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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. 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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of John, the Gospel of John. John chapter 8, you know, in life there are many paradoxes, things that seems that it just doesn’t work the right way. And it seems like God says to do something totally contrary to our nature. Well, it’s really that. We have a new nature once we trust Christ as our Savior. And there’s things that God tells us to do that’s totally unnatural for the natural man. So here I want to give you a few things that I think will help you to see how God shows you contrast.

Do you love the Lord enough to become a slave? Do you love the Lord enough to become a slave of the Lord? Now, hearing the book of John in chapter 8, Jesus is talking to him and this is what he says, looking verse 32. Now we gain our freedom through slavery. We gain our freedom through slavery. Now that sounds like a paradox, well it is. But we really when you become a slave to truth, you really gain your freedom from sin.

And you’re not going to have the power over sin until you become a slave to truth. You should want to be a slave to truth and the truth will make you free. So everybody says in verse 32, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now the way to stay free is keep believing truth. And as a child of God, we should continually study truth, know truth, and hold on and grip. Hold on to Bible says, grip it so that we can be free.

Because there’s a lot of things in this world that wants to enslave us. So the key to being free is to be a slave to truth. And look what he says. In verse 33, they answered him, we be Abraham’s seed, and we’re never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free? We’re not enslaved to nobody. What are you talking about? He says, when you’re a slave to sin, then you’re a slave. So he says in verse 34, Jesus answered them, barely, barely, I send to you, whosoever, and you are an underlyingness, Committed sin is a servant of sin.

So that means that you become a slave to sin. Well, how can you get free from that? Well, you’re gonna have to know the truth and believe the truth. Truth will set you free. So that’s why Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the life. So once you trust Christ as your savior, you are free from the penalty of sin. Now, as you serve the Lord and believe the truth your light and you have the power over sin that’s in the world.

And one day truth will appear Christ and we will be delivered from the very presence of sin. So he says here in verse 35, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. In other words, Jesus Christ lives forever and when you believe on him, you have eternal life forever and he can make you free and he can keep you free and you’re on the line, verse 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

There’s only one thing that can separate you from the old sinful nature and that is by the new birth. That’s why in John chapter three, it talks about the new birth. And so by accepting Christ as your Savior, born into His family, you are free from the first birth. Though you still carry it until you die and leave this world. But one day when we get to heaven, say, it won’t have that first birth. You won’t have that old nature.

You’re free from it. You and I are now supposed to live like we don’t even have a sinful nature, isn’t that rough? Can you do it? We seek to and we focus on, so if you become a slave to the truth, you can live like you don’t have this one. But if you don’t live according to truth, this one will rule your life. And it can enslave a Christian. So a Christian can be a slave to the habits of this world, to the sinful desires, the lust of the flesh of this life.

And so that’s why it is so important. Look there in the book of Ephesians in chapter four. The book of Ephesians and chapter four, the apostle Paul, who was a great servant of the Lord, made this statement in several places. You see there in chapter four, looking verse one, I therefore, and here’s a word, the prisoner, the prisoner of who? Prisoner of the Lord. That means it’s the Greek word bond slave. Du-loss, Greek word, Du-loss, bond slave. He says, I am a bond slave, a love slave of the Lord.

So he says, I am free, but I chose to be a prisoner. So the key to being Free is to become a slave. So when you have trusted Christ as your Savior and in your Christian life, if you become a slave to truth, to study truth, believe the truth, it can keep you free in this world to serve the Lord. Get away from the Bible. Get away from the truth of the God’s Word. And you’ll find yourself so entangled with the mess in this world that you can’t please Him who’s called you to be, you won’t have time.

You won’t have any time. Did you know all of us have exactly the same amount of time in every day? 24 hours a day and some people have time to serve the Lord and some people just never have time Did you know that if you want to get something done in this world find a busy man because a lazy person never has time to do anything? But a busy person can always work a schedule to get done priorities But a lazy person never has any time.

And so he says here, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord be seat you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. So this is how God wants us to live. Like we were slaves, a love slave, a prisoner of the Lord. And look how he kind of balances this thing. thing. In verse two, with all lowliness and meatness, with long suffering, for bearing it one another in love. Now that will take a lot of, been a prisoner of the Lord, in a lot of areas of your life, to yield to this.

In verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Do you say and do that which is just the opposite of this, where you like to inflame, to insight into a riot, because people to be stirred up in anger over things that want to mount a hill of beans 100 years from now. So we studied the Word of God, let truth control us. And that’s why he says over there in verse 15, looking at verse 15, but speaking the truth in what?

In love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head talking about Christ. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. 1 Corinthians and chapter 9. Look in verse 19. And look what Paul says. He says, yet though I be free from all men, I’m free. Yet have I made myself, and there’s that word, servant. I’ve made myself like a prisoner. I’ve made myself like a slave in order that I might when people to Christ.

That’s what he’s talking about because he’s talking about the gospel up in verse 18 and so on. So you and I are supposed to make ourselves a slave of the Lord and do it because we want to because we love the Lord. You see being a love slave will get you to do things that nobody else can make you do. Your husband can’t make you do this. Your wife can’t make you do this. The kids can’t make you do it.

The preacher can’t make you. I can’t make you a slob slave. You the only one that can do that. And so when you decide that this is what you want, nobody can stop you. Isn’t that good? Nobody can stop you. Take your Bible and turn there to the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, the book of Hebrews and chapter 11. The second thing I wanted to share with you was this, the The Christian sees that which is invisible. The Christian sees that which is invisible.

You see, the Bible talks about we must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek to please him. So this is why once we have trusted Christ as our Savior, we’re to serve the Lord, but we serve the Lord because we see Him who is invisible. Look what He says there in chapter 11 and look down there in verse 27 as He talks about Moses. He talks about Moses. And He makes a statement here in verse 27, by faith, talking about Moses, he foresook Egypt, fearing the wrath of the King, Pharaoh, for he endured.”

Now, as you study the book of Hebrews, it’s talking about as a Christian, you and I, enduring the things, the trials of this life and remain in faithful, living by faith, taking God at his word, doing what God says and and hanging in there, believing that one day it will all be over and it will be worth it. So he says that enduring as seeing Him who is invisible. So you and I are supposed to have special eyes by which we can see what the lost man can’t see.

The lost man is not supposed to understand why a Christian does what he does because he says the natural man understand if not or discern if not the things of God because things of God are discerned in a spiritual way by spiritual means. So we understand spiritual things by spiritual means and that’s the Holy Spirit and the lost man doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. So because you and I have the Holy Spirit, we can see things that the world can’t see.

We can understand things the world doesn’t understand. So they’re not going to see or understand why you and I do what we do or sacrifice what we do because they just can’t see Him who is invisible. But we see Him and we believe and we walk with the Lord and this is why we are to live by faith. Look there in Hebrews in chapter 11, look in verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things, and you ought to underline those tooling words, not seen.

It’s not seen. That’s what faith is, taking God at His Word and believing Him on things. You can’t see with the naked eye. Sometimes with the naked eye, we can’t see how God’s going to provide for us. us. We can’t see how God’s going to take care of our problems that we have. We just don’t see, but it doesn’t matter because you see, we have special eyes. We can see Him who is invisible. We believe the truth of the Word of God and we’re a slave to it.

And we can live our lives because of what God’s Word says. We can live by faith and see him who was invisible. Now take your Bible and turn there to the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And you’ll notice that in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he’s talked about this little light burden that we have. We talked about that this morning in Sunday school a little while in comparison to eternal glory It’s the end verse 17 first of all for our light affliction that means that little period of time that God gives us to live in comparison to eternity everything down here is just a moment For our light affliction which is but for a moment work it for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

That’s why he says in Romans in chapter 8 in verse 18, for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will follow. In the words of what we have been, this doesn’t compare to it. This is going to be so good. And we’ll think, you mean that little bit of investment that I made, that little bit of time I gave to the Lord. That little sacrifice I made. You see, I never have the question or debate what I’m going to do because, I mean, Betty just decided this is what we’re going to do for the rest of our life.

We made that decision a couple of years ago. And in the meantime, we may go through a lot of trials and we have, but we know that God’s going to take care of it and it will be worth it all. It will be worth it all. This is just for a moment. and then it’s all going to be over. Now look what he says in verse 18. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, you mean I can see something that you can’t see?

You see when you can look into the future and you can picture yourself at the the judgment seat of Christ. Can you picture the Lord with all these rewards to give to you? Or do you picture He wouldn’t stubble a big bonfire? Or are you laying up treasure in heaven now and being faithful to the Lord now because you know that it will be worth it then? You see, my goal in serving the Lord is to try to get every person I can that knows Christ is Savior, to serve all over all that heart.

Why? Because when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ, when James stands at the judgment seat of Christ, I want the Lord to reward Him as greatly as He possibly can. I don’t want James to miss out on anything that God could have had for Him. I want Peter to get everything that he can possibly get, so I want him to be faithful while he’s here. So my serving the Lord is to give him all the information I can, all the tools that I can so that they will be faithful because at that time, it’ll be worth it.

It, if I will put it this way, he says, he are my glory, my crown of rejoicing at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So that whenever you get to heaven, the people you won the Christ as you stand there and you see the people that you want to cry, that will be your joy, that will be your glory because you’ll know it was worth it. It was worth it. Remember in the book of 1 Peter where we’ve been reading studying in chapter four, the end of the chapter, and it makes a statement because if the righteous scarcely be saved, if the righteous scarcely be saved.

What shall the ungodly do? Where shall they stand? In other words, you and I were one to Christ with much difficulty. In other words, when you consider how long you’ve lived and how few people have ever witnessed to you, you ought to be very thankful that somebody did. Because when he says with much difficulty, thank for a moment, we had a missionary here a couple weeks ago, or a vaudrem, who came over from Trinidad and goes to Bible college for four years, goes back to his home country and his parents had turned against him.

Nobody wanted to believe him because he was a Hindu before and he trusted crisis savior. So with much difficulty, he spends years trying to win his mom and his dad, his family. And finally, after almost 37 years, he has a great work going, but look at the difficulty that he had to go through to reach a handful of people. And so, when you figure that there’s a lot of people who have done a lot of work just to give you just that little bit of knowledge with such difficulty, isn’t it difficult for you to be found faithful in witnessing?

It is for me. And yet, we have to struggle through a lot of things. We go through a lot of trials and tribulations. We still have bills to pay. We still have to worry about our health. Then we have to concern ourselves with our jobs and everything that goes on in life. All that why we’re here and all the suffering that we go through, such difficulty to get a person to trust Christ as their Savior. But is it going to be worth it?

All the difficulty that you’ve gone through, all the sacrifices that you made, all the money that you’ve ever given. You think about how much to get a soul saved. Well, is that so worth that? If that soul was you, what did it have been worth? If you were lost and you get to the great white throne judgment, you don’t care what people had to pay. You just want to make sure, why didn’t you get the gospel to me? I don’t care what sacrifice you had to make.

I don’t have how much money you had to spend. I don’t care how much I had to, you should have reached me. I’m lost for all eternity and you’ve played games while I’m going to hell. And it’s going to play on your mind. And God says, he’s going to have to wipe away all tears from our eyes because we just didn’t see it. So look what he says in verse 18, and while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen.

for the things which are seen are temporal. That’s with the flesh, the natural eye. But can you see beyond this to the eternal, to the day whenever you’re glad? There’s a song that they used to sing called Thanks to God or something like that. Well, it’s in ways to talk about when you get to heaven and God shows you to people and they say, no, thanks for what you’ve done in reaching me and so forth. And I like the words of the song, but it says, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And that’s the spiritual things, but that’s what God wants us to see. That’s what He wants us to focus on. Now take your Bible and turn to the book, Matthew chapter 11. Matthew and chapter 11. Jesus said that there’s a lot of people in this old world that have a heavy, heavy yoke of iron upon their shoulders. In the book of Deuteronomy it puts it this way, but if thou will not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness of heart, I will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until it destroys you.

Unless you serve the Lord with joyfulness of heart, the yoke of iron upon your shoulders, upon your neck until it weighs you down. Isn’t it a shame that a Christian has to wear a yoke of iron? Doesn’t have to. Look how he puts it. In the book of Matthew in chapter 11, look in verse 28, this is where you take a rest by taking a burden. You take a rest by taking a burden. Do you ever get physically tired?

When you get physically tired, do you want to rest or work? You want to rest? What do you mean by rest? You don’t want to work. You don’t want to do anything. But look at this. This is just the opposite. In verse 28, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you what? Rest. I’ll give you rest. Verse 29. Okay, Lord, I’ll come to you and I want that rest you’re talking about.

And the Lord says, take my yoke upon you. No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m tired. I want rest. And the Lord wants you to put you to work. He says, if you take my yoke upon you, you shall find rest under your soul. So we’re not talking about rest for the body. We’re talking about rest for the soul. Did you realize that you inside of this body, you can get all the rest physically you want and desire and have no rest for your soul?

Because you have no peace, no happiness, and no joy. And you can have a living hell on Earth as a child of God. You can get all the rest you want physically, but you have no rest for the soul. You’re troubled. Remember when he told these disciples, you believe in God? Believe in me. He said, be not troubled. He says, in my father’s house, If it were not so, I would have told you. So you and I have a good message right here in this little verse.

Let me show you the link. Verse 29, take my yoke up on you and learn of me. There’s a lot of things you can learn in this life, but one thing that’s most important is to learn of him. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and hard, and ye shall find and you ought to underline these words. rest unto your souls. And then he says, for my yoke is easy. It meansolute that if you will lose yourself in the work of the Lord, you’ll find rest for your soul.

You know what most people say? I don’t have time to do the work of God. I don’t have time to do what God wants me to do. I don’t have time. I don’t have time. I don’t have time. And they have no rest for their soul. And they can and wear themselves out and that’s what they call me. Well, I’m just burn out, I’m just burn out. My plate’s so full, I can’t do anymore.

I’ve been serving life almost 49 years. I have never come close to burn out. Well, I just had enough, I can’t serve God anymore. Can’t go on no more. Oh fiddle faddle. Get a grip, get a life. Stop whining and pining and moaning and groaning. I wish Christians would just stop belly-aikin. It doesn’t have to be that way. God says, you’re gonna work while you’re here. He says, take up on you my yoke. My yoke is easy and my burden, my burden is like.

It doesn’t mean no responsibility doing nothing. But when you get involved in doing what God wants you to do, you’ll find rest onto your soul. you know you’re doing what God wants you to do. And that’s why in the book of Nehemiah, and Nehemiah chapter eight and verse 10, he talks about the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. You see, but when you’re not doing what God wants you to do with your life, you won’t have joy and you won’t have strength.

The strength to keep going because a weight in the cares of this world will weigh you down and destroy you. It’d be like a yoke of iron. That’s why he says, if you will not serve the Lord with joyfulness of heart. But the joy of the Lord is your strength. That’s where you get your strength from. That’s why you can rest in the Lord. But there’s no rest for your soul when you don’t do what God wants you to do with your life.

And I love that verse 30, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. My burden is light. So we rest by taking a burden. 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 2 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 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, calvaryoftampa.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. Hot 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.