Read the message I did about Jesus being
"Jesus, The Greatest of all Time."
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.
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
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.
Yankee Arnold:
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 of
Calvary
Community Church of Tampa, Florida. He also hosts the BibleLine Radio Show, which is the outreach of their church. Let's listen now to Dr. Arnold's presentation
titled 'Jesus, the Greatest of All Time' here
on Family Talk.
Let’s look In John chapter 14,
A person can read 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So what makes Jesus Christ so different, so unique? Jesus Christ was
born differently from you and me. 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.
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
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. 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.
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.
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.
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 me. 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.
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 the 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.
That makes him a little different from you and me. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 and kind to me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He put his arm around my shoulder and explained it a little bit more
to me that all I had to do was trust what Christ did for me on the cross. 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.
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, and 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.
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 59 years ago. I trusted the Lord
about three months 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.
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.
Everlasting life. Eternal life. Well if he cannot lie and he gave me
eternal life, almost 60 years ago, would I still have it today?
Audience
Yes.
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.
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.
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. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Feel free to copy and paste this message to someone you know and love.
Share it with my blessings. Yankee Arnold
Please send comments to Yankee@YankeeArnold.com
