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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 BibleInmenistries.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.

It’s nice to get all these good news. Well, they’re not all good, but this one here I don’t know where he’s from, but he says, my name is Bill. Let me start off by saying I love your articles. I struggle from scrupulous OCD. I don’t know what OCD is. What? Obsessive? Well, I try to teach a colleague to do that. Repetition is theological mucilage. Anyway, says I’m in constant fear of losing salvation or proving it. It’s called the doubting disease and it’s something I cannot help.

Anyway, I truly trust that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God. I believe His sacrifice was for me. I believe He has risen. I believe it. However, I have a little words. I still have a carnal nature most times. Okay, so they haven’t been to FBC yet. I still have a carnal nature most times. Sometimes I resist, but at times I do give in. I’m in my early 20s and suspect that I may grow some of this out.

I want to rest in his grace. I know my need for it. I sin daily, even willfully. everyone does, right? I know he does not permit sin and I will be punished, but not by hell, fire, right? Some verses scare me. First John scares me. Jude scares me. Another miscellaneous verses. Okay? I didn’t know there were any miscellaneous verses, but you know. It says miscellaneous verses, they scare me. And let me see where we are here. I am secure in Christ as long as I believe in His work done for me, despite what my life may reveal, correct?

Sounds confident. And yet there’s a question after each one of them. I believe in Him because I know I have no leg to stand on. I’m not too prideful to say I’m a sinful man. And I’ll never be too prideful to say that I don’t need His grace. If my faith is in him I am secure. Regardless of external works, correct? I need this scrupulous OCD to be put to rest. It is destroying me. Thank you for your time.

I read your articles and watch you on YouTube’s, your YouTube sermons for assurance. I stray away from the walk and come back. Sometimes I feel guilty and sometimes I do not. I’m only a person. I just need to know that my trust is in His perfect work is enough to secure me in Christ. I know my faith is genuine because I am too sinful to make it on my own. Let me read that again. I know my faith is genuine because I am too sinful to make it on my own merit.

So You can sense that somebody is learning and listening and growing, but maybe still haven’t put all the pieces together. And there’s a few little things that causes them to question and doubt sometime. I was like that for a long time. But anyway, I’ll just tell you the name is just Bill. And just pray for Bill. Just pray for Bill. Because when they do have a hunger and they want to know, and you never know what message did they listen to, to and hopefully they won’t get a hold of some of the gurbins on Christian growth also.

This is another one that I got. Says, Dear Mr. Arnold, I love you brother, but, and you know whenever they say that and then they have that, you know here it comes. I love you brother, but your doctrine of one saved always saved is absolutely not biblical. Hebrews 1026-31, 38-39, for if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, their remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fiercest of fire which shall devour the adversary.

There are many other verses, brother. Ezekiel 18, 24, 2 Peter 2, 20, Exodus 32 and Revelation 3, 5, you are leading our brothers and sisters to be lost. The brothers and sisters, but I’m leading them to be lost. And I know that this is not your intention. Love you, brother, in Christ. From a guy named Don. So I love you, brother, but your doctrine is wrong. Well, don’t tell me, tell God. That’s where I got it. I believe the Bible teaches that once you’re saved, you are always saved.

Let’s just have a little brief review in a short period of time. Second Corinthians chapter 11, second Corinthians and chapter 11. As we’ve said before and try to put a couple of these things kind of neatly packaged, the Bible says that he wants to present us as a chase version to the Lord. In other words, we would love to see all of God’s children strong in the Lord and not swayed by every wind of the doctor that comes along.

So we’re always concerned about God’s people studying the word of God. We’re concerned about who you listen to. Sometimes people call me and say, Yanki, I was listening to Joel Oldstein and why are you listening to him? And another one told me just last week, I had to stay home and I didn’t have, I couldn’t get to church and blah blah blah blah. But I listened to John Hagey. Listen. But he is so good. Me and Yankee. Oh, you ought to hear him Yankee.

No Yankee doesn’t need to hear him and no I don’t want to hear him. I think I haven’t got it clear yet across yet. So I keep working at this. Just because a guy can put it all together and make it sound good doesn’t mean the the message is right. There’s a little arsenic in there and I’m always concerned about somebody getting some arsenic because it can kill you. And so I’m talking about this what they call spiritual truth is nothing but arsenic.

It’s man infusion into the Word of God and it leads us straight. But here he says in verse three, but I fear, lest by any means as a servant beguatly to his subtletym, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And verse forward he said, for if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive another spirit which you have not received or another gospel which you have not accepted at that point you might well bear with you might listen to him.

So I’m afraid of you listening to things that are not true. And the reason he says that’s because down in verse 13 he says for Satan has his own ministers out and his ministers will teach man’s righteousness. And you have to look at your righteousness to be saved and to stay saved. So man’s righteousness is always inserted into the free gospel. Well it’s free but then they had man’s works to it. And so that is not from God, that is from the devil.

The devil teaches that. Either you’re trusting Christ to take you to heaven or you’re trusting in your work, but you can’t trust both. You can’t help him save you. That’s why you don’t look at your life to try to decide, am I really saved? No, you don’t. You look, what did the the book say. He said, believe it or not? Hat that were lasting. That’s all you need to know that you’re saved and have eternal life. That’s all he said, do to have eternal life.

As a child of God, you may grow and you may not grow. You may be strong and you may be weak. If you look at your life, you could doubt your salvation, but that doesn’t prove your saved. God knoweth them that are his. God knoweth them that have trusted him as Savior. I I’ve said this before. One year Hank Lestram was always done it to be seen together and he was taking a couple classes and I was taking a load.

And he was going to have a meeting up in Bellglades, Florida. My drink camp. And he needed a few, you know, coolies to go with him so that we could do all the work and carry things. So we went and I volunteered to go. And it was right at the base of Lake Elkeechobee. So we drove all the way up there, and we got there the afternoon, and there’s a little old church out there, and that’s where we’re supposed to go and get some people to come to church that night, and Hank was gonna talk to him.

So when we got there, and everybody was doing different things, and I was supposed to go down this road, and somebody else would go down there and road, and so on. So I started on this little dirt road. It was hot. Always it hot. It was hot and dry and I was thirsty. And here comes two little girls walking in the room. And they were walking up to me and they were just as happy as can be. I mean they got close to me and I thought, ah, two victims.

So I was going to talk to those two little girls. But I wasn’t clear yet. So when they got close enough I said, can I ask you a question? I says, are you going to heaven when you die? I says, I don’t know. The other kind of gig of. I says, would you like to go to heaven when you die? I says, would you ask Jesus to come into your heart? Yeah? I said, go ahead. I didn’t know I did it, wasn’t it?

I said, go ahead. I mean, I asked what I heard you’re supposed to do. Go ahead. I hadn’t had full courses of PE yet. So they bowed their head and they went, whoo, whoo, did something. And then they got to an avian area. So they knew a little bit to say, amen. That means you’re through. And I says, did you ask them? They said, huh? I gave them. I said, did he come in? And I went, oh, she said, uh-huh.

I said, how do you know? I was curious. How do you know? She says, I feel it right here. And I thought, Yankee, you didn’t mess up somewhere. I never felt it right here. And she feels it right here. And I thought, this isn’t good. I said, you need to come to the meeting tonight. You need to come here, Hank. So they came to here, Hank, that night. And a whole bunch of people. So there was a lot of people that came in.

And there’s a few songs that they sung and Hank got up there and he gives the gospel like he always does. After it was all over with, it was nighttime now. I mean, really dark. And so we started to go outside and when we’re outside, there was this here, Black Boy, and he was standing there. And I was going out the door, but he was standing there and his name was Willie James. Willie James. His eyes were white and his teeth look like a row of corn.

and he had a biggest smile on his face. And so, he ain’t walked out the door and I walked out with him and he just walked a little bit further and started talking to Willie James. He was like, well, what is your name? He said, Willie, he said, Willie, what? Willie, Willie James. He said, Willie James, did you listen to what I said? Yes, sir? He said, you have eternal life? I don’t know. So he opened up the Bible to John 647, and he read it, very, very, very, I said to you, he that believeth of me, hat everlasting life.

He said, you believe that? He said, I believe that. He said, you believe that. He said, you have eternal life. I don’t know. And he says, if you believe it, you have it. See, if you believe it and you trust Christ as your Savior, you believe it. If I, right there, if I will eat James, if I will eat James, believe on him. That means you’ll believe on Christ. Trust Christ as your Savior. Believe me, pay for your sins.

And he explained to him, he says, have everlasting life. He says, you believe that? And he says, yes, I believe that. He says, you have eternal life? He’s like, I don’t know. So he went over it again and again. He couldn’t get Willie James to sit. But somebody else came up and wanted to talk to Hank. And so Hank gave him his Bible. He said, well, yeah, hold my Bible. He said, now you look at that verse and say it out loud to yourself.

So I’m standing there and I’m watching Willie James and the expert at work. That’s how we learn. We learn from watching somebody. And so he got the Bible and he says, if I, and he looked at me, he said, if I, me, will he James? I’m will he James? If I will he James, believe on Christ. If I believe that he died and paid for my sins, if I, me, will he James? If I believe that. All right. Okay.

Now, we’ll start the final step. And that’s right. Last time. So, so, we’ll be right back. Let’s go to the next slide. We’ll start at the next slide. Here we go. I’ll start. All right. I’ll start the second slide. Okay. Okay. Now, I’ll start the second slide. All right. All right. We’ll start. All right. All right. All right. He said, man, and he got his attention. I ain’t turning around. He says, you mean if I believe it, I have it?

And he turned around smiling. He said, yes, Willie James. That’s what I’m saying. If you believe it, you got it. He said, you believe it. He said, I believe it. He said, you got it. I said, I got it. He said, what do you got? He said, I got everlasting life. He said, no, Willie James. If you believe on Christ, and he gives you everlasting life, he said, no, if you died five years from now, where would you go?

He said, I go to heaven. Oh, he was proud. Got it. And he said, what if you died a hundred years from now? He says, go to heaven. He said, what about a thousand years from now? I don’t think I lived that long. But he would drill that one verse into Willie James. He that believed it on me, had everlasting life. One year we was at Tennessee Temple before I went to Florida College. Dr. Lee Robertson, the president of that school, it was a big school.

It was a Highland Park Baptist Church and he kind of reminded me of Moses over the flock of Israel. Now how? I don’t know but I saw Charles from Heston one time like that. And anyway I went up there and after the church service was over with, we got home. And when we got home, walked in the house and Betty was just crying. She was boo-hooing. I said, honey, what’s wrong? And she says, I’m not sure I’m saved. I said, what?

And that bothered me because the man that led her to the Lord, led me to the Lord. The first didn’t take, made me mind it didn’t take. Now I was messed up. I said, what are you talking about? She says, because of what the preacher said tonight. I said, what did he say? I was there. I didn’t hear it. So you can see you can have two people sitting the same service and one person can hear something another person not hear it.

Y’all do that all the time, don’t you? So she came and she asked, well what did he say? She says, he says that some people are going to miss heaven by nine inches. Okay. That’s getting pretty close. I don’t know if you get within nine inches of the place. I just Reach out your hand, grab ahold of the gate and pull yourself on in. How close are you going to get? I said, what are you talking about? She says some people believe it in their head, but they don’t believe it in their heart.

And so some people are going to miss it by nine inches. And she just broke down and sobbed. And I didn’t know what no world to do. This is my wife. We come to go to Bible school. We’re going to go tell the world how to go to heaven. And here’s my wife and she’s not sure. And the guy that led her Lord led me the Lord.

It caused no small stir and she cried. And I said, honey, if you weren’t sure then, she says, Janky, I believe it, but I don’t know if my heart believes because they said you’ve got to believe it in your heart. I don’t know what my heart believes or not. She said, I believe it. You see how damaging that can be to tell somebody? Well, you can’t just believe it in your head. You gotta believe it in your heart. A lot of you die.

How do you separate the two? Either you believe or you don’t believe. I believe it. Yeah, but was that your head or your heart? I know it sounds good to say to a woman, I love you with all of my heart. But what you mean is I love you with all of my mind. But that doesn’t sound very romantic, does it? I love you along my mind. My toe, my ear, my nose.

Sometimes we wonder, how can we be so confusing? But we don’t even know it sometime. No more than I did that day with those two little girls on the road. What I said, I meant sincerely, but I was just so messed up as not clear. I wasn’t clear. Sincere, yes. Love the Lord, yes, I love the Lord. What the little girl’s gonna have in yes? There’s a lot of preachers out there preaching every Sunday with that same intensity, same compassion, same love and concern, but they don’t even know they’re not making it clear.

They don’t even aware. They don’t know there’s a better way to do something. And so I said, honey, I said, if you weren’t. Let’s do it now. So we got on our knees and we prayed and she went through that so-called the center’s prayer. You’ve heard of the center’s prayer? All you’re saying, Lord, I’m a center. Be merciful to me and say me for Jesus’ sake. Believe it or not, that’s what I said, the day that I trusted Christ is my say.

I say, didn’t anybody else in here ever do it that way? And say, not, just one person over there? Because see, that’s what some people, you know, except that that’s what we did. But we’re just as honest and sincere. Yes, I’m going to just trust Christ as my Savior. In that little prayer sometime, it just kind of seals it in your mind that all I’m doing, I’m just telling God, Lord, I believe that. When He says, believe it, when you pray, it’s just, you’re telling God, I believe it.

Lord, I believe that. When we have prayer here and so it heads by nice clothes and no one looking around, if you will trust Christ right now, just say, would you let me know? Just say something simple like this, Lord, I’m a sinner. And I believe you died on that cross and paid for my sin, and I’m going to trust you right now as my Savior. Just something so simple. Can I first get saved just by talking to God and saying, Lord, I believe that.

I believe you did that for me. You see, I often say, you know, it’s not the prayer that saves you, but it is telling God I believe it. Because when you say, I believe that, well, who you are saying it to? Somebody needs to know that. It’s God that knows when you believe and you don’t believe and God says, I know them that believe on me and trust me and they have eternal life. So yes, I had a wonderful time explaining some of that to my kids later on and training trust the Lord and David and Eddie and a whole bunch of relatives.

But I went to Bible school and it helped me to clear up my message. That’s why I guess I am so thankful for the ministry of Florida Bible College and for a man raised Stanford. He might not have been the greatest guy in the world but he helped me to understand the greatest truth in the world. Something that was you know it’s life changing because it’s destiny changing. When people can really understand and be able to explain to somebody, I know I’m going to heaven and here’s how I know.

Here’s why and to be able to explain that. Take your Bible and learn real quick to the book of Jonah, the book of Jonah. Oh, they’re in the book of Jonah. In Jonah in chapter three, Jonah chapter three, a lot of times you’ll hear preachers make this statement, but sometimes they, not aware of what they’re saying, and then there are some that do. You see, when they use the word repent, a lot of times in their mind, the word repent means to turn from your sins.

If a man’s a drunkard, you gotta stop drinking. If you’re on drugs, you gotta stop drugs. Run around with the women, you gotta stop that. Smoking, you gotta stop smoking. Cussing, you gotta stop cussing. Going to movies, you gotta stop going to movies. Playing cards, you gotta stop that. playing a ball on Sunday, you gotta stop. You’d be surprised, I mean, there used to be all kinds of stuff. Chris, you just don’t do that. You’re there, you’re gonna go to hell.

So you have to be willing to quit all of your sins. But it’s not just a matter of what you quit, it’s also what you gotta start doing. Now you gotta start going to church and you gotta start reading the Bible, you gotta start. So you gotta get a person, you wanna get saved, you wanna go to heaven, but you have to be willing give up this and willing to do this. And if you’re not willing to do those things, well then you’re not ready to be saved.

That’s not true. That’s not the gospel. But it confuses a lot of people because when you tell a man you have to turn from your sins. Think for a moment. If you were the lost man, even as a Christian, if you’re a lost man in the preacher told you you had to turn from your sins to be saved, what do you think that means? How resonate in your mind. What is He telling you that you have to do? You have to repent.

Turn from your sins in order to be saved. What do you think it means? And if you think it means I have to stop being bad because isn’t that what it would mean? I got to stop. So when Then would God save you when you decided to turn or would it be after you turned or in the midst of the turn? Do you turn all of a sudden, or is it progressive, or when do you really get saved then?

When you decided to really mean business, or when you actually did mean business and you quit them. So did God save you here, or here, or here? Or you have to wait till you die to find out if you really turned from all of your sins. So that’s why some people say, well, you have to wait till you die to find out if you’re going to make it. So most people are asking, where are you going to die? Well, I hope I’m going to heaven.

Or as someone told me, I’m going to hell if I don’t change. And they don’t really know for sure. How many of you in here know positively that if you died today you would go to heaven? Let me see. All right. Put your hand down. people, if you go to a church that teaches salvation, totally, truly by grace, can know they’re going to heaven. But if you teach that you have to turn from your sin to be saved, they will make Christ the Lord in the Master.

You can’t really be sure you’ve done it or will do it, will perform. So you have reason to question your salvation because your salvation depends upon you and not the Lord. And And this is why it is so important. Look here in Jonah in chapter 3. And notice what he says here in verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw there, and you ought to underline this one word, saw their works.

God saw their works. Now God was going to destroy Nineveh because they were wicked. Jonah didn’t want to go to him because he was Jewish. These were Gentiles. And you know a good Jew doesn’t want a Gentile to go to heaven or to be saved. He don’t mind if they get destroyed. But God has compassion. And Jonah didn’t want to go, but he went anyway. And he preached what God told him to. And it says in verse 10, and then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way.

And God repented of the evil that He had said He would do unto them. So when it says here in this verse, God saw their works. Remember, repentance is works when it tells you to turn from sin. So turning from sin is works for salvation. True? So if you’re gonna have to turn from your sins, this is what they did and it’s works. It’s not grace. So whenever you are saved, God wants us to, in a sense, in a sense not do the same that we were doing before and trusting in our dead works.

You’ve been listening to another great lesson from Pastor Arnold and we hope that you’re growing in the knowledge of the Lord through this ministry. To help you continue your growth and maturing we are going to give those who make a financial donation in any amount, the DVD teaching series, How to Witness to a Jewish Person. You know most Christians think Jews really know the Old Testament, but in reality most know very little. Though most are familiar with some terms of the Bible, very few know any details about how Abraham, their patriarch was saved.

Most have never read Isaiah 53 and have no idea it’s all about Jesus. So for this month only, for a donation in any amount, we’ll send you this DVD teaching series on how to witness to the Jew. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. 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. 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, just keep looking up.