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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.

First John chapter two. Here in first John chapter two, look in verse 18, little children. It is the last time and you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. And they, he said this 2000 years ago. In verse 19, they went out from us, not that they were of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but that they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

In other words, their message was not our message. their doctrine was not our doctrine. So I want you to take your Bible, and we’ll come back to this in just a moment, but look there in the book of Acts in chapter 15. And I want you to see this verse 24 before we get into the meat of it. I want you to see verse 24, because it’s a reference, has the same wording, and I believe it’s who is referring to.

So here in Acts chapter 15 and verse 24, the conclusion of the council meeting that they had there in Jerusalem concerning a particular doctrinal issue. Now get this, there were some that were teaching that you had to keep the law in order to be saved. Today, people may not use the word law, they just simply use good works. You must do good works in order to be saved. Or you can get saved by grace, but your stayed saved or kept saved by your good works.

the same teaching. Either Christ saves you forever or He doesn’t save you at all. The gospel is eternal security. It means you are eternally secure. If you’re not eternally secure, you cannot be secure. That’s why anyone who thinks they can lose their salvation, they don’t have any security whatsoever because they will not know and cannot know at what point in time they have lost their salvation. You cannot mature in the Lord and grow to be a strong Christian if you’re not sure of your foundation.

It’s easy to believe in eternal security if you believe that salvation is by grace. If you believe it is a gift you have no problem believing that he can save you forever. But if you don’t really believe it’s the gift, you really don’t believe that it’s free. You really don’t believe he gives it to you forever. You know, you can’t believe in eternal security. Because you’ll believe that you still have to do something. And that something is what’s going to keep you from truly trusting Jesus Christ to take you to heaven whenever you die.

Now this week whenever I was there on Friday night up in the mountains, I… There were three young men that had pitched a tent right beside of us and it started to rain and they got soaked. We asked him if they wanted to come and have something to eat. So they came and they had some hush puppies and some french fries and they had some good old mountain trout. And I asked him, I said, where are you from? They said, Covington.

I said, what kind of work do you do? And they told me. And I said, well, what kind of church do you go to? And he says, they went to blah, blah, blah, blah church. He says, and I’m the pastor. I’m a pastor. And I’m just chaffing at the bits. They wanted to talk. I told him, I said, you know, we probably don’t believe the same thing. He said, how do you know that? I said, I can tell you what you believe.

And I said, you believe that you can lose your salvation. I said, now let me explain to you what I believe. So I pulled out my wallet and I said, now let this represent you and me and this represents sin. We all have sin on us. Now God says He loves us. But the Bible says that we committed the sin so we have to pay for it. And so the payment for sin is eternal separation from God. So we have to be separated from God.

And God says to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect. So we can’t go to heaven because we’re not perfect. So God says, you can’t earn your way to heaven. You can’t buy it. So there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s God in the flesh. Came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin. But our sin separates us from God.

So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead, said if we would believe he did it for us, he would put this payment that he made for all of our sins to our account and we would go to heaven on what he did for us. So going to heaven is something that you can know. And I said the Bible says you can know you have eternal life. It didn’t take long before each one.

I got a question. What about James chapter two? What about those that endure until the end, the same shall be saved? And so we had a good discussion. And finally one kid, he looked at me and he says, you know what we’re going to ask before we ask it, don’t you? I said, yes, I do. Told the preacher, I says, look, be honest. It’s honest. If you die right now, where would you go? He said, I hope I go to heaven.

You talked about Christ, him down on the cross, Paying for sins, but the reason you’re having trouble with you, where you going when did I, because you don’t believe the Bible. You don’t believe the Bible. You don’t believe what Jesus says. I did not tell him that he is an anti-Christ, but every time that man preaches in the pulpit, he is against what Christ said, he’s against what Christ did. When Christ died on the cross, he died on the cross to pay for how many of our sins.

He doesn’t believe that. because if he believes that Christ paid for all of my sins, then there is no sin to condemn me to hell because all my sins are paid. When Jesus says, He that believeth on me hath what kind of life? He said, He don’t believe that. He believes you have eternal life to your sin again, but that’s not in the book. Don’t believe it. I says, you don’t believe the Bible. You have nothing to share with anybody.

For as much as we have heard that certain went out from us, have troubled you with words. They went out from them, but they were not of them. They had a message, but it wasn’t the message that the apostles had. This is what he said. He says, they went out from us, have troubled you with words, subverting your soul saying, this is what they said. He must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave what? No such commandment.

That is not our message. And He says they went out from us because they were not of us. You see, how do you know when somebody is of you, when they believe totally 100% in eternal security? So you can talk about how wonderful God is, Christ down on the cross paying for sin. You can talk about all of those wonderful things. He’s coming back again. They believe in the rapture, they believe all these things, but they don’t believe in eternal security.

When you don’t believe in eternal security, you don’t believe the Bible. That is the gospel. The gospel, the good news is that when you trust Christ’s Savior, He saves you from hell, gives you eternal life, and it lasts forever. You see, if you really believe that God loves you, why would it be so hard to believe that God can save you forever? If you believe that salvation is by faith and faith alone without works, why can’t you believe that he could give you eternal life forever?

Why can you believe he could save you for a day but he couldn’t save you forever? You see, you’ve got a problem. They don’t believe the Bible. They don’t believe what Jesus said. So he says here in verse 25, it’s Seemeth good unto us being assembled with one accord. a court means God’s people ought to believe the same thing. And you say, well, it doesn’t matter what anybody believed. We’re all working to get to the same place. No, we ain’t.

I’m not working to get anywhere. I don’t go to church to go to heaven. I don’t do good deeds to go to heaven. I don’t love my wife so I can go to heaven. I don’t do all the things and give money to missions and so forth in order to go. I’m not doing any good works. Not one in order to go to heaven. I’m going to heaven because Betty’s dead in a little-o living room, explained the gospel to me, and I believe it.

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and He saves me from hell, gave me eternal life, and if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. And if it lasts forever, and all my sins are paid, then where am I going to go when I die? So you say, what if you sin tomorrow? Well, it’s a sin, but it’s paid. about right before I die. It’s a sin. It’s paid. Somebody says, yeah, but what if you commit suicide? Is that a sin?

Yeah, yes. Paid? Well, you don’t deserve it. That’s the point. You don’t deserve. See, grace means you don’t deserve it. What person sitting here deserves to go to heaven? Not a one of you. If you get to heaven, it’s because of God’s grace, not because of one work that you did. Nobody can say it. By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever keep to ten commandments and obey the golden rule and goes to the north side, babbish church and pays fifty percent inflation.

Is that what it says? No. says no. He says, he that believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. You will not perish. You will have everlasting life. What do you got to do? Simply believe. If you believe, yes, what God said, you’re a sinner. I believe in him. The Christ died on the cross and he paid for all of my sin, not some of them, most of them. He paid for all of them. And if I believe what he said, then I believe he paid for all of my sins.

Well, if he paid for all of my sins, then how many do I have to pay for? None. If I have 10 apples in his hand and I take away ten apples. How many do I have left? None? I know this is difficult. You see, if I offered you my wallet and you accepted, you’d have an empty wallet. If I offered you my Bible and you accepted, you’d have a Bible. Well, if Jesus Christ walked in here and offered you eternal life and you accepted, you would have eternal life.

The message of eternal security is the message that I have strived to preach over and over again for the last 40-some years. There is no other message worth preaching. I don’t worry about it. I’ve had people say, well, don’t worry about this eternal issue. It’s eternal security. Just get them saved. Just get them saved. Nobody knows they’re saved till you believe in eternal security because you don’t know where you’re going when you die unless you believe in eternal security.

Now you can have questions and you can have doubts and you can believe I trusted Christ as my Savior and then later on I heard that it was eternal security. Well, maybe you got saved back then. I’m not God, but it might have been when you understood that it was forever. Now I really believe him. Now I believe what he said. A lot of times I’m not trying to play God in people’s lives. I’m not the Holy Spirit and I’m not the judge.

I’m just simply telling you what the judge said. He that believeth on me is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned when already because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Verily, verily I send you he that believeth on me half everlasting life, very, very asking you, you heed that hearth my word and believe it on him that sent me half everlasting life and his past from death in the life God taught eternal security.

And if you don’t believe what he said, then you don’t have eternal life. You hear the words and I told those three individuals, I says, neither one of y’all know for sure where you’re going to die. And the reason is because you haven’t trusted Christ as your Savior. You’re trusting your works to get you to heaven. And if you’re good enough, you’ll make it. And if you’re not good enough you won’t make it. They couldn’t say anything because they knew what I’m saying.

I’m telling them the truth. Some people will say I don’t think God he’ll argue about stuff like that. This is it. This is heaven and hell. It’s not just an issue that I want to make. This is an issue they made. John said they went out from us because they were not of us and who is he talking about? These people that were teaching a false message. Their message was they were teaching people that you had to keep the law that not only be saved, but you had to keep the law to stay saved.

Couldn’t believe that it would be forever. But that is the message. That is the gospel. Now look there in Acts chapter 15 and verse 1. And this is what the apostle John is talking about over there in the book of 1 John and chapter 2. Certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be what? Says you cannot be saved. So in verse 2, when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension, that means they had a big one.

And this mutation, that’s the same like a big argument. That’s where you dispute with one another. You have a big debate going back and forth. In other words, some people said, hey, that’s not the gospel. That is not true. And the Apostle Paul says, I would stood them to their face in the book of Galatians in chapter 2. He says, because they were to be blamed and even refer to one time because Peter had done something that he should not have done concerning the gospel.

And he says, and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and the elders about this question. Do you or do you not? Do you have to keep the law? Do you have to be good after your say to go to heaven? No, you don’t. They said, we gave no such commandment. That is not the truth. And there’s some people who came out from us that said they were of us, but they were not of us.

And they have a message that is not our message. He says, and they pervert, subvert people’s minds and confuse them. See, if you believe you can lose your salvation, you don’t know where you’re going when you die. He says, well, I believe you can lose your salvation then you don’t know you won’t. What do you have then? What do you have that some drunk laden, some gutters has never heard the gospel and he’s like, he don’t know where he’s going either.

So he makes the statement here in verse 5, but there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believes in that it was needful to circumcise them to command them to keep the law of Moses. So the apostles and the elders came together for to consider of this matter. It deals with eternal security. Do you have to or do you not? Do you have to continue keeping the law? Do you have to be good? Do right in order to keep your salvation.

And he He says in verse seven, and when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and keep the 10 commandments and obey the golden rule and go to the north side Baptist church. You don’t see that in here do you? It says, and they heard the word of the gospel and did what?

And believe that you mean that’s all they did? Yeah, that’s all you have to do if you believe it. He says in verse eight and God, which know up the hearts, because God knows who believes and who don’t believe doesn’t he? Can you fool the preacher? You can raise your hand and not trust the Lord. You can sign a card and not trust the Lord. You can walk an aisle and not trust the Lord. You can get down here and pray the sinner’s prayer, not trust the Lord.

God the one that knows whether or not, do you believe that he did this for you? Do you really trust it? Are you trusting him to take it to heaven? Well, he’s the one you better tell, and he’s the one you better convince that you really believe it. Because you can lie to the people in the church. You can deceive a lot of people and you can even deceive yourself. You better make sure you have trusted Christ as your Savior.

It won’t matter how many people think you’re a Christian. You better know that he knows you are. Now get this. He says they’re in verse eight. And God which knoweth the heart, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, the Jews. Put no difference between us and them, Jews and Gentiles. Purifying their hearts by works. Faith not works. But what he says, now therefore, why tempt God to put a yoke upon the neck of all the disciples, which neither our fathers, nor we were what we were not able to bear.

In other words, we never kept them. We never kept the law. Why are we trying to put the law upon the necks of these disciples and they can’t keep them because we never kept them? Wouldn’t you hate to say, okay, I trust you Christ is my savior today, but I’ve got to keep the law now in order to go to heaven. Well, what did he do? Give me a jumpstart. It was only good to get me going. In other words, he was gonna help me lead my life now so that I could be good enough to finally make it.

That’s not the Bible. No, it’s not. So he makes a statement here in verse 11. And you are the underlying verse 11, it’s awesome. But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they, what? By grace through faith only believing, and God would save them. Now so that you are confident of this turn to Ephesians chapter two and verse eight and nine Ephesians chapter two verse eight. Now these are two of my favorite verses in the whole Bible.

These are two awesome verses. You need to know these verses. Look in verse eight and nine. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, it’s not of works lest any man should boast.” Now look up here. I cannot stand up here and say, I’m going to heaven because I live better than you do. And I’m so holy and I have my little halo around my head. You know, there’s only about nine inches between a halo and a noose.

And you’re going to hang yourself when you think you’re going to heaven because you’ve got a halo around your head and you’re so good. I am a dirty, lousy stinking rotten sin and out of go to hell, just like you. You are no better than I am. And God says that there’s no difference. Everybody gets saved exactly the same way. God doesn’t save one person one way and another person another way. Everybody gets saved the same way by trusting Jesus Christ as their only hope to get to heaven because you believe He paid for all of your sins.

When you believe He paid for all of your sins and you know you don’t have to pay for one of your sins. If you really believe it, because He paid for it. And that payment that He made is put to your account and there is no sin for me to pay for. That’s why there’s no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Means that from now until the time that I die, I can never in the future be condemned.

You say why? Because when Christ died, He died for me. His death is put to my account. The law can never condemn a dead man. I died when I trusted Christ as my Savior because His death became my death and the law can never touch me again. It can never condemn me again. You say you don’t deserve that. You’ve got that right. That’s why he says, by grace or you say through, through, not of yourself. It’s not of yourself.

It’s not of yourself. It is the gift of God. It’s not of work. Not of work. How would you? Translate that. It is a works. When it says, it is the gift of God. How would you translate that? It is not the gift of God? No, don’t change the Bible. Believe it. See, they don’t believe the Bible. And he says, there’s some, and they’re teaching something that is not true. Now go over there to the book of 1 John chapter 2.

and we’ll close over here because I want you to see this. Christ through the Apostle John says that they are anti-Christ. Now look at verse 19 again, they went out from us who? These legalistic Judaizers that were teaching that you had to keep the law to be saved and keep the law to stay saved. He says, for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us. What was the difference between between what the church in Jerusalem taught and what these legalistic Judaism, what was the difference in their doctrine?

One believed in eternal security and one didn’t. So he says there in verse 21, I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth. In verse 22, who is a liar? Who’s a liar? But he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ. He is the antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son. Who’s a liar? One that denies that Jesus said what he said, and the one that denies that Jesus did what he did.

Did he pay for all my sins or did he not? If you don’t believe that you call him a liar. If you don’t believe that when he saves you and gives you eternal life then you call him a liar. Who’s doing this? Antichrist. Preachers. These were preachers that he’s talking about in the book of Acts. So don’t you think that all All preachers are the same. No, they’re not the same. I believe in eternal security. Eternal security because I believe that a man is saved by grace and is none of his works.

Do I have to go to church? No, I do not. Do I have to give money? No, I do not. You see, what if you go out here and live wrong? Are you still gonna go to heaven? Yes, I will. Yes, I will. I couldn’t go to hell if I tried. I haven’t tried. I’m God’s child and I’ve tried to live as righteous as godly as I know how, but that’s not what gets me to heaven. I’m going to have him because of what he did for me.

Now look what he says down here in verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard and from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise, believe it. This is the promise. What is that promise that he has promises? What is the promise that he promised us? Eternal life. So this subject that we’re talking about here, He’s talking about what I’m telling you, it’s talking about.

I’m not making this up. This is the truth of these scriptures. He promised me what? Eternal life. And if you don’t believe that, you call him a liar. You say this, say that anywhere else. I know you’re going to say that. Look in chapter five. Chapter five, look in verse 10. He says, he that believeth of chapter five, verse 10, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him what?

A lie calls God a liar. Why? Because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. What was the record? I’m glad you asked. This in verse 11 is the record. That God hath given, past tense, hath given to us, those that believe hath given to us what? Eternal life, get this. And the life is where? In the sun. So when you accept the sun, You have eternal life because Jesus Christ and eternal life is the same.

See down there in verse 20, the last part of verse 27, this is the true God and eternal life. Who Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the true God. Jesus Christ is eternal life. So when Jesus says, I’ll never leave you and I’ll never forsake you. How can I ever lose eternal life? You can’t because Christ and eternal life are the same. So clear in the book. Now, get what he says in verse 13. Jimmy, verse 12. He that hath the Son hath what?

Life, what kind of life? Turn to life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not what? Life, what kind of life? So if you don’t have the Son, you don’t have eternal life. If you have the Son, what do you have? You can’t have the Son and not have eternal life. And that’s why you ask some people, have you touched the Christ to save you? Oh yes, where are you going to die? Well, I don’t know. Do you have eternal life?

I don’t know. Well, wouldn’t you understand it? No, they evidently not. Now, look in verse 13. These things have I written under you that keep the 10 commandments and obey the golden rose. I like misquoting scripture because then you can just see the point. These things have I written under you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may what? No. Can you know you have eternal life? Can you know that you’re going to heaven when you die?

Yes. Only way you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die is because it is a gift because it’s free. But if it depended upon your performance, you’ll always be in question. always be dubbed and you will not know when you have lost it and you will not know if you haven’t already. Anybody who believes they can lose their salvation don’t know if they’ve already lost it. So what do they have? Then they have to say, well, I hope I’m going to heaven.

I don’t say I hope I’m going to heaven. Why? Because I know I’m going to heaven. It is the gift of God and it’s not a works list. Any man should boast. That’s the best news in all the world. Just a quote of verse 2 Corinthians 5, 21, 4, he God has made him Jesus Christ, who knew no sin. to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I go to heaven because he gives me his righteousness.

I’m a sinner. Christ walks in here and he’s perfect. If he was to give me his perfection, that would make me as perfect, as righteous, as God. If I had God’s perfection given to me, would that be good enough for me to go to heaven on? Yeah, I’m going on his, not mine. And see, it wasn’t good enough before my works, and my works afterwards is not good enough. I’m saved by grace. Grace through faith. Let’s pray, shall we?

Every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re here this morning and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, would you do this? Would you talk to the Lord? Because you see, it’s not important that I believe that you have or anybody else. But it is important that you tell God. Tell God this, Lord I’m a sinner. He knows that already he wants you to admit it. You’re a sinner, you’re not perfect. And Lord I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for my sins.

And right now, I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior as my only hope of getting to heaven. If you will, God will save you and give eternal life. In just a moment, I’m gonna ask you raise your hand, raise your hand, does not save you. It only lets me know that what I said made sense to you and you’re saying, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior and preach our life for you to pray for me. So in the quietness of this moment with his bow knife closed, is there anyone that will say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior this morning and preach our life for you to pray for me?

Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a wrap back down? Is there any word at all? No tricks to it, no gimmicks. They’re not going to pin you against the wall, not going to embarrass you. I do with his bow knife closed for that reason. How many of you in this room know positively beyond a shadow without that if you died right now you’d go to heaven. Would you raise your hand very quickly and put it right down?

God bless you. As far as I know that’s everybody in the room. Our Father we thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us. Help us not to be ashamed of the gospel and help us not to be ashamed of the teaching, the doctrine of eternal security because that is the gospel. And we pray Lord that you’re will to be done in the lives of each person here. Help us to stand firm, to stand strong, to do right, not because we have to, but because we want to.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. Hello, this is Peter Amato from Bibleline, and I’m excited to tell you of our free book offer for the month of January. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send to you the mysteries of the New Testament. Have you ever wondered what the mystery of the gospel was or the mystery of the blindness of Israel? How about the mystery of Babylon? Well, we’re featuring a book written by Dr.

Dan Arbergast that explains all these mysteries found in the New Testament, and we’d like to send a copy to you for a donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, or you can call toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. We hope you enjoy the teaching of Dr. Arnold, and thank you for your continued support and prayers. Once again, contact us today for this wonderful book on the mysteries of the New Testament. 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. 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.