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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 to be able to 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 You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleInemistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Everybody has expectations. That’s why when you stood at the altar and you said the said those words, I do, even after the preacher said those words, you know, and better or for worse, and you expected it to get better and then. And whenever you say those words for richer or for poor, you expect it to get richer. And whenever you say in sickness and in health, you never expect to get sick. You’re gonna be well from now on. Your expectations are not always met.

And so when your expectations are too high, you have a built-in possibility of frustration and disappointment because reality never meets all of your expectations. Well, there is a verse in the Bible and I preach one time, a sermon on getting the desires of your heart because the Bible says, delight I myself and the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. But I’ve lived long enough to know that I have not gotten all of my desires, but I have gotten most of my desires.

I’ve gotten some of my desires that I’ve dreamed of and hoped for because they were desires of the Lord, and you can always have those. But there’s other desires that I’ve had and expectations that never have been met. never will. So we’re supposed to live long enough to understand some things that you’re not going to get out of life. Everybody wants to be happy every day of their life and that’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen.

You don’t want any troubles in life. That’s not going to happen. I mean, you’re going to have all kinds of troubles and you’re desiring that they don’t happen and you’re going to wish it away. There’s a lot of things that we need to learn from what God’s Word says, but take your Bible, look into book and 2 Corinthians in chapter 3. 2 Corinthians in chapter 3, look in verse 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves. You ought to underline that statement.

We are not sufficient of ourselves. There’s a lot of things you cannot do. You do not know. You cannot accomplish. And you might as well wake up to the fact you’re not going to have everything you want in life. But the last part of the verse says, sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, and you ought to underline this part of the verse because it says our sufficiency is of God. So I’m supposed to believe that God is sufficient for all that I need.

So set your desires and effects on things that are above things that you can have, because most of the desires that you can’t have are not realistic. And so God has laid some things down in His Word and we’re supposed to realize it and believe that. Take your Bible look in the book of Matthew in chapter 6. But if you’re noticed in verse 30, Matthew chapter 6 and verse 30, this is, therefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today and tomorrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith.

Do you believe that God is able to take care of you? And to meet whatever those needs are, do you desire the things of God? You see, you can desire the things of God and get them, but you can desire the things of man and not get them. Now there’s some things you’ll get because you’ll work hard and you’ll try to make it happen. But remember the things of this world are hard to get, hard to keep in great sorrow when you lose them.

Look there also in this verse. In verse 32. And after all these things, do the Gentiles sing, for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Do you believe that your heavenly Father knows what you have need of? And then he says in verse 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you. Seek first the things of God and everything else will be taken care of.

But you see, if you don’t put God first And you put things first, you’re in for a great disappointment. Because if you can learn to be content and happy and satisfied with the things of God, you’ll have so much more peace and joy in this life. You see, the Bible says that the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness in the Holy Spirit, the Book of Romans. So God wants us to seek first His righteousness. What he’s really talking about is, you know and for sure that you have eternal life.

But you seek this first. And in God’s it, everything else will be added to you. Once you trust Christ as your Savior, God gives to you His righteousness. See, I’m not going to heaven on my goodness, on my righteousness. I’m going to heaven on His. my righteousness is not good enough. It wasn’t yesterday and it wasn’t today and it won’t be tomorrow. My righteousness will never be good enough to go to heaven on. So that’s why I don’t trust it.

God said I’m to trust Him and He will give me His righteousness. Now God gave me His righteousness that would meet me as righteous as who? As righteous as Him. As righteous as God. So all I had to do is believe that He did it for me. And He puts that payment to my account and I get to go to heaven I don’t know what he did, but I’m his child now. I gotta life to live. What about all these other things that needs in life?

Some God says there’s things that we need to know and do. So I wrote a few things down. I was sitting in a restaurant one day, and I usually drinking a cup of coffee, and I’ll make a little thought here, and I’ll have a thought, and I’ll write another thing down. Before I got through, I had me a sermon. I didn’t know I was gonna have a sermon. That’s why I get a lot of them. But look there at the first one.

desire an easy road. Now I desire it but I don’t expect it. Now isn’t that true? Think about it. You desire an easy road but you don’t expect an easy road because you know life is full of troubles. Life is full of heartaches. Life there’s a lot of speed bumps. Things that slows you down. Keeps you from getting where you want to go when you want to get there at your timing. So all these things are happening. I would expect everybody.

Well, I desire everybody to like me, but I don’t expect it. Because something’s wrong with their judgment. I’m the most likable guy I know. I don’t know why everybody don’t like me, but you know it wouldn’t take that much and I can offend you and you never talk to me again. I can come to church and I can preach a thousand sermons. I didn’t preach to a bunch of them already, But I can preach one thing that you disagree with and you’ll leave this church and never come back again People do it.

They do it all the time because they can’t stand to be offended You hurt my feelings People were there feelings right up there People need to grow up and get some grit in their backbone where they’re they’re made out of something and Not so easily offended by anything and everything We whine about everything instead of just I know that I’m not going to get everything I want. You can cut people a little slack and realize that people have got problems.

And nobody’s perfect down here. When we get to heaven, yes we’ll be. We won’t have to worry about none of that stuff. Nobody’s going to hurt you. I offend you when you get to heaven. Can’t you wait? And so while you’re down here, realize it. People are going to say things, do things that you’re not going to like. The next thing, I would like to have fame and wealth. Anybody here like to be have fame and wealth? Most people like to be well known.

Everybody wants to be loved. Everybody maybe would have a desire to be famous or to have a lot of wealth. You can desire it, but I don’t expect it. And I wrote a little statement down there in bold, expect nothing and anything will be a bonus. Expect nothing and anything will be a bonus. And that’s probably about the best way to do it with people. If you don’t expect anything, anything will be a bonus. And that way it keeps you from having such great moments of depression.

Maybe you’re sitting here, you’re thing too high and you can’t attain it. Now there’s times when we need to set our aim high and things like that, but that’s not the topic of the sermon this morning. It’s about what is my expectations for life, this period of time that I’ve got to live after I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior. And see, happiness, health, I’ve desired good health all my life, but I don’t always get it. My physical body, I can go to the doctor and he says, you’re fine, next day I get sick.

My father-in-law, he went to the doctor and got a health checkup on him and they said he was at A1 shape, he was 60 years old and great shape, He came home, habits, and heart-tagnets day. And it was a few months later, he died. But he already got a good health checkup. So you may be in good shape today and die tomorrow. So you don’t have any clue when. Right after camp, I was feeling great. And I even said to myself, self, you feel great.

I said, I sure do. And by Wednesday, I got a little cold and next thing you know, I thought, yeah, I’m not have to get somebody to preach for me Sunday. And I hate that. I hate not to speak on Sunday morning. I can tolerate a little bit on Sunday nights on Wednesday, but Sunday morning, I can’t stand it. So even when I’m sick, I’ll preach on Sunday morning. That’s why I’m not going to shake your hands though. I’m not going to be nice to you today.

So when I get through, I’m not going to smile at you or anything like that. Because I don’t want somebody else, I don’t know if it’s catchy, I don’t know if they got a little cold. But that’s not enough to stop anybody. But anyway, I want you to know that you can desire to be healthy every day. And some people say, well, if you get sick, it’s a sign of sin in your life. Oh, really? You’re going to die of something, did you die of sin?

I’ve had people say, well, you know, I haven’t sinned in 40 years. Then they ought not die. Why do they die? Because wages and sin is what? Death. Wades of sin. Death. If they didn’t sin, it wouldn’t die. I don’t care how long you live, you’re going to die because you have a body that doesn’t live forever. And God doesn’t keep it well forever. I died with a perfectly healthy body. Whoopee. And you want to be happy. You can desire, but it’s not going to be reality because happiness comes from happenings.

And when things don’t happen, the way you think they ought to happen, then you’re going to be miserable and you’re not happy. That’s why you’re up here and you’re down here. You’re up there and you’re down here because you expect something that’s not real. God says, as a man is born, the sparks do fly upward. I mean, trouble from the day you’re born, there’s always trouble. always problems and you’re going to have them. So you have to expect those things.

Look at the next little statement I have there. If you do expect all these things, you’re in for a life of disappointment because you’re not always going to have an easy road. You’re not going to have everybody love you and you’re not going to have all the fame and the wealth that you want and you’re not always going to be happy and you’re not always going to be healthy. It’s just not going to be. So if you don’t expect all these things, and you say, well, I don’t expect that okay then what’s your problem and people are just always bothered by the problems and yet if it wasn’t for problems nobody would have a job everybody here has a job because it says somebody else has a problem and we’re problem solvers we’re trying to take a how can I get a job I mean how can

I help solve somebody’s problems I got to find somebody that needs me somebody wants me somebody willing to pay for my wisdom on how to solve something And that’s why we want people to get an education because they’ll have the wisdom to do something help solve somebody else’s problems So as you go through life you’re to understand this not look at number two look at number two Things I don’t expect to get because I already have You know if I already have something I don’t expect to get it the book of Romans chapter 8 puts it this way Why do you hope for that which you have?

Because if you have it you don’t need to hope for it. You already got it See, I am not seeking to be saved someday. Like a lot of people think, Jesus is going to help me live a good life so that someday down the road he’ll save me. Now, if I am going to be saved some day in the future, then what I’m saying is that I’m not saved now. I’m waiting to be saved down the road. So if God can save me down the road, why can he save me now?

If I can’t be saved until the day I die, and then God’s going to save me because he looks at all my life and my good works that I’ve done, and now he can save me. Well, why can’t he save me ahead of time? Why does he have to wait until then? Well, he’d have to wait until I die if my salvation depends upon how I live. So he has to wait until I finish doing all my deeds to know if my good works outweigh my bad work, so he’ll know whether or not to save me.

Save me, or if I qualify to be saved. But see, that means that I must expect to be saved because I am not now saved. But if I already have salvation, I don’t have to seek salvation. See, there’s nothing that I have done in 51 years to be saved. Because see, I was saved when I was 18 years old. And when I got saved, when I was 18 years old, God saved me from hell. Well, if He saved me from hell, it means that I’m not going there.

And if I’m not going there, I’m not trying to do anything to keep from going there because I can’t go there. Why can’t I go there? Because all my sins are paid. If He paid for all of my sins, well, what sins do I have to pay for if He paid for all of them? There isn’t any. Either he did or he didn’t. If he didn’t pay for all of my sins, he didn’t do me any favors. So either he did or he didn’t.

Now did Christ die on the cross and pay for all the sins of all the world? Yes. And all that we have to do is believe he did it for us because it says it’s not by your works. So you gotta leave that out. It means how you live doesn’t determine where you go. You gotta forget that. That’s null and void. because he says not by works of righteousness which we have done, not of works. So forget your works.

That means forget how you live. It has nothing to do with where you’re gonna spend eternity. And that’s what blew my mind when I was 18 years old. I argue with my father on offer three months ago, that says there’s gotta be more to a net. That’s too easy. That’s too simple. And I thought, if it’s so simple, why can’t everybody see it? I had a hard time seeing it, and I wasn’t even raised in church. But to just simply think that I can go to heaven by just trusting what Christ did on the cross for me blew my mind.

And yet there was no tricks to it, no guinex to it. I didn’t have to become a religious hypocrite claiming to be something that I knew down deep inside I wasn’t, but I wanted to go to heaven. I want to have eternal life. I didn’t want to go to hell. But see, nobody had ever stopped to explain how I could be certain of going to heaven when I die. And that was the best news I ever heard in my whole life.

I want you to take your Bible and look at a verse with me. Look there in Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two and verse eight and nine. And look how important this is. Even though you said, well, I already know those two verses, but look at it anyway. You know, sometimes you can read a verse and not understand the verse. You can read it, quote it, and never really understand it. I had read John 3 16, the night I got saved, and didn’t understand the word of it.

until the man explained it to me. You say, anybody ought to understand. I know, but I didn’t. And I find there’s a lot of people that do the same thing. See there in verse eight, four by grace are ye saved. Saved as past tense. See, this is already written to somebody who is saved, not somebody who is going to be saved. It means you already are. So I’m not expecting to be saved from hell. What? We already am. I can’t go there.

Because see, if he hasn’t saved me from going there, it means I still could go there. And God says, I can’t go there. Why? Because I’ve been saved from it. It’s a past done deal. And he says this, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves. Now what part of not of yourself would you not understand? Not of yourself means it’s not of yourself. That’s in the Greek. Well, see, this all depends on how you read it.

Okay. Well, here’s how I read that. That not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. I read that is is the gift of God. See, I don’t have to translate it. It’s already been translated. All God does believe what’s already been written. It’s the gift of God. People can’t believe it. Go into heaven as a gift. This gift is free. It means I don’t have to go to church to get it. I don’t have to give money to get it.

I don’t have to change my life to get it because all that would be I’d required to. do something to get it, then it costs me something. There is no cost. There’s no price to pay. It’s free. Free. The gift not of yourself is the gift of God. So being saved and going to heaven is something that I can have now for my grace. Are you saved? I’m saved. I’m saved. I’ve been saved. I’ve been saved for 51 years.

So if I am saved, then I’m not seeking to be saved. Because if I’m seeking to be saved, I’m saying that I am not saved. If I’m going to Colorado, it means that I’m not there yet. How can I say it any other way? Surely you can understand what I’m saying. Am I hard and complicated? Can you follow what I’m saying? You can follow me. So God says here in verse 9, look in verse 9, look at those three words, Not of what?

What works do you think he’s talking about? Not of works. Not of works would probably mean not of works. It means nothing that I do determines where I go. And this is why so many people can’t believe that it’s free because they can’t believe that God would save them by grace. You don’t deserve that. But what is grace? Grace means unmerited favor. God giving you something you didn’t deserve. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. I never have. I never will.

You see, God saved me because He loved me because He sent His Son to pay for all of my sins. And I accepted Him as my Savior. He gives me to life and I go to heaven whenever I die. Otherwise, nobody can know they’re going to heaven until they die. If it’s not free and you have to earn it, it’s only two ways. That means if you have to earn it, you have to wait till you die to find out if you got it or not.

Well, you can wait till then if you want to. I think it’s a little late because God’s going to tell you. You see, you’re either saved by grace or works and you didn’t trust Christ as your Savior, so you didn’t accept grace. So that means you’re trying to save yourself by your works. And I already told you it’s not by your works. I don’t know why you waited so long to get here to find this out. I told you in my word, didn’t you ever read Ephesians 2, 8, and 9?

I said it very clearly. You’re not saved by your words. Now why are you trying in here trying to think you’re going to get into heaven by your works? I can see all that taking place. And yet there’s people that don’t see it, that never get it. Now take your Bible and look in the book of Titus chapter 3. Titus and chapter 3. Titus chapter 3, this is on page 12, 84. And you’ll notice there in verse five. Verse five, look at what he says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

But according to his mercy, he what? Saved us, that’s a done deal. It’s already done. So I have been saved not by my works of righteousness. And yet you find people that think, you’ve got to do something. I’ve had people that say, you can’t tell me and you sure can’t. God can’t tell them either. You can’t tell me that all you have to do is believe. And yet what is the only requirement for going to heaven? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, believe it, won’t perish, but have everlasting life.

He that believeth unto Son hath life, and he that believeth not the Son of God hath not life. But the wrath of God abides upon Him. He that believeth unto Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he believeth not. You see, it all boils down to, do you believe it or not? You say, what do I gotta believe? All right, here you are, you’re sitting. You do all these bad things, you deserve to go to hell.

Christ and his son. Christ comes into the world. Got to any son. So Christ comes into the world and he had no sense or he doesn’t have to die. So he voluntarily dies in your place. He dies for all of your sins. And see what people don’t get is this. It is appointed under every man once an act of this to judgment. So if you’re only going to die once, regardless of how many sins you commit, how many times do you die?

One time. So if Christ dies for you, he only has to die one time for you. So that means that you’re going to die. it even though I live 70 years and then I croak. Okay, well, how many times did I die? Only one time. Me for all those sins, but it doesn’t matter how many sins. I only died once. Christ only died once to pay for all the sins of all the world. So that means if He died for me, He paid for all of my sins.

He died in my place. So if I had died 20 years ago or if I died 20 years in the future, He died for me in my place. And all that I have to do is believe He did it for me. He did it for me. Christ died for me. So I don’t have to pay for my sins. This old body is going to die in the grave one of these days. But I have a new birth that’s going to live forever.

I’m going to live till I die. And then I’m going to live forever. I sure am. Look at this verse again. Verse 5, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. See the new birth is by the Spirit of God. That’s a new birth. It didn’t come because you went to church and you live right and you try to go according to Christian principles and you lived all these ways And so that’s not going to get you to heaven.

You know, I never promised that. And so that’s why it’s deceptive on your part to try to think you could ever save yourself by the things that you do. Eternal life is truly a gift of God. You see, let her be there, or it says justification from all my sins. I want you to look at this. Look in Acts chapter 13, the book of Acts in chapter 13. It’s a very, very important verse.

Acts chapter 13, and look in verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore, man and brethren, that through this man, talking about Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. See, if God forgives you of your sins, there’s none for you to pay for. What if he forgave you? So when Christ died for you, and you believe he did it for you, He forgives you of everything you’ve ever done. Your sins are forgiven. So that means you don’t have to pay for them.

I don’t have to pay for my sins. Christ did it for me. That’s hard for me to accept because when I was growing up, I was always under the impression if I’m good, I’ll go to heaven and if I’m bad, I’m going to go to hell. I didn’t know that and understand that Christ paid for my sins. So that’s why for years, I did my best. I wanted to go to heaven. So I tried to live right. I tried to live a good life.

I tried to be a good kid. I really did. But I didn’t understand. And so when everyone I was growing up as a kid, before I even knew anything about it, I never took a drink in my life. I was always afraid I might like it. Now I didn’t want to become a drunk. I never smoked a cigarette because I was told it was bad for you. So I never smoked a cigarette. I never swore cuss word. And I’m almost 70 years old.

I still haven’t done none of those things. Am I going to heaven because I’m so good? No. By your righteousness, you’re never good. You have to be perfect to go to heaven. And nobody’s perfect. That’s why nobody can earn eternal life. Nobody works their way to heaven. No man has ever lived good enough to save himself. All people have to be saved the same way by grace. Either God saves you or you don’t get saved. 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. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 home page 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 10.30, and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast 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.