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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 regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for a 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. Do you know there’s a devil that’s after you and he’s always trying to catch you making a mistake. He wants people to see your air, your fault, your flaws. Do you know there’s some people that never look at what good somebody’s doing. They’re always trying to pick somebody apart.

Now, does that come from God or does that come from the devil? Do you want God to use you or do you want the devil to use you? You know some of God’s people are doing the devil’s work. You can be doing the devil’s work. When you lie on people and you cheat and you deceive them, when you’re dishonest. You see, the whole thing about serving God is being righteous, being honest. Living a pure life as close as you can.

Realizing that if God is truth, a Christian is to live according to truth. Not to live a lie, not to believe a lie. That’s what makes us different than the world. We have something worth hanging on to. And the Bible talks about, hang on to that whole fast of that which is of sound doctrine. Sound doctrine comes from sound words. Sound words and sound doctrine is what gives you and I a sound mind. God hath not given to us the spirit of fear, but of love and of power and a sound mind.

So here in verse 10, he says, because he believed if not the record that God gave of his son, this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life, he that hath not the son of God hath not life. Isn’t that simple? God says, if you believe it, you have everlasting life. You don’t believe it, you don’t have everlasting life. He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life of the wrath of God abided upon him, John 3 36.

So you see, it is important to believe what God says. Did you know 52 and a half years ago in a little-o’living room in Matthew, Georgia, when I trusted Christ as my Savior, he gave to me the free gift of everlasting life. And he said, he had never cashed me out and never loosed me. Do you know how I know I’m going to heaven when I die because if he’ll never cashed me out and never lose me, he gave me eternal life.

I can’t go to hell if I tried. I haven’t I’ve tried, but I can’t go to hell. Because I’ve got God bound by His Word. He cannot lie. He promised. Promised. If all my sins are paid, then there’s no sin to condemn me to hell. He died for all of my sins, not most of my sins, not some of them, all of my sins. Now look what he says here in verse 13. Is this verse true or is it a lie?

These things have I written unto you that keep the Ten Commandments and obey the golden rule and go to Calvary Community Church? See, it doesn’t say all of that. These things have I written unto you that they leave on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life if you just keep on living right. See, you shouldn’t add to the Word of God. It didn’t say that. believe they’re saved to just sin again, wasn’t it?

They know sin didn’t save me. Because I’m going to sin again. I am saved forever. And that’s the truth. These things have are written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You can know that you have eternal life. Why? Because God says, Oh, and God cannot lie. Look there in the book of Titus, just turn to your left to the book of Titus. In the book of Titus.

Interesting little statement made here. It’s a small little book. Titus in chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 looked there in verse 2. In verse 2. He makes the statement in verse 2, in hope of eternal life, which God that can not lie. Promised. You know why this is written? Because, see, if God promised and God can’t lie, the promise has to be fulfilled. God has to keep His Word. He’s not like us. Now, there are some things that God makes promises based upon God.

contingencies, whether or not they’re a conditional and they’re unconditional promises. You see there’s things that God says, I will do this if you do this and I’ll do this if you do this. But He promises eternal life if we trust Him as our Savior. God also His promise that He’ll bless my life if I serve Him. He’s also told me that when I get to heaven He’s going to reward me for what I did for Him. But that’s conditional upon me serving Him.

Going to heaven is a gift. It’s free. What I have when I get there depends upon what I do for Him. But me getting there, well that depended upon what He did for me. See, God doesn’t want the righteousness man sins up. He wants us to accept the righteousness He sent down. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. It’s like me putting on the robe of righteousness. And when God looks at me, he sees the righteousness of Christ. I’m not going to heaven because I did something in a righteous way.

And I live so good. And God, you ought to be lucky to get me. No, by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God and not of works, lest any man should boast. It is not of works. works. So in this verse, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. You see, God had already determined how he was going to save a man. Before man was ever born before he did any good or bad.

God had already decided because of the foreknowledge of God. See, the foreknowledge of God is different from predestination. Foreknowledge means that God has knowledge beforehand. So that’s an attribute of God. But when talking about predestination, that’s an act of God. That’s what he does. One’s what he knows, one’s what he does. And God has determined before the foundations of the world that he would save everyone that believes on Jesus Christ. And their destiny, eternal destiny, is fixed beforehand all those that would believe on Christ.

But it is your choice and my choice to decide, will I or will I not believe on Christ? So when I trusted Christ as my Savior, predestination of God is the security of every believer. That one day I’ll be made pure and holy, just like Him, without spot. I’m going to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did for me. a man is not chosen by God as though I’m going to pick and choose and save those and the rest of you can go to hell.

I believe that the Bible teaches God so loved the whole world and that when Christ died, He died for all the sins of all the world and that I do not have the authority to tell some people God doesn’t love you. Because whenever we read John 3, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Am I supposed to tell people there’s some people God doesn’t love? There’s some people Christ didn’t die for it. There’s some people He won’t save.

Now, it’s up to us as individuals to accept the payment Christ made on the cross force. He said, if we would believe, then we would have as a freak yet everlasting life. Depending on your Bible to the book of Titus in chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 there, I want you to see this verse. Look there in verse 4. You see the first three verses talks about how bad we were. And we have done a lot of bad things. But he says, in spite of how bad we are, and that no man can save himself.

But then he says there in verse 4, but after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. He appeared when God sent his son into the world for the sins of the whole world. And look in verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done. We are saved and can know that we’re saved, but not by works of righteousness which we have done. No man has ever been saved by his works.

There are many preachers and many religions that teach that you have to live a certain way until the day you die, and then you can maybe have a chance of going to heaven. That’s a lie. Let me mention this to you. You saw my chart in Sunday school. This is a big prophecy chart. I first drew that thing about 1969-1970. And I had it downstairs in this enterprise, Grange building, where we were beating for it. ranch, a teenage Bible study.

And I was drawing this thing and coloring it all in and writing the mains on it. And this guy walks in and he was looking for somebody. He says, you know where such a street and stuff. And I told him the best I could. And he looked at that thing and he says, what is that? I says, a time chart from the beginning to the end. And at God, eternal time is about man beginning and ending. We’re limited. He isn’t.

And I said, time is an island in the sea of God’s eternity, head to road owner. I went to an electronic explain it and then I got through, I asked him, I said, can I ask your question? I said, sure. I said, where are you gonna go when you die? He said, Well, the best I can hope for is purgatory. Now when I said that you have an idea what religion is of, he says the best I can hope for is purgatory.

And then he asked me, he said, where are you going? I said, I’m going to heaven. He said, no, wait a minute. I’m a priest. I’m a priest at a Catholic church. He says, in the best I can hope for is purgatory. And you’re telling me, you know you’re going to heaven. I said, yeah, you got to explain this to me.

I said, I’ll be glad to. So let me show you what I showed him. And believe it or not, this is what I did. I use the same illustration all these years. I said, let this hand represent you and me. The wallet represent all the things we do that’s wrong. God says he loves us, but he hates what we do wrong. And the wages of sin, the pay for sin, is eternal separation from God. And I says, the Bible says that God loves us, and He wants us to go to heaven.

To go to heaven, we have to be perfect. His righteousness is God’s. Heaven is perfect, and God’s perfect. You have to be perfect to go to heaven. I said, the Bible says that we’re not perfect. We’ve all done things wrong. God says you cannot save yourself. In other words, you can’t get rid of your sins so that you can be clean enough to go to heaven. Because the payment is eternal separation from God. So how can you pay for it and then get to go?

I’ll make a payment and go. No, you can’t. It’s eternal separation. I says, but the Bible says that God loves us. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He was born of a virgin. I said that for a reason. He was born of a virgin. He was perfect. He had no sinful nature. body has stopped preparing me. He says in Hebrews, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. Never did anything wrong. So there was no reason for him to have to die.

He never sinned. So Jesus Christ was God’s Son. Came into the world because He loves us, but He hates our sins because our sins separate us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. But because He loved us, He took our sins, All of them of every man ever born from beginning to end, all sin, of all time, left none out, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And God says that if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did.

See when we’re born into this world, all of us have a sinful nature. See this this year in my thumb, that’s my sinful nature. And I don’t get what you try to do, you can’t get rid of your sin. You can just try to pull it away anyway you want to, but you can’t get rid of your sin. So Jesus Christ came into the world and see he didn’t have any sin. He was perfect. So what Christ did is he came over and said, and he took our sin.

So whenever he took our sin, he paid for him to cross and he gives us as a free gift everlasting life. So he died and paid for sin and came back from the dead so that we could be to heaven without any sin and get to go to heaven to be with the Lord. So you see, eternal life is a gift. It’s free. If I was to offer you my microphone and you accepted, what would you have? Microphone. If I offered you my wallet and you accepted, what would you have?

Empty wallet. I’ll get too smart for your britches. If Christ walked in here right now and offered you eternal life, if it’s eternal life, it would last forever. And if you accepted, what would you have? Well, eternal life. And if it’s eternal life and it lasts forever. you send your paid, where would you go when you die? You get to go to heaven when you die. So you see salvation is free. It is the gift of God. Any preacher, any religion that tells you you have to earn your way to heaven by how you live, that is a L-I-E.

That’s a lie. It’s not true. So you see, you’re saved by grace. You don’t earn it. You don’t work for it. It was given to you as a gift because God loves you. Now, sometimes people come along and they try to say, yeah, you’re saved by grace, but then they butt it all over the place. You see, you can lose your salvation. Now you’re saved, but you might lose it tomorrow. The Bible says, he’ll never cast you out and he’ll never lose you.

He says in verse 37 or John chapter 6, he says, any man who come to me, he’s the owl and no wise cast out. Never cast you out, no reason. In verse 39 says, and this is the Father’s will which have sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing. So he’ll never cast you out and he’ll never lose you. Well if he won’t cast me out and he won’t lose me, how am I going to get to go to hell in the future?

I can’t. See what most people never get is, and most people have heard this, haven’t you understood and heard almost all your life that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for the sins of the world? I ask people that question all the time. And most times they say, yeah, I said, let me ask you this. If he paid for all the sins of the world, why should I have to go to hell and pay for my sins?

If he paid for it, you don’t pay for something twice. that I have to do to go to heaven is will I accept that payment he made for me? Well, I believe he did it for me. And God said, if I believe it, he gives me eternal life as a gift. So people who tell you that God will cast you out, that’s a lie. If somebody tells you that you can lose your salvation because you don’t live right, that’s a lie.

People who tell you that if you’re really saved, you’ll serve the Lord and you’ll want to do what’s right. That’s not necessarily true. You see, See, you can trust Christ as your Savior, never darken the doors of a church, and never give a dime. Have absolutely no change in your life. You see, what God does for you is not based upon your promise, it’s based upon His promise. He made a promise and He cannot lie. You did not get saved because you promised God you were going to live for Him.

God never saves anybody with that kind of a condition. Because that means you’re trying to bribe God or promise God, and you deserve to be saved because of something you promise. No, no. Grace means without works. Grace means without promise of work. You see, if you have to supposedly get saved because you promise God, you’re going to live for Him in a certain way. Or you’re going to stop certain things. That means your salvation is contingent upon you performing, and it’s not free.

When I trusted Christ as my Savior, I didn’t promise to stop any sins. I didn’t promise to live for Him. I simply accepted the free gift of eternal life that He offered. That’s salvation. Preacher to tell you that you’ve got a term from your sins or stop sinning. works for salvation. If they tell you you’ve got to promise to live a certain way and commit your life to Christ, that’s worship salvation and that’s works for salvation. You see, they’re both wrong.

One tells you to stop being bad. The other one tells you you’ve got to start being good. Both are wrong. Salvation is free. It is the gift of God. And so therefore when you trusted EntityItem your Savior, someone that tells you that you can lose your salvation, That is a lie. Now that you trusted Christ your Savior and you made up your mind, I want to serve the Lord. Well, God says it is impossible to please God except by faith.

So if there’s anything you and I should want to learn how to do, it should be to learn how to please God. What satisfies God? What does God want? So you study the Word of God and put the Word of God into your mind. And if you put God’s Word into your mind, you’ll learn how God thinks. You’ll know what He likes and what He doesn’t like. What He approves of, doesn’t approve of. find out what is acceptable unto God.

So God, yes, wants us to live a certain way, not to get to heaven, but because He wants to bless our life. He wants to use us. And when you get to heaven, He wants to reward you for what you did for Him. So you see, God didn’t want to just save you from hell. He has so much more He wants to do for you. Wouldn’t it be shame for you to rob yourself of us and you will be robbed if you allow the thief, the devil himself, to lie to you and tell you that he can’t use you.

You’re not good enough. You weren’t good enough to save, but God’s all differently. God saved you because of what Christ did and God can use you because of what Christ can do and the Holy Spirit living within you. You see, God has been so good to us, But He wants us to believe the truth. Believe the truth. If you believe a lie, it’s going to affect your life. And you’ll be filled with questions and doubts, and sorrow and misery.

You’ll question and doubt all the things that happens to you. Not long ago I preached a sermon that dealt with this subject are accidents, the plan of God. You see, when you and I dedicate our life to the Lord, we should expect our Heavenly Father to interrupt our schedule. Because see, our plan for our life and God’s plan for our life may not be the same. But if you have a heart that, Lord, I want you to use me and to guide me and to do whatever you want with my life, then God is free to do anything He wants to you.

But He knows what He needs to bring into your life because He knows what it takes to build you strong. He knows how to build character. God knows how to raise His children and God knows what you need and you might at times you might need to need a need God knows that times you might need to suffer a little bit God knows at times you might need to be hurt and financially or physically See God wants you to walk with Him and To serve Him more than your desire will ever be God loves you that much God is going to give you personalized attention.

And he does that by allowing things to come into your life that he can use that will be a blessing to you, maybe not now, but down the road. God loves his children, and God wants to use every one of his children. So things that you didn’t plan come to cross at times like that was an accident. I don’t know if it was or not. Remember we told you the story about Joseph in the Bible. How that all of his brothers turned against him.

Even when I told the dead, he was dead. While animals had eat him up. But they had sold him to the Ishmaelites and they took him down into Egypt. And he became a slave and put into a prison. And then years later lo and behold he’s second in command. And the Bible tells him to book his Psalms, God sent him. God had sent him. You see, God sent him there by using those accidents, we think, because we didn’t plan it.

God, you’d be surprised, is working and moving in your life in ways you could not believe. And you just don’t see the hand of God, but it’s there. And God is going to work in your life. And there’s times when you might need to wake up, and you might put a two before over your head. attention. He might have to chase you a little bit. And so you see some of those things you didn’t plan on might be because God is trying to nudge you.

That you’re going to, you just need just a little nudge. Sometimes you need a big correction. Sometimes you need to slow down. Sometimes you need to speed up. But there’s always these things going on. And God is working in your life. You and I are supposed to believe that. Look up here one more time. You and me sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. Don’t ever doubt that. If you don’t believe God loves you, then you believe the lie.

God says He does. And just because you trust Him as your Savior doesn’t mean God’s stop loving you. He still loves you, and He’s given you a lot of attention, probably lately. Or if he’s letting you along today, oh, he’ll get you tomorrow, he may be coming to see you, and he may be saying, I’m letting this big trial come your way because I’m trusting you. I trust you. I don’t want to fail God. I don’t want the devil to laugh at God because he says, I got him.

The Lord means more to me than anything else in the world. If you trusted Christ as your Savior, He ought to mean all the world to you. And the devil ought not be able to turn you against Him. You ought to love Him. And see, all the trials of life is just testing your love. Do you really love Him? That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold and silver. Did you know all those hardaches you’re going through, the problems you have, is worth more than all the gold in the world?

Because they work for you. They’re opportunities for you and I to demonstrate our love and our faithfulness to the Lord. You ought to say, Lord, let her rip slowly. Don’t you get scared when you see his hand moving for the light switch? You know he’s fixing to turn it out because you know you can’t see down the road and we’d like to have everything under control. We want to be able to control anything and sometimes God fixes it where you can’t control anything.

You feel like He just pulled that rug afamund to you and there’s nothing. And the lights are right and the walls are closing in and the doors are locked. And it seemed like the ceiling is brass. You said, I’ve never been there. Just wait. It’ll come. Let’s pray. With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. Or if you’re watching by internet, pay attention. This is so important. Especially you here in the auditorium. I’m not asking you to stand up and come forward.

I’m saying right where you are. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, would you trust him? Would you trust him? Would you just say, Lord, I got questions, I got doubts. But I believe that Jesus Christ died on that cross and I believe he paid for my sins and I’m going to trust him to take me to heaven when I die. Friend God said, if you would trust him, he would save you. Would you believe it? Would you do that?

And if you’re making that decision, I’d like to know. I’d like to have prayer for you, but I’m not interested in embarrassing you or having you pointed out, but I do it with heads bowed and eyes closed. So there’s an animal at all before we close. So yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior and preach a life for you to pray for me. If you’ve never done it before, you’ll do it right now. Would you just slip in it very quickly and burrap it down?

Anyone at all? Just slip it up, put it right back down. Yeah, well, at all. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, remember your God’s child. Don’t believe Satan’s lies. He still loves you. And he says he wants to use you, believe that. He says he wants to bless you, believe that. And many times those blessings may come disguised. And things like trials and tribulations and temptations, but it’s because God wants to trust you. You know, when you were as a teenager, didn’t you want your parents to trust you once in a while?

But trust has to be earned. It’s called being trustworthy. 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 by the line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-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 Broadcast link.

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.