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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 to be able to help you. 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 BibleInemistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, I hope y’all had a good Thanksgiving day, week, and all that kind of stuff. And I eat a lot of good stuff. Does y’all eat a lot? Somebody sent me this email. I’m already doing church, but I just want to share with you now. Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving. May your stuffings be tasty. May your turkey be plump. May your potatoes and gravy have an area of lump. May your yams be delicious. May your pies take the prize.

May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs. gobble to you wobble. And above all, give thanks to the Lord for all he hath done. So did you gobble to you wobble? Now you got to admit that pretty good now. You got to have a little humor along the way. Anyway, take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, here a little, and there a little, learning all the time.

Sometimes you don’t learn a lot of new stuff, you just get refreshed on what you already know. These scriptures, you probably have seen them a mini a time. But just look at it one more time. I want you to see something here. The first one, we then as workers together, with Him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. I like those words workers together. We’re workers together. It’s not all about who gets to be the big shot and all that.

We’re just all a bunch of little shots. We all put our feet on the floor the same way. And those are no big eyes and little ears. Everybody’s the same. serve the Lord do what we can, wherever we are, and thank the Lord for Him. But He says here that BC is also that you see not the grace of God in vain. In other words, the privilege of serving the Lord is not bestowed upon you in vain. Because you and I, we don’t deserve the time that God has given to us.

We don’t deserve it. That’s grace. The opportunity this side of the grave to serve the Lord, That’s grace. For the indwelling Holy Spirit, that’s grace. To be given to the new birth, to have His word, that’s grace. We didn’t deserve this, but these are things God has given to us. And He says, I pray that these things are not given to you in vain. And so some people get sidetracked. He don’t stay too focused too well. So He says in verse 2, for He saith, I have heard the inner time accepted and in the day of salvation have I Socrates.

Behold, and you ought to underline this word now, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time. And if now is the time for the loss to be saved, then now must be the time for the saved to witness. Duh. Don’t that make sense? So it’s always in season. I used to love to go out hunting, deer hunting, rabbit hunting. And I hated to wait so long for the next season. You had to wait a year.

Did you know that soul winning is always in season? And you’ve already been given a not a temporary license. You’ve got a permanent license. You can go anytime, anywhere. All you got to do is find a lost person. You got the weapons. And then he makes a statement in verse 3, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. You see, the overall thing about what we’re doing The cause is more important than you and I as an individual because you don’t want to say and do things that would cause the ministry to be blamed.

And here in Corinthians, these Christians were not too concerned about the testimony they had as a church. It was only about themselves and that’s why they were filled with envy and jealousy, bitterness and you become very critical. You find fault with everything and everybody. But when you see that God wants to use everybody and your part sometimes in serving the Lord is getting others to serve the Lord. And your example is very important and all this takes timing. So he says in verse 4, but in all things, approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonment, in tomolds, in labors, in watchings, and fasting, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love and fame, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor

this honor by evil reports and good reports as deceivers and yet true regardless that the ministry be not blamed. You just keep doing right regardless of everything else. And behold, now is the time for people to trust the Lord. Don’t look upon the harvest and say we got four months, behold, it’s ripe already for harvest. Now, I want to ask you a question. is the best year to get saved. What’s the best year to get saved? All right, now listen, I’ve got up here.

There’s a 10-year-old boy standing over there. There’s a 50-year-old man standing right here. There’s a 90-year-old man standing over there. No, it’s not Jay. The overstand over here. So we got a 10-year-old, we got a 50-year-old, and we’ve got a 90-year-old. is the best time for a person to get saved. What would be the best year? 10, 50, or 90. Now, this is a very difficult question, I understand that. How many of you would say 10? How many would say 50?

Some of you? How many would say 90? A few of y’all say that? Y’all are all mixed above. Are all of the above? All of the above. Well, if you believed, if you believed that you could lose your salvation, do you believe you can lose your salvation? If you believed you could lose your salvation, which would be the best year to be saved? 10, 50 or 90. Huh? Look how many of y’all said 90. And the reason is because you have less time to lose it, right?

If you get saved when you’re 90, chances are you’re not going to have to battle too much with the flesh. Maybe. You don’t know some 90-year-olds that I know. So if you could lose your salvation, then the consensus is it’d be better to get saved when you’re 90 years old so that you have less time to lose your salvation. Or would that be the reason why you would say that? What if you died 89? What if you died 70?

Oh, so you don’t really want to wait that long. But if you could lose your salvation, you see the 10-year-old kid has got most of his sinning ahead of him. I mean, you don’t take a 3-year-old kid to trust the Lord. the Lord just saved me from a life of crime. Delivered me from all of my sins. He did all of his sin and after he got saved. But see, there is a problem with people that believe you can lose your salvation.

Because if you can get saved when you’re 10, you run a greater risk because of the length of time. You’ve got more opportunities to lose your salvation. Now. The one thing that most people don’t think about is this. When they think you can lose your salvation, it’s generally based upon the idea that you did something really, really bad. Little things don’t count. Big sins. You can’t tell me you can commit adultery or murder. And then still go to heaven.

The telling of lie or being envious or jealous never enters their mind. Because they isolate those little sins from those big sins and if I don’t do those big sins, I’m good to go Well that all sounds Maybe good a little bit. It’s bad theology But think about this if God can save a man when he’s ten years old Boy when he’s ten years old and God can save a man when he’s fifty years old and God can save a man when he’s 90 years old If this man that’s 90 years old, let’s just pretend that he has broken every law there is.

Not just one of the 10 commandments. I say he broke all 10 of them. He’s been on drugs and you name the sin and he’s done it. He has as guilty as guilty can be. He’s done it all. And he’s 90 years old. Can God still save him regardless of all the bad things that he’s done? people say, yeah. So he could have a deathbed conversion laying on his deathbed. And after ninety years of wicked living in that one moment, he can trust Christ to save you and go to heaven.

Now does that sound fair? But is it true? Can God do that? But now most people who believe you can lose your salvation say that this little ten year old boy, he can He gets saved. But if He does any of these bad things down the road, He’ll lose His salvation. Isn’t it amazing that God can save that 90-year-old man who has done all of those things but can’t keep that 10-year-old boy saved because He committed some of those things after He was saved?

So he would be better off to be lost and get saved when he’s 90 then run the risk of losing all these years. Something that just doesn’t add up, it just doesn’t make any sense. But believe it or not, people who believe you can lose your salvation don’t understand. That this 90 year old man, and that 10 year old boy, and this 50 year old man, could be the same guy. Because you were 10, you were 50, and now you’re our nanny.

So when is the best time to get saved? And you and I know the best time for a man to get saved is as soon as possible. As soon as possible. Because God gives him eternal salvation. And what most people that think you can lose your salvation don’t understand is that when Christ died for that person, God didn’t die for his sins up to the time he was 10, or up to the time he was 50. Or up to the time he was 90.

He paid for all the sins from the time he’s born till the time that he dies, whatever that might be. All the sin of every man, once and for all. So that’s why we say that whenever you trust Christ to save your nearly age, all these sins have already been paid. Because if the man doesn’t trust the Lord there, and he lives to be 50, the Lord still paid for all these sins. But if He doesn’t trust the Lord here, wait till He’s 90.

God still paid for all of those sins too. Because Christ only died one time. He didn’t die three different times. He only died one time for the sin of this man forever. So when we believe that it’s by grace, we have no trouble believing that God not only can save the kid, but keep him saved. So that when He gets 50, He’s still saved. And when he gets 90, he’s still saved. Now that’s what we believe. But people that believe you can lose your salvation can’t believe that God can keep them saved.

And because they don’t understand grace, because they say, well, you don’t deserve that. Did the 90 year old man who had lived his whole life in sin and yet trust Christ is his savior? Now God can save him and that’s okay. Because he’s nine years old! But what about the person who trusts the Lord when he’s ten? And he does all this after he’s saved and he still gets to go to heaven. Wouldn’t that be grace? That would be grace.

So we are saved by grace. Now take your Bible looking 2nd Corinthians in chapter 11. 2nd Corinthians in chapter 11. It makes the statement about being, you know, Corrupted. See there in verse three. But I fear less by any means as the serpent begali through his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. When you get away from the simplicity of the gospel, you’ll have a false Jesus, a false gospel and a false spirit that’s mentioned in verse four.

Three things will be false. Those false things is because there’s false teachers. False teachers teach false things. Now look at in verse 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers. They’re deceitful. People who teach you can lose your salvation are deceitful. One is they have to deceive themselves first of all. And the reason they deceive themselves is because if they really and really believe that you’ve got to live a certain way to maintain your salvation so that you don’t lose it, they never know if they already have lost it.

And they are not living as good as they’re preaching that they do. I’ve heard people say, I haven’t sinned in 40 years. What’s he doing when he says that? He’s lying. Why can’t he see that he’s He’s lying because He deceived. Because He’s not counting as a sin what God’s Word counts as a sin. And they think that if I don’t do those certain bad things, I’m okay, but they never think about the sins of the mind. And they don’t mind that if they get bitter and hateful and filled with jealousy and envy and just hateful, but they don’t see that as that bad.

yet that’s what the Lord says. So they can keep their salvation if they don’t do too bad, too long. But he means that they can lose it so they never know when they’ve lost their salvation. So they deceive themselves, but not only do they deceive themselves, they deceive other people into believing the same thing. And if it’s one thing for an individual to say, well, it doesn’t hurt nobody but me. But if you die and you go to hell and you taught other people to believe what you believe and they go to hell, is it affecting only you?

So there’s false teachers who teach false things and they are believed. People believe it and there is a consequence. So look what he Verse 15, therefore is no great thing if his minister. So you know, and I know that Satan has his ministers and his ministers are ministers of righteousness, but it’s human righteousness, not the righteousness of God, but it’s the righteousness of man. And so they will teach that, you know, you have to do something. They always use the word your trusting Christ, but, and then they butt it all over the place.

They’re not really trusting Christ. They’re depending upon their works for their salvation, because bad works cost them their salvation. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew, Chapter seven, Matthew, and Chapter seven. Matthew Chapter seven. You’ve seen these, these verses an awful lot, but I want you to see this there in verse 15. be aware of false prophets. Today we would say, be aware of false preachers. Are there false preachers on radio and television? I don’t believe you all said that.

And there’s false preachers behind the pulpit. How do you know I’m not? You’re going to have to check with the book. And if you don’t know your Bible, I could teach you anything. But if you know the book. You judge and discern whether or not is that right or is that wrong? And many people in many churches cannot listen to other preachers on radio or TV or in other churches because they cannot discern whether they’re right or they’re wrong.

And they just go by, oh, the choir was so great. Air condition, padded pews. Lazy boy chairs, they’ll sit in. I thought about, we ought to go to that, you know, have a lazy boy chairs. And then had the ladies coming here was a little lemonade, please. A little lemonade, coffee, tea. I bet we could really increase the attendance, you know, doing something like that. And then of course, if you want to have a donut while we’re eating, you know, Gary’s all favor for that.

I mean, I’ll be back right now. It’s licking his chops. Now, look there in Matthew in chapter 7 and verse 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing. It means they’re disguising themselves. They’re trying to give you the impression that they are a sheep, but what are they? They are a wolf. It means they come to devour you, to make merchandise of you, to use you. They don’t care about your soul. They don’t love you.

People who are not saved by grace are trying to earn their way to heaven. So you are only a means of them trying to earn their way to heaven, you’re not the object of their love, it’s themselves. Because they have to do certain things to try to merit or deserve to go to heaven when they die. But anyway, in verse 16, you shall know them, the false teachers, the false prophets by their fruit, by their message. And you must compare their message with the message of grace.

And the message of grace, the gospel is that it must be free and it must last forever. If it’s not free, it’s not the gospel. If it doesn’t last forever, it’s not the gospel. See how simple it is? So if you look there in verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but they are expecting to get in, aren’t they? They are expecting something that will never happen. Why? Because some false teachers convinced them of this.

To me, I think murder is a great crime. I think adultery is a great crime. Raping is a great crime. There’s a lot of things that are just terrible in our world. But to me, one of the worst crimes that anybody can ever do is to give somebody a false hope, a false message on how to go to heaven. And then a person who believes that false message spends an eternity in hell forever. That’s worse than anything else than anybody else could ever do to anyone.

That’s why I think it’s gonna be greater judgment because people added to the Word of God. And said that God said, and God said, I didn’t say that. And so he says in verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, many, not a few, many. So there must be more people that are trusting in their works. And why are they trusting in their work? Because somebody doesn’t understand grace, because they don’t know it’s free. And there’s people that don’t understand the gospel and then there’s false teachers.

And they’re leading people astray. and there’s a great price to pay for what is being done. I think it’s a shame, it really is. Now if you read this and it says in the last part of this verse verse 23, then will I profess unto them I never knew you. Now that you were saved once but now you’re not saved anymore. So he says I never knew you. So that 10 year old boy, If he got saved and never got lost and go to hell, if he ever was saved, then God knows him as his child.

He knows he believed. Well, if he can sin and then lose his salvation, then how can Jesus say, I never knew you? So no saved man can ever get lost. Because it would be impossible for Jesus to say, I never knew you. You see, one of the things about going to heaven is when you can say, I know the Lord. And the other side of that is the Lord knows me. And he says, and we have this confidence, this foundation, this seal.

The Lord knoweth them that are His. The Lord knoweth them that are His. So if that ten year old boy ever belonged to the Lord, then he must still belong to the Lord. And if this fifty year old man trusts Christ as Savior, then God knows him. And God can never lose him because God can’t say, I never knew you. So I can’t go to hell in the future. Once the Lord knows you and you know him, it’s forever.

You’re his child forever. Now, wolves in sheep’s clothing try to get a person to focus upon their life, their work, because Satan knows the only thing that ruins grace is works. And not one work of man can save himself. I’ve heard people say, you know, and I asked the Lord to help me. When I saw I couldn’t save myself, I asked the Lord to help me. I’ve heard people make this statement. I’ve heard preachers make that statement. I don’t need him to help me get to heaven.

I need him to take me to heaven without my help. He doesn’t need my help. He doesn’t want my help. Because then it means that I have a part in saving myself. Jesus is not someone who comes alongside of me to help me live good enough to get to heaven. Now, he’s a paraclete. He does come alongside. He is a comforter to help me, to lead and guide me and all these things like that, but not to save me.

He saved me by Himself. He had by Himself, pushed ourselves, by Himself. He didn’t need my help. He don’t need your help. Salvation is truly, that’s what it says it is, the gift of God. Now, take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Matthew chapter 23. Matthew 23. This is a very interesting person of Scripture because you’re talking to religious people, religious people. And he’s talking here and says in verse 1, then, spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying the scribes and the Pharisees said in Moses’ seed.

In other words, they judge, make decisions, all that stuff. But he makes a statement over here in verse 13. He says, but woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, and get this for ye shut up the kingdom of God against men. In the word what they said and the way they lived, they violated the Word of God. They added to the Word of God and corrupted the word of God and made their traditions the commandments of God. And so Jesus pulls no punches.

He gets right between the eyes and he makes this statement, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you or permit ye them that are entering to go in. There’s people who want to go in. There’s people, But because he says, you have blinded, you have deceived, you have lied, and you said, God said, and God didn’t say that. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tappa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message.

Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broad 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