Bibleline Radio Show – 2011-03-22 – The Dora Lake Story Pt.2
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Bibleline Bibleline, they’re got to work on Bibleline everywhere, every time. 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 mother… and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us He was told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org.
We pray that you’ll 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. So I went through that and explained it. I gave the invitation. And it was some people that had trust in Christ I’ll say before five, not a lot, but before five, I’m testing them out. So it was all over with, and I’m standing there for, you know, minding my own business like I always do.
These four guys come up to see me. They all had beards. I thought, Mennonites. Mennonites. A Quakers or something. So they came up to me and they said, we enjoyed what you had to say. Thank you. says, we’re from Minnesota, a place called Dora Lake, way up north. So we want to know if you’d come up there and have a revival meeting for our church. I said, sure. I didn’t know where it was going to be. Sure, I’ll go.
Anyway. I said, sure. I didn’t know where it was going to be. Sure, I go. Anyway, I talked to them for a little bit, found out that they were hunters that had been up in Montana. They had made a vow that they’re not going to shave until they get their elk. That’s why they had these beards. They hadn’t got anything yet. So anyway, they said, would you come up in the spring? Because this was in the bottle of October.
I said, sure, I’ll go. Anyway, I thought I’ll never hear from them. And let me hold on, I did hear from them. About three months later, they called me up and asked me, says, you remember us up here in Minnesota? I said, yes sir. Would you come up here? I said, yes, I will. So anyway, I asked the preacher there at the church where I was going. His name was Archie Yeder. He was the pastor of the church and he was now the president of the Rockmont Bible College that was started by clicking their father that led Ray Stanford to the Lord.
He’s not all right. Anyway, I said, what do they believe? He says, well, he says they got a pretty good doctrine on statement. It was a Christian and missionary alliance church. Says that their doctrine of state was pretty good. He said, but you have to find out what the individual chirst believe can stand. Okay? So anyway, it was the pastor who wanted me to come up there. The other three guys, I didn’t know that. I just knew that one of them was a pastor.
So it was in March and I go up here for this meeting. It’s winter conditions. I’m driving along the passage and picking me up and the snowbanks are as high as the car. And we’re bugging down a road, and I couldn’t see no houses. I couldn’t even see roads. So we finally pulled into this little old church, and he says, well, we’re there. Oh boy. I says, where’s the people live? He says, they’re around. Now there was no light in this town.
I don’t think there was a cross road in this town. one road off the main road and they lived on the side. So that Sunday morning I got up here and I preached and I preached on how you can know you have eternal life. I only have one message. I just changed the title. I can’t think of anything better so I always just hang with what works. Now since you’ve heard me, I only got one sermon. I just keep changing the title.
It’s just the same. So hang did the same thing if you’ll notice them. So we just you just versus to bring out the same thing. And so I preached and a couple people trust the Lord. And… After the servers over this year, one preacher stood up and I know it was a preacher at the time. He says, I just want you to know. I disagree with what you’re teaching. He said, but you’re the guest speaker. And I’m not going to come to the meetings because I don’t want to be in trouble.
No conflict. So I just will not come to the meetings. Well, thank you. I thought that was nice of him to let me know right up front. He said, I was a false prophet. Well, that afternoon he went and told everybody not to come to the meetings, that I’m a false prophet. They had never heard a false prophet before. That night the church was packed and get this seven preachers showed up and they had worn their people and they called them up, don’t go it, but they came because they want to see this false prophet.
So it made you how God can work. And so I had little questions and answers at the beginning before I was starting my service. So as I opened up for questions and answers, these guys would ask these questions, what about James chapter two? I said, what about James chapter two? I mean, I knew where they were going, but I’ve had enough meetings to know that James chapter two, ah, face while that works is dead. So anyway, I just preached a sermon that long ago.
You need to get that message. Anyway, I explained James chapter two and they would try to quote a verse of like, well, I just came out of Bible college, I finished the verse for them. He says, somewhere in the Bible talks about blah, blah, blah. I said, you mean in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I kind of wore it was found. I wasn’t trying to be smart, I’m just trying to help them out. And finally one guy stood up and says, I disagree with what you’re preaching these to these people.
And this one lady stood up and she looked over at them and she said, well, pastor, blah, blah, blah. I want you to know, I went to your church for years. And I had no clue where I was going to go when I died. And I heard this man this morning, and it made more sense to me than anything I’ve ever heard. More than what I understood under you for 10 years, and I trusted Christ as my savior. And now I know I’m going to heaven when I die.
She says, why don’t you sit on and shut up? Did I? Right in the meeting? I didn’t know he was a pastor. And it wasn’t long before I found out there’s seven of them here, and they all came because they was going to set me straight. They’re going to teach me a lesson. Well, I didn’t have enough sense to run. I’m just a 26, 7 year old kid. But I did believe that this book is true. And I believe that salvation is a gift.
And they were mad because I was telling the people that you did not have to keep the law to go to heaven. And so each night, they would just warn everybody not to come to the meetings and all that people kept coming. And we had people trust the Lord every night. Wednesday night, I was laying on the floor after the service that night and we went to Jim Smith’s house and I was laying on the floor flat on my back.
I had such bad back problems back then. I had heard it when I was in Bible college and I had to have two braces on my back and it was so sore and I could hardly stand up and I was in Hertzville. So I laid there and I was in pain and agony and the phone rang and the guy looked at me and says, Yankee, it’s those guys down the road. They’re the ones that wants to tar and feather you and ride you out of town on a rail.
No, I’m tarring feather I got, but I didn’t know what riding out of town on a rail was. And they were fixing to do me some physical harm. They were furious because, see, they’re wise that come to the meetings. And then they would go home and tell them what the preacher said. And they said, Yankee says that that guy named Yankee, he says you don’t have to keep the tank of mammoths to go to heaven. And they knew you did.
Now they didn’t keep them. They couldn’t even list them. You know, I shall not lie, I shall not steal, I shall not play marbles, because it says in their marble knot. And so they didn’t even know what the law was, but they know you got to keep them, whatever they were, you got to keep them. And so they decided they’re going to deal with me. And they said, Yankee, they want to meet with you. And I’m laying there on my back and ag.
I should tell them we’ll be right over or do it now. I mean, if they’re going to do it, do it now and get it over there. I can’t live there. I mean, just the excitement of what could happen is just overwhelmed me. So in fear and trim that we went to the house. And when we got to their house, this is late on Wednesday night. And when we went in here, I had one friend with me. That was Jim Smith.
We went into the house. And it was like a low-hanging cloud in there. Now I can’t stand smoke. I can hardly breathe around smoke. I spent three months in the hospital because I almost died from smoking inhalation. And they’re just a smoking like crazy. But I never say anything about it. I just let them go through it, you know, and do it. So I went in, walked right on in. I thought my friend was right behind me, but he had stopped at the door.
But I didn’t already walked in, you know. And all three, there’s three of four guys in there, and they all got in my face, and they started holleringBUT yelling at me. So what about James chapter two? What did this say about the 10 commandments? And you gotta keep it, and I’m just, this, this, listen. I mean, they’re right in my face. These are loggers. These guys were, hmm, you know how I built up my muscles when I was young?
I used to feel the bathtub, pull the water, not pull out the plug and then fight the current. I had a strap in physique and the strap broke. But anyway, I’m in this room and they’re in my face and I found out, I just said, can I say something? They finally stopped long enough and I said, can y’all just be quiet for a minute? Let me say something for 10 minutes, then you can ask me any question you want.
That’s one guy riding there, he looked back and he said, 10 minutes. And then when he sat down on the couch, that one backed up to that wall and the other one backed up and the couple was standing over there on my left. I know I got ten minutes. That was the fastest ten minutes of my life. Seemed like I started and it was over. But in that ten minutes, I did my dead-level best to make the gospel clear as a bell.
I even did my little wall of illustration. And then at the end of it I quoted the figures to eight nine. He says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself. It is the gift of God and not of works. Last day, and he mentioned both. The Rodney said, no, I’m a touch. He looked at me and he says, can you show me that in the Bible? I said, yes, I can. He says, do it.
So I got my Bible and I turned to Ephesians, two, eight, nine, and I stuck it under his nose and he read it. And then he looked up and he looked at the other guys and he says, fellows, Shut up. It’s in the book. They didn’t know what the Bible said, but whatever the Bible said, they believed it. It’s like a lot of Christians. No, you believe the Bible, you just don’t know what it says. But he says, I saw it in the Bible.
He says, and he says, explain that to me again. I says, it’s just like if I offered you my wallet and you accept it, what would you have? a wallet, offered you my watch. You accept it what would you have? Or a watch? And all of a sudden, a man who was standing against the wall, he says, I see it, I see it, I see it. And he ran out of the house. Now, nobody at the time knew what he saw.
Kind of like pad. You don’t know if he sees it or not. But he ran out of the room. And so Rodney trust the crisis is Savior. We talked a little bit and I explained a few more things to them and two of the other guys did not. They were still burning. So I left that night and I went to the preacher’s house and I went to bed that morning. The preacher knocked on the door and it was early in the morning.
I thought I’d get a chance of sleeping a little bit. But he says there’s some guys downstairs I want to see you. So I quickly got dressed and I went downstairs. They had already been to the woods so they go early in the morning and they couldn’t get out of their mind what had happened that night. And so they came and they wanted me to talk to a guy there by the name of Danny Adams. So there was Rodney, Chan, and Chan’s son.
There. They had been out in the woods and they just had to put down their chainsaws and they talked about it and they couldn’t stand it so they came to the house. And they asked me if I’d talked to them. So the preacher opened up the door and there stood these three guys, Mollering Curly. And they’re standing there looking at me. Rodney said we want you to tell him what you told me last night and Dan was standing there like this Like you ain’t gonna get me you’re not gonna get me And so the all three started to walk into the room.
I said no no no I just want him So the other two stayed outside and Dan came in and is set down on the couch and says you’re not gonna get me I said, let me just show you something. I took the Bible and I simply showed him Ephesians 2.89. He saw Ephesians 2.89 and I didn’t have to explain too much. But in about 10 or 15 minutes, Dan Trussley, Christ is Savior, knew he had he turn life and knew he was going to go to heaven when he died.
He was so excited. What had happened to his dad, the one that said, I see it, I see it. I said, he ran out of the house. He went home. He walked into the house and says, honey, I’m going to heaven when I die. And blankety blank blank you are. And she didn’t say blankety blank either. He says, no, I know I’m going to heaven. She says, you do not. You ain’t no better than I am. He said, no, I’m going to heaven.
He says, no, you’re not. He says, yes, I am. He reached down on the table and picked up a candy bar. He says, here’s a candy bar, take this candy bar. She says, I don’t want no candy bar. He take the candy bar. She says, I will not. He said, take it. So if she finally she took the candy, he said, that’s the way it is. He said, salvation is just like a God offers it. You accept it, you got it.
And Stella understood what he said. She trusted Christ of Savior. Dan came in the house and they both says, we know we’re going to heaven when you die, when we die. And he says, that Colorado preacher might have got you, but he ain’t going to get me. And he cursed. And so that’s why they had him over there at the house the next morning. It was an unusual story, but it was an awesome story. I saw how powerful the gospel really is because he didn’t have to sugarcoat it, just hit it straight.
And I guess if I had been sweet and kind and all sugary, I probably couldn’t have done anything. But it’s because I, to a lot of sense, I’m raw. I’m not a smooth polished individual. If you think I am, you should have saw me then. I had a reckless abandonment to faith. I just believed it and I said it, and if you don’t like it, that was tough. That was my attitude. And it hit hard. but it hit right between the eyes.
But I don’t know, maybe that’s what those guys need. Now I try to be as sweet as I can from now on. Ever since then I’m the sweetest guy you’ve ever been. They were gonna tar and feather me. But they trusted Christ’s savior. And so the whole bunch, about 60 or 70 people trusted Christ’s savior. And they wanted to come into the church. And the older people in the church wouldn’t let them. They didn’t want them in their church, wouldn’t let them become members in their church and told them to leave.
And these older people in the church didn’t want anything to do with these new believers. And so it was hurting because this was mom and dads and aunts and uncles and their kids. But just a whole bunch of trusted Christ’s Savior and the old ones that were in the church kept thinking you’ve got to keep the law to be saved. Now the preacher who got me up there He believed in eternal security, but he didn’t want to preach it because he didn’t want to make the people mad.
So he got me to do it. And they got mad. And it wasn’t long before some of the guys came over to the preacher’s house. And they had been there for 10 years with this preacher. They loved this preacher and his wife. And they got him and they pulled him outside of the church and it was fixing to beat him up physically. And Jim Smith and Jim Padgett got over there and they stopped them. The preacher wound up believing and went to take a church in Alaska.
Not been a part twice to speak from in Alaska, named Floyd Seacons. But see how quickly ugliness can happen. And so the new believers, they just wound up getting them another piece of land and somebody gave them some property and they were longer so they worked in the wood. They cut down their own trees and built them own building. Then they had a camp and they had that going for almost 40 years. I left there that week and I went down to Remer, Minnesota because they asked me if I would come down to Remer, Minnesota.
I never been to Remer before, but I went to Remer. When I got down there, the preacher told me, says, um… I haven’t told anybody you were coming. I said, you want me here for a week of meetings? You never told anybody I was coming? He said, no, I can’t come anyway. He said, nobody comes to church here. He said, we haven’t had anybody trust the Lord here in 10 years. I said, why did you have me come? He said, because I’ve got things to do this week and I’m leaving at the end of the week.
I’m moving. I just want you to finish out because I don’t even want to preach the sermon. I said, well, you’ve been to the town. So he said, sure. So we went to town. We went into this little store and I bought me some markers and some poster board, pay for it myself. And I put on there son of a bootlegger, speaking and not put it all in there.
And then I said, now we’re gonna go pass him out. He said, where are you gonna go? I said, let’s go. We walk down the street, here’s this beer joint. I walked right into the beer joint. He says, you’re going in there? I says, yes I am. I went into the beer joint and said, sir can I put this up on the window? He looked at it son of a bootlegger. Yeah, that’d be fun. Put it up there. So I went because most of the stores in the town would be their joints.
So anyway, I put them up. He said, nobody’s gonna come. Sunday morning, people came and trusted the Lord. Sunday night, more people came. Trust the Lord. Every night, and by Wednesday night, the church was packed. I mean, packed. Because people would trust the Lord and they were telling people and more came and more came. Well, they heard about this down in Minneapolis, the head of the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination sent out letters warning against Ralph, alias Yankee Arnold. He is a false prophet.
He’s a church splitter and they don’t, not the Lettingmanian churches. So if they sent that out, it went to two major denominations. I’ve only been out of Bible college for one year, and I’ve been blackballed in two major denominations. And all I did was explain the gospel. And you talk about, I mean, it was unreal. And so the last night, Friday night, the church was packed. There was no room for anybody to sit down. And three guys walked in and sued, and the preacher’s up on the platform, he leaned over and he says, see those guys coming in the back, I said, yeah.
He says, they’re from Minnesota. Those are three big honchos. They come up here to deal with you. They want to meet with you after the service. He says, they say you’re a false prophet, but there was no place for them to sit, so they had to go into nursery and watch through the window. So while I’m setting up here, I thought, I think I’m going to preach another sermon. I told the press that I just changed my sermon. He said, what are you going to preach on?
How to recognize a false prophet. I think if I’m going to get accused of it, I might as well tell them how they can recognize one. So by the time I got through those three guys, they snuck out the back door and never talked to me or said one word to me. Back in Colorado, I mean this thing had been blown up. and in the evangelical pre-churches of America, they all sent letter Arnold Olson, who was the president of it, took over one of the positions that Billy Graham had at one time.
And here they had this big meeting, they had to have seven different states all come together, and they’re gonna have a trial. I’m gonna be on trial. To see whether or not, am I a false prophet or not? And so when they get ready for their meeting And I’m getting ready to walk into the room. It’s one of those smart, Alec preacher, who comes at me, kind of, you know, prissy light. Oh, I hate them, kind of. He kind of sissy-fired the water.
He says, you know, we’re gonna sit in judgment on you today. We’re gonna find out where you stand. I says, I already know where I stand. We’re gonna find out where you stand. And they had to listen to all of my sermons that I had preached up there. They had copies of them. So all of them had to listen to all of my sermons that I had preached. Salvation, a long grace, predestination, you name it, but I hit it.
And now here’s these people from this place, the half the list of. So they wrote a letter. We find nothing wrong with this man’s preaching. There’s nothing wrong with what he’s teaching. It is doctrine correct and Arnold Olson, the head of the nomination, not to change his letter and apologize. But he wouldn’t do it. He says, when he stops splitting, church is all, I’ll do it, but never did. And that was 41 years ago, 41 years ago. And I have seen so many that have come out and have preached the gospel because of it.
And there’s people that have been affected because of that little place up there in Doraleke, where a lot of kids and adults, they trusted Christ as Savior, and some of those kids that came in, go in the Bible college, you went find the Florida Bible college. And then, when I was a man, the one that I led to the Lord, he was 25 years old, he went up taking his wife and five kids to Florida Baba College. Only got there for one year, went back up there and passed to the church until he died a few years ago.
Rodney Goble, I was up there last year when I did his funeral. He’s in heaven. Chan, he died about 10 years ago, but they’re gone now. I’m just thankful that I got there when I did. And all that happened, it’s such a wonderful thing to know. I get to heaven, those three guys gonna be waiting on me over there. Chan, Dan, and Rodney Gobo. And yet it was all started because of just, you know, giving the gospel and telling them that you don’t have to keep the law to be saved.
You don’t know the ramifications and how many people are gonna be affected because you made the gospel clear and simple to somebody. They make trust, Christ is Savior, and then they tell somebody, and they tell somebody, and they actually know families have been reached. You’re affecting people. Give it a chance. Don’t compromise it. Hit it and hit it hard. In love. If you’re here this morning, you never trust the Christ as your Savior. What do you have to do?
Take this candy bar. You take it, you got it. Christ died on the cross, paid for all of your sins. If you believe he did it for you, he put that payment to your account. You go to heaven on what he did for you. You don’t earn it. Don’t work for it. You can’t buy it. Best news in all the world. Let’s pray. Shall we? Every hit by and every I close. No one looking around. If you hear this morning, you never trusted Christ as your savior.
Would you trust him right now? You can’t save yourself. We’re not good enough. We never will be. But it’s a gift. It’s free. And if you will trust Jesus Christ right now as your Savior God said he would give you right now as a free gift He turned a life and I like to know it. I’m not like to have prayer for you So it hit by a nice clothes. No one looking around I’m not gonna have you forward not gonna embarrass you But I’m gonna ask you in just a moment to raise your hand raising your hand Just lets me know that you trusted Christ is your savior here this morning And I’d like to have prayer for you Anyone all before we close say yes, I will trust Christ as my savior and preach I’d like for you to pray for me.
But just slip it up very quickly, put it right back down, then one of those. Just say, yes, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sins, and I’m gonna trust Him to take me to heaven. If you have trust in Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, you have within you the most powerful message in all the world. Give it a chance, let people know. Father, thank you so much for this time together. You’ve been good to us, And we know that as we get closer to getting to heaven, we can see how you’ve worked in our lives and all the doors you’ve opened up.
And we thank you for the context that’s been made. Let’s each one here in Christ name we pray, amen. 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 Bibleline 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 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.
Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.
