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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. 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 prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us at 813-884-4328 or you can donate on the homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org. 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.

So anyway, take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians. Now I know these are the the Philippines. They were chirp filled with these Filipinos on… I tell the college kids that and they just said to me right in the notes. I have to stop them. I’m Josh and ya, I’m Josh and ya kids. In Philippians chapter three, where was the apostle Paul when he wrote this book? He was in jail. And he didn’t told them and all of a lot of things about joy, joy, joy and happiness and all that kind of stuff.

He looked like he ought to have a bad attitude to me. I mean, everything was going against Paul and people left him, people were cursing him, wanting nothing to do with him anymore, people that he led to the Lord, and people were supporting him, got him to the foreign fields, and then he dropped their support. So he had to make tents and sell tents in order to pay his way. But he says here in chapter 3, finally my brethren.

Now I want you to see that word finally. Now look how much more he wrote after the word finally. He writes two chapters finally. When you see the word finally don’t you think he’s probably winding it down now. Finally, I’m going to do that in church for these days, you know, it gets about five minutes till 12. Finally my brethren, I’m going to go for another hour. I better not do that. Finally my brethren. So brethren, let’s you know he is talking to believers.

And then he says these wonderful words, rejoice in the Lord. In other words it means to show great joy and great delight, great joy, great delight. Because so many Christians are not happy Christians. We ought to be happy. Not that everything happens to us, makes you happy, but because of who you are and the opportunity that God’s given to us. I thought of a sermon I’m gonna preach. I haven’t done it yet. And I’ll tell you about doing it tonight.

And I still might, but it might not. I wasn’t sure. It’s just that I heard that you know about going home. And going home, I keep hearing that, going home. Where is my home? And we often say, you know, well, I live over here off of Shelton, or I got a home up here in Georgia, but I also got a home up in heaven. And the more I think about it, I realize, I’m gonna go home one of these days.

I’m going home. And we’re pilgrims and strangers in this world, And pilgrims means that we’re away from home, strangers, or I should say away from home, and pilgrim even going home. So one of the days we’re gonna go home. Jesus is gonna come and take us home. And, but I’m not talking about here. And I was living with my aunt in uncle, I’m in Virginia like I told you for about two years, because my mother couldn’t take care of all of us kids, and they were gonna put us in foster homes if we didn’t eliminate some of the pressure.

So me and my older sister, we decided to do that, but she went back home after a year. And I’m still down there with my aunt and uncle, and I thought, no, I haven’t seen my mom. I haven’t seen my brother and sisters in two years. And so I thought, man, I can’t wait to go home. I can’t wait to see him. So when school was out, I got to go home. And when I got home, guess who was there to meet me?

Nobody. Mama was at work. And I asked them, where’s my, no, my brother and my sisters. They went to Kenwood Park, you know, like Six Flags Over Georgia, something like that. But this is up in Pennsylvania. So I hadn’t seen anybody, and nobody was there to greet me. I felt so down in the scurries. Nobody cares whether I live or die. Nobody was here to see me. So I got a ride, did a little hitchhiking, and I went up there to the Kenwood Park, because they were in their ride and ride and having a good time.

So they were celebrating, I guess, my coming home. They were just gonna do it without me. And I walked around and lo and behold, I found them. And I thought they would run up to me and hug me and glad to see you. And this is, they’re janky. Hey, see you later, we got a ride. And they could care less whether they hadn’t seen me in two years. It didn’t matter. And I thought, does anybody out there love me?

And I never heard my mom and dad ever say it. And now I always question whether my brother’s a sister did. Have you ever had lonely times? And one of the days I’m gonna go home. But I know this, when I get to heaven, I think it’s gonna be a little different. I’m gonna see the Lord. And I’m gonna see people that I led to the Lord. And I’m gonna see people in heaven that heard the gospel through my lips.

And I think there’s gonna be a lot of people because of various ministries so far. And I think when I get home, somebody’s gonna say, you know, that’s Shanky. That’s Shanky, I’m glad to see him. One of these days we’re gonna go home. And everything here is just temporary. And I think about all the funerals that I’ve done over my time. And there’s been a bunch of them. And now I’ve done a lot of funerals for people that I don’t even have a clue who they are and memorials and things like that.

And I thought, one of these days, if it ever starts here, how many is going to go in a clip? I mean, you have one, then another one, then another one. And all of a sudden, you can have 15, 20 people in a church pass away. When I went up to the north side, everything was fine. And after a while all of a sudden everybody in the choir started dying. Strange thing, but they died. Okay, that wasn’t in the choir.

It was people in the church. But they were everywhere, but they just started dying. And then saying no, it’s just like no, we lost almost all of our choir because people, well, they’re getting old and then someone weren’t old and they just died. And I had to do funeral one after the other and I thought, I’m losing half the church. Stop dying. And so I made the mistake one day and says, how many of y’all are ready to go to heaven?

Raise your hand. Everybody raise your hand and set a couple in the back. I said, well, I come, you didn’t raise your hand. He said, are you planning on taking a load now? We all want to go to heaven, but not now, not now. Because we’re never through. And so we’re passing through this life. So look in verse one, Rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

Because now he’s going to warn them. He’s told them all kinds of good things and all things to do and how to be. And now he says, let me warn you of a couple things. So as you live your Christian life, there’s, yes, there’s joy about where we’re going when we die, but we’re not there yet. We still gotta live in the nasty here and now. You’re talking about the pina sky, but we gotta live in a nasty here and now.

Well, this is what Paul is talking about. He says, be aware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concession. Three, beware. You say, well, what does all that mean? Beware of dogs. I mean, I don’t like dogs anyway. No, he’s not talking about real dogs. Take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56. There’s a little scripture reference here that kind of gives you a little bit of an idea in Isaiah chapter 56.

Because God’s people are supposed to sound the alarm. They’re supposed to be the watchman upon the wall. They’re supposed to be standing in the gate in case the enemy shows up, they warn the people. Well, some of God’s people were not doing that. Preachers, pastors, or shepherds are supposed to warn the flock. We’re supposed to watch out for this one, watch out for this, watch out for this, watch out for this, watch out for this, because that can hurt you.

And every time God says don’t do something, it’s not because God wants to withhold some good thing from you. It’s that God says, I don’t want you to hurt yourself. This is going to hurt you. And so here, just talk there in verse 8 where he says, the Lord God which gathered the outcast of Israel, say it, yet will I gather others to Him beside those that are gathered unto Him. All ye beasts of the field come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

His watchmen, the watchmen. Those are the ones supposed to be watching out and and you’ll see a little bit more about this in the book of Ezekiel, where he calls Ezekiel the watchman upon the wall. And so he says here, the watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they’re all dumb dogs, they cannot bark. Now, he’s talking about people, though, that are supposed to be like the dogs that warn. And dogs are supposed to bark when a stranger comes up to the house.

And if you’ve got a dog that don’t bark, you can’t say, well, this is my watch dog. Well, what does he do? You’ve got to watch. How does he warn you? That’s what dogs do. Now, when a person’s stranger walks up the cat and doesn’t go, meow, meow, meow, meow. No, but a dog does. Not meow, but he goes, meow. Now look what he says. He says, they are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

Yay, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough. And they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter. Come ye say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant. So he’s telling them, watch out for people that put you to sleep. Watch out. There’s people who are supposed to be guardian and they’re not doing it.

There’s preachers who really don’t care about the flock and they don’t warn the people and say that, no, this is what the gospel is. This is what comes to the difference is heaven and hell and teach you how you suppose to live for the Lord. So go back there to the book of Philippians in chapter three. He says, beware of evil workers. And that’s people who bring within evil consequences. There’s consequences to disobedience. Don’t let people get you sidetracked to where you live in such a way that brings bad consequences upon your life.

Have you ever heard that birds of a feather flock together? And there’s people that do the same thing. Misery loves company. And so you cannot usually rise above the pressure of your friends. Because if you do, you’ll lose your friends. So the best thing to do is choose better friends. Get people that are walking with the Lord. But if you hang around people that are gossipers and they’ll gossip to you, guess what they’ll also do? They’ll gossip about you.

they will gossip to you, they will gossip about you. And so you need to get around the right people and building yourself strong and help and encourage in one another. And he says, beware unless you don’t do that because they can tear you down. Now the last one here that says, beware of the concision. That concision is not, well it’s a connection to the word circumcision, but it’s a mutilation of the truth because they don’t understand it. People that say, yes, you’re saved by grace, but you got to keep the law and there are people trying to put them under the law and saying you have to be circumcised to be saved and so forth.

So to help you to understand that and see that, look there in the book of Romans. Look there in the book of Romans. Romans in chapter 4, it’s one of the clearest, I believe, explanations of what the purpose of circumcision, what it was all about. In Romans in chapter 4, look there in verse 9. This little few verses here is written because it’s explaining on the clarity of the gospel. Abraham was justified before God. It was whenever in Genesis chapter 15 verse 8 he believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

All he did was believe. So could Abraham have kept the law to be saved? No, why? The law wasn’t given for 430 years later. It’s kind of hard for him to keep the law if there was no law. So now was Abraham a Gentile or was he a Jew? Huh? Everybody was Gentiles. There was no Jews. Jews come from Travajuta. Israelite from Israel, the 10 tribes that went to the North in captivity. And Jacob’s name was changed to Israel.

But Abraham, there was no division to this time. So he was justified when he was a Gentile uncircumcised. So therefore he couldn’t have been circumcised in order to be saved because he was saved before he was. Now look up here in verse 1. What shall we say then as concerning Abraham, our Father, as pertaining to the flesh hath found? What did Abraham come to know? For if Abraham were justified by works. Didn’t say he was. He says, if Abraham were justified by works, he had to wear off the glory and none the line this part, not before God.

For what’s safe to scripture? Now going all the way back to the Old Testament where Abraham believed God. He says Abraham believed God and it was counted under him for righteousness. Just because he believed it, what God said about Christ, because he told him about Christ. Galatians chapter 3 says he knew about Christ and therefore Abraham believed. And that’s how he was given God’s righteousness. Now in verse 4, now to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace but of death.

If Abraham had to work for salvation, then God would be in debt to him and salvation could not be by grace. It had to be by works. So then he goes into the Old Testament showing not only that Abraham justified by faith, but also David was justified by faith. So Abraham was before the law, David, David after the law or doing the law. Now look what he says about David. In verse five, but to him that worketh not, but believe it on him that justifies the ungulli, his faith is counted for righteousness.

So in the Old Testament, before the law, a man is justified by faith. Under the law, a man is justified by faith. Because see, they were looking forward to the payment that was going to be made. We are looking back to the payment that has been made. Now get what he says. In verse six, even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without what? Without works. So you can’t say, well, in the Old Testament, they were saved by keeping the law.

wrong, not true. The Bible says that is not true. Righteousness was imputed to put to his account because of his faith alone without works. And then he says this in verse 7, he said, this is what the blessing was. Say, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. In the words of your payments, for your sins is made. In verse 8, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not, will not impute sin. In other words, God will not impute your sins to you, will not.

That’s why I can’t go to hell today. That’s why after Abraham trusts the Lord, he couldn’t go to hell. That’s why after David trusts the Lord, he couldn’t go to hell. Why? Because God does not impute his sins to the person that did it. You see, I did it, but he doesn’t put it to my account. He puts it to Christ’s account. He paid for it. You say, that’s not fair. That’s just not right. I’m kidding. I didn’t write the book, but I’m not gonna change it.

That’s what makes it such a wonderful thing. You said then people can go out here and live like they please. They do anyway, don’t they? Everybody does. Well, what if I decide I wanna serve the Lord? Is that okay? You say, you can live like you want? Yeah, that’s what I’m doing. I go to church because I want, I read my Bible because I want. I give because I want, I preach because I want, well, what’s wrong with living like I want?

But you see, there’s other people to do it the other way, because that’s what they want. But there’s chastening blessings. I want God’s blessing, so I want to do right. And when you understand it’s clear, but people are afraid to say that, there’s shame to say that. That’s been ashamed of the gospel. Not to be able to say that, you’re ashamed of this truth. because it brings, well, a little backlash and who do you think you are? You think you’re better than I am?

No, I’m probably worse, but we’ve all sinned. Now get this. And verse nine, this blessedness of being justified by faith. He says, come at this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, the Jews, or upon the uncircumcision also, Gentiles, for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision, not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision, because see, he always was justified before he ever had circumcision. So therefore man is saved without the law, without circumcision.

And see there were Jewish people telling people that you have to be circumcised to be saved or to stay saved and to keep the law and all that and he said, no you don’t. Now this is what this is about, verse 11. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal. Get this. A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet been uncircumcised. Now the way he’s already been justified and so circumcision was a cut in the way of the flesh.

Now this is why… In the book of Philippians where we studied, chapter 3, he says that you will have no confidence in the flesh. In other words, there’s nothing you can do. Abraham was justified not because he stopped the works of the flesh. And so circumcision was a separation that you believed on Christ and that you’re not justified by your works. And the whole thing about being circumcised was a sign of the seal you believed on Christ. And so this became a sign for the whole nation of Israel, and they were to teach their young boys about justification by faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone, and that nobody can be saved by their works.

And so that is the flesh. The first birth is the flesh. When you trust Christ’s Savior, that’s the new birth. And so he says here, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet been uncircumcised, that he might be the Father of all them, and you had unlined those two little words, all of them that what? Believe. So what does Abraham found that you’re justified by faith and faith alone?

Now just so you get this, look here in Romans chapter 3 and verse 28. Romans 3 verse 28. and lo and behold look what he says. And verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, without works. And so now he takes in chapter 4 and shows you how the Abraham was saved by faith alone. And David, how was David saved by faith alone? You know what was interesting to me?

Ron Seacher, Ron, who has the Solid Rock Theological Seminary over in India, where Berba Boudrum has a ministry also down in Trinidad of a Bible Institute, which is an extension. And he called me up the other day about three days ago. And he says, you know that little booklet you have on the Declaration of the Gospel? I say, yeah, he says, can you send me some of those? He says, that’s the best and the clearest that I’ve ever seen on explaining the gospel in the Old Testament because I’ve got it and it’s in the bookstore.

And so I put that thing out. But I’m glad that somebody thinks enough of it that they want some copies of it because he gives them to the seminary students. And that’s a little booklet that I wrote on the Declaration of the Gospel. So I told Betty I said, send him 50 of them. He’s one of our missionaries and so he’ll take them over there and be able to use them. But this is what I’m talking about. How were they saved in the Old Testament?

What’s the same way we’re saved? Look up here, this hand represents you and me. The wall of represents sin. The Bible says we all have sin on us. This represents the world, everybody. All have sinned and comes short of God’s perfection. Nobody’s qualified to get to heaven. We’re all in the same boat. And God says to go to heaven, we’d have to be perfect as righteous as God and nobody’s perfect. We’ve all sinned to come short of God’s perfection.

God says, you can’t earn your way to heaven. It’s not by anything that you do. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from God. So what Christ did for one person, He did for all. He took all the sin of all the world and paid for it, came back from the dead. And God from the very beginning had already been planned salvation for man.

And He said that He has already determined before any man was born, before he did any good or before he did any bad. going to save all of those that will believe that Christ did it for them. And if you’ll believe He did it for you, God has already given His Word. See, when I trusted Christ as my Savior, when I was 18 years old, God had to save me. He promised. He has to keep His Word. And He says that He’ll never cast me out and never lose me.

I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. Nothing else. Nothing else. So telling people the truth, good thing or bad thing. You see most preachers think they can’t hold their people if they tell them the truth. So then let them live in fear. You’ve got to live the life. You’ve got to go to church. You’ve got to give you money because what most preachers want, they want the members and they want the money. They don’t care anything about the soul.

You’re not here to impress me and I’m not here to impress you. I’m here to teach the truth. Well, the people like it or they don’t like it. Christ did it all. Paid for all of our sins for everybody in the world and he says preach the gospel to every creature Because God so loved the world that he gave us only begotten son that whosoever who so ever Believe it than him should not perish but have everlasting life That’s pretty shall we every head bowed every I close no one looking around if you hear this morning?

And maybe you’ve heard all of this, but you never understood. Maybe you’ve never really trusted Christ as your Savior. Would you trust Him in Him alone? Don’t trust in your life. Don’t look at your life as well, I know I’m saved because I go to church or I do this and I do that. That’s not the reason. That’s not the evidence that you’re saved. A lost man can do all of those things. Would you trust Him in Him alone?

Would you believe He died because He loved you? And if you’ll trust Him as your Savior, He would give you eternal life. Would you believe that? I’m going to ask in just a moment for a raise a hand. Raise in your hand doesn’t save you. I’m not going to have you forward, I’m not going to embarrass you. But while I go, I ask for people to raise their hand if they trust the Christ as Savior. Well maybe you couldn’t honestly do that, but I want to give you the chance.

You see it is your decision. It’s an important decision. Determines your destination. wouldn’t the quietness of this moment just between you and the Lord? Would you just say to Lord, I don’t understand at all, but I believe Christ died and paid for my sins and right now I will trust Jesus Christ as my only hope of going to heaven and preach our life for you to pray for me. So would you just slip your hand very quickly but right back down to Zeno at all?

In one and all. So yes, that made sense to me. I want to be be certain I’m going to have an out-trust Christ as my Savior right now. Anyone’s all. If you trust the Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, be aware of the teachings of Calvinism. It’s subtle sometimes, but it’s dead need. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to teach a word and help us to have a greater respect for the payment you made. You see, it was bigger than most people think.

It covered more people than most people think. Your grace has been extended to more people than most people think. Because Father, you do say by grace, whosoever calls, whoever believes, we thank You for it. Blessed person here in Christ’s name we pray. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771, or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you, and thank you for listening to Bibleline. 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. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.