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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 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn to the book of Titus. Does anybody know what the word soteriology means? of salvation. is the most comprehensive subject in the word of God to properly understand the main theme of the Bible. One needs to understand or comprehend the other 16 doctrines concerning just salvation. Salvation is an awesome study and we often say, well, we already know that we need to go on the other things. I know, but you have to have the basis from which you can blossom out.

Christ made the statement. He says, cut it down at the roots and another place, fertilize it. Either one of those is going to do something to the tree. One will destroy the tree and one will call the tree to grow. So when people come to church, I’ve got to try to tell you, if you don’t watch yourself, God’s going to cut down the tree at the roots. Take you out of here. Or you might need to be fertilized. The Word of God is what makes you grow.

It’s just like we would take fertilized and put it around plants in order to make them grow, be more fruitful. The Word of God is something that has to be applied to your life all the time. And when you see Christians not growing strong in the Lord, it’s a sign that they’re not spending time in the Word. The Word will make things happen in your life. It didn’t bring you closer to the Lord, just like prayer does. But look at the first one, justification.

Now look in Romans in chapter 3. A lot of these are found there in the book of Romans. Romans and chapter 3. It says, God forbid you let God be true, but every man, a what? a liar. Is every person in the world a liar? Anybody here never told a lie? You never stole anything? Now you know the kind of people I’m talking to, but the liars and things here. And God says we’re all that. But get what He says also in verse 19.

He says, now we know the what things so ever the law says, it’s safe to them who are under the law that every mouth maybe stops all the world. All the world may The world may become Scion, and what’s the word? Guilty. Guilt to righteousness. You are like made innocent. Declared righteous because of the payment that Jesus Christ made. You’re no longer guilty. Declared righteous. As though you had never sinned. Justification. This is what salvation is. The just shall live by faith.

You have been justified. Just as if you had never sinned. I’d write that little statement down in your notes here because that’s a good definition of justice. justification. Just as if I had never sinned. Number two is redemption. We often say, what does it mean to be redeemed? I’m redeemed. I love divine. And we have been redeemed, but the Bible says we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

In the book of Psalm that says, if you have been redeemed, let the redeemed of the Lord say, say so. Say so. I’m redeemed. You should be able to say to people. And so if you have been redeemed, that means you were in slavery, the slave market of sin, we often call it, because of sin you have been sold into slavery. You’re a slave to the devil, a slave to your sinful nature, slave to the world, and you can’t break it.

You can’t change it. Every man who has lost can’t change the way he is a slave. But he don’t know he’s a slave. He’s a slave to his ideas, his opinions, his thoughts. He’s a slave to this world and he can’t get out of it. He’s a slave to no sinful nature. He can’t whip it. So what can sit a man free? Well that’s what redemption is. From slavery to freedom. And look in verse 24, being justified, what’s that word?

Vise grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You have been redeemed. It means you were a slave, you’re now free. You’re free from the devil. And remember this, Christ said to you free. You’re the one who voluntarily becomes a slave again if you choose to. He said to you free from the power of the Old Sinful nature. You’re the one that decides to obey the Sinful nature. You don’t have to, but many people decide to. You can choose to let your liberty, you can let it be a stumbling block, and you can use liberty as a license to sin.

But that’s not the will of God, because God has set us free. Number three, the word propitiation. Well, that’s a big word. It’s also using the book of 1 John for a bit. The Asian it means the satisfaction. Here’s Christ came into the world made a payment for your sins and God was satisfied with the payment that was made. That’s why God was able to accept that payment. He was satisfied with it. Is God satisfied with you trying to save yourself?

No. Is he satisfied with you trying to earn your way to heaven by good works and go in the church and don’t always good thing. No. would have. He’s only satisfied is if you accept the payment Christ made. When you believe that, He satisfied and not until. So propitiation is the satisfaction that God gets from the payment Christ made. You got that? So God was satisfied with that payment that He made. In verse 25, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

See even in the Old Testament for the payment was ever made, God through the forbearance knew the payment was going to be made and therefore they were saved by faith looking forward to the cross to the payment. We on this side of the cross we’re saved by faith looking back to the cross, back to the payment that has been made, and they were saved looking forward to the payment that would be made. So bold people, Old Testament, New Testament, all saved by faith in Christ.

And whenever you see it and you understand, you can understand the Bible better. It was you read it. Old Testament, New Testament, you understand what God was talking about. grace and mercy, not exactly the same thing, but grace and mercy came through Jesus Christ. And a lot of times in the salutation of a letter, grace and peace, grace and mercy. And grace is something different than mercy. Number four, grace is getting what we want. Don’t deserve. Grace is getting something you don’t, I’m gonna get something and I don’t deserve it.

That’s grace. Do I deserve to be saved? No. So being saved, that’s grace. I don’t deserve that. Going to heaven, I don’t deserve that. That’s grace. I get something I don’t deserve. Isn’t it wonderful to be saved by grace? That’s the message we’re supposed to tell everybody about because look, we think that the world out there, they don’t deserve to go to heaven. As though you do, they deserve to go to, they’re gonna, they’re gonna deserve to go to help.

So I don’t know who’s saying he deserves to go to hell. Oh, so I’ve been lauding those people to give everybody deserves to go to hell. You’re sweet, grandma, because we’re born with a sinful nature we send naturally. Titus chapter 3, look there in verse 7. Verse 7 says that being justified, what does justified mean? Just as if you’ve never seen. Justify being just as if I’d never by my works? No, by his grace. And you’re on the line that in your Bible.

I’m right in my Bible. I mark all over my Bible. You know why I mark my Bible? Because I don’t have the memory I used to have. I write. I got notes. I write it in there. That’s why you need to have a big Bible with some large side areas so that you can write in it. He says that we’ve been justified by his grace. We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. See, the joyful anticipation of this eternal life not only is a present possession but when I’m gonna be actually there what is mercy not getting what we do deserve you see mercy means that you deserve something and you’re not gonna get it Have you ever asked God for mercy?

Have you ever done something that you know God has every right to zap me for that? And you said, Lord, have mercy on me. You might have said it in another way, but that’s what you mean. Lord, don’t want me too bad. Don’t want me at all. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Because you know that if you don’t get things right with the Lord, do you know that you have only father, you just opened the door for him to beat the Torah out of you.

And it ought to scare you to death. I have learned to enough of the Bible that it scares me to go against it. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. That means that you did not deserve to be saved by His mercy. Get that. According to His mercy He saved us. You did deserve hell and you didn’t get that. You deserved to be punished, but that didn’t happen that way.

So it’s a good thing to know. I, as a child of God, though there’s many things that I deserve to get in my Christian life because sometimes you say things wrong, you get mad, but aren’t you glad God is long suffering? I haven’t seen where God is just that, you So quick, as soon as you do something wrong, that, he’s patient, gives you a chance to correct the problem. You may deserve to be chasing very severely, but God will give you a little time to correct the problem.

I wouldn’t want to play the game trying to see how far can I go? How bad can I get before God lowers the boom on me? I don’t want to find out. I want to go the other direction. I want to see how many blessings of God I can have, not how many weapons that I can have, but you will say and do things as a Christian and you’re going to need mercy. You’re going to deserve a chastity of good weapons, but you don’t want God to totally come unglued on you.

You want them to have mercy. So that means you’re willing to correct the problem, own up to it and confess whatever you need to and do that between you and God. And if you will, God can have mercy. He wants to show mercy, but you have to have a humble spirit, not a prideful attitude. Lord, I was wrong. Lord, I’m sorry. That wasn’t right. Lord, forgive me. And God will. It doesn’t mean that you may not get, you know, a little whooping along the way.

So David one time, I says, you do that one more time and I’m going to whoop you. And he did it and I came after He said, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You’ve got to forgive me, you’ve got to forgive me. I said, yeah, I’m going to forgive you. I forgive you. I mean, I’m going to tear you up too because I promise you that. And I tore him up. They think, just because I said, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

That means I’m not going to hook him. Not necessarily. But he was using his own escape route. Number six, sanctification. This means to be made pure and holy. The word sanctification came from sanctified hagi also in the Greek. They expanded a Greek word. even made pure and holy and set apart. We often say, Church, I don’t know if you might take this as the sanctuary. It means it’s dedicated to the Lord. Well, whenever you trusted Christ and your Savior and you were made pure and holy, you became a saint of God.

As a saint, you’re supposed to live a sanctified life. It means that in your life, you’re supposed to have what we call progressive sanctification. When you start off as a Christian, you start to grow. And as you you grow, you start sanctifying your life, means you become more holy as you get older. As you grow in the Lord, you cut off more things out of your life that’s not right. And so you are to developing a behavioral pattern. And so that you begin to talk about the Lord, live like the Lord wants you to, and you honor the Lord.

And so this is the direction you’re going. Sanctification is a change in behavior. So change in your behavior. And everyone who trusts Christ as Savior is supposed to be working on their behavior. The way you behave. Now remember this, being carnal minded means you mind the flesh, fleshly minded you mind the flesh. You may have a child that doesn’t mind you. And that means he doesn’t listen, doesn’t obey. So fleshly minded means you mind the flesh. mind it. Your spiritually minded person means you mind the spirit.

Means that you behave according to the spirit or you obey the spirit. The teaching of the word of God through the whole spirit or you obey the flesh. So there’s Christians who will mind the spirit or mind the flesh and you can tell the difference in their behavior. How they live. So you as a Christian are supposed to demonstrate that you have a sanctified life. That means you have a holy life. It means that you are not only pure and holy, but you have separated yourself from the world and you don’t act like the world.

You don’t talk like the world because you’re not of the world. You’re in the world, but you’re not of the world. Your God’s child and place your to affect the world. But many of God’s people are affected by the world instead of doing it the other way. Number seven is regeneration. Look at Titus chapter three again. You’ve got your Bible there because this is so important. Looking for a five. Not of words of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing up and here’s that word regeneration.

The word regeneration and then it says and renewing. Regeneration means to be made new again. You see whenever God created him in the garden of Eden say they were made without a sinful nature. They had the capacity to sin but they had no sinful nature. So he voluntarily chose to sin. They were not created perfect in that sense. They were created innocent. They hadn’t done good or bad. They didn’t have to worry about it. So by choice they could do it.

You and I, when we trust Christ the Savior, we won’t have the capacity to rebel. The capacity for sinful nature when we get to heaven. We won’t have them. So when you were born again is called a new birth. So regeneration is God making you new again. born again born from above regeneration from death to life you have been renewed got something new but it’s from the physical life to the spiritual life the Holy Spirit within you has made you spiritually spiritually alive second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17 talks about if any man be in Christ he is a new creature all things are passed away all things have become new all things to become new.

There is in Christ new creature all things new. Seven words in Christ new creature and all things new because once you have trusted Christ is your Savior you are in Christ you’re a new creature all things new. Now that’s what God has done for you that can never be undone and you say well what if I afterwards you can never in the new birth ever be unborn. It’ll never have to be new again because it was a done deal once and for all.

We’re just simply going to leave this old man here. We’re going to leave the body with the sinful nature. We’re going to leave it here when we leave. God’s going to change us and give us a brand new body but the old nature will not be a part of it. Repentance from lies lies to the truth, from lies to the truth. Now in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 25, it tells us about that whenever you believe the truth, then you have done away with the lie because you believe the truth.

And it talks about Satan who is able to take them captive at his will who will not believe the truth. So you are as far as repentance goes, from the lies to the truth. You see, there’s people who think they can save themselves. That’s a lie. Every man has to repent. There’s people who think they have to do this and that and the other, that’s a lie. All you need to do is trust Christ as your savior. So really in salvation, so teary-ology, Whenever you accept Christ as your Savior, you have repented in the sense that you are no longer trusting in works.

Dead works, as it says in the book of Hebrews in chapter 6. That is trusted and dead works, but in the living God. Life can come from God and He can give life. Dead works cannot produce life. This microphone is the dead. That thing is dead. That floor is dead. that wall is dead. It can’t produce life. That which is dead can’t produce life. And that’s why dead works. Can’t produce eternal life. That’s why a lost man can’t earn his salvation.

He can’t earn life. Because life must come from life and exist on previous life. That’s the law of biogenesis. Look what it says now in verse nine, substitution. Most people would know what substitution is. Atonement is at one minute. It means that in the Old Testament, They took an animal and that animal became a sacrifice. It didn’t wash away their sin, but it only covered their sin until the pain was made. And they did this looking forward to the day.

One lamb would come and that’s why when John the Baptist, the son says, the lamb of God was taken away the sin of the world. And so that is the atonement. And that blood was to be taken into the holy of holies and offered upon the mercy seat. And then the high priest would do this once a year for the sense of the people and also for himself. But here, substitution, God taking our sins so we can have His righteousness.

He takes our sins. That’s substitution. He took ours. He paid for it. It gives us His righteousness. So He took something and gave something. And this is really what salvation is. You’re accepting what He offers. Number 10 is the word adoption. You’ll find this mentioned in the book of Ephesians, also in the book of Romans in chapter 8 verse 15. We have been adopted. It means that you have been given a new birth and adopted into the family of God.

It means that now you bear his name, his image. You’re his child. And so God has accepted you. This is an adoption. So it is a change in family. you were a family of this earthly race. Now you are a part of the family of God. And part of this family, the Bible tells you in the book of Ephesians in chapter 3, is in heaven and part of this family is upon the earth. But you are a part of the family of God.

Number 11, reconciliation. This is from being an enemy in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 5, it talks about we are to be witnesses, how what God has done for mankind, how that we were enemies of God. And now we are in verse 19, we are in Bacetors. So we have gone from being an enemy of God to being an ambassador for God. That’s who you are. You were an enemy of God because you had committed sins against God and God was holding you responsible and the payment that was made, you accepted it.

And so therefore you are no longer looked upon as an enemy of God. You are now an ambassador for God and God wants every one of us to be his friend. And a friend of God is someone who walks with God and talks with God and lives for God, you’re his friend. And he told his disciples in John chapter 15, he says, I have called you friends Because such as you are, you are my friends. I am your friends.

In verse 20 of Galatians in chapter two, this is a good verse, I want you to see this. Because this verse deals with what we call the identification truths. It means that you identify yourself with Christ. You’re identified with somebody. It’s just like husband and wife. She is identified with her husband. Well, did you know that you are supposed to be able to identify yourself with Christ. So that whenever he died on the cross, you died on the cross and you have an identity.

He did this in your place for you. So when he was crucified, you were crucified. When he was buried, you were buried. When he came back from the dead, you came back from the dead. You are seen in him. God sees you in your life, head with Christ. As I said in the book of Colossians in chapter three. Here in Galatians in chapter two, look down in verse 20. He says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I know what I really wasn’t crucified, but I was crucified with him because he did it for me.

Yet not I, but Christ live it in me and the light 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. You are supposed to identify with Him and His death, His burial, His resurrection, His life. In other words, your life is to be identical to His life.

You’re to live the way Christ would have lived if he took your place. He is in heaven, representing us. We are here representing him. There’s spiritual truths in this book that is just plain awesome if you ever see it. Number 13, predestination, God chooses those in Christ. Predestination is God fixing a destiny beforehand. Destiny fixed beforehand. It’s not talking about fatalism, it’s not fatalistic in its approach. It simply means that God has chosen to save those that believe. God decided that.

Of course, God knows who is and who won’t, but that’s not God’s decision. It is your decision. It is my decision to accept Christ. It is your decision to accept Christ, or you can reject Christ. God might know what you’re going to do, but it’s still your decision. And so you need to understand that because as a child of God, you’re in Christ because of a choice that you made. That’s why we want to give other people the same choice that somebody gave to you.

Number 14, forgiveness from debt to pay to the Lord. in full. There’s a song that Genesin called paid in full. I love that song. Because you and I were in debt, we were slaves and that debt has been paid. And an example is given there in the book of Matthew in chapter 18 because of somebody who is so far in debt. He says, if you give me time, I’ll pay it all. I’ll pay it all. So we were in debt and we owed all of it.

Christ came and made a payment not for some for all of it. So it’s paid in full and that’s what forgiveness is. It means that you paid your debt in full. Somebody sinned against you. Okay, now they owe you. They’re in debt to you. Anybody who wrongs you is in debt to you because now say you can either forgive the debt or say you owe me you owe me an apology we often say that you owe me this you owe me that you got to make it right and maybe they do but you have a tremendous power in your hand you have the power to write paid in full I forget you’re on me I can hold that against you for the rest of your life and carry that grudge and be mean and again kind to you for the rest of your life or

I could say it’s forgiven. So they don’t deserve that. What is mercy? Faith is the hearing, believe is the trusting of the same word. He says in John chapter 5 and verse 24 he says he that, heareth my word and believe it in him that sent me half everlasting life. So you are to hear faith, commit by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So faith is you can’t have faith in Christ if you don’t hear about Christ.

So you got to hear the message and they got to trust what you heard. And yet it’s part of the same coin when you talk about you’re saved by faith. What do you mean by saved by faith? I heard something and I trusted it. I’ll say by faith. You can’t do one without the other. Those two things go together. And number 16 eternal security is the truth you can never lose. You can never lose salvation. That’s the best news in all the world.

This hand represent you and me. This wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. I’ve sinned. You’ve sinned. We’ve all sinned. But God loves us. Hates our sin for us to pay for that. Turnal separation from God in hell. But God loves us who wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven. We have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect. None of us are right. We’ve all sinned. Come short of God’s perfection.

So God says we cannot save ourselves. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the place. He came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin because the separates us from him. So he took the sin, paid for him on the cross, came back from the dead and he said if we’ll believe he did it for us. He put that payment to our account. We get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

That’s free. That’s a gift. Let’s pray shout. 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 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 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 4011 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.