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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 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

A couple weeks ago I preached a sermon on how to be a failure. Anybody remember that? How to be a failure? Then I preached one last Sunday. How to be a success. How to be faithful. Tonight, we’re going to throw a cog in the wheel. And you need to know how to get it out. But you need to understand what can go wrong. I mean, if you don’t want to be a failure and you’ll want to be successful, what can go wrong?

Absolutely nothing, huh? Well Murphy’s law is that if it can go wrong, it will. And if something can happen to you, they keep you from enjoying life, it will. But I want to explain a few things to you so that you know the consequences of your bad decisions. I have a computer and they have designed these computers to where they can get viruses so they can sell you a program on how to keep the virus out. And then you got to keep paying them so that it can keep it out continually for the rest of your natural born life.

I thought if you could do it, why didn’t you just put it in there so they can’t get in there? They call it a firewall, got to build a firewall that gets a virus. could just eat up everything in there, ruin your whole hard drive. I’ve never lost my hard drive yet. And as I know, I don’t know if I’ve had a virus, but I’ve been told I haven’t had some viruses. I know I’ve had a few viruses in my body too.

And if you get a virus, you can get sick. And so you try to figure out a way to keep yourself well. So you take all these vitamins and all of Let’s not tell us that in the other. Well, there’s one virus that you have. It’s called a sinful nature. You have a sin virus, and you can’t get it out of your body. And drugs won’t help. I might numb you where you can’t think. But you have within you a terrible virus that can ruin your hard drive.

Where you can’t think and you can’t reason. Can’t relate, can’t record, can’t absorb. This old sinful nature that you and I have, we got it from the day we were born. And so, yeah, you need to know, if I want to be faithful, what can go wrong? Well, this is what can go wrong, and you need to know what’s it gonna cost you? Cause it’s going to cost you something if you let that virus run free through your computer.

Now I don’t have to worry too much about up here. All I got is a one gigabyte. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Jeremiah, book of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. And he had enough to weep about the people he was in charge of were prosthetic. If they could do something wrong, they did it. And it didn’t make any difference what God told them to do. They were not going to do it. They were a bunch of hard-headed, stiff-necked individuals.

Boy, I’m glad we don’t have anybody like that here. But understand that God had told Israel what He wanted them to do, how He would bless them, how much He loved them, how He would protect them and provide for them. And they just so much as just nubbed their nose at God and says, I’m going to do whatever I want to do and live how I want to live. So God says, if you want to have those gods from all the other countries, good.

I’ll just send you to the other country where those gods are.” Well, look what he says here. Jeremiah chapter 5 and look in verse 21. Verse 21, he said in verse 21, here now this, oh, foolish people. And without understanding which have eyes and see not, which have ears? And here not. Fear you not me, sayeth the Lord, don’t you fear me? I mean here’s God, the true and living God made heavens on the earth. Did all these wonderful things for Israel?

He says, don’t you fear who I am? Don’t you know who I am? And they said, no, we don’t know who you are. God had done so much for them. And so he says here in verse 22, fear you not me, sayeth the Lord, will you not tremble at my presence? Which have placed the Holy Spirit. the sand for the bounds of the sea for a perpetual degree. He said that it cannot pass it, and though the waves, they’re up-possed themselves, yet can they not prevail, though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.

But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart. That looks like a description of the people in America. Everybody’s in revolt. Nobody wants anybody to tell them what they can and cannot do. And everybody’s trying to lay down the law, make everybody else do whatever they want. Wives don’t want to obey their husband, husband don’t want to obey. God, kids don’t want to obey parents. And citizens don’t want to obey the government. And the government doesn’t want to obey God.

Everybody’s in revolt. You just saw this in Congress this last few weeks. Well, the last few years, this pathetic. If we only had men of character. We got a bunch of characters, but I’m talking about men with characters. And it says here in verse 24, neither say they in their heart let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth reign. Both the former and the latter in his season he reservists unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

To know that the God who made the heavens and the earth determined the boundaries of the sees, can he control the air, the rain? And it says he’s the one that’s promised us the former in the latter rain upon our crop and all this and the abundance and everything that you need. He says you would think that people would have a little bit more respect for God but they didn’t. So he says here in verse 25 and you ought to underline verse 25.

Your in every iniquities have turned away these things from your sins and your sins have withholding good things from you. Now think what that verses says, that your sins is keeping good things from you. So if you only knew what good things you have given up because of sin. Now we won’t know until we get to heaven to see what is cost us, but you can not, against God and win. Nobody ever has, nobody ever will. But to understand that there is a virus on the inside of us and if it gets control of you, he’ll ruin your life.

It’s that old sinful nature that you have, the desire to do your own thing, go your own way, it’s rebellion to God. A few people ever really want to do whatever God wants them to do. But it says in verse 26, for among my people are wicked men. They lay wait as he that said it snares. They said a trap. They catch men. Wicked people catch people. Now the Bible says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

We’re supposed to catch men also, but we’re supposed to catch them with truth. They’re catching them with lies. So you’re either submitting yourself to a life of truth or a life of lies whichever where you want to go. And the thing is is the people look up there in the middle part of verse 31, look at verse 31 where it says the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means and get this and you’re on the line to say but my people love to have it so and the people like it.

You would think that people would be wise enough after a while. Israel was one blessed people. God blessed them with so much, and yet they still did not see and understand it. But anyway, here we are. We’re two thousand years since the time of Christ, and God has given us His Word, blessed us in a wonderful country. We got freedoms that most people around the world never enjoy, and we abuse it. We don’t take advantage of it to use our lives for the Lord the way we should take your Bible and turn to Ephesians chapter four, the book of Ephesians and chapter four.

Now we’re just going to look at a few verses that you already know them. No, this is new to you, but I want you to be sold and convinced that though you may know what will cause you to fail because of attitudes and stuff and you may know that I want to be faithful, you need to know that there’s the devil and he will to use that sinful nature of yours to put a cog in the wheel so it won’t roll so that you can achieve what you want.

So here in Ephesians in chapter 4, look in verse 30. The verse 30 says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you’re sealed until the day of redemption. Now the day you trusted Christ as your Savior. When you heard that Jesus Christ died on the cross, paid for all of your sins, you believe He did it for you. God saves you, saves you from hell. That means you don’t get to go to hell. He gives you eternal life.

You’re now His child, and as His child you’re going to heaven. And the Bible says that you were sealed that very moment with the Holy Spirit of God. promise. And it says here, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Now the Holy Spirit has power. The Holy Spirit has influence. The Holy Spirit is not power and influence. The Holy Spirit is a person that has power and influence. The Holy Spirit is what we call in the Word of God.

He is the unknown God that most people never know anything about. But the Holy Spirit is God living inside of you when you trust that Christ is your Savior. And God says that we grieve the Holy Spirit. So you need to know and understand that when I choose to sin, I choose to grieve God. Think about it and think it through. When I choose to sin, to rebel against God, to do something that’s wrong, then I know it’s wrong.

I chose to cause God grief. If there’s anyone that we should love, anyone we should fear, anyone we should Respect it ought to be the Lord. He’s the last one that you should ever want to cause grief to And yet God says that we grieve the Holy Spirit of God We’re by your shield until the day of redemption So we know that we’re blessed by God in the heavenlies and There’s things yet that God wants to give us here upon the earth So God has been good to it Well, the Bible says here in Ephesians in chapter 5 in verse 1 where it makes a statement, be followers of God.

It means to be imitators of God. And I thought, wouldn’t it be something that if every time we got ready to do something, we would say, um, something along this line, I’m going to pretend I’m Jesus. Now, what would Jesus do? I said, trying to be like Jesus, pretend nerv Jesus. Will that make you think twice? Before I say, when you talk into somebody, whether it’s the wife or the kids or the husband or boss, anybody, I’m going to pretend I’m Jesus.

Now what would Jesus say? What would Jesus do? How am I supposed to respond? How am I supposed to react or respond to whatever is going on? on. I thought that would make a good sermon, but I haven’t got it done so I can’t preach it yet. But I want you to get this. Look in 1 Corinthians in chapter 6, 1 Corinthians and chapter 6.

I want you to know that yes, you have the Holy Spirit of God living within you, and when you are rebellious you grieve God. When the woman rebels against her husband, it grieves God. When the husband is not a loving husband or a good father, it grieves God. It causes him grief. And I can tell you right now, you’re not going to grieve God and win. I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do. But here in 1 Corinthians in chapter 6 verse 19 says, what?

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you’re not your own. So whenever you trust in Christ as your Savior, you know you have been bought and paid for. You belong to whoever bought you. Well, Christ died on the cross and paid for my sins. He owns me. I trusted him as my Savior. His death put to my account and the payment he made. I’ve been bought.

I’ve been redeemed, paid for. So I belong to the one who bought me. And the Lord says, what know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have of God? And then he says in verse 20, for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. So it’s like God, he’s got my my body, then my spirit, and me, which is the soul. So he bought my body, soul, and spirit.

I belong totally to the Lord. So if I belong to him, should I want to call him grief? You see, the Lord should be the most important thing in your life. And if he’s not, sin is going to take its toll upon you. You’re not gonna be doing like you should. Turn into Bible 1 Peter chapter three. First Peter and chapter 3, this is the scripture that I usually use with marriage, you know, husband and wife, talking to them about problems.

And everybody has a few problems here and there, but some people maybe have less than others, but it’s a wonderful thing to know that God has given to us an example. And it makes a statement here, and I want you to see this in verse 7. See, he talks about in the first six verses about the way the woman is supposed to be. How godly she’s supposed to be, sweet and wonderful and all that kind of stuff. Then it talks about the man, and it says in verse 7, likewise, ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life and you ought to underline this part of the So you need to know what will my sin cost me.

What’s it going to cost me? It’s going to cost you and hinder your prayer life. Because see, when you’re not right with the Lord, you’re not going to be praying like you ought to. When you’re not right with other people, you’re not going to be praying like you ought to. Because it becomes a virus and it contaminates you. And it makes you, where you can’t think clearly. clearly and you get in a fitter raid sometimes and you’re ruled by emotions and you don’t think rationally like you should think.

And that’s why God says I want you to know what it’s going to cost you. I didn’t put these verses in the Bible. God put them in there. I’m just trying to bring them to your attention even though you may already know them and it may not be that you need it today but you might need it tomorrow or the next day because you don’t know what’s going to happen down the road and we don’t know what going to transpire in our life as far as what people are going to say or do or what you’re going to say or do.

I’m glad that there is a verse in the Bible that says whenever we sin against the Lord, though we have a verse that says 1 John 1 9 that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and the cleansers from all in righteousness. That’s to the believer on fellowship between him and God. So anyway, these are some good verses that you need to keep in mind. Now take your Bible look in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 9.

1 Corinthians and chapter 9. The Apostle Paul talks about wanting to win, to gain, and he lays it out pretty strong. talks about us all running a race, he says, and we run because we want to win. He says, but they in the world run to obtain a corruptible crown and we an incorruptible crown. It means that our time running this race is not a waste of time. It means that after you trust Christ as your Savior, the time that God gives us to live that God wants us, as His children, to serve Him, to run the race.

And if we run the race according to the rules, then God is going to reward us when we get to heaven. I play a little football, a little basketball, and a little softball, and baseball, and Chinese checkers. But anyway, I’ve played a few sports. I don’t have to be good at any of them, just enjoy them. But in everything that you do, there’s always rules and regulations. Now, on myself, when I get ready to bat, I really don’t like for there to be an umpire.

And I don’t like it when the pitcher is trying to be the umpire. I wanna call the balls in strike, because the only reason I didn’t swing at those that are high and low and outside, the inside is because they were all balls. I didn’t wanna swing at those. I’d rather be the umpire. But you know, it doesn’t work very good if everybody becomes their own umpire. When I’m running the first base and I get there, if he gets there an inch before I get there, they call me out.

I would rather be the umpires, I’m safe. Now, would I be prejudiced if I was the umpire? Of course not, you know I’d be fair. You’re always out. Me, I’m always safe. And when I get up there to bat, I don’t like the bunt. I want to hit a home run. So every time I hit, I’m trying to hit it as hard as I can, as far as I can, because that’s the way I am. I do everything like that.

But on a team, there comes a time when you have to listen to the… You know, if you’ve got a ref, you’ve got a coach, you’ve got to listen to what somebody tells you for the team’s sake, what you win or you lose. And the last thing I’d want is somebody to say, just run it down to third-day baseline. No. Sometimes you need a coach, somebody that can see what you’re doing and give you some good advice. You see, on our team, the Lord, he’s the coach.

He’s calling the play. He’s doing this, you know, he’s the umpire. And he tells us what to do and what not to do. And make sure that you understand that everybody on his team gets to bat. Everybody on his team gets to bat. Every one of his children will have an opportunity. It may not be that you get to go first. You just sit and be patient. God will use every one of his on his team. But now if you can’t listen to the coach, you know what the coach might do or the ref might do or the, he might just tell you to go sit on the bench.

When it comes to serving the Lord, the apostle Paul says, I play by the rules. Less when I have preached to others, I myself am disqualified and I have to go sit on the bench. That’s what he says there in verse 27. He said, but I bring my body under subjection. I want to rule my body, not my body rule me. Now when I preach to others, I myself, if not a castaway or set aside because it’s talking about what sin can do to you.

Sin can take you out of the game. The game is so important. What we live for, our cause is so important. And you don’t want to have to be set aside or settle in this. You want God to use you. It’s so important. Take your Bible looking Psalms 51, the 51st Psalm, all the way back in the Old Testament, the 51st Psalm. There was a guy by the name of David. Everybody remember David? You know that young boy that went out there and he took a bear and ripped him apart with his bare hands?

Did the same thing with a lion? And took off the head of Goliath? Wouldn’t that have been something that had that on video? Man, I’d show that every day. How the little boy took down the big giant. And when he slung that thing around, the Holy Spirit took that little rock and guided that little rock and he planted it right in the middle of his forehead. It sunken in there and the man was dead. Because he yielded to the Lord.

And God raised him up and says, you’re going to be the king of Israel. A lot of things happen in young David’s life and finally he got to be the king and when he got to be the king well the time came when kings go out to battle that’s what kings do but the came of time when this king didn’t want to go out to battle you see he had been up in his palace and he overlooked and lo and behold he saw this beautiful woman and I I don’t know how far away it was or whatever it was, caught his eye.

And next thing you know she was in the palace, and next thing you know she was in his bed. Next thing you know she’s having a kid, not a cover of that sin. He had Uriah, he had taken and put into the heat of the bottle so that he would die. So he was guilty of adultery, and he was guilty of murder. So God’s going to have to whoop him. Here’s a man after God’s own heart, wouldn’t it? God had greatly used.

And David’s last days of his life, he had misery upon, misery upon misery of all the things that happened in his family. Did he get away with it, didn’t get away with it? And so God took something away from David that David loved. not only taken the child, but he took the joy of his salvation away. He didn’t have any joy. So he says here in Psalms 51, he says in verse 1, he said, Lord, have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me.

And then he says down there in verse 6, Behold thou desire truth in the inward part. In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom, purge me with histop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Made me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hath broken may rejoice. God done beat the Torah out of him.” And his joy was gone. He was in misery. He says, in a third-something-something.

He said he’d just-he cried day and night. He was dried up like a putcher. He was just-everything was going wrong in David’s life. He was carrying sand that he was hiding. And he hadn’t come clean between him and God. God had to deal with him. So he says in verse 10, create in me a new heart and renew a right spirit within me. Verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

See in the old test with the Holy Spirit was used by God to come upon people to do certain works and then would leave. The promise invu the New Testament in John chapter 14 in verse 16, it says, and I will be I will give you a comforter that may abide with you forever in the comforter. In verse 26 of John chapter 14 is the Holy Spirit. So when you and I trust Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells us and will never leave us and never forsake us.

The Old Testament before Christ died, yes. But that doesn’t mean that David lost his salvation. David did not lose his salvation, but he did lose the joy. That’s why he says in verse 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then, cause whenever you give me my joy back, he’s the outteached transgressors, thy ways. Sinners shall be converted unto thee. So he was talking about how that God didn’t want to sacrifice from him.

He wanted a broken and a contrite heart. You see, God doesn’t want your sacrifice in the sense that that’s supposed to make up for God wants you when you rebel against the Lord, when you sin against the Lord, He wants you to come broken before Him. He wants you to humble and submit yourself to Him and call it what it is that I send against you. And God says He’s faithful and just to forgive. If you don’t, then you carry around the guilt because you know it’s not right yet.

You try to hide it from God, but you can’t hide anything from God. God knows everything. And it just kind of weighs upon you. And you don’t have that freedom, that lifting off of it, that you’ve got that heavy cloud that just follows you everywhere you go. And you want the bright sunlight. You want the weight lifted off your shoulders. And God can do all of that for you. But if you try to hide your sin from God, it’s going to cost you dearly.

You come straight to the Lord, you humble yourself, and you confess the sin and forsake the sin as a believer. And God will bless you and restore a lot of things to you. But it’s the joy that he was talking about. See that in verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, that will not despise. God won’t despise that. That’s what God is after. God knows that we all fail, we all sin.

Just make sure that when you do, you own up to it. And God will take care of everything else. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tapp of Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part two 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 Bible and 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 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.