Broadcast Transcript

Broadcast: Jesus, The Greatest Of All Time
Guest(s): Yankee Arnold
Air Date: January 07, 2019

NOTE: This is a rush transcript and may contain minor errors and/or discrepancies from the audio. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Dr. Dobson: Thank you everyone, for tuning into our program today. You may know that Family Talk is a listener-supported program. And we remain on the air by your generosity, literally. If you can help us financially we would certainly appreciate it. God’s blessings to you all.
Announcer: Today on Family Talk.

Roger Marsh: Welcome everyone to this Monday edition of Family Talk, a radio production of the James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh, sitting in for your host, psychologist and best-selling author Dr. James Dobson today.

Roger Marsh: A few weeks ago we celebrated the magnificent birth of Jesus Christ. And with that in mind, today’s broadcast is focused on his greatness as both God and man. Jesus’ willingness to leave the glory of heaven and die afforded us the gift of eternal life. The penalty for our sins could only be pardoned by his blood.
Jesus is the only person in all of human history with that power.

Roger Marsh: In a moment you’ll hear from Dr. Ralph “Yankee” Arnold as he explains the awesomeness of Christ’s authority. Dr. Arnold is the lead minister at Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. He also hosts the Bible Line radio show, which is the outreach of their church. Dr. Arnold founded the Colorado Bible Church as well, along with the Arvada Christian School and the Colorado Bible College.

Roger Marsh: Let’s listen now to Dr. Arnold’s presentation titled ‘Jesus, the Greatest of All Time’ here on Family Talk.

Yankee Arnold: Let’s look In John chapter 1., A person can read can go through a lot of scriptures and he won’t find a better portion of scripture concerning who Jesus is than what is written in the first six verses.

Yankee Arnold: God says what he means and means what he says. And he says in verse 1, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. And whether I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said unto him, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest. and how can we know the way?” Jesus said unto him, “I am the way. the truth. and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me.” Nobody gets to heaven, to this place that he’s going to build, these mansions, whatever it looks like, unless that person comes by Jesus Christ.

Yankee Arnold: And He is going to build this perfect place of many mansions. It’s a literal place and it’s not a state of mind. And Jesus says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also. Then he makes a really bold statement. He says, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes unto the Father except through me.” You can’t get there any other way.

Yankee Arnold: We have a statement that we say often, which is: ‘faith alone in Christ alone.’ But what makes Jesus Christ so unique, so different? Every human born of man, at their best, at their best, is still only a man, and a sinner at that. But not Jesus.

Yankee Arnold: I was thinking about this. Isn’t it wonderful, that we have in the Bible the story of the wisest man that ever lived? Solomon, was the wisest, smartest man, and no one has ever been smarter than Solomon. Then you have a story about Samson, the strongest man that ever lived, much stronger than I am. The strongest man that ever lived, but He was still only a man, and Solomon, in spite of all of his wisdom, was still only a man.

Yankee Arnold: I thought about this, years ago, when I heard Cassius Clay make this statement: “I’m the greatest of all time! Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Do you remember hearing him say that? The greatest of all time! He was still just a man, still just a man, and a sinner at that.

Yankee Arnold: There’s a debate going on right now about who is the greatest golfer of all time … Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Yankee Arnold … It’s still going on. The final answer is still out. But I don’t care how good they have been, they’re still just men. There’s nothing unique about them, only that they’re maybe the best of men. You can compare anybody in the whole world. We, at our best, are just sinners. And we’re all going to die.

Yankee Arnold: So what makes Jesus Christ so different, so unique? Jesus Christ was born differently from you and I. He was born into this world by a virgin birth and nobody else can claim that. He was unique. By the way, do you know how you catch a unique rabbit? Unique up on ’em. Lots of smarties in here.

Yankee Arnold: But Jesus Christ was unique. There was no man ever like this man. I don’t care who you can compare Him to. When it comes to Jesus Christ, nobody is in the same class with Him. You see, He was wiser than anybody, any man, who has ever lived. Nobody can compare with him.

Yankee Arnold: And when it comes to strength, did you realize that Jesus Christ has all the power in all the world? He could just say words like, “I am, that I am,” and the people in His presence fell backwards. He could just say the word and give a person the ability to see. He could just say the word and raise the dead. Have you seen anybody else lately doing anything like that? He was different. He was unique. There’s nobody like him. Jesus Christ was something else.

Yankee Arnold: You see, there’s no one that can compare to him. The Bible makes this statement: “In him was no sin.” Get that! In him was no sin. That separates the man from the boys. He was different. He was unique. He was special. He was the greatest man that has ever been born into this world, and there’s no person that can compare to him. Nobody is like him, because He had no sin in him.

Yankee Arnold: I want you to take your Bible, look in John, chapter 8. Just look at this. When Jesus was speaking, He said this in verse 44, to some people who didn’t believe on him: “Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because,” … and you ought to underline this phrase … “there is no truth in him.” So, you have the devil and there’s no truth in him. He is a liar. There is no truth in the devil. When it comes to Christ, there is no sin in him. The devil, there’s no truth in him. This is a big difference.

Yankee Arnold: Jesus is different. And so when we say, a person must put his faith in Jesus Christ, He narrowed it down further and says, “I am not a way of many ways. I am the only way.” There is no other way. There is no other name that saves. There’s no other savior. He is different. He is unique. And He claims something that you and I could not claim. He was the only begotten son of the Father. He’s different from you and I. He was God manifested in the flesh. So Jesus Christ was able to do something that no other man on the face of the earth could do.

Yankee Arnold: Well, what was that? I knew you were going to ask. He could die and pay for the sins of another. He could die and pay for everyone else’s sins, because He had no sins to pay for. In him, was no sin. The Bible says, “For God hath made him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us.” Nobody else can claim that. He was different. He was unique. He could become sin for us. You or I can’t do that for anybody else. And nobody else can do it for you. Only one person could. That’s why, when we say ‘by faith alone, in Christ alone”, it is because there is no other. There is no other way of salvation. There’s no one else that could pay for your sins, except Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God.

Yankee Arnold: That makes him a little different from you and I. He was perfect. I know you may think you’re close, but you’re not perfect. We have all sinned and come short of the perfection of God. But he did not come short of the perfection of God. He was God. That’s why we have a very unique Savior. He was the perfect man, the perfect God-man. Nobody else was like him, because he was the Lord. He was able to do something that no other could; He could die and pay for the sins of the world. You can’t do that. Cassius Clay couldn’t do that. I can’t do that. Nobody can do that. Only Jesus Christ could do that. That is why we say salvation is by “faith alone in Christ alone.” There is no other Savior.

Yankee Arnold: Do you know what else He could do that nobody else could do that makes him really unique? He could come back from the dead of his own power. He could come back from the dead. And he did! Jesus Christ did something that nobody else could do and that is to pay for all the sins of all the world. He’s a man’s man. He’s really a man’s man. If there’s anybody I want to be like, then I want to be like that Man, because He’s different. He’s really unique.

Yankee Arnold: That’s something that everybody can desire. And believe it or not, it can happen. You see Jesus Christ had the power, not only to pay for the sins of the world, which nobody else could do, but He could come back from the dead, which nobody else has ever done. And he was able to come back from the dead, never to die again. When Lazarus and some of the others rose from the dead, they would die again. And they didn’t come back to life by their own power. Only Jesus did this. This man’s different.

Yankee Arnold: God cannot lie. That’s why when you read the word of God, think about what it says. God cannot lie. So if he makes you a promise he has to keep it. The Bible says, in First John 5:13, God promises us eternal life. And if He makes a promise, He has to fulfill it. Since He said that if I trust him, he will save me. He has to do it. He cannot lie. In him is no sin. He is truth.

Yankee Arnold: Jesus Christ came back from the dead, ascended into Heaven, which nobody else has been able to do on his own power. And the Bible says he’s going to come back again someday. I am so thankful that I had a man one day who came into my life. I guess you could say he was like a lighthouse. And I finally saw the light. My father-in-law, who at one time was going to blow me away with a gun because I married his daughter. Well he could have, but I wasn’t ready for eternity. Has God been gracious to me!

Yankee Arnold: My father-in-law sat down with me and opened up the Bible. He explained to me how to have eternal life. I’ll never forget it. There are a lot of things that have come and gone since then, but I can remember that day. I remember sitting there in the living room. I remember how bored I was upset because they didn’t have a television; they didn’t have a radio or if they did, I never heard it. And I wanted something to do because I was bored stiff. I don’t handle boredom very well.

Yankee Arnold: But this man, my father-in-law, brought me the Bible. And I said, “I don’t know what to read in the Bible.” He said, “Turn to the gospel of John.” When I said, “I don’t know where it is,” he opened it up to the gospel of John and he gave it to me and I started reading. I read the first three chapters. I even read John 3:16, but I didn’t understand it. I stood up and I took his Bible and I threw it on the couch. I can see it now; I was so rude. I was so unkind. But he was so patient with me, so nice.

Yankee Arnold: I threw his Bible on the couch and I said, “Don’t make a bit of sense to me,” and I started toward the door, was going to go outside. But he said, “Yankee, sit down.” I thought it was a little rude myself at the time. But I was living in his house and eating his food. So I sat down, and he showed me John 3:16 and he sat there and he read it to me and explained it to me. And I got teary-eyed. I had never been to a church or seen anybody get saved. I didn’t know what the rules were. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t raised in church. I’d never seen my mom or dad in a church. I never saw them read a Bible. I never saw them have prayer. I never heard the words “I love you,”, not from my parents, never.

Yankee Arnold: Then all of a sudden, I’m hearing that God loves me… God loves me,,, God loves me. And that I can have eternal life and I can go to Heaven when I die. And I just knew that what he said was true. I knew I was going to Hell. I kept thinking, “I’m going to Hell. I’m going to Hell.” And it just overwhelmed me. I got up and I walked over to the door. It was nighttime and my father-in-law was still sitting there on the couch. I didn’t want him to see me with tears in eye because I didn’t cry about anything.

Yankee Arnold: So I did the only sensible thing a man could do; I turned off the lights. My father-in-law was sitting there in the dark. He asked me what was wrong. I started just sobbing. I couldn’t go outside where the ladies were and I couldn’t turn the light on. I was trapped. I mean I was trapped. I had a little pride and then I just started bawling like a baby. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I never saw anybody get saved. He hadn’t told me yet. All I knew is that he I was going to Hell. And that tore me up.

Yankee Arnold: For so many years, I thought I was good enough, to go to Heaven when I died. ‘ I didn’t drink. I never had a drop of drink in my life. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. I’ve never sworn a cuss word in my life. I thought that if anybody ought to go to Heaven, I ought to make it. I’m good enough, I thought. I’m better than everybody else that I knew. But regardless of how good I was and the best I had I was still just a sinner. And it all just came out and fell apart on me. And I sobbed like a baby.

Yankee Arnold: My father-in-law could hear me sobbing. He said, “What’s wrong?: He had set me up. This was his plan. He was a soul winner. He’d won hundreds of people to Christ and he knew what he was doing. But he wouldn’t tell me what he was doing. He let me go through this misery. And I said, “I want to be saved.” He said, “Well then you need to turn on the light.” So I turned on the light and I was just a bawling, 18-year-old teenager. I walked over to the couch and my father-in-law got on his knees in front of the couch and I just joined him.

Yankee Arnold: He put his arm around my shoulder and explained it a little bit more to me. He said, “Yankee, can you trust Christ as your savior?” I said I would. And I bawled a little bit more. Then he said, “Now listen. God says that if you trust Him he’d save you. True?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Do you trust Him?” Yeah. He says, “Are you saved?” I said, “Yeah. Yeah I’m saved. Yeah. Uh-huh. I’m saved.” I was as excited as I could be. I did not know that this was the beginning of the greatest thing that could ever happen to any man ever born into the world. I had passed from death unto life.

Yankee Arnold: I had become something that, by my human efforts, I could never have been. And no man could do this for me. But Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am eternal life. So when a person accepts Christ as His savior, Christ is the way there. You have the truth. You have eternal life.

Yankee Arnold: This was the best news I had on ever heard in my whole life. I was 18 years old and September the 17th it’ll be 50 years ago. I trusted the Lord about three months later after I married my wife. I am so thankful. God has been so good to me. Did you know you can go to church all your life and never understand that to go to Heaven is not by your works. It’s not because you go to church. You can’t earn your salvation; you can’t work for it.

Yankee Arnold: That’s why Jesus Christ is so unique; he’s so different. God says that none of us can earn salvation. None of us can work for it. That’s why Jesus Christ says, “I am the way.” So when I accepted Him as my savior, it was a done deal. So when I trusted Christ as my savior when I was 18 years old God promised to give me what kind of life?

audience: Everlasting.

Yankee Arnold: Everlasting life. Eternal life. Well if he cannot lie and he gave me eternal life, almost 50 years ago, would I still have it today?

audience: Yes.

Yankee Arnold: Yes. And he’ll never cast me out and he’ll never lose me. That’s a promise. God cannot lie. He is truth. And you can trust him. The only way you’ll ever know if You are going to go to Heaven, is to believe the one that can’t lie. And when you trust him as your Savior, He gives you, as a free gift, everlasting life. He will never cast you out and never lose you. This is why I know I’m going to Heaven when I die.

Yankee Arnold: Some people try to add their own good works to get them to heaven. But despite the best works of any man, he’s still a sinner. And he can’t save himself. So we say it’s “faith alone, in Christ alone.” There is no other way. Nobody else qualifies. There’s nobody else to trust. He is the only way. I’ve trusted him as my Savior and I pray that you have, too.

Roger Marsh: What a powerful reminder of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice and our desperate need for a savior. You’ve been listening to a message from Pastor Yankee Arnold here on Family Talk. You can go to today’s broadcast page at drjamesdobson.org to learn more about Dr. Arnold, his church, and the various ministries he’s a part of. That’s drjamesdobson.org and then click onto the broadcast page.
Roger Marsh: Here at Family Talk our mission is to support marriages and families. And one of the best ways we can do so is through the Dobson Digital Library. You can visit dobsonlibrary.com and scroll through Dr. Dobson’s many radio broadcasts, insightful blogs, articles, and much, much more. Now our library addresses topics such as raising kids, resolving marital conflicts, and passing on a Christian legacy. So whatever you may be going through in your family we have a resource that can help. Take advantage of Dr. Dobson’s years and years of influence and knowledge by going to dobsonlibrary.com.

Roger Marsh: Thanks so much for tuning into today’s broadcast and I hope you know how grateful we are for your consistent financial and prayer support of this ministry. We are entirely funded by listeners just like you. So thank you for standing with us in our defense of the family and our fight for righteousness. By the way if you’d like to partner with us, you can learn more when you visit drjamesdobson.org or call 877-732-6825.

Roger Marsh: I hope you’ll join us again tomorrow for a classic broadcast featuring Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. They’ll talk with Dr. Dobson about the adversities that many single adults face. That’s coming up next time right here on Family Talk.

Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.