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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.

I want you to take your Bible-looking to book Psalms 51 all the way over to the Old Testament. Psalms 51. Not most everybody has heard of King David and everybody love King David because King David, well, he would never do anything wrong. He was a man after God’s own heart. And he just said around all day long, singing to the sheep and playing his harp. Well, the old boy, he grew up one day, became the king of Israel. And when it was time to go to war, he says, I feel tired today and that That old lady, the boy sure looks good.

So he stayed home and he got up and he looked out the window and lo and behold he saw something he shouldn’t have seen and wouldn’t have seen if he hadn’t been there. Bible talks about not making provision for the flesh, not making opportunities to get in trouble. And it’s one thing for a black bird to fly over your head. But when you let that bird land in your head and build a nest and lay eggs, you could have stop that.

You may not stop all the bad thoughts from coming through your mind, but when you let that little thought stay there and harbor there and live there and dwell there and hatch there. Now you went too far because your way you think is going to control the way you act sooner or later, and your evil thinking can get you into trouble sooner or later down the road. Now nobody’s perfect And you know that, but just because nobody’s perfect isn’t a means for you to see how unperfect you can be.

And then use that as an excuse. Well, nobody’s perfect. Of course nobody’s perfect. But God still expects His children to be godly. And so He gives us a way of dealing with these problems. And one of the things is abstain from every appearance of evil. But what did David do while he didn’t do anything really wrong? he just asked her if she wanted to see the inside of his palace. And lo and behold, it got worse after that. He probably thought, it’ll never go any further than this.

Hello. And she said, hello big boy. And he went bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. And ruined his testimony. He had a man killed. He committed adultery. And then he tried to get somebody else in trouble. And all of this and Prophet Nathan came and says, Thou art the man, you’re the man. I think that’s the first time he ever come across it. Hey, you’re the man! And he didn’t want to be the man, but he was the man.

He was caught. God knew. God told on him. Ooh. And it doesn’t matter if nobody sees what you do under the cover of darkness. God sees. And God says, be sure your sin will find you out. It’s like a detective, and it will be revealed. Sooner or later, God has a ways and means committee. David felt bad, lost his son, and he had such remorse, and it makes this statement here in the book of Psalms 51. This is where he kind of comes clean with the Lord.

in verse 2, he says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. In other words, all these flashbacks couldn’t get rid of it, the guilt, it’s all there. For I acknowledge my transgressions. Verse 4, against thee and the only have I sinned and done this evil and thy side, that thou mightest be justified when thou speaketh and be clear when thou judges. Because when God When God has to judge a person, God has to be clear.

He has to do right. He has to do according to the law. His Word is His guide. God gave the Word and He has to go by the Word. So… He says, in verse 5, he says, I was born and sin. I had a sinful nature. I would shape this way. I got that from my mom. And my mother did conceive me. He says, you desire truth in the inward part. Now, he says in verse 7, purge me with hissap and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Ever heard that song? Wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Good song. where it comes from. Make me to hear joy and gladest that the bones which thou hath broken may rejoice because of the way he began to feel because of the sin. Now the pleasure of sin he enjoyed. There is pleasure in sin if it wasn’t pleasurable. People wouldn’t do it, but there’s a price to pay down the road.

And he wasn’t thinking down the road just like a lot of God’s people said, Well, I’d never come in adultery. Well, I’d never do this and I’ll never do that. Yeah, but you’re not walking with God just because you didn’t rob a bank. Doesn’t mean you, well, I’m okay. No, no, if you’re not doing what God says, dude, it’s just as bad. Are you doing what God says, dude? Are you a soul winner? Do you study God’s word? Do you talk to him?

Do you want God’s will for your life more than anything else in the world? So he says in verse 12, restore unto me my salvation? No, restore the joy. The joy, see, it cost. He doesn’t have the joy. He forfeited that. The peace. Now he has sleepless nights. And you ought to read another song. We don’t have time to go there, but it goes down in. He says, what the Lord wants? Look down there in verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and a contrite heart.

Oh God, that will not despise. That’s what God’s after. God wants his children. Yes, to realize. when you mess up, you’re messed up. But don’t stay there. Correct the problem. You’re falling in the mud. Don’t stay in the mud. If we confess our sins as a cell of God, He is faithful and just to forgive. And they cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And whenever you confess those things to the Lord, now you can restore the walk. If you restore the walk, you restore your fellowship.

You see, You don’t confess your sin and it restores your fellowship. No, that’s not true. That’s what some guy named RB Theme teaches, and I despise the teaching. I don’t know if you ever heard of the guy or not, but that’s a teaching, and it’s not good, and it’s not true. So the Bible tells us there’s things that it’s going to cost you, and are you willing to pay that price? Look there in Philippians in chapter two, the book of Philippians and chapter two.

Here we have the word of God telling us how to think, how to think. And in chapter two, if you’ll notice there in verse five, he says, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ. In the word, this is how Christ thought. And also makes a statement in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 of that, um, like Christ looking beyond the cross endured the shame because of the joy. He was looking beyond, looking down the road.

You see, Christ, when He came into the world and down the cross to pay for all of our sins, His vision didn’t stop at the cross. He was looking beyond the cross. He knew what this payment would accomplish and what it would accomplish was worth His death. You and I, there’s things that happens in our life and you have to look beyond the sufferings a godly man may have to go through because you know it’ll be worth it because you look beyond this life.

If your vision extends no further than this world, you will never serve God. You have to look into eternity. The way it’s going to be forever. This is temporary here. And that is what helps you to guide your decisions now. So here in Philippians in chapter 2 because of the way that you should think it’s supposed to affect our life. So look in verse 12. Wherefore might be levered as you have always obeyed? Not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Now this is not time of how to get to heaven. This is talking about being delivered from the things that will try to destroy you in this life because we live in a crooked and perverse generation as you’ll see that in verse 15. So God wants you and I to realize we’re not working for our salvation, we’re working out our salvation. See God has saved you given you eternal life and because of that he’s left you and I here and there’s things in this world that want to destroy us.

God wants to deliver us from the power of of the present evil age. And that by our walking with Him and accomplishing what He wants us to do with our life. For it is God that we’re gonna end you. As he says in verse 13, to will and to do with his good pleasure. Now, there’s things in life that may not bring you at the moment this good pleasure, but let’s just project ourselves into the future. Now we’re into kingdom, and you see now what God was talking about and how God is using you and all the wonderful things like a paradise upon the earth.

And the honor that’s been bestowed upon you and the position of leadership or whatever it might be, the reward, the crown, whatever. You’ll be so glad you did. But you might have in the back of your mind, I wish I’d have done more. I bet you will never say, I wish I’d have done less. But you will probably say, I wish I’d have done more. If you don’t say it, you probably will think it about what I could have done and how many opportunities we did miss.

And he makes a statement here in verse 15 that ye may be blameless and harmless. The sons of God get this without review in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. If you do not serve the Lord the way God wants you to serve the Lord, then in this world you still will live but you will not shine as the light of the world. See, to be the light in this world that God wants you to be, he’s talking about the will of God being fulfilled in your life.

But let’s say you don’t do it for whatever reasons. Maybe you got mad at the preacher, mad at the deacon, mad at somebody, and I’ll never darken the the doors again and I’m not going to serve the Lord and I don’t support missionaries and I don’t support anything and I don’t get involved in anything. I don’t do anything like that. All I do is criticize because somebody made me mad one day. All right. Was it worth it? What you gave up for all that bitterness, was it worth it?

You robbed yourself. You hurt you. You did it to yourself. Nobody did anything to you. You did it all to yourself. Nobody can stop you from serving God. Nobody can stop you from getting rewards in heaven. Nobody can stop you from being used in the kingdom of God. And whatever position you did it to yourself. You robbed yourself. You traded it all. You exchanged it for something down here that was temporal. hardship, a little hate, a little bitterness, get under your skin and ruin you and keep you from serving God to the maximum.

Now looking for 16, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain, and there’s gonna be some people that are run, they’re going to use their whole life, and they lived in vain. They ran in vain, and accomplished nothing. Now that’s a choice. Nobody can make you dedicate your life to God. Now Betty’s dad helped me to understand some of these things 50 years ago.

And I decided as a little old brat in Georgia, I had never finished high school. I finished the 10th grade. The reason I didn’t go in 11th grade, my dad was still there. No. I never finished. I murdered the English language. All the double negative you listen. Man, it was terrible. I’m the least of any person should ever be used, but I’m so thankful that God can use me. And I’m glad that 50 years ago, and I have no regrets today that I made a decision one day.

I will sit near him to church and the choir at the end of the service, they all sung the song. And this name of the song was I surrender all. I said to her like a little baby and I cried. I surrender all. Whatever I am, whatever I have, whatever I can be, I surrender to God. Whatever God wants, you’re free to do with me anything you want because I have made a mess out of my whole life. I’m not very smart.

I’m not very wise, but I want God to offer my life. Maybe he can do something with me. You ever seen people that you think, that nobody can do anything with anything except God. God’s gonna have to work in their life. God did a work on me. Not just in me, he did a work on me. And he’s probably working on all of you. When he loves you, he won’t let you go. And I’m going to just let you go.

He’s going to work on you and in you so that he can work through you. Look at the other scripture here. In the book of number six on the spiritual insight, look here in the book of 2 Peter, 2 Peter, there’s a couple of them that I want to show you right here. Well, three points really, because this is, this is so good. Second Peter and chapter one. Second Peter chapter one. Because there’s some things that you need to see.

You will be barren if you don’t serve the Lord. You’re gonna trade for something. You’re exchanging something. And you think you’re getting away with it because there’s a little pleasure in this whole world. And you’ll trade all those eternal things for this little moments of pleasure. Look down in verse eight. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall need to be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, a lot of God’s children, they are barren.

They’re fruitless. They have eternal life, they’re going to heaven when they die. But, no, there are a lot of people never let anybody to Christ, never even talk to anybody. If you don’t know what to do, at least pass out a track. Plant seeds. Sew in seeds on purpose. Remember the story of Ruth? Sew in seeds on purpose. Or you got a reason for doing it. A farmer sews the seeds on purpose. Why? Want something to grow. Christian sews seeds.

And all you’re doing is planting the seed. The internet service, wherever it goes, we want the seed. The word of God, we want to plant seeds. Do the youth ministry or the little kids or, you know, everything that we have, every, a lot of you individuals are soul winners. You talk to people. You got trapped. I was with Gary Steff in the other day. We played a game of golf. And I mentioned something to this man about, I don’t know.

I can’t even remember what it was. But anyway, open up conversation, start talking about the Lord a little bit. And it wasn’t long before Gary Steff was kept writing it and robbed me. No, but he gave the man a couple of CDs. And they’re not the cheapest thing to work. He gave them CDs of my sermons that I preached. He said after a year and a half, he found one good one. So he was given, but then he started talking to him and it wasn’t long.

He led the guy to the Lord. Now, I like it when people in the church, you know, they talk to people about the Lord. And now, I mean, there’s probably a whole bunch of y’all in here that you will do that. God is going to reward you for that. It might seem like a little thing, but to the person who trusts Christ as Savior, When he dies and goes to heaven, boy, is he gonna be thankful for the person who told him?

Wouldn’t you? If you in this room know you have eternal life, aren’t you thankful for the person who shared that with you? What if they hadn’t done it? But they did. Somebody wanted you under the sounds of the gospel so bad. Do you be surprised what some people would do? Because they do care. And you don’t wanna be barren. You wanna be a fruitful tree. Oh, look at verse nine, but hey, that lack of these things is blind and cannot see you far off.

Did you know that if you don’t serve the Lord the way God wants you to? And your vision is only for this world, then you can’t see a far off. So that would mean you are what, nearsighted? If you can only see up close and you can’t see out there, then God says because you can only see here and you can’t see there, then you’re blind. Now you may have 20, 20 vision, but you can’t see what God’s saying.

You don’t understand. And that’s why you do what you’re doing. You live your life the way you’re doing. It’s a haphazard. It’s whatever you want to do. There’s no commitment. There’s no solidarity in your life because you can’t see an eternity. God says you’re blind. You can’t see very far. And where there is no vision, the people what? the people perish because you don’t have a vision. And then look in verse 10, where for the rather he says, brother, give diligence to make your calling and elections sure for if you do these things you shall never fall.

If you fall in serve in the Lord, it was a choice. Falling is a choice because you can keep from falling is that we’re weak sometimes and we’re not strong Christians like we And we mess up. We have an old sinful nature. He lies to us, deceives us, lifts our head full of pride, look who I am, how great I am, what I can do. And we sometimes forget God says He has chosen the weak things of the earth, the base things, because God says that no flesh shall glory in His presence.

That’s why He made salvation a gift so that no man can take credit for it, so that no man can say, look, look what I’ve done, look who I am. Christ says without me you can do zero. So, if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, God is not going to save you if you promised to stop some bad things, or start doing some good things. Forget that. It’s not a sin issue. He’s already paid for your sins.

All that you need to do, all that you have to do, is believe that when He died on that cross, He paid for yours. When you believe He paid for your sins, He puts that death payment to your account, and you get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for you. See, we’re all born into this world with an old sinful nature. And all of our sins come from its old sinful nature. And God says even to his children, when you become blind and you can’t see a far off, he says in the last part there, verse nine, he says half forgotten that he was purged from his old sins or the sins he comes because of the old nature.

You forget God saved you. You’d be surprised how you can lose your confidence and lose your faith. The Bible talks about your faith inoledic, and he talks about how menis and phalesis, how they overdo the faith of some. In other words, the people don’t know what to believe anymore. Because see, unless you stay strong in the word of God, you are not gonna be very strong in this world as a child of God. So that713 why you need to study to be found faithful, to do right.

Because if you don’t, you’re exchanging all this good security, this peace and the joy and the happiness, the purpose, you’re trading all of that for something temporal, that won’t amount to a hill of means, and a hundred years from now, won’t be worth a quarter. Be wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is, and God will bless you for doing so. I wanna give you one last verse in closing. Look there in 2 Timothy in chapter 3, 2 Timothy in chapter 3.

And I want you to look at one verse, verse 12. To me, this is a very important point I want to make. In verse 12 says, Yay, and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Did you know that if you choose not to live Godly as a child of God, you forfeit the right, the honor, the privilege of suffering for Christ. Thank you about it just for a second. He said, all that lived godly shall suffer persecution and if you choose not to live godly, you forfeit the right, the privilege, the honor of suffering for Christ.

Do you understand what I’m saying? Can you grasp this? You see, sometimes we teach the Bible and it seems like you’re only scratching the surface, but sometimes there are deep points that are made that need to get into your little sev room up here and a couple creases so that you can remember it always, that makes the difference in your whole life. So when I asked you, well, will you serve the Lord? He said, well, I’ll think about it.

Don’t you take this lightly? This is an important issue. You see, after you trust Christ as your Savior, this is one of the most important decisions you can make. Will I or will I not? And understand that there is a price to pay. You’re exchanging something for something better. If that’s a sacrifice, so be it. A sacrifice in God’s Word is giving up something here for something better there. Don’t sound so bad after all, does it? Look up here.

Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represent all of our sins. We’re all sinners. Now God loves us. He hates our sin. And for you and I to pay for the sin, because the wages of sin is death, is eternal separation from God in hell. And so since we’re all sinners, we’re all condemned and the whole world is guilty before God. So we’re all in the same boat. But God loves us, 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’re all sinners. And God says you cannot save yourself. You can’t change yourself. You can’t change yourself. You are a sinner and you can’t change that. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. Now He hates our sin because it separates us from Him.

So what Christ did for one person He did for everybody. He took all the sin, paid for them across and came back from the dead. And God said, if you and I, 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. And because of that, see, you and I can go to heaven because He paid for our sins. And there’s no sins to send me to hell because He paid for all of them.

I have eternal life, eternal union with the Lord. And He said, He’ll never cast me out, never lose me. And nobody can ever pluck me out of His hands. That is pretty good security. So was I a fool to accept Christ as my savior? It kept me out of hell. So I don’t think that’s been very foolish. I think it’s a smart move. When I made up my mind, I’m gonna serve the Lord. Doesn’t that sound like a smart move also?

It seemed like a man who doesn’t serve the Lord must be a fool. It’s a sign that he’s not very wise. Because a man would be a fool to turn down salvation, and I believe a man would be a fool to turn down service. Let’s pray show you. If you’re here this morning and I’m never trusted Christ as your Savior, realize that most of the things that I said was to those who already know the Lord. But if you’re here and you say, I don’t really know where I’m going when I die, I’m not sure that friend God says that you’re lost, but he loves you.

He came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. I was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind, but now I see. And if right where you’re sitting, you say, yes, that made sense to me, and I want to trust Christ as my Savior. It’s my only hope of going to heaven and preach our life for you to pray for me. Friend, would you just slip your hand up very quickly, better up back down?

Is anyone at all? Say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. I want to be certain of going to heaven when I die. Anyone at all? God loves you so much, paid for your sins, will you trust Him? If you will, God said He would save you and give you eternal life and you get to go to heaven. You that have already trusted Christ as your Savior, have you determined in your mind, Lord, I surrender all, not for salvation, but because you are saved.

You are His child. You’re going to heaven. But you want everything God wants you to have. You want the love, you want the joy, you want to have a purpose in your life. You want the reward that God has, whatever they may be, because you know it will be worth it all. I pray that you will. 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. friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon.

And just keep looking up.