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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.

I’ve got an interesting thing I want to talk to you about today, and there’s a reason for it. I want to read something to you that I got in the mail. Because there’s a lot of people that go to a lot of churches, here are a lot of preachers, and they’re not sure that they’re really saved, not sure of going to heaven. Though they played the game, they do all the things they’re told to do, but still not have that confidence that they’re positive they’re going to heaven.

Now let me just ask your question. I want you to be honest with me. Since the day you heard and supposedly trusted Christ as your Savior, have you ever had any questions or doubts about really being saved and you had some doubts about it and so you would try to reestablish it or reaffirm it in some way? Have you ever had any questions or out about your salvation. Let me see your hand. I have. I’ve had a lot of times.

Some of you have. But whenever you go and you hear and you say, okay, I got saved. But then, okay, where are you going when did I? Well, I’m not sure. But they said, well, I know I’m saved, but I’m not sure I have eternal life. Well, are you married? Yes, I am. Do you have a wife? Well, I don’t know.

You would think if you were married, you’d suppose I have a wife. He said, believe it to me, present in half what? Everlasting life. So if you believe it, you should have what? If you can’t say you have everlasting life, it’s because you don’t believe it. But if you believe it, you got everlasting life. This person wrote me this email and that was this in the last week, I believe it was. Says, I am a deaf male Christian man from Arizona.

I was once a Tennessee Temple University student and a member of Highland Park Baptist Church and the Dr. Lee Robertson. This kind of pricked my mind because I was also at Tennessee Temple and I went to Tennessee Temple School back in 1964. He says, I never had fully assurance of eternal salvation because I listened to many preachers who preached repent from sinned gospel. Ironically, they claimed to be saved by grace alone. I was deeply troubled spiritually many years and left that denomination in mid-May of 1999 after 20 years as an independent fundamental Baptist member.

Many years later, I searched on Google to search for a free grace gospel and found expreacher-man.com on December 2013. Expreacher-man was a guy named Jack Weaver. I used to work for Jack Weaver. And he wanted to go to Florida Bible College and when I went to work for him because he had to defend me because people were calling him and he didn’t have answers on why I was doing what I was doing. So he goes to Florida Bible College and he became a pastor.

So he was the expert man. He said, I read and studied and agree with many articles by Jack Weaver. Now the administrator of expircterman.com, now Jack has passed on. Now I have assurance of eternal security. I do believe grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ as Savior alone for getting eternal life as a free gift, excluding repent of or from sins. I also studied comparisons of between justification and sanctification. I could not find any church that believed in free grace gospel in Phoenix Metro area for me.

No death pastor who is free grace gospel believer nor sign language and turbo is known across America. That is why I’m not able to attend church services here. I had heard of your name since reading next preacher man dot com and he says, I know the rapture is occurring anytime. I thank the Lord Jesus for sending few preachers who preach and defend truth of the free grace gospel and warn us against dangers of lordship salvation. You’d be surprised how many of these I get.

I get at least one a day. That some people are having a lot of problems about the security of the believer. Can you really know you’re secure? And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I have here a picture of Hank Lindstrom. He was the pastor here for 42 years. I met him in 1964. He went to Florida Bible College, and that’s where I met him. And he has here, eternal security is not a separate doctrine from that of eternal life or eternal salvation.

It is one and the same. In fact, the only salvation God offers to mankind is eternal, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. So the pastor that was here for 42 years, this is what he believed, and this is what he taught. That when you trust Christ to save you, you have eternal security. And so eternal security is the gospel. It’s the truth of the gospel. If you’re not eternally secure, then you can’t be secure. Also in the doctrinal statement of the Florida Bible College, and also of the Calvary Community Church, and of the Florida Bible College of Tampa that we have here, we have in the section, Eternal Security.

We believe that once a person becomes a child of God by faith in Christ, he is always a child of God. A person is either saved forever or not saved at all. Eternal security is not a separate doctrine from salvation. It is salvation. Once a person is saved, he can never lose his salvation in any way or for any reason. And then we have another section that’s called the evidence of salvation. We believe the only evidence of salvation is revealed in whom a person is trusting to get him to heaven.

We believe it is heresy to teach that a person can know he is saved or lost because of his behavior. or for others to believe a person has saved or lost because of his behavior. That’s what produces fruit inspectors and they try to determine whether or not somebody saved or lost because of what they said or they do. You cannot determine whether a man is saved or lost by anything he says or does except by what does he trust them to get him to heaven.

Now also in the personal evangelism handbook used by the Florida Bible College in 1962 that was founded by Dr. A. Ray and all the graduates heard, it was taught the same thing. What we teach here, eternal security is not a separate doctrine from salvation. If you’re not saved forever, you’re not saved. Those who think they are saved now but could lose their salvation later are trusting to some degree in their works to save them. Because if you really understand the truth of the gospel, then you should also understand you cannot lose it.

There’s no way to lose it. It’s impossible to lose it if you ever have it. I believe you can know you have eternal life. And I believe you can be sure of eternal life. So the statement that’s written here in the title of today’s message is, can a Christian have absolute assurance of eternal security? Because if you’re not eternally secure, you’re not secure. Look at the notes down here. How do we go from, I know I’m saved to, I’m not sure I’m saved anymore.

Because many people at times will have questions and doubts. How do I really know I’m saved? So generally there’s something they’re looking at trying to determine whether or not did I really mean business. Don’t worry about you meaning business. God meant business. He’s the one that said, if you trust Him, He will save you. So my being saved depends on Him, not me. I am not trying to do anything to save myself. I’m trusting him and he saves me.

He’s the one that’s got to keep me. Not me, keep me. He’s going to keep me. And that’s good news. But look at the first question here. You cannot have assurance without eternal security, be an eternally secure, absolute confidence. Number one, what was the cause of our initial assurance of salvation? Now, won’t you take your Bible and turn to Romans in chapter 10? Romans in chapter 10. This is why a lot of people will have a lot of questions and doubts later, and you may come across some people and you might need to know how you could best answer them.

Remember every time you learn some truth in God’s word, use it for God’s honor and glory. There’s people who don’t have that assurance that you may have and you want to be a help, a blessing to people. So you look here in Romans in chapter 10, and look what it says in verse nine, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

So it’s the believing that gives you God’s righteousness. It’s with the mouth that the gospel has heard because the question comes up as, how are you going to hear and understand? You see, they’re in verse 8, but what’s there that the word is neither even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. So we preach the word with our mouth. Then you look there where he says in verse 17, so that faith cometh by what?

Hearing and hearing by the word of God. So we use our mouth to confess what Christ did. It’s the believing that gives you God’s righteousness. See there in verse 10, for with the heart man be leaventh under righteousness. Confession your sin is not what gives you salvation, it’s the believing. And if you’ll believe it, you can have everlasting life, you can be saved. But remember this, to call upon the Lord. See down in verse 13, call whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

but calling upon the Lord is simply a response to what God did. God calls us through the gospel. So when you heard the gospel, your call is a response, I believe it. It can be a mental, I believe that what the gospel says and what it means, I believe that. And God will save every person who believes it, but how can people preach the gospel unless they’re sent? So is people are sent to preach the gospel and you can hear the gospel and trust Christ as your Savior.

And so down below we make the statement in verse 14, how then shall they call on Him of who they have not believed? And how shall, in other words, you gotta hear it in order to believe it and to respond and say, yes, I believe that, that makes sense to me. So in your mind mentally, you have to come to the conclusion, I believe it. That is a response back to the Lord because God says in the book of 2 Thessalonians in chapter two and verse 14, they heard the word of the gospel through my gospel.

they heard through my gospel. How does God call by the gospel? You have to have a response, I believe that. That’s why he says, for who so ever it be, leave it on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You hear, you understand, believe it. But now notice, look there in Revelation chapter three. But whenever you think that this is what I gotta do, I gotta confess Christ with my mouth in order to be saved. Okay, how many times do you have to confess Christ with your mouth to be saved.

And what if you’re on an island and you simply got the Bible and there’s nobody to witness to? Okay, now you can’t be saved. Well, what if you’re a mutant, you can’t talk? Okay, you can’t get sick because you didn’t confess. It leads to complications. And that’s why some preachers will have people come forward in the church so they can confess Christ before others. Okay, what if you didn’t go to church? Well, you’ve got to go to church then, so you can go down to the front and you can confess it.

It leads to questions and doubts because it means that something you have to do, anything that you have to do, you’re not sure you did it right. If you had to give money, how much? Who to? Us. But at least the questions and how much would you have to give? And all that. Stay away from that junk. Do you have to go to church to go to heaven? No. Do you have to give money? Yes, no. You don’t have to give money.

You do not have to join anything. Salvation is a gift. It is free. And that’s what God said. Now look in Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter three. And this is one where a lot of people have experienced this or maybe have shared with someone the gospel and tell them this is what you have to do. And so they say, hey, Jesus is knocking at your heart’s door. And if you’ll open, he’ll come in. That sounds simple. All I can do is open the door.

We had a little kid broke down and started balling because he says, I don’t know how to do the latch. teacher simply the latch on the inside and you have to undo the latch because the door’s locked and Jesus can’t get in. But if you undo the door, he can come in. Now, see, that might sound pretty and sweet, so spiritual, but it’s swap. That’s not the Bible. That leads to confusion. I had one time these two little girls, they were walking down the dusty road there in Beldgley’s, Florida, and I was with Dr.

Hank Winston. We went up there to do some work with the migrant camp and Hank said, get everybody we can to come to the meeting. So I’m looking the two victims coming down the road. And they came up and I stopped and I talked to them a little bit. And I said, do you all want to go to heaven? Yes, say what do you want to heaven? I said, well, yes, Jesus, come into your heart. I said, will you do that?

Yes. I didn’t know how to do it. I said, go ahead. I told they bought their heads standing there, turned their hot son. And then they looked up at me. I said, did you ask Jesus to come in? He said, huh? I said, did He come in? They said, yeah. I said, how do you No, I feel it right here. I thought, Yankee, you’re missing something. I ain’t never felt it right here. Now, if Father asked them five minutes later, where are you gonna go tonight?

They wouldn’t have a clue. I never told him how to go to heaven. I never told him how to escape hell. You see, Jesus doesn’t indwell you until you trust him as your Savior. You can ask for the results, but you don’t get the results until you believe that what he did on the cross, he did it for you, except in him as your Savior. You’re trusting him to save you. Salvation is not a commitment to serve. Salvation is a decision to trust.

I decided I’m going to trust him to take me to heaven. It wasn’t a decision I got to serve the Lord Because then if I don’t serve the Lord, then I doubt my salvation. So there’s a lot of people that realize I’m not serving God like I promised. Or they committed as we have done here. I went for it. I was baptized. Baptism has nothing to do. Because I’ve asked people, where are you going to go? Well, I’ve been baptized.

That’s not what I ask. Baptism has nothing to do with you saving you. That’s not why you’re saved. So you have a reason to question and doubt your salvation. I went forward into church. going forward in the church. Where do you find the Bible verses that says, if I go forward in the church, I’ll go to heaven. That won’t work, but at least the questions and doubts and a lot of people have that. I promise to turn from my sin, because I’ll preach your sin and say, you have to turn from your sins.

Are you willing to be made willing? On that pound of pool pit, no, weak point here, pound pool pit. So is that what you’ve got to do? If you had to turn from your sins, okay, which ones? Just the big ones. What about the little ones? Let me just turn from all your sins. Try it. How you doing? You say, I turned from all of my sins. Let me talk to your wife. Let me talk to your kids. You got problems.

But you’ll find out as tangling, OK, I find out. I haven’t turned from all my sins. I still have wrong thoughts. I still do wrong things. I still get angry and I still get bitter. And so I got every reason to doubt my salvation because, see, I didn’t turn from all of my sins. What you’ve got to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life. That means you’re promising to serve as a repent of sin, means stop being bad and committing your life to Christ means I promise to be good.

So many people think they’ve got to go to heaven because I’ve got to stop being bad and I’ve got to start being good, making the Lord and Master of my life, that means service. So if you don’t serve, you have every reason to question doubt yourself. So you don’t have security because you see you’re trusting the wrong thing and and that will not save. Look at number two, why did you get saved? Okay, here I am saved. And a lot of people are going around and they’re preaching all over the place.

And their main thing is don’t you wanna have fellowship with God, don’t you wanna have a relationship with God? Well, you know, my life is empty and I have to have a better purpose of something to live for. That has nothing to do with salvation. Because after we see, if you find out, Okay, I don’t have this wonderful relationship with God, and I’m not in fellowship with God. I’m not walking with God, and my life is still empty, and my life is still miserable.

Something didn’t work. Well, you’re trusting the wrong thing. You’re committed to something that has nothing to do with going to heaven or hell. Number three, none of the above reasons are the real reasons that get saved. Now let me tell you why you should get saved. Let’s just go back in time a little bit. To the day when Yankee Arnold was only 18 years old, and a man was sitting with me in a living room, and he explained to me that if I don’t trust Christ as my Savior, I’m going to hell.

I told somebody one time, I’m trusting Christ as my Savior because I wanted fire insurance. I wanted fire insurance. Why, I don’t wanna go to hell. That’s why I needed a Savior, because I was going to hell to pay for my sins, and I don’t wanna pay for my sins, and I don’t wanna go to hell. That’s why I need a Savior. So I need to understand what do I have to do to escape hell? My fellowship with God and my relations with God, you put that aside, that has nothing to do, but I don’t want to go to hell.

I want to go to heaven when I die. And after I trust Christ as my Savior, yes, I can learn the word of God and I can walk with God and have fellowship with God, and I can have a relationship with God. All those wonderful things, but if I don’t trust Christ as my Savior, there is no relationship with God. You see, you have to have the birth in order to have the relationship. I told my daughter, I said, you’re my daughter because you are born in my family.

And that’s our relationship. So the birth determines your relationship and it’s your walk that determines your fellowship. And if you walk with the Lord in the same direction, you can have fellowship with God. It’s according to your walk, first John chapter one. But if you don’t have the walk, you won’t have the fellowship and you can break the walk. God never breaks the walk, it’s you did that. And if you confess in your sin, does not restore the walk.

Confession your sin so that you can continue the walk. You have to restore the walk with God. If you don’t restore that walk, you won’t have fellowship with God. So I decided I am going to, I want to have fellowship with God. I want to walk with God. And I make that decision. God never broken it off with me. But you can break it. But if you think that’s what gives you salvation, then you have every reason to have questions and doubts.

Well, I don’t know if I’m saved because I’m not walking with God anymore. I don’t go to church anymore I don’t pray I don’t give money to the Lord’s working more I don’t do none of that stuff anymore and I went back to drinking and chewing going with girls who do that Is the wrong basis for salvation? I Want to know how can I be assured of not going to hell and remember this you can’t know you’re going to heaven Until you know you can’t go to hell You know how I know I’m going to heaven because I can’t go to hell Well, it’s how come you can’t go to hell.

Well, that’s what I want to talk to you about. Look at the next page. Page two, top of the page. Have any relationship, fellowship, or a walk with God doesn’t explain how to escape hell and go to heaven. It’s pretty, but it’s ineffective. That’s not why I talk to people. I don’t want you to have a good wonderful walk with God. But if I don’t tell you how to get saved, you’re not going to have a wonderful walk with God.

You’re not going to have any relationship with God. Am I against having a written? No, I’m not. I want people to listen to what I do say. Don’t read into it. Number four, none of the above reasons explains on how to get saved. You may have an imaginary walk, fellowship, relationship with God without being saved. You can be saved and not have fellowship with God. Can you trust Christ as your Savior, have eternal life and not have a wonderful fellowship with God?

Yes, you can. You can trust Christ as your Savior and never walk with God. And based upon what God said and what He did, you can still go to heaven. Well, that being close to the Lord, without loving God. See, I’m not going to heaven because I love God. I’m going to heaven because He loved me. But I want the world to know that I love the Lord. So therefore I wanna walk with God. Look at the next statement.

When your walk fellowship or relationship is not what it should be and the emptiness is still there, it will be normal to doubt your salvation. That’s because these things depend upon you and not the Lord. Your relationship with God depends on you and your fellowship depends on you and your work depends on you. That depends on you. So your salvation depends upon you, not what God said and did. That’s why people have questions and doubts about security of their salvation.

They’re not assured. And I’ve had people come along and I say, well, we didn’t have anybody trust the Lord tonight, but I gave them assurance. And that can be good. You can’t give assurance to anybody until they believe in eternal security. You don’t believe in eternal security, you cannot have assurance. That means you have to be secure forever and it can’t change. If it can change, you can’t be eternally secure. And you’ll never have the peace of mind about where you’re gonna go when you die.

For sure, I can’t go to hell if I tried, I haven’t tried. But I know I have eternal life. I know God can’t undo it. I know every person I ever lead to Christ, they can’t be undone. And that is so wonderful to know. But all these years I’ve been teaching and preaching. You can know your heavy turn life. You can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Every time I give the gospel, I always teach that.

Because see eternal security, that’s the purpose of sharing the gospel so that you can be sure of going to heaven. That’s the only way you really believed it was by grace, Christ alone, faith alone, is because it’s eternal. If it’s not eternal, then how long was it good for? How long was it good for? Well, I’m saved for how long? Did you sin again? What good is that? No, you’ve got to go by what the book says. Look at number five.

Salvation depends upon us believing who Christ is. He’s the Lord. What He did, He died upon the cross to pay for my sins. What He said, He that believed in me, hath everlasting life. So you want to go to heaven when you die, let me tell you about Jesus Christ. He’s God in the flesh. Ever hear me say that? He’s God in the flesh. That’s who He is. Well, what did He do? He took all of my sins and paid for them on the cross and came back from the dead.

Well, what am I supposed to do about that? He said, He that believed in me, hath everlasting life. The only thing He wanted me to do is believe He did it for me. That’s all I had to believe. I believe He did it for me, and I’m accepting Him as my Savior. I’m trusting Him to take me to heaven because He paid for my sins. There is no other way. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Corinthians.

First Corinthians in chapter 1. Now, see, you may already be very secure and you know you have eternal life, but do you know how to explain this to somebody who has questions and doubts? Any time I talk to somebody and they’re not sure they’re saved? Well, I will say ten years ago, but I’m not sure anymore. I deal with them like a lost person. I don’t try to convince them that they were saved because I don’t know if they were or not.

I give them the gospel as though they never heard it before. And I want you from this point on, do you understand what I’m saying? And if you’re a trust Christ right now as your Savior, God gives you right now eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Now look here in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter one, and look in verse 17. Understand a few words here. Later on in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we have the resurrection chapter.

But in the resurrection chapter, and verse three, it says, Christ died for our sins. Christ died for our sins. That’s the cross, that’s the message of the cross. What did he do on the cross? Die for my sins. So I can say Christ died on the cross for my sins, or I can say Christ died for my sins. I don’t have to put the word cross in there, but it’s understood. So it’s no part in the cross word itself without an understanding.

A lot of people died on the cross, but Jesus came back from the dead. Now here in 1 Corinthians in verse 17, chapter one, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the, what’s that word? The gospel, now get this, not with wisdom of words, Unless the what? Cross of Christ. Can you connect the gospel and the cross together? I think so. Because you don’t have any good news without the cross. And if I don’t preach the cross, I have to preach this good news.

Christ died for me. And I want to know why did he die for me? So I wouldn’t have to pay for my sins. He did it for me. Best news I ever heard in the world. Now look in verse 18. for the preaching of the what? Cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us what they’re saved, it is the power of God. It’s because of what Christ did on the cross that gives it power. He paid for my sins.

If he didn’t pay for my sins, then I don’t have a payment for my sins. I have no way to escape hell, but there’s power in this message. Now take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 15. Chapter 15, chapter 15, and you’ll notice this, simple little verse, you’ll notice there in verse three, for I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, that’s the cross.

You don’t have to say the word, but that phrase is talking about what Christ did on the cross, that’s why there’s no gospel without the cross. There’s no gospel, good news without Christ paying for my sins. What made good news was God was going to justify the heathen through faith. And that’s the promise that he made to Abraham. The just shall live by faith. So Christ had to die so that God the Father could keep his word that he promised to Abraham that God would justify the heathen by faith alone.

Faith in what Christ did for us is not what we do. So people who have questions and doubts about their salvation, many boils down to they were trusting in their works for some reason. There’s only a couple things you have to know to understand that you have security and what Christ did on the cross for you. 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.

mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address. And God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road. Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. 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.