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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. This is Dr. Ralph Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church. We will be continuing our tradition of a candlelight service again this year on New Year’s Eve. You are warmly invited to come and worship with us this New Year’s Eve at 7 p.m. Please join us at 4811 George Road here in Tampa. This will be a special time to reflect upon the blessings of God in your life from 2010.

A message from the Word of God for the New Year, music from the Firehouse 5 and in with a candlelight dedication. Refreshments will be served afterwards in the fellowship hall. So make plans now to join us this Friday for our candlelight service at 7 p.m. eternal security has to do with how God sees you. And assurance has to do with how you see yourself. Now eternal security means that once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, God, been bound by His Word and cannot lie, has promised to you and I salvation.

That means that God promised to save us from hell, to give us eternal life and take us to heaven whenever we die. That cannot be changed because it depends upon the faithfulness of God. Assurance is how you see yourself. There are some people that are very sure they have salvation, and then there’s others that are not sure. John 4 tells the story about a woman that none of the Jewish people really wanted anything to do with. They wouldn’t even talk to them.

Didn’t have anything to do with them. Had no dealings with them. I guess you could say this was a racial issue. But the Bible says Jesus says he must needs go through there. In verse 8, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. But he says here in verse nine, then said the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou been a Jew ask of drink of me which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans?

And this is a racial issue. It is a social issue. It’s just like today, there’s people who consider themselves to be better than others. And we’re not better than other individuals, though we might see ourselves that way, God says there’s no difference. God so loved the world, going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink, thou would have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.

Now the woman to have assurance of salvation, You have to know who it is that’s got this gift and you have to know what the gift is. He said, if you knew, you would ask. So, the rest of the chapter is spent convincing her who he is because he already knew that if she knew who he was, she would ask him and she would receive. Well as the story goes, he revealed things to her and she saw it, she understood and she believed it.

But now did she understand that when she accepted this gift that it was a gift that would last forever. Well if you look at the story here that makes the statement you would have asked of men he would have given the living water the woman said to him sir they’ll have nothing to draw with and the well is deep from Winston has this living water. He said if you drink the water that’s in this well you will thirst again but it says if you drink the water that I will give you, you will never thirst.

So she knew that the water he was talking about was living water that would never have you thirst again. You never have to do it again. The salvation is once you trust Christ as Savior, you need to understand that he that believeth only hath everlasting life. That’s the gift of God, eternal life. So that when When you believe it, you have something you have. Eternal life and that God will never cast you out and never lose you. So this is made very simple, very clear throughout these scriptures.

And then she goes into the city and says, come and see a man that told me everything that I did. Now Dr. Hudson always brings that on this point that see there, he told her one thing and she exaggerated. Now I don’t know if she exaggerated or not. Maybe there’s a lot of things they discussed that’s not written here in the scriptures. Maybe he talked to her long enough that he did tell her everything. By the time he got through, the men came from the city and they believed on him, not just because of what the woman said.

There were some that believed on it because of it. See there in verse 39, many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman. And then it says that there were many that believed on him, not because of what the woman said, but because they said, we have heard him ourselves and believe that he is the Christ, the Savior of the world. So they believed that. Now, whenever you believe on Jesus Christ and God gives you as a free gift everlasting life, at that moment you are secure and wants sure.

You are secure and wants sure. You are sure at that moment you have eternal life and that you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Because you can’t be saved until you know what you’re doing. You must believe on Jesus Christ, know what you’re receiving the pre-gift of eternal life because that’s what he offered. That’s what he promised. So when you take God in his word and are saved, you know you’re saved from something, to something from hell to heaven.

And so this is brought out in this chapter and many scriptures that we won’t take the time to look at it. Now what you’re turning your Bible to 1 John chapter five, 1 John and chapter 5. In this book, it is written not to the lost people, it is written to those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They know they have eternal life and they are secure. Remember, security is because that’s how God sees you. God sees every one of his children born into his family as safe and secure.

And when you’re born into God’s family, you are sure. You have assurance of yourself that you know you’re saved. At that moment, you know you have eternal life. Now here in 1 John and chapter 5, look in verse 13, this is still written to believers. These things have I written unto you that they leave on the name of the Son of God, so it’s written to the believers that you may know that you have eternal life. This is so that not only were you sure when you trust the Lord, you still are sure because it is so easy for people who to be saved and know they have eternal life and then to because of false teaching get to where they don’t even know they’re saved anymore.

Don’t believe in eternal security anymore. If once you have believed in Christ and trusted Him as your Savior and you no longer believe it, are you still eternally secure, even though you don’t believe it? Yes. But see, assurance of your salvation is how you see it, and your perception can be based upon what somebody told you to look at. Like for example, some say if you’re really saved, it will manifest itself in your life. Well, if everybody looked at their life as the evidence of their salvation, majority of people, I would say most people have to come to the conclusion that they’re not saved.

If I had to look at my life as the evidence to prove that I’m saved, I’d come up to the conclusion I’m not. Because how many sins would I tolerate? How many sins can I commit? How many questions and doubts? What about my thought life? person has enough in their life that could be used as evidence that they’re not really saved. But you see, that’s because you would lose assurance of your salvation. But if you forget about looking at yourself because your salvation doesn’t depend on you and it depends on what Christ said.

Well, what Christ said is still true and it doesn’t lie. Then you have eternal security based upon what God said. So God knows those whom he has saved, given eternal life, and are born into his family, and so you are safe and secure. But you may get to the place where you no longer are full of assurance. When you study the book of 1 John, it talks about as a child of God having full joy, that your joy may be full.

your joy cannot be full if your assurance is missing. If you no longer believe what you used to believe, you won’t have the joy, the blessings, the happiness that you used to have. Because whenever you get to the place where you think you have to do something to be saved or you look at your life to see if I’m really saved, you’re looking at the wrong thing and you’re basing something upon something that is not a criteria for your salvation to start with.

So therefore you’re not going to have assurance and you’re going to lose the peace. You’ll lose the joy. You lose the happiness, the blessings that you did have. And this is the case with many, I say, multitude of God’s children. These scriptures are very clear that you can have eternal life and be eternally secure and have full assurance of it at one time when you trust the Lord. And then there are those that will have also additional problems. Looking Galatians in chapter 1, the book of Galatians and chapter 1, and verse 11.

Verse 11, but I certify you, the word brethren, is talking to those that have trusted Christ of their Savior, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. So we know that this is talking to believers, it’s talking to the brethren. Look in chapter 3 and verse 15. Verse 15 says, brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disanullah or adiff there too.

Verse 15 is clearly written to the believers. But what he’s making the statement about here says, if it be confirmed, no man disanullah or adiff there too. Once you understand what the gospel really is, nobody can add to it, you can’t take away from it. Once you trust Christ’s Savior, if God promised you eternal life, you can’t take away. you can’t disanel it, you can’t add to it. You can’t change it. It’s unchangeable. Down in verse 19, he says, my little children, we’re not talking about lost people, we’re talking about those who have trusted Christ as their Savior.

Now look in verse 28. Now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise. We are. We are the children of promise. This is who we are. Now, what was the problem in the book of Galatians? Remember the apostle Paul, even in the book of Acts talks about going to Galatia and the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Listera, and Derby, outside of the city of Listeris where he was stoned to death. But he went to these cities, he won these people to Christ, and then he would go on and then later on he wanted to get Barnabas to come back through and revisit these people on his second missionary journey to see how they’re doing, to strengthen them, to establish them in the faith, keep them strong.

And the reason was because when Paul would leave, there’d be legalistic Judaizers trying to put them under the law saying you’ve got to keep the law to be saved. You’ve got to be circumcised to be saved. Put them under the law to be saved. The same thing today is lordship salvation. Telling people that you’ve got to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life. No difference and trying to make the law the master of their life. In other words, it still boils down to you must serve God in order to be saved.

You gotta do this in order to stay saved. Saved up too, but from now on, but you’re on your own. You’re gonna have to walk the walk and talk the talk. It’s a straight and narrow way. And yet they take scriptures out of context and try to make a different message out of it and change the message that God had given. And the reason these Christians were not happy like they used to be, and joined the things of the Lord, like they used to be, reason they turned against the apostle Paul, that once they had loved deeply, now that everything has changed.

Because these legalistic Judaizers would come down and take the very people that Paul had led to Christ. See, they can’t lead them to the Lord. The false men, they can’t lead them to Christ. They can only take Christians and change them. Because they already have knowledge of the Lord and they want to serve the Lord and they want to do what’s right But they just catch him with some false teaching and then twist their minds And then they’re not doing it for their sake.

They’re doing it for their own sake to make them look like something great Also look there in chapter four in verse 31. So then Brethren we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. This is who we are we are over and over again and they say, we are, we are. Because now they no longer understood who they were. They thought that they were keeping their salvation. So if you’re trying to work for something that means you don’t have it.

So if I am not now a child of God, I am working on being a child of God by my good works, then it means that I am not a child of God now. He says, you are a child of God. You don’t have to try to do this to prove you’re a child of God. You are a child of God. So he brings these things out. Look in chapter 5 in verse 11. In verse 11 he says, and I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision or the law, why do I by yet supper persecution.

Because he preached salvation by grace without the law. He says, then is the offense of the cross cease. In other words, the only thing that motivate the Apostle Paul in the preaching of the gospel was the gospel of grace. That’s right. I think grace is a motivating power. That is what causes you to go forward. When you understand, it is free, free. So you know if it’s free, that’s challenging. That’s motivating to tell people about because there’s no tricks to it.

There’s no gimmicks to it. You can be honest with people. Tell them upfront, we’re all sinners, but God loves us and paid for our sin if we can have eternal life and they can have it now. If you tell a person they have to be good to go to heaven or change their life and any of these things, well then that’s not good news, that bad news because now they got to live their whole life. Wondering if they’re going to be good enough, good enough, or bad enough to go to hell and not understanding how free it really is.

So we stand fast upon the salvation of grace. Look in chapter six and verse one, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, but we’re talking about in every chapter here, we’re talking about brethren, we’re talking about believers, those who have trusted Christ as their Savior, if a man be overtaken in a fault, and this is what we’re talking about in this book, they have been overtaken. Something has happened. They have believed something that wasn’t true. Faith is being overthrown.

They’re having shipwreck and it’s hard to have shipwreck without a ship You have to be in the ship in order to have shipwreck Look what it makes the statement there in verse four Christ has become of no effect unto you Whosoever of you are justified by the realm ye are fallen from grace So the divisible say you can fall from grace. Yes, it does says so right there in that verse Now, what does it mean to fall from grace?

Evidently, he’s talking to these believers here in Galatia, you have fallen from grace, and they have. So how do you explain what he means by that? Because you can’t twist it, you don’t run from it, but you should have an explanation for it, because every question in doubt they have, you will have. Well there’s times in your life where you’ll wonder, well, am I really saved? Am I really saved? Most of the time we ask those questions right after we trust the Lord.

And wondered whether or not, well, if I didn’t really mean it, I mean it now. And if I really didn’t trust the Lord, I’ll do it again. And how many times have people done that? But in chapter six and verse one, brethren, it’s written to those that believe. Now the last one I want you to see, there’s a verse 18. Look at verse 18. brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Amen. He wants them to understand at the conclusion of this book, understand grace so that you’ll understand how to live your Christian life.

And the reason for the two natures being taught there in chapter five verse 17 down to verse 22 you’re talking here about the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit See understanding all of this stuff about how to live the Christian life is all based about what you really believe about salvation If I really believe that I have to do something and so they are preaching a message that works upon the pride of man. I am doing something.

You got to do something. And that’s what man wants to do. He wants a little bit of the honor, a little bit of the glory. Because look who I am. Look what I’ve done. Look how I live. And yet it’s hard for a person to humble themselves and says it’s not by any works that I have done. It is my grace and grace alone. I take no credit, no honor in my salvation because God did it all. He saved me and gave me as a free gift everlasting life.

And to believe that, if a person doesn’t get grounded in the Word of God, they will get moved from this great, tremendous truth. Look their inclinations in chapter 1 and look in verse 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed. When it says removed, it means you have moved. You no longer believe what you used to believe. You’re no longer strong like you used to be. You’re not steadfast as you once were. You have moved and they moved in their Christian life because they moved on their salvation because they no longer believed believed, alike they once believed, were they still saved?

Security, eternal security, is from God’s viewpoint. God knows His children and the foundation of God’s stand if sure the Lord knows them that are His. So you’re eternally secure when you trust the Lord. Though in your life, if you don’t become grounded in the Word of God, stabilize in the Word of God, root it in the Word of God, then every wind of doctrine that comes along is going to move you and shift you. And you’re not going to be sure anymore.

And if you’re not sure anymore, you’re not going to serve like you ought to serve. Because serving the Lord, you have to understand it’s because of what He did for me. And not trusting in my good works that I’m going to heaven because of what I do for God. It won’t work that way. And so He says in verse 6, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ is the gospel of Christ.

That is the gospel. He says unto what? Another gospel. And there’s a word here. And this word here is heteros. And it means a gospel of a different kind. He says there is not a gospel of a different kind. And then in verse 7 which is not another. This word another in the Greek is olives. And it means another gospel of the same kind. He said there is not another gospel. But there be some that trouble you. So these Christians here in Galatia, they were secure but not sure.

In other words, they have now lost their assurance of salvation and now we’re trying to earn their salvation, keep their salvation by the law by doing the good deeds. When you try to earn something that you’ve already received, you’re not going to be a happy camper because you’re not going to like the results you see in your life. You’re not going to like the disappointments and the despair and the flaws and the mistakes and the the easy misgivings in your life where you fail so many times because that means I’m not really saved.

I got to try harder. I got to try harder. I got to try harder. Be more faithful. Be more faithful. At least a total frustration and despair because a person that was trusting Christ. Now that is out of the window. Now that’s what I got to do. And so their joy is gone. Their assurance is gone. Are they still saved? Yes. Because you see, eternal security is what God did. God gave you eternal security. You’re secure whether you believe it or not.

It means you’re going to heaven like it or not. So well, I don’t want to go to I don’t even believe in God anymore. And a lot of Christians have done just that. Gone to Bible school, gone to seminary, believed everything and then changed. No one will believe it. Go to some university and they have their faith records there. They love to take young people’s minds and shake them everything that’s decent. No one will believe the Bible. Don’t believe in God anymore.

But the foundation of God’s stand is sure. once you are saved, how long are you saved? forever. Eternal security is how God’s it, your eternal secure, whether you no longer believe it or not. But your joy will be gone. Your purpose and how you live for the Lord will be totally changed because now it’s not serving the Lord because of your great love for God and because of what He did for you, it’s because what you must do for God or you ain’t going to make it.

Everything changes. Christian life changes. The joy changes. No longer living by grace. So he makes the statement here in verse 7, which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would and you ought to underline that word pervert. It means to reverse the change and they were removed from the gospel. So he says in verse 8, though we are an angel from heaven preached unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached and you let him be a curse.

There is no other gospel. So if you did believe in you have eternal life and you are eternally secure and you have full assurance of that. It brings such great peace and joy and happiness in a person’s life. I know that I’m saved. I know I’m going to heaven. Anyone who salvation depends upon how they live or what they do for God or then they can never know they have eternal life because it’s always based upon their performance and they’re not through performing yet.

They still have to wait until they live their whole life. to know if they’ve been good enough. These things are made simple and very clear in God’s Word. Looking Galatians in chapter 3 in verse 1. Galatians chapter 3 in verse 1. We know that we’re talking to Christians. Why in the world would the Apostle Paul call these Galatian Christians that he led to Christ call them fools? Looking verse one, oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you like somebody the devil has done, got a hold of your mind and messed you up.

You no longer believe like he used to believe because now they’re not serving like they used to serve their blessedness has gone their happiness has gone their joy is gone all because some legalistic Judaizers came down and twisted their minds and caused them not to believe what the apostle Paul had preached to them. Now eternal security, and full assurance and go hand in hand. One is how God sees you and the other one is how you see it. But there’s a lot of people don’t see things in God’s way anymore.

And because that, now they think they can lose your salvation. Now if I don’t perform, I’m going to hell. And I’ve talked to many, many people, many preachers that no longer believe the right way. And because we know, we don’t have to go to church. We don’t have to change our life. We don’t have to do anything. We can accept God’s free gift and God will let us go to heaven because of that because he loves us that much And I believe a lot of God’s children totally abuse their freedom their liberty.

They become a stumbling block to the world Because we don’t we’re not as dedicated to God as we ought to be see what he says in verse one Oh foolish Galatians who have to be which to that you should not obey the truth see obey the truth talking about they have changed on the You don’t believe the gospel anymore. You changed on it. You no longer believe like you used to believe But now even though they don’t believe it like they used to believe it are they still eternally secure Yes Do they have full assurance of their salvation?

No, they no longer understand So Paul has wrote a whole book Remember that this book is the binding inspired by God given to a man to explain to God’s people Because God’s people can get all messed up and they do get messed up That’s why he makes the statement there in chapter four Look there in verse 11. I am afraid of you. I’m afraid of you Less I have bestowed upon you labor in vain in other words if you don’t know because of your so-called full assurance you did have.

I don’t know, but I’m addressing it in such a way that I’m believing that you are. They said, but Christ is not being formed in you. See that in verse 19, my little children of whom I travail in birth again. In other words, like I’ve got to get you saved all over again. You can’t get a man saved again, but you’ve got to go back to the gospel, the clarity of the gospel. Anytime I come across someone who is not sure they’re saved.

Well, I was saved at one time and I believed at one time, but I don’t believe it anymore. Well, if I’m going to try to help them, I have to go back to salvation, back to the clarity of the gospel and salvation verses to get them to understand, uh, eternal security. Now they may have already known the Lord before and no longer believe it, but I’m not God. I don’t know. But I have to deal with them as though they’re lost until I can and get them like Paul says right there in verse 19.

We don’t face anything today that they didn’t face back then. Same problem. They face we have to face. And there’s many Christians that will doubt their salvation when it’s not necessary. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. If you’re 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now we’ll close you thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot 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.