Bibleline Radio Show – 2012-01-31 – Understanding Our Terminology Pt.6
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
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 prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us is 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.
But it says, be instant in season and out of season. reproved. It means to charge, hear, reproved, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So this is why we’re supposed to reprove somebody when they’re wrong and to rebuke somebody if necessary. And the Bible talks about taking the light of the Word of God and shining it on people so they can see what’s wrong with them. But get what he says. In verse three, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
In other words, you might know it, but you don’t want to endure it. You don’t want to stay there. And that’s why some people that get tired day don’t want to do the work anymore. They just want people to make them feel good. That’s why you’re talking about itchineers. Just make me feel good while I’m not doing anything. And so that’s why they want to heap to themselves the kind of creatures that let them do and live however they want without feeling that sense of reprove or rebuke or confrontation where I don’t have to change anything and so preachers that do not preach against sin their churches will be packed you preach on sin and nobody likes because it’s as personal and they don’t want you to talk about that so therefore there’s a price to pay but he says and they shall turn away
their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables, things that are fiction, stories. But,” he said in verse 5, “…but what’s thou in all things endure afflictions? Do the work of an evangelist make full proof of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departures at hand, and I need you coming up behind me. I need somebody else to fill the gap. And this is what you’re supposed to do. I fought a good fight.
I finished my race. It’s your turn now. And a guy named Greg Steer, he wrote a little book called You’re Next. You’re Next. Because you see, me and Dr. Lindstrom were moving on off the scene one of the days, you know, I’ll be gone. And we’re hoping that there’s somebody that’s listened to what we’ve said and are going to be strong in the Lord so that they can continue doing and taking a stand the way they should for the gospel’s sake and to do all of this.
So that’s the serving man. Colossians 128 simply talks about how that we teaching every man, warning every man. Because it’s part of our responsibility to serve the Lord. Serving the Lord is serving people. Try on your dead level best to get people to do what’s right. I’m challenging to motivate them. Number five, be a spiritual man. And be a spiritual man, you must be spiritually minded. So if you’re spiritually minded, it means you mind the spirit. To be fleshly minded means you mind the flesh.
So you and I have a choice. And as we grow in the Lord, become spiritually minded, we should become more light the Lord.” And that’s found in the book of Romans in chapter 8 and verse 6. But 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. Look there, right where we are. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. Not 2 Timothy now. And look over there in 1 Timothy chapter 4 4, in verse 7, where it says, but refuse profane in old wise fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness unto godliness.
Because, see, that is so very important, the word godliness. That’s hard to be spiritual when you’re ungodly. And if you’ll notice here, it says in verse 8, for bodily exercise, profit, if little, but it does profit. But godliness is profitable. Under all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. So bodily exercise, there is some profit. But evidently, being spiritually strong, spiritual exercise is a lot more important. And this is what causes the person to be a spiritually strong individual, and some people are not spiritually strong.
And when you’re not spiritually strong, you cannot withstand the pressures of this life. You will not be able to win win against the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. There’s a war on, there is a battle, and you will not be able to stand against it. Number six. Number six is be a studying man. When I was making up my mind to go to Bible school, I was out there in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I don’t know why, but I did.
I imagined I pictured myself in college. But for some reason or other, I kept pictured myself in an attic. And there were books on the floor all the way to the ceiling and everything was crowded all over. And I had a desk and I’m sitting here at the desk with a little lamp. And all these books are all over and I’m swarmed. And I’m trying to study these books because I’m gonna study for the ministry. And it scared me to death.
I thought, how will I learn all of this? I used to take the Bible and I look at it. I think, how will I ever learn this book? I said, a man can’t live long enough to learn this book. So why am I gonna go to Bible school? But I knew I got to do something and that I could not know the will of God without knowing the word of God. So it was the will of God to know the word so I can know his will.
Makes sense. So I’m going to Bible college and I remember Betty’s dad I told him on the phone. He started questioning me, how do you know? How do you know that this is what God wants you to do? I said, I don’t know, but I’m going to Bible college. So you’re going to be a preacher. I don’t know. Well, all I know is that I don’t want people to go to hell, and I know that I need toReporting to know the book.
And I had a hunger and I wanted to do it. And he was afraid of me going to Baba College because he says, Baba College, or just like the seminaries, they’re all cemeteries, he says, no kill ya. They’ll rip that fire out of your gut and you’re not going to want to do anything. I go anyway, I said, well, I’m bringing Betty and the kids to your house. And I want to leave Betty and the kids with y’all. And I’m going to Bible school.
So anyway, I got a lot of memories. I know I’m getting old because I do a lot of room in this and that I use to never even do. Never even thought about stuff. But I knew that I had to study the study. And if you want to know the will of God, you have to study and know the Word of God. And I think that was an advantage that has served me well over the years. And I know that if you listen to Dr.
Anke Lindstrom, his knowledge of the Bible was unsurpassed. I mean, the guy just knew the book and probably could go back and forth all over the place and never have to even probably tell )); what was the word was. He just quote him. But if you don’t do that overnight, you’ve got to study and. memorize a lot of scripture. And there’s people that they want to serve a little, but they don’t want to spend any time in the book.
Where you’re going to be limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry. You’ve got to spend time with the Lord. Let God teach you the Word of God, and it will be a great blessing to you. But 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse Timothy chapter 4, and verse 15, and verse 16. It says, meditate upon these things. Give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. God wants you to profit so that those from you can profit. And He says that while you’re studying and meditating upon the Word of God, it will save you.
And in saving you, you’ll be able to get others. Now, not talking about salvation, talking about saving them from the false doctrine. And he says, continuing them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee, because there’s false teachers in the world. See there in verse one of chapter from now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and epochresies and all that stuff.
All that false teaching, he says, if you studied the Word of God, it’ll save you from believing that. And then because of what you believe and you’re strong, you’ll be able to help others that listen to you. And so that’s why you want to be strong in the things of the Lord. Now, in Ecclesiastes in chapter 12, and verse 12, it says, studying is a weariness of the flesh. And he says, the end of writing of books, he said, there is no end.
He says, but to know the Word of God, the conclusion of the whole matter is to know God and his will and to serve him in fear. So that’s the last chapter in the book of Ecclesiastes. And at verse 12 where it says, weariness, studying is a weariness of the flesh, but not of the spirit. Studying may be weary to the flesh, and maybe you don’t want to do it. But if you want to be strong, there is no escape.
You have to pay the price to do it. And you have to force yourself to read and to study. at a Bible college where I taught three to four hours every day for years, 15 years. And I taught 21 to 23 hours just about every week for so long. I gained a lot of knowledge in the Bible, but do you know that even now, I still study the Bible an awful lot? I will read and study for hours. I did it last night.
I did it today. I do it just about every day. I’ll come over here on Saturdays and I’ll spend three or four hours to study in the Bible again. Things I already know. Betty asked me, he says, what are you working on now? I said, just a sermon. I don’t know when I’m going to use it. But I’m always, I got to keep studying because see, if you don’t feed your mind, Then after a while all you got is cold leftovers to serve.
And whenever you go out to eat, do you always like to just get cold leftovers? Or you like to learn something that’s fresh? Even though it’s the Word of God, but it still should have some fresh bread. And I believe that people ought to have some fresh bread to eat. And not just because, well, I know that, I’ll just teach that and don’t have to ever study. No, I can do that, but myself personally I like to keep reading and keep studying And sometimes I’ll sit down by the hours and I’ll read the mo testament book has nothing to do what I’m teaching on I Have no clue when I’ll ever preach it.
I don’t know always writing making little notes and things like that But you’ve got to study the word have you ever heard us first Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 Anybody got to clue what it says? Study to show off. Study to show thyself approved Under God a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth Now The reason you’re steady so you can be a workman so you can accomplish something so you can do something with it But just to say how much you know about the Bible is no advantage at all what values that to anybody That’s why you’re looking for opportunities to teach the Word of God.
To one person or ten people or somebody, you want to be able to explain it to someone. That’s how people profit from you. And this is what God’s talking about. So anyway, number seven is be a single-minded man. Single-minded man. A double minded man is what? Unstable in all of his ways. But the Bible talks about being a single minded man. That means having a vision, you know what you want and you know where you’re going and you’re focused.
And that’s what you need to be. I wrote a little statement there. Do deeds and words of profit only. Take your Bible and look in 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy. Now we’ll hit verse 15, but I want you to see verse 14, 15, and 16, because it kind of shows a little bit about A single-minded man. Verse 14 says, of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit.
So I’m not supposed to strive about words to no profit, so that I must be striving about words that do have profit. Wouldn’t that be how you’d understand that? In other words, things that build when the Bible talks about edify one another, it does not say, edify one another. One another edify means to beautify what’s there and add to so that people that we come in contact with people in our lives We’re supposed to make them stronger. We should be a blessing to people and There are things that we can say and do to have no profit to them And that’s just why he says you have to be very careful, but get this but in contrary to that, but to the subverting of the hearers, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
And then it tells you there’s things to shun, but shun, purvein, and vain babbling, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. As we’ve looked, you’ve seen the word godliness mentioned several times, and you’ve seen the word ungodly. Ungodly means you’re not like God. Godly means you’re like God. So look at number eight. Be a separated man. Be a separated man. There’s things in this world that I have voluntarily chosen not to do. places that I have voluntarily chosen not to go.
There is a language and words that I have chosen not to use. There are things that I have done my dead level best not to think about because I can know it can leave me down the wrong path. So I wrote a little statement here and said to be a a godly man, you cannot live an ungodly life. Now I know that’s not a deep theological statement, but it’s got some theology to it, and it’s not that bad. But if you want to be godly, you cannot live an ungodly life.
They just don’t go together. So a godly individual is someone who lives a godly life. He lives like God would want him to live. So that’s why we study the Word of God. Look in 2nd Timothy and chapter 3, 2nd Timothy and chapter 3, looking verse 1. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous and boasters, proud blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truthbreakers, false accusers, incontinent fears, are despises of them that are good, traitors, heady, high-mindeders, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God.
Have any form of godliness, but deny in the power thereof. And look at those four little words. From such, turn away, that separation. It means that I’m not supposed to live like somebody else lives. If I’m not to be conformed to the world means I’m not supposed to live like the world. I’m not supposed to let the world shape my thinking. I’m supposed to live the way God wants me to live, not the way the world lives. And that’s why we don’t get our manner of life from TV, from movie.
We learn how to live, and we ought to make this statement that we believe the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice. We think we believe in how we live from this authority. This is final authority. And we’re supposed to believe it and we’re supposed to learn from it. And he makes a statement that we’re supposed to live this way. Look down in verse 10, but thou has fully known my doctrine. He says, you know how I think, you know what I believe.
You know my manner of life. You knew my purpose, my faith, my long suffering, my charity, my patience. You know about my persecution, my afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium and Listera. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all, the Lord delivered me.” Now see, we think, well, if I’m really serving the Lord and I’m doing right, I’m not even supposed to have all of that. No, you’re right in the midst of all of it.
Did you know that when you’re having a hard time, people are watching to see how you’re going to respond to it? People watch. People want to see how do you handle all of the problems of life? And if you’re strong in the Lord, how strong? won’t know if you’re strong or not unless you’re tested. So God will allow you to be tested in various ways and He won’t tell you. He said, now I’m going to test you in two days.
Get ready. Here I come. Ready or not. You don’t know when and you don’t know how the test is coming. And if you think that it won’t really matter, you be surprised how God can permit you to fall because He permits a testing to come your way. And because of pride, you don’t think it’s important. And buddy, you can mess up very, very quickly. Now look what he says in verse 12. Yay, and all that will live godly. All that will live godly.
That means there is a separation from those that are ungodly and those that are godly. Now, I don’t try to get people to live their lives exactly the way I do. But I have purposed in my own life that there are certain things that I don’t do. But that doesn’t mean that you would necessarily agree with it. You may tolerate things in your life that I won’t and I might tolerate a few things in my life that you won’t.
But I do believe you need to know what helps you to be strong and what helps you to be weak. You need to know yourself. You need to know what makes you get things right between you and God and you need to be aware of things that will pull you away from the Lord. You need to know your own limitations. Now you don’t have to worry about what somebody else does. Are you doing what it takes to make you strong?
That’s where your strength in your own spirituality is revealed. Are you aware of things that will cause you to be weak and are you avoiding those things? Or are there habits in your life that you know is not right and it’s not helping you spiritually, has no profit to if you need to understand and look at some of these things. But it’s better if everybody examines their own life without somebody else doing it. And if you knew exactly how many hours or minutes I did this or that and the other, wouldn’t necessarily make you strong if you followed my recipe.
I do believe you need to follow God’s recipe and that is you do need to read but how much and where I can give you ideas and so forth but sooner or later you’re gonna have to be on your own and you need to pray and talk to the Lord I know you ought to do that and I know you ought to be spiritually minded that means to mind the word. So does this book have more power in your life than anything else or anyone else?
Does your greatest influence come from this book? You cannot see the Holy Spirit. And I don’t think you can feel Him. But there needs to be some way that you know that the Holy Spirit is real in your own life and you can sense it and you know he’s leading you and he’s teaching you and you feel the comfort of the Lord that you’re in his presence or you’re gonna have a very empty lonely life and the Lord will never be real to you but that’s between you and him and the closer you get to the Lord the more godly you ought to be.
And the further you get from the Lord, the more ungodly you will be. So that’s why you can decide what you will and will not do, but try your best not to make somebody else try to live according to whatever your standards may be. Now in my home, I had standards. If I had a Bible college, I’d have standards. For leaders, I want certain things done for them in the way they ought to think and how they ought to live.
But you want people to grow in the Lord so that they learn how to govern themselves. Because you see, I can’t go to your house with you and go to your job with you. No, nobody can walk and hold your hand. You have to learn how to walk with the Lord yourself. And you want that. You don’t want somebody playing God in your life. And I don’t want to play God in people’s lives. I want people to learn to grow up and learn how to walk between you and because he’s precious to you.
Not because, well, I hope the preacher satisfied. I didn’t do what he said do. So I’m hoping he’s all right. Do what God wants you to do. It always comes back between you and him. I’m just a man. And sometime I’m poor when it’s dead. But I do want you to be strong. I want to try to do my dead liver best to persuade you with precious pearls. Truth from God’s Word all of God’s Word this is a book of jewels.
This is this is awesome book And so that’s why we need to read it look up here very quickly This end represent you and me and the wallet who represent all the things we do that’s wrong God loves us hates our sin, but he loves us and for us to pay for sin And which we should is eternal separation from God. And God loves us. He loves you and me. Wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God.
And none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection. God says you cannot save yourself. You have to be perfect to go to heaven and nobody is perfect and by your life you’ll never live a perfect life. So you cannot get there by your words. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He is the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from Him.
So Jesus Christ who had no sin did not have to die. He took ours. Payful on the cross came back from the dead and said that if you and I would believe that Christ did that for us, He would put that payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. So if you’re watching by the internet tonight, I do want you to know that God does look love you, he paid for your sins.
And if you trust him and him alone, as your only hope of going to heaven, he said, it would give you as a free gift ever lasting life. The best news in all of the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for this time together, the opportunity of giving us to be part of one another, to be a body of believers in this church. We thank you for the ministry you’ve given us. We thank you for all your provision.
We thank you Lord for the facilities you’ve given us. We’re thankful for those that are working with the kids back there in the gymnasium. We ask Father your blessings upon each person here. We pray that you’d help each one of us to be strong as we ought to be. And Father also those that are perhaps watching by internet, some may never have trusted your Savior. And Father we want them to know more than anything else in the world that you love them and that you died to pay for their sins.
And because you pay for them, they don’t have to, if they accept that payment you made for them, and that you will never cast them out, never lose them. And, Lord, we just pray Your will to be done, help them to be wise, and to put their complete confidence, their trust in you, not a church, not a man, not themselves, believing that you paid for their sins, and by doing so, that they can have eternal life when they trust you.
We ask you a blessing upon each one. In Christ’s name 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 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 homepage.
If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 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. Just keep looking up.
