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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 1-800-800-800-800-800. 800-576-3771. One-line donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calbryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to talk to you about something that I’ve heard over the years and I never really understood for a long time. And I remember, bit in our church, there in Athens, Georgia, I had just trusted prices, my Savior. So Betty’s dad would drive me around to hear different preachers. And how many times I heard them talk about, you know, God called me to preach. Man, I was taken with that, God called him. And you didn’t want to do it unless you were called.

God forbid that a man, where they go into the ministry without being called with God. And I remember one day I walked up to the preacher and I says, how do you know when you’re called preach. And he looked at me very seriously and he looked at me and he says, you’ll know. But that was all that he told me. And I really didn’t know what to expect when that moment would come. All I knew is that I didn’t want people to go to hell, but I didn’t know about a call.

And I didn’t know if God was going to call on the phone, tell the graph. I didn’t go to church, see? I just got started. I trust the Lord when I was 18. I didn’t go to church before and didn’t see my parents in church were raising a Christian home. But I had a hunger for the things of the Lord and I I’ve often wondered about that and I believe there’s a lot of people today that are doing what they’re doing but God never called them to be a preacher.

And then I believe they’re a son that God has called and they never answered the call. But I want you to take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 13. Tonight I want to speak to you on the blind, the death in the dumb, the blind, the death in the dumb. I’m not talking about lost people either. I’m talking about Christians, Christians that are blind, Christians that are death, Christians that are dumb. Now I’m not talking about mentally, I’m talking about they don’t speak.

Something’s got their tongue. I remember when I was going up, somebody said, cat got your tongue, cat got your tongue, because you couldn’t talk. When it comes to the things of of the Lord, there’s a lot of things that we should understand. Here in the book of Matthew in chapter 13, I want you to look there in verse 10. And the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given, for whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.

But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away, even that he hath.” Another parable later says, I will take away from him that hath and give it to somebody else. If I had ten thousand dollars and I gave it to this man, and ten thousand dollars and I gave it to this man and told him to take that money and do something with it, multiply my money. Well, if this man over here, he doubled my money. Nice. This man over here didn’t do anything with what he had.

Well, then I’m going to take it away from him that had and I’m going to give it to this other man over here because I’m going to put it to where I can get something from it. There are people who here know and have and won’t use it for the Lord and God He’ll take it away what you’ve got and give it to somebody else that’ll use it. I believe that we live in a wonderful period of time in history.

I was telling Lee on the way over here tonight. I just finished talking to him about how quickly things can change. Well I was talking about doing the blood and how quickly things changed. And I was talking to him about sodoming tomorrow and how quickly things can change. And I was bringing up to the presents and… Tell them how that all of a sudden the rapture could take place and how quickly everything can change. You don’t think it can change very quickly.

Very quickly. We have no idea. It could be something that causes a domino effect and our country can be in a mess real, real quick. I think it already is in a mess. I told the Lord, I said, Lord, it seems like we need a major crisis in our country to get people back on their knees. They get their attention because I think we didn’t raise a generation of people that don’t think they need God. They mock God, laugh at Christians, despise the church, everything we stand for, our Constitution, and any man that’s decent, they want to rob him of his dignity.

And I believe God needs to deal with America. Now I have a compassion for people. for people. I hate seeing the pictures where people are dying, struggling, and no doubt many are worried about what’s going to happen to them, but I do believe that there’s something a lot worse than all the catastrophes that we have in this world. You stop and think for a moment a lost man, his condition is worse than all the other things that can happen whether it’s a tornado, hurricane, floods, or whatever.

A lost man has a greater need. The need of the gospel is greater than anything else. Because here we may all work together to deliver someone from a devastating dilemma. But what we also need to look is a little bit deeper. Every man is going to die eventually. And where are they going to spend eternity? And so I believe that there’s Christians who need to see things that others do not see. They need to hear things others do not hear.

We need to sense and feel things that others do not feel. For a long time I was not a person that was filled with compassion for anybody and I kind of developed a little bit of compassion over the years. I guess I’m just mellowing with age. But there was a time in my life when I was just kind hard, kind of cold, you know, blunt. But the longer I lived, the more I hurt for people. I used to not care what you were going through.

The longer it didn’t happen to me. But I don’t live long enough to have a lot of things happen to me and then find out, boy, I wish somebody would be a little compassionate with me. They helped me understand. But he says here in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 13, he says, therefore speak eye to them in parables because they see not, hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. For in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which said by hearing, you shall hear, and shall not understand, and see, and you shall see, and shall not perceive.

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. And as you go through much of the scripture it talks about, especially to the churches, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit said unto the churches.

In other words, there’s things that God is saying but people are just not listening. At one time in my life I had perfect hearing, and then little by little I began to lose some of my hearing. I remember one time I was working on my house, and I went outside in the yard and I had been mixing some mud and laying some 12 inch blocks. Oh, they get heavy after a while. And I looked up toward the trees and I started crying.

I couldn’t see. I had no idea what was causing my problem, but everything had like a milk like you take plastic seren wrap or something, I can put it over my eyes and I couldn’t see. And I stood there and I cried, I said, Lord, if I’m going blind, I know you’ll either take care of it or give me the grace I need to bear it, but I sure don’t want to go blind. I didn’t know what a cataract was.

I didn’t even know what a Lincoln catarina was either. Some of you all slow. But I didn’t want to go blind. I don’t want to go deaf. I want to see. And I want to hear. I want to be able to talk. My whole ministry is based upon speaking, telling what I know. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you got to where you are blind, deaf, dumb. You see, some Christians are like that by choice, and they don’t want to hear.

They don’t want to see. They don’t want to feel. They don’t want to have that compassion that they need that makes them different from everybody else. See, God has put you and I in this world and there’s something that he wants from us. But sometimes we don’t see what God is saying. We don’t hear what he’s trying to tell us. And we don’t feel the compassion that he had. And I believe it’s so very, very important. Look in 2 Peter in chapter 1.

2 Peter and chapter 1. 2 Peter 1. Look there in verse 4. You see, you trusted Christ because you saw that you were lost. You saw that you were going to hell. You saw that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for your sins. You saw that he came back again from the dead. So you heard the gospel story and you believed it, and you saw that if you didn’t trust the Lord, that you weren’t going to heaven.

And so you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior because of what you saw and heard. Now some people have never heard the message. They don’t see themselves the way they really are. So they blindly go on in light. There’s a lot of people like that in the world. But when you saw that, you saw the importance of trusting Christ’s Savior because you had no guarantee of life. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. You don’t know how long you’ve got to live, and so you accepted Christ as your Savior.

You were given by God a divine nature and many, many precious promises in the Word of God. But did you know that there’s still a lot of Christians who have no idea what those precious promises are? any of the precious promises of God. But look what he says there in verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, have an escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and beside all of this, beside God given to you a divine nature.

God wants you to add to your faith. And the reason for adding to your faith is because when you start adding, it’s not long before you’re able to take that which has been added to your faith, then you can begin to multiply. Have so much mercy. The longer you live in serving the Lord, the more fruitful you can become. You can accomplish more in the long run because you see you not only added to your faith, you can begin to multiply because now there’s people that you have trained, one to Christ, challenge and now they are doing the same thing.

I think about that young man that’s up there in Minnesota. I went up here in 1969, got a bunch of wild meetings. There’s going to tar and feather me and run me out of town on a rail. I got black ball in two major denominations. The first year I was out of Bible College. Well, I was moving on up and it was one man. He was 25 years old, Danny Adams. Trust that Christ is a Savior. He’d dad trust the Lord, split one church, one preacher quit the ministry, and closed the church door, started another church.

It was wild. But that one young man that trusts the Lord, he’s pastor, three churches up there, as for years. And so we got churches started, and here’s a young man, and he’s winning people to the Lord. But my first Bible study up there in at the Georgia was two little teenage junior high boys. But I didn’t know that started from that there and years later all those people that came and trusted Christ is Savior. Know they came to Bible school or the Christian school.

We’d have 50, 60, 70 kids go out every Friday night so winning. And it was awesome. And they would have lots and lots of kids, trust the Lord. But you don’t know down the road. But somebody somewhere catches on and sees what you’re talking about and they want to make a difference They want to do something adding to their faith look what he says in verse 5 besides this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue Virtue knowledge and knowledge temperance temperance patience patience golliness golliness brotherly kindness brotherly kindness charity and get this if these things be in you and abound They’ll cause you where you will not be barren and you won’t be fruitless If you want to be successful in the Christian life and have an abundant life, the abundant life is not sitting around with the Bible in a corner someplace and

I’m having the abundant life. The abundant life is a fruitful life. The abundant life is a life that’s lived for the Lord where you have some results in your life. And you can look back and you have a fruitful bow. There’s a lot of grapes on your vine. There’s a lot of apples on your tree. There’s a lot of peaches on that tree. and some Christians live and they had never have any fruit. They may have foliage, they look good, but there’s no fruit.

And as you serve the Lord, you ought to be very concerned. Christ is without me, you can do nothing. Are you really living your life without Him? Going through the motions, your Christian life is mechanical, but it’s not real. And you’re just trying to tack on a few things in your life, give everybody that Christian smile, you play little games, you can income the church, and you can be faithful. But the Lord may not be real to you because you still have not seen what God wants you to see.

You haven’t heard what God wants you to hear. You don’t feel what God wants you to feel. And in these verses, looking in verse 9, he makes a statement. He said, but he that lacketh these things. He didn’t add to your faith. He said, lacketh these things is what? He’s blind. He cannot see you far off. Have forgotten that he was purged from his old sin. Work for a rather brother and give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall See Christians don’t have to fall.

You don’t have to fail. You do so because you didn’t add to your faith Every time you come to church Sunday morning Sunday night you’re adding to your faith You’re adding and whenever you miss there’s some knowledge that would have been a solution to a problem and you didn’t get the answer and some problem will wind up keeping you from coming back or you get weak in your faith and you’ll let what somebody said hurts your feelings and all you’re not going to be a strong Christian because you didn’t add to your faith you didn’t get strong and when you don’t get strong you don’t see right you don’t hear right and you don’t have the compassion that you ought to have look in the first Corinthians in chapter two first Corinthians and chapter 2.

He says in verse 9, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. Isn’t that a strange verse that you know you’re in this world and without the Bible you don’t even know that there is a heaven or a hell without God’s Word. You may know there’s a God, but you don’t know what God is like.

You don’t know His name. You don’t know how He loved. You don’t know what He does. You don’t know the judgment that that’s God. But see everybody is conscious that there is a higher power. God says it’s in the book of Romans in chapter 1. But it’s the revelation, the revealing of God’s Word that lets us know about this invisible God. A God that you can’t see. A a God you can’t hear. But somehow you sense that there is a God.

And so whenever you accept Christ as your Savior, of the Spirit of God that knows all the things about God is indwelling you to teach you the things about God that you could not have known no other way. That’s why he says in verse 10, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. Yeah, the Spirit shirts it’s all things. Yeah, deep things of God. I believe everything in the Bible is deep. If it lies beyond the human knowledge of man, because it has to be revealed.

And so all these truths that we have in the Word of God are things that we can know that the natural man cannot. Because it says these things that we are talking about, he says the Holy Spirit compares spiritual things with spiritual means. So they are given to us. The lost man doesn’t have the spirit so he cannot understand or discern that’s in verse 14. And so we have a wonderful thing that God has given to us. And that is the ability to see and to hear and to feel things that the lost man cannot.

But isn’t it a shame if you go through your whole Christian life and you do not sense it, you don’t see it. And I want to speak to you about that in just a second. But first of look there in 2 Corinthians in chapter 4, 2 Corinthians and chapter 4. The Apostle Paul has told the Corinthians Christians about many things that had happened in his life. The first chapter in 2 Corinthians, he was talking to them about the troubles they had and how they were pressed out of measure, pressed in their spirit where he thought he’s going to die.

And sometimes, wonder whether or not you’ve got the strength and the grace to go on. But he says, having this ministry, he says, we faint not means we didn’t quit. In the book of Hebrews in chapter 12, he makes a statement. He says, faint not when thou art rebuked of him. It’s the same thing as when you tell a child no and they get mad and quit or run away from home, just because they got rebuked. And sometimes you have to rebuke a person.

Well sometimes God rebukes us. We don’t get our own way. So God has to deal with us and we get mad, but sometimes we don’t use God as the, you know, directly to Him. We just, sometimes we get mad at a person. We rebuke, get mad at a person because they’ve got on us about something. And sometimes if a preacher has to rebuke you, do you ever get mad at the preacher because of it? It’s like children get mad at parents because they tell them no on something.

Babies, not growing, not seeing that somebody who really lives in the Bible. loves you. Have you ever seen a man a drunk and he’s in denial? Don’t believe he even has a problem, doesn’t see the damage that he does, doesn’t see all the hurt that he does to his wife or his kids or on the job. He just don’t see it and you look at the damage that he does. There’s Christians that are doing exactly the same thing. They’re in denial.

They don’t believe they got a problem. They don’t believe he got a spiritual problem, but they do. You read the book of Revelation chapter 3 when he talks about the church there at Laodicea and it says, they think everything is all right, but things are not all right. He says, you’re not hot, you’re not cold, you’re lukewarm. He says, you make me sick. But you see, there’s Christians that don’t see themselves the way they really are. And see, if you’re not on fire for the Lord, you’ve got a problem.

If you’re not soul-wening, you’ve got a problem. If you don’t love the word of God, you got to pray. No, you just could still be saved. You have eternal life, you go to heaven when you die because eternal life is a gift, it’s free. God saves you by grace. But now that you are saved, it is the will of God for you to love the Lord and to walk with Him and to do the thing that God wants you to do with your life.

How you live your life is your way of saying thanks to the Lord for what He’s done for you. So how are you living? What are you doing for it? Here in 2 Corinthians, in chapter 4, looking verse 1, therefore seeing we have this ministry, that word seeing, see some people, they don’t see it all. And we’re not talking about just with the physical eyes. Some of you all may have wonderful eyes, wonderful ears. You speak articulate, but you are blind, deaf, and dumb.

If you can’t see spiritually and hear spiritually and have spiritual understanding. The Bible says in the book of Ephesians chapter one where Paul says, I pray that you will have spiritual enlightenment, understanding. And many Christians live their whole life and never really understand the Christian life, what God really wants them to do. And they miss out on so much. So he makes the statement here in these verses. He talks about in verse eight. He says, we are troubled on every side, but we didn’t quit.

He says, we are perplexed and so forth. Sometimes He says we are distressed, we are perplexed, but not in despair. We didn’t quit, persecuted, but not forsaken, but we didn’t quit. Cashed down, but we didn’t quit. All this down through here has to deal with, we didn’t quit. What does it take for you to quit? Do you carry your feelings on your shoulders and dare somebody to say just the wrong thing just so that you can use it as an excuse not to be found faithful.

Wouldn’t it be a shame for you not to be faithful because you’re using another Christian as an excuse? What did God do to you? I served God because of what God did for me, not because of what people did for me. I served God because of what God did for me. And think about this, when Christ died on the cross and paid for my sins, I believe that I should serve Him not for what He is now doing and not for what He’s going to to do, but because of what he hath done.

What he hath done should be enough for me to serve him for the rest of my life if I never get another blessing and there were no such thing as rewards. I should serve him because he’s God. He demands to be served. He is worthy to be worshiped. And we should do it because we want to, not because we have to. You realize this after all these years that I’ve known the Lord, nobody has encouraged me to go to church.

Nobody has to call them and say, hey, where were you last Sunday? They’ve never had to do that. Nobody has encouraged me to give to the Lord’s work. Nobody. Nobody has encouraged me. I don’t know why, because I do it because I want to. That’s me. I’m a grown up. I have matured in the Lord. But there’s some Christians, listen, God says that you were supposed to lay by Him in store on the first day of the week. Most people believe First year of the week, most people probably still Sunday.

What if you don’t go to church at Sunday? Well, I was sick last Sunday, so they come to church the next Sunday. Did you give for that week that you weren’t here? Some people they say, well, I only give whenever I come to church for that Sunday, if they do it then. No. You’re a thief. You’re a thief. You say, well, I give 6%, OK, you’re 4% thief? Well, I give 8% well, then you’re 2% thief. You’re still a thief until you give what you’re putting in.

You can start giving an offering. You haven’t given in came to God until you’ve done the 10th, at least. That’s the minimum. That’s just a good way for a Christian to learn how to give. And many of God’s people are not faithful. They’re not faithful to read, not faithful to play because they don’t see the need for it. They don’t see why they need to be. They don’t see their condition. And I believe it’s a shame. Well look what he says down here.

I want you to see this also in verse 16. He says, for which cause we faint none. We mean we don’t quit. Well, why? Well, see right before this, he makes a statement in verse 14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Present us with you. So I not only want people to be there because I want them to cry. I want them to be rewarded by God.

I want Christians to have everything they could have had. You see, whenever you see things right, it’s not that you’re glad you’re going, you want everybody else to go. Not only do I want to be rewarded when I get to heaven, because I do. I want everybody else to be rewarded too. Wouldn’t it be a shame that you get to heaven and you don’t get anything, because you didn’t serve the Lord. Well I knew it but I didn’t tell you about it.

I’m going to tell you now. Because I don’t want you up there saying why didn’t you tell me I’m telling you can’t use me in the excuse. Nana nana nana nana. But look what he says in verse 15 for all things all things are for your sake. In other words why do you need preachers, evangelists, missionaries for your sake. Because we want to challenge you regards how hard it gets, how rough it gets, don’t quit. I’m just so discouraged, don’t quit.

Perplex, don’t quit. Cast out, don’t quit. Whatever it don’t quit. Stay in faith or just keep certain or what you got, where you are. And God will bless you for it. And here’s one of the reasons why. Look there in verse 17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment. And now this light affliction Paul is talking about when he was stoned outside of the city of Listerum. When he would beat with a cat of nine tails, everything that happened to all those people trying to kill him, boy he took a bow that they would even slavery until they killed him.

I wonder what happened to them. I wondered. You think they died. They died. Because Paul didn’t die by him. But isn’t it something that all the things that happened to the apostle Paul, he says this light affliction, your life. And this is where it would be good to go to James chapter 4, but since it’s already been and read we won’t have to turn there. Your life is but a vapor. It appeared for a little while and then vanishes away.

It’s just a moment in comparison to eternity, it’s nothing. But it’s a little portion of time that you and I are privileged to live. And in this period of time, God says, the devil is after you and he’s gonna have all these things. He’s a roaring lion seeking whom he made of power. And so the war is on. In verse 17 he says, For our light of flesh and which is but for a moment, work it for us. Did you know that every problem you have is an opportunity for you to be enriched?

You see, laying a treasure in heaven is because you have had a victory over some testing or trial or temptation here. Because that’s the only way you get to prove your faithfulness to the Lord is by the things that happens to you. 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. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 homepage. 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 Vital Line, 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, just keep looking up.