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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. Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at Calvary of Tampa.org. We pray that you will 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.

Did you know that in most places, 10% of the people in a church do the work? If you’re lucky, but most people are just on the sideline. They just sat and watched, but they never get involved, never help. And I’ve asked people over the years, I need help. You’ve heard the Apostle Paul pleading, you know, those who help me in the gospel, help me in the ministry. You see, what value is people, if they don’t help, they never help.

You can’t depend on them. They’re not dependable. You can build a work on the backs of people who are faithful and some people, well they just stand on the sidelines and they’re that Monday morning quarterback that always tell you what he should have done. You ever sit down the couch and you wonder why the dumb quarterback can’t see the guys open down earning in zone. Why can’t he see that? Well, it might be because he got five big guys in front of him.

So easy for you to set a fair, you got cameras all over the place and you can see what he ought to be doing. And why some guy lines up and runs right toward a brick wall and there’s five guys standing right there. He’s thinking, well, why didn’t they, why didn’t he do that? He should have went around this way.

Well, see, he’s supposed to run where he’s supposed to run, believing that his line are going to make a hole. And if he waits till there’s a hole, it’ll be too late. He has to run, trusting, they’ll make away when he gets there. So he’s believing and trusting and giving it all he’s got full steam into a brick wall because sometimes it don’t work. And then when it does work, the guy runs into the end zone and he throws the football down and jumps all over the place like, look what I did, look what I did, look what I did, look what…

Wait a minute, do you realize if those guys had to make a hole, you would never have got through it. And as though he did it all by himself, did you realize that God knows what we do because we have people working together to get something done? Remember the other night I was talking about how that the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians says, not because I desire a gift, but fruit that may abound to your account because the the people who work together and help the Apostle Paul to do what he did.

That’s the way it is with every pastor. You know that you’re limited and you can only do so much, but if people work together, you can accomplish so much more, so much more. But we do it because we are trusting that everybody believes the same thing. That’s why I want to keep teaching this book until it’s in your brain. You’ll think about it even when you don’t want to think about it. And you’ll carry tracks and you’ll want to witness to people, even when you don’t want to do it.

You’ll do it anyway, because it’ll be in your heart and you can’t get away from it. Look what he says here in verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify in to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David. You know the root means that he’s before David and the offspring means he’s after David. Now how can Jesus be before David and after David? But that’s what it says. And when you read the book of Isaiah, it talks about, I have a tender branch that’s going to grow up.

The root of Jesse. So he’s the root of Jesse, but he can be before David, but he’s after David. Now how can all of this be? Because Jesus is God. And he came into the world through the line of David. So he was before David, but he came through the line a thousand years later and he’s after David. So he says… I am the root and the offspring of David and the bride and morning star. Now, I want you to take your Bible and look at this verse.

Look there in the book of Malachi 4. Malachi 4. Last book in the Old Testament, Malachi. And you’ll see that there’s a statement made here. That’s pretty good. Malachi chapter four and look there in verse two. Verse two says, but unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. Now I wonder who this is talking about. The son of righteous. Now that’s not S-O-N, this is S-U-N. Now generally the bright and morning star, right before dawn, it’s at the darkest point and there’s this bright and morning star.

You see I believe the bright and morning star is a reference to the church when Christ comes for us. And then the sun, S-U-N of righteousness. So So the Bible talks about Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star. Satan is not the bright and morning star in the book of Isaiah, not him. He is the son of the morning, but he is not the morning star. He is not the bright and morning star. Totally different. But go back here to the book of Revelation in chapter 22.

So Jesus Christ is before David and after David. And He is the bride and morning star. He is the son of righteousness and He is coming. And the spirit of the bride said, come. Because He didn’t said twice. I’m coming. So they said, come. We as the bride of Christ, the church, don’t we look forward to the coming of Christ? What difference should it make? Hold your place right here and just look at this real quick. in the book of 1 John chapter 3, 1 John and chapter 3.

Make sure you look at these verses. Don’t just say, well, I’ve got the Bible committed to memory. Yeah, no. But in verse one it says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because that knew him not, but love it now are we the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, but we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifyeth himself.” In other words, to those who are looking for Christ to come will purify his life. When you no longer are looking for him to come, your life is going to become corrupted. That’s why he says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 28, my little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So yes, the Lord is coming back.

It is supposed to be a purifying hope, but many people fail to understand all that God has for them. Now, I can’t make people serve a Lord. Man, I wish I could. I, it would, but it won’t help because it has to be something that you do willingly. It has to be on the volunteer basis. No one can make you love God. You believe it or not. Nobody can make you love your parents. You can’t make your parents love the kids.

You can’t make the pastor love the people. Well, you can’t make the people love the pastor either. We’re going to pass a law. Everybody in the church must love the pastor. It won’t work because it can’t be forced. It has to be voluntary. You have to do it because there’s something that’s greater on the inside of you that makes you do what you’re supposed to do. So go back there to this book of Revelation and look at it in verse 18.

He says, for I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plays that are written in this book. Now the reason this is so important is this. This is the last book in the Bible. These are the last words. Given under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There is nobody since this book has been finished that has the right of the authority to say God has revealed in the me additional revelation.

He has not. Not to anybody. There is no more biblical revelation. There’s no more books to be added. He’s, you don’t add one more word to this book. And this is the last book. Nobody has the right of the authority to speak for God when God has not spoke. God puts a curse upon the people who claim to speak for God when God hath not said. And so he says, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

Now even though this is at the end of the book of Revelation, it is a reference to the church that was back here. Because remember when John wrote, John was back here during the church age. This was a hundred or ninety years after the birth of Christ. So we’re talking about this is when we’re supposed to be learning all of this and doing all of it. And so this is to us. And he says, I’ll add unto him the plagues of this book.

Now you and I know that if we’re back here, and it’s been 2000 years since then, look at all the people that had been born, trust the Lord, and died and gone to heaven. And all the people that have lived and died, but they never got under the plagues in the tribulation period. They were not living here and got in the cast in the outer darkness and weeping and wailing the nation of teeth, but in each part there is a consequence.

And the consequence is the lake of fire. This is the final judgment that takes place on all unbelievers. So whether they’re unbelievers from here, they go here. Unbelievers here, they go here. Unbelievers here, they go here. And anyone who does not believe what God said, that His Word is not true. What a price to pay. So I wouldn’t want to take away from the word of God and I don’t want to add to what God’s word says. I’d like to just tell it, this is what it says, and in light of other scriptures that I know trying to seek to understand it, but I know that there are no verses that will ever contradict the simplicity of the gospel.

Does it mean that I understand all of those complicated verses I don’t have to. God has revealed enough things that are simple enough to understand that I can understand it and it’s clear. Salvation is always by grace. No man has ever been saved by his works. Once a man is saved, he has eternal life and God will never cast him out. And I won’t let any other verse contradict that basic teaching because that’s the purpose of the Bible is how can a man be just with God?

Did you know even way back there in the book of Job, which some believe it could have been the first book ever written? Job asked that question of 11, chapter 10, how can a man be just with God? And God answered that question and we know now in the New Testament exactly how a man is to be just with God. Look in verse 19. And if any man shall take away from the word of this book, of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things that are written therein.

You take that word part and just hold your place right here. Look in the 17th Psalm, the 17th Psalm, way back in the Old Testament, the 17th Psalm. And there’s a verse that might shed a little light on this. And look there in verse 14. From men which are thy hand. Now that’s an explanation of the verse that went right before it in verse 13, where it says, deliver my soul from the wicked which is thy sword. So God uses the wicked man as his sword in his hand to do whatever God wants to do.

do. He says, from men of the world which have their portion in this life. In other words, let’s say for example here, God has created a wonderful world. God created the garden of Eden, put man in here. But now when God put man in this world, didn’t God already provide the air for him to breathe, the food for him to eat? Everything man needed God had already provided. So God met the needs of man before he made the man.

So that’s why every man born into the world has already had all of his needs met. Now like we used before, there’s the bird and there’s the worm. God provided The food for the bird, but God does not throw the worm in the nest. God provided the bird with all that he needed to find the worm. Now God has put everything man needs in this world to survive. But God has given to man a mind and a body to perform the work that he needs to make a living.

So God has met the needs of everybody. It’s just some people don’t want to work. Have you ever seen anybody like that? So if they won’t work, then they have to have somebody else meet their needs. Now when people can’t work is one thing and they have to depend on one another, but the point is God has provided everything. But isn’t it true that some people do not take advantage of that portion of what God has provided for them in life?

I believe there’s a good possibility that when we get to that when we get to heaven, God may just say, let me show you something and open up this great, big old room with all of those treasures and rewards. And it says, this is what I was gonna give to you, but you didn’t serve me, you weren’t faithful. So you don’t get those. What? And these were all of your opportunities. Because I believe that God tells the truth. I believe that God is honest and that I believe that when he died on that cross, he really did died to pay for the sins of the whole world.

But does that mean that everybody takes advantage of a payment that was made for them? No. Is it possible that God really wants everybody to go to heaven? Well, if he wanted everybody to go to heaven, he probably would have made big enough for everybody to go there. I mean, he wouldn’t have made it too small, would he? I believe that God, being God, loving man the way he does, has so much that he wanted to do for us.

When we get to heaven and see what we gave up, all these opportunities, what I want you to do is just take that word in verse 19, take the word part and put down the word opportunity. You see in the Old Testament, you’ll find in the book of Judges, excuse me, the book of Joshua, that it talks about in chapter 17 on where it talks about God had this lot and this lot, this lot. It means that it was their inheritance in the promised land.

And God had divided the land up according to these lots for God’s people, the twelve tribes. Now, isn’t it true that majority of the time they never got to enjoy the land that God gave to them? They didn’t get rid of all the enemy in all the land, which they were supposed to do. It was there. God gave it to them, but they didn’t claim their inheritance. But I remember one story about one man named Caleb. He was 80 years old.

He said, I want that mountain, the mountain that the Lord has got for me. And he wanted it and you went after it. Here God shall take away when a man dies. All opportunities are gone. And when all opportunities are gone because a man is dead, as he dead, all chances for the lost man to get saved are gone. There is no more chances. All the opportunities for you and I to get rewards in heaven or to serve a Lord upon the earth is all over.

No more chances. What you and I do now is the only opportunity we have. And what we do for the Lord is based upon whether or not do I really believe what God says in His Word, believing it affects my life, not to believe it affects my life. This book to believe it or not to believe it is what challenges and motivates you and I to do what God wants us to do but if we don’t we have forfeited such great opportunities.

Haven’t you wondered that when you get to heaven how many opportunities we’ve really missed out on? Do you really think you have done all that you could have done or do you think there’s still something that I could have done in a greater way or a better way for a longer period of time. Do you think that God’s people are going to grieve when we get there? And when he talks about he’ll wipe away all tears from their eyes?

What’s causing all of this? I don’t believe it’s just that there’s lost people we didn’t reach, but because of maybe some service that we could have done for God’s people that could have made a difference in people’s lives. Do you realize the thing that that we say and that we do, that can so kill the will of a Christian, a child of God, to perform, to be the best they can be, because we did something to destroy their will.

To perform and it cost them so many opportunities. They’ll never get back. I cringe sometime when I think about little teenagers. That if they don’t learn to love the Lord in the days of their youth, they’re going to forfeit some of those great opportunities. When I think about people that are in their twenties and thirties and they’re not yet serving the Lord. They know the Lord. They go into heaven, but they won’t serve the Lord. They are forfeiting all of these opportunities.

And they think, well, when I get old, I’ll settle down, and then I’ll do it. And you can’t make them see it. But the opportunities are gone. And I’ll take away all opportunities. And you won’t have no part. Look what you could have had. And you blew it, you blew it. You know what I read this? This is where I come from. So I’ve got one main thing. I wrote a book called The Gospel Driven Man. because the gospel drives.

It motivates. You take away the gospel and it’s lost all of its power in the Christian. There’s nothing to live for. It’s all a game. There’s no purpose there. I’m talking about the grand finale. One day all of this is going to be over and we’re going to be there and there’s going to be this grand finale. There’s see all these faces of all the people you you help to reach for the Lord. The challenges that we have now, the opportunities we have now, you know why I wanna have kids go to camp?

Because I don’t have anything else to do and I thought it would be great to have a camp so I could just go and sit there and twiddle my thumbs. You know why I want camp? Because it might give some of these kids an opportunity. They may learn some verses in the Word of God might change their life. It might make the difference on who they married because of the goal they have in life. He might change some things.

And yet some people may not even see any of that and all they want, I don’t want to go to camp. Who wants to go to camp? It’s an opportunity. And what you’re trying to do is challenge people because the day is coming when there’ll be no more opportunities. When a man is dead, and you’ll find this written in your testimony, and they plead you with God, even Hezekiah. Lord, when I’m dead, how can I praise you? If I’m dead, how can I serve you?

Look, Lord, look what I’ve done for you. Give me some more time to live. God gave him 15 more years. Probably been better off, just took him all home. He lived long enough to have a son, and the lion stayed good. God knows what he was doing. I was the after guy, but personally. Looking verse 20, he which testified these things said, and you ought to underline it. Surely I come quickly. It’s all about Jesus coming. And it’s all about me getting people to come to Him.

So why we can, we do what we can do. And in the last part of it says, even so come Lord Jesus. Should not be the heart cry of all of God’s people. I want the Lord to come. But if He doesn’t come, you know what it means? You still have opportunities. We still have some time. There’s so much that needs to be done. So let’s do what we can with what we have, where we are, until the Lord comes back again.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen and amen. Look up here. This is so important because when you die, it’s final. There’s no more opportunities for the lost man to get saved. There’s no more opportunities for the Christian to gain rewards. over its final. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. It means that we’ve all done things wrong. We cannot save ourselves because the wages of sin is death.

We’re all condemned. And God says because you’re condemned, you can’t save yourself. You can’t deliver yourself from the condemnation. You’re already sentenced to hell. You’re just waiting for the day of execution. You don’t know when it is going to be. You don’t know when you’re going to die. But to go to heaven you have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. The Bible says because of this sin we can’t get in.

None of our good deeds will take away one sin. We need a Savior. The wages of sin is death. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. He took our sins, paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead. And God said that if you and I, if we would be leave, he did it for us.

He put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. That’s the best news in all the world. Share the gospel with people. Take advantage of whatever opportunity you can. I already know I’m going to be grieving when I get to heaven, because I have not taken advantage of all my opportunities. I have failed many, many times. Now, I’m thankful for the opportunities that I did avail myself of, but I’ve also wondered many times in my life, I wonder what God could have done with me if I’d have been more faithful to him.

I can see how God has used me in a lot of ways and I’m thankful for that. But when I get to heaven and find out, it was only a pittance of what I could have done. That’s going to be hard to swallow. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. One at right now in the kindness of this moment, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner.

But I believe Christ died and paid for my sins. And Lord, I want to go to heaven. I can see that it’s final when I die. And I don’t know when I’m going to die. And friend, if you’re watching by internet tonight, right where you are, there’s only one thing you need to do. Not 10 steps or 20 steps, it’s just one thing. Would you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you trust Him and Him alone as your only hope of going to heaven?

would you believe what he said that if you trusted him, he would save you and give you eternal life as a free gift. For in God’s it if you trust him, it’d save you. So he heads by nice clothes and no one looking around. Is there anyone at all? He said, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight. I’m going to pray to life for you to pray for me. We’ll just slip you in it very quickly, him at all.

If you’ve already trusted Christ as a Savior, you’re going to heaven. But you realize that death is final. And the opportunities the door will be closed. Do what you can, why you can. Do it now. Our Father, we thank You so much for this time together. Bless each one here and those that listen by Internet. Lord, there’s no doubt a lot of hungry hearts. Hungry for the unquenchable Word that You’ve given to us. That Father, You can give to us that which we need, that we thirst for, that we can come without money, and Father, it can satisfy so well for all eternity.

We ask Lord, Your blessings upon each one here, and those that may be listening, that Your will will be done in their life. They don’t know yet that they would trust You, and those that do know You, they would serve You. Blessed in Christ and we pray, Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, 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 We’re here 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 10 30 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. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.