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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 Bibleline to continue on the 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Look at the next statement. To be saved means you believe. You’re a sinner. Christ died for your sins. that if you trust Christ as your only hope for salvation, you’re saved from hell and will be taken to heaven. Is that what you believe? You see, being saved means something. I’m saved. Well, what do you mean by that? Do you think there ought to be a meaning to the word? Because a lot of times you can talk to people, oh, I’ve been saved.

I was saved years ago. Well, aren’t you saved now? Oh, no. Well, how do you know you were saved years ago? Well, I used to drink, smoke, and dip, and chew, and go with the girls who do. Then I gave all that up. Now, how aren’t you saved now? Well, because I went back to doing it. So were they trusting Christ alone? Is there only hope of going to heaven? Or were they trusting all those sins they gave up?

And believe that they’ll make it because now they deserve it because they quit all these bad things. No, that is not salvation. So important to get it right. Look at the next statement. To be saved means you know that you will not, cannot ever in the future go to hell, that you are definitely and positively going to heaven. Now that’s where your confidence comes in. And too, there is nothing that you or God could ever do in the future that could and would alter your destination.

See, if in the future God could alter my salvation, if he could alter it. You know, like unsaved me for any reason. Would he? And if he did, how would you know? Your confidence and your boldness, your security comes in that you know, God can’t alter it. He can’t change it. Cause if he could, he probably would, but he can’t because he’s given his word. And I rest everything upon what he said, not what I deserve. I deserve to go to hell, but I’m so glad I’m going to heaven.

Page 2. Take your Bible and turn to the book of James in chapter 1, the book of James in chapter 1. There’s a lot of God’s children that have a lot of questions and doubts. So he says there in James chapter 1 verse 1, James is the servant of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, through the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greetings. My brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations. So he’s talking to the believers and telling them why they should be all excited, filled with joy.

Because he says, when you have all these various trials and temptations, it reveals to you what you don’t know as a child of God. And therefore it reveals your lack of knowledge, your lack of wisdom, that you don’t know everything. You can’t solve everything. Tribulation works patience and you need some patience. So I’m letting you have some of these things. But count it all joy, because when you come up short You don’t have all the answers. He says, you come to me and I will not chide you.

I won’t mock you or make fun of you. He says, I will be liberal with you. I will tell you and teach you and lead you and guide you and provide for you. I’ll do all of those for you. In other words, if any man lack wisdom and you do, he says, let him come and ask. He says, but now there are some of God’s children that are double-minded and this is not talking to the lost manhead, this is talking to the believer.

So is it possible for a believer To get messed up and false doctrine. Yes. Can you believe the wrong? Yes. But look what he says. In verse six, but let him ask in faith. This is the child of God. Asking faith, asking the Lord, believing that God allows you have the problem so that you’ll come to him for the wisdom. Nothing wavering because you see that’s a lack of faith. That means questions and doubts. It means to believe what God says.

And it makes a statement in verse six, for he that waver, if like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed, that’s the way you are mentally. That’s the way you are emotionally. That’s the way you are, as the Bible says, you’ll become a double-minded man. You’ll mine the spirit and then you mine the flesh in your back and forth, back and forth. And God says this, let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

Now we’re talking in here about the receiving of rewards and things like that, but he says a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Does God want you to be unstable? No, he wants us to be a sound doctrine so that we know what we believe and why we believe it. So there’s times in your life when you don’t always know everything you’re supposed to know. God wants us to learn it. Now, I want you to take your Bible and turn it to the book of 1 Timothy 1.

1 Timothy and chapter 1. This is important for you to see this. 1 Timothy chapter 1. And in your notes there at the top of the page, I must doubt the salvation of any man who doubts his own salvation. You should always deal with a person who doubts salvation as you would a person who has no salvation because you cannot give a person assurance of salvation without persuading them of eternal security. That’s where confidence comes from, assurance of salvation.

Assurance of salvation is trying to help a person who has supposedly trusted Christ as their Savior and may be lacking in some things and I’m not sure and questioned doubt because we’re human and help them to see. And I have shared with them that, you know, if you really did trust Christ as your Savior five years ago or ten years ago, did you understand that you had eternal life? Well, yeah, at the time. But now I’m not sure now.

Well, let me show you what God says. See, God hasn’t changed his mind according to the Bible. God doesn’t take it away. And they become assured based upon what the Word of God says. So you can do that. But here in 1 Timothy and chapter 1, look in verse 18. So I’m very important see here. In verse 18, this charge, I commit under the son Timothy. According to the prophecies, which went before on these. Now, second Timothy talks about how that thou hath known the holy scriptures.

Well, at that time all they ever had was the Old Testament. So of the prophecies that you heard and understood before, and he says, which went before on thee that thou By them, by the Word of God, get this, mightest war a good warfare. Your ability to fight a good fight, to fight a good warfare is going to depend upon your knowledge of the Word of God. If you know the Word of God and know how to use the sword of the Spirit, if you know how to do it, you can fight a good war.”

And then he says this in verse 19, he says, holding faith and a good conscience, which some means not all, but some who did understand it, some who did believe correctly, but now he says, with some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck. So can your life be a shipwreck? Yes. And ships are made for the water. And God wants us to follow a trail that you cannot see and tracks that you cannot see as he walks upon the water.

So that means you’ve got to get away from the land. The land is a type of the flesh, the sea of the Lord, and you’re learning to walk with the Lord. and it saw a different way to live, but anyway. He says, some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrecks. So they were understood things, and now they don’t understand things, and it affects their life. Look what he says in verse 20, of whom is Hymenius and Alexander, whom I have delivered under Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Now this is also mentioned in the book of Corinthians in chapter five, but it’s talking about those already know the Lord not doing right and delivering them up that they may be taken out of this life. So is it possible for God’s children to be messed up after they trusted Christ the Savior? Yes. Look there in chapter four, chapter four, and you’ll notice there in first Timothy, he makes a statement in verse 16, take heed to thyself and unto the doctrine.

Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them. that here to thee. Young preacher boy, if you can’t save yourself from the trials and the temptations and all the things and the snares of the devil, you are not going to be able to help other people. So you have got to be able to be strong in the Word of God, know how to fight a war, know the Word of God, stand upon it. And as he says in chapters, Preach the word, preach the word.

It says over and over again in 2 Timothy. So he says, doing this, you’re able to keep yourself doing right and you’ll be able to teach right and it’ll make a difference. So take a Bible looking 2 Timothy in chapter one. 2 Timothy chapter one. Now in this chapter, he’s also talking about God have not given to us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and of a sound mind. A sound mind comes from sound words, and that’s where you get sound doctrine.

So if you are double-minded, you’re not believing something about sound words. So he says there in verse 8, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Don’t be ashamed of the Lord. Then he goes down there in verse 12. Now look in verse 12, Verse 12, I believe in my mind is a verse on eternal security. And here’s why. For the witch cause I also suffer these things because of the message that I have, the gospel that I preach, I’m persecuted all the time.

He says, for the witch cause I suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed. whom I have believed. Whom I have believed. Not just what you believe, but whom I believe. I know what I believe, but I know whom I believe. And that is equally important. Because do you know who said this? Not just, I know him say because there it is. But I know whom I believe, and that’s the Lord, because he’s the one that said this.

And if you don’t take it as, this is what God says. So a lot of time when I talk to people and they just wanna argue, I said, sir, you just need to understand. This is not between you and me. I’m not here to argue with you. I just wanna show it to you. You wanna debate, you’ll have to debate him. It’s his word. This is between you and God. It’s not between you and me. I’m gonna die and I’ll be gone.

the three or four or five minutes, I’ll be gone. You may never see me again. This is between you and God. Now look at it else, he says, for I know whom I have believed and ampersuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. I believe I have entrusted the keeping of my soul to him and that he is able to keep me. That’s why in Peter he makes a statement, not only a word saved from something to something to an inheritance that’s incorruptible and undefiled that fate if not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God.

I believe he has the power to save me and he has the power to keep me saved. Now the thing is, do you know whom you have believed? I believe it’s a perfectly good verse on eternal security. Not not everybody sees everything the same way, but I believe that. Now, look at your notes again. The second paragraph down, a person who sincerely did trust Christ and Christ alone as is only hope to get to heaven, but is now confused by error in his teaching that causes doubts about a salvation, needs to have the plan of salvation, made clear to him again.

And And that’s what you do. You just go over it again and hopefully they’ll see it. Next paragraph, when a person says he has trusted Christ and is sure of going to heaven, always be sure to ask, is there anything you could ever do in the future that could possibly keep you from going to heaven? If he answers yes, then you know he really doesn’t understand it yet. So you go over it. You don’t mock him. You Don’t make fun of them.

You don’t try to say, hey, I trapped you. I got you. No, you can win an argument and lose a soul. You’re after trying to win the person to the Lord. Look at the next statement. They don’t believe what Christ did really pay for sin. Or they would not believe the committing of a future sin would cause you to be lost. I try my best to get a person to understand. Do you understand that when you trust Christ, he died and paid for all of it.

of your sins, all of them, past, present, all your sins he paid for. Therefore all of your sins are paid. When you believe he did it for you, he puts that payment he made for all of your sins to your account. You go to heaven on what he did for you. And that’s good today, and it’s good tomorrow. This is good forever. And he’ll never cast you out, never lose you. Next statement, they don’t believe what he said. One, they don’t believe what he did, and that he did pay for sin.

Or they don’t believe what he said. That they believe, or would believe they truly have everlasting life and that Christ meant what he said when he stated, I will never cast you out and never lose you. The next statement, do you believe a person is really saved that does not believe that Christ paid for all his sins or that Jesus really didn’t give him eternal life? Now Now which one of those would you say, okay, you’re saved, even though you don’t believe He paid for all your sins, and He don’t believe He gave you eternal life, but you’re saved.

I questioned somebody’s salvation if they don’t believe He paid for all their sins. If He paid for most of their sins, all of their sins but one, He didn’t help them. Christ had to pay for all of our sins, or we can’t be saved. Because what are you going to do about that? One sin that went unpaid. When you see it and you understand it, it is an issue. I had somebody tell me, say, you just keep making an issue.

I said, the clarity of the gospel is the truth of the gospel. That is an issue. The apostle Paul says, I did what I did, and I stood the way I stood in Galatians chapter 2 for the truth of the gospel. And then he goes on after that and shows about in chapter 2 and verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the lawful by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

I memorized that verse in 1964. How long has that been? A while. It’s been a while. But I remember the verse. Look at the next statement. The next statement is, when does a person know they are saved? When do they know they’re saved? When they truly believe in eternal security? When they get to it? understand what are they trusting Christ for? And when they can say, I have it. I have it. I believe it. He saved me. I am saved.

Look at the next statement. If a person can lose their salvation, can they know exactly what caused it and the exact moment it was lost? Isn’t that a good question? If you can lose your salvation, shouldn’t you know, shouldn’t tell you exactly what you had to do to lose it so that you would know the exact moment you lost it. Can you know the exact moment you had it? I know the exact moment I was saved. Now some people may not know the exact day and so on.

But there has to be a time when you said I did, I did. So do you know that you’re saved? Okay, when did you know it? Now if you know you have eternal life, you know you’re saved. If you couldn’t lose it, don’t you think God should have told us what you had to do exactly so that you know you lost it? He tells us exactly what you’ve got to do to be saved. Shouldn’t He tell us exactly what you’ve got to do to be lost again?

What committed sin? Well, your salvation didn’t last very long, did it? everybody sins and everybody does things wrong. I notice the next statement. If he can lose his salvation, he must believe he can lose it only because of some wrong word action or thought on his part. In reality, he is not truly trusting Christ alone for salvation. He would be trusting to some degree in his works for salvation because he believes that his works is going to secure it for him.

You’ve got to live it. No, you don’t have to live it. Don’t you have to live the Christian life? No, you don’t. Well, don’t you have to go to church and be good? No. Shouldn’t there be a change in your life? Or maybe should be, but doesn’t have to be. That’s what blows people’s minds, that you can be saved and have eternal life and then spit in God’s face. And he won’t cast you out in evolution. That’s grace. That’s grace.

And a lot of people do just that. When I heard and understood the truth of the gospel, I couldn’t wait to tell the world. I thought, men, everybody ought to hear this. And they should. And I tried my best to tell everybody. But I didn’t know exactly how to do it. And somewhere along the line in a rescue mission, I was told, Yankee, you need to go to Bible College. The guy could see I was pretty pathetic. I had sincerity.

I had fire. I was ready to go. I’d do anything. I’d charge hell with a squirt gun. But my message wasn’t very good. wasn’t very clear. And that was a heartbreaker. So I go to Florida Bible College. One of the best decisions I ever made in my life, because for the last 40-something years, I have been able to help people, because of what I learned, those four years of Bible college. I’m so glad I went. Look at the next statement.

Christ said in John 6’37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that come up to me, I will and know wise cast out. For no reason will Christ cast out any believer. We might think he should. You might even think he should, but aren’t you glad he won’t? That’s because he’s the Savior, not us. That’s because he designed it, not us. We just can’t hardly understand how God can love somebody so much that He would do all of this for them for free.

And then allow us to mess up our life afterwards. Does God want each one of His children to live a godly life? Yes. Do they? No. But wouldn’t it be great if they did? We could turn this world upside down. There’s a lot of things that I don’t say, places that I don’t go because of what Christ means to me. But I came to the conclusion, I love the Lord. My love for the Lord has helped challenge and motivate me for almost 50 years to serve the Lord.

But I don’t serve the Lord to get to heaven. I serve the Lord because I’m going there. But I know that if I’m disobedient and rebellious, my heavenly Father who loves me will chase and me and perhaps beat the living daylight side of me and maybe take me home before my time. I want to go when God wants me to go, not because I’m such a rebellious and a rotten stinking attitude that God is ashamed of me down here and gets me out of here.

Look at the next statement. Anyone who teaches you can lose your salvation is teaching works for salvation. they’ll deny that. But if they believe you can lose it, it’s because you did a bad work. You did something wrong. So what you did, the reasoning that says, let’s just get them saved and worry about those issues later. Don’t understand the truth of the gospel. No man knows if any other person is really saved until that person truly believes in eternal security.

The main reason so many who claim to be saved doubt their salvation is because they don’t know what they’re saved from or what they’re saved to and for how long. Don’t you think those are just a few little important things? When I got saved, I got saved from hell. I got saved so I can go to heaven and I knew for how long I’m now on. That night I knew I had eternal life. That night I knew I’m going to heaven whenever I die.

And it wasn’t because of how good I was, it was because of how good he was. Look up here. This hand represent you and me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there’s another hundred people out there just like Robert watching? And maybe you are. But understand, whether you’re here or there, the only thing anybody has to do to go to heaven is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. sends you and me. While at sin, we all sin.

All of us have sinned. Nobody’s perfect. And God says the wages of sin is death. So we committed the sin, we’re in debt, we’ve got a price to pay. We’re all guilty. God says the whole world is guilty before God. And so therefore we’re condemned. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God because heaven is a perfect place and God is perfect. And we’re not.

So how in the world can imperfect people produce perfect works? Can’t happen. It’s impossible. You see sinners produce sin. You have to be good just to bring forth good. You have to be perfect to bring forth perfection. And he’s going to happen. So God says you can’t save yourself. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the face. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin did not have to die.

But because He loves us and our sin separates us, He took it, paid for it, came back from the dead, and said if you and I, if we would simply believe, He did that for me. He paid for my sins. If He paid for my sins, it means I don’t have to pay for them. I don’t have to go to hell because He paid for my sins. How many of them? If I believe this, what will He give me?

The free gift of eternal life and take me to heaven whenever I die. So I have eternal life. How do I know? Because He said so. And who is this He whom I have believed? He’s the Lord, and I believe the Lord. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you’re here tonight, never trust the Christ, may have heard about it all in life, but maybe never really understood. Why not just right now and just say, Lord, I don’t have all the answers.

I don’t understand it all. But I do want to go to heaven when I die. And I believe Christ died and paid for my sins, all of them. and I’m going to trust him right now, as my only hope of going to heaven. Friend, God said, if you would just do that much, it’s all you have to do. He would save you from hell, give you eternal life, and you get to go to heaven. Is anyone all before we close?

If you’re watching by internet tonight, just right where you are, the same thing goes for you. Will you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior? I pray that you will. Our Father, we thank You so much for the truth of the gospel, how that we are not to be ashamed for it is the power of God on the salvation to everyone that believe us. So we just pray, Lord, that whoever hears the gospel will believe it. We thank You so much for this time together.

Bless each one. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa of 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. 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. Friends, 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.