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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 air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the 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.

The title of today’s message is called predestination is the security of the believers. That though God is sovereign, That means he has the power, the right to do anything he wants to do because he’s God. That he also in his sovereignty chose to give to man a free will. But I want you to see what he chose to do. He chose to do something that mankind just can’t believe. I mean, it’s an awesome story. We have the greatest message in all the world to tell people.

God so loved the world. It’s awesome. Turn in your Bible to the book of Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 and 9. These two verses are two of my favorite verses in the Bible. They’re awesome. Salvation is based on belief alone. Salvation cannot be earned. You cannot work your way to heaven. This is a verse in the Bible and look what he says there in verse 8. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

Isn’t that awesome? Look what he says, for by grace are you saved. Grace means unmerited favor. In our minds we always think you have to do something. We have to be good. And I thought that for so long that I had to be good to go to heaven. I never knew how good I had to be. I was always told if you’re bad, you’re going to hell, but I didn’t know how bad I had to be to go to hell.

So there’s a lot of people that were just like I am. They want to go to heaven. They hope they’re going to heaven, but they don’t know how good they have to be to get there and they don’t know how bad they got to be to go to hell. Well, God says that I’ll solve the whole problem for you. He says, there is none good. We’ve all sinned. None of us deserve to be saved. None of us deserve to go to heaven.

But he says, by grace are you saved through faith? That not of yourselves, it’s not of yourself. You can’t earn it. See, this is what’s so different from all religions. Christ says it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should what? Most, because if I could earn my way to heaven, then I could boast or brag in what I have done. Look what I did, I deserved to go to heaven. God says no, you can’t boast or brag because it’s not according to your work.

He said, it’s the gift of God. A gift isn’t something you work for. You don’t earn a gift. A gift is free. What is this gift? The gift of eternal life. All men had the ability to believe, and this belief in Christ results in salvation for any man. Turned there to John chapter three and verse 16. John chapter three and verse 16. And he says here in John 3 16, look at this verse. It’s awesome. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

God had a son. God loved us and God was willing to give his son for the sins of the whole world. That whosoever that means anybody in the whole world would believe that he did it for them. Believe it in him should not perish. That means won’t go to hell, but have as a free gift, have everlasting life. So God says that he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, anybody, believe that in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Take your Bible now and look there in 1 Timothy chapter 2. really did die for all men and all sin. Aren’t you glad that he… Died for everybody. Did you know if the Bible had said he died for everybody but one person, you would wonder if you were that person that he didn’t die for. Or if he died for all sins except just one sin, you wouldn’t know whether or not is that the one that I did. If he paid for all of my sins but one, he didn’t do you any favors because the wages of sin is death.

Look in verse six. who gave, this is Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. In other words, in verse 5, there is one God, one media between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There’s only one true and living God. But God revealed himself in three persons as the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. You see, God was willing to come into the world and to die for sin. The coming into the world, take it upon flesh, that’s Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the true in living God. And many people who read the Bible, they can see what he said. This is why the Jewish people, when Christ made the statement, I and my Father are one, they took up stones to stone him because he made a statement that he was God. See if he’s the son of God that makes him God if I am human and I have a son my son will be human, right? You shouldn’t question the fact that my son is human just because I’m human because I’m human he’s human If God is God and he has a son his son will be God It’s the same So God had a son But you see that son was the Holy Spirit that came over Mary And the Bible says that He planted a perfect Holy seed.

It says that Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. That’s why when Jesus Christ came and it makes a statement in Matthew chapter 1, it says, concerning Jesus Christ, His name shall be called Emmanuel. Emmanuel is an untranslated Hebrew word which means God with us. And the Jewish people did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. They didn’t believe He was the Messiah. They rejected Him because they rejected Him.

They were scattered upon the face of the earth and God says that He would persecute them and they’ve been persecuted for 2,000 years since Christ has been here. But they brought it upon themselves. It didn’t have to be that way. It’s that way because they rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior. Look in Hebrews chapter two, Hebrews and chapter two, just turn to your right, just a couple pages, and you’ll come to the book of Hebrews in chapter two. In verse nine makes a statement that, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.

Because angels don’t die. So God doesn’t die. So God had to take upon flesh to be made lower than the angels for a reason. He makes a statement in verse nine, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death so that he could die. Christ when he was here would not have died because of any sin that he committed because the Bible says he had no sin. He was perfect, he was God.

He had no sinful nature. Every person born in the world has a sinful nature that we all sin. We all sin. But Jesus was born, he did not sin. That’s why he could make a payment for our sins because he was innocent. a guilty man can’t pay and die for a guilty person. Only an innocent person can die for a guilty person. And the Bible says here in verse 9 that he should taste death for every man. Jesus Christ tasted death for every person so that everybody in the whole world can have eternal life.

There’s only one true in living God and this one true in living God made a payment for the sins of the whole world so that the whole world would know how much does God love us. He loves us enough that He was willing to die for us. That’s love. And then He did it in such a way that it doesn’t give it just to the rich and take it away from the poor. There’s no acts that you have to perform.

All you need to do is believe this. If you can believe this wonderful story that Jesus Christ did this for you. He saves you and gives you as a free gift everlasting life. And you go to heaven on what He did for you. That is awesome. Look in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2. I want you to see this. These two verses. My little children. Now, this is written to those who have accepted Christ as their Savior. These things right eye unto you that you send not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

In other words, God doesn’t want us to, but when we do sin, after we trust He Christ is our Savior, God doesn’t send you to hell, doesn’t cast you out. He says, He’ll chasten you, discipline you, have to correct you. But He does not allow us to live as we please and get away with it. In verse two, and he is the propitiation for our sin. That means the satisfaction, the payment. He was a payment for our sin. Not for ours only, those who believe, but also for the sins of the whole world.

It means that Christ came and paid for the sins of the whole world. See what God wanted Israel to do? God wanted Israel to accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah, but they didn’t. God wanted to use them as a light to the Gentiles so that they could be a light to take the truth that God had given and reveal it to the world and they blew it. They blew the opportunity that God gave them. Look there in Isaiah chapter 64 and verse 6.

But we all are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags. We do all do fade as it leave and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. In other words God says that we all have sinned. All of our righteousness are as filthy rags. So man doesn’t have any righteousness compared to God’s. Look up here. Here’s God. He’s perfect and righteous. Here’s man. We have sinned against God. So we have come short of God’s perfection.

And to be righteous with God, to live with God, we have to be as righteous as God. In heaven there’s no sin. So how is a man going to be made righteous as God? Just as if he had never sinned. Well this is the problem. Man thinks he can’t by his own religion, by his works, be good enough and someday he’ll make it and I made it. I got to go to heaven. No God says all of your righteousness or its filthy rags.

You’ve come short of God’s perfection, you cannot save yourself. It’s impossible. So the only hope is Jesus Christ. See Jesus Christ came into the world and He took our sins and He gives us His righteousness. If God gave you His righteousness, that would make you as righteous as God. And you go to heaven on what he did for you. And God said, I’ll give this righteousness to every person in the world if they would only believe. Awesome. Look in John chapter 3 and verse 18.

John chapter 3 and verse 18. All men are condemned, judged and found guilty. Before they either accept or reject Christ. Before men either accept Him or reject Christ. He’s already been judged. He’s already found guilty. He’s just simply waiting for the day of execution. Everybody’s going to die. You see, if you did not sin, you would not die. God doesn’t sin. God doesn’t die. Christ came into the world. If he had not sin, he didn’t have to die. But he took our sins.

When he took our sins, he had to die. And so the Bible says he died for us. If I had 10 apples in this hand, and I took away 5 apples, how many apples do I have left? This is very hard, very difficult. Some of y’all maybe never went to school. If I have 10 apples, I take away five apples, how many apples are left? Five. If I had 10 apples in his hand, and I took away 10 apples, how many’s left?

None. When Christ died on the cross, if I committed 10 sins, and he paid for five of my sins, how many do I have left to pay for? Five. If I had 10 sins and he paid for 10 sins of mine, How many do I have to pay for? None. Did he die for all of my sins? Yes. How many would I have to pay for? None. So you don’t have to pay for something twice. People throughout the world, most have never heard this, never understood this.

We have a Savior. But He must be accepted. He does not force Himself upon individual. Every individual must understand that they are a sinner and that Christ died for them. And Jesus said, He says, there is no other name given among men under heaven where by man must be saved. He says, no man come up unto the Father except through me. You can’t get there except through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not just a man like you and I.

Jesus Christ is the Lord. Verse 18 says, He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but He that believeth not is condemned when He’s already condemned. Whenever I die, I stand before God and He puts the scales out there and my good works over here and all my bad ones over here and whichever outweighed the other determine which way I was going to go. So I thought I had to wait till I died to find out which way I’m going.

No, God says you’re already condemned. You’re already guilty. already condemned. And you cannot save yourself in God’s already told us in advance. Forget your good works. It won’t matter because all you needed was one bad one to send you to hell. So how many people are condemned? Everybody in the world. Everybody sends. Everybody’s condemned. We’re all in the same boat. But he makes a statement, but he that believe if not is condemned already because, and Here’s the reason why.

Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. If there’s anything the Bible teaches, it is that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God came into this world to make a payment for the sins of the world. And if we accept him, we have eternal life. And if we reject him, we do not have eternal life. But it’s not something that I have to wait until I die to find out if I’ve got it.

If I accepted Christ as my Savior today, right now, And if I’m sitting here and I hear this and I say, I have never trusted Christ as my Savior. But if I believe this right now, will God save me right now? Yes, He will. And if He saves me, what does He save me from? From hell. What does He give me? Eternal life. When right now? And if it’s eternal life and it lasts forever, and all my sins are paid, When I got up to leave, where would I be going when I die?

To heaven. Do I have to wait till I die to find out? No. And sometimes I have people saying to me, well, look, what you say is true. You could just go out here and do all these bad things and still go to heaven when you die. I know. I know. That’s true. God loves me that much. But see, He set me free. And He lets me choose. I can choose to obey Him because I’m His child. I can choose to disobey Him and He’ll hook me.

So I just came to the conclusion, it’s better to serve the Lord. I have experienced the peace and the joy and the happiness of knowing that I’m going to heaven, knowing that God is obligated by His Word, He must bless me. I know that when I get to heaven, God is going to reward me. See, going to heaven is free. What you have when you get there, God says, you have to earn those. And so, yes, there’s advantages in serving the Lord.

But God says to love one another, love one another. He even says, love your enemies, but love. God is love. And this is what He wants us to do. Notice something else here. Man is condemned by the sin of unbelief, which is what we just read. Man is dead in trespasses and sin. Let me explain this to you. It means that God had put a no trespassing sign out. Thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not, thou shalt, and you didn’t do what he said do, you trespassed, you overstepped a boundary, you broke a law.

And when you break one of God’s law, the penalty of breaking the law was death. So since all have sinned because we’ve all trespassed, we’ve all broken God’s law, that penalty is eternal separation from God in hell. So man cannot save himself. He cannot deliver himself. He can be saved, but he cannot save himself. And so that’s why Christ died to pay for the sins of all the world. God is sovereign that he can do anything he wants and has no obligation to save anyone.

Enough said on that. God is God. In His sovereignty, the right, the power to do whatever He wants because He is God, God has given to man a free choice, a will, because that’s what God wanted to do. Just because man has a free will doesn’t mean God isn’t allowed to influence man’s will. You see, let’s say for example, you take Johnny down here. Let’s say Johnny is a lost man, but there’s a God in heaven that loves Johnny.

But God has given to him a free will. He can choose to do whatever he wants. He can get married or not get married. He can work or not work. He can grow his hair three feet if he wants to him from under his arms. He can do anything he wants. He can use deodorant or not use deodorant. He can brush his teeth or not brush his teeth. He got all kinds of choices he can make. God doesn’t make him.

But God wants him to go to heaven so God can, without violating his will, seek to influence him. God can allow this young man to walk into this service this morning. And God is seeking him. God says that he seeks to save that which was lost. He’s the good shepherd that’s looking for the lost sheep. And he wants you to go to heaven. And he can influence him by him being here this morning, here in this message, and he can decide.

He said, sir, and he listens, and he can decide whether or not, will I believe it or not believe it. But there’s a God in heaven that knows this man is lost, and this man can go to heaven if this man chooses to go to heaven. But God will not make him trust him. You see, before the foundations of the world, the Bible teaches that God, light with a telescope, looking down through time, God has already pre-determined in advance, every person that will believe it will go to heaven, and those that will not believe it won’t go to heaven.

That’s because God is God. But just because of God knows what a man’s going to do, God doesn’t make the person do it. God may know that you’re going to rob the 7-Eleven store tomorrow. But God is not the author of sin and God doesn’t pre-determine you to rob a 7-Eleven store to take somebody’s life. God doesn’t make you do wrong. God doesn’t make people sin. The Bible says God does not sin and cannot tempt any man to sin.

So God has never tempted anybody to ever sin. Never has. The devil does. You have a sinful nature within you that leads He’s a US Dre and seduces you, yeah? He says anybody who soever will, believe it, have everlasting life. If he trusts Christ as Savior, he goes to heaven. He rejects Christ, he goes to hell. What God did for one person in this world, he did for every person in this world. God loves you, he loves you, always remember that.

God seeks to get the lost man to believe, but does not make him. God seeks his children to serve him, but will allow them to rebel. You see, God is not making everybody do whatever he wants them to do. God in his sovereignty chose to give you an eye a choice, a will, so that we can make up our own minds. I decided years ago after I trusted Christ as my savior, I’d never heard this in church. I didn’t go to church.

Raymond Jackson explained this to me. And I, that night I could have said yes, or I could have said no. And what scares me is I could have said, no, just as easy as I said, yes. But I said, yes, it makes sense to me. I couldn’t see there’s no tricks to it. There’s no gimmicks to this. I didn’t have to stop something. I didn’t have to join anything. I didn’t have to give anything. I didn’t have to promise how I’m gonna live.

I didn’t have to stop doing something that I was doing. I had to just admit what I am. I am a sinner and he loved me and he died from me. And if I trust him, he would save me, give me eternal life. And I made that decision. I also made another one. I’m going to serve the Lord, not because I have to, but because I want to. The destination of believers is predetermined. It means that God has already predetermined that everybody who believes on Christ, they go to heaven.

That was decided before you ever born, before you ever did any good or bad. And God has already decided everyone that will believe in Christ, they’ll go to heaven. And those that won’t, won’t go. Even when Christ was here, He says, if the miracles that had been done in Capernaum, had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have remained unto this day. In other words, He knows what would have happened if you hadn’t had got married. He knows what would have happened to you if you took the other job.

He knows what would have happened if you’d have lived in another city, or if you had never trusted Christ. He knows everything that is actual, factual, impossible. Have you ever wondered? I wonder what would have happened if I’d have bought that piece of land 20 years ago, what I could have made today. I wonder what would have happened if I could have bought those stocks and I didn’t do it. God knows all the variations, the variables, the possibilities. It is God’s will that all go to be with Him in heaven.

That’s His will. It is God’s will that all believers walk worthy under good works. You see you and I that trust crisis savior, it’s God’s will that you and I serve him, but not everybody will. You may have trusted Christ as your savior and you will defy the will of God. God doesn’t get everything God wants. That’s hard to understand. I mean, God is sovereign. He can do anything He wants to do, but He chose out of love to give you and I the opportunity to voluntarily choose whether or not do I love God?

Be sure to love me, serve me. He says, if you love me, it shall be known of you. I made it my mind years ago. I love the Lord, and I’m going to prove that I love the Lord by living my life for him. And I want to honor him and I want to serve him all the days of my life. I want people to know my Christ. Look at the next statement. Men became chosen ones to believe, result of their choice, not gods.

And second, thessalonians it says, God has chosen you through faith. God chose us because we put our faith in Him. That’s how you get to be one of the chosen ones. That’s how you got to be one of the elect, is how you got to be one of the beloved because you allowed God to love you. The next statement, grace appears to all men for all men. In other words, grace is the main by how we’re saved. It’s what out works.

And God loves us so much. He says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And he says that his grace is to all and is for everybody. It doesn’t exclude anybody. In verse number 16, grace is resistable. Not all men are saved. Not everybody’s going to be. Because people have been given a choice. They can reject His salvation. You can reject Jesus Christ.

You can reject, you don’t have to believe the Bible is true. You don’t have to believe it. God sent His Son died on the cross. You don’t have to believe it. Nobody’s going to make it. Even God ain’t going to make you. But it made sense to me. I can’t make you. I pray that you would. This is you and me, and this is sin. We all have sin upon us. God loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us.

And for you and I to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And this is the problem. We’re all sinners. We can’t save ourselves. And God says that the payment for that sin is death in hell. And the Lord says that we did it, we have to pay for it. We’re already condemned. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. But He hates our sin.

Our sin separates us from the Lord. So what He did is He took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said that if you and I, we would believe He did this for us. See, it’s a personal thing. Not between you and me or you and somebody else, always between you and God. You don’t have to raise your hand, you don’t have to come down at a front, you don’t have to sign a card, you don’t have to do anything outward.

It’s all done within your mind between you and God. God’s the one that knows whether or not you really believe Him. That’s why you can’t make a mistake this way. You don’t become a religious hypocrite because you’re not claiming to be something you’re not. You are a sinner, so am I. And Jesus Christ paid for our sin and He said, if we’ll believe He did it for us, He would give us as a free gift what? Everlasting life. We go to heaven on what He did for us.

Who gets all the glory from me going to heaven? Him? What have I done? Nothing. I wasn’t good enough before to save myself, and I’m still not. I am a sinner. I’m a sinner saved by grace. Let’s pray, shall we? You have been listening to another great message from Dr. Arnold, and we hope that Bibleline is a blessing to you. In appreciation for your support of this ministry, we’d like to send to you a gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send the Bible promise book.

It is a book that organizes verses of the Bible by topic. For example, if you wanted to know of verses that address humility, or forgiveness, or obedience, you would simply find that topic in the table of contents, go to the chapter listed, and there you would find the verses that address that topic. It’s a wonderful study guide and resource for your own devotions as well as for lesson preparation and we’ll send it to you for a gift in any amount for this month.

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.