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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 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’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.

Turning the Bible to the book of Ecclesiastes, all the way back to the book of Ecclesiastes. And look in chapter four, the book of Ecclesiastes in chapter four, just show you a little bit about the strength that you and I should have because of the unity that we have with other people other people that are like us. I want you to see this. See there in verse 8, there is one alone, and there is not a second. Yeah, he hath neither child nor brother, yet is there no end of all his labor.

Neither is his eyes satisfied with riches. Neither say it he, for whom do I labor and and bereave my soul of good. This is also vanity. Yay, it is a sore travail to work in the labor and then have nobody to leave it to. And then if you did have somebody to leave it to, the question come, why should I work and labor and leave it to somebody else?

So it seemed like regardless of which way you go, it’s all vanity and vexation of spirit. What’s the purpose? What’s the use? It’s like there’s got to be a greater reason, a motive for living, but to show you the strength that you can have by having somebody else to go through life with. This is why a husband or wife can be such an advantage to each other, a help to each other. You see, in verse 9, 2, 2 are better than 1 because they have a good reward for their labor because you see if you both work together you can have more than just one person working individually.

People can accomplish more in unity than can by yourself. But a lot of people have a problem. Sometimes they can have trouble trying to find out who’s in charge, who’s the boss. And so instead of getting something done, they argue and fight all the time. Shouldn’t, but a lot of time it’s what happens. Look what he says in verse 10, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.

That’s why it’s good for a man and woman to love each other in such a way when one falls the other ones there to help pick them up, to help encourage them. And not just in marriage, it can also be in church. To know that you’ve got somebody that helps to encourage you. Because sooner or later, just about everybody has a weak moment. You get down, you get discouraged. You’re fighting, you’re struggling, and you’ve got cares and problems. And sometimes you just need somebody to talk to.

Somebody just to share things with it, you know, won’t squeal on you and tell everything everybody else, but you need a good friend that you can talk to and confide in at times. Well, he says, you might like number 11, again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? Isn’t that a good verse? I ain’t got a good verse, special on a cold night. go on a cold night. It’s so nice. Sometimes I tell you, I’ll set up some time and you know, and my feet will get cold.

And I don’t even know I done got cold. And then I go in there and Betty’s all nice and warm in that bed and I come in. Oh, she is so warm and just cuddly. Oh, this is. And then I put my cold feet on her. But you know, it’s so neat. But there’s advantage of two people helping each other. Oh, what else he says in verse 12, he says, And if one prevailed against him, too shall withstand. In other words, if somebody comes after me, boy, sure nice to have a friend.

I had that happen one time. I had about three or four guys that were going to beat the tar out of me. And they had already done, got my arms and held them back. And another guy had already done, took his hands named Melvin. I’ll never forget Melvin. I tried to forget Melvin. the male and the hall of and he hit me across the face as hard as he could. Man liked to knock me silly. Well, it did knock me silly.

And then he wound up and he was going to do it again. And my buddy standing there, his name was Butch Lingly. And he says, that’s enough. Sure. I thought why didn’t you stop him the first time he did it? But at least he stopped him the second time they were fixing to do it. I’m still trying to decide if he was my friend. or put them up to that. I don’t know. I don’t think so. But look what he says.

In verse 12, and if one prevailed against them, two shallwits in, and a three full cord is not quickly broken. You can take one little strand and break it easy. Put three of them together. It won’t break. I was watching one time this whole cowboy move in. And they’re talking about how they can’t stand against the white men the Indians you know are being killed by the white man and the Indian breaks one arrow as he’s talking to his Indian friends you know because as one we can easily be broken but then he put about tenum together and you can’t write tenum and he said the unity caused us to be strong.

Well the Lord talks about that that’s why church and knowing people helps you to be stronger than you would be without. So God wants us to be strong. And He makes a statement to Him, better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. And sometimes that’s when for out of prison he come of terrain, whereas also he that is born in his kingdom become of poor. In other words, if you got everything given to you, you don’t appreciate it because you didn’t have to work for it.

A man has been in prison, lost everything, And then he rises up because he worked for it. He has something because he earned it. He worked for it. But just to have everything given to you, you don’t appreciate it. So there’s things that are taught in the Word of God that’s to help us to understand so much more than the natural man that’s in the world. Now look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Now you and I know what perfume is.

once in a while I’ll put some on and you smell better don’t you smell better don’t you wives like your husband to smell better or don’t the husbands like their wives to smell better so you put on a little deodorant here and a little bit there they even got a new deodorant out now for race drivers called pit stop Well, anyway, we’re moving right along here. In verse 1, dead flies in the apocatory. In other words, what he’s talking about is dead flies in the ointment, dead flies in the perfume.

See you and I are supposed to be sweet smelling to the Lord by our sacrifice of praise and whatever God has for us so that our lives or examples of others unacceptable to God and well-pleasing. And then whenever you have like a suit and you get a spot on it, that one little spot just ruined the looks of the suit. One day I took a piece of paper in church and I held it up like this and I says, what do you see there?

I said, just a blank piece of paper. So I put in a black spot in one corner and it says, what do y’all see on this paper? Everybody said, I had a black spot, little black spot. I said, look how much white there is. And look how small that little spot is. But everybody sees the spot. It won’t matter sometimes how much good you do is if they can find one good air in your life. Wouldn’t good flaw. In other words, you’re good in a lot of areas, But there’s always somebody trying to pull you down from your little perch.

It’s kind of like the Skylar, you know, they’re easy to shoot, but hard to manufacture the song. And so there’s people that always want to shoot somebody down. And blow out somebody’s light. They always got a point and make sure everybody, hey, did you see that spot on the suit? Did you see that spot on the suit? Everybody’s got a point. So everybody know who got that spot. Because that’s how people destroy other people’s character. It’s pointing to the book.

That’s why you and I are supposed to take care of things in our life that are not right that ruin or hurt our testimony. So he says in verse one, dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking smell. So doubt a little folly, and that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. In other words, you have the wisdom or the reputation, but there’s something wrong with your character. The character is what you are in the dark, reputation is what you are in the light.

Sometimes what people can see. But how are you and how am I when nobody’s around? When nobody’s watching? That’s when it’s different. Look at number three, indulge myself in carnal appetites. See, the Bible talks about there’s times in our life. And even if you read the whole book of Galatians in chapter five, and you look at the works of the flesh, and all those things are manifestations of a man whose appetite is out of control. And so we don’t discipline ourselves, and so therefore we do this, this, and this, and this.

Those are things of walking into flesh that’s going to hurt our testimony, and they do hurt our testimony. The next one is, look at the sins and inconsistencies of others. You see, because that’s how we compare ourselves. I’m not so bad because maybe I got spots all over my tie. This is my Easter tie. Those are the eggs. And so that’s not that bad. Look at the spots he’s got. So mine’s not so bad because he’s got more on his than I got on mine.

And so that’s what people do, justify themselves instead of comparing ourselves with what does God want us to be? And so we go according to that. Now, in the next point, unite with worldly people and organizations. Now I just wrote down two things about this. One deals with marriage and one deals with the church. You see, we’re not supposed to be unequally yoked together. That’s in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 to 18. And how that can light and darkness dwell together.

Or righteousness and wickedness can’t dwell together. Neither can the children of God and the sons of the devil dwell together in fellowship. God says, be not unequally yoked together. won’t believe this but I had a lady call me up the other day. She wanted to know if I would marry her and I says, I says, are you been married before she? Well, yeah. I said, what about him? Oh, yeah. I says, do you know what caused the first one?

The problem? I said, believe it or not, I says, if you don’t know what caused the problem the first time, doom to repeat it. If you can’t and didn’t correct it the last time, you’re not going to correct it again. You have to know what causes the problem and how to solve it. She said, well, I want you to know he is Catholic and I am Lutheran. And so her vote very religious. I said, well, do you know the Bible says you should not be unequally yoked together?

And She got irate with me. She began to rake me over the colds. And I says, ma’am. I said, there is not a verse in the Bible that says that I have to conduct weddings. There isn’t one. You can’t find no verse in the Bible. It says, the preacher told the two weddings. I said, I’ve done a bunch, a whole bunch. I hope God forgive me for some of them. I says, but you’re not to be unequally yoked together.

I said, so if there’s a saved man and there’s a lost man, I say, wait, wait, wait a minute, say, man, and I lost woman. I want to marry a man with a man. I don’t care if they both saved. So, some of y’all never even caught that. But you don’t marry a believer to an unbeliever. It’s just not wise. People say, well, it doesn’t matter. It does matter. Well, how do you know that? Because God says you don’t do that.

And anyway, we didn’t get anywhere. And sometimes people don’t take my advice. That’s okay. I don’t know if I was somebody else, I would take my advice either. But you know also when it comes to church. I believe that you ought to go to a church where you’re not unequally yoked. You ought to believe what you’re supposed to believe in that church. And there’s some people that go to other churches and they know the gospel is wrong, but they said it’s okay because the preacher is such a wonderful man.

But his doctrine is wrong and they don’t agree with his doctrine, but they love the choir. And they love the pews or all padded. And it’s just wonderful people, but they don’t think about the doctrine, what they’re teaching. So it doesn’t matter. Does it matter? But they say it doesn’t matter to them. They don’t care. And so I do believe that it does matter. I believe the Bible says, mark them which caused evasions among you. doctrines, contrary to the doctrine that you have learned and avoid them.

I think that’s what it says in the book of Romans. So a lot of people will do what God’s word says and some people will not. But remember, anytime you violate one of the principles in God’s word, you’re going to be a failure in that area if you don’t do what’s right in that area. So I believe that you know the will of God, then you obey the will of God. And so God will bless you because of it.

Looking in 1 Corinthians in chapter 10, 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 23. He says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. It means I don’t have to do it just because I got the right to do some things. Just because you have the right to do certain things doesn’t mean that you should. Even if you had the freedom to do certain things, doesn’t mean that you should. You need to check and see, well, is it a wise thing?

Let’s say, for example, let’s pretend I’m a single man. And let’s say I’m 30 years old. So most people would not argue with the fact that I’m old enough to get married. And let’s say, for example, there’s this beautiful girl. And she wants to get married. I want to get married. I have the right to get married. She has the right to get married. But just because we have the right to doesn’t mean it would be wise to. Doesn’t make it wise.

Just because I have the right. There’s a lot of things in your life that maybe you have the right, but is it wise? And so I need to find out. You said why wouldn’t it be right? Because I don’t love her and she don’t love me But we both want to get married, but not to each other So should we do ahead and get married? Because she wants to get married. I want to get married. Well, let’s just get married We don’t love each other But that’s okay.

We’ll love each other down the road. I I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s the best way to go and So he says not everything edifies see that last part of that birth all things do not edify. Then that means that whatever I do, it should be for the purpose of edifying one another. You should do things that edify. That’s not edify, edify. It means to beautify what’s there and add to it. It means that people that we meet and come in contact with, we should make them stronger or encourage them, be a blessing to people, influencing them in the right way.

So yes, we should always seek to edify one another. Look what he says down here in verse 30. She’s not verse 30, but in verse 31. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever it is, it should be for the glory of God. And whatever you give yourself permission to do, conscious sake, see there in verse 30 where it talks about your conscience in verse 29. Conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other.

For why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience or standard? Wherever I believe is right. So as a believer, you and I are supposed to have the confidence that whatever we say or do or go or be, it should be the will of God. and we should be convinced that this is what God wants me to do or wherever it is. He says, do all for the glory of the Lord. Since when the last verse here, let me just take a look over in the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians in chapter three.

Colossians chapter three. And just just look at this here just a little bit. I want you to look there in verse 12, verse 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vowels of mercy, having tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mine, meekness, long suffering. In other words, this is almost like getting properly dressed before you go out of the house in the morning. Now most of us would like to make sure that we are properly dressed.

Our hair is combed. We brush our teeth and shave or whatever we got to do and put on canal number nine lily of the alley and all that stuff, you know. Make sure we smell good, look good and all am. In verse 13, for bearing one another and forgiving one another. If any men have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. we forgive others because Christ forgave us. Under the law, they had to forgive one another in order to be forgiven.

But here he says in verse 14, and above all these things put on charity or love, which is the bond of maturity. In other words, this is what shows how mature you are is how much you can forgive someone and show gentleness and kindness. See, if If you’re nice to people at church, but you’re mean to your husband or wife at home, you’re not as mature as you give the impression you are. Because that’s where it’s supposed to be real.

If it ain’t real there, it ain’t real here. It isn’t. But nobody may not know it, but there is somebody who does see a lot further than what we see here in church. Now, get what else you said. See there in verse 15, let the peace of God rule in your heart to the which also year called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly and all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

I love all of this, looking for something. For whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. And then, buddy, it hits everybody. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husband. Verse 19, husbands, love your wife. Be not bitter against them. Children obey your parents and the Lord, but this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children the anger lest they be discouraged.

Servants, obey in all things, your masters, according to the flesh. Not with eye service, said men, pleasers, but singleness of heart. Fearing God. And look in verse 23, what so ever you do? Do it heartily as to the Lord and not on the men. So husbands love and their wives. He says, you do this as unto God. Wives obey your husbands as unto God. See that? You do it as to the Lord. Children obey your parents as though your parents were the Lord.

If everybody did what God says do the way God says do it, well, wouldn’t this be a better world in which to live? And look what he says in verse 24, knowing, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, and you ought to underline that part. Did you know that up there, that all of that thing, when I just read, that is serving the Lord. What you read, the wisdom of God’s Word, how you think and the forgiveness the forgiveness and the humbleness and the meekness and the kindness and long suffering before bearing one another, forgiving one another.

All these things down through here. And the music you listen to, the hymns, the songs, the spiritual hymns, making melody in your hearts to the Lord. All that, all that, this is serving the Lord. This is serving the Lord. And if you don’t do these things, then God says, you’re not serving me. trying to use God, but you’re not really wholeheartedly sold out to the Lord. So the question comes back. Are you willing to forsake everything in this life?

Willing to give up everything, lose everything? Just to be faithful to the Lord? Because if you’re not, you realize how many things will come up and, well, I would serve the Lord, but I can’t because, and I like to do this, but I can’t because there are not, there is no excuses. are not. No excuses. You serve the Lord with what you have, where you are, with all your heart. And you can do that. You can do that. Look up here.

This hand represents you and me and the wall represents sin. We all have sin. He said, we don’t like to admit it, but we’ve all sinned. God loves us, but He hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in health, since everybody sins, everybody’s condemned. But God loves us and 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’ve all done things wrong. And God says we have to pay for the sin. The soul that sineth shall die. That’s why everybody dies. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world. He had no sin. He was perfect. You and I were not perfect. We have sin. How are we going to get rid of this? Well, it was a very simple idea. You see, God had a plan. And that plan was for Jesus Christ to take our sins and pay for them on the cross and come back from the dead.

And God said, if we would believe that He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account, and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. Best news in the world. All you have to do to go to heaven is to believe on Jesus Christ. That means trust Him as the one who paid for all of your sins. And He will put that payment to your account, and you get to go to heaven on what He did for you.

Let’s pray, shall we? If you’re here tonight, or if you’re watching by internet, I want you to understand that God does love you. He loved you enough to come into the world and pay for your sins. He said if you’d believe that he did it for you, he would put that payment he made to your account and you would get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. So in the quietness of this moment, why not just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord, I know him as a sinner.

I don’t understand it all, but I believe Christ died, Pay for my sins and I’m going to trust him as my Savior. I believe he died for me. And friend, if you will trust him, God will save you. And that means he will save you from hell and give to you eternal life as a freak yet. He said he had never cashed you out. It never lose you. You can know when you leave this auditorium or if you’re watching by internet, you can know that you have eternal life.

He says, these things have I written unto you that believe On the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Would you believe it? You have never done so, but you’ll do it tonight. And you say, preacher, that made sense to me and I’d like you to pray for me. Would you slip your hand very quickly and put a right back down? And what at all? You that know Christ is your Savior, your God’s child.

You want to know how to be a success, more than how to be a failure. But if you know what causes you to be a failure, it might help you to be a success. I pray so. I follow you, ask your blessings so much for all you’ve done for us. And what we want so much to honor you and to please you, we pray that you put a hedge about us and protect us. But we just want your will to be done, use each and every one of us, have us accomplish your purpose.

Not only in our life, but to be used to challenge and motivate others. It’s that to trust your Savior, to dedicate their lives to serve you. We know it’s not in vain. We get paid, but we want your blessings. 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. friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.