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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 air. 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.

I know in my Christian life I’ve often wondered at times, I’d go out and look at little bit, I like the song my Bob would just sing it about. Spend some time with the Lord and I’ve often wondered, Lord, I know I’m not those guys in the Bible, but you want to say a few words to me, I’d appreciate it. Would you just like to hear him with your own ears, hear the Lord? You know Sarah, she heard God talking one time and then she didn’t believe it.

Zechariah, well he heard from the Lord too. He had a problem. He got, you know, different for a while. But you and I, wouldn’t you love it if the Lord walked in this room right now and sit down beside you and just talking to you. Just say a few kind of words to you. Now you might have trouble, believe it, now how do I know you are the Lord? You want him to do some magic tricks for you? I mean, he got to prove himself right.

I mean, if he told you, I’m the Lord. If I told you I was the Lord, would you believe that? A wave of doubt that sweeps across the room. But there is a desire, I believe, of all of God’s children. We’d love to see Him and hear Him. We were just talking last Sunday night about how Saul on the Damascus road saw the bright light and it went blind for a while. You know God says you can’t even see him.

He could kill us. And yet one day we’re going to be in the very presence of the Lord. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Or wouldn’t you just love for the Lord just, you know, you talk to Him, you want Him to talk to you, the voice of God. You know, in the book of Genesis, it makes a statement that the Lord did walk in the cool of the day and it says, and he heard the voice of the Lord walking.

Now the voice of the Lord walking. That’s a scary thought just wondering what does that mean. God was walking in the garden and God was talking to him. Wouldn’t that be an awesome moment in your life? But you see God wants to talk to you a lot more than you want to talk to him. And believe it or not, he wants to reveal himself to you and I a lot more than your desire to want to see him. See, God loves you and he loves me and he wants to talk to us.

So I want you to take your Bible and we’ll look at some of these things. I don’t know if I will be able to cover all these notes, but I do want I want to let you know that to follow the voice is the follow the word, the word of God. You see the voice of God has been recorded. Now you won’t believe this, but they are recording every word I say. And it’s going to be on YouTube, it’s going to be on the DVR, and then they will burn it and put it on a DVD.

I’m gonna put on CDs and I got a tape in the office by make it clear done by Bill Butterworth years ago. Excellent quality. I put it in my player and I listened to it this last week and just listened to some of those songs of 35, 40 years ago. Did you know the voice is recorded? You know that when they said, you know, stop these people from all this praise in you Lord. He says that they should stop.

The rocks would cry out. Often wondered how far the voice of God really carries. Does it ever end? Or does it go into the rocks and they’re recorded that God could play back every event in history if he so desires. Because when I get to heaven, I want to see a I want to rerun of this creation business. I want to see the flood. I’m sure the Lord videotaped everything. Don’t you think? I mean, we do. Surely he must have videotaped it all.

I want to see it all. I have an enquiring mind and I want to know. But take your Bible and see if we can accomplish a few little things here today. The book of John in chapter 10, the book of John in chapter 10, it makes a statement in verse 27, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my hand, or my father’s hand. I and the father are one.” That statement that says, my sheep hear my voice, that I know them. They follow me. Now, this can be a great verse to let us know that we have eternal security. it could be a verse that causes some to doubt their salvation. Because you see, if you’re saved and have eternal life, let me automatically will follow.

Or do you have to follow in verse 27 in order to get the eternal life offered in verse 28? And I give unto them those who follow. So there’s a lot of people that have mixed messages. I don’t believe God is confused. I believe context is very important. So I want to try to explain a few things to you, because I believe hearing the voice of God is one of the most important things you and I will do on planet Earth.

We may hear a lot of things, and everybody rushes home to listen to the news and all these things that we’re just so, oh, I just got to know. But God spoke. And as he says in Hebrews chapter one, in these last days has spoken unto us by his son. God has spoken. God has spoken when you want to hear what he has to say. You ever remember that commercial years ago when blah blah speaks, everybody listens. Anybody remember that?

When God speaks, who’s talking? They don’t recognize his voice. And then some people can’t believe that he said that. So they got to tell you what they know God. Have you ever heard somebody speak in a rally or something? And then the commentators have to come under and tell you what he said. Because you weren’t smart enough to know what he said. They have to tell you what he really meant to say. Or tell you everything he left out.

Or twist what he did say. People do that with what God’s word has to say. Look at the first statement here. Number one, a problem. there’s only got to be a problem. Then you try to solve the problem like a lawyer. You know, you got to have a problem in order to need a lawyer. Those who believe that a person may have the gift of eternal life by believing on the name of the Son of God by grace through faith plus nothing might have a problem in John 10, 27, 28, wouldn’t they?

In other words, look at the little bit of the problem that somebody could have if they just read that verse, Well, I know as long as I’m following my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. And you say, well, okay, I’m a sheep in the Lord’s my Savior and I’ve trusted him and I have eternal life. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Well, what if you’re not following? Oh, now do you have reason to doubt your salvation?

You know, some people preach it even don’t like to mess with scriptures like this, but always remember this. Salvation is always by grace. never by works. And once you understand that grace means that it’s free. The only way you can change the gospel or pervert the gospel is to add one work to it. You add a work to it, it’s no longer the pure gospel. The gospel, the good news is that a man is saved by grace, the faith, alone in Christ alone and as some say as for the glory of God alone.

So when you trusted Christ as your Savior God gives you eternal life. Now because in these verses talked about we are in His hand and no man can pluck you out of His hand. Understand this. This is the Lord. This is… Anybody else who doesn’t take God at his word? They believe that if you get a good grip on God, well, I know I’m going to heaven because I got a good grip on God. I went forward paid through.

Hang on on. Hang on in there. But then you ask them, where are you going to? I’m going to heaven. And then if they do something wrong, they start losing their salvation. Well, I’m not following anymore. I used to follow Christ, but I don’t follow him like I used to. So now I’m lost and going to hell. Got to get right again. And then they need something wrong. And then they get right again. Then they see some good looking blond bombshell walk by.

Blah. Got to get right again. So where are they going when they die? Well, it depends on them. Hanging on the God and doing right. That is not the Bible and that is not salvation. The Bible says, if I trust Him, He saves me. See the difference? He saves me. I am in His hand. He’s the Savior. He’s taken me to heaven. He said, He’ll never cast me out. He said, He’ll never lose me. He says, no man can never pluck you out of my hand.

So once you have trusted Christ as Savior, you are a child of God forever. When you understand that, there should be no verse that seems to say you can lose your salvation or it depends upon your works, it cannot refer to salvation. Salvation is always by grace. And the message is it has to be free. It must last forever. It’s not free, it’s not the gospel. It doesn’t last forever, it’s not the gospel. Eternal security is not a separate doctrine.

It’s the gospel. Eternal security, being eternally secure. That’s why we say this. If you cannot know that you’re going to heaven until you know positively, you cannot go to hell. What I just explained to you is how you can know you cannot today or in the future ever go to hell. Anyone who believe they can still in the future go to hell, then they really can’t say they know they’re saved and know they’re going to heaven when they die because they don’t believe the truth of the gospel.

And that is so important. So those four things there can cause a problem. Look at the next statement. Some propose that those who believe will follow the Lord and have eternal life. And they further propose that if someone does not follow the Lord, then they perhaps never did really believe. Does eternal life depend on following? Do I have to follow the Lord? Do I have to persevere in the faith? Do I have to live a certain way? You know, me at a certain quota, got to do something in order to maintain my salvation.

Well then you get back to works for salvation. My confidence of why I’m going to heaven cannot be how I live, cannot depend upon my works in any way. Look at the next statement, using these two verses, these folks say that Jesus has some sheep that he knows and his sheep follow him and after that they have eternal life. So do you get eternal life before you have to serve or do you have to serve in order to get this eternal life?

Well, interesting subject. Look at the next statement. Is this passage really a cause for a believer to question his salvation rather than firm grounds on which he might understand his security and tries? Which comes first? Following or eternal life? Interesting question, isn’t it? a carter wrongly says that the fruit of one’s life matters. If you are not following, you are not saved. Is what he said correct or incorrect? Incorrect. Y’all got it well. You understand this. You see, how you live your life is not a proof of your salvation.

There are no evidences of salvation. Only thing in the only way you know your sages because you took God at his word and that’s the only evidence you need. God says you have eternal life and that never changes. How you live can fluctuate from day to day and week to week and year to year, moment by moment. But the word of God never changes. Always put your confidence in what God’s word says, never in your performance. the lost man can perform as well as you.

He can go to church today. Does that prove he saved? He can read his Bible. That proved he saved. Although the evidence you will use to prove that you are, then the lost man can use the same evidence because he does the same thing. The only thing that will separate you from that lost man doing exactly the same thing, living exactly the same way will be that you trust the Lord and he didn’t. That’s the only thing that matters.

Now, look at the next statement. Number two, who was Jesus speaking? Now, when you read Revelation chapter two, he’s talking to the church, he said, he that hath ears. to hear. Let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. So God has something to say, and he has something that he wants people to hear. So he says it, we hear it. So when God’s word speaks, we’re supposed to listen to what he has to say. There were Jews of several opinions regarding Jesus and his message, look in verse 19.

There was a division. He was talking to a mixed multitude, adhesion, therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. Many of them said, hey, he had the devil, he’s mad. He said, why here you him? Others said, these are not the words of him that have the devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? Remember there in verse 20? Here in verse 21, words, he said, words for people to hear. And Jesus knew those who believed and Jesus knew those who did not believe.

Those who believed followed what he said. Those who did not believe did not follow what he said. They didn’t believe the word. So you hear and believe. Now, I’ll establish this a little bit more as we go, but look down there at John 10, bottom of the page. There was a division. Why hear ye him? And there’s words that needs to be said, words that needed to be believed. In number one there, at the bottom of the page, some dismissed him as being demon-possessed and crazy.

I don’t think those were his sheep. Some were persuaded by his good and miraculous work that he was good. And that’s true. Some blamed him for making them to doubt as though he had not plainly identified himself as the Christ. To these he replied that he had already in the past told him plainly who he was. Yet they believed not. He also reminded them that the miraculous works he had done in their sight in his father’s name bore witness that he was indeed who he came to be, the Christ.

The Christ is a reference to the Messiah that would come and make a payment for the sins of the world. So when you talk about believing on Christ, Christ was not just that believing that he was God in the flesh, but he was the one who came to suffer and to die and to pay for the sins of the world. You can’t separate the two. We have a next statement. The conclusion he draws was that they were not of his sheep and that they did not believe his word, obey the voice, therefore they were not his sheep.

They would not obey his what they would not listen to what he said. They would not believe what he said. Number three, what was his message taught in the earlier part of the same chapter. He tells them the story about the shepherd and the sheep, the parable of the true shepherd and his sheep, the sheep hear his voice in chapter 10 and verse three and four, to him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out, and when he put it forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.

Now, whenever you are listening to what the Bible says, and you hear and understand, and if you believe what you heard, you followed the voice. I want you to look down at the bottom of the page. God’s word is his voice. You see, I used to think, man, I would just love to walk along and have the Lord walk with me and talk with me and so on. I didn’t know back then when I was just getting started as a teenager that God wanted to walk with me.

God wanted to talk to me. There’s so many other things He wanted me to know more than just how to get to heaven. And so I was reading 119 Psalm one day. I was about 21 years old. I didn’t report Louisiana. And I was, I’d go out there and I’d put a blanket between the house and a big old fence. of winter time and I lay on that blanket and the snow was falling on my face and I laid there and I had tears in my eyes, I cry.

So I didn’t know anything about the world of God. I didn’t know anything about what to do with it. I didn’t know they were Bible college or anything like that. I got a wife and two kids sitting in the house. And I’d lay there and I’d just talk to the Lord. And I said, Lord, I know I’m going to be before you one of these days. I’d heard about the judgments of Christ. I said, Lord, when I get to heaven, don’t point your finger at me and say, Yankee, why didn’t you do with your life?

What I wanted you to. I said, Lord, I don’t know what to do. I didn’t know that he had a will. Oh, I don’t know. I said, Lord, don’t you do that to me? I says, there can’t be another person on the face of this earth that wants to serve you more than I do, but I don’t know what to do. Now, of course, there’s probably millions of people saying the same thing to the Lord that I will say to the Lord.

So down deep inside, I didn’t have a desire to live. I said, Lord, if you can’t speak my language, you can’t talk to me, then I don’t want to live. There was nothing wrong with my wife. There was nothing wrong with my kids. There was nothing wrong with my job. There was just this deep hunger burdening inside of me, and I couldn’t stand it, eating me up. And I’d go in the house and I’d sit down and I’d throw the Bible open, nothing, nothing.

All I saw was just words all over the place. And then I wound up, went in the 119th Psalm. How will all shall a young man cleanse his way, taking heed according to thy word? I word if I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. I word as a light unto my feet, and I went to my path as one. And the engines of I word give up. And I begin to read. I can’t know the will of God without knowing the word of God.

And I begin to read and read a little bit here and a little bit there. Finally one day some guy told me, he says, you need to go to Baba College. I said, what’s that? You’ll be a Bible? I had no clue. I’m so glad because God in heaven wanted to talk to me a lot more than I wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t know that. You see, now after 56 years of reading instead of the Bible, I’ve put God’s Word in my mind.

And believe it or not, as I go through life and I walk up down the streets and as I do anything that I do, God is always talking to me. I hear the voice of God Because see, the voice of God is the Word of God. God took his voice and recorded it and gave it to us on a DVD or CD or put it down in paper, the mind of God. So you and I can read and hear the voice of God.

So that’s why God wants you to come and study God’s work because he wants to talk to you. He wants to walk with you through life. And there’s a lot of things going to happen in life. and you’re going to want God to tell you what to do and how to get it done. You see, there isn’t anything going to face you in life. God hasn’t already voiced his opinion on. So you study the voice of God and it’ll help you tremendously.

Look at page three, page three, top of the page. If it meant that you had to follow the Lord in your life in order to go to heaven, Well then, why would he tell them in Mark chapter 5 verse 37, he permitted or suffered no man to follow him except Peter, James and John, those are the only three he gets to go to heaven because he didn’t permit anybody else to follow him. See there? So they’re the only ones he gets to go to?

No. You know that this is content talking about service. You see you trust Christ as your Savior because you heard his voice. He told you how to get saved. You listen to it. When he comes to service, God’s going to tell you what he wants to do to do with your life. Every day of your life, keep listening to the voice of God. Now I have some people call me and say, I heard voices. I don’t think we’re not talking about the same kind of voices.

Now you can have voices and they got voices in their head. You’d be surprised how many people I’ve had tell me all kind of things that God told them. is done in the mind. And they’ll tell me what the voice is said. And I says, God didn’t say that. God didn’t say that. So how do you know that? Because I know the voice of God. That’s not his voice. There’s a lot of preachers telling people what to do and saying, God said, no, that’s not his voice.

I know his voice. Remember, he says, they know my voice. They know my voice. Study the word of God where you know the voice of God and you can separate from those that are false teaching. God, error in their teaching. But see, if you don’t learn the word of God, you can’t detect other voices. And you may not see that something’s wrong with those, but study the voice of God. Who wants to take your Bible look in the book of John chapter one?

The book of John, Gospel of John, chapter 1. And look at verse 1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The word. Christ came into the world and He was the voice of God. Remember they asked John the Baptist. Who are you? He said, I’m just the voice of one crying in the wilderness. I’m the voice. But Jesus. is the word. Jesus is the word. Now you look there in verse 14 where he says, and the word or the voice was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

The glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Verse 11 and 12 says this, he came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them give he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name. Now when you want to have eternal life, listen to his voice. What did he say? He says, believe on him and you’ll have eternal life.

Follow the voice. What did the voice tell you to do? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Follow the voice. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Follow the voice. Listen to what he says, follow that. My sheep hear my voice. I heard. Follow the voice. What did the voice tell you to do on how to get to heaven? The voice of God never told anybody to earn their salvation. That’s not his voice. He didn’t say that.

I know the voice of God. I know the word of God. God never told anybody to try to be good to go to heaven, give money to go to heaven, join a church to go to heaven, keep the 10 commandments to go to heaven. God never told anybody to do that because I’ve heard the voice of God. I know the voice of God. I know the word. This is God’s voice. And if you study it, you’ll find out he speaks on every issue concerning man, everything that you and I need to know.

He tells us some secret things belong with unto the Lord. Now I’ll get a list of all that when I get to heaven, till I have an enquiring mind and I want to know. But now notice also, in bold right there in the middle of your page regarding salvation, having eternal life, follow the voice. Well, not looking at all of these verses in the Bible, I want you just to look there in your notes. First one is John 1, 23.

Who are you? I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness. That was John the Baptist. And what did he tell the people to do? Prepare you the way of the Lord. Hey, the Messiah is coming. And then when Jesus comes by, behold the Lamb of God which taken away the sin of the world. Did you hear that? Did you hear what he said? The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. You see, a lot of people go to church all their life.

They hear words, but they don’t listen to it as this is the word of God. This is what God says. And there’s people can’t believe God couldn’t amend it. It was totally, totally free, so they got to add something to it. And yet the Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us.

Yes. It’s time to make plans for the summer. Join us for summer camp July 9 through the 13th and fits Gerald, Georgia. At summer camp, teens ages 13 to 18 will enjoy fun competitions while learning about the word of God. Over the years, hundreds of kids have been reached with the gospel at summer camp. This is your opportunity to make summer meaningful and memorable for a teen in your life. The cost of summer camp is $150. If you’d like to donate a summer camp scholarship, You can do so by calling 813-884-4328 for more information.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.