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 toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

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. All of God’s people are important. And if you’re going to follow anybody, Paul says, if you’re going to do this, you want to follow me. Why should they follow him? Well, for this reason, look in verse 9 of chapter 4. He says, I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.

You’re fools for Christ’s sake, but you’re wise in Christ. We’re weak, but all but you’re so strong. You’re honorable and we’re despised. Even unto this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. But see, they knew where they’re going to live. They knew where they had a house. You see, they didn’t have to worry like the apostles did as they would travel around the country. But see, they were the one that’s gloating in themselves and now trying to shame the apostle Paul.

And why does it hurt Paul so much? Why is he taking it so hard? Well, there’s a reason. But just look at this in verse 11. Even under this prison hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and buffeted, have no certain dwelling place, and labor working with our own hands, being reviled, we blessed, been persecuted, we suffered, for Him, be in defamed, we entreat, we are made as the filth of the world. And as the offscouring of all things unto this day, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons.

So I believe He believes that they have believed on the Lord. In verse 15, for though you have 10,000 structures in Christ, yet have you not many fathers? For in Christ Jesus, I have be gotten you through the gospel. In other words, Paul says, I’m the one that came to you first. I’m the one that preached the gospel unto you. I’m the one that convinced you because of the signs and the wonders and the miracles that God gave me that I could do for you.

I gave you reasons why you should believe it. I had all the credentials of an apostle. The issue came down, Paul says is, if I’m not an apostle and I preach a false message, you need to examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith. Because you’re questioning my message in order to see whether or not if I’m wrong, you’re wrong. Do you see what I’m saying? If Paul says, if I am not an apostle and I’m not who I claim to be and my message is not true, then how do you know you’re saved?

But he is not questioning their salvation. They were doing the questioning, not Paul. They were questioning Paul and his authority and his apostleship. So he made the statement here. I’m the one in verse 15. For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore, wherefore I beseech you be followers of me. Listen to what I’m saying. Look there in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 11.

1 Corinthians in chapter 11. And look in verse 17, verse 17. See, in verse 1 of chapter 11, he says these words again, be followers of me. Follow me. Why? Well, you follow him because he’s the God that led you to the Lord. Listen to Paul instead of those who are knocking the apostle Paul. Who said in verse 17, now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worst.

And they were coming together and not for the better. It was for the worst. They were getting drunk and all the things that they did was so bad. And you would think, well, they should have smartened up by then, but they hadn’t. I’ll turn over the second Corinthians. Second Corinthians. And look now in verse one of second Corinthians in chapter 11 here, looking verse one. Would to God, you could bear with me a little in my folly. And indeed bear with me.

In the word, put that with me just for a moment. Remember, he’s talking to carnal Christians, worldly minded Christians, babes in Christ. Now if he was talking to a mature spiritual adults, he would talk totally different. But he’s having to rebuke babes in Christ. He has to rebuke rebellious children. He says in verse two, for I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy. For I haven’t, you know what jealousy is, I’ve told you this before, jealousy is the fear of being replaced.

You ever heard God say, God is a jealous God. I mean, God doesn’t want to be replaced. And so God doesn’t want you to put anybody in His place. What causes a girl to be jealous of another girl? When that girl begins to like her boyfriend, and she gets what? Jealous. And isn’t jealousy an ugly sin? Jealousy can lead to murder? I mean, man, when we get married and all of a sudden, somebody starts hanky-panking with somebody else, and next thing you know, there’s a murder.

And you think, well, something so wonderful is love. Yeah, but you’re gonna push this thing too far and you’re gonna get yourself in trouble. Second Corinthians in chapter 11, as we’re moving right along. Look there in verse two, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste for it into Christ. But I fear, but I fear. Lest by any means as the servant beguile you through his subtlety so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, so there’s somebody else coming along preaching something else. They’re preaching another Jesus that pulses, I didn’t preach. And they’re preaching another spirit that I didn’t preach. They’re preaching another gospel that I didn’t preach. He says, they’re false. He said, but I want you to bear with me just for a little bit because I want you to bear with me because I’m afraid you’re gonna bear with them. I want you to listen to me because I’m afraid you’re gonna listen to them.

And it’s gonna affect your whole life. This is why the church was all filled with problems because they no longer listen to what Paul taught them. They were listening to false teaching. And so he says, or if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which we have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted at this point, you might well bear with him. You might listen to him.

And Paul said, I don’t want you listening to somebody that’s false because they were telling them Paul isn’t a real apostle. And Paul really didn’t have the right message. And he wasn’t with them in the very beginning. He didn’t really walk with Christ, you know, when he was on the year. So he’s not a real apostle. So he makes a statement here in verse five, for I suppose I was not a wit behind the very cheapest apostle, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge.

But we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely. In other words I didn’t charge you I didn’t take anything from you and when I had need I would work and make tents and sell things in order to meet my needs. He said if I wronged you by not taking anything from you,” he says, then I’m guilty.

I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service. Man alive. He says down here in verse 11, wherefore, because I love you not, God knows. God knows why I did what I did. You don’t think I love you? Because Paul says I’m going to be hard and I’m going to be sharp. He says, the more I love you, the less I’m loved. See words that say that. Oh, he says that during chapter 12. But we’ll look at it a little bit.

Now looking verse 13, verse 13, this is what Paul is saying about these others that were teaching false doctrine. Remember they teach a false Jesus, a false spirit, and a false gospel. And in verse 13, for such are false apostles. So Paul is saying they’re false. And what were they saying? Paul, you’re false. Paul says, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Who led you to Christ? And if I am not an apostle, and my message is the one that’s wrong, you need to examine yourself Hawes, to see if you’re in the faith then, because I’m the one that gave you the gospel.

I think there’s a whole message here that Paul is weaving throughout all the things as the proof of what he’s saying. So he says here in verse 13, for such a false apostle’s deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, but they’re not apostles. They’re deceitful. They’re transforming themselves in all such wonderful people, and they’re not wonderful people. In verse 14, and no marvel for Satan, himself is transformed into an angel of life. He puts those false apostles under the leadership of the devil says they’re not of God, they’re of the devil.

Verse 15, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers, who’s ministers, the devil’s ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. Teaching the law you got to be justified by the law to be saved. You got to be circumcised to He’s safe and they were teaching a false message. Totally contrary to what the Apostle Paul taught. He says, whose ends shall be according to their works. In other words, God’s gonna judge them by their works. You preach that kind of a message?

Okay, you’ll be judged by your works. And that’s why the Apostle Paul is defending his apostleship. Hold your place right here because we’re gonna come back to chapter 13, just a second. But look there in 1 Corinthians in chapter nine. 1 Corinthians in chapter nine. And look in verse one, in verse one, it says, am I not an apostle? It’s a question. Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord, are not in you ought to underline this phrase, are not ye my work in the Lord?

If I be not an apostle under others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord? And mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Have we not the power, the right, the authority to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister or wife as well as other apostles as the brethrens of the Lord and of Sifas or Peter? Or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working?

Don’t they have the right to be supported to do the missionary work, but if they didn’t support him, Paul would go anyway, and he’d work and pay his own berth. He did without a lot. He suffered a lot. There was no apostle quite like the apostle Paul. I don’t know if there’s ever been a man that’s alive, alive today or ever has lived like the great apostle Paul. When you read and study what the apostle Paul did and what he went through.

It is an amazing thing. It really is. Just why we’re right there. Just look over there and where he says in verse 12, if others be partakers of this power over you, what? To be able to be supported. He said, have not we rather. Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. end of the Gospel of Christ to them. So Paul would do without suffer so much because he loved people so much.

And he says there in verse 13, do ye not know that they which minister about holy things. Live of the things of the temple. And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. Even so have the Lord ordained that they which preached the gospel should live of the gospel. In other words, if you win people to the Lord and you teach people the word of God, you’re supposed to, the people are supposed to support you and feed you and take care of your needs.

should a preacher have to feel like he’s a beggar when he’s doing the Lord’s work? When you live because people who love the Word of God and are being taught by the Word of God are supposed to fulfill that responsibility is the preacher out of place if he expects it. Paul says no. And yet he would do without because people would you read the book of Philippians in chapter four where Paul says you didn’t have an opportunity. Other people met the need.

And I have learned in whatsoever state I am how to abound and to be abased, to be full and to be hungry, to have everything and yet be in need. That’s when he says I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, to give him the strength to keep going when everything else falls apart. A lot of people misuse the verses, they don’t really apply it correctly, not in the spiritual way. But He makes a statement down here.

In verse 16, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yet woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. If against my will, a dispensation to the gospel is committed, and I’m still responsible. What is my reward then? Fairly that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power, my right in the gospel.

What I have the right to do, Paul says, I’ve laid that aside and I will do what I have to do. And he says, if I have wronged you, then that’s one thing that I’ve done. So go back there to the book of 2 Corinthians and chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And look there again in verse 12, where he says, truly the signs of an apostle were brought among you in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

For what is it wherein you were inferior to other churches? Accept it be that I myself was not burdensome to you. What does he say? Forgive me this wrong. He says, forgive me this wrong. He says, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have done that. I should have been burdensome to you. You should have taken care of my financial needs. You should have done that. So he says, I’m coming to see you. And he says here in verse 15, and I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.

What is servant Lord, being spent for the sake of others? Look what he says, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. He led these people to Christ, and these people had turned on the Apostle Paul. And Paul says, you have known what I went through to get the gospel to you. You read the last part of the 11th chapter, what Paul says, I went through to get the gospel to you. And then they hate him, they turn on him.

And then they’re listening to these others that they didn’t win him, they didn’t win you. They just make merchandise of you. They don’t care about you, they don’t love you. They just try to develop a following. It makes him feel good. So Paul says you’re in chapter 13. He says in verse two, I told you before and forte you as if I were present. The second time, and Ben apps it. Now I write to them which hitherto have sinned.

And to all others that if I come again, I will not spare. And that sin goes up there to verse 21 in the previous chapter where he makes statement verse 21, “…and lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you.” That means to cause me to have so much grief because of what I see. See, Paul loved these people and he had told them what was wrong and wanted them to correct the problem. And Paul says that when I come, I don’t want to find you like that.

I don’t want to have to come hard. I don’t want to have to be sharp. I don’t want to have to be mean to you or unkind to you. I don’t want to have to rebuke you. Verse 21, and that I shall be wail, many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and less civishness which they have committed. In other words, this church needed to be dealt with. Paul is writing to them about the problems and expect them because it’s the truth to correct the problem.

so that when he comes, he doesn’t have to do that. Because see, this is what Paul was afraid of. See, in chapter 13 and in verse 10, therefore I write these things, being absent, less being present, I should use sharpness according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction. In the word Paul said, God gave me what I have, the right, the authority. God only be a soul whenever he established churches to teach and to set up elders and so forth and to do what he was doing.

But Paul said, I don’t want to have to say and do anything that would hurt and to destroy, but to build up. So he says in chapter 13, in verse 3, he says, sense ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you. In other words, it’s mighty because he says, you are my proof. And so maybe I look weak, and he says my bodily present, my speech is contemptible.

He says, but the biggest proof is you. And if that isn’t enough proof, then you need to examine whether or not are you in the faith. Because I’m the guy that came to you and I’m the guy that had the gospel and I’m the one that led you to Christ. I’m your father and the Lord. You are my children in Christ. Follow me. Believe me. So he says in verse 5, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. He’s not talking about examining your works, but he’s saying it to them in a way that lets him know that if Paul is wrong, then so are they.

If he’s not an apostle and his message was false, like the other ones are saying it’s false, then what do you believe? What do you believe? And so he says, no, you’re not your own selves. How that Christ Jesus says, and get those two words in you, except you be reprobate in the words without Christ. And then he says, but I trust that ye shall know that we’re not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobate.

In other words, you might see us that away, but it isn’t the truth. Because When you want to know what the word reprobate means, just read verse eight. For we can do nothing against the truth, but a reprobate does everything against the truth. He says, but we do what we do for the truth. So one is for the truth and one is against the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you’re strong. And this also we wish your maturity.

Because when he starts off, were they maturing the Lord? No. He says, you’re yet carnal. He said, I cannot speak unto you as under spiritual. For you are yet carnal and walk his men. So he’s wrote two big books to these Christians. He wasn’t questioning their salvation. They were the ones questioning Paul. And Paul is the one who led him to Christ, so they need his emendre. Wait a minute, if I’m wrong, what do you believe? You need to examine yourself then.

But when you read the book of Corinthians in chapter 15, he gives the gospel again, because he’s talking about if we believe the gospel, as it is written in the scriptures, Christ died for our sins, and how that Christ rose again, and how we’re gonna be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and all that. So somebody wonderful things. And then he makes his statement in verse 10, therefore I write these things not because he questions their salvation, not because he wants them to look at their works.

But you need to check the message. What did I tell you how to be saved? That he told him over and over and over again. And whenever you read in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, I wonder what that says, for he God hath made him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sinned for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So Paul put the gospel back in and of course in the whole 15 chapters the purpose of the gospel and why our faith is in vain if Christ did not come back from the dead.

So all they have to do is go back, do you really believe on Christ? Do you understand the gospel? Let me show you something. I just made this up. Just thought it would be a good idea to use this little illustration. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. We’ve all done things wrong. Everybody’s a sinner, but God loves us. No, he don’t like what we do wrong, but he loves us.

And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. So to pay for what we’ve done is death in hell for all eternity. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven, and to go to heaven we have to be perfect, no sin. Perfect without sin. Because you see, if we took sin to heaven then there’d be sin in heaven. And God says heaven is a perfect place. God is perfect, there’s no sin there. He won’t allow one sin in heaven, not even one little lie.

So you see, we can’t go there with the sin. We can’t go there without sinful nature. Because then we would sin in heaven. So God says you have to be perfect to go to heaven. Do you see a problem? I see a problem. And the problem is, is you and I cannot save ourselves by being perfect because we can’t be perfect. So you can’t even be good. All sinners are sinners. And we cannot pay for sin except by death and hell.

This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh, came into the world because He loved us, hates our sin because it separates us from the Lord. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, But because he loved us, he took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. Instead, if we believe that he did it for us, he would put that payment to our account, and we get to go to heaven.

Now what Jesus Christ did? Well, that’s good news. Let’s pray, shall we? If you’re here tonight, you never trust the Christ as your Savior, then you don’t get to go to heaven. So you can’t earn your way to heaven. The only way to get to heaven is you must believe that when Christ died, He died for you. See, if He died for you and paid for your sins, then you don’t have to pay for your sins. You get to go free.

You get to go to heaven because He paid for yours. You don’t pay for it twice. But God’s the one in heaven that knows whether or not do you really believe that He did it for you? Do you believe it? Examine yourself. What are you trusting in to get you to heaven? What are you dependent upon? If you’ve never really trusted Christ as your Savior, I think the night would be a good time to do so. So in the quietness of this moment, with heads by nice clothes, is there any one that I’ll say, yes, pray for me.

I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior tonight, and I like you to pray for me. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a wrap back down, see him with it all? If you never trusted the Lord, would you do it right now? Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us for the time together, the study of Your Word, and help us to be found faithful. 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 are 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. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link.

If you are 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 broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and 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.