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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word 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 The 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 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.

We have a lot to be thankful for. complaining is what? Contagious. But joy is contagious. And I think we need more of that and praise the Lord and compliment and encourage it so much better, so much better. So you want to stay out of the dumps. Just don’t go there. I asked the person one time and said, you know where the long range of took his garbage? He said, no. He said, to them, to them, to them, dump dump to dump.

Some of y’all shaking your head like, I can’t believe this guy. Anyway, somebody gave me a phone call yesterday. I mean, I’m ready to go to bed. It’s two o’clock in the morning. Well, maybe not two o’clock. But anyway, Peter Amato has something he wants to share with you. So I told him, I said, well, why don’t you just share that into church? And so coming up, Peter, give him a word. All right. It was Monday night. It was Monday evening.

And it’s a great story. It’s a great story. My kids, my two youngest kids, take karate. They go to a studio in Newport, Richie. And the time that they go is between six and seven o’clock every Monday night. And for the past probably three months solid, I’ve been the one that’s had to take them. Sometimes mom gets off too late and they want to go with mom but they can’t. So sometimes I’ve filled in. Well, I’ve kind of relished it because the way it’s kind of situated is he’s in kind of a little small strip center and then there’s a big parking lot right behind him that’s always open.

There’s no cars and there are trees over it. So you know what? I sit there. I read my Bible. I pray. I study. It’s another quiet time for me with the Lord and I just loved it. I always look forward to it. And so with the recent weather being great, I’d have the windows down and get that nice breeze going and then the boys would be done and I’d pick them up when to go home. So one evening, I’m trying to concentrate.

I’m trying to read, I’m trying to pray, and I keep hearing all this background noise. I’m like, man, I wish those kids would be quiet. So I look over here, and it’s on Main Street in Newport, Richie, and these teenagers are going back and forth. I’m like, man, they’re so loud. Trying to study here, I’m trying to, wait a minute. Look at all those teenagers! Hello, I’m the youth director. So it’s like five minutes till I’m like, Okay, Lord, I hear you.

I hear you. Next Monday, sure enough, I’m gonna get out here. I’m gonna pound the pavement. I got loaded for barrel, everything. So that next Monday, I’m ready to go. Got my Bible here just in case I needed it. Got my tracks in, got my sneakers on, man. I’m ready to hit the road. So I park, I let them off. I’m on the side and sure enough, I see some teenagers jumping out and I’m jumping out of the truck.

Hey, how are ya? Hey, you know, the whole thing. And no matter what I did the whole night, I couldn’t even get them to let me show them wallet illustration. Even gave that, listen I’ll give you $10 if you just stop and listen to what I say. Nothing. The whole night up and down the street but they were teenagers everywhere. And I said all right all right this is just a tough tough place to crack. Next week Lord you know it I’m going at it.

I’m not gonna give up. I’m gonna go this way instead of going that way. So the next week happens it’s about Friday and my wife says to me she goes oh Pete don’t worry about taking the kids to karate on Monday night, the karate instructor changed the times. It’s now from seven to eight, not from six to seven. So I don’t have a problem getting it. I’ll take them. You got to be kidding me. Are you kidding me? Look what the devil’s trying to do.

I knew exactly what he’s doing. He’s scared to death. He knows I’m going to go out there again. I’m going to pound that pavement. And I said to myself, I said, you know what, Lord, I don’t know what it’s going to take, but somehow I’m going to get there. Obviously, It’s not going to be this coming Monday night. I said, but I’m going to get there because I know there’s something Satan doesn’t want me to get a hold of.

There may be one. There may be hundreds. Who knows? But I’m going to get there. So a couple of weeks go by and then all of a sudden it’s Monday. She goes, oh, honey, by the way, can you take the boys to Karate at the new time? Can you take them? I’ve got this new job, this new thing I have to go to. I’ll be glad to take him. So I pull up there and sit up there and I might, all right, Lord, I’m looking for a light.

I’m looking for something to show him to be. Who’s the one that’s going to get it? And I see some guy over there. So I go running over to him. He doesn’t speak English. Okay, not him. So I go around to the back and I see some guy pulling in with a boat. Ah, I have a boat. I’m a fisherman. Instantly, we can start talking. He gets out and I realize in about 30 seconds this guy’s drunk. Okay. So I try and it’s the This isn’t going anywhere.

Okay, thanks for your time, buddy, on my way. So I keep walking, I walk into the little convenience store there and I get me a little bottle of water and I walk out and I look across the street at the library and would you know it? There’s about 10 to 12 teenagers just sitting right out front there. Yes. Across the street, I go, hey fellas, how you doing today? Good. Hey, let me ask you guys a question. If you could know for sure without any doubt whatsoever that when you died, you’d go to heaven.

Would you want to know? Two or three of them just kind of go. Start back and I say no. If you knew that there was nothing you could do, nothing you had to do, but you could know for sure you’re going to heaven once you die, would you want to know? Two or three of them said, yeah, yeah. So two or three kind of backed up over there and I’m going through the whole wallet illustration and showing and they’re talking back and forth and they’re listening.

And you could see they’re listening. And I get to the point about here’s the sins and my sins, your sins, even the sins of the guys aren’t paying attention right now, but they’re trying to, but I know they’re hearing it, and they’d look up and look over and look back. And so I keep going and then I said, but Jesus paid for all the sins of the world, even the sins of the guys that aren’t paying attention back over there, he paid for all of them.

And they’d look and I’d look and one by one I went through. Does that make sense to you? Does that make sense to you? Would you trust Jesus Christ as your savior today? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I said, man, that’s awesome. And the other group was just kind of sitting behind there a little bit and I started to walk away and the one teenager said to me, sir, thank you. Thank you so much. And then as I started to walk, that little group that was back there that wasn’t paying attention came down.

One looked to me and says, I heard that. I said, does that make sense to you? Did you trust Jesus Christ? Do you know for sure you’re going to heaven? He says, yes. And everyone there, there were eight of them. They all trusted Christ as Savior. Eight teenagers. Not done it. So I’m on cloud nine man. I’m like, woo, yes praise God, are you kidding me? Wow. So I’m back in the truck. I’m trying to read. I’m like, I can’t read.

I’m too excited. I can’t start to read. I can’t read this Lord. You’re awesome. So I finally get a little bit calmed down. Finally. Okay. All right. Get myself centered now man. I’m okay. I’m studying the corner of my eye. I guess who comes walking up another teenager. I’m like, Hmm, that doesn’t look like the same kid, you know, but maybe it’s a new one. It was a different one And he came up to me and he said sir He said I’ve got a problem and I’ve got to go to the pharmacy and get some medication and I don’t have the money I need $20 and I said well son.

I don’t have $20. I said but I do have a couple of dollars would that help? He says yeah, I said well hold on a second before I give it to you can I ask you a question? And if you were to die today, do you know where you’d spend eternity? Do you know for sure if you go to heaven? He said, no, no, I don’t. And so I shared the gospel with Him. He trusted Christ as Savior. And He looked at me when He was done.

And He said, sir, would you pray for me? Would you pray for me? And I held His hand and we prayed. So nine kids, nine teenagers, no without a doubt. They’re going to heaven when they die praise God. Can you believe he’d call me up just to tell me that? That’s that’s good news. That’s good news You really haven’t began to live until you start talking to people about the Lord and to see one experience after the other and you’d be surprised That’s how you get stories That’s how you get stories now if you hadn’t had gone or or took the initiative, there wouldn’t have been any story to tell.

You read the book of Acts and you’ll find out it’s just one soul-winning experience after the other. That’s what the book of Acts is about. Anyway, I gave you some some time ago that had to do with prophetic terminology, but this is not prophetic terminology, just some terminology that sometimes as we read the scriptures, We see these words and so forth in the Bible, and you need to know what they mean. And that where they’re found or how we use them.

Otherwise they become something that you just try to skip over real quick. But believe it or not, in each one of these words is a message in itself. Take your Bible and turn there to the book of Romans in chapter 8. Romans and chapter 8. You know the first word there is the word adoption, the word adoption. Now we often talk about, you know, somebody’s been adopted into your family. Well, they weren’t your real children, but they’ve been adopted into your family.

And sometimes I think there’s a misunderstanding with the word adoption that’s used in the scripture. And sometimes a person could be born into a person’s family, but then when they’re 13 years old, they become a legal son. In other words, they’ve been 13 years raising them, and then they call it say a bar mitzvah. But when it comes to you and I as a child of God, we’re born into God’s family, but the total job has not yet been completed.

So you have been saved, but the body stays the same. And so God has also predetermined that this body of ours is going to be changed, but it’s going to be changed in a way that it can be adopted into the family of God. Because see it doesn’t have a new birth, but it will be changed in a moment the twinkling of an eye And so we’re gonna have a glorified body someday But look there in Romans in chapter 8 and you’ll notice here When it makes the statement in verse 15 for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear See the first time you’re born into the world We have this fear we have a fear of death and so there’s many things in life that we have that causes us fear and it can come in a lot of different ways.

So your new birth was not one that produces this all over again. In other words, if we only had another birth with another sinful nature, we got to go through the same thing again. But your second birth is born of God and born of God, God’s the Father. And the Lord says that He is perfect and therefore our new birth in Christ, it is a perfect birth. So therefore He says we don’t have the Spirit of bondage again to fear but look what he says.

He says, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. It’s like we have been adopted into the family of God and God did this by choice but it’s also by choice of an individual. We chose to become a child of God. God does not force or make any of us his child against our will. So you had to literally, purposely, willfully choose to accept Christ as your Savior so that you can have eternal life and go to heaven whenever you die.

Now if you will look down there also in verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creation waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. So the Bible says all the creation is also waiting for the adoption. It means the transformation of the children of God, for the manifestation of God’s children. Because see, if God makes us perfect, and one day we’ll have our glorified body, and Christ is coming back to the earth, well the last thing we’ll want to do is to live in an imperfect world.

See sin is not only on the individual and upon our bodies, Everything in this world dies. A bird’s die and all the animals die. And there’s all kinds of things like trees and plants and flowers that die. So God is going to change the whole world. All of it’s going to be changed. And it’s going to be another adoption. See there in verse 22? For we know that the whole creation, groaneth, and travaileth. And here’s that word in pain together.

Now, we are living in this life and we are going to suffer. We are in pain. You stop and think in the last week or the last year, how much pain you have endured. You can the loss of a loved one, a physical loss of a job, finances, all kind of thing that can happen that causes pain. And loved ones that don’t serve the Lord can cause you pain. you pain. But if you look up there in verse 17, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.

So while we’re here in this world, yes, we are going to suffer. And because of our suffering. There’s going to be pain. And, uh, like we know, uh, sometimes we want others to feel our pain. That’s why sometime we like to share with others what’s going on in our life because we want people to know sometimes I’m hurting. I am hurting. And we want people to care about us to pray for us. And so others are in the same place.

Nobody is exempt if you live in this world. Now, when you get to the place where you don’t want to have no pain, you don’t want to have no pain. You’re asking to be delivered totally from the world. And that’s the only way that you’ll have no more pain is to be with the Lord. But God wants us to live here until He’s through with our testimony. And notice what He says in verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves because of our bodies that needs to be changed.

Look what He says. He says, waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. So God is going to change our bodies. Now your soul, he saved you when you trusted Christ as your Savior, but there’s still a little bit more of the has to go. So you and I have been adopted into the family of God. And it’s not totally complete yet. We’re waiting for the adoption of the body when the body will be changed. And I will have a perfect glorified body.

One day that is coming. But as you look over here on the right hand side, which one of these gives you this idea? See letter D, the act of God, whereby one who is already a child is placed in the position of an adult son, where you carry adult responsibilities. God wants to bring you not just as a child of his, but to where you are expected with responsibilities to grow into a mature child of God. And that’s why in Romans in chapter 8, when we talk about in verse 14, the Holy Spirit is to lead us.

So if the Holy Spirit is to lead you, it must mean you’re going somewhere. He’s trying to take you from something to something. So he’s leading you, he’s guiding you. and he guides us according to the truth of the scriptures. Look at number two. Number two is the word faith, and take your Bible-looking Romans in chapter four. Romans chapter four, and we have there, I believe, one of the best definitions of what faith really is. And faith, if you look all the way down there to letter J, to trust or have confidence in, a reliance upon testimony.

So as you read the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, of all the stories where God is actually involved in the affairs of man. Or when you see God working in people’s lives, sometimes bringing blessings and sometimes chasting. But he says the testimonies of the Lord are true. Because of that, we are supposed to learn from the Old Testament stories. And as we learn from these Old Testament stories, we find out what faith is, because it deals with the idea of building our confidence in God so we can trust Him.

So as you read the stories in the Old Testament, every one of us, our faith should be strengthened Because we read stories about people who trusted God. Or God said, this is going to happen. That’s going to happen. And it happened like God says. So wouldn’t that increase our faith in the Lord? So that as we grow in the Lord, our faith is growing stronger and stronger. So here in Romans in chapter four, look there in verse 20. As the definition of faith, he says, he staggered not at the promise of God.

through unbelief. So unbelief is to question what God said, but was strong in faith. That means believing what God said, giving glory to God. In other words, he was giving glory to God before he got the answer. Sometimes believing what God says means that I can go ahead and praise him now because I know what he’s going to do. Is there a problem you can’t handle? Is there a problem that God can’t handle? Can you trust Him and you believe that, I don’t care what it is, He’s gonna walk you through it.

Now, if you can believe that, do you have to wait till it’s done to start praising God, or can you praise Him upfront? That’s faith. When you can start counting your blessings and praising God because you know He’s going to, and He hasn’t done it yet. God likes that kind of faith. And so he says in verse 21, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, God had promised, he was also able to perform. So do you believe that God is able to do what God says that he will do?

That’s faith in every one of us as a child of God needs to have our faith in the Lord. And your faith will grow as you learn more and more about the Lord and you find out that your confidence grows. And things will happen and you can just trust the Lord. You just trust the Lord And that’s where your peace of mind comes from because you know you’re trusting someone. He will not let you down He will do what he says he will do and that takes a lot of confidence in the Lord Now the devil is gonna do everything you possibly can to get you to question God the doubt God so that you don’t believe God Look at number three Number three is glorification Now, we don’t use the word so much as glorification as we find out that it talks about glory and

glorify, and it actually can refer to this. Look at me just a second. The Bible says, all have sinned and come short of His glory, the short of His perfection. They talk about the Chicana glory, the perfection of God. God is perfect. In the book of Timothy talks about the glorious gospel, the apostle Paul refers to it, of how bad we are, but he talks about the glorious gospel. In other words, the gospel that can get you to glory, the gospel that is perfect.

In other words, a perfect message. You see, if you have to be perfect to go to heaven and mankind is not perfect, then the message we preach, if it gets a man ready for heaven, prepares him for heaven, then the gospel has to be a message that’s perfect. It has to be a perfect message that makes a man perfect. If our gospel doesn’t make a man perfect, it doesn’t do him any good. True? I can think about it. Because if a man has to be perfect to go to heaven, if he talked to eight or nine the other night, If they believed it in God’s eyes, they were made perfect.

Good to go. And if they’re good to go, it would be because of the message. The gospel, the glorious gospel can make a man perfect. Now the Bible says this in a book of John chapter 7. It says on that great day the feast Jesus stood in Christ and if any man thirst led him coming to me and drink and as the scripture hath set out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive.

For as yet Christ had not yet been crucified or glorified I should say. So he had not yet been glorified. In other words, he hasn’t gone to the place of perfection and when he gets the glory then he said, I’m going to send the Holy Spirit, but I don’t send him till I get there. So when I go there, I’ll send him. So the Holy Spirit came, He came Christ and has a glorified body. And some were able to see this glorified body even before He died on the cross, as He will be in the millennium, the rule.

Now God tells us that we’re going to have a glorified body, a perfect body. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were glorified as far as your soul you were they made perfect. The day will come when our bodies are going to be changed to be made perfect, just like the Lord. So this is mentioned in Romans in chapter eight. Look there in chapter eight, I want to show you this real quick. You know there’s several things that are mentioned here and Romans in chapter eight looked there in verse 30.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate, Then he also called and whom he called. Then he also justified and whom he justified. He also glorified. So you’ll notice how many things he does. God does this. Now he’s the one that does the calling. How does he call? Picture, for example, stands right here, a lost man. So God has given to me the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God gave to me a message. So I take the message, the gospel, to the lost man.

When I go to the lost man, and he hears the word, the gospel, that God loves him. He sent his son Christ to die for him, came back from the dead and if he will accept Christ as Savior, he can know he has eternal life, he can go to heaven whenever he dies. So he cannot believe until he hears, and he can’t hear unless somebody preaches it. And therefore that’s why we go. So the lost man hears the call.

How does God call through the gospel? So he hears it, he trusts Christ’s Savior. God has, according to the predetermined, before the foundations of the world, before this man was ever born, before he did any good or any bad, before he time started. God had predetermined to save all of those that believe. He predetermined that he would justify them. That means he will make them declared righteous. And he’s going to sanctify them, make them pure and holy, perfect. And he’s going to glorify them.

That means prepare them for heaven in a glorified body. All that is what he does. You and I don’t do any of this. This is what he has predetermined for every believer. So whenever we trust Christ as our Savior, this is what God does for us. Now look at number three there, if you look at it, it goes down to letter I, the completion or consummation of our salvation. That’s the end result. That’s how, that’s where we’re going to.

We’re not there yet, but in the eyes of God, He already says, you have been glorified. Look at number four, justification. Just as if I had never sinned. It means to be declared righteous like in a court of law. cleared of all charges against you. This is what Christ has done for us. Look there in Romans in chapter 4. Romans and chapter 4. And you’ll find here words that explain what it means to be justified. Look in verse 5.

But to Him, that work if not, but believe it on Him, that justify if the ungodly, or who’s the God or that’s us. So God is going to take the unjust, the ungodly and justify us just as if we’d never sin. Declare us righteous. And He says without your works, without you earning it, without the right God’s going to do it. This is what He does. And sometimes I think my mind, it just doesn’t seem right.

that it should be so easy. But that’s God. That’s what he’s done. That’s what makes it such good news. Did you know it’s very difficult for people to accept something that’s totally free? It’s one of the hardest things in the world. You tell people they have to earn it? Well, they aren’t thinking, well, sure, I know that. But tell them it’s free. Because everybody will believe that. That’s the easy believe them. Well, if it’s so easy, why don’t everybody believe it?

They can’t believe it. 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 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 Bible Live, 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.