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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 Radiality Internet. Your regular prayers and m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us was told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

God says because we have this great cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. Because see we got a race to run to and There’s a course that we have to run I didn’t design the course I’m just to run it There’s somebody who laid it up before me and it says now I’ll be with you I will not forsake you and I will help you you just run and You have no idea all the obstacles they’re gonna come all the criticisms gonna come You don’t know about all the problems down the road the trial the test you can’t say but There’s a course.

And this is why Paul says that I may finish my course with joy. Not only do I wanna finish it, I wanna finish well. I wanna finish it with joy. And look what he says there in verse two. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. In the words of beginning and the end. When I trusted Christ as my Savior and boy that began the greatest walk journey course, I think any man could ever experience. But not only did I begin but I want to finish my walk with the Lord with my compass, my faith in him.

Now you ought to understand that the devil’s goal is to use things or people for his honor and for his glory to try to get you and me not to have our faith in the Lord. He doesn’t want us to finish our course. He doesn’t want us to run the race. So he says here who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Now I don’t believe he enjoyed the cross but I do believe he endured the cross.

As you live your Christian life there’s so many things that’ll happen you’re not going to enjoy but you must endure and there are blessings that God has promised in the book of James in chapter 1. Blessings that God is going to give to you when you endure the trials and tribulations. Look what else he said. Despies in the shame, set down on the right hand of the throne of God. In the Lord he finished the job, he got to heaven and he sat down.

Our work is not done. We’ve still got a race to run. And he says in verse 3, 4, consider him. Consider him. When you get tired where you want to just quit, it ain’t worth it anymore because it’s just hard. You know, to me not to serve the Lord, that would be hard. To harden your heart against God, that would be bad news. And the Bible talks about a man who harden it to the neck, you’re suddenly cut off, and that without remedy.

So you don’t want to fall into the trap, it’d be a lot easier me if I didn’t serve the Lord. Listen, it would be a lot. Did you serving the Lord is easier than not serving the Lord? He says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Then what do you think it is without him? It’s worse. So he makes a statement here. He says, endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weird and faint in your own mind.

So that is going to take place. It’s going to happen. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew in chapter 10. I want you to see this. This is so very important. We covered a part of this the other night, but not all of it. We just talked about how Jesus had talked to his disciples about fear not fear not fear not they’re in chapter 10 of the book of Matthew. But a couple verses that I want you to see there is found.

In verse 23, see in verse 23, but when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another. Wait a minute, you mean I’m going to serve you Lord and somebody might persecute me? What do I do if they persecute me? He said, well quit. They just quit. No, go to another place. Do it again. Well, what if they don’t? Go to another one. See, the gifts in calling of God are without respect. And God in changes, mind you, because it got rough.

But look what he says. In verse 24, the disciple in Yara Andalina, the disciple is not above, is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. Now, what happened to him? Do you expect to be better or worse? And see, this is where I think the crux of the matter is. We sometimes have in the back of our mind, if I serve the Lord, everything is going to be fine.

Everything is going to be fine. It may not be fine. You can be persecuted. You can even be killed. He even talks about be faithful and to death. You mean, he’ll let me die? Yeah, he can let you die. You mean he can let people persecute you? Yeah, he can let people persecute you. Yes, what he said. He said, all these things, it didn’t mean God’s not going to stop all these things from happening. He didn’t stop it from happening to him.

He said, I’m not going to stop it from happening to you. He said, I’ll reward you when you get to heaven. It’ll be worth it. You see, salvation is free. ship cost you everything discipleship will cost you everything because you don’t know exactly what it’s gonna come but it’s cost you everything to be faithful to the Lord when it seems like everything goes wrong so he says there in verse 25 it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant is a lord if they have called the master of the house beelzebub which is the Prince of that was.

How much more shall they call them of his household? If they treated my master like this, what do I expect? What do I expect? You know what’s wrong in our day and time. What’s wrong in our day and time is that Christians don’t live in such a way that nobody wants to kill Nobody wants to kill us. When the disciples were here, everybody wanted to kill them. Why don’t they want to kill us? Because we don’t offend anybody. We want to get along with everybody.

We want everybody to like us. We got to show them how loving we are. So I was at a place the other day and I was getting a haircut. And the guy was telling me about how he just loves this guy called Joel Osteen. And I listened to him for a little bit. And I says, you know that from what I heard, I said, I’ve never listened to the man preach. I’ve heard him about maybe five minutes total on a TV.

I said, I don’t listen to him. I said, so I can’t speak from personal experience. I says, but what I heard is that he don’t like to speak on sin because that offends people. Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, that’s right. And he don’t like to make people feel bad. He makes everybody feel good. Oh, he does that. He really makes you feel good. Hebtn he says, right before I go to the Catholic church, I love to listen to him.

And I thought, I wonder if he knows and understands how to go to heaven, though. Does the man ever talk about hell? I don’t know. Does he talk about sin? I don’t know. But everybody speaks so highly. And I think there’s something missing here. There’s something missing. Beware when everyone speaks kindly of you. So, beware of men bringing gifts. In other words, people always want to give you something because they’re trying to buy you, bribe you. Don’t want you to say something about their particular sin.

I had to be very careful myself. If you’ll notice here, he says, this is coming. He says, and then that’s why he mentioned three times about being not afraid, not afraid, not afraid. And the reason he’s telling this, he’s because this is what they did to me. And if they did this to me, they’re going to do this to you. Take your Bible-looking Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15. Matthew, Mark, Luke. And look in chapter 15 and verse 1, verse 1.

And you’ll notice there in verse 1 and 2, it says, then drew near unto him all the publicans, tax collectors, sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees and describes murmured saying, this man receive of sinners and eat it with them, and they did not mean this as a compliment. They were being critical of of Him. They were criticizing Jesus Christ of what He was doing the way He was. Now the Bible makes a statement in Matthew chapter 11 that wisdom is justified of its children.

In other words the decisions you make reveal how smart you really are. And when people criticized Christ, it revealed their own wisdom because he was perfect and did. Did not deserve in reality in truth one word of criticism, but he got it because of where they were coming from. You see their perception was not correct. were wrong in their judgment. And so there’s always going to be somebody who’s going to try to pick you apart on something. You better know what you believe and why you believe it.

And it’s not going to be enough to say, well, I believe just like the preacher. What’s that going to get you? You better say, I believe the Bible, the book, because see, how do you know I’m right unless it’s in agreement with the book. This is the final authority. No man. The Bible is the final authority. Take your Bible looking Colossians in chapter 1, the book of Colossians, and chapter 1.

Yeah, General Electric Pepsi Cola, Colations, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. In the book of Colossians and in chapter 1, I want you to see what the goal is of the Lord for His children. In verse 9, for this cause, to this cause, a reason, purpose. This cause, we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might He filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may want worthy of the Lord and all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Don’t that all sound like good, wonderful things that God wants for His children? That sounds pretty good to me. He’s strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patient, long suffering, joyfulness, given thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet or fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.

That’s powerful. That’s good stuff. But this is to show us just what the goal is that God has for his people. And then he kind of breaks it down and tells us a little bit about why we shouldn’t criticize the man. Look who he is. You see there in verse 15, to verse 19, it tells us who he is. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He’s the architect, he’s the creation. For by him we’re all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible invisible, whether they be thrones or the menions, the principalities, the powers, all things were created by Him and for Him.

If you ever wondered why you were made, there you go. You were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things. He, Christ, was before everything, anything. He says without Him was not anything made that was made in the gospel of John. And he says, and before him all things consist. It means it’s all held together by him. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning of the first born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminent.

There’s nothing over him, nothing better than him. So as you read the book of Ephesians, it talks about the body, the church. The book of Colossians deals with the head of the body. So as you read the book of Colossians, talking to you about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He’s done and why He deserves the body’s attention so that we honor our head and realizing that without the head, the body can do nothing. So interesting verses as you go down through here, and you need to know why you believe this book because the wisdom of the world, the philosophy of the world is going to try to work upon your mind and try to capture even your thoughts.

But the Word of God wants to capture our thoughts and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. See there in chapter two, look at in verse eight, where it talks about, be weirless any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of man, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. So that’s what the wisdom of the world is going to do. And you know that the wisdom you have from this book is far superior than the ways of man.

Doesn’t God say somewhere in the Bible about the your ways are not my ways, your thoughts are not my thoughts. But God put his thoughts and his ways in his word so that you and I could know the mind of God. Now do you think for a moment that the mind of man is superior to the mind of God? So if you mind God do you expect man to understand? No. And you can’t make a blind man see. You can’t make it see.

And you’re going to be criticized. Somehow, some way along the way, criticism will come. Can you handle it? Can you handle criticism? Can you handle any kind of criticism? Can you handle all kinds of criticism from every angle, from anybody. Did you know that some of the most sting kind of criticism is from religious people? Jesus was criticized by religion because they had their own beliefs and Jesus was contrary to their beliefs. So they had to go through this.

So you don’t criticize the man, look who he is. And you don’t criticize his message. Look what he says. Look in verse 26. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. There’s a message here. You see there was a person up there, the man. Here there is a message and the message is a superior message than any wisdom of the world can ever give to anybody. You and I are supposed to believe that what we have from God is better than anything this world has to offer.

And when you read the book of James in chapter 3 about the wisdom of God that come down from above versus the wisdom of man that comes from below. And it shows you the difference between the two kinds of wisdom. But in verse 27, to whom God would make known. So there’s things you and I are going to know and understand the world is not going to see. They’re not going to understand. But what we know will make a difference in what we say and what we do and there in lies our criticism because people are not going to see nor understand why you say or do what you do.

So he makes a statement to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, this truth of taking a believing Jew and a believing Gentile and putting together into a body. What a mystery. Did you realize, and you often think about this, here’s a man, let’s just say he’s just a man, not a guy. Let’s just say he’s just a man. that lived over in Israel 2,000 years ago.

He only had a ministry for three and a half years. Can you imagine somebody coming up with all this stuff for three and a half years, convinced everybody of this? And two thousand years later, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of churches all over the world. And every language. And look at the people who say they believed that he was God. Abandoned that. Can you believe that? That’s a bigger miracle. And yet look at the So purity of how he set up a church that can reproduce itself over and over and over again and over and over again Just keep going and going And there’s missionaries all over the world Look coming to books have been written about this guy if he’s just a man What a man I believe he was God kind of knocks my socks off thinking about it Look in verse 28, whom we preach.

What we preach is because we’ve got a message to tell that’s different, better, superior. Therefore, let the criticism flow. I should expect it. I don’t expect the devil to like me. I hope that I am on his top 10 most wanted list. With your protection Lord of course, you know I’ll preface all of that. Whom we preach a warning every man teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We’re unto I also labor striving according to his workings which worketh in me mightily.

This is what God wants to be done, and so you don’t criticize His method. He knows what He’s doing. Look in verse 4 of chapter 2. This I say, lest any man should begow you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the Spirit. Join and behold in your order in the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him.

The method of how we do what we do is because we are rooted and grounded in the faith and no amount of criticism from whoever should stop you from certain law without your heart. Rooted and built up in Him established in the faith as you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving. Do you think that you should be exempt from all the problems and trials and tribulations, the criticisms of the world? Or do you think that you ought to have the honor of serving God like He did and go through what he did and suffer and hurt.

Don’t you think that as a man that he felt loneliness and rejection got tired and weary at the well, was thirsty and needed some water? I believe there’s so much that he went through we’ll never understand all the sufferings that Christ went through. He says that we have a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what we go through. He knows how we think. He knows how we feel. And so yes, you’re going to have the critics in their corner and they’re going to come out and you’re going to have to do battle.

But your faith is supposed to be strong in the Lord. They criticize the man. They criticize his message. criticizes method. That’s just about the way it is with you and I. And Christ says, if they’ll do that to me, they’ll do that to you. It should be as your master. Look up here. This hand representing you and me. The wallet represents sin. Now we all have sin up on us. God loves us. He hates what we do wrong, but he loves us.

But the Bible says the wages of sin is death. That means eternal separation from God. So because we sin we have to die. So Christ says we have to pay for that, which is eternal separation from God. In hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect. His righteous is God and nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s righteous. But God so loved the whole word. He loves all of us.

So what he was going to do for one man, he did for the whole world. God says, you cannot save yourself. It’s not by your deeds. This man represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. He hates what we do wrong because it separates us from the Lord. So what Christ did is he took all the sin, hatred on the cross, came back from the dead. And God says that if we would believe that he did it for us.

It’s the only way he can save us. because He paid for our sins. The only way you can be forgiven if you look there in that verse 14 of chapter 1 of Colossians where he says, in whom we have redemption through his blood. And then it has the word even in italics, which doesn’t have to be in there. It says the forgiveness of sins. Now when you read the Old Testament, you’ll see the forgiveness of sin, the forgiveness of sin.

It’s all over through the book. But here he’s talking about redemption is for the purpose a forgiving you of what you’ve done. So Christ died and paid for our sins so that we can be forgiven. And when we believe He did it for us, He puts this payment to our account and we go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it. And so He says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, soever, believe it.

Should not perish. It means you won’t go to hell. But have everlasting life. I believe it. I hope you believe it. And as you give the gospel, you’re not going to win everybody. But sow the seeds. And somebody today that doesn’t believe it might down the road, believe it because of seed that you’ve sown in advance. And sometimes you’ll win people to the Lord that somebody else is already sown seed too and there’ll be just as ripe as can be.

And there’s other ones there. Remember, everybody’s mind is like a piece of ground. It gets like a piece of rock. There’s briars and thorns on it. And then once in a while there’ll be some good ground and they’ll hear it and understand it and believe it. It’s the best thing in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed in our every eye closed and no one looking around. If you hear it, you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I pray that you have.

I believe that you have, but I’m not God. I pray that right where you’re setting, if you’re listening, just between you and the Lord, just say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for my sins. The best I know I am right now. I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, And friend God said, if you trust him right now, he would save you from hell, give you eternal life, and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die.

That’s the best news in the world. There’s no trace to it, no gimmicks. And if you’re making that decision, I’d like to have prayer for you. If you’re watching by internet, I appreciate it just hearing about it. Write me sometime. Let me know. Say, I listened to the broadcast and what you said made sense to me. and I trust that Christ is my Savior and just wanted you to know it. But if you hear in the auditorium and you say, yes, that made sense to me and I’ll trust Christ as my Savior tonight, which is to slip in very quickly and put a right back down.

Our Father, we thank You again for Your blessings. And Lord, I pray that You’d help each one of us to realize that the more godly we want to be, the stronger the persecution. People are not going to see nor understand, but help us to be strong in what we believe. help us to finish the course, to finish the race that you set before us. And Father, help us to look to You, the author and the finish of our faith.

Bless each one here. We thank You for the name Christ, and we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach 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 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. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. 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.