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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 remember that in the Bible, you can see the Bibleline on the screen. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew chapter 13, Matthew chapter 13. Every time you read the Bible, it’s a living book and you learn something new and fresh every time you read it. And I don’t care how many times I’ve read certain passages of scripture, I learn something else the next time. Because it’s a living book, it’s alive. This isn’t like your regular history book, and biology books, and all that stuff. This is God’s Word, and there’s truths that are in this book that you keep discovering.

There’s some people who want to know the truth, there’s some people who don’t want to know the truth. Now as you read the Bible, you will find out that it talks about Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air. It’s called the kingdom of darkness. So his reign is the kingdom of darkness and it deals with the flesh. Then there’s the kingdom of God. And God says it’s like, it’s a spiritual thing. It’s seen only by faith.

It’s not seen with a natural eye. And so Christ says that the kingdom of God is here. It’s under you. So you have the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. Then he says in John chapter 3, you must be born again. He said, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless the man is born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You can’t see it. You can’t enter, even though you’re here, but you’re not in the kingdom of God unless you’re born again.

because it’s a spiritual thing. But if you haven’t trusted Christ as your Savior, you are already in the kingdom of darkness and the Satan who’s the prince of the power of the air, he’s already your king. You’re already worshiping him and you’re following him and you’re obeying him if you’re not serving God. If you’re not serving God, you’re serving the devil. Like it or not. I don’t care to make anybody mad, but chances are I will because truth is very controversial It’s very offensive, just like the truth of the gospel is a very offensive message because there’s many people who believe you have to earn your salvation by the way you live.

The truth of the gospel is no you don’t. That offends all the people who teach that you do. Do you have to go to church to go to heaven? No you don’t. Do you have to give money to go to heaven? No you don’t. Well see there’s some church that teach that so that’s offends them. The gospel is that it must be free and it must last forever, or it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gospel is that it is grace.

Grace means that it is free. It doesn’t cost you anything. Christ paid for it. You accept Him. You go to heaven on what He did for you. Now I want you to notice there in the book of Matthew in chapter 13. In verse 36, then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came out of Him saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tears in the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soeth the good seed is the Son of man.

The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. But the tears are the children of the wicked one. So we know that in this world in which we live, there are those who are the children of God and the children of the wicked one. The wicked one is Satan. When you were not saved, you were a child of the flesh, you were a child of the wicked one. You were in the kingdom of darkness.

That’s why it says in Colossians, we are to rejoice that we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light or the kingdom of his dear son. So while we live here, I am a child of God. I am in the kingdom of God, on his child. And though I have an old sinful nature in my old body, I can still see the kingdom of darkness. I see the wickedness in the world. I see all the sin in the world.

And we struggle with the fleshly desires that we have. Christ says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If he may have the love of the world, then he cannot love God. So God says, you’re either going to love this world or you’re going to love God in the next world. So which one are you looking for? Where a man’s treasure is there will the heart be also? But he makes a statement here in verse 39.

The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels. Now I don’t understand all of this and when everything is going to happen, but there is some things that I can tell you. at the end of the church age where we are. God is simply going to take us out of the world. So those who have trusted Christ a Savior, you will be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye which could happen at any moment.

Only believers get to go and we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord and we go to heaven. We’ll stand in the jim and sit at Christ and be rewarded for what we’ve done. But the rest of the people will be going into the tribulation period, this period of time that’s right ahead of us, the worst time in the world is right ahead of us. Don’t you fall for those such things as we’re going to build a utopian, this world is going to be world peace.

It will never happen. It is not coming. That’s a figment of the imagination, but it’s not true. The worst time of all history, all human history, is right ahead of us called the tribulation period, worst period of time in the world. But at the end of this period of time, there is going to be where God says he sins forth his angels and he has them with sickles in his hands and he cuts down the vines he brings in those grapes and he puts them in a great big old valley and he stomps them with his feet and the blood will run as high as the horses bridle.

This is what God’s going to do at the end of the tribulation period called the battle of Armageddon. There is going to be a process at the end of this period of time when Christ comes back in power and great glory and we will come back with him before he sets up his kingdom upon the earth, there is going to be a judgment of the nations or of the Gentiles. Individuals are going to be judged. They’re going to deceive.

If they have trusted Christ as Savior, the righteous, the just, they go into the kingdom, into the vial and to the joy of the Lord. Those who have not done so will be cast into the lake of fire, the Bible called into a furnace. Now I want you to see this because it’s important in verse 40 and therefore the tears are gathered and burned in the fire. Now who are the tears? The tears are the children of the wicked one in verse 38.

So Christ is the one who tells the story. He says, now at the end of time, he says, this is coming. He says the tears, the wicked one, the children who have never trusted Christ as Savior, or going to be burned in the fire. Now notice what else he says in the last part of verse 40 and so shall it be in the end of this world. The word world there is aeon or it means age, the end of a dispensation.

There is going to be a judgment. There’s going to be one here when he sets up his kingdom. There’s also going to be another one at the end of the thousand years because people will live upon the earth for 1000 years. And at the end of this time, God is going to once again, those who have not trusted Christ of the Savior are going to be cast into the lake of fire. Now what I want you to see is this, look in verse 41, the Son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and then which do iniquity.

In other words, God says there’s come at a time when he’s going to take everything in this whole world that offends God and God’s going to do away with it. He says, there’s going to be a new heavens eventually and a new earth. And God says, we’re in dwelleth righteousness and no sin shall enter therein. Now these are things that are coming down the road because God says that he’s going to take this earth and it’s going to be renovated by fire.

Everything is going to be burned up. And he says, and I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. He said, I will be there, God, they will be my people. He said, I’ll wipe away all tears from their eyes. This is what’s coming. Jesus is the one that said all of this. It’s easy for you and I to be caught up every day life. Be doing this and that and the other.

And we lose sight of all this God has said, because we’re about to hang nail and know what we’re gonna eat for supper. And I gotta pay the bills, I gotta go to work this week. And that’s our world. But what helps you to endure this world and stay faithful to God in the midst of all of these things that happens is what you know about what God says is coming down the road. And can you believe Him? And is it going to affect your life?

The truth that we know here should affect us here. So the reason for knowing all this other stuff is so that I will do what God wants me to do with the time where I’m living. I’m here. Now what is my responsibility? Why am I supposed to do anything? I mean what’s the reasons? I have to know what’s the point. And I want to know what is the will of God for me. But there’s things in the Word of God that should challenge and motivate us.

Otherwise it makes you walk the straight and narrow way that compels you, motivates you. Always do right, always do right. The devil is always going to try to get you to do contrary to what God said. And you cannot let human emotions rule in your life. You have to go, but what does God say? What does God say? If God says, this is wrong, guess what? That’s wrong. and don’t have to take an opinion poll. What does God say?

Now get this. In verse 42, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, and you ought to underline these words. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, fire. So God says there is going to be a lake of fire and brimstone where God is going to cast all those who have not accepted Christ as their Savior. You say, who’s going to go there? If your mother hasn’t trusted Christ as her savior, your mother is going to the lake of fire.

If your grandma hasn’t trusted Christ as her savior, your mama is going to the lake of fire. And your granddaddy and your grandchildren are going to the lake of fire. If they have not trusted Christ as their savior, when they get to an age of a kind of a, that’s why soul winning is the most important thing anybody can ever do their whole life. See a lot of people who know Christ as savior, they’ll help a thousand ways, but they never talk to anybody about their soul.

Where are you going when you die? Do you know for certain that you have eternal life? If you could know you could have eternal life, would you like to know and explain it so people will trust Christ as their Savior. There is nothing more powerful than that message because this is a heaven and hell issue. Now get this, he says in verse 40, then shall the righteous shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their father who have ears to hear, let him hear.

Now, once again, understand what he’s saying here verse 43. See the wicked are cast into a lake of fire, but the righteous the Bible says shall shine as the sun in its strength. And the Bible another place talks about in the book of Daniel in chapter 12 as the brightness of the tournament forever, the stars in heaven. Because God says you’ll shine as the righteousness, as the stars in heaven for all eternity. When Christ was here in the book of John in chapter three verse 18, he says, he that believe it on me is not condemned, but he that believe if not is condemned already, there’s only two kinds of people in the world.

Believers and unbelievers, the saints and the aunts. Either you are or you’re not. You say, you can’t say, well, I’ve been a Christian all my life, nobody has been a Christian all their life. There has to come a time when you’re born into the family of God, and you have to have the knowledge you did it. I’ll give what age it was, but you have to know that you trusted Christ as your Savior because what makes you think you’re going to heaven if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior?

You said, well, I’ve heard about it all my life. I know, but have you personally trusted Christ as your Savior? Have you actually done it? Have you said to God, God, I believe that Christ died, He paid for my son, I believe He did it for me. I’m trusted, dependent upon Him to take me to heaven whenever I die. And God said, if you do it, He’ll give eternal life. And you can know that that you’re going to heaven.

There is no other way of knowing. There is only this one way, and that’s by trusting Christ as your Savior. Now notice, he goes down in verse 44, 45, 46, talking about a pearl. But he uses the phrase, the kingdom of heaven is like this. Here’s an example. Look what he says in verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure, hid in a field, and the field is the world, the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy, I’ve got to go with and sell off all that he had and buy off that field.

Now it’s this picture of here’s the world because the world is the field and God so loved the the world and he’s not talking about the dirt. It’s the treasure that was found here. There’s something that was in this world that caused God to want to buy it. And what was that? Israel, it was from it was the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. When he talks about the pearl of great price, look there in verse 45, again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchantman seeking goodly pearl who when he had found one pearl of great price went so all that he had bought it.

So Jesus Christ when he came into the world gave all that he had so that he could buy the souls of everybody in the whole world. He made a payment that was sufficient for everybody but only one condition. He wants every individual to accept what he did for them. That’s why he says, we have been purchased. We have been redeemed, paid for. You’ve been bought with the price. Therefore, glorified God in your body and in your spirit, which are God.

God have bought and paid a price for you and I. We are like a choice pearl that God says was so valuable and worth it that he says the whole world is not worth the soul of one man. The kingdom of darkness doesn’t have any value. He was willing to die for the world, but he was willing to die if you had been the only person in the world. And that’s something to keep in mind. Now look in verse 47.

Verse 47, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast unto the sea and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drug it to shore, set down, gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So this is why some people think, well, you know, The good people go to heaven, the bad people go to hell. Well, it’s really talking about the just and the unjust. It’s talking about the righteous and the wicked.

The righteous are those who trust Christ, the wicked, are those who do not trust Christ. It all hinges upon what do you do with Jesus Christ. It’s not talking about how you lived. It’s talking about who you are, what you are. You’re either wheat or you’re tear. I was a tear, but when I trusted Christ, I became wheat. That’s what I am. Now what I do is what I am. So God says here in verse 49, so shall it be at the end of the world, at the end of time, the end of the age, the angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just.

Right now, we all live together. We have saved and lost in the same household. We have saved and lost at this job where you go to work and at the nursery stores. We got saved and lost even in churches. And you say, well, what shall we do? Shall we pull up the wheat or pull out the pears? Now God says, let everything alone. He says, because whenever he gets ready, he’ll separate the wheat from the pears. Look there in verse 29 of Matthew 13.

We’ll just start there in verse 28. Look in verse 28. He said unto them, and enemy have done this. He said, done what? Soad some pears while the good men slept, somebody came in and so pears. Well, who is this wicked person? That’s Satan. And he’s so in bad seed that’s producing bad fruit, which is people who don’t know Christ as Savior. He says in verse 28, he said to them, an enemy have done this, the servant said, will thou then that we go and gather them up and he said, nay, less why you gather up the tears, ye root up also the wheat with them.

In other words, wheat and the tears look so much alike. You can’t hardly tell the difference. And the Bible says, you and I are not to be the one that judges who is a Christian and who is not by what we see. You don’t know if I’m really a Christian or not. You say, well, you’re a pastor of a church, that doesn’t make me a Christian. Well, you read the Bible and pray, that doesn’t make me a Christian. Well, you try to do right and you give money for missions, that doesn’t make me a Christian.

You say, I’m a Christian, if I have in my life ever, totally 100% accepted Jesus Christ as my only hope of going to heaven. Have I done that? If I’ve done that, I’m saved. If you have not done that, it won’t matter how religious you live. And it won’t matter if you’re a wicked person living a sinful life doing everything in the book. You can still be saved and still go to heaven when you die. Now some preacher tell you no you can’t do that.

Then preacher don’t know what they’re talking about. You can be saved, have eternal life in your God’s child and not serve God and do everything wicked in the book and still go to heaven when you die. Is it the will of God? No it’s not the will of God. It’s a shame and a disgrace. If you’re a child of God, you should live like a child of God and you should act like a child of God and you ought to do what’s right because that’s who you are.

You are a child of God. Now you ought to look like it and act like it and talk like it and live like it. But if you don’t, it doesn’t change the fact you have been saved, given eternal life, on what he did, not upon what you did. I’m going to heaven because he loves me. Now I should serve the Lord because I love him. There’s got to be something inside of a man that challenges and motivates him and restrains him to do the things that he should do or not to do But look what he says also in verse 30 He says in verse 30 let both grow together Grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest.

I will say to the reapers gather ye together first the tears Buying them and bundles to do what with them? Burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn gather the wheat into the barn. So there’s a difference in the people. There’s believers, there’s unbelievers, there’s righteous, there’s wicked. And so God says, those who have not accepted Christ as their Savior, then they will be cast into the lake of fire, a furnace that they are in forever and ever.

God says those who have trusted Christ as Savior are gathered into the barn. These those. See, He is speaking to them a language they can understand. This is how they made their living. But we have people who can’t understand. This is so parable. It means there’s a story given but a story that has other meanings to it. He spoke in parables because they were mixed multitudes. They did not have the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit to help them to discern.

So he spoke in parables and said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit said. That means those who want to know the truth will know the truth. Those who don’t really want to know, they won’t understand what’s being said. And so those who want to know truth, they want to know what’s being said. can understand that they’ll trust Christ as their Savior. And those who don’t want to know the truth, all they heard, they heard a story.

And you’d be surprised how many people can go to church. And yet you could tell them a thousand times you don’t go into church to go to heaven. You don’t have to give money to go to heaven. You don’t have to do anything to bet. You don’t have to change your life to them. And yet they’ll still understand in their mind, you still got to be good to go to heaven. You still got to do something. It don’t matter how many times you say, no, it’s by grace through faith.

It’s not even, and as long as you believe that you’ve got to do something, you’re not trusting Christ as your Savior alone. If you think you have to do something, change something in your life, you’re not trusting Christ. Your salvation does not depend upon Him. It depends upon you and you change in your life, in your power and your ability. You still don’t get it. And you still have people that say, well, if you don’t live it, you ain’t got it.

You don’t understand it. Salvation is a gift. And yet I’d venture to say that the many times that people have been out here and you’ve heard me say these things. You still don’t get it. And yet we’ll grow along together. And one day there’s going to be a judgment and God’s going to separate the good from the bad. And what makes the difference between what’s good and what’s bad? The good of those who trusted Christ and the bad is those who did not trust Christ the Savior.

It is so simple. Now look very quickly there in Matthew chapter 13. I I want you to see this before, quit. In verse 49 of Matthew 13, he says, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth in verse 50. He said, have you understood all these things? Now I want to give you another one very quickly because we’re running out of time. Look in Luke chapter 13. It is so important that you see it, that you understand it’s got to make sense in your mind.

Or you will hear these words a thousand times that go right over your head. You’ll not understand what I’m talking about. And some of you, it’ll be so clear, clear as a bell, and some of you still be arguing in your spirit inside. So I don’t agree with that. I don’t buy that. I don’t buy that. You don’t buy that. You don’t understand that. You ain’t going to heaven. I didn’t make up salvation. I didn’t design it. And won’t be no skin off my nose whether you believe it or you don’t believe it.

I’m going to be hurt to see you go to hell. But I would hate to think that you sit here all these years and you sit here and you listen. But you never personally, You never really trusted Christ as your Savior. Because you still head in the back of your mind, I’ve got to do something. I want to be good just in case, then that just in case, then that you just, see, Christ says, it’s not Christ’s plus anything.

You might know Christ is sufficient, but you don’t know that He’s enough. He’s enough. You don’t need anything else. My salvation going to heaven does not depend upon me. It doesn’t depend upon how I live or don’t live. nothing to do with that. Because when I was 18 years old, the best of New Howl, I knew I was a sinner. I believe Christ died and He paid for my son. I’m trusting Him as my Savior. Take me to heaven when I write down.

If I don’t get to heaven, it’s because He broke His word. He lied to me. He said, if I believe it, I have it. I have what everlasting life. I’ve got everlasting life. And look in Luke chapter 13, looking verse 23, then said one unto him, Lord, are there a few that be saved? And He said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many I say unto you, we’ll seek to enter in and shall not be able, because the only way you can get in is through Christ.

He says, when once the master of the house is risen up and have shut to the door, and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door, say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and send to you, I know you not when she are. When he says, I know you not. That’s not saved people. I know you not. These are lost people. says, I know my children. You’re not my child. It’s not I knew you wants and then you got lost.

Now, I don’t know you anymore. No, no, no, he’s I don’t know you. What he’s talking about here is too late. In other words, it comes to time when a man leaves this world, it’s too late. In other words, you have all these opportunities, but they come to time when it’s too late, you can’t go anymore. It’s no more opportunities. They’re all gone. And that’s why I managed to trust Christ to save you while he can. When he sees it.

Look what else he says. He says in verse 26, then shall ye began to say, We have eaten and drunkened thy presence and thou has taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not when you are ye depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. And this is similar to what you find in Matthew chapter 7, where it says the people did all these good things. They did all these good wonderful works. We cast out devils and we spoke in tongues and we did all these wonderful He says I don’t even know who you are.

Depart from me ye that work iniquity. In other words, whenever you do all these good things and you’re trusting in your good deeds to get you to heaven, then God says you’re workers of iniquity. I did a work on the cross. You’re supposed to believe this work will get you to heaven, not your works. We’re not supposed to get to heaven by sending our righteousness up to God. Look how righteous I am God. God said, I sent my righteousness down.

You accept my righteousness. If God gives me his righteousness and I accept that I am made as righteous as God. I get what else he says here. End verse 28, Then there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now who is this to? The people that go to hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth. When ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and ye yourselves thrust out. Look up here. There’s coming a time when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Old Testament prophets, the saint, We’re gonna all be here during this period of time.

And those people ain’t gonna be here. They can’t go. Weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth know what they could have had and they’ll never be able to enjoy what we will enjoy for all eternity. And he says there in verse 29, and they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And that day is coming. But think of how many multitudes of people.

Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and a literal fire burning hell for all eternity. And yet it didn’t have to be that way. It’s pride. Some people will never humble themselves and admit I am a sinner. I cannot save myself. I will trust him as my Savior. And people will die and go to hell rather than do that simple thing. And yet it’s on the same level that everybody can have it. It’s equal for all, anybody in the whole world, and most people won’t do it.

And you’ll have churches today, today, that are filled to the brand all over America. Heaven got the heinous idea about how to get to heaven. They don’t know it’s only through Christ. And they think it’s because they went to church and they put money in the offering, and that’s why they’re going to go to heaven because they’ve been good. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message.

If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible Line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the 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 10.30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, Calvary of Tampa dot 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. We will be changed. 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.