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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 air. 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.

There’s a heavenly Father that each one of us has that wants to bless us more than we wanna be blessed. somebody who wants to use you more than your desire to be used. I used to think, God, don’t you care about lost people like I do? If I was you, I’d use me better. And I thought, God needs a lot of training in my life. He’s working on me. And there may be things in your life that are not as right as you think they are.

And so God is going to have to, at times, humble us in order to get us to change or correct something that keeps the message from being pure. Is your Christian life that you live? Is it pure? And you know, there’s a verse even in the Bible that says, keep thyself pure. keep myself pure. We are called to live a holy life because He is holy, therefore be holy in all manner of conversation or manner of life. So God requires it.

God wants it. So we always have something that we can strive for in our walk toward maturity. Maturing in the Lord is not that you don’t fall. It’s that you get up quicker. You respond faster. You don’t lay there and soak. You get up and keep walking with God. So every person needs to mature in the Lord. So this is what he’s talking about here. Now I want you to take your Bible looking 2nd Timothy chapter 1. Hold your place in James but 2nd Timothy in chapter 1.

2nd Timothy chapter one. Look down there in verse six. In verse six. He makes a statement, wherefore I put the in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. Here he’s referring to that again. There’s times when you may give it all you got and you get so encouraged in the Lord and And you can see fruit and see growth and you’re excited and people are loving and appreciated in and you’re worshiped almost and And then it seems like sometime it’s you’re going through a dry spell Nothing works Nothing but problems like you’re not being blessed like you’re in the wilderness on the back side of a desert you and Moses all alone And there’ll be time when it seemed like it’s just total despair and You’ll wonder whether or not Can God ever use me?

Paul says in Timothy Stir up the gift that is in you. In other words stay kindled stay on fire Don’t never stop always stay at it You know what was interesting this morning and it was a blessing because I didn’t know the person This older gentleman that came this morning I met in the hall in the aisle here and the meeting greet, you know, and he says, I am Jeanette’s father. Did anybody else meet him? He was a power fella.

He has to be in his is one. It might be her stepdad, but her brother is right here too. But then his dad, her dad. And I never met him before, but he was over there and he was getting something to eat in the fellowship hall and he walked up to me and he says, I really enjoyed it today. And I said a few things to him. He says, I said, we had a bunch of people trust the Lord.

He says, just like Hank. Just like Hank. You know, that’s just like. I’m going to get a little bit more like saying second to a bulldog. And you want to do even more. One of the things that we have with kids at camp, we talk to those kids and we want to hire them up to serve the Lord. Get them to dedicate their lives to the Lord. And yes, every year those kids come to camp. Menyamu, dedicate their lives to the Lord again.

They go home two weeks, they then fizzled out. Come back to camp, rededicate their lives. And after about four or five times, sometimes it takes. Some of them, their dedicator has died. And so they need a new dedicator. But isn’t it true that sometimes in your own Christian life, as years have passed by, you begin to look and to think, I’ve never done what I promised God I would. I’ve never been faithful like I told God I would. I need to rededicate my life to the Lord.

There’s nothing wrong in doing that. Distur it all over again, to get excited about it all over again. I used to dream when I would read the Sword of the Lord, and I’d read books about missionaries and those that have had great revivals over the years, and I think Lord, I’d love to see that. I don’t want to just see it. I want to be involved in it. I want to help there be a revival in this country. I would love the people that would just get on fire for the clarity of the gospel.

It’s not that we need more preachers. We just need some with a clear message. If we took all the preachers that now know the Lord and that they would just clean up their gospel and deliver it in its purity, we could shake the world. I’m going to last so many don’t and it breaks your heart. take your Bible and turn there to the book of James in chapter 1. James chapter 1, you’ll notice in just this one little chapter, it talks about being mature and you need this wisdom from above to do this.

And when you understand the purpose of problems and what it does to you, it causes you to search. Not to throw up your hands and quit and be in despair and say it’s not worth it. It is worth it. It’s always worth it to serve the Lord. But then to remind us, look, this good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of God. I have a high calling, a holy calling, a ministry that God gave to me, and every child of God, I’ll look at it.

God has given to me a holy calling, a high calling, and I strive for that mark, for the prize of this holy calling that God’s given to me, and I want to finish my race. I want to finish my course. I want to accomplish what God wants me to. I want to complete whatever it is God wants me to complete. And right now, I know that if I don’t know a certain thing, I know God wants me to grow in my faith.

He wants me to become stronger and stronger. And so therefore, I keep getting all these things that happens because there’s things I need to learn. and then down here in verse 25. Look what he says about this. He says in verse 25, but who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty? This is the word of God. This is this perfect gift that came down from God above that is the cure for our ignorance, the cure for our carnality, the cure for our whirliness, the cure for being conformed to the world.

This is what we need. So he says, don’t be like those who hear the word only, but they’re not doers. So this is talking about how can I mature in the Lord? It means grow in the Lord. Can I do the ministry God’s given me to do whatever it might be? So he says here in verse 25, but who’s so look at into the perfect law of liberty and continuous therein he been not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed indeed.

So there is the perfect law of liberty. Learning what the Word of God has to say. There is the perfect God of patience. Patience. Because see it teaches us to wait upon the Lord. It’s some things you can’t make happen, but you trust the Lord and you learn how to wait upon the Lord. And things will happen in life and you can’t stop it. You can’t change it. You’ve just got to accept some things and God will do that to us.

So, chapter 2, I just wanted you to see this, look in verse 22, because even sometime we talk about James, it’s always, you know, James chapter 2, James chapter 2, we know there’s a lot more in James than James chapter 2 and verse 24. There’s a lot of information that helps the Christian to grow in the Lord. So he says here in verse 22, see his style, faith, Roth with his works and by works with faith made perfect, complete, mature in the Lord.

So your faith, God wants your faith to be perfect, where you perfectly trust the Lord, because not to trust the Lord, to be an unstable man is to be a double-minded man. Now, where does it say in the Bible that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways? I know it’s somewhere in in the Bible. James chapter 1 and verse, look there in James chapter 1 and verse 8, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So what would be the purpose of James making you stable or unstable?

So the wisdom from God can complete this. The wisdom of God can make you stabilized because it it makes you patient, you learn how to wait upon the Lord. People that so easily fly off the handle, get mean quick like this, you know. And I’ve had a real problem with that. I mean, that’s where my trademarks. And if anybody has to work on that, it’s the preacher. And I’ve learned how, and God has had to teach me this, man, it’s been difficult to learn.

I can’t make some things happen. I’ve also found out I can’t make everybody do what I want them to do. Have you ever tried making everybody do what they should do? Here I am as the pastor of Calvary Community Church. Can you see me making y’all do what you should do? It ain’t gonna happen, is it? Look at it, you shaking your head no. Wouldn’t it be neat if y’all were just so sweet submissive that it didn’t matter. What if the preacher told you to do, oh yes, preacher, I sure will.

Man, you’ve ever seen a cat when he’s scared and when they get on you, they dig all four claws in. That’s the way some people are. Wouldn’t it be neat if everybody was just so sweet and wonderful? No, we’re not like that, are we? Not all the time. Maybe some people, none of the time. But there is a a problem. And so God says here in James, you say you believe on the Lord down. You’re supposed to be growing in the Lord, maturing in the Lord.

And as you mature in the Lord, you learn how to do the things you’re supposed to do. God gave you a gift, a ministry. That ministry, there’s nothing wrong with the ministry God’s given us. It’s not flawed. It came from God, opportunity pure is gold, but we have to fulfill that ministry with all the problems there are. And that’s why it says that good and perfect gift came from God. The gift and the opportunity. Does all of God’s children take advantage of their opportunities and do they look at all of their problems as you know opportunities?

Or do they curse them, despise them, and it calls them to have the anger, the fits, and the rage, and all the rest of it? Now if you are mature, and when you’re growing and maturing in the Lord, one of the best signs of a mature Christian is look there in chapter 3 of James, and look in verse 2, You ought to underline this verse. For in many things we offend all. That’s true, isn’t it? If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man, a mature man.

This man is learning how to be complete as God’s talking about and is able to bridle the whole body. If you can learn how to control, look at me. If you can learn how to control this little gadget right there. That is hard to control. Wouldn’t you agree? But doesn’t it say the word perfect man, matured man? If we can learn how to control that right now. So when God’s talking about be not conformed to this world because the world doesn’t have to control it.

Like we have to control it. We’re talking about us and God. God wants us to grow in the Lord. Growing in the Lord is learning how to control through the power that He gave us, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life so that we’re not conformed to the world but we’re slowly little by little, week by week, being transformed. Our lives are being transformed where we’re learning how to think better.

We’re learning how to talk better. We’re learning how to control our… You know when the Bible talks about self-control, temperament, they ask what he’s talking about. And so remember this, you will either be learned self-discipline or imposed discipline. We’re maturing in the Lord is where you learn how to control yourself. And if you don’t, then God’s going to have to impose discipline. That’s where chastening comes from when God has to do that. So this is given to us the restraints, the power you need to restrain yourself from saying something you shouldn’t say, or the saying it the way you shouldn’t say it, or doing things you should not do.

So this is why he says down here in verse 13 of chapter 3, who is a wise man and in dude with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good behavior, his works with meekness of what? Of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your heart, glory, don’t brag about it. You’re not a godly individual because you’re losing it and you’re going to be unstable and it won’t take much to tick you off. You’re going to live right on the edge.

Have you ever been around people that you have to be so careful that you’re walking on eggshells because you don’t know how they’re going to respond. And you know if I do this, they’re going to do this. If I do this, they’ll do this. Some people think, find out what annoys your wife and do it. No. You find out in learning to read your husband and wife or people you work with and try not to do that Because you don’t try to put a stumbling block in somebody’s way to purposely cause somebody to flare up.

Because if there’s anything about growing in wisdom is learning how to read the person, even married to. You know what to do, what not to do, what to say, what not to say. But some people, they never learn. And they just repeat the same thing over and over and over and over again. Aren’t you glad it isn’t you? Okay, we’ll move right along here. But remember, he’s talking about the things that we’re supposed to say and do. This is why he says now in verse 14, but if you have bitterness and envy and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie, not against the truth.

Now, get verse 15, tell this is so important. This wisdom descended not from where? That’s the flesh. That’s been conformed to the world. Is that what God wants you to do? is that how God wants you to live? No. But he says, the wisdom that comes from above, this is when you are learning to mature in the Lord where you can control the attitude, learning how to think, that you may be transformed by the renewing of your mind, because the tongue speaks what’s on the mind.

You can’t control the tongue, you have to control the mind. This is why he says in the book of Philippians chapter 4, think on these things, and the God of peace will be with you. So there’s a way to think. Now look there in chapter 4 and verse 17. It’s not the word perfect, but it does have with it something that we’re supposed to consider In verse 17, therefore to him that knoweth to do good. So we are talking to those who claim to know to do right.

And we all know we’re supposed to do right. That is not a sign of wisdom when you know what to do. What would wisdom be? Doing it. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not. Well, to him it is what? Sin. And you know he has a couple things to say about sin. So look there very quickly in James chapter one, and notice what he says in verse 14.

In verse 14 he makes this statement, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth what? Sin. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth not do him, it is sin. And sin, if you know what to do, And you won’t do it. Are you obedient or rebellious? Are you obedient or disobedient? I’m not trying to get you to raise your hand. I’m just trying to get you to thank for yourself, okay?

I don’t want five of you raising a hand. It’s my wife, and I’ll learn how to govern yourself. You’ll have a big enough job right there alone. It’s amazing how we always wanna straighten out somebody else. I’ve had people say, boy, that was a great sermon. Boy, I knew who that was right. Oh, that was just perfect for it. I just wish my husband had been here. It could have been for that person. I saw this one person, they kept me.

Every time I say something, they’d duck down like this. I said, what was you doing that for? So it hit that person behind me. That’s not for me. Soon, then it goes in. Soon, such an end. Dodging back and forth. Are you maturing in the Lord? Are you stronger now than you were a year ago? Are you getting closer and learned? Are you still battling the same thing all the time? And you’re not getting victory over those things. Do you think God wants you to always be down and discouraged and easily upset and all that stuff?

Or are you developing patience? Patience. I don’t need any more patience. I got all the patience I want. I haven’t heard about my Bible yet. I sure hope I get my Bible back. But know what I got to do? Be patient, I can’t make it happen. So should I fall apart in the meantime? And I’ll be honest with that Bible means an awful lot to me. a lot to me. But you know, one thing I find out I can’t lose, I can’t lose the Lord.

I can’t lose the Holy Spirit. I can’t lose God. I can’t lose eternal life. So whatever’s the most important thing I still got, and if all I wind up with is just me and my little darling, I were good to go. So as you read these scriptures, it’s supposed to help you. So in chapter 4 James. That verse 17, look at it again, therefore to him that no if to do good and do it to him it is sin.

Look in verse 11. Verse 11, speak not evil, one of another brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeeth, his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. But if thou judge the law, thou not a doer of the law but a judge. You set yourself up as the judge over what God says. I don’t have to obey that. Why? Because she doesn’t or he doesn’t. So I don’t have to. When did you become the judge of what God says?

No, there is a lawgiver in this the Lord. You and I are just supposed to do what the judge said. I’ve had people tell me when I talked to him about the gospel and see if you don’t trust Christ would say, are you going to go to hell to say, who made you the judge? I said, I’m not a judge. I’m just telling you what the judge said. He wrote it down in his word. I’d do everything I can to keep people from getting mad at me.

Get mad at God. He’s going to say this. I didn’t say this. God said this. I get people who get mad at the preacher when I tell him something that I ought not do. I didn’t write the Bible, but I’m not, am I supposed to tell you what this thing says or not? That’s what I’m supposed to do. But should I only say, you know, there are preachers today that only say things that people want to hear. You take a guy like Joel Oldsene.

My old, and won’t talk about sin and hell. But I believe that you need to. But we might get more people come out, but I’d rather just tell it like it is and leave it alone. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. This wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God says that He loves us. Now He hates our sin. And to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. So we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned.

And God says he loves us. He hates our sin, but he loves us. He wants us to go to heaven. And heaven is a perfect place, and none of us are perfect. But God says, sin can’t come in. That’s a holy place. That’s a righteous place. No sin can enter in. So God says you cannot save yourself. You cannot earn eternal life. You can’t better yourself. This in represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us.

He hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So He took the sin, paid for it on the cross, and came back from the dead. And God said, if you and I or who so ever will, believe that He did it for them. He would give eternal life to us, and we’d get to go to heaven or what He did. Eternal life is the gift of God, and this perfect gift came down from God above. It wasn’t generated by us down here.

It came from the Lord. And God will give that free gift whosoever it will believe that Christ paid for His sins. And if you’ll believe it, God said He would save you and give eternal life. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, why not right now in the quietness of this moment? Just trust the Lord, just like this morning, it was so wonderful seeing different ones raise your hand.

And sometimes I’d say, God bless you and it’d be three or four hands. And so there’s probably between 10, 15, 20 people that trust the Lord this morning. We won’t know until we get to heaven. A lot of people sometimes trust the Lord never raise their hand. You can do that too. You don’t have to raise your hand. You don’t have to let anybody know. But I’d like to know if you you don’t mind. So I asked people if what I said made sense, would you let me know?

By simply raising your hand with heads bound nice and close so that you’re not embarrassed. And by doing so, God said he would save you, give you eternal life. And I like to have prayer for you in closing. Is there any one at all before we close? So you preach that made sense to me and I want to trust Christ right now as my Savior. Or if you’re watching by internet right there on the screen, you can reduce the screen back down to a smaller and it says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior.

I pray that you will. Is there any one law before we close? Just leave me in a very quick and very right back down here with all. Our Father, we do thank you for your blessings. Thank you for loving us and saving us, giving us eternal life. And Father, also, we thank you for the privilege we have to come before you. To thank you for this great opportunity that you’ve given us a gift from above, a gift of a ministry, and an opportunity to fulfill it.

We pray that as we seek to do so, that we would walk with you and grow, become stronger, to mature, and help us Lord to apply these things that we’ve heard tonight to our own lives. Help us not to be judges in other people’s lives. Always trying to point out somebody else’s fault. A godly person doesn’t need to do that. We just try to help people to walk and help them up when they fall. So bless each one for being here.

Thanks for giving us a good day. Christ and we pray. Amen. You have been listening to another great message from Dr. Arnold, and we hope that Bibleline is a blessing to you. In appreciation for your support of this ministry, we’d like to send to you a gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send the Bible Promise Book. It is a book that organizes verses of the Bible by topic. For example, if you wanted to know of verses that address humility, or forgiveness, or obedience, you would simply find that topic in the table of contents, go to the chapter listed, and there you would find the verses that address that topic.

It’s a wonderful study guide and resource for your own devotions, as well as for lesson preparation, and we’ll send it to you for a gift in any amount for this month. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting 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. every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.