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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 the end of the day. 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible Night 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.

Here we are. We’re going through fiery trials in our life. There’s a lot of temptation out there to do wrong. What we go ahead and we do what’s right regardless. All right. God says that we are going to, when he comes in his glory, there’s something that’s gonna happen for us. Then he says there in 1 Peter chapter four, verse 13. Ye may be glad also with exceeding what? Joy, when, when his glory shall be revealed. That’s not here.

that’s here. So if you can get the sequence down, like I mentioned this morning, there is a timing in this thing. You see, Christ suffered then glory, humiliated, humiliated. Look at the people that took them. Now glory, that example is what you and I are supposed to while we’re here in this world. As an individual, people may try to humiliate you, not just humble you, humiliate you. You just go ahead and take it. Believing that the righteous judge one day will reward you and then you will have the exceeding joy.

You’ll be glad. Can you commit your life to the Lord. If you commit your life to the Lord, then you can commit everything that happens in this world to you to the Lord. The more you commit into the hands of God, the more you will begin to see the hand of God in every area of your life. But see if you don’t commit your life to the Lord, then you won’t see your Lord moving in your life and do anything before you because many times we will do what others have done.

We take matters into our own hands and by doing so we hinder the Lord from working because we want to handle it ourselves. We want to get revenge. We want to get even. We want to make somebody pay. wrong me, I’ll get you bud. This is what’s causing the problem. Like I mentioned this morning. All this that you see on the news about the riots up there in Ohio, I think is where it was, and then you saw it down here in New Orleans.

You saw it over there in the earthquake in Pakistan, all the looting, and there’s people that will just kill for no reason, tear down buildings, break in the stores, threaten with clubs, and yet individually sometimes those individuals, they would never do that. But you let them get into a mob situation. Have you ever watched the old time cowboy movies and next thing you know, one guy can stand out there and get the whole crowd worked up and we’re going to get that guy out of We’re going to hang him.

They don’t want to wait for the law. We’re going to hang that guy. And sometimes they get the wrong guy and they hang the wrong guy, you know. And then there’s always got to be the hero to come dinner and save the day. Well, this is what people do. They’re not trusting the law to work. But anyway, the way people are, they will have a mob mentality. And people will be like a herd and they cause them to stampede.

Then they do what everybody else is doing. They don’t even have to have a leader. It’s just that somebody else is behind destroying. That’s what Satan does. Satan loves that. Satan can take the old sinful nature of a man and you’d be surprised what he can make him do. And sometimes totally deceived. Some people don’t realize the power of sin and the consequences. So it is better to suffer the wrong than it is to go ahead and try to make it right yourself.

Let God take care of things. Now I’ve mentioned before my stand on, do I think that I have a right to have a gun? Or somebody breaks into my house and I pull open the door and say, well come right on in. No, it’s possible I’ve blown away in Christian love. So there’s certain things you got to have a balance and I believe there’s certain responsibilities we have committed to the government. But there’s some things that government has not committed to us.

You cannot sue the police department if somebody breaks in your house and kills you. though they’re supposed to protect and provide and so forth. But that’s tough. So I like the law they have done in Florida now. Everybody can have a gun and you can shoot somebody you think coming in your house and take something or do something. And I think that’s a good law. That’s a good law. That ought to make somebody think twice before they break into somebody’s house.

Now look there in 1 Peter chapter 4. Look in chapter 4. Look what he says here. here. In verse 14, he said, If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the spirit of glory and of God rested upon you. On their part, he is evil spoken of. But on your part, he is glorified. So they may turn against you for something you say or do that’s And you may be made ashamed, but you see, God is glorified because of what you did.

God says that is a way of you showing other people you trust God. See somebody does me wrong here and I don’t do them wrong back. I don’t render evil for evil because I believe that if I don’t and I just go ahead and do what God says do, I’m going to commit God’s judgment upon that person, therefore I don’t have to. And I’m going to trust the Lord. God says, I am going to have praise, honor, and glory.

One day it’s coming, it will happen, and then I will have this exceeding joy. Now, if you believe the Word of God, then you can do that. If you don’t believe the Word of God, will not do that. So instead of suffering the wrong, you’re going to sin by trying to make it right. So it’s a choice. But if you sin against God or sin against people, then God’s going to have to chasing you. This is where the chasing comes from.

Look now in verse 15. But let none of you suffer. None of you suffer as a murderer, as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy body and other men’s matters. If you want to talk about suffering, just get your nose and other people’s matters and I guarantee you, you won’t be long before you’ll be suffering because somebody’s going to pace you right in the nose as they keep your nose out of my business. Have you ever had somebody tell you that.

I remember what I went to deal with a man and he told me he says, look preacher, mind your own business and keep your nose out of mind. I said, my business is putting my nose into your business and I will too. I will talk you back then. It was probably 25 years ago. And I, I believe that my responsibility is to be about the affairs of the Lord and I’m supposed to preach the book, live it, review, do name it and I’d do it.

And I had, I remember one day a kid came to ranch, kid came and had long hair. And back then there was a lot of hippies, a lot of hippies, they had a lot of long hair. Anyway this year one hippie, you got his purse and he was walking down the street and saw a bunch the guys Georgia Rednecks down here on the corner. He walked up the door and he said, Hi, how y’all doing? He said, we’re killing all the sissies.

Was that right? That’s the true meaning of repentance. He changed his mind. But this here wasn’t hippie. He was kind of lost. Just couldn’t find himself. Dad couldn’t get him to get a haircut. He wouldn’t get him to take a bath. He liked this one girl and so he wanted to take him to the bath and cut his hair and there he was, found himself. But some people, they came out to ranch and a lot of them had long hair.

And so once in a while, and the guys had long hair and the girl had short skirts. So I wish that the girl had the long skirts and the guys had a short hair. But they were kind of getting it mixed up back in. They were all kind of messed up. And I was answering questions. I opened it up and this is one kid he raised and he said, what do you think about long hair? I said, I don’t give you have long hair, three feet long from under your armpits.

I said, don’t matter to me. I said, but God says it’s a shame for a man to have long hair. Now, if you don’t care what God says, it don’t matter to me. No, left it to that because he asked kind of smart and I answered that away. Anyway, I thought everything was over with, finished the ranch. Maybe he had some kids, trust the Lord. Well, I went home, went to bed. It must have been 11 o’clock at night or so.

I got a phone call. This man on the phone. He says Are you Yankee? Yes, sir He says I’m gonna kill you just as soon as I can get my hands on you. I Said sir who is this? He says you never mind who this is But when I get a hold of you you’re mine I says what’s the problem? He said, my son came to your youth meeting tonight and you called him a sissy. I said, sir, I don’t remember calling anybody a sissy.

You told him that he ought to get his hair cut and it was a shame for him to have long hair. I said, sir, I didn’t say it was a shame for him to have long hair. I said, God said it was a shame for him to have long hair. Well, that made him mad. Well, that’s my son and you’re not talking about my son like that in a meeting. You put him down. He asked a question. I thought he wanted an honest answer.

I thought he wanted an answer from the Bible. I showed him the verse that said it. Anyway, he says, I’m gonna kill you. No, I didn’t want to die. So anyway, I got Joe Potter. I said, Joe, let’s, I gotta go see somebody. He said, where we’re going? I said, we’re going to see a guy who threatened my life. He’s like, Leon, I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go. I said, come on, let’s go. I said, if the guy’s gonna kill me, I just didn’t get it over with.

I don’t like to live. All that time is suffering. I’m being suffering. Mental language. I don’t know when you’re gonna come and see me. Let’s just go see him. So anyway, we ran down the road and I pulled him. I knew where he lived. But he wasn’t there. I was kinda glad. This truck wasn’t there. Anyway, I pulled in and I got out and walked up to the door. And his wife, she came to the door and she said, oh, oh, oh, my.

to hear. Get out of here. I said, man, what’s the problem? She says, he’s going to kill you. My husband said to you, he’s going to kill you. I said, man, my sister, he ain’t going to kill me. Yes, he is. He has threatened you. He’s going to kill you. The joke part of it already started back to the car. Come back, Joe, we ain’t going to work. I said, where is he at? She said, well, he’s not here.

He went down the roof. But he’ll be back any minute. I said, good. We’ll come in and wait for him. Is it already if we come anyway for him. She didn’t want me in the house. Anyway, we walked in. Sit down at the table and it didn’t take five minutes. I heard a truck come flying. You could hear the rocks flying. This truck was wheeling around the house because they had to come around the house toward the back door.

And I’m talking about that truck was a spinning sideways and he slammed on the brakes and just, I mean, he got out slammed that door and he come running through the door and my his wife said oh my god oh my god he’s gonna kill him he’s gonna kill him and you know you can tell I didn’t die but he came into that room and he slammed that door open and he looked him aware he’s aware he knew my car and Joe Carter was just turned white as a she I was kind of white himself and I knew I was going to heaven when I died but I wasn’t home sick at the moment.

He came around the table and this is when I am glad that he had a hefty wife. I mean she was very healthy and she was kind of large and she blocked him and he couldn’t get past her. He could have if he wanted to I think. But he wasn’t a little, a little, a little, a little man. I mean, he was a man and he was coming around the table. I’m standing there. I didn’t know what was going to happen.

I mean, if I’m going, Lord, this is not, I’m seeing just a minute, unless you intervene. And she talked to him, got him calmed down a little bit, and I told him what had happened. He finally stopped long and he listened. I finally told him what happened. We were going to have our hayride. And I didn’t have anybody that had a trailer with a flat bed that could haul the kids on it with a hay. And before I got out of that night, he volunteered to be the driver and he would use his truck and he had a flat bed.

We got hay and he drove the truck for rent from after that day for our hay rights and so forth that we had around Stanley Lake. Now I thought, I could have let fear stop me from doing that. But because I believe that it was right, plus at that time I didn’t have much sense. I went and just did it. I remember one day when I was at Tennessee Temple and I had visited on the bus ride, me and Betty had her bus ride at the foot of St.

Elmo. And what are the incline? That’s where my bus ride was. And it’s one guy he asked if I’d come by and see him. He was a drunk. But he had called the church and requested somebody come by and said, that’s all I want by to see him. So when I went by to see him, it was on a night, dark, probably Thursday night. When I went in, he was very nice and he asked me to set down at the table and I sat down at the table.

And he had a gun in his hand. And it looked like I’m like a 45 and he was taking the shells off. And I said, what are you going to do with that gun? So he started putting the shells in. He said, well, when I get all these six shells in here, and he was real slow, he’s drunk. He said, I’m going to shoot you. I said, you’re going to what? He said, I’m going to shoot you. He said, well, I don’t like creatures.

I don’t like you and I want to shoot somebody and you’re it. I didn’t know the guy. I had never done anything to this man. And so when he got the last one in the head, I started talking, boy did I start talking. And I says, you know, by how I know that I have each other, I don’t go to everyone like that. And he started taking the shells back out. And then I said, glad. And then he started talking, started putting the shows back in.

He got to that last show. I started talking. He started taking the shows back out. We went through this off and on for about an hour. And I didn’t know at any point he was going to get mean and nasty. But when he finally got them all back out, I said, well I got to go, I’m sorry, and I got out of the house quick. It wasn’t long after this about two weeks later. Dr. Lee Robertson, he’s about 95 years old now.

He called me up and he told me he says, Yankee. He said, look, he says, there’s a guy that’s in the hospital. And he called and asked you to come by and see him. And he told me who it was, but I couldn’t remember the names. But I went to the hospital and I walked into the room. There was a man in there. He was in very critical condition. And they didn’t expect him to live. But he had requested me to come and see him.

So when I got there, I went into the room and I recognized him. This is the guy that had the gun that was going to, you know, part my soul in eternity. And it looked at me and he kind of smiled. He’s sober now. He said, I really owe you an apology. He said, I am so sorry for what I did. And I took the time and I explained the gospel to him and he trusts the Christ of Savior.

See, somebody had wronged me, but I just let him do whatever he wanted to do. I want to always keep the door where I can still reach him for the Lord if necessary. Just because somebody wrongs me, I don’t have to wrong them back. I remember one day I was on the bus route with Betty, and this was up there at Tennessee Temple. I had tried to get these kids to come to Sunday school. And there’s a whole slew of these kids, but a few of them came.

And I picked them up on my boss. I’d take them to the church and I’d bring them back. And I’d like that because I was trying to build a rod. And I had these kids. And I didn’t want to lose anybody. I hated it when I lost any kid. But one day I came down to Rodin, and they came up with me, and they were crying. And I had stopped. I was visiting the couple. They lived on further down, but they saw me and so they came up and they were crying.

He says, my daddy won’t let us go to church anymore. Because he was a drunkard. He won’t let us come anymore. Well, the house was closed. I mean, he says, and you can’t come to the house. He says, he don’t want you to come to the house. No more. You’re not welcome. You can’t come. And they cry. They want to make it so bad. They wanted to go to church so bad. And so I didn’t want to go to the house.

So I said it as loud as I could. The whole neighborhood could hear me. I said, you mean you mean old daddy won’t let you go to church You mean old daddy that’s drunk won’t let you ride on a bus to go to church. What kind of a father is that? Well, doggy he heard me But I had left he didn’t come out the door Dr. Lee Robertson pulled me into the office and told me he says I got a call from a guy and He says that he doesn’t want you to pick up his kids anymore.

He says, next time you show up he’s going to kill you. I must not be certain on Lord anymore because nobody’s told me that lately. This is all when I was in my young years, you know. I was in my 20s when all this excitement happened. But I guess maybe I have gotten older and more mature that I’m getting along with people better. clash too much. Now I don’t clash with anybody and everybody loves me. Isn’t that wonderful? But if you really want to have an interesting life, serve the Lord, I wanted to be different.

I didn’t want to live my life like millions of people do and die and do nothing, be nothing, have nothing, did nothing for eternity. The best way to serve of the Lord is to do what God says, do and be different. And if you are, all kinds of interesting things will happen. And the Bible says that because of the way that you are, you may be able to win somebody to win them. Look what he says in verse 16.

He says, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, because of who you are, you are a Christian. If you suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. Don’t be ashamed because of what somebody else says about you or does to you. Just bear the reproach. Just go through it. Don’t worry about it. Consider the source. I’ve had people say nasty things about me. I just consider the source. It doesn’t matter. But he says this, but let him glorify God on this behalf.

For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. You see it’s okay if you understand that there is going to be a judgment of the quick and the dead. Look at their inverse 5, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead, the living and the dead, or in another place it’s like the saved and the lost. And remember this, he makes the statement in verse 8, pour upon this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead.

Now will the not just talk about those that are spiritually dead, those that are lost, but never trust the Lord is so that they can also be judged by the very same gospel that you heard and believed. That’s why God says, going to all the world and preach the gospel to how many? Every creature. So God wants everybody to hear because that message is what’s going to judge people. And everybody’s going to be judged someday. God Available not a respecter of persons.

But the Lord says, I want you while you’re here, you may suffer for a reason. And the reason that God wants you to suffer while you’re here and you’re suffering is because you’re doing what’s right, not doing what’s wrong. If you’re doing what’s right, like he says in verse 18, for Christ of chapter 3, also have once suffered for sins just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. So now he wants you and I to suffer that we might bring others to the Lord.

So we will do without certain things. There’s places that I won’t go. There’s things that I don’t do. a language that I don’t use so that I might be able to win some. Now you won’t win them all but you may win some. And so you have a little higher standard. You want to be different. Look what he says over there in verse 8 of chapter 3. He says finally be all of one mind and having compassion one of another.

Love is brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. I mean be full of pity. Be full of pity. Let me ask you a question. When the Bible talks about those who wrong you, and he was talking to Peter there in the book of Matthew, it says, how many times am I supposed to forgive my brother? He says 70 times seven. It means to forgive without limit. Forgive without limit. It means there’s no limit to how many times you should forgive somebody.

If I am to forgive without limit, when should I show compassion? One a day, two a week. Where should I show pity? Once a month, twice a year? Or is it something that you and I are supposed to do all the time? We’re supposed to love all without limit. Show compassion without limit. It has nothing to do with what other people do, but it’s the way that you are. You are kind because you’re kind. You are loving. You are forgiving.

Just because other people don’t respond correctly and they do you wrong, you still do them right. Because you know that there’s a day coming when the righteous judge is going to bless you with exceeding great joy and it’ll be worth it all. You will win in the long run. How father we do thank you so much for giving us your word and follow we live in a time where there are so many people who do not know Christian values.

They don’t know the character of being a Christian. They don’t live like one. Don’t act like one. Don’t talk like one. And yet they name the name of Christ. We pray, Lord, You’re willing to be done in each individual life in this room, that Father, we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, the next day, but we know we’re going to have a fiery trial during our lifetime. And the temptations are going to be great. The trials are going to be great.

The warfare. Lord, there’s so much. But we know that if we just look to you and trust you, seek not revenge, not to rail upon those who rail on us, not to get even, not rendering evil for evil. But Father, to have a Christian spirit, a forgiving spirit, and at all times, show in love, show in compassion, because these things are ranked, and to forgive without limit. The Asha blessings upon each family here in Christ and 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. 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 Bible Live, 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, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.