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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.

Take your Bible and turn with me To the book of 1 John in chapter 4, 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, and I want to kind of title this a little bit. It’s kind of hard to know how to title sermons. Why Christ was against lordship salvation. Jesus Christ is against anyone making Him the Lord and Master to go to heaven. When you’re talking about you have to serve Him to go to heaven, He doesn’t want no part of it.

And He says so. But there are people who believe that you must make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life, that you have to serve in order to go to heaven. And they don’t understand, that’s like slapping Him in the face, that what He did on the cross was not sufficient. It wasn’t enough that they’ve got to help him out and so It burns me when I hear people say it Because I believe that salvation is totally 100% by grace and grace alone Hearing the book of 1 John in chapter 4 I Want to share a few thoughts with you and I hope that you can follow my logic my thinking Because I know I go from one scripture to the next and into the next But believe it or not, there is a theme that runs through all of it.

You have to listen to everything that I’m saying to be able to follow it. I want you to know that I do believe that after, after a man is saved, he should love the Lord with all his heart. And if you love the Lord with all your heart, you can live like you please. Now you can live like you please if you don’t love him. But God has told us that he would richly bless you and reward you if you would love him.

Nobody can make you do that. That’s a choice of your own. Just like getting saved, nobody could do that for you either. That was a personal thing. You had to do that yourself. But here in 1 John 4, look in verse 1. In verse 1 says, believe not every spirit and try the spirits. So how do you want to try a spirit? You put them up on a stand and you get somebody to prosecute them. How do you do that?

Well, you try the Spirit. See, there’s various spirits in the world, false messages, messages that are false, and they don’t come from God. And there’s a guy named Satan. And Satan is an angel, but a fallen angel. And Satan has his own ministers that preach his message. And you see, He is not going to tell you the truth. It will be so close to the truth that you can’t tell the difference. It’s just like with counterfeit money. They try to make it look so real.

And Satan is good at this. And you can listen to people already on television in various churches and it sounds like the same thing. It’s just it’s not the same thing. You know, rat poison is 99% cornmeal. There’s nothing wrong with cornmeal. It’s that 1% arsenic that does you in. Oh, the rat. Hope you’re not eating rat poison. But here he makes a statement, try the spirits. In other words, try the message. Does the message that they preach line it with what the Lord says?

Compare. Compare Scripture with Scripture. Not so much preacher with preacher, but scripture with scripture. And it says because many false prophets are gone out into the world. See false prophets have a false message. A false message produces fruit. And when the Bible talks about you shall know them by their fruit. He’s talking about the false prophet who teaches a false message and the false message produce fruit. People who will tell you this is what I believe, but you check what they are saying with what the Word of God says to know whether or not is that good fruit or is that bad fruit.

Is the message that they’re preaching the same? And he makes a statement here in verse 2, here by know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh is of God. Now when he talks about confessing Jesus Christ is coming to flesh it means that he is God who came into the world, took upon flesh and that he did something by doing so because you go from this verse to and you look there where he says in verse 10, herein is love.

Not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son, his son. Christ was manifested in the flesh, came into the world to be a propitiation for our sins, a payment for our sins. So the ones who are telling the truth of those who believe that Jesus Christ paid for my sins. See, if I really believe He paid for my sins, all of my sins, then I have a payment for all of my sins. So I am not at any time trying to earn my way to heaven by the good things that I do because I have a payment for all of my sins.

There is no sin to condemn me to hell because I accepted that payment he made. So therefore he gets all the credit on in the glory for me going to heaven. So he says there if a man would believe it, but he says there’s some people that don’t teach that, oh Christ came into the world. believe that. They can even tell you that He died on the cross. But it’s not that He paid for all of your sins and that only thing you have to do is to accept that and have eternal life.

They want to add something to it. Yeah, you got to believe but, but, and then they but it all over the place. So there is a difference. The Word of God tells us to discern the difference and you cannot discern air if If you do not know the truth, now looking first John in chapter five. First John chapter five, you’ll notice here in verse one, there’s two things I believe that are answered here in these first five verses is one who is a child of God.

How are you born as an individual? How do you know you’re a child of God and we’re supposed to love the children of God? Okay. Well, how do you know who’s a child of God? So people say, well, you have to look at their life to tell who’s a child of God. it says, especially to those who are of a household of faith. Well, how do we know they are? I’m going to watch you to see if you’re a real child of God.

No, it says this. Chapter 5 verse 1, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So he says, believeth Jesus is the Christ. In his context, Jesus is the Christ, the one that God sent to be the payment, the propitiation for our sins. When you believe he did it for you, you’re born into God’s family. You became a child of God by faith alone. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it. And then he makes a statement, and this is a separate thought, and everyone that loveth him, that begat loveth him also, that is begotten of him.

Okay? Does that mean automatically everybody who saved, loves everybody? Oh, no, it didn’t say that. It says they’re in the first part of the verse, who soever, believe it that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Now, once you’re born of God, you’re born of God. Once you’re born of God, you have eternal life. And once you have eternal life and all of your sins are paid, there’s no going back. It can’t be undone. So now you are born of God.

Then He makes this statement, and everyone that loves Him, that begat, loves those that are begotten of Him. You see, you can be say, be born of God and not love God. But those who do love God, he says, love one another. Wouldn’t it be neat if all of God’s children really loved one another? It means you will not do wrong to one another. And yet have you ever seen Christian husbands and wives and children? They know the Lord, but do they all love one another?

Is it always demonstrated? traded? No, but can you be saved? Be born of God and not love one another. That’s why he says up there in verse 19 of the previous chapter, we love him because he first loved us. Now we can love him because he loved us, but not everyone abides in his love. Look there in chapter two of 1 John and look what he says in verse 15. Love and he’s talking to God’s children. He’s talking to those who know that have been born of God.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. In other words, the love of the Father is not in him. So as a Christian, it wouldn’t tell us not to love the things of the world if we couldn’t. So it means that we can. We can love the wrong things and the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

You can love the things of this world. And God says, if you do love the things of this world, He says here, the love of the Father is not in Him. So you see, it means you don’t love the Father, but you love the things of the world. So can a person be born of God and not love Him? Yes. Can you be married and not love your husband?

It’s kind of like when you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you as a free gift ever lasting life. He that believeth of them, He hath everlasting life. You believe? Yes. You have ever I don’t know. He that believeth hath everlasting life, do you believe it? Yes I do. Do you have everlasting life? Well I don’t know. Are you married? Yes. Do you have a wife? I don’t know. So you can be saved and not love the Lord.

Otherwise he would not. If it was automatic, then he would never tell us love one another because it would be automatic. We don’t automatically love everybody. We don’t automatically love God because if you did, you’d automatically serve Him and do whatever He wants. That’s why He says, if you love me, if you love me. Because that means that sometimes we don’t love Him. So He talks about the love of God dwelling within us and abiding in His love. Those are choices it would make.

Now go back there to chapter five and notice what He says. In the last part of that verse where He says, and everyone that loveeth him, that begat, that calls me to be born into his family, loveeth him also, that is begotten of him. So if I do love God, if I love God, then I have to love one another. And that’s why he says up in verse 20 of chapter four, look at this verse, in verse 20, if a man say, I love God and hated his brother, what is he?

What is he? So it is possible because it’s written to believers to hate somebody and not love God. But if you say you love God but you hate God’s children, then God says you’re a liar. I’d like to soften that and say it a sweeter way. I don’t know how to do it. I’m the answer to what God said it. So he says, for he that loveth not his brother whom he had seen, how can he love God whom he have not seen.

So you can be a child of God and not love God. But if he says, if you do love me, love one another. Because the only way that I can show God that I love him is by loving those that he told me to love. Lord, I love you. Obeyed me. I will not see the contradiction. So it’s hypocritical to say, I love the Lord and not walk in love. Now look at the next thing. In verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God.

So if you love God, then you can love the children of God. And the way you prove that you love God is by loving God’s children. How we doing? In verse 3, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcome of the world? But he that believeth.

So in verse four, what’s over is born of God? In verse five is those that believe. So those that believe, you have overcome the world because you were in Christ. See, when I was born into this world, I didn’t do a very good job overcoming anything. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, what I wanted to do and be. No. Pride, I didn’t overcome anything. Failure, failure, failure. You’ll written on all across Yankee. But Christ was born and He never sinned.

He overcame the temptations of the devil, Everything in the world, nothing could control him. He overcame the world. And God took his victory and gave it to me. As though I had lived my whole life and never said, he put his perfection, his righteousness to my account. And I have overcome. Now, if he can do that, can I overcome in my Christian life, the temptation not to love one another as I ought to. Can you do it? This is why these scriptures are so important.

Now, I want you to take your Bible and look there again in 1 John and chapter 2. First John in chapter 2. So once you’re born into God’s family, you can be saved and not love God. But is it the will of God for you to love Him? Does God want you to love Him? Huh, can I hear anything? Yes, God wants you to love Him, but you may not love Him. And so that’s why it’s so hard for some people to be faithful to the Lord because you don’t love Him.

It’s hard for a man to be faithful to a wife when he doesn’t love her. It’s hard for a wife to be faithful to a husband husband when she don’t love him. It’s hard to do right when love is gone. And it can happen to any Christian at any given time. But wouldn’t it be a shame for that to happen between you and the Lord when the Lord does love you? And he is faithful. And he’ll never cast you out, never lose you, never unborn you.

He loves you with a never lasting love. And here we are as a child of God been unfaithful to someone who really, really, really, truly loves me. You know, there’s a thing in God’s word about we reap what we sow. If you don’t love God the way you ought to, didn’t you know you’re going to have somebody not love you the way they ought to? It’s a Godlessness, sometimes experience what we’re going through because it helps us to understand just a little bit about what he’s going through.

to you realize there’s no one who wants to be loved more than God. God’s the one to develop this idea. He made a man and a woman put him in the garden because he wanted an object to love, and he wanted to be loved. So he showed his love the greatest way he could, gave his son. And then we don’t respond to his love. That’s why people coming going our lives, kids coming going our lives. Lord, go always there.

Never leave your first love, the greatest love of all. Here in 1 John in chapter 2, I want you to see this in verse 18. Little children, it is the last time and you have heard that antichrist shall come. Even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Isn’t that clear? You could read out a hundred times and probably not understand it anymore than you did just that one time. I studied that for a long time trying to… What did he say? But see here verse 19, he’s talking about there’s people that are false teachers. And he says, they went out from us, but they were not all of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

See, not everybody’s on the same page. Not everybody believes the same thing. So take your Bible and turn there to the book of Acts in chapter 15. The book of Acts in chapter 15. This scripture is very important because it answers this question. Who are they talking about there in John chapter 2? And here’s what I believe it’s referring to. There were the time when they had a, you know, a big board meeting of all the head honchos. They all came together in Jerusalem and believe that James was the pastor of the church, but they came together and Peter was there, Paul was there and so they all got together and this was the conclusion of what one of them said in verse 24, for as much as we have heard, certain went out from us, they went out from us, have troubled you with words, subverting your soul saying you must be

circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. So there were some that gave the impression they were of us, but they were not of us. But that it might be made manifest that they were not of us. They went out from us because they have a different message and we don’t agree with what they’re teaching. What were they teaching that was so bad? They were false teachers. They were teaching things that were not true and subverting the people that listened to them.

So he says there in chapter 15, looking in verse 1, you see, it comes down to two different things. One, what they had to do to be saved and what they had to do to stay saved. There’s a lot of those today. You see, these were some people who believed and you had to make the Word of God the Word God the Lord of your life. You had to commit yourself to an act of being circumcised and then you had to commit yourself to obeying the law.

In verse 1, and certain men which came down from Judea taught the brother and said except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses you cannot be saved. So they were teaching something that was not true. Jesus was against this teaching. Paul was against this teaching. And the reason is because it can’t save. The law never saved anybody. Why try to put a yoke of iron upon the necks of individuals requiring them to meet a standard nobody ever has except Christ.

Christ is the only one who ever kept the law. Now look in verse 5. But there are rows up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed that believed. Now see these were some that believed, they didn’t say that about the other part there, but now look at in verse 5. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

And the apostles and the elders came together for to consider of this matter. So later on John is letting them know there were some that say they was among us and they left us and gave the impression that they were of us but they were not of us. You see there’s a lot of people who have taken upon themselves the mantle of I am a preacher. I am the man of God. We see you’ll hear a lot of people say you know there’s just a multitude of churches.

There can be buildings and there can be people gathered in those buildings. But if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior and Him alone, you’re not saved, you’re not a child of God, you’re not born again. A church is only made up of individuals that are born again believers. There is no other kind. So without believers in Christ and Christ alone, by grace alone, It can’t be a church. The Catholic church is not a church. Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s not a church.

Semde Adventists, it’s not a church. They’re stealing from the word of God, but they’re not official. They don’t believe the message that Christ gave or the Apostle Paul preached or what’s in the pages of this book. It’s not the gospel. And I don’t recognize them as such Because God doesn’t. That’s just my humble opinion. Now, when it made the statement here that they all got together to consider this matter, is there more than just believing on Christ? Is there something else and just trusting the Lord to go to heaven?

Does a man have to do something else? Is there anything else required? And you’d be surprised how many people believe that yes there is. And so the word of God God that is my proof. This is my evidence. I use the Word of God as the evidence to prove to me. I’m saved. I’m going to heaven when I die. To me, this is all the evidence I need. It was good 53 and a half years ago. And nothing has changed since then.

I can’t change the evidence. It’s right here in this book. there’s sometimes people believe there’s more evidence, the evidences that are in your life. So then if you know that you’re saved because of the evidence of how you’re living within because of this new evidence, you put confidence in that evidence. And this evidence of how you’re living will override the evidence in this book.

Now people will know that I’m really saved And if I don’t live right, the evidence says, I’m not really saved, and it overrides what the word of God says. That’s heresy. It’s heresy. Now… That’s heresy. That’s heresy. Now, you notice in verse seven, and when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and he said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how they do good? While a go God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and do what?

That’s all they had to do. You see, what they were saying is you have to do more. You’ve got to have to live another way. When he talks about putting him under the law, it means you’ve got to make the word or the law. You’ve got to make it the Lord of your life. There’s something else involved. There isn’t anything else involved. I know that I’m saved because the Word of God says it if I believe on Christ and I trust Him as my Savior, I’m born of God and I have eternal life and that I’m going to heaven.

Do I want every one of God’s children to serve the Lord? Yes, I do. But I don’t want anyone to ever get the idea that because you serve God, that’s the proof you’re saved. That is not proof. That’s evidence that can change tomorrow and you may live wicked tomorrow. And then that new evidence will change whether or not you believe you’re saved. You ought to believe that you’re saved because the Word of God says I am. If I trust Him and the Word of God has not changed and I know that I’m saved, and it’ll never be altered.

Now look what he says here in verse 10. Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke of iron upon the neck of the disciples? Which simply means trying to make them make Christ the Lord and the Master of their life to prove that they’re saved. That’s what people are doing today. That’s what they’re teaching. It’s on your radio. That heresy. That’s exactly what it is. It’s not the truth. It’s not the Word of God. Their gospel is not my gospel.

It’s not our gospel. It’s not the gospel of this book that is not good news. That’s bad news. Men reserved the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpen’s Iron Men’s Bible Study and Breakfast at Calvary Community Church. Join us at 730 for a home cooked breakfast. Then, at 8am, the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style Men’s Bible Study in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and dialogue are welcomed. The scripture tells us that Iron Sharpen’s Iron and this Men’s Bible Study is open to those of all levels, whether new believers or mature Christians.

The Iron sharpens Iron men’s Bible study and breakfast. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. 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 can meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep in looking up.