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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 Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, I got an interesting little title for today’s message. It’s simple. It’s got a good question to it. Where does the Bible teach eternal security? Well, the whole Bible teaches eternal security. And if you don’t believe in eternal security, you have no security. Eternal security is not a separate doctrine from salvation. Eternal security is salvation. You’re either saved forever or you are not saved at all. So I want to take one book and show you how I believe this book is given us a guarantee on our eternal salvation.

We have a lot of people that believe you can be saved today and then be lost tomorrow. It’s very hard to call that good news, because it would be good news to be saved today, but it will be bad news if you’re lost the next day. So that’s not good news. Either the good news is really good news and lasts forever. Or it’s not good news at all of what people call the gospel. So I want you to look at the opening statement that I have here, because leading people to the Lord, I’ve done it for 55 years been so lame.

And the most difficult part I have is not sharing the gospel. It’s trying to get a man lost because so many people don’t believe that they’re lost. There may be some of you here today that you go to church all the time here there or anywhere and you live a pretty good life and so because of how you live in your mind you think that helps. If you’re trusting in your works in any way then you’re not trusting Christ in Him alone.

God cannot help save you. He must save you. You can’t help Him. He doesn’t need your help. So look at the first opening statement, the most difficult work in the Lord’s ministry. I have ever encountered is getting a lost person to realize that he’s really lost. Only the truth of the gospel is the light that enables a person to see that they are trusting in their good life, behavior to save them. Otherwise they don’t see the need of the truth of the gospel until they see that they’re really lost.

And most people are so deceived they don’t believe that they are. So I want you take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 4, 2 Corinthians and chapter 4. And you’ll notice this is what the Apostle Paul says to the church there at Corinth. And look in verse 3 and verse 3. But if our gospel be hid or or veiled. It is hid to them that are lost. So somebody is lost. The Bible says Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.

The problem is, is there are some people who don’t believe they are lost. And so they are trusting in their church that get them to heaven. They’re good works to get them to heaven and they’re lost. And they’ve never trusted Christ as Savior. It’s amazing that we can go through our whole weekend camp, and not until the last day does somebody finally see it, and they trust Christ as Savior. But they believed they were saved all along. You’d be surprised how many people have gone to church for years.

And I used to preach all over the country. And there’s people that never understood the gospel. They didn’t listen. If it wasn’t given, they just don’t listen. They assume you’re not talking about them. You’re always talking about somebody else. And it’s not them. So an unexamined life is not worth living. So you are going to listen today and examine yourself to see, are you really in the faith? Do you really believe what you need to believe to be certain that you’re going to heaven when you die?

Now if I was to ask you a question like this, now this is a loaded question. Listen to it. before you answer, don’t answer it just in your own mind. Can a practicing homosexual be a Christian and go to heaven when he dies? Don’t answer. Can a practicing homosexual be a Christian? And when he dies, he goes to heaven. Could a man like Hitler, after all that he’s done, if he trusted Christ as his Savior, could God still save him?

Don’t answer. Just think about it in your mind. If a man trusts the Lord, can he in the future still go to hell? Remember not long ago I preached a sermon, entitled, You Cannot Know You’re Going to Heaven, until you know you cannot go to hell. If there’s any possibility that in the future you can still go to hell, you really don’t know if you’re saved. Let me repeat that. If you believe in any way that you can still in the future go to hell by any way, then you don’t know you’re going to heaven.

You see, yes, but I don’t know that don’t bother to nothing. There’s the possibility you can go to hell in the future. Any possibility, then you don’t know you’re going to heaven because you can’t if you believe you can still lose it. Look at verse four, in whom get this, the God of this world have blinded the minds of them which believe not. Remember those who do not believe are blinded and therefore is only the light of the gospel that shines unto them that can cause them to see.

So the gospel is what helps a man to see that he’s lost. So that’s why we share the gospel because the God of this world has blinded the minds ofwiki which do not believe. The lost man, he’s blind. He cannot see. And this is why they may know that there is a God. They may know that they are sinners. They might know they need to be righteous. So they go about trying to stop as many sins as possible and be as righteous as they can.

And it won’t work. Look at number one, point number one. If everyone is for me, who could be against me? If all of you in this room was to take a vote and say, if anybody ought to go to heaven, it ought to be Yankee Arnold. Therefore, because you are for me, who in the world could be against me? God, you see, when it comes down to it, your vote really doesn’t matter, doesn’t. My eternal destination is not approved by you.

You’re not the one who determines whether I’m good enough or not. But there is another question that’s asked in the Word of God. If God be for me, who can be against me? In other words, if God says that I’m saved, who are you to say that I’m not. Isn’t it true that we have today in the world fruit inspectors? They get out their magnifying glass and they go by and they’re examining everybody’s life. Oh, I know that person saved.

They go to church. They’re so nice and kind. They give money. They do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That person, I know that person’s lost because if you’re a Christian, you wouldn’t do that. If you’re a Christian, if you’re a real genuine Christian, You wouldn’t do that, and then you do that. So then, according to some people, they determine who is really a Christian and who’s not a Christian. There are no evidences of salvation because the new birth is a spiritual birth and you can’t see the spiritual birth.

You may never in your life . . . . . . . Show any signs of any fruit that you’re a Christian, but it does not annul the fact that you can still be a Christian and no fruit. If you say you have to have some fruit, now you’ve opened up another can of worms. What fruit? How much fruit? How much fruit from no fruit to some fruit that will determine you’re real and genuine. And who has to see the fruit?

You? Me? No. Look at number one. If the pope says all good Catholics will go to heaven, will they? You can answer that. No. If Mohamid says that all good Muslims will go to heaven, will they? No. Martin Luther says all good Lutherans will go to heaven, will they? No. What about the Methodists and the Abdas and the Mormons and all the rest? There is no one that approves somebody else for salvation outside of God himself. The Lord knows them that are His.

God knows. So we trust the true in living God, and He knows whether or not I’m trusting Him or I’m not trusting Him. So if all your family got together and says you are such a great Christian, doesn’t mean you’re a great Christian. Doesn’t even mean that you are a Christian because we can say and do a lot of things that are according to Christian principles and Christian character and never be a Christian. So you can be saved and not serve, not be a disciple.

And you can be a disciple of Christ, a learner, follower and not be saved. Look at the next scripture. I want you to look at the next scripture there in your notes. Second Corinthians 11 and verse 13 says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore he is no great thing if his ministers, so does the devil have ministers? Yes.

And his ministers get people to trust in their works of righteousness for their salvation. So it’s the things that they do. That’s what the devil does. Many so-called Christians and a lot of individual churches who are looking for evidences are looking for the good works to determine if you’re saved or not. That’s the devil’s message. That comes from the devil. It doesn’t come from God. See, in reality, you don’t even know that I am saved, do you? And I really don’t know that you are, do I?

Because we can deceive each other. The only thing that you in your own self can know and understand is are you trusting Christ as your Savior. Is your confidence in what He did on the cross for you? And you and God can know. The only reason that I would believe that somebody else is saved, I can believe it, I just can’t prove it, but I can believe that they’re saved because of what they say they’re trusting in to get them to heaven.

If you’re trusting in your works to get you to heaven, I consider you’re lost. If you don’t know for certain you have eternal life and that you know you’re going to go to heaven, I just can say that you’re lost. But if you say I’m trusting Christ as my only hope of going to heaven, that He died on that cross, paid for my sins, and I believe that. He did it for me. I will believe that you’re saved. But my belief doesn’t make you saved.

So it’s important to understand there are a lot of religions in the world. And the thing is God says broad is the way that lead to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads unto life. Few there be that find it. So isn’t it true that there’s a lot of religions in the world? the twos, but few will find it. How many do you think of all the religions really understand how to go to heaven whenever they die? Now, I think it’s important, but it says, therefore is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose in shall be according to their works.

And those who are going to be judged according to their works at the great white throne judgment do not have their names written in lambs book of life and they will all be cast into the lake of fire. Look at number two, why can’t a person save themselves by their good works? Because the verdict has already been given this case about us being lost means unable to save ourselves is closed. The books have already been closed on this issue.

Now, in your notes there, we can look into Bible or look at your notes, but for the saving of some time, look there in your notes, Romans chapter 3 verse 4, and this is what he says. God forbid you let God be true every man a what? Every man’s a liar. You say you didn’t know that, but he is. Romans 3, 28 says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Lord. the deeds of the law.

That means you do not earn it. You do not work for it. You cannot buy it. Now get let her see you. If all have sinned, then none of our good works in the past, now or in the future, will matter in saving us. The good works you have done in the past, the good works you are doing now, the good works you’ll do in the future, have nothing to do with your salvation. They cannot get your little pinkies one inch closer to the pearly gates.

You cannot go to heaven based upon your behavior. This is what blows most people’s minds because they just feel like they have to do something. You have to do something and yet there’s nothing that you can do. You can not save yourself. You can be saved but you cannot save yourself and you cannot even help save yourself. Look at the next statement under letter C the future will matter in saving us. If this is true then all people in all religions who are trusting in their behavior in any way to get them to heaven are not saved, they’re not safe and they’re not secure, impossible.

Now I didn’t say that. God said that. So when you boil it all down, I’ve had some people say, well I know I’m saying why because I’m a Mormon. I’ve even had some say, I’m saying because I’m a Baptist. Maybe you’re a foot washing that originally. It doesn’t matter. No religion can save you. Don’t put yourself and anything that requires you to do something. Now, how long do they do it in such a way that’s deceptive, that sometimes meaning well, but not being clear?

If I was to tell you that if you want to go to heaven, you must turn from your sins. Does that affect your behavior? If you had to turn from your sins, would that mean you have to do something? Would that affect your behavior? Yes. If I told you that you had to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life, would that affect how you live? Yes. Is your salvation based upon behavior? How you live? No. So you don’t tell a lost man to turn from his sins.

Why? Because that means stop being bad. And so then you’re requiring a person to do something to qualify to be saved. The reason you already qualify to be saved is you have to be a sinner. Anybody like that here? You qualify. But if you had to turn from your sins, now you’ve opened the pakana worms, which sins? How many? How long? What if I go back? All that unknown is garbage. That’s why it’s not part of the gospel. That’s not good news.

To tell a man to stop being bad, turn from your sins is not good news. That’s bad news. That’s not the good news. Christ took care of the sin. Now to turn from sin takes power steering and you don’t have the power. If you make a person must make Christ the Lord and the master of his life. It means you’re promising to be a servant. Do I have to serve the master in order for God to save me? Now this means stop being bad, this means start being good.

This is my behavior. So without telling you that, they will use the terminology that causes people to look at their life to determine whether they’re saved. Did I turn from my sins? Well you got to stop your smoking and drinking and lying and dipping in chewing and going to the girls who do. And you got to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life to me. I got to go to church, now I got to read my Bible, and I got to pray, and I got to witness, and I got to, got to, got to, got to, got to.

Now if you don’t, what does that do? Well, I must not really be saved. Because if I was really saved, I wouldn’t wanna go out here and do those bad things. And if I was really saved, I’d wanna do all these good things. So now you look at your life to determine whether am I saved or not. Because you know at times in your life, you’re not gonna wanna do all these good things. And you don’t wanna stop doing all these bad things.

We’ve covered that before, so I won’t get into that again. But now notice there. And number three, number three, justification is by faith alone and the only option for salvation because they cannot be by your works. There is no other way to be saved except by grace. Grace and works are not the same. So you’re either saved by grace or you’re saved by works, but you can’t be saved both ways. Grace means without works and works means without grace.

So God has told us and it is a sealed case. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We cannot save ourselves. The whole world is guilty before God. So we can undo that the verdict is already in So he makes a statement here in Chapter 4 of the book of Romans and verse 2 Refer to Abraham in the Old Testament. This is not Abraham Lincoln. This is the other one before that For if Abraham were Justified by works he has were of the glory in other words he could glory and brag about what he did he deserved it but not before God.

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham believed God means he took him at his work. He had faith in what God said. Now to him get this this is a very important verse. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. If you earned it, God would be in debt to save you and God is not in debt to save us. Then it wouldn’t be grace, it wouldn’t be mercy.

I deserved to be saved because I worked for it. I deserve it. Therefore I can brag and I can boast. But isn’t there a verse somewhere that says for by grace are you saved through faith in that knot of yourselves? It is the gift of God not of works less what? Any man should boast. But if it’s by your works, you can boast. You earned it. You worked for it. You deserve to be blown to heaven. But if it’s by grace, you can’t take credit for it because you didn’t earn it.

You didn’t work for it. You didn’t buy it. You don’t deserve it. So get this. Now to him that work of this reward, not reckoned of grace but of death. but do him that worketh not. Look at that word, worketh not. The hardest thing I ever have to do with a lost person is to convince them you can’t earn your way to heaven. They believe and if they get steep in some man-made religion, they’re so convinced that I’m going to heaven because of I belong to this group or this group or that group and I do all these things and it has no merit at all and they’re lost.

but they’re on this broad way that leads to destruction because they are blinded by the devil and only the light of the gospel, the truth of what God says. And so we have the truth in earthen vessels and that’s why this is so important. Look at the next statement, but to him that work if not but believe it on him that justifyeth the ungodly, His faith is counted for righteousness. Believe in His not a work. Faith counted for righteousness.

God will give you His righteousness by your faith in what He did for you. Now is that the Bible? Am I twisting these verses to try to make them say what I want? No, that’s what this Bible says. Read it. It’s exactly what it says. Not a works. I wonder what that would mean. Not a works. I’ve had somebody say, you just don’t know the Greek. I don’t have to know the Greek. It’s already been translated. It says right there, for by grace are you saved.

How do I translate that? Well, by grace are you saved. I just take it as a word. It’s already been translated. I just believe it. Look at the next statement. Look at letter B under number three. Enrollment chapter 5 verse 1, therefore being justified by faith, because you can’t be justified by your words. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So I have been justified just as if I had never sinned. Now look at number four, Romans 5 and 9 says, much more than being, and here are those two words, now justified.

So if I had been justified by my faith in Christ, I was not justified by my words, but I have been justified. Just as if I never did anything wrong. I’ve been cleared. Then evidently the case is closed. Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. This case about us being justified, it is closed. I cannot in the future be unjustified. In the court of law, it’s done. It’s over with. Number five, top of the page, justification means to be declared righteous.

This is a judicial act by which the Supreme Judge of the World will not nor can not ever find any fault in you or I that could be charged against us. When I took that payment that Christ made, which was Christ, He was the payment for my sin. When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, He gave to me eternal life. I was declared righteous, case closed. That decision by God stands for all eternity. It never has to be done again.

There are no more charges that can ever be leveled against me. Are you? Look there in Romans chapter 8 verse 33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifyeth. Who can bring a charge against those who trust the Christ’s Savior? Because when Christ died, how many of my sins did He pay for? If He paid only for the sins up to the time I believed, then all the sins after that could be laid to my charge.

That could be evidence used against me. There is no evidence for all time can ever be used against me because Jesus paid for all of my sins. And that payment He made was put to my account. I have a payment for all sins. All charges have been not just dropped, they’ve been paid for. I am declared righteous. That is my standing in the Lord and it can never, ever be changed. This is why you need to understand why I have eternal security.

Not just to believe a verse like John 647, barely, barely, I send you, he that believeth in me, hath everlasting life. Yes, I have everlasting life. That very moment, and he’ll never take it away. But understanding all these things behind it, all of that makes it even better. Now I know why I have eternal life. Now I know why he’ll never cast me out, and he’ll never lose me. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

This is why this is the foundation of it. Get this. Look at the next verse. Let her be there in number 5. Romans 8, 34, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yay, rather that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God who also make a thinner session for us. If it was the Lord that justified you, how can you be unjustified? How can I be unsaved? I have been declared righteous. Find in the Bible one person that God unsaved, unjustified.

There isn’t one. If a man could lose his salvation, there should at least be one verse in the Bible, one story, one illustration that says it. Find it. It’s not in there. There’s nothing in the scriptures that share their man’s ever saved, lost, and then he gets saved again. Because only you can get lost is there’s a sin that wasn’t paid for. Christ died for how many of my sins? All of them. If he didn’t pay for all of them, he didn’t do me any favors.

But he’d paid for all of them. 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 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. Cada can meet the Lord in the air. So live the day and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.