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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to continue just a few thoughts from what I had this morning. They didn’t know I didn’t get the chance to do all of it this morning, but I wanted Tana to help you to see something. And then I got a couple of questions I want to ask you. I said this year, microphone was the cross. Before the cross, the law. After the cross, grace. Now you can’t mix law and grace together. Under the law, you have two phrases that many people use today saying this is what you might do.

They don’t seem to understand that when you say that and do that, you’re putting people under the law. When you tell a man that he has to turn from his sins, well that’s what the law taught. When you tell a person that you have to commit your life to Christ, remember under the law of Mark 12, it talks about a scribe that came up to Jesus and says, what is the great commandment of the law. He said, I’ll shout love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy mind, well that’s total worship salvation.

That’s where God has to be total in control of every area of your life. Love him in every area of your life. That’s law. So we know that the law cannot save a man because a man can’t turn from all of his sins and that a man cannot make Christ the Lord the master of all of his life. Though you want to try and experiment and spend your whole life trying, it will not work. So man cannot save himself by his works, by the law.

So when we trust Christ as our Savior, we are saved by grace. So this is based upon what we do. This is based upon what he did. Now should we trust in what we do to be saved or should we trust in what he did to be saved? Which would be the best? Trust in what he did to be saved. This is grace. He did it. On the law we did it. So is a man saved by what he does?

No. So he’s turning from sin or making Christ the Lord in the master of his life in in order to be saved is not going to work. So what happens if a man trusts Christ’s Savior, and now he’s saved, he has eternal life, and by grace Christ paid for all of his sins, all of them. Now how is he to live? The Bible says the just shall live by faith. So as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.

If you receive Christ by faith in what he said, then you serve the Lord by faith in what he said. Now, if you take a person and say, this is what you must do, or you will lose your salvation, and what you must do is you must turn from your sins. And you must make Christ the Lord and the the master of your life. What have you done? You have placed them back under what? Under the law. So when you tell them you have to keep now the law in order to be saved.

Just stay saved and if you don’t God will take away your salvation that He gave to you by grace. Does that make sense? This was supposed to be three without my works, without any of my performance in any way, shape or form. Because if it’s not eternal, it’s not worth anything. When it came to works, the law, remember they send sacrifice. Send sacrifice. Send sacrifice. Send sacrifice. it was never over. You had to stay current. Under grace we’re say because of what Christ did for us, one sacrifice for all sin, for all time, for every individual, and those who believe that have His payment put to their account.

So I have a sin, a payment for all of my sins that I will ever commit. So I am saved by grace. If now I must perform to keep my salvation, then it wasn’t free. So now you say you must turn from sin and you must make Christ the Lord in the Master of the… Now you pull that person back here under law. This is what you must do. Now should I as a Christian, should I depart from the works of iniquity.

Yes. Should I allow the Lord to be the Lord and the Master of my life? Yes, but I don’t have to. Under the law you have to. So this is why you have preachers today to tell you that yes, you’re saved by grace, but you have to. You must have a changed life. And if the changed life doesn’t materialize in your Christian life, then it’s a sign you either really weren’t saved by grace at all. Because if you were really saved, you’re not going to want to go out here and do those bad things.

So naturally, there’s going to be a change in your life. And if there’s no change, there’s no salvation. So now instead of looking at what Christ did, now you have to focus upon what what you are going to do. And there’s no difference in teaching. That is that in the teach works for salvation is the same message. We are to arrest the rest of my natural life. I rest my whole case upon one thing, the work he did when he went to that cross and he paid for my sins.

Therefore, I despise legalism where people are trying to take the Christian and slide them back underneath the law. As though the keeping of the law is gonna now prove that I’m saved and if it doesn’t, and if I don’t do it, then I can lose my salvation because that’s what it’s teaching. And many people in their mind, if you never see that and never separate that, you can get mighty confused. So we were under the law of the curse.

Now we’re under grace. But if you try to put yourself back under the law, and this is what now I must do all of these things or I’ll lose my salvation, then you place yourself back under a curse. And you’re not going to be blessed. Remember the reason Christ came and the reason He died is because God promised to Abraham before the law, He would justify the heathen through faith and faith alone so that the law cannot annul that promise because see this law covenant was based upon us performing and we fail.

We broke it. We didn’t keep it. This new covenant that God made is based upon what He did and He says, I will save you. Remember, under the law, the law could not save the best of man, the best man, the best woman, whatever. The law can’t save him, can’t save even the best. Under grace, it can save the worst. The law cannot save the best. Grace can save the worst. So therefore, my life and how I live cannot touch my salvation.

I am saved because of what Christ did on the cross for me. He gives me this free gift of eternal life because of grace. And this grace says that God will never cast me out. That means what I do or don’t do cannot take it away from me. He will never lose me for no reason. He won’t cast me out and he’ll never lose me. Then evidently my lifestyle, however I live, good or bad or indifferent, cannot affect my salvation.

If he that eats this bread, one bite of this bread and he is the living bread, he says you will never hunger. He didn’t say, well, you’re going to lose your salvation and have to eat again. you get hungry because you lost your salvation, you got to do it once for all. When he talks about the water to the woman at the well, you drink the water that’s in this well, you will thirst again. But the water that I’ve given to you will spring up inside of you into everlasting life.

In other words, and you’ll never thirst again. So that’s eternal security. This is what he promised. This is why this has nothing to do with the likes of the law. The law couldn’t do this, but grace can. So it can save the worst of sinners, and the law cannot save the best of men. So I would rather have grace any day. Now, just because I believe this, does that mean that I’m going to go out and live a wicked life because I believe in eternal security?

That’s what a lot of people try to get me to believe. doctrine that you’re teaching to just giving people a license to sin. I am not given anybody license to do anything. This was not my plan, it was not my design. This is the gospel. Eternal security. And if you’re not eternally secure, you are not secure. It means that you have to have it where you cannot lose it. Otherwise nobody would ever know for sure where they’re going when they die.

And you won’t even know it when you die if you’ll finally make it because then you’ll have to wait until some judge. But I can save you a lot of time. I’m not the judge but I can tell you what he said. If you die without Christ, you’re lost. And if you die in Christ, you’re saved. Your works will not determine your destination. Your destination is determined, did you or did you not accept Jesus Christ as your Savior? So I wrote down a few questions.

I did this when I was on that little boat we was on the other week. So I’m drinking some coffee and I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, I’m gonna write this question. That’s why I wrote it down. Why does Turn from Sin produce more people living in sin? And it was mainly because of a person in India who emailed me a letter of people that he knew that believed in Lordship Salvation and he was one of them. That thought because he could not measure up, he could not keep this high standard of life.

That he had lost his salvation and people convince him that he’d lost his salvation and he was teaching in a Bible school, a Bible institute over in India, North India. So they sent him home to figure out what he was doing because they couldn’t let him teach because he was all messed up. So he thought he’s going to go to hell and because he’s going to hell anyway, why not go ahead and do what I want to do and live however I want to live.

Because see, when you have to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life, and if you’re honest with yourself, you know he isn’t. It doesn’t matter. You want him to be, you desire it to be, but it’s just not reality. Because no man can live up to this high standard, because you’re going to fail. You’re not always going to maintain that spirituality, that level, So therefore it produces the frustration, the hopelessness, the despair. And when you tell a man that he has to turn from his sins to be saved, and he knows the truth of it, he hasn’t turned from all of his sins.

Well, if I’m going to hell any way, I might as well live like it. But let me ask you a question. Is Lordship salvation making Christ the Lord of your life? That means you’re going to serve the Lord, and I promise to serve the Lord, I commit my life to the Lord. Well, if that is true, would you say that making Christ the Lord of your life or just believing by faith? Which one is real, easy-believism? No. Careful. I’ve often had people accuse me Yankee, you just have that easy believe-ism.

Because I’m not requiring anybody to do anything. I say you don’t have to keep the law. You don’t have to go to church. You don’t have to change your life. You don’t have to stop anything. You don’t have to promise. You can just trust Christ that you save your living like you please. That’s what you teach. That’s an easy believe-ism. Alright. And let’s say that. I said that’s true. All right. When it comes to Lordship Salvation, making Christ the Lord the master of your life and committing your life to Christ, they’re making it hard.

And you’ve got to promise you’re going to stop these bad things, promise you’re going to do these good things. I’m really putting it out there. And it’s going to be hard for you to be a Christian. Be in the Christian that’s so hard because you’ve got to walk that straight and narrow way. You’ve got to live it. Now, that’s supposedly the truth. Mine is the easy believerism, but it’s not mine. I didn’t make this thing up. But in reality, which would you think is really the easy believerism?

Turning your Bible to the book of Matthew chapter 7. Matthew and chapter 7, there’s a simple little verse here. And in verse 13, he says, enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. So the straight gate, the narrow gate, is the one that leads to life. And then he says, many there be which go in their end, the broad gate. Many that go into the broad gate.

Verse 14, because straight is the gate narrow, and narrow is the way which leadeth Under life, few there be that find it. Now out of these two messages, one is narrow and the other one is broad. More people go through the broad, fewer people go through the narrow. Well which one would be the easiest, the broad or the narrow? Now if you’re talking to people and think of how many churches are are and how many preachers are are and the message they have and a lot of preachers are teaching works for salvation.

You got a term from sin, may Christ the Lord of your life change your life commit all those things. In order to be saved. Why is it that more people believe that kind of a message? Then the message that says it’s free, you have to do anything, it’s just by grace. If the salvation by grace message is so easy, why don’t more people believe it? Which one must appeal to the flesh if you have a part? If you have to do something?

That appeals to the flesh. I get to do something. That would be easier for people to accept because in your mind you think bad people ought to go to hell and you know it and the good people ought to go to heaven. So that’s the way it ought to be. That’s easy to believe, evidently, because more people believe that. But the truth is, It’s free. It’s harder for people to believe it’s free than you have to do something. Wouldn’t you think?

So who is the one who is really guilty of easy beliefism? Us or them? I don’t mind people accusing me of being a person who teaches easy beliefism because I believe that it’s easy when you really understand it and you really get it. When you really see the gospel, understand that it’s a gift. And the reason why you have to be perfectly go to heaven and your works could never do it. When they really see it, it’s easy for people to trust the Lord.

This is why we try to emphasize so much the clarity of the gospel because the clarity of the gospel is what makes it easy for people to believe, but if you add works to the gospel it’s hard for them to believe. But that’s what most people would believe. You got to do something. So I guess you would come down to them. Which is really the easiest. Grace. Works. I don’t know if I figured it all out, but I do believe that we’re responsible to God to teach the truth.

And the Bible says it is the gift of God, not of works. And that’s what it says. So regardless of where people come from and what they want to hear and what’s more pleasing to them, and isn’t it amazing how many churches can be packed to the gills? and the preacher is preaching a false message or a by works message by which you have to do something and the churches that are clear on the gospel sometimes struggle to keep the doors open.

Have you noticed it? Because which is the easiest? You see if we really believe this then we know that we have a responsibility to win more people to Christ. But if we believe you have to do the other, there’s a thousand churches out there already preaching that. They’re already preaching that. But few are telling the true gospel of how to really know you have eternal life and go to heaven. There’s more pressure. If I was the devil, I let him alone.

But, buddy, I would work on churches like this one. I would do whatever it takes to stop the gospel coming out of this church because we’re reaching a lot of people, even though we’re few in number, we reach a lot of people. But remember, it’s a battle, it’s a warfare, it’s not easy. Another question I wrote down. Since we are saved by faith, Is it faith in what we do or what Christ did? If we’re saved by faith, is it faith in what we do under the law or is it faith in what Christ did under grace?

Which way is it? This is the message we’re supposed to preach. Therefore, we don’t try to take people and put them under the law and say, you must perform. That’s law. That’s work. It won’t work. say, buying grace alone. Is it faith in my works that I must yet perform or trust in the work that Christ has already performed? We say, you’re saved by faith. Okay, faith in what? Faith in the work that I must yet perform or faith in the work Christ has already performed.

If I’m saved by my faith in what Christ has performed is a done deal. If it depends upon the work that I must perform, it ain’t over yet. That’s why you can’t know for sure where you’re going when you die. This is why we always ask the question, do you know where you’re going when you die? And I had a lady tell me the other day she says, oh yes, I’m going to heaven when I die. I walked out, walked over there to check the mail, and there was a lady at the door.

Young lady, the door was locked. And I said, are you trying to break into the church? She turned out like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, what can I do for you? She says, I just want to know if you need some people to clean your church. I says, now we’ve got all the cleaners we need. So she came over there and she had some literature and she says, can I leave us with you? I said, I’ll take yours if you’ll take mine.

So I pulled out my little blue track and I said, this is my picture on the front, she laughed. I don’t know why everybody laughed at my picture, it’s not that bad. And so I said, can I ask you a question? She said, yeah, I says, where are you gonna go into that? She says, I’m going to heaven. I said, are you sure she says positive, positive? I said, is there anything you could do in the future that could keep you from going?

She’s well, of course. She’s positive. Can you do anything in the future to keep you from going? Well, of course. Now, what is she depending on to get her to heaven? Her works. Do you think that’s what she believes? She doesn’t believe that you’re saved by your work. She believes you’re saved by grace. But I could do something and lose my salvation. And they don’t see it. They just don’t see it. And so when I explained it to her she says, I have never heard it like that before.

I says, this is okay, most people haven’t. I says, once you trust Christ as Savior, He put that payment He made to your account, and you get to go to heaven or what He did. It’s not what you do. I says, you have never lived good enough and never will to deserve to go to heaven. God says, for by grace or you say through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.

This is why being hanged love. the gospel, the clarity of the gospel. And I hadn’t heard him for about 20 years. I’d come down here and I’d speak, but I didn’t get a hear-hank. But I knew where Hank stood and he had a reputation. Hank was good, good. He was clear on the guy. Hank was the sole winner. But that’s what when you see it and you really understand it, you harp on it. If there’s anything that we call a hobby horse, this This is our hobby horse.

But what a horse to ride. Because we know that there’s so many people that’s never understood. Did you realize that after the service this morning, yes we had one boy, Trust the Lord, but also had somebody from Kentucky that said that they were Trust Christ’s Savior this morning. And one before that was somebody Tampa, I think. But they come from a little bit of here and there, you know, never know for sure. And there could be a lot of people, Trust the Lord, we have no clue where they are.

I had one guy I talked to him the other day and he says, he says, I like Calvary. I said, well, I’m glad. I says, are you talking about Calvary community church? No, it’s over in Clearwater someplace at Calvary and I don’t know what church, but I’ve never been over there. I don’t know what he’s talking about. He said, but there’s another Calvary somewhere. I says, do you know where you’re going when you die? Yes. Yes. Is there anything you could do to keep it from going to heaven?

Yes. Does he really know where he’s going when he dies? No, he doesn’t know where he’s going when he dies because he ain’t dead yet. He’s thinking, well, if I died today and they don’t understand that they’re really not trusting Christ to take him to heaven, does it matter? Does this matter? This is heaven and hell. If Christ is not your savior, you’re not going to heaven. And it means that you must trust Him and Him alone as your only hope of going to heaven.

If you have not yet lived a perfect life, what makes you believe you will today or tomorrow or the next day? You never will. So there’s many people who are just not clear on the gospel. You know, there’s power in this gospel message. people just don’t know how to present it. And the reason we keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over again is because you learn it that way. You’ll learn it. Next thing you know you’ll be at some place and you’ll be talking and you’ll say a word for word like you’ve heard because it’s ingrained in your brain so it is important.

I love the gospel because there’s not another message like it. And works does not work. Salvation by grace in grace alone. So you and I that are saved by grace and we know that. We know that when Christ died He paid for all of our sins. There’s no sin to condemn me. I can never be condemned in the future. Because see his death became my death and his death means that I have fulfill the demands of the law. The wages of sin is death and I died.

The law cannot touch a dead man. I am dead to the law, so the law can never condemn me because I will never have a sin that needs to be paid. Christ paid it all. That’s the best news in all the world. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, Teaching Ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold, we pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach by the line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. 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. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, 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, and just keep looking up.