Bibleline Radio Show – 2020-07-09 – Is Salvation Forever? Pt.2
Transcription:
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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.
Now let me tell you this, and this is the truth, right by my hand. My dad came to the house one day, and remember that, Remember now we live we out in the woods my dad was a bootleker We didn’t live in town Somebody said you raised on the wrong side of the tracks another word on tracks I’m even sure there was roads But anyway, my dad brought this guy to the house and he was gonna eat with us that night and Let me know you know We had a table but we had two benches on each side of it And my momma sat down there and my daddy said on this and and that there was me and then their sister net That was always a little bit older than me and cross from me was Lizzie and then there’s this guy.
I Never met it before but he said right there I still remember his name manual Freeman never figured his name. I’ve tried to like him I only met him one day my whole life And I remember his name and there’s a reason for remembering his name We’re sitting there eating and my sister said beside me and she elbows me. It’s a genius. Yeah, she says look at him He’s ugly, and I’m mad. My dad’s like, what are you laughing at?
He said it like this. And we ate some more. Yeah. He looks like a monkey don’t eat. Five, six years old. My laugh. He was funny. I looked over at him. Yeah. This time my dad says, what are you laughing at? But the way he said it, you know, it ain’t going to work this time. I got to tell him why I’m laughing. I’m five, six years old. I haven’t learned the art of lying. But they always say, you know, it’s always better to tell the truth.
No, it ain’t. My daddy says, what are you laughing at? I just, just as quickly as I could. I just says, he looks like a monkey. My dad came back with his hand, took me clean off that bench. I went airborne, all the way to the wall and down to the floor. Then he picked me up. Then he took me outside and he finished killing me. I died. I died a number of times. Guess what happened to my sister?
Nothing. Nothing ever happened to her. I always got in trouble. But I never wanted to get close to my dad. It’s time to do it. Was you close to your father? No. But I got me a heavenly Father, and I’m not scared of Him. And He is just. But I think I want God’s blessings upon my life instead of God having to chase in me. I wanna be a happy kid. And I find out if I obey my heavenly Father, I’ll be so much more happier.
And I know He’s gonna bless my life, so He promised. So I serve the Lord not because I have to, but because I want to. Now some people think, well, you gotta do right. But they don’t. Well, they did. Why don’t they? If you got to be good and good to heaven, I’m going to earn it. When are you going to start? That anyway, that’s mentioned at number four. Does not mean that a Christian can live as he plays and get away without chastising him.
God said he will chasten his children. So I’m his child. So I know my heavenly Father says that he loves me and he chastens every son who only receiving. So can I live like I please? Yes. Can I get away with it? No. Do you understand that? Your kid born into your family or daddy, the kid can walk up and he says, Mom, Dad, I just thought I’d let you know. So it’s I’m your child. I’m always your child, right?
Right. So therefore I can live like I please try it. And when you was a little kid, what what they’ve done to you murdered you just like my daddy did me If you had any good parents at all. Now look down at the next statement. I want you to see this because it’s so important. The absolute assurance of eternal salvation is based on the unfailing and sure promises of God. Now we covered this very well in Sunday school class this morning.
You say, well I wasn’t there. Yeah, no. But anyway, in order to show the contrast between grace and works, Paul in Romans states this. Now look at this verse. This is awesome. Put this right there in the book, Romans in chapter 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace. In other words, if you work for your salvation, then that means that God is in debt to you. God must pay you because you earn the right to go to heaven.
So he says, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace. So your salvation would not be by grace. It would be because you did such a good job and God is in debt, he owes you. But do you think that’s what the Bible wants you to do? How to go to heaven? Don’t look at the best of it. But to him, get this, that work it not. But believe it on him that justify it the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
In other words, if I will simply put my confidence in what Christ did for me, He paid for my sense. So that means if I really believe that, I don’t have any sense to pay for it. Now people, they hear that, but they can’t believe that. I- I can’t believe you said that. You can’t go to hell because you don’t have any sense to pay for it. Who do you think you are? Well, what do you think I’m going to heaven?
Because I don’t have any sense to pay for it. Who paid for my sense then? Jesus. Well, how many of my sins did he pay for? Now, if it was 99.1%, he didn’t help me now. Why, that one sin drew me in? Either he paid all, or he didn’t do me any favors at all. And he can’t save me. The only reason he can forgive me of all my sins is that he paid for all my sins. So look at the last part of this.
But believe it on him that justify up the ungodly. See, He justifies the ungodly. I’m ungodly. It means I’m not like God. God is perfect and I’m not. God doesn’t have a sinfulanylcher, I do. God doesn’t do wrong, but I sure do. And therefore Christ pays for my sin and He can justify the ungod, just as if I had never done it at all. And that’s good news that God would save me. But remember this, He only says everybody the same way.
He don’t save anybody a different way. One way for you and one way for you and another way for you and another. Everybody gets saved the same way. You have to trust Christ as your Savior. If you don’t depend upon Him, then you don’t go to heaven. You’re not forgiven. You’re not saved. You’re not a child of God. You’re not going to make it. Is this serious or is it not serious? A lot of people are not telling people the truth about this.
I’ll just go to church, do the best you can. Just love God and do right, love one another, pay your bills, love your wife, love your kids, be a good family man. Go to work and be a hard working man. All that counts. It doesn’t count one Iota, zero on your eternal destination. We have sin and the reason we’re going to hell is because of sin, S-I-N. So Christ took care of our debt in full, came back from the dead.
And whosoever, believe it, if you believe He did it for you, then He puts that payment to your account. So the reason I can’t go to hell in the future, I don’t have any sense to pay for it. That’s why I can’t go to hell in the future. But people believe they can lose their salvation. Why? Because they believe they can commit a sin, wasn’t paid for it. So you got to get saved from it. I repent again and do whatever has to be done again.
If you can lose your salvation How do you know exactly when you lost it? How do you know you haven’t already lost it? Think How good do you really have to be and are you and who’s the judge you? Well, I know I’m gonna make it Because I’ve been pretty good. Great. Are you gonna be the judge? or is there somebody that’s going to be the judge? The judge already says without Christ, profit at you, nothing, nothing. And that’s what I was talking about in the book of Matthew.
I’ve had people who believe you can lose your salvation. You’ve got to work your way to heaven and they’ll quote those very same verses and apply it to me. So that’s talking about you, and they don’t see it. It’s talking about them. So we’re putting fingers at each other. One is by grace, and they’re going to talk about other works. We have done this, and we have prophesied that name, and we have cast out doubles. We have done many wonderful works.
Look what we have done! Talk about their works. When I get to heaven and I send to the purlified gates, I’m going to have to worry about God’s sin. There’s says, now why should I let you into my heaven? I’ll say because Christ died for my sins. Welcome. I get to go in. Why? Because I believed it. And that’s why everybody has to believe it. Now look at the next statement because this is also very important. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.
You see if you had to earn your way to heaven by how righteous you lived then it can’t be sure because you’re not faithful. You are not faithful. You and I are easily deceived. So you cannot be sure of going to heaven if you’re trusting in your works in any way, shape, or form. This is why I usually ask the question. Is there anything you can do between now and the time you die that could keep you from going to heaven?
Oh yeah. Well if you asked me that question, I would say, oh no, nothing. I can’t go to hell S.M. possible. I couldn’t go to hell if I tried. And I haven’t tried. But I can’t go hell because God meant what He said. He loved me that much, gave me eternal life. Down at the bottom of the page are involved. It is important to underscore three key words in this verse, faith, grace, surety. And that’s what that verse is talking about.
Now look at the next page, I had given you these things here before, some time back, but I want you to make sure that you really get it. You really understand because one of these days you’re going to die. And you need to let your loved ones know that you’re going to heaven when you die. And the only way you’re going to know that you’re going to heaven, and they can know that you’re going to heaven is that you’re trusting in Christ alone.
If they say, well, I know that I know Aunt Suzy went to heaven because she would give you the shirt off her back. Oh, that’s really guaranteed. So everybody has to give the shirt off their back if they want to go to heaven. Find that in the Bible. As somebody who wants to compliment someone, boy, that’s a Christian. If I’ve ever seen one, that’s a Christian. She may be a hypocrite. I don’t know. That didn’t mean she’s a Christian.
She lives right. She goes to church, pays her bills, does all these work. But has she trusted Christ as her saved? If they don’t go to heaven, if my mom had not trusted the Lord, my mom would not go to heaven. My sisters would not go to heaven. My wife would not go to heaven. I would not go to heaven unless I trusted Christ as my Savior. So just look at some of these things here. And these are various verses you can look them up in your Bible and you can go through every last one of them.
And you’ll find out that God says, if you do this, this is what you can have. John 3 16, you ever heard John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave is only forgotten son? Oh, that’s right. God so loved the world that he gave is only begotten son, the whosoever Keep the 10 commandments and comes to Calvary Community Church and pays 50%. You know, so simple that whosoever, believe it, should not what? What would that mean?
Should not perish. It means you won’t go to hell. You will not, you will not go to hell. But what? But have everlasting life. Then where would you go if you have everlasting life? See, it’s a verse that’s guaranteed. All I have to do is believe. And what will I get if I believe I will not go to hell and I will go to heaven when I die She that’s the gospel, but you know there’s people that they they will change every bit of that and that verse does not say that The world doesn’t refer to the world in Christ did not die for everybody He just died for the ones that he he loves more than others and yet the Bible says God is not a respecter persons No.
Look at the next statement. John 3 36, He that believer on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides upon him. You see here’s the Lord and he’s got wrath and he’s going to pour out his wrath and all we’re doing is waiting for the day of execution we’re going to die. But when you trust Christ as your Savior who took your wrath, see you’re put over here.
The wrath of God is still upon those who have not trusted Christ the Savior. And that’s why you have to trust Christ’s Savior before the wrath of Paul. And you don’t know when you’re going to die. Boom, and the very moment you die, you don’t get a second adherent. I’m going to put a tear in my eye and I’m going to plead and God knows. And I know God loves me and Him just going to forget all about all those things.
And He’s going to let me right on end. The moment you die, it’s over. Your choices are over. You can only choose. Make that decision why you live. It is appointed unto every man wants to die and after this the second chance. No, as a judgment. And you’re going to be judged by your works, because you will not accept grace. So you’ll find out whether or not your works really worked. But I can already tell you, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.
No man’s ever been saved by their works and yet the lost man’s going to be just by his works and it’ll prove you did not earn your salvation. You are not here by justified. You are not going to heaven because of anything that you have done. So, look at the statement in the little box there. insurgent. How do you know when you really believe in Christ? Very simple. When you can say, I have eternal life. If I believe it, I’m supposed to have something.
What am I supposed to have? Eternal life. Well, when can I say I have eternal life? Well, when you believe it. Well, when I don’t know, I really believe it. Well, when you say I have eternal life. Remember the illustration I gave to you all sometime back? Are you married? Yes, I am. Do you have a wife? I don’t know. You see, one comes with the other. If you’re married, you’re supposed to have, well, if you’re a man, you’re supposed to have a wife.
And if you’re a woman, you’re supposed to have a husband. Are you married? Yes, I am. So if you can’t say, I have eternal life, it’s because you don’t believe what he said. You have to believe these two things. One, what he said, what he did. But what did he do? He paid for my sins. What do I have to do? I believe he did it for me. So I believe what he did and I believe what he said.
And so you have to believe that. I am a sinner. I cannot save myself. So I’m trusting Christ as my Savior. He gives me his upreheic gift everlasting life. take your Bible looking first John chapter 5 first John and chapter 5 right before the book of Revelation in that area anyway you got a little books in there first John 2nd John 3rd John June and but look there in the book of first John in chapter 5 and look in verse 10 first John chapter 5 verse 10 there’s a verse here you need on the line in your Bible and I’ll show you which one it is in verse 10 understand if God walks into this room right now and He says to you, if you believe on me, trust me as your Savior, I will give you as a free gift right now, eternal life, and you’ll never perish.
And you say, I believe what you say is true. And then Jesus walks out. And then somebody walks in and says, what you been doing? Oh, I’m just talking to the Lord. What did He say? Well, He says it. He paid for my sins and all I had to do was trust them as my Savior. He gave me eternal life and never cast me out knocking on my head. They said, well, what did you do? Well, I trust him.
I believed him. So where are you going to go, Nidi? Well, I don’t know. Jesus says, you can’t believe anything. He says, would you be calling him a liar? Liberty says here in verse 10, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Did you have the truth? You have the Holy Spirit living within you. But not notice. He that believeth not God had made him a what? I have people all the time that write me little letters.
I know I’m saved, but I’m not sure I’m going to heaven. And I have questions and doubts. And I say, have you ever read 1 John 513, 1 John chapter 5, verse 10? I said, God says that if you don’t believe what He says, He says you’re calling Him a liar. I said, now if Jesus was to walk up to you right now and says, do you believe? Yes, I do. What do you have? Well, I don’t know. But didn’t you hear what I said?
Because you’re calling him a liar. Now you might not say, well I’m not gonna call nobody a liar, but if you don’t believe what he said, what are you doing? Jesus said, you’re calling me a liar. Look what he says. He believed if not God hath made him a liar because he believed if not the record God gave of his son. And this is the record that God hath given to us what kind of life? Eternal life. And this life is where in the church.
It’s in my good works. And keeping the 10 commandments and giving my money. Now what’s that a person? Eternal life is not a person. See, life has to come from life and exist on previous life. So if I want eternal life, I have to get eternal life from somebody who has eternal life. That’s God. He only is eternal. He is immortal. So when you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and He dwells you, He said, He that hath me hath life and He that hath not the Son who got half not life.
That’s Him. The way He says in verse 10, this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life in this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So whether you have eternal life or not, it depends on what do you have the Son. You don’t have the Son, you don’t have life. You don’t have eternal life. You can only get eternal life through the Son, through Jesus Christ.
Now look there in verse 20 look in verse 20 and we know that the Son of God has come and have given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. We are in Him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and what? He is eternal life. So he said, I’ll never leave you and never forsake you. So how long will I have this eternal life? Forever and ever. You can’t cut it any other way unless you just outright call God a liar, deny everything that he teaches.
The gospel is good news. It’s good news that when I was 18 years old and I heard that God loved me, paid for my sins and all I had to do was trust him as my Savior. He gave me eternal life and I could go to heaven when I die. I’ve known that I’ve enjoyed 58 and a half years of my life knowing I’m going to heaven whenever I die because it was good news. It’s not good news to think that my eternal destination rests in my hands.
That’s not good news. I don’t trust me. Come think if I don’t trust you either. You ought not trust you. You want to trust your eternal destination. I trust Christ because He’s God. He doesn’t lie. He made me a promise that if I trust Him, He’d give me eternal life and I can know that I’m going to heaven when I die. That was the best news I have ever heard. Now look up here now in verse 13. Verse 13, these things have I written unto you that do all these good deeds.
Now these things have already known to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may want. Know that you have eternal life. Why is this written so that we can know we have eternal life? Eternal life is eternal security. How long do I have this life? Forever, eternal. And you’ll never cast me out and never lose me. John 637 and 39. And John 647, very, very easily, he didn’t believe it to me. He had.
He’s present right now. do I get this eternal life? When I die, no, I’ve had it for 58 years. I’m not going to get eternal life. I’ve had eternal life. It was given to me. Now this old body that I got, God didn’t give me my new body to go with my new birth, but I’ll get to that, it’s coming because he’d already bought that too. I am sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption and day and I get my new body.
Like this one guy died, known as way up, he says, I got no body. There’s a joke there, something like that. Yall are all alike. Take your Bible and close it with this one verse. Look there in 2 Corinthians chapter five and verse 21, 2 Corinthians chapter five and verse 21. I want you to see this verse. It is a rock solid verse. Makes everything wonderful. Verse 21, it says, for he hath made him to be sinned for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God and Him.
Hardly appear. This hand represent you and me. This wall of represents sin. This hand represents the Lord. And just simply quoting the verse for God hath made Him Jesus Christ, who knew no sin. To be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God. See, he takes my sin and when I believe, he gives me his righteousness. See, this is the righteousness of God. So you can believe he did all of this, but not until you believe he did it for you.
And except that payment he made, then he gives you what you believe, his righteousness. That’s signed in the book of Romans in chapter 4. When he talks about if we believe, then it is imputed to us. It’s not imputed ahead of time. It’s not like he paid for the sins of the world everybody’s going to heaven. No, no, no, he that believe it That payment he made is put to your account and God gives you his righteousness Now God gave me his righteousness that would make me as righteous as God I’m going to heaven, not because of any good deed I’ve done.
All I had was this sin. And he says, even your righteousness are his filthy rags. There’s none that doeth good and none at one. So Christ paid for all the sins of the world. But as you believe, as individuals believe that he did it, then God gives you his righteousness. And when you believe it, he’ll give you his righteousness. When you believe it, he’ll give you his right. So I’m going to heaven because I’ve got the righteousness of God imputed to me.
And you say, what if you sin tomorrow? He says, blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin from his chapter 4. You see, all my sins are imputed to Christ. He takes and gives me his righteousness, for God hath made him, who knew no sin to be sinned for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So that’s why we trust Christ as our Savior, because man cannot save himself. You cannot make grace and works together.
You’re saved either by grace or you’re saved by your work, but you can’t be saved by both. And he’s already said you’re not saved by your work. So the only way you can be say this to Christ, I pray that you have already come to that conclusion and you know that and you believe that. But wouldn’t it be a shame for people to come to Calvary and hear this message over and over again for years and years and walk out and never understood, never did get it.
If I was asked you right now, does everybody look at that man? Have you trusted Christ as your Savior do you know positively be on the shower that if you died right now you go to heaven Would you raise your hand like quick? Okay now I mean I’m not sure I’ll give you the chance to make it right because you know you should let’s pray show it But every head bobbing every I close no one looking around if what I’ve said help clarify I’m just a little bit better.
This is something you can’t get wrong. You cannot run the risk you have maybe professed that you know the Lord for years and years and years, but you’ve never really trusted Him as your Savior. You have some confidence in your good life, in your works, and you’re not totally trusting Him. You see God already knows that if you’ve never trusted the Lord that you’ll do it today. If you preach that that made sense to me, and I want to be certain I’m going to heaven when I die, and I will trust Christ as my Savior this morning.
If you’re making that decision, I’m not going to have you stand up or come forward. I’m not going to embarrass you in anyway, but I’m going to ask you if you just slip you in a very quickly, put it right back down. And then when it’s all like where you’re sitting, so yes, that made sense to me. I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. And what it all? If you’ve already trust the Lord, you never have to do it again.
If you’re watching by the internet, I don’t want to scream and say, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. I pray that you will. Our Father, we thank you so much for your blessings. Thank you for this time together. Every rest of your blessings upon each one. Christ, that we pray. Amen. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader, then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa.
With traditional and online classes taught by instructors, with years of experience, Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you. To learn more, visit online at florida-biblecollege.us or call the Register of Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. That’s 8502275325. 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. And one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Cut up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.
