This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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.

You can take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Timothy in chapter one, 2 Timothy chapter one. And we’ll begin there in verse nine. After we trust Christ as our Savior, there’s a lot of thing God wants us to know, because there’s things He wants us to do. And when you know that, it will explain how you got to be. So So here in the book of 2 Timothy and chapter 1, and we’re looking verse 9, in verse 9, who hath saved us, saved us is past tense.

So this is written to those who have already trusted Christ as their Savior. They know they have eternal life. They know they’re going to heaven when they die. us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose in grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Some of these are some very interesting, controversial verses, and there’s a lot of different doctrines on these verses. Some people believe that God has predetermined before the foundations of the world to save whom he chose to save, and also that God has determined that all of those that he has chosen to save, well, they will persevere in the faith and do exactly what he wants them to do for the rest of their life, and they will maintain a certain Christian standard of living for the rest of their life persevere in the faith.

Well, both of those views are totally wrong, though the Bible does talk about what God decided before the foundations of the One of them is that God has chosen before the foundations of the world to save whosoever would believe. That was His choice. He chose to save everyone who believes but He doesn’t determine who believes. And God has a purpose not only in saving a person and giving me eternal life and they go into heaven but there’s also a purpose in why God left us here because God has also called us with a holy calling about what to do with the rest of our life.

See, when you trusted the Lord, God could have taken you to heaven that moment, but He didn’t. He left us here and there is a calling. Now, we often hear preachers talking about God called me into the minute. God called me to preach. I went and asked my preacher one time. I was young and I kept hearing him and others talking about, God called me to preach. And so I was kind of curious. I asked him, I said, how does God call you?

And I’m expecting to write down, you know, all these reasons on how to know God has called me to preach. I mean, I didn’t want to do it if he didn’t want me to do it. But if he wanted me to do it, I want to know. So I got to know, right? So he looked at me and he says, son, you’ll know. Okay. So much for the notes. So I didn’t know if he was going to tell me by a woman, telephone, telegraph.

But however God’s going to do it, I really didn’t know. He didn’t give me a clue. Well, the word of God is the voice of God on paper. So as you listen to the voice of God, you might hear him tell you something. So, whenever he tells him, God called me to do this because I heard the word. Some preachers are preachers because they heard the voice of God. They heard what God said. He that had ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit said.

And some people have become preachers that God never said a word to. Because we got a lot of false prophets and false teachers, right? That God never asked to do anything for him. See, God never called any preacher to preach a false message. He didn’t do it. And so you’ve got to know what the voice was. What is that message that I heard? So I’ll know what is that message I’m supposed to preach. So it’s supposed to be from the word of God.

So God has called us with a holy column. The apostle Paul says, I have not been disobedient until a heavenly vision. what he saw and what you hear greatly influences our life. So that’s why when you come to church, we wanna tell you this is what the word of God says. Let him that hath ears to hear. Hear what the word of God says. And God may speak to you from his word. If it’s at two o’clock in the morning and you didn’t have pizza before you went to bed, it probably is not gonna be the Lord.

An angel is not going to appear on your bedpost at night and says, Hello, this is the Lord. I have called up people at time that I haven’t heard from Wallace’s and they’ll answer the law and say, Hello, this is the Lord. Haven’t heard from you in a long time. I’m not going to have fun with him, but the Bible tells us this thing that God wants us to know. Now look what he says here in in verse 10.

But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. So everybody wants to live forever, but everybody dies. But how can we become immortal so that I’m not subject to death. Now my old body was gonna die one of these days. So I’m not worried about that. Is it me? I live inside of the body. So when I lose the body, I’m still me.

I wanna live forever. Now you’ll exist forever, whether in heaven or hell. That’s where you’re forever dying and never die. But to have immortality, and the Bible tells us only God. And if you’re right there in the book of 1 Timothy, just look to your left there in verse 15 of chapter 6, which in his time he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate. That’s the only sovereignty there is. The king of kings and Lord of verse 16, who only hath immortality.

In other words, to be able to live in perfection forever. So we want to be with the Lord, the one who has immortality. So the Bible tells us here in Timothy that the gospel that we preach is the only light that manifest immortality. See what he says in verse 10, who hath abolished death, that’s when he died on the cross, and hath brought life, eternal life, and immortality to life through the gospel. This is why when we talk about knowing that you have eternal life, we often walk up to people, we’ll ask them a simple little question.

If you could know you could have eternal life, wouldn’t you like to know. Or have you ever heard that the Bible says you can know where you’re going when you die? Both of those terms simply means that you’re guaranteed that you can know you’re going to heaven before you die. And so a lot of times the preachers are not making the gospel clear because they’re not teaching immortality. That once you trust Christ as your Savior, the good news is that God gives you as a child of God immortality.

You will never die. You’ll never be separated from God and it is impossible because you have immortality. So when I was 18 years old and I trusted Christ as my Savior, God through the gospel, the good news, gave to me immortality means I’ll never be separate from God, I will be His child forever with Him wherever He is. Heaven, kingdom, I don’t care where he goes, I’m with him. And he said he’ll never leave me and never forsake me.

So I have this wonderful thing of immortality, but it’s only through the gospel. So when I believe the gospel, I must be given immortality. That very moment I believe, and that’s why he didn’t believe it to me. Hath what? Ever lasting life. If you were to trust Christ as your Savior, today God would give you everlasting life. And if it’s everlasting life, how long would it last? It lasts forever, and it’s immortal life. Now this old body that I have does not have immortality.

It’s mortal, means it’s subject to die, and it could do that at any moment. Your body can go at any time. And it’s amazing what we do to keep it going, because we know that once we move out, we’ve got to go someplace else to live. this is the only body I’ve got. I don’t have a spare one at home. Now get this. The very next verse says, we’re unto I am appointed a preacher in a apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed.

For I know whom I have believed am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed in him against that day. We know that the only reason I got this guarantee is I know he is able to keep that which I committed unto him again. See, he’s the Savior, not me. I don’t have to keep me. I am preserved because I’m in Christ. I have eternal life because I’m in Christ. I have immortality because I’m in Christ.

I have the free gift of everlasting life because I’m in Christ. I’m his child. So that is this good news that we have. So look there in your notes and you’ll notice these are the very verses that I have on the page there. But the fourth little statement I want you to see there where I have the word cause mentioned, for the which caused to preach immortality through the gospel. That is the cause that we have. That is the need every man needs to know is how to have eternal life, how to have immortality, how to live with God forever.

And so if they will believe the gospel, they will not spend an eternity separate from God in a literal fire burning hell. Now look at number one. I only got two points in his whole sermon. The call to salvation, called to service. But I broke it down just a little bit. Anyway, number one, you need to understand where you came from. God is the Creator. If he is the Creator, he created you and I. And we were created by God and for God.

And that’s what the Bible says in the book of Revelation in chapter 4. So we were created for His pleasure to please the Lord. So number one, created with a purpose. Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, and Jeremiah went forth. Before I formed the in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou came his forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nation. This is where God said, I have a purpose in your life.

I have a will for you. See the first thing you can’t serve the Lord and accomplish what God wants in life until you have first been born into God’s family. But once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, yes, we all should then as a child of God, allow the Lord to be the Lord the master of our life. But you have to be born into God’s family first, and that is the will of God. Here’s a few things that the Bible says.

Things Jesus said about the lost person. A lot of the time I hear people say, you know, when we were born in this world, we were born dead. And we’ve been dead. And a dead man can’t do anything. He can’t believe because he’s dead. He can’t hear because he’s dead. Because you say God has to, first of all, He got to save you and give you the free gift of everlasting life before you can put your faith in it because see that he has to do that first.

That’s Calvinism. That is not true. It is not what the Bible teaches. Yes, a man is dead and separated in sin because he’s cut off from the source of eternal life from immortality. So God wants us to be alive. So he has made us alive in Christ when you trust Christ as Savior. So they said that a lost man, well he can’t do any of these things. Well, just look what Jesus said about the lost man. First one, the woman at the well could know about the gift of God.

She could ask and she could receive and she did. Because Jesus said to the woman to well, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that says to the thee give me to drink, thou would have of ask of him and he would have given they live in water. She says, then give it to me. So did she hear him? Did she understand him? Did she ask? Oh, that’s impossible. Because she’s dead. She was lost. Separated from this free gift.

Yeah, not yet. But it doesn’t mean she can’t think and reason, see and understand. When somebody explained the gospel to me, I could understand what they were talking about, and I trusted Christ as my Savior. I was lost until I trusted the Lord, but not get this one. The very next statement, the lost person could thirst because Jesus says in the last day, that great day of the feast. Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirst, let him come into me and drink.

And as the scripture have said out of his belly, shall flow rivers of living water. And that he’s talking about the Holy Spirit. But he said, if any man thirst, can the lost man thirst? Can he desire something? Evidently? Because he said, if any man thirst, let him come into me and drink. You see, coming to the human drinking was the man’s choice. He’s thirsty. So they said, well, you don’t have any thirst. You don’t have any hunger. And you can’t come to God.

Nobody seeks and all that. They’re not understanding the human nature, the loiseness of man. Man yes is depraved but that doesn’t mean he can’t see and understand and think and make choices for himself because each one of these revealed that the lost man has a choice. To the woman at the well, if you knew who it is it’s Seth and the thee, you would have asked, you could have and you can. She’s got a free will she can make a a decision.

Look at the next statement, the lost man could hunger because Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I’m the bread that came down from heaven. He says, your father did eat bread in the wilderness and they’re dead. But I’m the bread that came down from heaven. Whosoever eats this bread, which is him, shall never hunger. Fifty eight years ago I trusted Christ as my Savior and it satisfied a thirst that I had and I’d never have to worry about it again.

He said that He that drinks will never thirst again. I’ve never had to thirst for salvation again because the salvation that I had 58 years ago is still the same when I got today and it’ll never stop. And when He says He that eateth this flesh, talking about Himself, if you understand? He says, you’ll never hunger again. So a lost man can thirst and a lost man can hunger and a lost man can desire and a lost man can ask and a lost man can see and a lost man can understand.

And it doesn’t matter what all the Calvin is teach. In this church, we don’t have that problem with Calvinism. You ought to go beyond these doors and virtually every church. I’d say majority of churches. I’d vengeance say 90% of all churches are teaching Calvinism or some form of an lordship salvation that you’ve got to make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life in order to be saved or to stay saved. That’s heresy. Telling people that you have to turn from your sins in order to be saved.

But they never tell you what sin or how many sins for how long and what happens if you go back to them that has nothing to do with me going to heaven. Going to heaven is the gift of God. It’s free. Whosoever, drinketh, whosoever, hunger, whosoever, believe it. Look at the next statement, the lost man can hear. Verily, verily, I see unto you. He that heareth my word, see some people say, well, God has to give you the faith to believe.

No, he does not. Every man has faith. You can put your faith in that pew to hold you up. That’s what you did. You can have the faith that when you turn on the light switch, the light’s going to come on and you exempt that. And every time you put the key into the ignition and you turn it and you think that car’s going to start, you exhibit faith every day of your life. You get up in the morning and you hope that bathrooms where you left it.

You hope your clothes are where you left them. You hope your wife is where you left her. You’d be surprised. You hope your job is where you left it. And Monday morning you show up for work because you believe they’re going to pay it to you. Everybody has faith. It’s just where do you put your faith? It’s not the size of your faith. It’s the object of your faith. If you put your faith in your good works to get you to heaven, you don’t go because your good works doesn’t have the ability toRepublicans to save you or to take you to heaven.

But if I put my faith in Christ, He is able to accomplish what I’m trusting Him to do. So the last thing down here, I want you to look at it one more time, the lost man can hear. Verily, verily I send you He that hears my word and believe it. Means he can understand on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death in the life. So the lost man can hear.

He that heareth my word. So if I listen to what God says, I’ve heard the voice of God. God spoke to me. I’ve had people say, well, God just speak to me, speak to me. Well, then why don’t you sit out with the Bible and read it? That’s how he speaks to you. Not in the middle of the night in some dream. last night, lo and behold, there I was laying in my hospital bed. And Jesus appeared at the end of my bed and spoke to me.

Now number one, I was in the hospital last night. And there was no angel, and no Jesus stood at my bedpost and whispered sweet things in my ears. You want to see Jesus, you’ll see him to the pages of this book. All the rest of them is your imagination. You have not seen him When you see him, the Bible says you’ll need to be going up in the air at the rapture, or you’re going to see him when he comes back to the earth in power and great glory.

All the other times, forget it, you’re not going to see him. So how do you know? I heard the voice of God. God told me what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. And you got the word of God. This is the voice of God. You know why I’m a preacher today? because I heard the voice of God called me. I read the verse and I could not get away from his voice. And every time I would look at the Bible, they’d come talking about preach the gospel to everybody.

I’d say, well, why don’t everybody go do it? Well, if everybody else did it, I wouldn’t have to. I could not find a loophole to get out of it. I haven’t figured yet how so many other people of God out of the loophole. Where is that loophole that got out of it? I can’t find him. I wind up going to Bible college with a wife and two kids and struggle all the way through because I heard the voice of God.

God spoke to me through His Word. There’s people that are lost. There’s people going to hell and I told you how to go to heaven. Now you go tell them and that’s the only thing I need to understand. Rest of it’s just learn the Word so you can tell them. Now if you want to hear the the Lord. Well, God didn’t tell me. I’ve heard a man tell me one day. He says, God call me to preach and his wife says, I ain’t heard him.

And lo and behold, you’d be surprised at all the things that happens. Down at the bottom of the page, Isaiah 49 says, listen O’Ouels unto me and hearken ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Now, I know this is talking about the nation of Israel and how to God birthed them and God brought them out of Egypt and so forth. But the principle is still there because it says the same thing about a man named Jeremiah.

Look at the top of the page, the next page, called for a purpose. Now once you’ve trusted Christ to save you, you have eternal life. Now you’re going to heaven, but it ain’t over. Why? I’m not there yet. So if I’m still here, then God must have a purpose for me living here. And I’ve not told you before. If you’ve got a pulse, you’ve got a purpose. If you’ve got a pulse, so I’m not real sure. Well, if you didn’t have one, you would be what?

You’d be dead. So since you have a pulse, you’ve got a purpose for living. And you need to understand what the voice of God has to say. What does the word of God say about God called me to live like this and God called me to think like this and God called me to do this with my time and God called me to support missions God called me to go to church and God called me and you’d be surprised.

God called. A lot of people don’t listen. Why? Because they have no intentions of obeying God. Can you be a child of God and be a disobedient child of God? Yeah. Well, God didn’t tell me that. Well, it’s in the Bible. Well, I just, I don’t believe that. And there’s people just don’t, they deny the voice of God. You see, I’ve been through the Bible a hundred times. Yeah, but has the Bible been through you. You don’t know the Bible until you obey the Bible.

If you’re not obedient to the Bible, you don’t know the book. It’s not because you can quote the whole thing, or how many times you read through. You can’t know the Bible until you obey the Bible. You can know about God, but you don’t know God until you start obeying God. And that’s when you find out what God is really like and what the Word of God says. You don’t know if the Bible will, or God will keep his Word or not.

We never tried them about the love and the joy and the peace and all the things you can have and what God can do with you You haven’t experienced it yet So, this is something I want you to see here. Look at the top of the page here. We’re unto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that word of painting is not a painting. Like I attain this by my works.

I obtained it because of what Christ did for me. It’s given to me. By our gospel, we want people to understand how they and have this free gift of eternal life. Look at the next verse. But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, you see, I heard the voice of God and God says, you’re saved by grace. I heard that. You see, it must be a little Scottish in me when I thought it was free, it didn’t cost me anything.

There’s no tricks, no gimmicks. And therefore I heard what it said. That’s the voice of God. God’s word is God’s mind on paper. So when you read the word of God, you’re listening to the voice of God. This is what God wants you to know. Are you listening? Are you paying attention? Because if you listen to a word of God, it will change your life. And if it doesn’t change your life, you didn’t hear him. You didn’t hear him.

You didn’t hear what he really had to say. And that there’s a price to pay for disobedience. Did you hear what he said? And to realize if you really believe that when I get to heaven, God’s going to reward me for what I did and I’m going to suffer the loss of what I could have had. And for all eternity, yeah, going to heaven is free. But what you have when you get there and how God may use you for eternity, remember we’re immortal forever.

Praise, honor and glory to those who served him and to be able to God says this. And if any man served me him with my father, honor forever. This life is temporary, but it gets us eternal dividends. That’s why it’s so important. So God calls, but not everybody believes it. Look there at the next statement, called, but rejected. It’s not like, it’s like not answering your phone. I just heard a phone ring, but I’m so glad nobody answered it.

When I first came here, I told them right off the bat, I said, if you have a phone and it rings in the church service, you’ve got to donate $100. Anybody remember that? And my phone rang twice. I could not believe that it did it, but I forgot to turn the thing off. So I’ve never said another word about it, but we just looked at people today and just give them a mean look. Call but rejected. get this. Isaiah 65 12 says, therefore will I number you to the sword and ye shall all bow down to the slaughtering because, because get it when I called you did not answer.

When I spake you did not hear, but did evil before my eyes and get this and as a choice? Your choice. Choose that wherein I delighted not. Can people rebel against God? You see there’s some people say well everything’s to the will of God. God programmed you before you were ever born, and therefore everything is God’s will. No, it’s not. It’s not all God’s will. Because you could have changed it. You could have been obedient, and it wouldn’t have happened to you.

What did happen because you’d be a rebellion. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered-ish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month, you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday Morning Service at 1030, and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon.

Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church, where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. 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. Taught 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.