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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

As you know, I believe very, very strongly in salvation by grace. And I believe the way you know it’s really by grace is it is eternal. If a preacher says you’re saved by grace but and then starts buttoning it all over the place, then he doesn’t really believe it. If a preacher does not believe in eternal security, he doesn’t believe that salvation is by grace. Because if I can be saved by grace, because I’m not worthy of anything. I didn’t do any good deeds.

Then I can be kept saved by the very same token. And there’s some things that God has said in His Word that I want you to see about five basic things for you to understand about this great wonderful salvation that we have. Look there in Romans in chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and there’s two verses or three verses, verses 28, 29 and 30 that deal with the purpose of God. In other words, when you look at it from the very beginning, God said that He had a purpose in mind and the purpose that God had from the very beginning was that He would save a man eternally, forever and do certain things for him to secure his place in heaven so that when we leave this life there is nothing better, nothing greater than knowing that we are going to heaven when we die.

Life can be wonderful and you can be very happy and you can love your husband, your wife and your children. But you can lose your wife, you can lose your husband, you can lose your children, you can lose your health, you can lose your job and one day you will. Maybe all at once. Because you’re going to die And the greatest knowledge in all the world is where will you spend eternity? He has purpose before the foundations of the world, before we were ever born, that He is going to do something to everyone who believes.

He is going to justify you. He’s going to make you just as though you had never sinned. Never committed a sin. So look what he says in verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his sin. Now look up here. Before the world ever began, before time began, before God ever created a man, God had a purpose, God had a plan, and He has determined before any man had ever been born, done any good or bad, that God says, I’m going to take everyone who has trusted Christ as Savior, who will trust Him, and God has purposed that He is going to justify them, sanctify them, glorify them and not because of anything they did.

But this is what he’s going to do because it’s his purpose, to every believer so that we can know that we’re going to heaven whenever we die. This is all according to his purpose. So eternal security, predestination, the destiny fixed beforehand, is not that he chose you and you and let the rest of you go to hell. God has chosen to save all who will trust Him, those who will accept Christ as their Savior, who give them eternal life and they will go to heaven whenever they die.

So because of the purpose of God, we can believe very easily in the eternal security of the believer. The other thing I want you to see there in verse 31. Verse 31, for what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? One of the reasons that you and I can believe in eternal security is because of the provision that God has made.

He made provision for every one of us. every person who’s ever been born to the world to have salvation. So we know that eternal security is according to the purpose of God. And eternal security is also because of the payment that Christ made the provision that He made. Look what He says there in verse 32. He that spared not His own Son. Now if He did not spare His own Son that gave Him as the payment for our sins, it was so so that he could secure eternal redemption, eternal security for those that believed in him.

This is something that God has designed. This was his plan. God determined that when he saves a person, he saves the person forever because of the purpose that he designed that every person who believes in him would be justified just as if he had never committed a sin, God would declare him righteous and holy and perfect and glorify him someday when he gets to heaven and he will have an old sinful body or a sinful nature. He’ll be perfect and righteous just like God.

That was God’s purpose. That’s what he decided to do if I could lose my salvation because I committed some terrible sin. lost again, or how does that sin that caused me to lose my salvation? How does it get paid for now? If Christ isn’t coming back to the earth and He’s not going to pay for any sins anymore, well, how am I ever going to get my sin paid for that caused me to lose my salvation? Then you would be eternally lost.

You couldn’t get saved again. So the Bible does tell us that you cannot be saved and lost and get saved again because his provision for salvation was for eternity and you can’t get lost after you trust him as your Savior. It’s impossible. So God loves us that much. Now these two things I’ve mentioned to you before. You do not find anywhere in the Bible a story or illustration or a verse of any kind that says that God has ever saved anybody and lost them.

There’s no story in the Bible where God has ever saved a man, lost the man, and then saved him again. There isn’t one. Why? Because of the provision that Christ made was once and for what? Once and for all. You can’t do it again. He cannot die again to pay for anybody else’s sin. So either you’re saved forever or not saved at all. So eternal security. Once saved, always saved is not a separate doctrine in salvation. eternal security is the good news of salvation.

That’s what makes it so different from all the religions that all the religions have. They don’t have that. There’s not something that I can have the day and can never lose. There’s always based upon your life. Look there in Romans 8 and verse 35. I know that I am eternally secure because of this, because of the perpetual love of God the Father. You see, we may love God a little bit, but you were not saved from hell because you love God.

So now that I know Christ is my Savior, should I love God? I should love Him for what He did for me. I wasn’t saved because I loved Him. I will say because He loves me that much. And He says His love is perpetual. And I am saved because of His love for me. And his love is an everlasting love, a perpetual love. And so my salvation is as secure as the love of God. Look what he says in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Or from salvation? What can separate you from being saved? Nothing. Nothing can ever change that. The purpose of God can’t be changed. and the provision of God cannot be changed. And according to these scriptures, The Bible says that his perpetual love cannot be changed and that there’s nothing that you and I are going to go through or face that can change this. Remember this. I am saved by grace. I am kept saved by grace. I will say because he loves me and I am kept saved because he still loves me.

I didn’t do good deeds to save myself. I don’t do good deeds to stay saved. So when you accept Christ as your Savior, you have God living within you. You have eternal life because the life is in the sun. And He said, I’ll never leave you and never forsake you. So you are eternally secure. That means from this day forward or since the day you trusted Christ as your Savior, it is impossible, impossible for you to go to hell in the future.

There is nothing that you could ever do. I don’t care how bad, how wicked you live. After you trusted Christ as your Savior, you can never, never, never be lost. And I had people tell me, say, well, you just given people a license to sin, I am not gonna change the gospel story because some people abuse their salvation. And I want you to know on top of that because you can never be lost. And your God’s child, you can’t live as you please and get away with it.

But because your Father is your Father and you are His child, your heavenly Father can chase in you. In other words, you put it in another vernacular, beat the Torah out of you. And maybe take you home before your time, but you’re going to heaven, whether you like it or not. Now you should love it and you should be glad. I believe every person who trusts Christ’s the Savior should serve the Lord, but they don’t. They don’t have to.

You see, you can abuse the love of God and you can grieve the love of God. You can resist the will of God. God still loves you with a perpetual love. It’ll never stop. He loves you that much. Now, Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, I want you to see this. Romans chapter 5 and verse eight because of the promises that God has made. You and I are eternally secure because of the promises that God has made to you and me.

You see, he said in his word, as many as shall come to me, he says, I will in no wise cast out. Did he say that? He said, all that come with me, I will in no wise cast out. And this is the Father’s will which have sent me that of all which ye have given me, I should He’d lose nothing. He promised, He’d never cast me out for no reason. He promised that He would not lose me. He promised.

He promised me eternal life. He promised me it was by grace. He told me it was a gift, the gift of God, which is eternal life. He promised that. Now either God is a God who cannot lie and keeps his word, or he is a liar. He promised. These things have, I’ve written unto you that believe, on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have what? Eternal life. So I know that I’m saved and I have eternal life because of the promises that God made.

Now look there in Romans chapter 5 and verse 8. God commended His love toward us in that. While we were saints, no, while we were yet sinners, sinners, Christ died for us. See, Christ died for us 2,000 years ago before we were born. And while we were sinners, before we ever heard the gospel, the Bible says this in verse 9 much more than being now justified by the, I am now justified, now justified, now get this, we shall be saved from wrath, that means I believe a reference toward hell, through him I will be saved as the promise and God cannot lie.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more, being reconciled we shall be saved from this wrath to come by His life.” You see, He died to pay for my sins. And once I trust Him as my Savior, I am kept saved by the power of His endless life. You see, he made a payment for me and he intercedes for me and the blood that was made as a payment for my sins is incorruptible blood.

It lasts forever. So because of the power of the payment that was made for me, the provision, my eternal salvation is secure. So that I’m not resting in the quality of my life that I live as my security That I know I’m going to heaven because where I go to church and I read the Bible and I’m a preacher So I should be should I feel more secure than you? No, I am no more securely saved than a drunk who walks in here this morning and trust Christ is a Savior He will be just as safe and just as secure as the preacher who tried to live God for 40 years.

I have no more advantages because what God did for one, He did for every person. He made a complete payment and He says that you are to be saved from the wrath to come because He came back from the dead and ever lived. Look what He says. The last part of verse 10. We shall be saved by his life. Christ now lives in me and lives in you. He’ll never cast you out, he’ll never lose you. And so because of the promises that God has made, you are eternally secure.

There is a multitude of preachers who do not believe this. Don’t you think that all preachers believe the same way? No, they don’t. No, they don’t. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Peter 1. 1st Peter and chapter 1. 1st Peter, chapter 1, we are eternally secure and you should know that we’re eternally secure because of the power of God because of His power. Does any man have any power, any power that’s greater than God’s power?

Take all the power that a man can muster. is it greater than God’s power? No. So God has all authority, all power, and He can decide what He will do. And this is what He has decided that He will do. You see, man didn’t make this up. This was what God wanted. It doesn’t matter how many times you think in your mind, that’s not fair. That’s not right. I don’t believe a person ought to be able to go out here and do things wrong and go to heaven.

Well, then you don’t believe anybody ought to go to heaven, because everybody has. I had a man tell me one time, well, if what you say is true, I could go out here and live like the devil is still going to heaven when I die. I’ll never believe that. I said, if you don’t believe in salvation by grace, you can’t, and you won’t believe that. But if you believe that salvation is really by grace, unmerited, then why are you thinking that a man’s got to live good enough to merit it?

If he doesn’t have to merit it. means unmerited. Now either man has to merit salvation or he doesn’t merit salvation. One way or the other can be both ways. So if a man is saved by grace means he doesn’t merit his salvation. It means that after you are saved there’s nothing that you have to do to merit keeping it. Now notice what it says here in 1 Peter in chapter 1. Look in verse Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again.

That word begotten us again means to be born again. You have been begotten of God. If you were begotten, that means you were born again. But who was your Father? Look what he said. Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath forgotten you again. That means you have been born again by God the Father. Now He’s not only the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He is my Father.

He’s my Father. I’m His Son. I am His child. He fathered me. He gave me a new birth, born of God, born by the incorruptible seed. Now notice something. When he makes the statement here, according to his abundant mercy, half the Godness again, did it say because you kept the 10 commandments you were born again? Because you did all these good deeds you were born again. Mercy means you didn’t deserve it. You didn’t deserve to be saved by his abundant mercy.

That’s why I’m saved. I’m going to heaven because he had mercy upon me. I didn’t get what I deserved. Grace is getting something you didn’t deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. And notice this. He says, according to his abundant mercy hath be gotten us again, been born again, get this, onto a lively hope. That word lively hope means a living hope. It means that our hope of our eternal, eternal security is based upon a living person.

Because Christ came back from the dead. Remember I told you this on Easter. Christ coming back from the dead and the scars in His hands and in His feet and in His side, that’s the stamp of approval that He is the payment in bull. He is the proof of payment. So Christ being raised from the dead is the proof that the payment for our sins have been paid and He ever live it. as a living eternal receipt. And so our hope is in Him.

You say, well, you don’t deserve to go to heaven. That’s right. Look at Christ. He went through that. He did that for me. And God fathered me because of His abundant mercy. Now, because of anything that I’ve done, don’t you ever get on your high horse and thinking that you’re saved because you did something worthy. Like you’re better than somebody else. We are all sinners and nobody’s any better than anybody else. than anybody else. Only by the grace of God did somebody explain the gospel to you and the Holy Spirit illuminate your mind and you had a good sense to accept the payment Christ made on the cross for you or you would go to hell.

But he loves you. Now I want you to look in verse 4. In verse 4, in verse 4 it makes the statement that you have an inheritance. It means a place in heaven and inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled. That faith, if not away, reserved in heaven for you. Now, when it says your inheritance is incorruptible, it means that your place that you have for you is death proof. It is death proof. It means it is not subject to decay. It can’t die.

Whatever inheritance that you’ve got, it’s death proof. When it makes a statement that it is on the file, it means it is sin proof. It means that it’s not capable of sin. The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation 21, 27, for there shall in no lies enter into it anything that defile of the work of the domination or even a lie, but they which are written the land of book of life. No, we’re not even a sin, It can’t enter there.

So God has a place, it can never be defiled. It’s sin proof. And that’s the place He has for me. That’s my place. I have an inheritance that’s incorruptible. It’s death proof. It can never die. It’s mine. No end to it. And it’s sin proof. No sin can get in there. It cannot defile it. That’s mine. That’s my inheritance. You see, when I trusted Christ as my Savior, I became an heir of God and joined heirs with Christ because he’s my Father.

I inherited all of this. You see, a man one day came to Christ and says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? You can inherit eternal life unless you’re his child. It’s nothing that you do. You see, eternal life is something that you have when you trust Christ as your Savior. Now get this. And the last part of it says, and that fadeth not away, that fadeth not away, it means it’s time-proof. It means that in the future, it can’t gradually fade away and I lose it.

All of these words are down here for this reason. When he says it is incorruptible means that I can’t lose it. When he says it, fadeth not away means I can’t lose it. When he says that it’s undefiled means that I can’t lose it. Why do you think even the Lord says, lay up treasure and so forth in heaven because you can’t lose it? He says that this is all secured for me because of the power of God. Now I know and I believe in eternal security for several good reasons.

I do it because I believe very strongly in the purpose of God designed it and his payment that that he made the Zinedad. And so we have, according to the word of God, the power of God that secures him. Now look what he says here in verse five. Look in verse five. Who are kept? Who are kept? Who refers to me? Who refers to you? Who are what? Kept. You are kept. You are, have been born again. Born of the Father.

You have a place that is inherited by you that’s incorruptible and undefiled and that paid it not away. That’s all been put to your account. That’s all yours. That’s yours. And then he said, well, what about you? Why reserve a place like that for you? That’s death proof and sin proof. I mean, it’s all there and it’s all yours. And yet at the same time, I have it to where you might not show up. So he says in verse five, who are kept by the power of God?

Who saved you? He did. Who keeps you saved? He does. You were saved by Him and you are kept saved by Him, has nothing to do with your performance. Now, if this causes you to go out and live like the devil, so be it. I can’t help that. But I want you to get the other side of the coin because this is true. It is the Word of God. And I don’t usually take a habit of changing and twisting the book.

If you can show me where from the Bible that what I said is wrong, show it to me. I will try because I know this is the authority. The preacher is not the authority. But I want to try to put things in his proper perspective. I believe that as a child of God, because I’m going to heaven, I don’t worry about that no more. I don’t even think about it. Because what I did 40 years ago in a little old living room and I trusted Christ as my Savior, all that was secured.

That’s all done. I didn’t save me. I don’t have to worry about that. I don’t have to keep myself saved by anything I do. There’s nothing I can do that can never take it away. But because I’m God’s child, I want to serve him because of where I’m going. I want to serve him because of what he did for me. Because all of this is so real and so true, I want to live for the Lord. But I don’t do that to get to heaven, I do it because I’m going to heaven.

Salvation is totally free. You have a place that’s reserved in heaven for you. Look at the last part of verse 4. He says, reserved in heaven for who? For you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Alright, now look up here just a moment. Let me show you a simple illustration. This hand represents you and me and a wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. Now for you and I to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

No sin. Nobody is. We’ve all sinned and to pay for the sin is eternal separation from God in hell. So if we’re all guilty, then we have to pay. So that’s why we need a Savior. You cannot save yourself and the sin has to be dealt with. And so God says you cannot earn eternal life. You cannot work your way to heaven. You have to pay for this and to pay for your sins means you go to hell. This hand represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.

He came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin. So what Christ did was he took our sins, paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead. the sins of all the world has been paid. And whosoever believes that Christ did that for them. He puts that payment to their account and you go to heaven on what he did for you, that substitution. You are justified just as if you had never committed one single act of sin.

God gives to you his eternal life, his holy spirit. You become his child, born of God and you are going to heaven whenever you die. You’re just not there yet, but you’re going to heaven whenever you die. That cannot be changed. His purpose cannot be changed. His power cannot be changed. His promises cannot be changed. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr.

Arnold’s book, The Gospel driven man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply Paulus at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the gospel-driven name.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address. And God bless you and thank you for listening to 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, believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.