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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Good to have you here this morning. Can’t wait to see what I’m going to say. I did not know how to organize my thoughts today for this message. I was going to desert. Because sometimes you want to have it just right and I like to give an outline and boom boom boom boom. But that just had difficult because I had so much I wanted to say and didn’t know how to say it. I want to share something we did that I think will help.

At least I pray so. your Bible to the Book of Acts chapter 7. The Book of Acts and chapter 7. Now I’m going to say some things that you might find a little hard to understand, but if you listen to everything that I say, I’m sure that it’ll be clear enough for you to grasp and you can say, hey that makes sense to me. So here in the Book of Acts Acts in chapter seven, looking verse 54, verse 54, this is on page 11, 58, and one of the church bibles.

And verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on Him with their teeth. But He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord cast him out of the city, stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was saw him and they stone Stephen call upon God and say, and Lord Jesus received my spirit and he kneeled down cried with a loud Lord laid not this sin to their charge.

And when He had said this, He fell asleep. They took a man, a deacon, by the way, a deacon, took him out. We don’t know how many sermons this young man got a chance to preach, but we know he preached this one and they stoned in the dead. He must have said something pretty strong to make somebody that mad that they were willing to kill him. Well, they did. But the Bible says that he looked up and he saw Jesus standing.

Now as the other scripture says that Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father, not He’s standing up. And it says that He closes you if you’re noticed there. And it says in the last part of verse 58, laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was Saul. So Saul at this time was a bad man. He was a bad man. But he also, as we saw this morning in Sunday school in chapter 16 of the book of John where it says they believe they did God a favor.

And he says, some are going to kill you, believing they’re doing God a favor. Just like we have today in the Middle East, we have people that are religious enough, and they think they’re doing God a favor by killing everybody that’s not of the religion of Islam, which is what their goal will be. So then he says here in chapter eight, verse one, and Saul was consenting unto his death. He gave his approval. At that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and he was part of that persecution.

And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and some area except the apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great limitation over him. As for Saul he made havoc of the church entering into every house, healing men and women, committing them to prison. Now if there’s anybody that is bad, that there’s a bad dude. This man is bad. I’ve had people ask me sometimes, you know, can God save a really bad person, a bad, what is a really bad person?

Think of the worst person you’ve ever heard of, the worst person in the world. Even if you watch some of these videos where the guy stands there and literally cuts off a man’s head, you see, well that man can never be saved, that man can’t go to heaven. What about a man like Hitler? What about Mussolini and Stalin and all these people that have killed so many people over the years in the centuryAFTA they possibly get to go to heaven when they die.

And then there’s a lot of people that live good lives. They try to live a good life helping one another. And you’re trying to tell me that these bad people can go to heaven in these good religious people may not make it. Now I want to discuss three different groups of people this morning. We know there’s only two saved the lost, saints, the aunts. The believers, the unbelievers. But this morning I want to give you three groups. I want to talk about, first of all, those that aren’t lost.

There are people that I’ve talked to and they say, because of what I’ve done, I can’t be saved. I am so bad. I am so bad. I had one man tell me, he said, I’ll kill 52 people. And he stood there with tears in his eyes, run down, and he says, God can’t save me. He said, I want to go to heaven, but I have been so bad. I’ve killed so 52 people. He’s in the military. He was a Navy SEAL.

He says, in God, I don’t think God can ever save me. And I said, where are you going to go? He said, I’m going to hell. I know I’m going to hell. Over the years, I’ve talked to people that have said, I know I’m going to hell. So there are those that believe and they know, be on a shove it out. I’m going to help. I’ve had people tell me to them andTextColor have no desire to go anywhere else.

I don’t believe in God. And if there is a hell I want to go there. And I thought, but you’ve got something really missing. But there are people that know where they’re going when they die. Cause isn’t it true that most time we ask people, do you know where you’re going when you die? And I had this one man that I led to the Lord back in 1968 at a camp. And he says, I says, where are you going?

He says to hell. And you know he’s going to hell. I later on I led him to the Lord. At that point he knew he was going to help. And there are people that know that. But then along comes religion. You know, religion that tells people you need to be saved. So they okay, you’ve got to trust Christ, He paid for sin and there’s a church and it may be different denominational churches and they talk about you got to be saved.

So they want to be saved. Whatever you do, they be saved. Okay, they’re saved now. But then you have two branches of this issue. There are those that believe like an Armenian. That’s those who believe, yes, you’re saved, but I can lose my salvation. And then you have those that are saved, but you’ve got to persevere in the faith. So you can be saved and lose it, and you can be saved, but you’ve got to persevere to show that you are saved, to prove that you’re saved.

And so we went from somebody that knew they’re going to hell. Now they’re religious and the best now is that they have an option. If they obey and do right they get to go but if they don’t they won’t. So now it’s not a definite positive yes I am it’s just maybe I hope perhaps I’m trying so they live with they hope that they are going to heaven. Now, there’s another group over there and they are those relief and addicts.

They claim wholeheartedly beyond a shadow of a doubt, they know they’re going to heaven when they die. Can you believe that? That there are some people who actually believe that whenever they die, they’re going to heaven and they believe that there’s no way they can ever go to hell. So you have over here people who know they’re going to hell. Here you have people who know they’re going to heaven and you have some people here that don’t know for sure.

If you had a choice in which group to be in, which group would you want to be in? A, B, or C? I see, says the blind man. Now, I want you to understand that there’s a big difference in how people see things. You see, whenever you break it down this way, and there’s people who are, I’m saved, but if I don’t live right, I can lose my salvation. So if it’s true and you couldn’t lose it, that means you really don’t know you’re going to make it to heaven.

Because if you can lose it, you don’t know you won’t. So here you are. If I can lose it, why would I lose it? Okay. Because I did something I shouldn’t have done. Evidently. How many of these I shouldn’t have done, do I have to do? Can I commit one sin and I lose it? Oh, God, do more than that. Maybe two. Or is it three sins? Is it four sins? Is it three sins? If I’ve sinned, how many sins do you have to commit?

If I can’t lose it, how many do I have to do to lose it? And if I have lost it, can I know when I’ve lost it? Or do I just hope that I haven’t lost it, but I might have lost it, and I could live my whole life not knowing that I lost it, but I thought I had it. Now, is there a really good peace and joy happiness in this group. So they don’t know where they’re going when they die.

Why? Because if you can’t lose it, you don’t know you haven’t already lost it. Because you don’t even know how to keep it. What church is the right church? How much money do you really have to give? You have to do a quarter short. I mean, prayers do you have to make? Yeah, but you didn’t pray long enough, often enough. So if it depends on you, you don’t know how to perform. You don’t even know what you have to perform.

And if you can lose it, you don’t even know that you haven’t already lost it. Now is that where you want to be? Now there’s people who believe this. I’m saved, but I can lose my salvation still to hell in the future. There’s a southern group over here and sometimes they call themselves Calvinism and they have a lot of different, you know, little tentacles on this octopus. But one of the main ones is you’ve got a persevere in the faith.

Yeah, I’m saved, but I have to live it. And if I don’t live it, that’s a sign that I really don’t have it. So these people can’t really know that they’re saved at all. Why? Because they have to persevere as the proof or the evidence that they really had it. So if you have to have the work to prove that you have it, how long before you can absolutely know I have it. Now over here we had to discuss how many sins keeps me from losing it.

hear how many good deeds before I can know I have it. Getting confused? That’s why there’s so many people are confused. They don’t know where they’re going when they die. I know I have eternal life. I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die. You see, I’m in that group over there. I am definite, assured, confident, pig-headed, definite, argumentative, dictatorial, dominating. You say, are you sure? I’m definitely, I’m sure I can’t go to hell if I tried. Now, if you want to be in this, I might make it group.

Okay, but it’s not gonna be okay. Because you hear, you can’t have peace and joy and happiness because you don’t know how many sins it’s gonna cause you to lose your salvation and you don’t know how much good work will be the proof that you’re really saved. Then you have to wait until when to find out if you really are. I’ve often asked a person who says, well, you have to be chosen by God. Okay, tell me something. How do you know you are?

Well, I’m chosen. How do you know? How do you know that you’re the one that God reached down and all those millions of people and God chose to save you because there’s something special about you? Yeah, how do you know that? Well, I know I’m saved. How do you know? Because if you believe in the perseverance of the saints, you can’t definitely know that you have eternal life until you die and then your life proves that you really were all alone.

Or if you don’t persevere, it might be the proof that you never were. Which one would you want? Try to prove that you’re saved because you didn’t do the bad or prove that you’re saved because you did the good. Either way it looks upon a man’s performance or like thereof. My confidence and assurance is not based upon what I don’t do or what I do. My going to heaven is based upon what he did. And that’s how I know I’m going to heaven because I have this free gift of everlasting life.

Let me tell you something that you will see in just a second. Lordship salvation, the people who believe you have to persevere in your life to prove that you’re saved. We call that Lordship salvation. means that you have to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life and serve Him in order to be saved. Lordship salvation teaching produces more ungodly living than anything. And I’ll tell you why. Because so many people get so frustrated trying to live this Christian life and the guilt that they’re not performing according to what they say they believe.

I can’t live it. I’ve tried and I give up and if I’m gonna go to hell I might as well have me a ball before I get out of there and you’ll find yourself talking to a lot of people if you wouldn’t. Now if you don’t wait to send anybody you don’t understand anything I’m saying but I do talk to people occasionally. So I find out what they believe and why they believe what they believe because somebody told them you have to perform.

You’ve got to do these good deeds and if you don’t perform you don’t do these good deeds you can’t go to heaven because you can’t tell me. All that you have to do is trust Christ as your Savior and then go ahead and live in the way you please and still go to heaven. Well, I hate to tell you this, but God said that. God said that because it’s not based upon your works anyway. So I don’t have to worry about my sins causing me to lose my salvation.

I don’t have to perform and live a certain way to prove that I am saved. I’m saved because 53 years ago in a little living room, Yankee Arnold, trusted Christ as my Savior. I’m not the Savior. He is saving me. I’m trusting Him to take me to heaven. It has nothing to do with me. Good or bad or indifferent? I’m going to heaven because He meant business. He gave His Word and I have the free gift of everlasting life.

There’s a bunch of scriptures that I wanted to read to you, but I’m not going to. I will have time. Like I said, I ramble a little bit. Yesterday, I’m sitting in the office, and the choir’s out here practicing. I usually come on Saturday because it’s so nice and quiet. There’s nobody in the hall. There’s nobody in here singing. It’s just quiet. The phones doesn’t ring. Most people know that nobody’s here on Saturday. So I can just sit and read and think, and it’s just a blessing.

But then they move the choir up to be on yesterday. So the choir is here and they’re singing. And of course I can hear. And then they have a break, and so then they come right down the hall. Have you ever seen about 10 women in the hallway and be perfectly quiet? It ain’t even gonna happen. So I got it, she was going on, so I walk out and they’re just having a good time and they’re singing and happening and all that there.

So I need some water anyway. So I go back in and they come back in and have their second half of their… I said, and the phone rang. Betty got the phone. I don’t answer the… I try my best to phone them. But the phone rang. So I… Betty says, you need this lady you need to talk to her. Okay, so I talked to the lady on the phone and she said are you the pastor and I said yes, ma’am She says well, I am I was at this shopping mall and I’m down and dejected and I thought she’s gonna start crying on the phone to me She said but I am so miserable But I saw this piece of paper laying on the ground and I picked it up and I says ma’am And did it say, am I going to heaven on the front?

She said yes. I said, we have kids that goes out and they pass out these things. Somebody may have left it on the floor, on the ground. I said, we’ve got a picture on the little fella. She said, yes, I said, that’s my picture when I was 17, had hair. She laughed too. And she says, I read that thing. And she says, it’s got the number of the church on the backs I called. And she says, I’ve got cancer.

And I may not make it. And so she mentioned about a tumor that she had in the brain, another one on her spine. And she, I said, remember, can I ask you, where do you go to church? She says, I go to the Catholic church. I says, have they ever talked to you about how to know positively that you have eternal life and know that you’re going to have? And she says, no. I said, ma’am, you got just a couple of minutes.

Can I just talk to her? She said, yes. So I talked to her and I explained the gospel to her. She could know she could have eternal life. I said, does that make sense? She says, that make more sense than anything I’ve ever heard. I said, right now, would you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior? She said, yes, I will. And she says, I know I have eternal life. She says, you have no idea what knowing this has done for me.

I thank you so much. She was so excited. She was so glad. The only way I had to work prayer with them, hung up the phone. And then we had been looking at this bus sitting up here in the parking lot here. And Jesse and him says that they need a bigger bus. Can you believe that? They need a bigger bus. We just got that, but they want a bigger bus. I said, well, I had gone over there and I found out who owned the bus so I called him.

He was going to come out yesterday and so he came out at 12.30. So I go over there and Bob Gilbert goes over there and Jesse shows up with about two or three of his ringleaders. I mean, those amigos of his sitting right there. So they showed up. And the man shows up and he has his little daughter. And it didn’t take long before we had to look at the boss and so forth. And anyway, we got the talk.

We had to take a little drive and so while he’s driving, I got to talk into the guy and I said, well, what kind of a church do you go to? Because he knows I’m past with the church. I said, what kind of church do you go to? I had no clue. He says, he’s like, go to the Catholic church. I said, that is so interesting. I just had a lady call me on the phone that goes to the Catholic church because she found and I pulled one of these out.

I said, she found one of these on the ground at a shopping mall, and she called me up on the phone, and she’s got cancer and very serious. And she did not know where she was going to go when she died. I said, ma’am, can I explain it to you? And I said, she asked me, you know, to explain it to her, and I explained to her just because of this one little piece of paper. And I said, now she knows, she has it on, she knows, she’s going to, the guy says, can I have that?

I said, I usually charge for these, but I’ll give it to you. So anyway, we talked very briefly. And then we came out here and he was going to look at our bus. And I says, before we look at our bus, I said, can I explain something to you? So I explained the gospel to him and he said, I’ve never heard it like this before. That makes so much sense. So he trusted Christ, this is Savior. And I get all excited just by something like, do you know that knowing you have eternal life knowing you have eternal life is better than knowing that you’re going to hell.

It’s better than hoping that I’m going to heaven. It’s better me trying to get to heaven. It’s better when you can say, I know I have eternal. Do you think that woman that’s dying of cancer wants to hope she makes it or she’d like to know she’s going to make it? Know that she’s going to heaven. You can’t know you’re going to heaven unless it’s totally a free gift and has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of my life.

This is why when you read about the Apostle Paul how bad he was. Can God say the worst man, the most wicked man in the world? Can God save him? Yes, see, you mean regardless of what he’s done? And yet you have people say, well I don’t believe it. you can just live in a way you please and go to heaven when you die. Why? Anybody can? That’s why Christ died. Regardless of what you have done, God can forgive you of every sin.

We say that to a person that’s supposed to be lost. What if a man lived to be 90 years old and he’s done everything in the book? And he’s on his debt, can God save him? Well, he doesn’t deserve it. Grace means undeserved. He doesn’t deserve it. But nobody does. I got a letter yesterday, and this one almost knocked my socks off. And she wrote it to the congregation. She wrote this letter to YAH, because she found out something, I don’t know if it was on YouTube, but where she found it, but she found it.

So she says, Greetings, I pray all as well with your congregation of believers. Then she starts off, she says, This is from a lady named Bobbie. Bobbie Joe says, I wanted to personally thank this preacher for saving me by his word. By grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone have I been saved. What a truly loving God. How happy have I been made by deciding Christ to be my personal Savior. The love that has come to my heart in learning of his glorious, selfless, holy love of me.

Yet a sinner and the creator of everything wanted me in heaven with him for eternity. Words cannot express how thankful I am. The Lord has somehow managed to lead me out of Lordship Salvation while attending the Church of Christ. Now you think the Lordship Salvation is though that are independent, fundamental, Bible, evolutionary, minded, Baptist. No, this can be any church. Because see, majority of churches teach, you have to live the life, either to be saved or to keep your salvation.

Both are wrong. You see, the church of Christ teaches works for salvation. And you have to be water baptized. You’ve got to be a member of their church and you’ve got to give money And you gotta be a member, all that works. The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. But you’ll be surprised how many churches teach to say by your works. And if you don’t live it, you can’t have it.

And he’ll take it away from you. That is not true. That is a lie. And there’s a lot of religion, a lot of churches, teachers, lordships of it, you gotta make Christ the Lord and the master of your life. This is why around here we don’t say this. Not all people mean the same thing, even when they say it. I accepted Christ as my Lord and master or as my Lord and savior. Now I accepted Christ as my savior.

Lord and savior means that if I make him the Lord of my life, he will save me. But if I don’t, he won’t. So we don’t put those two things together. We keep salvation and service separated. Hello, this is Peter Amada with Bibleline, and we hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We’re so thankful for those of you who support Bibleline and would like to offer you a gift. During the month of October, for your donation of any amount, we’re going to send to you, Dr.

Arnold’s pamphlet, on why we cannot believe in evolution. We’re also going to include his prophecy chart titled, The Prophetic Survey of Time, And lastly we’re going to include a CD that features Dr. Arnold’s funny jokes and sayings that we hope will tickle your spirit. So for your gift of any amount, we’ll send the three items, the pamphlet on evolution, the full color prophecy chart, and the CD of Dr. Arnold’s funny jokes and quotes. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. Once again, thank you for supporting Bibleline and may God richly bless you. 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. God up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.