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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 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 want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of First Peter chapter three, first Peter chapter three. See, God is known by his attributes. You gotta, in other words, how would you describe God? Well, these are some of the things that you can understand on how to describe God. And I can describe you and tell you who you are and where you’re from and how old you are and the way you act and carry on and the language you speak and just the way you behave, your mannerism all those things.

So you can be very descriptive. Well, there’s things that kind of pinpoint the Lord. There’s nobody quite like him. And the characteristics he has, nobody else has. He’s God. But the attributes of God are reflected through biblical doctrine. You see, whenever we teach whether it’s Bible doctrine, about angiology, or theology, or eccotology, or eschatology, whatever we study, whatever the basic doctrines are, they’re reflective of what God is like. And so whenever you mess up an heir in doctrine, you’re in air on that which reflects God’s attributes.

Because if God is God and He is perfect, then His world He made or the Word that He gave, the doctrines we teach from the Word has to agree with God the the way he is. So whenever you are in air, in Bible doctrine, you’re in air concerning the way God is described. Because if you say something God does not say, then that calls God a liar, and that goes against… then he’s not righteous, he’s not holy, he’s not perfect, because you just had a lie about him.

And so your doctrine has to be in agreement. So with the what the word of God says, as it relates to the Lord. But anyway, Calvinism seeks to destroy the very heart of God’s character. And so that’s an important thing to remember. If it wasn’t because of all the emails that I get and the statements that people make on our YouTube messages, I wouldn’t think it’s quite as bad, but it is bad. And there’s a lot of people that are being damaged because of the teaching of Calvinism.

And so what they teach is they lie. It’s not close to the truth. No, no, it’s a lie. Let’s see, the truth is wrong. And so whenever you believe in the perseverance of the saints, you know that you’ve got to persevere. You have to teach, turn from sin, and you have to teach lordship salvation. You have to teach, you’ve got to commit your life to Christ. Why? Because you’ve got to get a person to commit to a changed life, or they can’t get saved.

So they have to put those things in there because of their belief in the perseverance of the same, because you can’t just get saved and then just live like you please. They gotta be this change in your life. And so they gotta have something that changes your life so then they become fruit inspectors. So one heir leads to another heir. But the t stands for the total depravity of man, but that is a lie. Well, man may be totally depraved in the sense he cannot save himself, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability to think and the reason to believe something that God says, the very first person of the Bible, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I can believe that. I believe that and I wasn’t even saved. But it doesn’t mean I can’t think and reason and come to a decision. The next statement, the use stands for the unconditional election. In other words that Um, God has already determined those who is going to be saved, so He gives them the faith to believe. And in order to do that, He has to actually save them before they get the faith to believe, which is totally backwards, it’s contrary to what the Scripture says.

So I wanted you to look at this one verse because if God has already predetermined who’s going to be saved, well then they’re going to be saved, regardless. But in verse one, it says, likewise, he wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word of their unbelievers, they may also may, without the word, be won, may be won. Now, if they have been chosen, well, definitely they will. It’s not an option. And it should not depend upon how the woman treats the husband.

If he’s going to be saved, he’s going to be saved. nothing to do, how she lives, it doesn’t live unless Calvinism isn’t true. Calvinism is not true. And the L stands for the limited atonement, which I wrote a couple of things down here in bold and I want to read those to you. In other words, look there, where I have it in bold and at the middle part of the page here. If Calvinism is true, then God did absolutely nothing to save those who went to hell.

Now think about it. If they could not be saved and God chose not to save them, then they actually had no way of ever being saved. And so God did absolutely nothing to save those who went to hell. They were unloved, unwanted, and lived without purpose. This would mean that they were created without value. They had no value at all. Lived without meaning, died without hope, and to be eternally alone and doomed for punishment without light. Because you see, hell is a place of darkness.

And without light means they never had a justifiable understanding of who they were, what they were doing here, and where they would spend eternity, they had no answers, no justification from God. And I think that’s a great era. Take your Bible look in the book of Romans in chapter 3. Romans in chapter 3. you and I, we all know that according to the Bible, we’re all going to be judged. And the lost man is going to be judged. But is it right for God to judge the lost man who he already had predetermined is going to hell before they were ever born?

Now how many people get a choice in being born? If God had told them all of this before, they probably wouldn’t and said, Nanda did this count me out, I don’t want to go. But now, if you look there in the book of Romans in chapter three, he says in verse three, for what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? What if some did not believe? Well, does it mean that they could not believe?

What if some did not believe? Well, if it was all chosen, everything in advance, and they really had no choice in believe it or not believing. But notice 1st 4, God forbid they let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and might have overcome when thou art judged.” That goes all the way back to the book of Psalms in 51 and verse 4, and when David is praying his prayer of forgiveness the Lord in confessing his sins that he had committed with the Passchiba.

And it looks like people are going to be judging God. Now in life, we may not say so, but almost everything that happens to us, good, bad, or indifferent, we will ask the question, not why did God let that happen? Because we’re judging whether or not God was just in allowing that to happen to us. Or if God is righteous and just and perfect, why did He let this happen and not let this happen? Why did He let my child die?

Or why did He not give me the money that I need? Why would I born such a poor family? And we’re judging whether God is fair. And we We have an uncanny sense of fairness. About us. We know that whenever you have two sons and there is a two pieces of pie and they both are going to get a piece of pie, they will automatically try to decide which is the bigger piece. True? Even if it’s just a sliver, just anything.

So I always took the biggest piece because I knew that because they loved me, they would want me to have the biggest piece. and so I just went ahead and took it. But now, don’t we judge things? And we said in judgment upon God. Well, God must be just when He is judged by the unjust. So believers are judging with the God. And otherwise, there’s no reason for God to want to be clear except by His own nature, his essence of what makes God God, he is a righteous God.

But he wants you to know that reason he is judging at the Great White Throne Judgment or for rewards for those who believe that God is righteous. God is a just God because we want things to be right. And if we got what we really deserved, what would that be at all being held. So God has mercy. So we’re glad that there is the mercy of God. But now you take a lost man who is born into this world at no fault of his own.

But God has already predetermined that he cannot go to heaven because Jesus did not pay for his sins, did not offer him salvation. Does that mean that God does not love him? Can God love a person without extending compassion? When the Bible says in the book of Romans, I mean the book of Matthew chapter 9, when he looked upon the Mulded who was moved with compassion, for they were like sheep without a shepherd and says, pray that we will send forth labors into the harvest.

Well, if the loss really lost, if it says the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost, if God is already predetermined, everybody on this side of the church is saved and going to go to heaven. And all of y’all have not been chosen, but he chose these. So he’s going to see to it that they’re going to heaven because he has predetermined in in advance before they were ever born, before anybody did good or bad, you’re going to heaven, you’re going to hell.

Were they really ever lost? Were they ever really in danger at any time of going to hell if God had already predetermined they’re all going to heaven? If they’ve already predetermined and they’ve never really been totally lost because they’re all automatically going to heaven. So he didn’t actually have any worry about where they’re going to spend eternity. But these over here, if God loves, and they always tell you that He loved the elect, God so loved the world, God so loved the elect, those that He elected to save, then I mean He did not love the others.

So what was the determining factor in the mind of God that caused him to choose some and not the others. When he says in his word over and over again, he is not a respecter of persons. There could not be something in them that he loved more than these over here. So these people over here would wonder, how did God do this? Why did God do this? Because you were born without a choice. So that means you were unloved, unwanted.

What was your purpose. Now if you were offered equally the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ and salvation was for whosoever, believe it, then you got a reason to understand by me rejecting that payment, then God is just. And God is going to show that He has purposely, deliberately, that every man has a certain amount of light or evidence that what God says is true and if you follow and believe truth, truth leads to truth and more truth.

So look there in your notes I just want to mention this to you. They were unloved unwanted and lived without purpose. This would mean they were created without value, lived without meaning, died without hope and to be eternally alone and doomed for punishment without light. Their destiny was totally determined before they were born. If Calvinism is true… Show where God displayed his love, compassion, justice, righteousness to the man that was born for condemnation. How can God justify his actions?

Because God is going to be judged and God must be just when he is judging. In other words, He has to be right. No one can be able to place a blame on God. Nobody. And if they go to hell, it has to be just. Where would the justice be when they had absolutely no chance, no choice, and just created to be thrown into a literal fireburn and hell for all eternity? I would have a problem with that. I believe believers would, and so are the unbelievers.

So the next statement I have here is, how could a holy, just, righteous, compassionate, and loving God ever justify His action to the believer and to the unbeliever? If evolution is true, there can be no justification for God’s action. Calvinism strikes at the very heart of God’s character. Calvinism corrupts man’s view of God. Now, omniscience and omnipotence, and I’m the presence we covered that Sunday night. But I want you to take your Bible in turn with me to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter six.

1 Timothy, in chapter six. When we talk about the word immutable, means God doesn’t change. God doesn’t change. He is absolutely the same yesterday, today, and forever. And for this reason the attributes he possessed before the creation of the world are the same ones he has today. So in 1 Timothy chapter 6, look in verse 15, as it refers to the Lord, which in his times he shall show who is the blessed blessed and only potentate. That word means sovereign.

He is superior, sovereign. There is absolutely no one over God. That is proven in the very first verse in the Bible, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And there’s nobody to say he couldn’t wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it, not able to do it, he did it. There was nobody for God to answer to. He did not ask us to come into his chamber for counseling so that we could advise him on how to do the job or if he should do the job.

But look in verse 16, who only hath immortality. Now what does immortality mean. What is it to be mortal? Dan over here is a mortal individual. It means he is subject to death. Means he’s liable to die on us. Any moment now. But he is subject to death. He does not have immortality. God is only immortal. Means means God is not subject to death. Which means that if there is a God, He has to always stay God, always be God, and He cannot change into something else.

There is no sin for Him to confess. He makes no mistakes. He does everything right the first time. He is God. Now, there’s a verse that we have here Psalms 90 and verse 2 says, before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hath formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. If he was God from the beginning, would he be God today? And if he’s God today, will he be God tomorrow? God will always be God.

He is immortal. You and I, one of these days, God is going to have this mortal put on immortality where we will not be subject to death. God never has to be put on immortality. He is. That’s what he is. The other verse here in Malachi 3.6, for I am the Lord in those three little words, I change not. The next word we have done here is the word holy. And we know and believe that God is holy because of his righteousness.

God, see, can only reveal his holiness to us by his righteousness. The righteous things that he does, his judgments that he does. God has to be right. So he is a holy God. That’s why he could give the holy law. And this is why we call this the holy Bible and the Holy Spirit is not the unholy spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. Though all the attributes of God are important and dependent upon one another, the fact of God’s holiness seems to be the one he wishes us to put emphasis upon.

When God revealed himself demand. Each encounter mentions His holiness, Isaiah called God the Holy One more than 30 times, the Holy One. He must be holy. In the Scriptures it says, exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy Heal. For the Lord our God is holy. That’s descriptive. This is one of the attributes of His character of what he is like. Thou art of pure eyes, then do behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Therefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and wholest thy tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he.

Now this is Habakkah, I had a serious problem. He says, now Lord we know Israel, we know we’re bad. I mean we’re really bad. And we’re sick, yes, from the foot to the head. We’re corrupt and we’re no good. That’s the way we are as a nation. And Lord, I know that you’re going to judge us. This is in the book of Habakkah. But he says, the one that you’re going to use to whoop us with, they’re worse than us.

How can you be righteous by taking a nation that’s worse than us and whooping us with him because God knows that he’s going to whoop them with somebody else. But can God make a bad decision? Now when you understand the character of God you’ll know that God cannot and will not do you wrong. You see part of our misery sometime is living with the idea that God doesn’t love us enough to see us through. Love us enough to meet any.

It’s like when a lost man knows he needs to be saved. He knows that Jesus is necessary, but he doesn’t believe Jesus is enough. And so the devil can use anything that’s against the character of God to get you to question the provision of God. And so the more you know about God and the way He really is will bring peace of mind to your soul. Remember a little faith takes the soul to heaven, but a great faith brings peace to the soul, and you want that peace.

Look at the next statement, righteous. And this is where I was just a moment ago in the book of Romans in chapter 3. God’s holiness is manifested in His righteousness, Because he is holy, he is righteous. This attribute of righteousness is the way his holiness is expressed when dealing with men. When God deals with us, you must believe that God will do you right. When God has to chasten you, if he has to chasten you, it must be right.

If God wants to bless you, it will be right because God doesn’t sin. does it make mistakes? God is a perfect God. Now He will give us His Word and tell us there’s things that He wants us to do and then He will either bless us or chasten us based upon our response to the Word of God. So the results of our disobedience sometimes it rests with the Lord, but whatever it is, God is righteous. He makes no mistakes.

Now the next statement, verses declare his righteousness and don’t have time to look at all them so I just put down a couple of them. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yay, our God is merciful. Now if the lost man born into this world has no options, not given a chance and he’s unloved and he’s unwanted. What was he necessary for just God to use him and then punish him for eternity? Well, that given him an opportunity to be saved and you’re judging your mind whether or not does that sound like the God we read about?

That’s a God of compassion, a God of, you know, love, God of mercy. But look what he says here. Oh Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped as it is this day, behold we are before the in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this. See when Israel sinned against the Lord, when they went into captivity and when they came back and many of the men wound up marrying people and bringing them back and some of them had several wives and they were of different nations.

You know what he told them to do? You could get rid of them. But there’s things that God says that are right. But God does sow mercy. But there can’t be any mercy unless there is judgment, that there is going to be a penalty. And God, being God, can demonstrate, like Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, talking about the love of God is manifested. of why we were yet sinners Christ died for us. That’s love. The Lord is righteous.

He has cut us under the cords of the wicked. Now, sovereign, we already said a little bit about the word sovereign, but here’s a statement that I got from Florida Bible College years and years ago. And Dr. Mark Cameron always says, God in his sovereignty chose to give man a free will. Though God in his sovereignty means that God is powerful, God can do whatever God wants to do, but God has limited himself in certain areas and God is free to do that.

Because whatever he does, he’s still God. But he says this, this is what makes him free to do what he knows is best for us. Though he is in complete control, he has also given us free will to obey or reject his leading. The first verse of the Bible says that God does what he chooses to do. Who did he ask about creating the heavens and the earth? Probably just the father of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us make men an hour image.

Might be something there. The first verse of the Bible says that the entire first chapter shows God’s authority and sovereignty over his creation because God determined to make light and He made the earth, He made grass, He made trees, He made the fruit-yielding trees and the bare fruit after their own kind and all the animals and the sun, the stars, the moon, and you name it, God made everything. He didn’t ask anybody for permission and He could do it and there was nobody that could stop Him.

There’s nobody over God. When you read the book of Isaiah in chapter 43 through chapter 48, you’ll be surprised how many times when God says, I only am God. There is no other God beside me. Who will you make me equal to? And so on. A lot of good verses. But the Bible is full of passages that show God leading or commanding people to do certain things. Man’s freedom of choice justifies God’s choice of results. So God is not weak.

He has chosen to do what He has done, to allow us to make decisions. And then He has chosen that He can do what He does based upon our decision. That doesn’t mean God is in air, just because we choose to rebel. Men, reserve 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 sharpens 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 Thank you 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.