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It says here in Philippians in chapter 3 verse 1, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. In other words, I haven’t arrived yet. I got a long way to go. Really the way we should think. Never see yourself as a completed individual. Now your salvation, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were complete in Christ, you were made perfect. But as far as our lives upon the earth, we have not yet adapted to all the things that God wants for us.

So we always have something to strive for, something to live for, something to improve upon. And he says, but this one thing I do Forgetting those things which are behind how far you’ve come. You got to think about how far you need to go and Reaching forth under those things which are before this keeps you from living in the past and looking toward the future I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus There’s something that God has for us.

It’s out there that we have not yet received Salvation going to heaven. That’s a gift. That’s free. We’ve already received that But there’s a lot more in this life and there’s a lot more when we get to heaven that God has for us So the thing is is can we be found faithful and verse 15 says let us therefore in light of what we’ve already read Therefore as many as be perfect. That’s those who have trusted Christ as their Savior and have been made perfect in Christ Be thus minding the worst think this way and if in anything you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this under you Did you understand that when desire is to serve the Lord and if you’re not doing the things that you’re supposed to be doing whether and thought or deed That when you read the word of

God and you stay yielded to the Lord God will as a promise reveal it to you now You may be in a spiritual condition where you’re not related to receive it, but hopefully you will but get what else he says nevertheless Where to we have already attained? Let us walk by the same rule.” In other words, what you have already learned, all the right that you now note to do, do that. Walk according to the light you have, walk according to the truth you have, walk according to the maturity that you’ve already received.

It’s a shame for a child of God who has matured in the Lord to go back into a second childhood and then act like a newborn babe again, like he hasn’t learned anything. Let us mind the same thing. In other words, if I listen to God and you listen to God, can you tell me why we can’t get along? If I do what God says and you do what God says, why can’t we be in agreement? When the Bible talks about let us be of the same mind, it means we’re all thinking the same way.

Well, the only way we’re going to ever agree is if we agree with Him. But when you start disagreeing with God, then you’re going to disagree with people. And this is where all the trouble in the world comes from because we are not in harmony with the Lord. Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. Can you be able to say to other people, I want you to follow my example because every one of us are examples.

And we’re not perfect examples, but we are examples. And hopefully we’re increasing in our steadfastness and our walk with the Lord. For many what, now get this, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Can a child of God be an enemy of the gospel? Yes, by his actions. By the way you live. Whose end is destruction, it always destroys. Whose God is their belly, it means their own inward desires.

And whose glory is their shame, and the reason is because they mind earthly things. Well, a lost man, you expect that, but not from a child of God. You expect a child of God to mind heavenly things, spiritual things. Let us that have been raised from the dead seek those things which are above minding heavenly things and many of God’s people on and that’s where the weeping comes and so I believe it’s a very important thing and I want to share some of those thoughts with you this morning.

Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father once again we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us for the free gift of eternal life and we ask Father your blessings upon those that are not able to be here today because of various reasons some are sick and some may be out of town, but whatever the reasons are, we pray Lord that you have your will in their life. And Father, we ask not your blessings upon this service. Use us for your own engloring Christ and we pray.

Amen. Take our Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 3. 1 Corinthians and chapter 3. I told a man one day, because that’s our talk of them. He thought that if you smoke, you went to hell. And I toldSpaceEngineers I said, I’d rather you smoke here than smoke later. Smoking will not send you to hell. Going to movies won’t send you to hell. Drinking ain’t going to send you to hell. There’s only one thing that sends a person to hell.

And that’s rejecting the payment Christ made on the cross for them. As we know, the Bible teaches that a man is saved by grace. It’s free. Grace means it’s not of works. And salvation has to last forever or it’s not the gospel. It has to be free or it’s not the gospel. There’s a lot of people that talk about their preaching the gospel, but if they don’t make it free and don’t make it forever, then it’s not the gospel.

The good news is that a man can have eternal life by simply accepting the payment Christ made on the cross for him. And so you don’t have to quit anything, join anything, not in your eternal destination, but there’s a lot more than just being born into this world. When you were born into this world, believe it or not, you really did not understand the physical life. You didn’t understand what was waiting for you out there. You were just a little baby.

There was a whole new world for you to learn. There’s a lot of things that you had to learn to do, like walk and talk. the first two or three years, all they do is try to teach you how to walk and talk. And then the rest of your life, the Sedan and Shaddah, this world that you would have missed if you’d have never got out of your diapers. When it comes to trusting Christ as Savior, yet that’s just the birth into God’s family.

That was a free gift. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it, you accepted Christ as Savior, you became a child of God. As a child of God, many of God’s children never mature. They never grow on. They never go any further. So there’s another world that they have missed out on. They live by sight, not by faith. They see, they understand by the physical body and their limits of discernment is only according to that which they’ve learned in the natural world.

So therefore they can’t spiritual decisions. I want you to notice there in verse 8. Now he that planet and he that waterth are one and get these two words, every man shall receive his own reward according to his or her own labor. So every man, every woman will receive something for what they did after they trusted Christ of Savior. See God does not reward you for anything you did before you got saved because you see it didn’t add to your account you were not a child of God.

God’s only can reward people in heaven that are His children so it has to start after you trusted Christ of Savior. Your rewards is from the day you trusted Christ of because then and only then can you actually do it for God. You didn’t do it for Him before. The key to save in a person’s life is to lead them to the Lord at an early age so they can serve the Lord with more of the time that God’s given them to live.

Every man that’s every person, that’s you, that’s me. That’s accountability. That means that there is a God in heaven that is watching over his children. Everything that we say, everything that we do, and God is going to reward us accordingly. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. You don’t get the reward for somebody else’s labor. If we did, that’d be alright with me, but I’m not sure that’s in the Bible. I believe you’re going to be rewarded for what you did.

So it’s a personal thing. Nobody can walk with God for you. Nobody can serve God for you. You are the one that must determine what you’re going to do for the Lord. Now, I want you to look there in verse 10. And the last statement in verse 10 says, But let every man take heed how he built it there upon. See, after you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, Every person is to take heed how he builds his life, building their upon upon what upon a foundation.

Well, what is the foundation? See, they’re in verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. After you’ve trusted Christ as Savior, you’ve been placed on the foundation. There is no other foundation for you to build on. God does not want you to build your life upon sand, but upon the solid rock which is Jesus Christ. So he says to every man who is on the foundation upon Christ, you trusted a measure of Savior, take heed how you build.

Now if you get to where you don’t think it’s that important, then you’re not taking care and how you build. You don’t really care. But if you do care, you’ve got to be concerned about everything in life because it’s all going to affect your life. So he makes a statement in verse 12. down in view of what we’ve said. If any man build upon this foundation, go silver precious stones. That’s the things you do for the Lord. And he says, precious don’t, hey, wouldn’t stubble.

Hey wouldn’t stubble. That’s the things you do. That’s a total waste of your life. That’s things done in the flesh. And you can build a house out of hey wouldn’t stubble and you can build out gold, silver and precious stones. You set a fire to it. Which one’s going to last. Well the fire is the eyes of God because you see God going to judge everything through his eyes not our eyes. That’s why in life it’s not so important as how you see things is how God sees things.

Am I doing that which is acceptable to God? What does God accept? So when you see things through the eyes of scripture you’re seeing things through the eyes of God and you’re the discern according to that. I’ve had people say, Well, I don’t see anything wrong with me going here. I don’t see anything wrong with me saying this. And I don’t see anything and the problem is they were saying the right words. I don’t see. They just don’t see.

So you’re talking about gaining discernment. You’re growing up in the Lord. You’re learning the word of God. So you’re gonna have better discernment. You’ll make better decisions. And you’re not thinking about just this life. You’re thinking about eternal values. So important. Then in verse 13, every man’s work shall be made manifest. Every man’s work is not talking about everybody whole world. We’re not talking about the believers. Those who trust the Christ to say to them, every man, every Christian is going to have his work examined by God.

And that’s why he says down here, we sometimes compare ourselves and commend ourselves to other people because look how good I am. I’m better than so and so and I’m doing this and they’re not doing that. I’m doing just as much as everybody else has nothing to do with anything. You do all that you can do for the Lord regardless of what anybody else does. You just determine, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to dedicate sacrifice and you do as much as you want.

You can be as involved as you want, give as much as you want, whatever it is that God wants. And if you do it for the Lord, then God says you’ll have more than what somebody else would have had. This is how God says he’s going to reward. He’s going to bless. So don’t worry about everybody else. Make sure that you are doing what God wants you to do. And don’t compare yourself with what other Christians are or are not doing.

In verse 14, if any man’s work abide, which he had built there on, he shall receive a reward. Remember this, salvation going to heaven, that’s free. That’s a gift. Christ paid for our way to go to heaven. By grace are you saved. That not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of, it’s not of works. So evidently when we’re talking about work, then we’re not talking about salvation here. And being saved from hell and going to heaven is when you trust Christ to save you and take it to heaven.

Heaven is not a reward that you receive because of the way you’ve lived. Salvation is grace. You don’t deserve it. It has nothing to do with what you did or didn’t do. Salvation is simply of God. Here we’re talking about works, works, works, but these works has to do with your life, what you’re going to do for him. So he makes the statement here, if any man’s work shall be burned, that’s the haywood and stubble, you still will be saved, but you’ve lost all your rewards of what you could have had.

Is it affecting eternity? Yeah, because see when he says the day shall declare it, then he’s talking about when you stand at the Judgement City of Christ. When we get to heaven. heaven, God is going to judge every man. It’s not the sin that you’re going to have to pay for because sins have been paid. He’s not bringing up your sin. He’s talking about the works that you’ve done that he can reward you for. And a lot of people are going to be very surprised.

But get this in verse 16. No ye not that ye are the temple of God, that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. The reason these scriptures are here because you’re talking about after you’re saved, you’re talking about bringing forth works, you’re talking about what you’re going to accomplish in the body. So you understand that this church is not really where God lives. God lives in our body. Our body is a temple of God. Now a principle that’s found in the Bible is that be ye holy for I am holy.

In other words, if God is a holy and he lives inside of you and your body is his temple where he lives, then you’re to keep your body holy for the Lord. Now he makes a statement in verse 17, If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. I have had many funerals for many people who totally destroyed their body because of things that they did in their life, habits that they should not have had.

They by the very process of taking liberty to do whatever they want, then they have destroyed the body and they destroyed the temple. Him shall God destroy. God will allow the sins of this life, the bad decisions to take your life. Look what he says now in verse 18. Let no man deceive himself. Now who we talk to? Lost people are Christians. We’re talking to Christians. The context is about Christian. Can a Christian deceive himself? Wherever then he can.

Well, is he going to deceive himself? It’s not going to matter. I can do whatever I want. It doesn’t matter. There’s no consequences upon my body, my physical life in this world. And it doesn’t affect that. Does it affect eternity? It affects eternity. So everything is in consideration here. As they say everything’s on the table. And it says, for the temple of God is Holy, which temple ye are? Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you, get to him.

If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. In other words, become a fool for Christ’s sake. In other words, let me just show you this. Look over there in verse 9 of chapter 4. He says, for I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world and the angels and the men.

Verse 10, we are fools for Christ’s sake. Oh, but you’re wise, and we’re fools. We are weak, oh, but you’re strong. You are honorable and we’re despised. In other words, Paul said, look, we’re doing what’s right. And look how people, the world treats us. You want the blessings of the world. So that means you’ve got to please the world. You’ve got to live like the world, act like the world, think like the world, do like the world, and the world will leave you alone, but stand against the world.

And you’ll find out that you’re going to be criticized and people ain’t going to love you too much. And you’re going to have to suffer consequences. And in their eyes, you’re the fool, and there shall wise. In verse 20 of chapter 3, and again the Lord, and you are on the line of senior Bible, the Lord, knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain, they’re empty. Just because a man in this world can make a million dollars, does it mean he’s wise in God’s eyes?

Because he fails to lay up treasure in heaven, that man as a fool. A fool, God says. Not smart, not wise, he’s a fool. It doesn’t matter what you can accomplish. We’re not going to stay here forever. We’re going to be gone one of these days. And then what? Romans chapter 14 and look there in verse 10. Verses 10 to verse 13. But why does thou judge thy brother? Oh why does thou set at not thy brother? In the words it’s so easy for us to see the sin in other people’s lives, to see their failures, their weaknesses and point them out, either to them or about them behind their back, whatever may be.

And we believe that’s called discernment. We can discern everything on somebody else’s life, but very seldom are able to discern the ones in our own life. In the last part of verse 10, for we shall all, and you are on the line that’s in your Bible, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You see, you can’t make somebody live right. You can only teach proper doctrine, and then they have to make that decision for themselves. So the Bible tells us that the day is coming when we will be at the judgment seat of Christ this takes place in heaven, not upon the earth in heaven after we leave this world.

And God is going to reward you. And it says, and every man shall receive his own reward. Every man shall give account of himself. You’re not going to heaven to give account of everybody else. You got to account for yourself. Make it what he says. verse 11, for it is written, as I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God. Verse 12, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God, of himself, that’s you, the individual.

So are you going to be held accountable for this life? You are held accountable for this life. Word indeed. And the Bible also refers to thoughts. Isn’t that enough to scare you to death? But not the sins of this world, but that which fails to meet the criteria for rewards before God. He says to discern what sort it is, whether it’s gold, silver and precious stones, or haywood and stubble. Haywood and stubble is not necessarily sin, he wouldn’t stumble can simply be bad choices, not the best choice.

You see in Philippians in chapter one he says that you may grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that you may be able to prove that which is more excellent. See sometimes in life we just make some good choices but it may not be the best choice, the excellent choice. So you go through life making decisions but Sometimes you may not pray about many of your decisions. You just do them because in your heart my motive is clean, I’m pure, I’m right, and therefore I don’t see anything wrong with it, but may not be the will of God.

Always seek the will of God in everything that you do. All I want you to do is to simply always do what you believe God would want you to do. Just do what you believe God would want you to do. And if God wants you to do it, do it. man rises or falls on himself and his own faithfulness to God. Now look in verse 13. Verse 13 is so important because it’s not just talking about you. Now the responsibility is not just concerning yourself but it’s also upon how you affect other individuals.

In verse 13 let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather. Let no man, and you ought to underline this in your Bible, no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. Is God going to hold you accountable for what you became in the eyes of someone else because you are to be an example. And some people can’t fall and stumble over decisions that you make. That’s why your life is not just about you.

You are not on the island unto yourself. You affect other people’s lives. And God says that we can affect other people’s lives. And we’re supposed to try to persuade people, be thou an example of the believer in word and indeed attitude. So don’t just judge things by whether or not well it doesn’t hurt me. It doesn’t bother me. Okay, but what about somebody else? Ephesians chapter 1 and look in verse 13, verse 13. It says, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, after you heard the truth, you understood, you trusted Christ, the gospel, the good news of your salvation, how you could be saved, how you could turn the line.

In home Christ, the very moment you believed. The Bible says you were sealed, sealed, but the Holy Spirit of promise, sealed because the Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus Christ, John 14. And He makes His statement, I will ask the Father and He shall send you the Holy Spirit that He may be with you and dwell in you forever. So when you received the Holy Spirit, he came as a result of the prayer of Jesus Christ, not your prayer.

You don’t pray down the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes the day you trusted Christ as your Savior. The very moment as a result of the promise that God had already made. So the very day you trusted Christ, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ, sealed into the body of Christ. He makes the statement here in verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance. That means the down payment. The earnest is a down payment.

And if you got this, that means that the guarantee you’re gonna get the rest. So the day you trusted Christ, you received the Holy Spirit, that’s the down payment, the earnest of our inheritance until you get total possession of everything God’s promise. See, we’re not through yet, we’re not home yet. We may have a few years to live in this life. And then we’re going to leave this world and we’re going to get what God promised in his Word.

He says, your heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, we have some possessions that we’re going to take hold of. And then there’s things that God’s going to give to you, not just because you’re His Son, but because you have labored for Him. You’ve worked for Him. They’re rewards that God has promised. Now, Ephesians 4, 29 through 32. 29 through 32. In verse 29 it says, let, therefore not, this is a principle in the word of God. There might be some words that you hear that are profanity, but they may not be found in the Bible.

But look as a principle in the word of God, it should help you to understand this is not pleasing. This does not add grace to the hearers. So he says in verse 20, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. This is to the Christian. It’s to those who are living in this world here and now look there in chapter 3. I want you to see this in chapter 3. Look there in verse 15. He says, of whom the whole family of God and everybody in the world is not in the family of God.

who are born in the God’s family are his children. So therefore the whole family, there are some who have already died and they are in heaven, some that are still upon the earth. And I like to believe that you are in the family of God. But get what he says here. He says of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.

That’s that new birth of yours. That when you trust in Christ, that’s that inner man, the new man. That he would grant you in this life, in this world, at this time, this is the will of God for you. He said that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted, rooted and grounded. See a root of a tree goes down into the ground in order to get the nutriments and the water that it needs to sustain itself.

But we are rooted and grounded in the Word of God and our roots are supposed to be wrapped around these solid rocks in the Word of God so that we can become strong and be able to stand against the wind of adversity or the various winds of doctrine that comes in our life. So that you are anchored in the Bible says in the book of Psalms in chapter 1 talks about where planted like trees by the rivers of water, of that’s to the Christian that puts the Lord first.

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. Our 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 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, just keep looking up.