Lord mentions that I can have as a result of it.

So God says, don’t you be deceived? You cannot live as you please and get away with him. I am a child of God. I can let the flesh nature control my life. Yes, I can. And if you look at me, you may see nothing but the works of the flesh in my life and say, well, he’s not a Christian. Ah, don’t you dare go that far because I’m still a child of God. I’m just not living like a child of God.

I’m not acting like a child of God. I’m allowing my old flesh nature to control my life and my heavenly Father in heaven says that he’s going to chasten me because I won’t examine my life and correct my problem and he may even have to take me home before my time. But God says you cannot live as you please and get away with it. But you can’t live as you please. Yes you can. You can live like the devil if you want to.

I don’t recommend it. I found out years ago that if I would serve God, he said he would bless my life here and he said he’ll reward me when I get there and I believe him. So for 40 years though I know this, I’ve made up my mind, I am going to serve the Lord. I don’t serve the Lord to be a child of God. I serve him because I already am a child of God. I know that if I let the flesh control my life, that God is going to chase in me and discipline me, maybe take me home before my time.

And I don’t want the Lord beating a tor out of me. I would rather have God’s blessing. Now doesn’t that make sense? Yes, it makes sense. I want you to look there in verse 19. The works of the flesh and in your notes there, they’re all listed. And you can get you an 1828 Webster’s dictionary and looking up and right now what those words mean. If you don’t, happen to know what adultery is. You can look it up and find out.

If you don’t know what hatred is, you can find that. If you know what drunkenness is, you can look it up and find out what it is. But he says in verse 19, now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which of these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, emulation, variance, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, reveling, such life, other which I tell you before as I told you in time past that day, which do such things, John out in here to kingdom of God.

Look over here. All these bad things are the works of the Spirit of flesh. Flesh. These cannot inherit the kingdom of God. He says, I told you that before. So God doesn’t want a Christian bringing forth the works of the flesh. What God wants is his children to walk in the Spirit. Means letting the Holy Spirit control your life. and he controls your life by controlling you with the Word of God. That’s the reason the Holy Spirit lives within you is to teach you what the Word of God says so that you will obey it.

Walking in the Spirit is nothing more than walking in obedience to the Word of God. If you don’t live in obedience to the Word of God, you’re rebellious. Still, maybe as child, you’ll go to heaven when you die, but you’re not going to have the blessings of God here. You’re not going to have the rewards when you get there and you’re not going to be pleasing God and it’ll be a shame and a disgrace But yes, you can do that hearing Galatians in chapter five look in verse 22 But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace No, if you look at your notes over there now Love joy and peace are the things that you have within you that’s towards yourself that’s Like emotions that you can have When he talks about toward mankind, others long suffering, gentleness and goodness and toward God, faith, maintenance and temper.

So see, these are things that God wants to be permeating your life. And you can have that. But see what a lot of people do is they feed the flesh and they starve the new man. They don’t feed him. Some Christians are so spiritually skinny they could use a chario for a hula hoop. That’s bad. The conquest is to win the contest. I’m talking about the contest in your life, the battle that goes on. God wants you to have personal victory.

But it’s gonna be only for one reason, by one thing. Look up in verse 16, verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You still have the lust of the flesh. You’ll have as long as you’re in this physical body. When the Bible says to be filled with the Spirit, me to be controlled by the Spirit. If a man is filled with hatred, hatred controls him. If you feel with bitterness, bitterness controls you.

If you feel with love, love controls you. If you feel with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit controls you. And I hope that it makes sense to you. 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 Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free.

One 800 576 3771. That’s one 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.