This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 be able to receive the help of the Bible. 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 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.

They’re giving you a copy of my notes for the night And because of the importance of this kind of a message. I want you to have something to follow the believers standing and state the believers standing and state I Believe it’s very very important for you to understand this so that you can understand what’s going on in your life Take your Bible and turn to 2 Timothy and chapter 2, 2 Timothy and chapter 2. This is written to those who know the Lord.

If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, it’s because you know the Lord. God’s Word is written to those that believe. So it’s written to us. In verse 15 says, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Study it so that you can understand it so that you can be a workman, not just to study the word of God so you can show off your Bible knowledge or how much you know about anything.

The knowledge of God’s word is power. Use the power that you have. So when you know little, you probably have little power. The more you know, the more you can do, the more God can use you. When you’re limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry. So when you want to increase, always increase knowledge. Growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In verse 16 you’ll find there’s always something to do, something not to do. But it says, shun, profane, and vain babbling, for they will increase under more ungodliness.

So when he says study the show thyself approved under God a workman, then it should be that it increases you toward godliness. So there is teaching that will cause you to live ungodly and there’s teaching that will cause you to live godly. So it’s a choice that you made. God did not make us robots. We’re not little puppets. We have the freedom of choice. I preached a sermon not long ago and I think it was on the radio dealing with the subject.

Did God make a mistake? Did God make a mistake? Did anybody here hear Did you hear that, sermon? One person. Did God make a mistake? And the mistake was, did God make a mistake by giving man a free will? God giving us the right to choose, the freedom to choose. Look at the choices people have made. Would we have been better off if God had just taken that right away from us and just made just little robots where we were just done everything he wanted us to do.

But God wanted to give us a choice. You know, I guess it’s like having children. Do you want your children to love you because they want to, they choose to, or because they didn’t have a choice they have to? You see, well, I wish mine would have because they had to. If God had not given us this choice, there’s a lot of things we wouldn’t know about God. By giving us a choice and the opportunities for blessings or chaste names, God has revealed a lot of things about Himself.

God wants love, but gives us the freedom not to love Him. Now, when we read the Bible, there’s so many things that God wants you to enjoy in life. See, God wants to bless you. That’s why He left you here. And that’s why when you get to eternity, there’s so much God wants to give you. He wants you to do, to have, to enjoy. But all of that is based upon the few little short years you have right here.

So use it wisely. God gave it to you. And it says, if you’ll do this, look what I’m going to do. Can you believe God? He says here in verse 17, those who teach things that are ungodly things, each that you like it does cancer. And that’s why he says in verse 17, and their word will eateth does a canker of humus hymenius and philitus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some.

If you don’t know the truth of God’s Word and rightly divide it, somebody will take certain verses from the Bible and convince you that you can lose your salvation. They can cause you to have shipwreck in the Christian life, which is also mentioned in Timothy. It means that you are not able to say all the seas, your shipwrecked, your life is ruined, testimony shot, or you put yourself in a position where God can’t use you. Have to be put on a shelf.

You only get one trip through life. No reruns, no replays, you’re one trip through. So you got this one choice. Live for the Lord the way you should. Now look what he says there in verse 19. Over throw in your faith would refer to your state. That’s what happens to you in life. That can change. Now there are some things that will not change, cannot change. And that’s when you trusted Christ as your Savior and God saved you. That can never change.

That is your standing in the Lord. that’s your position that you have in Christ. You are now a child of God. You will always be a child of God. In verse 19, nevertheless, the foundation of God’s stand of sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Now, even if your faith was overthrown and you no longer know what to believe or you don’t even believe anymore. And you might deny God. Yet God cannot deny himself. See that in verse 12, if we suffer we shall also reign with him.

If we deny him, he also will deny yes. But if we believe not yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. He knows you. Now the only thing he can deny you is the rewards that could have been yours. What he might deny you is the opportunity to serve him in this life because God may not use you the way he wants to. So he may have to set you aside. This is what Paul was talking about that while I run my race, I don’t want to be disqualified because I didn’t run it according to the rules.

So as you run the race between now and the time God takes you out of this life, there’s a way that you have to run, otherwise God may disqualify you. And would it be a shame to have labored for so long and all in vain? Because you didn’t do what God says do the way God says do it. the rules. I was watching one day on a golf game. I think it was the US Open. And there was a golfer who was either close to the lead or in the lead, but anyway he had hit his loon ball in a bunker.

Now for y’all to know that’s a sand trap. But it didn’t look like a sand trap. And so he grounded his club. And you can’t do that, but he did. And it cost him two strokes because he didn’t know that was a bunker. He thought it was just out there in the open and it didn’t matter. And it probably cost him the U.S. Open. One little simple thing like that. So he was disqualified, not disqualified in that sense, but cost him two strokes that he could have made a difference.

You don’t get a chance every time you turn around or win the US open. But look what he says. In verse 19, the last part, “…and let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” So is it God’s will that everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity? Yes. This is where a Christian turns from sin. A Christian doesn’t turn from sin to be saved. Only a saved man is to turn from sin. A lost man can’t turn from his sin or from a sinful nature because sin is on the inside.

But once you trust the Christ’s Savior you have two birth, two natures. An old man and a new one. A Christian can live for the Lord. Or he can walk into flesh or after the flesh. So he has a choice. God says He wants His children to depart from iniquity. Now anything that it deals with what God does for us, see that is your standing that doesn’t change. The foundation is sure God knows those that are His. That cannot be altered.

But things that deals with what we do and how we live, how we walk in this life, that changes from day to day. Just because you were faithful yesterday doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be faithful today. And just because you love the Lord today and you’re walking with the Lord today doesn’t mean you will tomorrow. It’s a daily walk. Take up thy cross monthly. Take up thy cross yearly. Take up thy cross daily. It’s every day. Walking with the Lord is a moment by moment experience.

We call it progressive sanctification. Now you were sanctified made pure and holy and set apart. You belong to the Lord the day you got saved. But in your life, your life may not be sanctified. You may not be living a holy life, a sanctified life, a life set apart for the Lord. So how you live may not be according to what you are. You can be a fireman but not put out any fires. And you might be a doctor and never perform a surgery.

God doesn’t want us to be Christians and never live like a Christian. So it is the will of God that his children live like a child of God. Now, some people even go this far to say, if you don’t live like a Christian, you’re not a Christian. Almost to the point where there is some truth in that. You see, they were first called Christians at Antioch, and they were called Christians because they were Christ-like, because they were of that way.

They not only trusted Christ, they lived a certain way and because of how they lived they got the name Christian and it was a SRAM, not a badge of honor. They were Christ ones. They lived for the Lord. That’s why they were called Christians. Now today we understand that when you trust Christ and Savior that’s what makes you a Christian. Now we say as a Christian live like a Christian but are there Christians who don’t live like Christians. And somebody might not call you a Christian because you don’t live like one.

You don’t act like one. You don’t talk like one. But you know that in your standing, you are a Christian. You belong to the Lord. But you may not live like him, but you should. So as you go down through here, you see some of this. Now take your notes here and look at this. I want you to see this for quick. You’re standing. You’re standing. So right above that little word depends upon the work of Christ. Right the word standing.

I forgot to put that in there. Your standing depends upon the work of Christ. Your state depends upon the walk of man. There are two different things. In other words, you must be born into this world before you teach a child how to talk or how to walk. Which would come first? The birth or teaching him how to walk and talk? The birth, they got to be born first. Now some people tell you that you have to know how to live the Christian life and how to talk the Christian life and walk the Christian life in order to get born.

Nor do they be saved. That’s backwards. That’s why you never tell a lost man how to live the Christian life. Because he doesn’t have to live. a Christian life. He doesn’t have to commit himself to live a certain way. He does not have to give up any of his sins. Has nothing to do with that. That’s not an issue. Christ took care of the sin. Christ died for the sin. That’s not the issue. So once you trust Christ as Savior, God saves you, gives you eternal life.

You’re now a child of God. And as a child of God, we have our standing in the Lord. That’s our position that will not change. I’ve had three children born into our family. When they’re born into our family, they are our children. They did not have to promise how they were going to live before we let them be born. We should have, but we didn’t. The next one, we’re going to ask them first. Some of you don’t get this, but I’m the only one.

You have some teenagers and then you’ll understand. But you don’t ask the kids how they’re going to live before they’re born. Once they’re born, they’re here. Now, do they have to obey you in order to stay alive? It should be that way. I’m going to rewrite a book on how to raise children. I better leave it alone. But these two things, standing, look up here in letter A, depends upon the work of Christ. This is what He did for us.

Our position is determined at the moment of salvation. The very moment you trusted Christ the Savior, you were born of God and that is your position. You are now a child of God that can never change. You’re a child of God. See, once you know that, you know, there’s nothing that can never cause me not to be a child of God. I can’t change it. God can’t change it. That’s a done deal. For me, that was 50 years ago.

All right, that’s a done deal. Now, I may be an obedient child. I may be a disobedient child, but I am always his child. He cannot unborn me. He can’t cast me out. He can’t lose me. I have that. Because of what he did. That’s according to the work of Christ. He did that for me. Union. Union determined at the moment of salvation. You see, here’s the Lord and here’s you and me. And there is sin. Because of sin, no union with the Lord.

So what did Christ do. He came into the world, He had no sin. He took our sin because it separated us, took it and paid for on the cross. He accepts me, I accept Him and we are joined together. We have now eternal life and He says He’ll never cast us out, never loses. I am in union with Him forever. That’s my position in Christ. I I have been joined together with Christ and it cannot be severed. Nobody can separate that.

Nobody can cast me out of his hand or take me out of it. Nothing. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. That’s a union from now on for all eternity. That is your position in Christ. Number three here, you’re standing determined at the moment of salvation. are not experienced by the emotions of the flesh. When you were born by the Spirit of God, I mean, he was like, ah, I failed the Spirit.

When Christ came back from the dead and they thought they saw a ghost, he says, reach forth your hand and touch me. He says, I am flesh and bone. Why didn’t they say Spirit? Because you can’t feel the Spirit. I can feel the Spirit. No, you can’t. Now we talk about and we sing a song, he is real in my soul. I can feel him in my soul because that’s of knowledge but you don’t feel him in your body.

You can’t feel him. Oh, there he is right there. I touch him right there. He’s right there. So the Holy Spirit indwells you and it can bring you great joy, but it’s because of what you’ve studied. He gives you the knowledge. He teaches you about the Son of God. He can give you peace and give you all these things, but he does it through the Word. The Holy Spirit works through the Word. That’s why it’s so important to know the Word of God.

If you don’t know the Word, then you won’t know the Word of God. have the comfort, you won’t have the peace, you won’t have the joy that you and I ought to have. So it’s not something that you can feel and you don’t trust your feelings because there’s some days you might say, boy, I feel saved today. Oh, as the Marr, you may not feel saved. But whether I am or not has nothing to do with my feelings. I am saved because God said so.

I’ll never forget when Betty’s dead, let me do the Lord. He says, God says in his word that if you trust him, you’d be saved, right? I said, yes sir. He says, did God keep his word? I said, yeah. He says, then, are you saved? I said, yes I am. He said, how do you know? God said so. How do I know I’m saved? God says I was. Where did he, when did he say? He told me in his word, he that believeth on me, he hath everlasting life.

I don’t know, I have eternal life. God said I did. He said, if I believe it, I got everlasting life. Is that good enough or not? All I’ve got is his word. Isn’t that good enough? You don’t trust your feelings. And you’d be surprised how many people they trust in their feelings. No. Is faith in the facts that can produce the feelings? But when you don’t have faith in the facts, don’t you dare trust the feelings. Number two here, the walks of the saint do not attain these progressively.

In other words, me being a child of God is not the result of me progressively little by little growing in the Lord. Because now I go to church and I give money and I try to live holy, doesn’t help me to be one iota, more a child of God than I was 50 years ago when I trusted him as my Savior. In that little old living room that night when I trusted Christ as my Savior, I was every bit a child of God.

Now as time has gone on I have grown as a Christian but I am still just as much a child of God. I’m not more of a child of God. I am a child of God. That’s my position. I mean just because I’m you know I’m 68 years Oh, I am really my dad’s child now. I’m no more my dad’s child today than I was the day I was born. Just as much. Ben is now that don’t change. So your position in Christ doesn’t change.

Now, let her see. They are not given on the basis of human merit. Now, where’s your position in Christ? Your salvation is not the result of anything that you do in this life. That’s the first three that leaves you on the negative side, but it’s not. What it is, look there, let her deal, they are obtained completely at the moment of salvation. This is your position, your union, your standing. Happens the very moment you trust in Christ as your Savior.

They are realized only by divine revelation. How do I know all this is true because of divine revelation? God’s Word reveals these truths to us. When I got saved, I didn’t have a Holy Ghost fit. I didn’t jump, shout, hooten, hollering, and kick my heels together, and lightning both straighten, and chills went up down the spine. Nothing happened. I thought this was a total dud. Cause I’ve already heard about to be, oh, look at these feelings in the line.

Nothing happened to me. If I didn’t work. Cause I got a trust in these feelings. Like this boy and this girl were kissing. And he had chills going up down the spine. Her popsicle was dripping. letter F. They are eternal and never changing. This relationship is true of every believer and visible only to God. The only one that can see that you are truly a child of God is God. I want to believe Peter a model has trusted Christ as a Savior.

All I have is his work and he ain’t God. God knows whether he really believes it or not. God knows if you really have trusted him and saved you or not. But I can lie to you and you can lie to me. I can deceive you and you can deceive me. But none of us can deceive God. So being saved is only because God says so in no way you know you’re saved because God said so. Now, that doesn’t change.

Nobody can fool God. So, are you saved? Do you know for sure you’re going to heaven when you die? You do not look at anything in your life as the evidence that you’re saved. God pity those preachers that give you a list. 10 ways on how to know you’re really saved. And they give you a list of all these things. How to know you’re really… Well, you’ll like it. one another, you’ll want to pray, you’ll want to go to church, you’ll change your life and they get all these things.

They just gave you ten reasons to doubt your salvation because if you don’t do them, I must not really be saved. And then they’ll have some evangelist come in and he’ll convince them and half the church and half the deacons and everybody else that you’re not really saved because if you were really saved you were not going to think this way and you won’t do this. I must not really be saved. Glory salvation. We had 50 people come down to the front and got saved today.

It was the Deacon, two elders, piano player, Sunday school teachers. No, all he did was get everybody to question and to doubt their salvation so he can get them resaved again and he’s a great evangelist. I’ve been an evangelist. I know what they do. And I don’t like it. I despise it. not the Bible. Only way you know you’re saved is because somewhere along the line, did you or did you not accept Jesus Christ and Him alone is your only hope of going to heaven?

And once you did, you are saved. You have eternal life. Look at the next statement. The state depends upon the walk of man. So after you’re saved, how are you doing? So you’ll find out, especially like in the Cessalonians, it talks about that I may know your state. I may know your state. That means the condition that you’re in. You may have eternal life. You’re going to heaven when you die. But what is your spiritual condition today? Are you walking with the Lord?

Or have you gone astray? Are you moving forward? Or are you moving backwards? Moving backwards is where people call about your backsliding. No Christian can ever backslide and lose salvation. None. Nobody has ever been saved twice. Because the only way you can get saved twice is you’ve got to get lost after the first time you got saved. And you can’t get lost. So how can you get saved again? You can’t. Impossible. See, people make up all kinds of things.

But if you rightly divide the word of truth, anything that God tells you that you have to do concerning works, then that has to be referred to service. But it’s about what God does for you, then that’s grace. That’s what God does, that’s gift. So salvation is one thing, service is another. God wants all those born into His family at salvation to serve Him. But nobody serves the Lord till you’re saved. And if you are saved, You may serve him and you may not serve him, but you’ll be disobedient and God may have to chase in you because of it.

But it is the will of God that all of his children live like his children. Act like it. Talk like it. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tapp of 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 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.