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 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Once you take your Bible, turn to the Book of Acts, chapter 4. 4, the book of Acts in chapter 4, are you sure? You are saved. This is the most important question you could ever answer in your whole life. If you get this wrong, you’re wrong for a long time. If there’s anything you ought to get right, it ought to me the answer to this question, are you sure? You are saved. I’ve been preaching for a little over 50 years now.

I’ve heard just about everything that people are trusting in to get them to heaven. You’d be surprised at all the answers that I’ve gotten. But there’s only one right answer. There isn’t even a multiple choice. There’s no B and C, it’s just, hey, you’ve got to get it right. So here in the book of Acts, I want you to notice this in chapter 4. Look at verse 12, neither is their salvation in any other. Now think about what that verse says.

You talking about absolutes? This is absolute. This is clear cut. Neither is their salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. You must be saved. You must be born again. You must. Not to be saved is something that will plague you for all eternity because you could have been saved. I believe that just yesterday or Friday I should say. Those people that heard the Gospel and trusted Christ as Savior, I’ve had some people say, well, they would have been saved anyway.

I don’t find that in the Bible. But I’m glad somebody cared enough and found out what to get the Gospel to all those people, to have them here and understand and trust Christ as their Savior. But isn’t it something that Jack and her family came out and they trusted Christ of the Savior because somebody put a flyer on the board at Village Inn. I didn’t do it. Somebody did. Betty Dowdy. Put a flyer on the wall. So you don’t have a clue the chain that it affects down the road of how many people may come to know Christ of their Savior.

So I wanted to cover a subject with you because if you’re going to be saved, you will have to answer the question is, what are you going to be saved from? Because you have to answer what are you supposed to be saved from? Now I know we want to be saved from our sins. We want to be saved from the grave. But when you boil it all down, if you can get saved from hell, you can get saved from the others.

This is what’s more important. Is hell for real? is it for real? So we ask this question, everything you believe about Christ hinges upon this being true. Because see if this is not true then whatever you heard about Christ you don’t know if that’s true. Because if He’s the Savior of the world save you from what? He has to save you from something and Jesus is the one who spoke on this subject more than he did about heaven. You see, this is why we needed a Savior because hell is real.

Now, get this. This verse is so important. It’s in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 7, where it says, and to you who are troubled rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. Now, is that true? Do you believe that? That’s in the Bible and you can check it out. Now, if that’s true, what he’s going to say. is also true. And I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back. And He will come in power and great glory with His angels just like He promised.

And so I believe that this is true. And if this is true, then this statement also has to be true. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. Did you know the most important thing for you to know in this world is to know the Lord. That’s why we ask people, do you know the Lord? I’m glad that not only do I know the Lord, but that the Lord knows me. I know the Lord. And so he says, and that obey not the gospel, to obey the gospel is to believe the gospel.

The gospel is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So if you’ll believe it, you have eternal life. You become God’s child. You don’t get to go to hell. But those who do not believe the gospel will be lost for all eternity. So is it true? I believe it’s true. This is also true. He says, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord? You’ll notice whenever we do the little wall of the illustration, we always explain that you’re separated from God.

Look up here just a moment. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us. The Bible says we commit to sin because we have an old sinful nature. It’s our nature to be rebellious. And because we sin, we’re condemned because we’re guilty. payment for sin is eternal separation from the presence of the Lord. You see, God wants us to be in His presence for all eternity, but we can’t go there with sin. It would be like us going to heaven the way we are right now.

And if we went to heaven the way we are right now, can you imagine what we would turn heaven into? It wouldn’t be long before it wouldn’t be no better than here. He put two people in a perfect environment, and what did they do to it? Well, hello. So the Bible says that we cannot save ourselves. This end representing Jesus Christ, God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin, because it causes us to be separated from God.

So it will be a literal hell for eternity, eternally separated from the Lord. That’s why Christ took to sin, paid for it on the cross, and came back again from the dead so that we could be together in His presence for all eternity. Now, if there is no hell, well then lo and behold there’s no heaven either. Because Jesus spoke about heaven, Jesus spoke about hell. So if one isn’t real, the other one’s not real. If one is true, the other one has to be true.

I’ve had people tell me, I’ll believe in heaven, but I don’t believe in hell. Duh. Jesus spoke on both of these subjects and he says they’re both real. Now you don’t go when you leave here to a state of mind. He says, I go to prepare a place for you. That where I am there you may be also heaven is real. You say, well what about these people that But as these movies are making about people who died and they go to heaven and come back, hogwash.

That’s junk. You want to know the Bible, you know the truth and you want to know the future, you go by the Bible. You don’t go watch some Hollywood movie. That doesn’t talk about it. It doesn’t tell you how to be saved. And that there’s a hell if you don’t know. You see, don’t you have any feelings? Not much. If I didn’t know the Bible, I would probably be swallowed up in a lot of that stuff. I take this thing very, very seriously.

What if hell is real? Thankful moment. What if it’s real? And if it’s real, what if people really do go to hell? And what if they really do suffer in a literal fire burning hell for all eternity? What if it’s true? Do you realize that you may have some relatives, mother, father, brother, sister, that hasn’t trusted Christ or their Savior, and they’re going to die? they’re going to die. Everyone’s going to die. And the Lord says, after this, the judgment, there’s no second chance.

Once, and it’s over. The decision about where you spend eternity must be made before you die. That’s why it’s so important to tell people about it in advance. Now get this. This is in the book of Revelation. After all the things that have been said from Genesis all the way through to the last book in the Bible, well whatever it says must be important. A lot of the time we’d like to listen to the last, you know, deathbed testimony, you know, what his last wish was, what’s the most important thing in his life?

But listen, the last book in the Bible tells us this, and death in hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death to be not only separated from the body physically from a death, but to be eternally separated from God for all eternity. And he says, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the end of man upon the earth. This is at the end of all of this.

And the God of heaven says this in the book of Revelation in chapter 20, that there is a lake of fire. And whosoever doesn’t matter who they are, God says he is not a respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter how wonderful you think someone is. It doesn’t matter how many you think deserve to go to heaven. You know, if anybody goes to heaven, sure to be their old Lance Susie. She gives you to sure off her back. It won’t matter about their old Lance Susie.

If Lance Susie has not trusted Christ as her Savior. There is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. There is no other way. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man. No man, come to the Father except through me. You can’t get there any of their way. There’s no church that can get you there. No person can get you there. No preacher can get you there. Only through Christ and Him alone.

This is a serious matter. This is what we need to be saved from. Hell, if there is anything in this world you need to get right. It is this. How is a person saved? That would be important. You know, he says in 1 Peter in chapter 3 verse 15 about this idea that, you know, we should be able to give an answer to every man that asked us the reason for the hope that lies within us. In other words, if I say, I know I’m going to heaven when I die.

How do you know? You say, Well I’m saved, how do you know? Who said you were saved? You are God. Who says you’re saved? Somebody else? Some preacher? And you’d be surprised. You can’t give a good answer if you don’t have a good answer. I should change that to the right answer. So if we’re supposed to be able to always give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of why do you believe what you believe? word hope there means a joyful anticipation.

Why am I joyfully anticipating this moment to come when I leave this world and I’m going to be in the presence of the Lord for all eternity? You see, you cannot give the right answer if you don’t know the right answer. And there’s a lot of people preaching a lot of things and telling people how to be saved. I got an email on Friday that says this man has just wrote a beautiful track. It’s glossy and it tells you and the guy was writing and telling how wonderful of a track it was and how clear it was and it was the best thing you’ve ever seen and everybody needs to get this track.

So I wanted to read the track. And as I read the track, it didn’t tell me to do about four or five, six different things and everything that he mentioned that I had to do I didn’t have to do. And all I have to do is believe on Jesus Christ in half eternal life. But you ought to see the list and they were ranting and raving over this and it was put out by pastor of a Baptist church. Now, I’ve been a pastor of a Baptist church for 16 years, but I still can’t preach that message.

And if they believe that, they’re not qualified to teach a Sunday school class at Calvary Community Church. Anyways, we’re moving right along. If you believe you are saved, what exactly did you do when you were saved? How do you know? For sure. What did you do? Well, you said, well, I, and these are some of the things I’ve got. It could be a long list, but that narrowed it down. I walked the aisle. I trusted the prayer that you prayed.

Now you can pray, but do you trust the prayer or the one that you were talking to? Well I know I’m saying because I prayed a prayer. The prayer is not what saves you. I turned from my sins. You know I had to repent of my sins so I turned from my sins. I committed my life to Christ. I was baptized. I joined the church. If this is what you’re trusting, you’re on sand, not a rock. Because you see, if you had to, can you find the verse in the Bible that says you are saved if you do these things and you can’t, you can’t find the verse that says, do this and you will be saved.

So is it critical? You need to be sure, am I saved for sure. And you’d be surprised, you may have thought that something that you have done in the past And that’s how you know you’re saved. And you’ll live the rest of your life thinking that I’m saved because, but at reason that you’re trusting in, is it really the truth? And that what gives you your security. You better get this right. Although I have done all of these things.

None of these things saved me. I have walked the aisle in the church, but not to be saved. And I have prayed, but I didn’t trust my prayer to save me. I had to trust the one that I was talking to, the word that he gave. Because you see, all you have to do is believe on Christ. That means you believed that when he died, he died for you, he paid for your sins. That’s why I don’t have any sins to pay for.

That’s why I can’t go to hell because I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for all of my sins. That’s why I couldn’t go to hell if I tried. I haven’t tried, but I can’t go to hell. He died for me as my substitute. That’s why I know I’m going to heaven. And you can’t know you’re going to heaven till you know you can’t go to hell. Now get this, annihilation. Although people say, well, you know, when you die, that’s all.

You’re just gonna be annihilated. I was telling him in Sunday school classes morning. Every night when I go to bed, it’s like I was annihilated. You go to sleep, don’t remember nothing. I don’t remember anything going on, and I’m out of it, I’m gone. Wouldn’t it be nice just to be annihilated? Being annihilated, that wouldn’t be punishment. I don’t know I exist, I don’t know you exist, nothing’s going on. I’m out of here. Isn’t that wonderful why sleep is so good?

I’m beginning to fall in love with sleep. And the older I get, the more I want of it. And I hate it because most of the nights I dream all night long. I’m either chasing somebody, somebody’s chasing me. I wake up, I am so tired, worn out, and I hate it when it’s in color and vivid sound. I mean, it’s incredible. So I don’t believe that I’m going to be annihilated when I die. You see, there’s arguments made by human reasoning.

Because when you just think about this thing, just use your human reasoning to be annihilated, that’s not that bad. I mean, animals die. And we die. That’s it. Go to the grave, bury your six feet under, and there isn’t anything else. But you gotta have a way to kind of rebut it, try to have an answer, because you see, you can’t give a right answer to people if you don’t know the right answer. You have to settle these things, even in your own mind, for your own sake.

And the more confidence you have, the more bold you can be. Now, I’ve heard God is too nice to send all those good people to hell. You ever heard anything like that? God’s too good. I mean, not not. You open the door and there has a JW standing there. A Jehovah’s Witness. Ma’am, you having a children, well, yes, I do. How many do you have? I have two. Wonderful. Do you have a fireplace? Well, yes, I do. Would you throw your children in the fireplace?

No. and neither would God. And if God loves you, why would He throw you in the fire? Can we come in and have a nice little Bible talk with you? Oh, come on, man. And you human reason, it just sounds so good. It is just so wrong and so false. God’s too nice to send people to hell. Well, I guess you’d get right down to it. He’s too good to send bad people to heaven, too. But now God is absolutely holy and He’s just and no sin, Revelation 21, 27, no sin can enter therein because heaven is a perfect place.

You see God made Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve chose to sin. They chose to sin so you get the results of sin. But God didn’t change. God is still perfect. God is still holy. God is still just and He has a perfect heaven. He doesn’t have a good heaven, he’s got a perfect heaven. And in this perfect heaven… He says, to live forever with the Lord, you can’t have any sin. That’s why every one of us has been eliminated.

We cannot go to heaven. There is none righteous. No, not one. There’s none good. No, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory or short of the perfection of God. So how are we ever going to get to heaven? They say, well, perish. That just means to be annihilated. You know, nothing exists. All right. Perish is physical death and separation from God. So yes, one of these days I’m gonna die physically and I’m gonna be separated from this whole body and then what and then what?

And so no I’m not gonna say that that’s the end of it. I’m just annihilated and I’m just like an animal throwing them in the grave and that’s it. That’s all it does to dust and that’s it. Well sometimes I ask the question like well when you die you’re dead that’s it. That’s all there is to it. So I asked the question one time, the guy says, how do you know? Have you died before? Well, if you haven’t died before, you don’t know that’s all.

You were probably totally surprised to be in this world. And you didn’t do anything about that. And look, well, all this year, and this is real. How do you know that death ends at all? If you haven’t died before, you don’t know. You’re just hoping so. Well, what if there is no hell, ha ha ha, so I usually come back. What if there is ha ha, but I don’t do that. I thought that sounded a little cold. So I just changed a little bit.

What if there is? Eternity is a long time to be wrong. Don’t you agree to that? Eternity is a long time to be wrong. Do you wanna be wrong? Have you ever heard somebody say, you know, there’s a place called purgatory. religion that you purgatory. Well what is purgatory? Well you know you’re too bad you know to go to heaven but you’re too good to go to hell. So there’s this mediator place where you got to go and you wait there until something happens.

Either somebody’s got to add some good works to your case or solve something or pay some money or do something for you. So what is it? In addition to the Word of God that gives a false hope to people who must depend on someone else to pay, pray, or do good works to get them to heaven. Stop and think for a minute. Do you really want to go to purgatory and depend on somebody else praying, paying, or doing good works to get you out of there?

But you don’t know how long you’re going to be there. But you know you’re right in the limbo, You’re not good enough to go there. You’re not bad enough to go there. So this is where you go. And you’d be surprised how many people will swallow that. You see, was that in the Bible? No, it’s not in the Bible. It’s in a place called Second Maccabees, where it refers to purgatory. Those are the books, like the pseudopigra for books, the hummala guma in the books, and the apocrypha books that lies between the Old Testament in the New Testament and usually it’s just history of the Jewish people and so forth, but that’s not divine scripture.

It’s not in the canon of scripture, the belong in the scripture we call inspired of God. It’s never referred to by Christ or any of the disciples or any of the writings. It doesn’t belong in the Bible. Not good enough for heaven, but not bad enough for hell. Now, you need to understand, and I thought I’d tell you the truth. Everyone is bad enough to go to hell, new revelation. And no one is good enough to go to heaven.

Now that’s the truth. You say, who said that? I did. You just heard me. I said that. If they can say to the other, I’m going to tell you, this is what the Bible says, that none are good enough to go to heaven. So we all need a Savior. Now, in Hebrews chapter one and verse three, there’s a very important verse. And this is what it says, who be in the brightness of his glory, referring to Christ. And the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when, and this is what he says.

I’ll put it in white, it’s in brackets, but it’s in the scriptures. He had by himself purged our sin. See, I don’t need a purgatory. My sins have already been paid for, purged by himself. No man can do this for me. I can’t do it for you. You can’t do it for me. Christ has already by himself took care of the sin problem. All of us have a sin problem. He took care of it. There’s nothing else you can do about it.

You He already made the payment for the sins of the world. Pay for mine, pay for yours. The only thing we have to do is accept what he did. So if we accept what he did, what he did is put to our account. Now I have a payment for all of my sins. That’s why I don’t have to pay for my sins. You mean in spite of how bad you are? Or in spite of how bad I may be?

He paid for all of my sins and put that payment to my account. And I get to go to heaven on what it did for me. And the reason he’s set down is because the work is done. There’s nothing else needs to be done about our sins. In order for a man to be saved, there’s nothing for him to do, except believe on Christ. Believe that he did it for you. That’s what it means to be, leave on Christ, to accept Christ.

It simply means to you accept what he did on the cross for you. And that’s how I know I’m going to heaven. It depends upon what he did. If your salvation depends upon what you have done, you’re trusting the wrong thing. It’s only through Christ and Him alone are we saved. The church here, you can come every day of your life. All the churches give all your money and still go to hell because you must be saved. But it’s only through Christ, the book of Acts in chapter four and verse 12.

Now get this, there’s no need for a purgatory. So that’s a man-made religion. It does well in getting money out of people and getting people to come to church, living in fear. And I’m gonna tell you this because this really happened, this is the truth. In 1969 or 70, I was working in the downstairs of our little ranch room that we had and I was working on my big old chart that I have. And a man came in and he wanted to know where a certain place was left.

So I told him where it was at and he looked and he says, what is that? I says it’s a prophecy chart. It’s a survey of the end times. He says, really, where’d you get all that from? I said, the Bible. He said, that’s in the Bible? I said, yeah. I says, can I ask you a question? He says, sure. I says, where are you going when you die? He said, well, the best I can hope for is purgatory.

He said, what about you? I said, I know I’m going to heaven. And he stopped. He says, what? He said, how can you know you’re going to heaven? He says, I’m the priest in the Catholic Church. And the best I can hope for is purgatory. I says, well, I know that I’m going to heaven. He said, how do you know? Well, funny, he should ask. Funny, I should answer him. And so I told him the gospel. He says, is that in the Bible?

I said, yes. I said, haven’t you read the Bible? He said, I’ve never read the Bible. He says, I have read the catechism. I studied the catechism. I know everything about the cat, he said, I’ve never read the Bible. I said, you ought to read it one time, it’s in there. So I believe it’s good even Catholic priests ought to trust Christ’s Savior. 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. Trump it 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.