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Bibleline Bibleline, they’re got to work on Bibleline everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline 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 appreciate you being here today. I wanted to read to you from the book of 1st Decononians, Chapter three about your faith. You’d be surprised how many times you talked about your faith, your faith. And so I want you to listen as I read this. Verse one, Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. Isn’t that wonderful? It says right there, be good, be left at Athens alone. And send to Mothius our brother and minister of God and our fellow labor in the gospel of Christ.

to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. That no man should be moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know that we are appointed there unto them. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass and you know. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith. Less by some means, the tempter have tempted you to you and our labor be in vain.

But now when Tomothius came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity and that ye have good remembrance of us always desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our afflictions and distresses by your faith. For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord. Well, what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy where we joy for your sakes before our God.

Night and day, pray exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we know it’s so important that after we trust you as our Savior, that each person should be able to know where they stand in the faith and how they’re doing in their faith, their personal growth between you and them. And Father, we pray that you’d bless today as we study your word to illuminate a person’s mind and help them to see things that they might need to correct.

And Father, we don’t want to be here wasting our time or playing games, but so much needs to be done. We’re thankful for the progress of this church and Father for those that are working in labor with our young people and doing such an excellent job. And we thank you also Lord for the results of the Radio Ministry. You’ve been good to us and we thank you for it. So bless us today in Christ’s name, amen. Anyway, I’m going to talk to you this morning about your faith.

And I want you to turn there to the book of 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. And talking about the difference between state and standing. And it’s so important to understand the difference. Your standing in Christ never changes. That is permanent. It’s kind of like being born into your family. Your standing is as you are their child. And your state, well, that’s the condition of your everyday affair, which changes all the time. But there’s some things that do not change, some things that do.

And you need understand the difference so that you can grow in your Christian life. Otherwise, if you don’t understand it, you’ll question whether you’re even saved. And so it’s so important to understand this. Here in the book of 1 Thessalonians in chapter 3, I want you to notice there in verse 2, and send Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow labor in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. In other words, you, after you trust the Christ, your Savior, the key thing is to make you strong and stable.

Establish you. It mentions this also in the book of Peter in chapter 5. And because of your adversary, the devil, who is a roaring lion, seek to me may devour. So you want to be able to be strong. And then you have the winds of every doctrineascade that can cause you to be tossed to and fro as a child of God. So you need to be strong.Tx And so this is what he’s talking about. And then in verse 3, he says that no man should be moved by these afflictions.

Being moved means things can change. Things that happens in life, conditions behavi that causes youanoia tocelerate. Today you may be a child of peace and joy and happiness and wonder and all that. And then tomorrow you can be totally in despair and just brokenhearted and ready to commit suicide. In the words, your condition can change so quickly from day to day. but it never affects your salvation. That is unchangeable. And then he makes a statement here in verse four, for verily or truly, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulations, even as it came to pass.

And you know, telling them, look, when I was with you, I told you that as a child of God, you are going to suffer tribulation. So you as a Christian, you know this. But you see all the tribulations, sometimes that we go through the trials and testings, sometimes it affects us spiritually. And we don’t always feel on top of our game, like these guys that are playing in the PGA Championship. I told my wife yesterday, I said, man, I’d love to get out there and play golf with those guys.

Wouldn’t that be, Leon, wouldn’t you love that? I mean, Leon could just get in there and just hang with those guys. Well, in our minds, we think we could. And Betty says, you can’t even get to walk to a practice round, let alone play in the thing. Yes, dear. And she always brings me back down to reality. But there’s some things about our faith that happens to build us strong. So he says you’re going to have tribulation, but how are you doing?

How would you rate yourself this morning? If you had to rate yourself on a scale from one to ten, spiritually, how are you doing? Is your faith strong in the Lord or are you a little shaky? A lot of questions and doubts perhaps, but ready to hang it all up, can’t take anymore and all that kind of stuff? Well, he says this in verse five, for this cause when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith.

Your faith talking about on a daily basis, your faith, not talking about have you trusted Christ to save your, that’s a one time deal. You don’t have to do that again. So he’s talking about the spiritual condition these children of God. He makes a statement here, less, less by some means. The tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. Now I always thought that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. See, your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Then how can he say is here that it’s in vain? And also makes the same statement in the book of Philippians in chapter 2. He says, lest we have bestowed upon you labor in vain. In other words, your labor, it can be in vain as far as people go because it’s based upon their response to what you’ve taught them. In other words, can a preacher preach in vain? Of course. But between me and God, God will reward me for what I do.

God will reward you for what you do. But you see, it can be in vain as far as people’s response to it. Can you tell your children to what’s right and what’s wrong and try to train them correctly? Yes, you can. But can it be in vain as far as they’re concerned? Yes, it can because they may not want to listen to you and do whatever you say do. So it can be in vain. But Paul didn’t want his ministry to the people to be in vain.

He wanted them to respond correctly because he cared about him. He wanted to know how are you doing? So he says here, less by some means the tempter. Who is the tempter? Who do you think the tempter is? That’s that old devil. Less by any means the devil tempts you and brings you down and causes your walk with the Lord to be influenced. So he makes a statement here in verse six, but now when tumultuous came from you unto us and brought us good titans of your faith and your charity, your love, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us.

Well, that just warmed our little peepick and hearts what he’s saying. saying. So in verse 7, therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all hour of friction and distress by your faith because they knew they were suffering and because they were doing so well spiritually, well, that just warmed our hearts because that helped us in our afflictions of what we were going on. That’s why I see it’s good to know how other people are doing. And sometimes it’s good not just to know when everybody’s doing Great.

Sometimes you need to know when people are not having a good day and you can care about them and kind of sympathize a little bit. Everybody needs a little cent of the along their way. Don’t you think so? Everybody needs a little encouragement and sometimes you have to have those. But he makes a statement here in all of our distress and our afflictions by your faith. And then he says down here in verse 10, night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is what we do.

Lacking in your faith in other words everyone sitting here this morning. There’s something lacking in your faith God isn’t through with you yet if you heard that little song God ain’t finished with me yet. He’s still working on me He gonna work on you until the day you leave this world But there’s always something lacking in your faith because you’re not gonna be perfect in this world But you’re growing toward your perfection in Christ You’re already there first. God is concerned, but your life, you’re supposed to get more righteous and more godly, more holy as you live.

And that’s a difficult thing. Now, I want you to take your notes that I gave to you and look there at the verse that I mentioned 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15. Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now the Bible is something you’re supposed to read and rightly divided, trying to understand to discern how to apply it in your life. Realizing there’s some scriptures that talks about our standing in Christ and some scriptures are talking about our state.

And if you will there, look at letter A. These are three things that I mentioned here that depend upon the work of Christ. In other words, this is what Christ did. It really boils down to if you put it all in one word, this is your salvation. When you trusted Christ as your Savior. You have a position that was given to you determined at the moment of salvation. Your position is you have a position in Christ. You are placed in Him, you are in Christ.

And as we read before in the book of Ephesians in chapter 1 and verse 3, you have been seated in the heavenlies in Christ. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. So we’re talking Spiritual blessing, that is your position that you have in Christ. That’s who you are. That’s where you are. You are in Him and that’s where God has placed you. That took place the moment you took Him as your Savior. The union determined at the moment of salvation.

Remember, death is what? Separation. Sin separates us from God. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you now and we have been joined together with the Lord. There’s a union there and this union can never be broken. It can never be broken. He said, I’ll never leave you, never forsake, never will. He said, because Jesus Christ is eternal life. So when you have Christ, you have eternal life. He that hath the Son, half life, and he that hath not the Son of that half, not life.

So he that believe it in him, half everlasting. You have something, you have life. That’s a union that God gives to you. and it says this mortal must we swallow it up in mortality. And this is a verse that we read at the funeral the other day. The temporal is swallowed up of life. And so Christ, we are in Him. That is our union and it can never be broken. That union can never be broken. You got it at the moment of salvation.

You’re standing determined at the moment of salvation. This is your position that you have in Christ. The word standing is the word that we usually refer to all of this. That is my position in Christ. That is my standing in Christ. It can never change. Now look at letter A, the little small letter A. These are not experienced by the emotions of the flesh. Your salvation is not experienced by the emotions of the flesh. When I trusted Christ as my Savior, did I cry?

Yes I did. I have seen other people that trust Christ is a Savior and they laugh. Our emotions did not play the part in our salvation. You were not saved because you cried when you went down to the front or because you sat there and you smiled and you raised your hand. You see nothing physical went into this salvation because that was something that you did as a mental thing between you and God when you put your faith your trust in Jesus Christ.

Now the external things that you may have done, my very with different people. But none of the emotions is what saved you. You are not saved because you shed tears. You are not saved because you smiled. You weren’t saved because you frowned. Those things can be different for different people, but has nothing to do with your salvation. Your salvation was, did you or did you not? Did you accept Jesus Christ as you saved? Yes, you did. Every man is saved exactly the same way.

Look at letter B. The walks of the saint do not attain these progressively. There’s people who think that as you walk with the Lord and you keep getting better and better and better, Then your union gets better with Christ and your position is more secure But if you ever stop walking then you lose your position in Christ You don’t go to heaven now and all that’s changed and this union that you have between you and the Lord is broken And now you can still go to hell in the future because they believe it’s progressive and you get better and better But see that’s not taught in the Bible No man said well I was saved five years ago and I’ve been a working on my salvation and I’m getting better and better and I’m getting it more Anker and more secure and I’m doing the best thing no no no you don’t understand it your salvation is a one-time deal that take place

The very moment that you accepted Christ is your Savior Letter see look at letter C. They are not given on the basis of human merit In other words your position that you have in Christ your salvation has never been determined by any any human merits that you have ever done. It’s not because you come to church. It’s not because you’ve given money, because you did anything. It’s only because you did it or did it not, except Christ is your savior.

That’s the only reason. Letter D, these are obtained completely at the moment of salvation. The very moment you trusted the Lord, you were safe and secure and sealed in Jesus Christ, and that can never be changed. Now, these last three things are very important because if it wasn’t for the divine revelation of the Word of God, you would not know that this spiritual birth ever took place because it’s not based upon a feeling. You have faith, in fact, and feeling.

Many people think that it goes by feeling and then faith and then fact. No, no, no, no. It’s faith and then on the facts and then the feeling. So you have to put your faith in the facts and then the feelings can follow later. But your confidence is not in that. It’s upon the facts, just the facts, ma’am. And you read the Bible and you learn the facts and you put your faith in the facts. And then never worry about the feeling because see, you might feel like you’re saved today.

But tomorrow you may not feel like it. So are you or are you not based upon your feelings? Well, see, you can’t go by your feelings because feelings do what? Feelings change. So you never base your salvation upon an emotional experience that you think you had somewhere. It was did you or did you not? Intellated. Did you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior? Now if you did, you have eternal life and God will never cast you out in evolution.

Look at Larry, they are realized only by divine revelation because if the Bible didn’t tell us these things, because this is known only to God because you see your position in Christ, you wouldn’t know that you had that if the Word of God didn’t tell us that. And let her ref, they are eternal and never changing. So you’re being born into God’s family, something that does not change. That is an absolute, that is eternal, it never changes. It’s never altered.

And that’s why I’ve said before, my salvation in Jesus Christ, so you can never be changed or altered by God or me because that’s what he did for me. This all is under the letter A, depends upon the, in your underlyingness again, or circle, work of Christ. This is the work he did. Your salvation is His work, not your work. It’s not all of your responses and how you did all that, no, no, no, it has nothing to do with it.

It’s all has to do with the work of Christ. Let her gee, this relationship is true and you ought to underline these words every believer. It’s true of every believer and visible only to God. You see, you can’t see somebody else’s spiritual birth. You can’t see my spiritual birth. Only God, and this is why we was covering this in our Sunday school last this morning in the book of Timothy in chapter two, where it says that hymns and philead has had overthrown the faith of some of God’s people.

And the Lord says, but nevertheless, nevertheless, having this seal, the Lord know of them that are his. What if you trust Christ as your Savior today and then tomorrow, the next day or next week or next month or next year. You don’t believe any of it anymore. Well, are you still saved? More are you lost? Still saved? Because your faith has been overthrown because the tempter got at you and your faith hasn’t grown and now you have shipwrecked faith.

So are you still saved? Yes. And he says, nevertheless, having this seal, the Lord know of them that are His. It cannot be changed. That is your position in Christ when you trust the Lord as your Savior. Now look at letter B. This depends upon the walk of man, the walk of the Christian man, because all of this is talking about the believers standing and state, not the lost man. So this depends upon the walk of man, that is your condition, and condition changes from day to day.

There’s various things that are happening in your life. The condition of our church today is a little bit different than it was last Sunday. There were different people here last week than are not here today. Tonight will be just a little bit different. Everybody who preaches that’s going to be speaking, it’s a different situation in every case. Every ranch meeting is different. We don’t do everything exactly 100% exactly the same way because things change because it’s involving us in this life and things in this world is temporal and it changes.

And so you may be very healthy today and be on your deathbed tomorrow or gone completely. And your communion that you have with the Lord is different than the union that you have in your position in Christ. When you trust the Christ and you say this union can never be broken. But as a Christian my communion with Christ can be. That is the fellowship that I have with the Lord that is based upon my communion with the Lord. And the communion where you commune with each other.

I talk to him and he talks to me. And this talking back and forth between me and God is what affects my walk in the Lord. And if you don’t have the communion between you and the Lord, you’re not going to have a walk that you ought to have with the Lord. If you don’t have a walk you ought to have with the Lord, you’re not going to have a fellowship that you should have with the Lord. Fellowship is two guys in a fellowship.

Fellowship is to walk together and how can they be agreed? In other words, it says, how can two walk together unless they be agreed? So you’ve got people walking with the Lord means you’re walking in agreement with God. And this walking in agreement with God is because you’re talking in agreement with God. So your communion that you have affects your walk with the Lord. And your walk with the Lord is what affects your fellowship with the Lord. Well what happens when seeing in there’s a picture of all of this?

So number one, look there at letter A. They relate to the believer’s walk where? On earth. So now we’re talking about none our position that we have with Christ in heaven before God as His child, that can never be changed. So what we’re looking at now is everything that can be changed. Things that fluctuate. And the believers walk upon the earth can fluctuate. Today you may be walking close to the Lord and tomorrow you not be walking close to the Lord.

Let her be. They are temporal and constantly changing. And that’s why it’s so important that you do the things every day to keep yourself strong in the Lord. If you don’t you won’t stay strong. If you don’t stay strong, you’re not going to have the strength that you need to take that old devil, the tempter, that wants to destroy you and keep standing. And the Bible says, having done all to stand. Look what he says, I have it in number three, letter C.

They are understood by the concepts of spirituality and our carnality. Our look up here, me. I’m a child of God. I’m going to heaven whenever I die. That will never be changed. But what can be changed is because I have a flesh birth, I can be carnal. Because I have a spiritual birth, I can be spiritual. Because I got both kinds, right? So if I follow the flesh, I will be fleshly minded, now bring forth the works of the flesh.

But if I am spiritually minded, then I can bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. So I am an individual with two choices and I can go either way, and God says, be not deceived, God is not mocked. What’s a man’s soul that shall he also reap? So in my life as I live, I’m either going to be a carnal Christian or a spiritual Christian. Carnally minded, where you mind the flesh, spiritually minded, you mind the spirit. So you’re always battling who are you going to mind?

The fluster of the flesh is telling you what to do, and the spirit is telling you what to do, and you’ve got to make a decision, and it’s going to be your choice. And you don’t always make the right decision. As you hear about a lot of people today talking about, we have the fortunate and the unfortunate. The fortunate and the unfortunate. Well, I think it’s a shame that there’s a lot of homeless people. And a lot of people who’s very poor and don’t have anything at all.

But remember this, a lot of time it’s not because of who was fortunate and who was unfortunate. It was because those unfortunate made some bad decisions and the fortunate’s happened to make some good decisions. Some people are poor because they chose to be poor because they made poor decisions. Some people are rich today because they made some decisions on how to make money and they disciplined themselves and they just happened to be fortunate. No. They made some good decisions.

You as a child of God, you’re going to live in the same world just like all the other Christians do and you’re going to be tested just like everybody else says and you have troubles and tribulations just like everybody all the other Christians are. No difference between all of you and some of you are going to make some good decisions and some of you are not and some of you are going to be less fortunate because you’re going to be so poor spiritually because you will not do what God says to do.

You’re going to be a carnal Christian and some of you are going to be a strong spiritual Christian because you’ll do what God says, dude, but it’s because of choices that you make. The next thing I want you to look at, in letter D, they are necessary for all your growth and service. You will not grow strong if you do not understand this clearly, that your position in Christ, once you’re saved, you’re what always say that never changes. That’s your position that you have in the Lord and the union that you you have with Him, you have eternal life, that’ll never stop, that’ll never change.

But see, that’s our position in Christ in the heavenly, but we’re not in heaven, we’re down here. Now, I’m still as child and all that’s true, but right now I’ve got to live in this nasty here and now, so we’re going to make decisions. We’ve got choices to make. And they are very important for our growth as a Christian and our service as a Christian. Remember I made the statement last week, I am not a TV set trying to produce cow’s potatoes.

I am a preacher trying to produce servants. And if you don’t want to serve the Lord, you’re not going to be happy. Not here you won’t. But if you want to be a servant, then I’ll teach you how to serve. But that’s my goal, is to get everybody busy doing something for the Lord. Not just a set and look pretty. That’s a waste of your time and my time. But look what he says, down here at letter E, this relationships affects our mind, emotion, and body.

Did you know the condition sometimes of you physically is because of how you’re standing spiritually. Is it possible that God can make you weak, sick, and maybe even take you home before your time? Yes, he can. Doesn’t mean that everybody gets sick, it’s because sin in their life. No, the friends of Job, they were three of them, and they have really gotten married and had a lot of kids, and there’s so, So there’s a lot of around in order.

But keep us in mind, your mind can change every moment of the day. And you can be happy right now and somebody can come up and say something to you and you can be teed off and next day you know you want to kill somebody. Your mind, your will, your emotions, all of that can change so quickly with based upon the condition of things that are around you. And your body, it doesn’t last also. And it can change. Like I said, healthy one minute, sick the next minute.

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 The spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftempa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.