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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. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. 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.

Second Corinthians and chapter four. One thing after you trust Christ is your Savior And if you make up your mind to serve the Lord, don’t quit. Always hanging there, always stay at it, never stop, never quit. Satan only has one job. One for the lost is to keep the lost blinded so that they don’t get saved. He only got one main goal for the Christians. That’s to get you to quit serving the God so that you will not do it.

Now he don’t care what means he has to use. The Bible says by all means Satan will do whatever he possibly can to get you to quit. Now you may blame it on somebody else why you’re not faithful or why you don’t do this you don’t do that but it all boils down to a Satan got you to quit. He simply uses people and if he wins he wins he don’t care how he wins as long as he wins.

It won’t matter why you quit as long as you quit you don’t ever want that to happen to you. One is you don’t want to be blinded to the place where you reject Christ as your Savior and spend an eternity separated in hell And then if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you don’t want to be fooled by Satan into quitting. Now look there in your Bible, the 2nd Corinthians in chapter 4 and look in verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.

The people in the world can’t see. Why? Because they’re blind. They can’t do any good works because they’re dead. You see dead people can’t do works. You never call upon a dead man to build you a fence or to paint the house. Why? because he’s dead. God doesn’t ask dead people to do anything. They have to be given life first. That’s why whenever you bring the gospel, the gospel is the good news of how a dead man can have life and a blind man can see.

So whenever you explain the gospel and a person understands it, yes, they’re lost and they need to trust Christ as their Savior and the very moment they believe on him and trust him as their Savior. God gives him as a free gift eternal life and God will never cast him out and never lose him. They are God’s children. It says in verse 4, In whom the God of this world blinded the minds of them which believe not. So their minds are blind.

He said, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. Their only hope is for the gospel to be or gotten to the lost man, the man that’s blind. So somebody has to take it. So God took that treasure, the gospel, looking in verse 7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So we’ve got a job to do in earthen vessels in a body that’s mortal that has aches and pains and yet we’re here to do a divine job.

Satan is going to do whatever he possibly can to get you to quit so that you will not do what you’re supposed to do. Satan wants to ruin your life, ruin your testimony. Whatever it is to get you so busy doing everything else you don’t have time to do what God wants you to do. Then he makes a statement there in verse 8, we are troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed.

What he’s saying is we’re troubled on every side, but it didn’t quit. He says we are perplexed. He said, but didn’t quit. In verse 9, he says persecuted, but we didn’t quit. Cast down, but we didn’t quit. He says always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. In other words, the thing that kept us going is that we were always remembering, as he says, always bearing about keeping it in our mind and bear this in mind.

What Christ went through while he was here, Satan did everything he possibly could to get Jesus Christ to quit, not to accomplish what he came for. You see, Satan wanted to get him to sin because if he could sin one time, he could not be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. Satan knew that. That’s why Christ had so many people trying to do so many things to Him, get Him, try to get Him so discouraged or try to get Him to sin, to get angry, to get mad, to do something that would violate Him being the sacrifice on the cross for us.

And even at one time He prayed, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. So it didn’t matter what means Satan had to use. His goal was to stop Jesus Christ from getting to the cross and pay in first sin. He didn’t understand all of it and he thought he had victory but we’ll discuss that in just a moment. But he says here persecuted but he didn’t quit. Cast down but didn’t quit.

Paul had everything happened to him, trying to get him to quit and he would not quit. See why wouldn’t he quit? Well because of several things. You’ll notice there in verse 14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also. If you take my life, it doesn’t matter because the same one that raised up Jesus from the devil also bring me up from the death. He said, I’m not worried about it. Not worried. I will not quit.

I won’t quit. When he makes a statement in verse 15, for all things are for your sake. He says another reason I won’t quit. He says for your sake. Because you need me. I have a message to preach. I have a purpose in living When the decision came at one time where the Bible says in the book of Philippians Paul made the statement he says I am in a twix between two. I have a desire to depart and to be in heaven He says which is far better.

He says but it’s more needful that I remain here for you In other words, that’s better for me, but not for you God didn’t leave you here just for you. He left you here so that you could be used as a blessing to other people because you have a hidden treasure in an urban vessel and the people are blind and the only hope is for the light of the Gospel to be gotten to them. Does Satan stop you? you?

Are you a witness for the Lord? Are you a testimony? Do you give the light of the gospel? Do you tell people how to have eternal life? Do you ever witness for the Lord? If not, you think of this. Why not? Why did you quit? Why haven’t you obeyed God’s voice? That is the one thing that God wants us to do more than any other single thing you could ever do in your life is to witness to somebody else.

If you haven’t done so, it’s because Satan got to you that calls you to quit. What was it? Why do you quit? Or if you ever was a soul winner, are you now a soul winner? Did you stop? What happened? Now, I know that. He also makes the statement there in verse 15, for all things are for your sake, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redown to the and here’s another reason for the glory of God is because your God wants you not to quit he wants you to always abound in the work of the Lord always abounding never stop never quit I don’t like quitters the Bible says a man that put his hands to the plow and look it back is not fit for the kingdom of God.

Don’t quit. Never stop. Now notice down here in verse 17, for our light affliction which is but for a moment, work it for us. He says it’s also for us. In other words, it’s not just because, well, he was raised from the dead. So will I. Not only for your sakes, not only for God’s sake, But he also says, for my own sake, he said because of the light afflictions that I go through down here, works for me a far more eternal weight of glory.

When you get to heaven, God is going to reward you for everything that you have ever done for Him. And you can’t lose that. So that’s why, why endure down here? You see, we don’t endure anything to get to heaven because going to heaven is a gift. You don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you don’t buy it, you don’t have to endure anything. You don’t have to worry about being in trouble on every side and perplexed and persecuted and cast on.

That has nothing to do with becoming a Christian. Becoming a Christian is simply you except in Christ as your Savior and He gives you eternal life as a gift. But as a child of God, God has so much He wants to do for it. That’s why He left us. here. He said, I have taken this treasure, the knowledge of how to go to heaven, placed it into earthen vessels. Every person in this room who knows Christ is Savior has had this treasure placed in an earthen vessel.

Now, because it’s an earthen vessel, it’s a body of flesh. We’re weak. We get disappointed. We get discouraged. We get cast down. We get persecuted. All those things trying to get you to quit. Satan’s only trying to stop that treasure the light of the glorious gospel from shining to anybody else. He doesn’t care how he does it. He doesn’t care how he stops you just as long as he stops you. Some of you know that the Apostle Paul relates many times to sports and the teaching of God’s Word.

And over and over again he talks about these sports. I want you to look at one. Look there in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. He talks about running a race. So we know that he’s talking about runners in a race. He also talks about boxing. Look there in verse 26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body. That means that I buffet my body.

In other words, he’s saying like every day when I get up, I buffet my body. like I take my fist and give myself a black eye. Like I beat my body and let my body know my body will not control me. My body is gonna be in subjection to me. My body is gonna be my tool. My body will not control and dominate me. It’s gonna be my servant and not my master every day that you live. That body of yours is either gonna be your servant or your master.

And that’s why Paul says I buff it myself. He says, like, give it myself a black eye to the netlet. My body knows it’s not going to rule me. He says, because I don’t want to quit. When I run the race, I don’t want to quit. How long ago did you start your race? When did you trust Christ as your savior? When you trusted Christ as your savior, you were given a course to run. A course to run. How have you been running?

Have you been jogging, sprinting? Have you quit, sit on the sidelines? Are you involved or doing nothing? That’s something you have to decide why haven’t you begun the race? And if you did begin the race, how are you doing? Are you still running? Are you giving it all that you have? Or had you quit? It’s easier on the sideline. It’s not much pressure on the sideline. But in the race, yes, there’s a battle, and you get beat up on.

You get bruised, and you get hurt. You get persecuted, you get cast down, you get perplexed. But never quit, never quit. Go back there to the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter four. Many of you know the sport of wrestling. I remember years ago I had a first cousin of mine. Grady was my first cousin. And we were in Atlanta, Georgia. I mean, Betty had just been married, short period of time. He was only a few years older than I was, but he says, I’m gonna be a wrestler someday.

And he would get in front of that mirror, and he would flex those muscles of his, and he’d turn around, and he would flex, you know, and he’d sew the ripples in his shoulders, and he had a physique, and I looked like a rail, and he was so big and strong. And he said, I’m gonna be a wrestler someday, and I thought, sure you are. Sure you are. Well, the next thing I heard about him, he went by the name of Crazy Luke Graham.

And he was a wrestler. And he did make it big time. Went all the way to the top. Crazy Luke Graham. Sometimes he was a dirty wrestler, but all I know is he did do what he said he was gonna do. But when you wrestle, they always have it, you know what, two out of three falls, and they may get you pressed, but they haven’t got you pinned until you got both shoulders down on the mat. And how many times I’ve watched him and they’ll get that guy and he’d get him down on the mat and they’d bring him up over and they try to pin that guy down there and he’d get that referee go, bam!

And he pulls up that shoulder. And they’ll hold it back down. Bam, bam. I got it back up in time. He’s pressed, but he ain’t panned until they’ve done it three times. Anybody ever watched the wrestling? My aunt sitting in her trailer down here in Crawford loves that Saturday night wrestling. And as she said to all excited, get all worked up and she’d be like she was in the ring with those guys. And I said, ain’t I lean? I said, most of that is a real, real, real.

It’s a lot of a showman stuff. She says it’s real and boy did they’re getting and she would jump in here But then she would holler and she would yell and she would go through the excitement sitting in her chair Watching it on TV and why she was watching she died of a heart attack I had a funeral But the thing is is you saw that guy and he jumps off the rope and he lands on them And they bounce up to a three feet and they get down there and you always notice that the referee always seemed to be looking the other way When the guys over here doing something dirty to the guy And you’re trying to get him panned and you wonder how does he manage to get that last bit of energy that get that shoulder up just at the last minute right

before that third count that’s wrestling. When you come to football and most people in here love football don’t you? I love football I love to watch football but sometimes when they give the ball to the fullback or the half-back and he gets ready to run and there’s no hole. It closed up the hole. What should he do? He’s perplexed. What should he do? Well if I was in you know what I’d do and I saw all those guys coming at me.

I’d go the other way. If I had that ball and saw Ken guys coming at me you know what if you want the ball you could have the ball. I don’t want the ball. One time they run this one play and the full back was smashing so they carried him off the field. So the coach said, send it another guy. So he sent another guy. After that plate they carried him off the field. He said, Leroy, you get in there.

Leroy ran in there. They’d not give Leroy that ball. They went in there and they threw a pass. They carried that guy off the field. Coach, I’ll give that ball to Leroy. So they threw another pass. Here that guy off the field When it came off the field he says why did you give that ball a Leroy? He said Leroy didn’t want that ball You’re a child of God Satan mean and love he plays dirty He’s out to hurt you and you’re saying I don’t want the ball.

I don’t want to get involved I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want to get persecuted. I don’t want to get cast down. I don’t want to be perplexed I want to play safe I don’t want to do anything. And yet many times the guy will be given the ball. And it seemed like there’s no hope of getting through, but he runs and he runs straight and he follows his blockers hoping that a hole will open up when he gets there.

I may times you’ve ever watched boxing. I love to watch boxing too. I think boxing ought to be outlawed. I think it’s a disgrace for two men to stand in a ring and beat on each other. black and blue and their goal is to knock another man senseless and to put him on the canvas. I think it’s a shame to have in our country and I think it ought to be stopped but until they do I’m going to watch everyone that I possibly can.

I love boxing. As long as it’s not me they’re hitting. I love to watch it. I love to watch guys get at it. But listen, a man be maybe knocked down but not knocked out. I’ve watched many of men who are knocked down and it seems like they ought to quit and won’t quit and get back up, get a second win and go at it again. Not down, but not knocked out. Press, but not pen. And it’s so important to realize that the Bible uses many such terminology concerning sports to help us to understand the Christian life because that’s what it’s about.

not quitting. Don’t give up. You see, we’re in something a lot bigger than any kind of sports program going on. Your very life itself is more important than basketball or football or wrestling or anything you want to name. The battle that you have to face every day. Don’t quit because somebody’s trying to get you to quit and don’t care how they do it. But whatever means possible, you always hang in there. Never quit. Never stop. Always keep that You ever seen somebody running?

Now remember whenever we started running, you haven’t gotten in shape yet, and after a while your calves are painting, your side is killing you, you can’t hardly breathe, and you want to just quit. Or you run until you vomit. Run until you vomit. Get so sick you can’t stand it. Just always one step. I can handle one step. The longest journey begins with a single step. I don’t have to run a mile. I just got to run one step.

Always one step more. One step. Just like you ought to take your dictionary and cut out the word I quit. Never quit. Never stop serving God. And don’t let anything stop you. But you know, even when you run, side is pain in you and you don’t like you have any more air, Bye. you don’t know what you’re going to do, one step after the other. And you may fall back at times even in running. But don’t quit the race.

Don’t quit the race. And don’t get discouraged because somebody’s passing you and somebody’s accomplishing more than you. Don’t worry about their talents and their abilities and all that. You just do the best you can do with what God’s given you to do and never quit. But it makes a statement there, we are troubled but I didn’t quit yet not distressed. This is the same terminology as used for wrestlers when they say pressed but not pinned. Press but not pinned.

Troubled and tied down on every side but every time it seems like you’re gonna lose you pull Pull up that shoulder and you don’t quit. Don’t lose the match. We are perplexed but not in despair. Perplexed but Paul says we didn’t quit, we didn’t quit. Do you ever get troubled and think that’s good reason to quit? Now let up. I know people that have surgery and then just give up. No more hope, no more will to live. Don’t be like that.

Always fight, always fight. Don’t lay down and feel sorry for yourself. The work to get up, to go, never stop, always hanging in there, never quit. For flex but not in despair. It’s like many times you as a Christian, God’s giving you the ball. Says run. And as you looked, you say, there ain’t no hole for me to run through. And all I see is giants coming at me. But you’re to believe that if God is on your side, if God is running interference for you, God will make a way and God will make a whole.

And you don’t care how bad it seems, how hopeless it seems, but you and God are a majority and you and God can beat anything or anybody and hang in there, believing that and run straight toward the problem trusting that God will open up a way by the time you get there. Just like in football. He says persecuted, but not forsaken. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Persecuted, but it didn’t quit. Persecuted, falling behind, but I’m still in the race. I’m not forsaken.

I’m still here, and I’m still running. Maybe I’m not as fast as I used to be, but I haven’t quit. and you always keep prodding, always keep running, never stop. He says they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible crown. You have something that’s a lot better than anything that any man will ever get down here, because yours is coming when you get to heaven. Your race isn’t over yet. Cast down, but not destroyed. It’s the same principle of being knocked down, but you’re not knocked out.

out. There’s no crime to be knocked down. The shame is when you stay down. Get up, get up. And don’t go through life feeling sorry for yourself, having pity parties for yourself, and crying over spilt milk. What gone is gone today is a new day and take each day one at a time, one day at a time. One lady was not expected to live. Doctor says, there’s no hope for you to live.” She said, Lord, just help me to live this day.

And she lived that day. The next morning she says, God help me to live this day. And she lived that day. And she kept on until she lived 20 years longer than the doctor said she’d ever live. Why? Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Give everything you have to God and let God use you and bless you. Never Let me share this with you. There is a big fence, big wall, iron gate inside of that wall was humanity. All the people of the world.

All on the inside of this big wall. There’s a big gate and gate. And all those people inside that wall are all suffering. They’re all suffering in such misery. And they’re standing at the gate, justice. Justice is standing there. And there’s no smile in his face. He’s just justice. That’s what he is. Mercy comes up. And she sees through the iron gate the mass of humanity and all the people and all their misery and all their woe. And mercy says to justice, can I have an opportunity to go into those people and show them some kindness and some compassion.

I want to show mercy. And justice stood there and says, no, mercy cannot go past this iron gate. Those people have sinned, and the law says they must pay, and all of their misery is the result of sin. And I am justice, and they’re getting what they deserve, because the law says, and mercy cries out, oh please let me go into the people. I want to have compassion upon the people. I want to help the people and justice says no way they can you can go in there.

Justice says either they die or justice dies but they both cannot live because the law says they send and they must pay and justice is the fulfillment of the law and justice cannot be done away with unless you do away with the law and the law cannot be done away with unless you do away with the punishment and so mercy sits outside the wall the iron gate and weeps. So angels come along and one angel steps forward and says, as he looks, says the Son of God, and says, the justice, can I pay their debt?

Can I pay what they owe? And so, justice says, the law has condemned because of their sin. And Jesus Christ was willing to pay all all their sins, to satisfy the rightistic demands of the law so that justice is not violated, so that God can be just and the justifier of all of those people that will believe that what Christ did was for them. And only because Christ was willing to pay for their sins could mercy be shown to the people, and they could be set free.

You see, what you and I deserve is eternal separation from God in hell. Mercy can be shown to us by us not getting what we deserve because Jesus Christ died and paid for our sins. Satan wanted to do everything he could to keep Jesus Christ fulfilling the demands of the law. That’s why Christ was made unto the law, that he might pay the penalty for all those people that went inside that wall behind that iron gate because God demanded justice.

And because of what Christ did, that gate can be open and everybody can receive mercy, but only because they believe that what Christ did was for them. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible 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. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the link below on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. If you’re 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 going to our church website. Calvary of Tampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arden. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot 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.