This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. and 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

My family, my children, as precious as they are, are not saved because I’m saved. My wife doesn’t get to go to heaven because I trusted the Lord. Now Betty’s mother one day was listening to the radio. She heard about Jesse Henley in the tent revival who was having there in Athens, Georgia. So she decided to go down there and lo and behold she trusts the Lord she got saved. But she heard the birth believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and by in house.

So she came back and told everybody they saved. She got saved for them. And thy house, if they believe. Everyone is an individual thing. You are not going to heaven because Aunt Susie trusts the Lord. Or your grandpa used to be a preacher. I’ve asked people, say, where are you going today? Oh, my grandfather was a preacher. What’s that got to do with anything? Or my dad, he serves in the church. He’s a beacon. Oh, that’s wonderful, that’s great.

But that’s not the answer. So he makes a statement here in verse 13, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. You can’t make it happen. It’s not because of your desire, all the will that you have, all that you can muster up, your determination, your commitment to live a good life, to turn from sin and make Christ the Lord a mess. It’s not It’s not that way. But notice the last three words which were born how?

Of God. God can do it. Man cannot. You’re not a Christian because your parents were Christians. You’re not going to heaven because somebody you know and love are going to heaven. You, indimidially, you must be born again. And you’re not born again just because you heard that you had to be born again. Just because you know how you’re supposed to go to heaven doesn’t mean you’re going to heaven if you don’t do what that knowledge tells you to do if you don’t trust them.

I believe there’s a lot of churches with a lot of people who have heard it over and over and over again and still refuse to trust Christ as their only hope. Well I’m going to be good just in case. unnulinate. The works of the flesh cannot save a man. Therefore, no man is justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ alone. It’s only that way. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter and chapter 1. Many of these things, no doubt, are very repetitious to you, But understand, there’s a lot of times some people have never heard what you have heard all your life. And you may go to church and you hear it and maybe you take it for granted. Well everybody’s heard that. And sometimes they’ve never heard the most simplest of things. I was 18 years old and never heard John 3 16. in 1 Peter 1, notice what it says in verse 23, being born again, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God.

So that means you’re being born into God’s family because you believe what the Word of God said. And whatever the Word of God is, can become. If I take a seed of a watermelon and I plant it, what can come from that seed? A watermelon. And if I plant some cotton, I can get cotton. Whatever seed I plant, I can get that from that seed. This is incorruptible seed, and we preach the Word of God, and we sow the seeds, and your mind is the ground upon which the seed falls.

And some of it, the birds come. and gets the seed before you get a chance to think about it. That’s why while the preacher is preaching, sometimes there’s a sermon I was preaching years ago called the sin of the blackbirds. That while you’re sitting in church, your mind begins to drift and the seed is sown but a little blackbird, another thought came in and stole that seed away and it proffed you nothing. There’s people who go to church all their life and they said in daydream, think about other things instead of what’s actually being said.

And the word profits them zero, and then they get up and leave and say, you know, I’m just not getting anything out of the sermon. I’m tired of all this milk, I want some meat. You ever hear people say things like that? The preacher hears it all the time. The Bible says about a word of God which liveth and abideth forever. So that’s what is a description of the word of God. It’s incorruptible. It liveth and it abides forever.

That means when you trust Christ as your Savior, you become a child of God born into God’s family. And because you’re born into God’s family, you will abide forever. is no end to you being a child of God. So once you’re born into God’s family, you are always God’s child. He will always be your father. None of God’s children have anything to worry about going to hell. That’s impossible. If there’s a heaven, if there’s a hell, God’s the one that says how to go to heaven, how to avoid hell.

He said, if I trust Christ, this might save you, it gives me eternal life, and you shall never perish, never in the future, never perish. There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. You cannot be condemned in the future because there has to be sins laid against your charge that would keep you from going to heaven and that’s impossible. All my sins were laid upon Christ. And therefore I have the free gift of everlasting life. Here in 1 Peter 2, Look what he says in verse one, wherefore layin aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envies and all evil speaking get this as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grove thereby.

You’re a babe in Christ but it is your father’s desire that you desire the milk of the word so that you may grow. But you may not grow because you do not desire the milk of the word, but you’re still a babe in Christ. You’re His child once born, always born. Once a child, always a child. Once forgiven, always forgiven. You have eternal life, it’s always eternal life. He doesn’t give you temporary life. I don’t have probation, I have salvation.

If you are not eternally secure, you are not secure. That’s why this is so important. Can something simple like this affect your whole life? If you don’t really understand this important lesson, you can question your salvation, doubt your salvation because, well, you look at the way you live sometimes, and you look at the things that happens to you. Well, God must not love me. God must have forgotten me. No, no, no, no. You’re not strong in the Lord. That’s the problem.

Once you’re saved, you’re his child forever. He is your father. And he’ll say, he said, I’ll never cast you out. He’ll never lose you. And no man can pluck you out of my hand. Most people think that being a child of God, going to heaven, is somebody who commits themselves. I’m gonna accept Christ. See, I I got him, I accepted him. And I’m gonna live for him, and I’m gonna stop doing certain bad things, but then if they do something wrong, now they’re slipping away.

Oh no, now they’re lost. Got to get saved again. Got to run down to the front of the church. Make a new commitment. Mean business this time. Now, I’m right again. Then if they do something wrong, there they go again. Now I’m going to hell again. So you ask them, where are you going when you die? Well, I’m doing the best. I’m hanging in there. Well, you’re not supposed to be hanging in there. You see, salvation is me trusting Him, Him saving me.

Do you see any difference? See, my going to heaven doesn’t depend upon me. Depends upon Him keeping His word. He is going to save me. He said He will not cast me out. He said He will not lose me. He said nobody can pluck you out of His hand. He’s taking me to heaven, not me taking me to heaven. I’m not helping him. I didn’t save myself and I don’t have the power to keep myself saved. I was saved by the grace of God and I’m kept saved by the power of God.

This is true for every child of God. So understand that and believe it. It kind of irritates your father when you question what he says. And as a child of God, you can deny afterwards anything God says. I think some people are going to be very surprised to find out when they die. They actually made it to heaven because they trusted Christ with their Savior sometime in their life. And then later on because of false teaching, then deny the very Lord that bought them such a shame.

Take your Bible now and turn to the book of 1 John chapter 1, 1 John chapter 1. Notice something about your Father. Your heavenly Father has fathered you. You have been born from above. If you were just born again into this world, like you have been the first time, you’d be no better off. You could be born into this world a thousand times without any improvement. Because each time you were born with a sinful nature. No improvements, still the same problems.

But the born from above means be born without a sinful nature. That’s your second birth. My first birth, God never did anything with it. But now He wants us to have this joy with Him. See there in verse three, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things right, your joy may be formed. your heavenly Father who has allowed you to be born into his family, wants you to have joy, full joy.

He wants you to be happy. He wants you to learn how to walk with him, talk with him. It’s the best Father and Son relationship you could ever have. You see, you can’t find any fault with God. Now you may have thought with your mom and you can find fault with your dad and never want to talk to them again and you can do all of that. But your heavenly Father has never wronged you. There’s no reason why you should not honor Him and want to walk with Him and serve Him.

So He says these things and this book now won’t you look in chapter two. First John chapter two. And look in verse one, my little children, my little children. These things right, I unto you that you sin not and if any man sin, I’m going to cast you out and send you to hell. Well, no, I didn’t say that. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and He reminds us. He’s the habitiation for our sins.

He paid for our sins. Well, He doesn’t want His children to sin, but if you do sin, it’s still paid. It’s what He says, it’s still paid. It can’t cost you your salvation, but because you are His child, He wants His children to love Him. He says, and the rest of this, this is what I want you to do. So look in verse three, here by we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Oh, oh that’s scary.

He that says I know him and keep it not his commandment is a liar and the truth is not in him. Now let’s just take one word and give you its meaning and you’ll see it so clear. See there in verse three and here by we do know that we love him if we keep his commandment. He that said, I love Him and keep if not His commandment is lying. You see, book of 1 John is talking about love not the world, know the things that are in the world.

. For the love of the Father is not in Him. So the one thing that God wants is, I want you to love me. Now we don’t love God to go to heaven. We’re going to heaven because He loved us. But He makes the statement there in chapter four, looking in chapter four very quickly. And look what He says here in verse 19. Verse 19, we love Him because He first loved us. So now we should, as a child of God, we should love Him.

He said, if you love me, love one another. The commandment he’s talking about here goes back to the gospel of John. Don’t talk about the 10 commandments he’s talking about a new commandment I gave you. Love one another because I loved you. And so he said, if you love me, he says, serve me. And if any man’s serving, him will my Father honor. So God wants this for us. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Galatians in chapter 3 very quickly, Galatians and chapter 3.

And remember that once you trust Christ as your Savior and other people trust Christ as their Savior, you’re all in the same family. Look what he says here in this verse. In Galatians in chapter 3, look in verse 26, for ye are all the children of God. Now if I stop right there, I didn’t tell the truth about this verse. So let’s just finish the verse. For you’re all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you became a child of God.

So you weren’t always a child of God. You don’t become gradually by disciplining your life and starting to live like a Christian. Oh, I must be a Christian because I live like a Christian. No. Being a child of God, there is a point in time a birth that must take place. Well, when was I born? February 4, 1942. But what if I don’t have that? Well, I’ve just always been here. You know that’s not true. God’s sin, you have to have this birth.

Now, you may not remember the day, but you ought to know I have been born again. I have been born into God’s family because you don’t go to heaven. God does not become your father unless you’re born again into his family. You must trust Christ as your Savior. Now look what he says in chapter 4. Chapter 4, looking verse 6, and because ye are sons, because you are not going to be, you are. God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart, cry an Abba Father, like he’s my daddy.

I have a new daddy. God is my new father. He’s not just a God, he’s my father. He’s more real to me than the clothes I have on my back. He’s more real to me than my wife. He’s more real to me than my children. And I’ve been married almost 55. Well, we have been married 55 years. But the Lord is more real to me. There isn’t anything in the world greater than knowing God. One of these days, husbands are going to die.

Wives are going to die. Kids are going to die. Our grandkids are going to die. The greatest thing you could ever know in this life is, do you know the Lord? Yeah, He’s my daddy. He is my daddy. And I am an heir of God and join heirs with Christ. Now take your Bible and turn over there to the book of 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. I want you to look at that in verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father have bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.

Did you know that being a child of God is more important, a greater higher standing than being the president of a bank, the greatest lawyer in the world, the president of the United States or anybody in any government office? Do you realize there is nothing greater than being a child of God? The God that created the heavens and the earth came into this world to make me his son, to make me his child. There’s nothing greater than being a child of God.

You should never have a bad self image of the old nature. Yeah, don’t trust that at all. You look into that mirror and say, You old dirty bird. You’re just dirt. But me. I’m a child of God. I’m a child of the king. If you’re a child of the king, learn to use the language of the court. Talk. Learn his word. Won’t it be a shame if you got to heaven and find out that God says, I wrote you my love letter.

Did you read my love letter? You know that letter that my daughter wrote. I’ve already read it about 10 times. because it’s from my daughter. And she said everything like I wanted her to. It’s precious to me. You have a heavenly Father and He wrote you a love letter. Do you have any time to read it? Do you ever get a text message and don’t respond? But you’re a child of God and God has given us His wonderful love letter.

And notice what He says here that we should be called the sons of God. And he says in verse 2, beloved, now are we the sons of God. I’m not going to be a child of God. I am a child of God. If I am a child of God, none of God’s children can go to hell. None of God’s children can lose their salvation. I am not going to be if I wasn’t a child of God, yet maybe that would all be true.

But I am one, and he’s made promises about his children that can never be taken away. You know that all brighten up everybody’s step. I don’t care what you’re going through. Everything in its life is just going from one problem to the next problem to the next problem. True? And with every little bit of joy that you have and some good news, there’s always somebody to spit on it. And every person who says and pat you on the back, there’s another one trying to find a place to put the knife.

But he makes the statement verse 2, 11, now are we the sons of God. Had doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And a friend of mine named Dr. Curtis Hudson says, Lord, if someday I’m gonna be like you, why not now? So he can do the most good. Don’t you believe that if you’re a child of God, you ought to act like a child of God?

That you ought to live like one? think like one, you’re different. You’re his child. You ought to live and act like a child of God ought to. This is why he has this one verse here that I want to show you. Look in verse 28. See there in verse 28 of chapter 2, now little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, not be ashamed before him He promises is that I’m coming back. I don’t want you to be ashamed.

A shame that you did not live as a child of God ought to live. Nobody can make you discipline your life. Nobody can make you go to church. Nobody can make you give like you. Nobody can make you witness. Nobody can make you study the work. Nobody can make you pray. They can’t make you do it. Why? Because God sets you free. He wants you to do it because you love him. And if that doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter.

If you’re not going to serve God because you love Him, it probably won’t make much difference because He says you’re not going to get rewarded if it’s not done out of love. That’s 1 Corinthians 13. Serve the Lord with all your heart. We love Him because He first loved us. Does He love you? He loved you enough that He paid for your sins. Made you His child. Now you’re going to heaven. You can never lose it. for eternity, but we’re not there yet.

And God out of all eternity gives us just a few short years to live for Him. Time. How you live your life is wrapped up in this little thing called time. And if you waste time, you waste life. And a lot of people are wasting their life because they’re not using their time to serve God. Look up here. This hand represent you and me, though a wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. Now, he hates our sin, but he loves us.

He loves you. And so because we have all sinned, that means we’re all condemned and we’re all in the same boat. Everybody in the world. Nobody’s going to heaven because they live better than you. Nobody’s going to hell because they live worse than you. You see? The Bible says we have all sinned and we’re all condemned, the whole world guilty. And go to heaven, we have to get rid of the sin. And none of us are perfect. We cannot save ourselves.

We need to be born again, born without a sinful nature where we won’t produce this. So the Bible says Jesus Christ was God’s Son. Came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And He says, whosoever, believe it, receives it, accepts it, are born of God. You get to go to heaven because of what Christ did on the cross for you.

You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it, you don’t buy it. It’s the gift of God. And yet to be born into God’s family is something that can happen to anybody that here’s the gospel and believes it. That’s why it’s so simple to be saved. Otherwise, some children couldn’t understand it, but children can understand a free gift. It’s older folks that have a harder problem believing it, it can’t be free. It just can’t be that way. That’s too easy.

It’s got to be more complicated. I got to do something. And God says, not one work. 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. We all get to heaven because we all trust Christ as our Savior, or you don’t get there at all. There is no other way. There’s no option be. I pray that you have accepted Christ as your Savior, and that you have been born from above.

Let’s pray, shall we? For every head bowed and every eye closed, and no one looking around. I pray that each one of you here have trusted Christ as Savior, But just in case, just in case you may be here and you say, Preeta, I’ve never heard that before. I’ve never really understood. But I want to go to heaven when I die. And I realize that I can’t recall any time that I’ve ever really trusted the Lord. It’s my Savior.

I’ve heard about it, but I just never did. So, friend, why not right now? The kindness of this moment. Just talk to the Lord. He knows your thoughts. You can’t make a mistake this way. Only the true and living God knows who you are, what you’ve done, what you’re going to do. And He’s the one that loves you. I’m just trying to get you to trust the Lord, not me, not this church. Over the head by night, close. You say, preach to that made sense to me and I’m going to trust Christ as my Savior this morning right now.

And if you’ll make that decision, I’d like to know and I’d like to have prayer for you. I’m not going to embarrass you. I’m not going to have you stand up or come forward. But I’m going to ask you if you just slip in it very quickly, put it right back down. And by that that means, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. Now I’d like for you to pray for me. Is there anyone at all? slip it up very quickly put it right back down God bless you buddy you can put it down anyone else so yes that made sense to me I want to know that I’m going to heaven and I will accept Christ this morning’s my savior anyone else anyone else yes God bless you anyone else wait just a moment it be a shame to walk out of this room and never trust

Christ as your savior to realize the awful consequences of not believing on Christ. Our Father, we do thank you so much for loving us. Thank you for these that indicated by an uplifted hand that they would accept Jesus Christ with their Savior this morning. By doing so, they become your children born into your family with the gift of eternal life. And Lord, we just ask Your blessings upon each one of them that they get a Bible and read and study it and talk to you because of prayer and Father, they get into a good Bible believe in and teach in church.

We think of it as church and all those good people, and the rest of the blessings of each one, and Christ and we pray, Amen. 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 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 call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of The Gospel Driven Man. 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. Taught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. leaving that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.