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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. What sin can condemn a believer? And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together meat to be made alive? With him get this having forgiven you all trespasses. That means you overstep the boundary. You broke a law. Thou shalt not step on the grass. You stepped on the grass. God says, everybody has trespassed overstep the boundary. We’ve done something we were told not to do. So we’ve all sinned against God.

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us and he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Now in this one church, they had a big, you know, wooden cross, they put it up here in the front. And then they had everybody in there with a little piece of paper and they wrote their name on it. And I don’t know if they put down there any of their sins, but to put their name.

And everyone of them came down and they took the hammer and a nail, and they nailed it to the cross. After a while, that crosshead, these little notes, all over it, totally covered where people had put their name on it. And they did this at the end of a service. So everybody was getting up and coming down. And it was representative of Jesus Christ paying for your sins. He died for you. And took everything that was against you and nailed it to his cross and he paid for your sins.

It’s a good illustration. I don’t see anything wrong with it. You do everything you can to try to submit it in your mind. I have a stone in my office sitting on my desk and it has, it’s a rock, just a rock, pretty rock and it has on there at number one, first rock. I got that from Lee Patton. He preached a sermon one time at his church on the first rock. When they brought to him the woman that had sinned, caught in adultery and says, let him that hath no sin cast the first rock.

So he gave out a little first rock to everybody. And so he says, when you think about that, remember, you’ve also got sin. And so you can cast the first rock if you have no sin. It kind of keeps you in perspective about not being And so quick to criticize everybody else for all their wrong doings. Everybody fails. Everybody sins. Everybody comes short of the perfection of God. And after you trusted Christ as your savior, savior, He has forgiven you of all sin.

Forgiveness of sins means you don’t have to pay for them. In the Old Testament talks a lot about forgiveness of sin. David talked about it and his pension over and over again. And that was the purpose of the sacrifices they made though it never took away sin. But they were to believe in a Savior that one day would. That’s why whenever even the woman in Samaria, she says, we’ve heard, come and see if this is not the Christ, the Savior of the world, Christ, the Savior of the world.

So they knew that Christ was going to come and save. That’s what what it’s about. The next statement at the bottom of the page. The only way you could ever be condemned in the future would be if there was a sin you could commit for which Christ did not die. If Christ did not pay for those sins and you lose your salvation, how can those sins ever be paid for? But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice forever, sat down on the right hand of God.

He offered one sacrifice for sins forever. So either he paid for all of them when he came and made a payment because he says, he’s never coming back to make another payment, one payment forever. Now, if you could lose your salvation because you committed a sin Christ didn’t pay for, how is that sin ever gonna get paid for?

Cause he ain’t coming back to make another payment for our sins. But you know if he had to come back and pay for our sins that he didn’t pay for the first time, he only paid from up to the time you believe, he wouldn’t get off to cross. Because we’d keep him there. He’d be on there today to pay for what you did. And tomorrow he’d be on there to pay for what you did. And then every once in a while I’d probably commit one.

Everybody will be keeping the money like he’d never get off. But when he came he made a payment for the sins of the whole world once and for all, all he made of payment forever. Set down what? Because the job was done. It is finished. And if you lose your salvation, he died only once and he won’t die again. So you can never get saved again. That’s why even in the book of Hebrews in chapter 6, you cannot be saved again if you could lose your salvation.

If you could lose it, you can’t get it back. back. And you can’t lose it because it’s not in your hands. You’re not the Savior. So you see, when you trust Christ as Savior, it’s like you took your soul and you committed it to Him for safe keeping. You ever take money and put it in the bank for safe keeping? It may be saved, it may not be. But you commit yourself, that’s why He says, I am not ashamed.

I’m I’m not ashamed in whom I have believed. I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I committed to Him. He’s the Savior. Turn your page over. Page two. At the top of the page, is there one sin that Christ didn’t pay for? No. He paid for all of them who gave Himself for us he might redeem us from all iniquity, all iniquity, all sin. Titus chapter 2 and verse 14. Also it says, be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him get this all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

So whatever Christ did, it was for the purpose of you being justified. Nothing could be held against you. Anything that would be against you, he took care of, so that there’s no reason why you can’t be justified, just as if you’d never sinned. He paid for all sin. You see, your Christian life, your maturity in the Lord, your spiritual discernment down the road, all hinges upon the security of your own salvation. There cannot be cracks in your foundation, doubts in your salvation, not to grow strong and spiritual the way God wants you to do it.

That’s why so many Christians are shaky and so forth. They’re not as grounded as they think. And then if you really get this and really understand this, Did you know it’s most difficult for you just to go to any church you want to and say, well, it doesn’t matter. If anything matters, this ought to matter. But see, sometimes when you don’t have the stability that you think you have, any church will do, any message you’ll do, they’re not as good at, but it’s okay.

The next thing you know, you’re supporting the preacher, you’re supporting their missionaries and helping them to spread a message at one time you thought was totally wrong. How can that happen? Because you got cracks in your foundation. You’ve got to be solid on what is the gospel? What did Christ do for me? How can you discern, distinguish between salvation and service and grace and work keeping the things separate? So very important. Look at the second paragraph down. A believer is justified, declared righteous in God’s sight.

Why? His sins are paid for, He has been given Christ’s righteousness, and be found in Him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. So there’s two kinds of righteousness mentioned here. the righteousness of man, the righteousness of God. So he says, and be not found having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

So there is a by works righteousness and a by faith righteousness. One that you try to earn, he said, don’t be found there. But the by faith righteousness is a righteousness that God gives to you because of your faith in Him. One is free when you have to earn. The one you have to earn, he says, don’t be found trusting in your works for salvation. Is that clear or is that not clear? That’s what the book says. That’s why he also made the statement in the book of Romans in chapter 10.

He says, my heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they’ve been ignorant of the righteousness of God, going about to establish their own righteousness, and have not submitted themselves into the righteousness of God. And therefore he says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. All you need is Christ. And he made that complete payment for our sins.

Look at the next paragraph. whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom you also acted that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise that the earnest, which is a down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit, God Himself, comes to indwell a person the moment He believes in Christ. He is the earnest of our inheritance.

Earnest is the Greek word which means a pledge that is part of the purchase money or property given in advance as security for the rest of our inheritance. In other words, if you have the Holy Spirit today, that is your guarantee the rest is on the way. And he can’t change that. That’s the down payment. You think he’ll finish what he started. And the Ephesians chapter four verse 30, when he talks about the Holy Spirit, and you are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God.

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you’re sealed until the day of redemption. So there’s a time limit, and you can’t be lost. So he saves you here until you get there. He doesn’t save you for a week or a month or a year. It’s forever until you arrive safely where God has a place for you.” I think it’s wonderful to know that. Look at the last statement in that paragraph. We have the new birth now. And in heaven, our redemption will be complete as we receive our new glorified bodies.

As he says in Philippians in chapter three, the change our vile bodies, that body you got, that when you look in the mirror every day and you shave and comb your hair or put on your lipstick and ah, it just looks so pretty, God said it’s a vile body. Could’ve made a little bit nicer, couldn’t he? You noticed that the older, I looked in the mirror the other day, I made a mistake. I was going, not because I looked in the mirror.

I had sat down at the computer and I was looking at some of the old pictures of Ranch and some of the Valentine’s Bank with things like that that we had had years ago. And this was back in 1972. You know, I thought, that’s 40 years ago. And I looked at those pictures when that boy you look young. And then I looked in the mirror, these vile bodies of ours, time is moving on and we’re getting older. And God’s going to change these old bodies.

And we’re going to be just like the Lord. We’re going to have a glorified body. Sounds good to me. Look at the next statement. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer forever. So if a believer could lose… His salvation and go to hell. The Holy Spirit would have to go to hell also. That is impossible. Because the Holy Spirit, our security, indwells us forever. We are eternally secure. Eternal life lasts forever. All believers are perfected forever. The Holy Spirit indwells a believer forever.

Seems like a long time, don’t it? Forever. Do you know what? I actually believe that the Holy Spirit is a believer in the Holy Spirit. I actually believe that when he says forever, he means forever. Now some people don’t think he means forever. It just means to you sin again. You know, I think God is capable of saying that if that’s what he meant. But what if this is what he meant? What if this is really what he meant?

And he said what he meant. There’s some people that go to the Bible with preconceived ideas and they try to twist the Scriptures and make them say what they wanted to say or what they believe. God can’t do that. You can’t tell me. You can just trust Christ. He’s just saving go to heaven. Okay, I can’t tell you. But God said it. I live long enough to realize I can’t convince everybody. But I I rebel against the idea of somebody trying to tell me that I can’t believe what God says.

I’ll believe what God says and I don’t worry about what man says. Look at the verse right before this, where he says, the Holy Spirit himself is our security. He is the Holy Spirit of promise because Christ had promised him to all believers, and I will pray the Father or ask the Father. He shall give you another comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, that he may abide with you temporarily, forever the Spirit of truth. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior.

You were indwelled by the Holy Spirit and God gave to you the free gift of everlasting life and you get to go to heaven what Jesus Christ did for you. Look at the next paragraph down there where He says, and I give unto them eternal life. Now with most people that see and I charge them eternal life. You know, it’s on the credit card, they got to make payments. No, I give them eternal life. And they shall. Never, that means in the future, ever perish.

Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. But wouldn’t you just think by looking at that, that sounds pretty secure to me. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder if this is really what he meant to say. Well, why didn’t he just say what he really meant to say? But according to this verse, he says, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. It seemed like that’s what he’s talking about.

The word never comes from four Greek root words, the first is Ome, not at all. A double negative strengthens the denial. Double negatives are proper in some languages such as Greek and Spanish, but definitely in light of English. When I took English, I didn’t know for the Bible College, Mrs. Stanford come up and I always told her, I said, I make some wrong statements or anything like that. You correct me, okay? I thought she’d have a couple of things.

She came up and she had page after page. She says, Yankee, your biggest fault is you use these double negatives. I said, I don’t do that. She says, you’re not supposed to say those double negatives. She forgot, I came from Georgia. That’s how most people talk. I’m not saying everybody does, you know, but sometimes I can write right and I can read right. I can teach right, but I just can’t talk right. Look what he says here. In these languages, they deny or strengthen the denial.

God says a person will never, ever know at any time, ever perish, male or female, nooder if you don’t know what you are. But it means never. He that did trust Christ as a Savior at one time, but now believes that good work save Him is saved because of what He did believe, not because of what He now believes. When God gives eternal life, or when does God give eternal life? He that believeth on me, hath, present half right now, half everlasting life.

You only need to believe once and you have eternal life. But that was statement. When does God give you eternal life? You trust Christ as your Savior today. When do you expect? To get eternal life tomorrow. Next week. When do you expect to get eternal life? If you trust Christ today. Anybody got an answer? Today. Now. Now. Alright, if you could lose your salvation. At what point? Moment. In time. Did you lose it? If I can know I have it, can I know when I don’t have it?

Do you know people who teach you can lose your salvation? Never know exactly what moment you lose it. There’s no way of knowing. Can you deceive yourself? You most certainly can be deceived. And a lot of people are. And so they do not understand. The foundation of God should not have cracks in it. You ought to be sold on what you believe about salvation by grace and grace alone. And you can’t question or doubt your eternal security. It must be, I believe that.

Because you’re waver in your Christian life about all kinds of things when you’re not sure if you’re even going to make it. I have absolutely no doubt, no question about me entering into the pearly gates. I know that I’m going there. I don’t have any question. I don’t doubt it. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night. Oh, I don’t know if I’m going to make it or not. I know I’m going. I couldn’t go to hell if I tried.

I haven’t. But I can’t go to hell. Today or tomorrow or ever. Why? Because I believe what the Word of God says. That is so very important. Look at the last statement. If a person cannot lose their salvation, does this mean a believer can then live as he pleases? Or you can try. Can you live as you please? Well, most people do. But you forget about the consequences. You know, for example, I have an axelander up here. I got my arm and I laid over this log.

You know, I don’t really need this hand. I haven’t used it in three weeks. Chop my hand on. All right. Later on, Lord, that was a dumb decision I made. I made, were you forgive me? God can forgive me. He can forgive me. But… Will you forgive me? God can forgive me. He can forgive me. But that doesn’t put my hand back on. You can make a lot of decisions that God will forgive you for because he’s a loving father, but it doesn’t undo the damage.

You drink a little white light and all your life and ruin your kidneys. God forgive me. That was so wrong. That was so wicked. God says, I know it was. I tried to tell you, but that doesn’t necessarily heal your kidneys. It doesn’t undo the damage that you do. Okay. So you got mad. You shot your wife. God forgive you? Well, of course He can. Does that bring the wife back from the dead? No. Oh, we eventually feel gone.

Yeah. We see there’s consequences to your wrong decisions. And that’s why He says, clear up this misunderstanding by explaining that God chases every one of His children. When a believer sends, there is a consequence. There’s cause and effect. Look up here. This end represents you and me, but understand. The only thing anybody has to do to go to heaven is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This ends you and me. Wall it sin.

We all sin. All of us have sinned. Nobody’s perfect. And God says, the wages of sin is deaf. 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? Produced 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. Hang on 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? All 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. You 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 wanna go to heaven when I die. And I believe Christ died and paid for my sins, all of them. And I’m gonna trust him right now That’s 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 there anyone at 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 Your Word that You’ve given us, and we pray that each one would truly grasp the importance of having a foundation with our cracks in it, that we can see and understand that, yes, salvation is truly the gift of God, not of works list any man should boast, and help us Father to know that, understand that, believe that, and rest in it.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. 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 Bible Line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free, 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.