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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. I played 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 want to call the balls in strike because the only reason I didn’t swing at those that are high and low and outside and inside is because they were all balls. I didn’t want to 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 got a ref, you got a coach, you got to listen to what somebody tells you for the team’s sake, what, you know, the way you win or you lose. And the last thing I’d want to say somebody 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, yet 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 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, 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 set on the shelf. 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? It took off the head of Goliath. Wouldn’t that have been something to head 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 And his palace and he overlooked and lo and behold he saw this beautiful woman. And I don’t know how far away it was or whatever it was, but 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 one, he said, Lord have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me.

And then he says down there in verse six, 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. Make 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. And a third-something, he said he just, he cried day and night, he was dried up like a potter, he was just, everything was going wrong in David’s life.

Because he was carrying sin 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 Testament, the Holy Spirit was used by God to come upon people to do certain works and then would leave.

The promise in the New Testament in John chapter 14 in verse 16, it says, and 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 to save you, 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 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 to broken in the 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 get 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. Look there in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 3. Remember that whenever you were born in this world, you were born with sinful nature, you naturally do things wrong.

Everybody’s in the same bone. Nobody’s better than you, nobody’s worse than you. I’m not up here because I’m better than everybody else. I am a sinner. And I ought to go to hell and I know it. But I’m not going to go to hell. Not because I’m good, but because he’s good. Christ died for my sins. Now if He paid for all of my sins, Why should I have to pay for them? If Christ paid for your sins, why should you have to pay for them?

You don’t. All you have to do is believe He did it for you. And if you believe He did it for you, He gives you eternal life. Now, after you trust Christ to save you, you’re His child. God wants His children to grow in the Lord. So when you’re born into God’s family, you are a babe in Christ. But look in verse one, sin will keep you from growing spiritually. So there’s a spiritual price to pay. Verse one, and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, mature.

But as unto carnal, that means fleshly minded, a child of God who is a babe in Christ, but fleshly minded. It means you mind the flesh, and you don’t mind the spirit of God. He says in verse two, I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto you are not able to bear it, neither yet nor are you able. In other words, you should be able, but you’re not able to take meat. So I gotta give you milk.

You know, it’s like a little baby. How would you like me 30 years old and still on a bottle? And that’s why some Christians are, they’re still on the bottle. But you know that it’s going to cost you and hinder your spiritual growth. Just like it can hinder your prayer life because of sin. So that you know that if you don’t guard this and you’re like, remember this, nobody else can guard this area of your life. Nobody can guard sin in your life.

Because it’s an inside job. If your life is wrecked, it’s not from the outside, it’s on the inside. And nobody can control that. You are the only one. And that’s why it’s so important. So take your Bible look in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 talks about something that you and I should remember that as we live our Christian life, you know that your rebellion to God will grieve the Holy Spirit, but also in verse three it says, consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weird and faint in your mind.

In other words, the reason that you get faint and want to quit and not want to serve the Lord without your heart is because you take your eyes off the Lord. He just finished talking to us in verse one about the sin that does so easily beset us. You’re a person running a race looking unto Jesus. All right, when you look unto Jesus, you’re considering what He did and the race that He run and the victory that He had.

So you’re supposed to give us confidence and courage, but you take your eyes off the Lord and you look at the world and next thing you know, you can fall in love with the Lord. And then you do whatever you want to do. You see, that looking unto Jesus kind of helps you to constrain yourself or restrain, I should say. So we make the statement here in verse 5, and ye have forgotten, forgotten what? You forgot what you’re supposed to look at, and you forgot to consider what Christ did.

He said, but anyway, in verse 5, you have forgotten the exhortations which speaketh unto you, it’s unto children. My son despised not the other chastening of the Lord, nor faint one thou art rebuked of him. You see, my daddy had six kids, And with six kids, the older ones, well not all of them, I can say, he got most of the weapons. The younger ones, I don’t remember them ever getting any weapons. He just took it out on us.

And mainly me, I was always the victim for me. Don’t you feel sorry for me? You knew that I didn’t do anything wrong. I was always innocent. I never deserved one weapon in my whole life. Well, maybe I didn’t see things exactly the way my dad saw things, and it could have been a disagreement there. But my dad chastened me. He whooped me. He didn’t make me want to toe the mark. He did scare the devil out of me, or he tried to beat the devil out of me.

But I know this verse because it relates down there in verse 9 where it says in verse 9, Furthermore, we have had fathers who had corrected us. But it says here for something else. And we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live? For they, barely for a few days, chasin’ us after their own pleasure. According to this verse, they enjoyed it. I’m not saying that’s a total truth with all parents, but I think my daddy really got a kick out of it.

He didn’t just how much he could make me holler and how high I could jump. Well anyway, that’s it, moving right along here. But in verse six he says, for home the Lord loveth, he chasteeth and scourgeth every son home he receiveth. Now that’s what the Lord does to every one of his children. So if you have trusted Christ as your Savior and your God’s child, can you live as your pleasing, get away with it? No, can you live as your pleasing?

Oh, you can try it, but you can’t get away with it. There’s a God in heaven that works things in life and it’s going to cost you. You don’t see God coming down here out of the sky and he’s got a great big old paddle in his hand and he holds up like a hero. You just experience things in life you can’t control. And how many bad things that happens to you? See that’s what God was doing to the nation of Israel.

He says because of this, this, this, this is what’s going to happen to you. They never really saw a physical God. They didn’t see his hand coming down out of the sky and blissing their little bottoms. They know there comes this nation with a bad king and they put a siege around them and people were dying of starvation and then they took their own little children and boiled their kids and ate them because of the famine. So God, a lot of all these things that happened and they lost their land, they lost their joy, they lost so much.

But they never did. Wake up and spread the coffee. They just, it was more rebellious. And no matter what God did, they rebelled against Him. And so that’s the way it is with some time, I think, with God’s children. It doesn’t matter how many times God hooks you, you just don’t seem to learn. They don’t seem to wake up. And you always try to put it off on the sum of all that, just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. Just a coincidence.

There’s no coincidence, there’s no accidents with God. And you better wake up. I believe every time I talk, I’m warning somebody in particular. I don’t never know who. I don’t believe that I waste my time and I’m beating my gums for no effect. I believe that I am sending warning signals and if people don’t listen there’s going to be some great consequences to it. Or I totally missed a mark, but I don’t think I’m missing a mark too much.

But I do believe that God’s Word is true and we need to heed it and there’s consequences foroultry. Look in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Timothy and chapter 2. And look there in verse 19. You see once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, you’re going to heaven when you die, but you’re not there yet. God may leave you down here for 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years. Never know how long. And there’s various teachings in this world and you might even question your salvation after a while, which a lot of people do.

But But in verse 19 it says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God stand to sure having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His. Now it’s good to know the Lord, but it’s also good that the Lord knows me. And then he makes this statement in verse 20, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but of wood and of earth. Some to honor, some to dishonor. He said, if a man therefore purge himself these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet or fit for the master’s use, prepared unto every good word.

So this is the vessel that can be used by God. And then there’s a vessel that might not be used by God because his sum are to honor, sum to dishonor. And if in verse 21, a man therefore purge himself. So this is something God does, it’s something that you can do, but God does want to purge your life. And if you will yield to the Lord and do what God wants you to do and correct the thing that he says to correct, you’d be surprised what God will do for you and through you.

And you’ll be a vessel that’s fit for God to use. Now, see going to heaven, that’s free, that’s a gift. You don’t earn it, you don’t work for that. That’s because he loves you that much. But God says, if you’ll serve me, he says, when you get to heaven, I got all the stuff I want to give you.

So can you rebalion down here, affect that up there? Yes, it does. And your future is been determined by your obedience to God today. And so it’s so very, very important. First Corinthians in chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And look at verse 21. Sin can also affect your fellowship with the Lord because of the companions that you keep. For example, you should make sure that your closest friends are those who know the Lord and love the Lord. If they don’t love the Lord, they’re not going to do right by you.

It just won’t happen. So he talked about fellowship in these verses from verse 16 down. But look at verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. In other words, you can’t have communion with both. And he talks about being separated. And a lot of people don’t understand this, but the Lord says, if we would take and separate ourselves from those that will bring us down. In other words, people have viruses and they are going to try to do everything they can to transfer that virus into you so it contaminates and ruins your life.

That’s why you have to have a firewall, something to protect yourself. And if you don’t protect yourself, it’s going to bring you down. You’re going to crash. And this is why you hear about people who are just, I just think I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Well, I don’t know if nerves break down or not, but I believe it’s because of sin. Sin calls guilt. Because, wait, wait breaks you down. And that’s why God says if you will not serve me because of his, his yoke, which is easy, he says, and you rebel against that one of doing what God wants to do.

God said, I’ll put a yoke of iron up on your neck until it destroys you, because it will weigh you down. So you don’t want that to happen. Now, let’s close with this year. Look over there in chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, just to your right a little bit. This is what God wants you to do, because nobody else can do it as effectively as you can. God’s Word says, be it unto you according to your faith. What do you believe?

In verse 28, but let a man examine himself, examine himself. Then look down in verse 30. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. Many people will die because of their rebellion. There’s also in the book of 1 John 5, talk about the sin unto death. So can sin in your life let go, not check, bring you physical harm and physical death? Yes. God’s word teaches it. So here in 1 Corinthians 11, he says there in verse 31.

Now look what happens if you will judge for yourself. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. In other words, if you’ll examine yourself and see what you’re doing that’s not right, and you will correct that problem, then God doesn’t have to entertain. Now, wouldn’t that be nice? That’s a sign of maturity, where you could do right without being told. This is one thing we notice about teenagers sometime. They wanna do whatever they wanna do. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, they just wanna do it.

And you say, no, you can’t do that. Now watch the attitude. When they’re told they can’t do what they want to do, their attitude reveals their maturity. Verse 32, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. So if you will examine yourself, judge yourself, correct the problem, God doesn’t have to. But you should know that if I don’t, God will. And if He has to, it’s going to be severe.

It could be very hard. And then you’ll wish you had done right to start with. But when you want God’s blessings upon you, know what it’s going to cost you. You can play the fool if you want. I think it won’t matter, but it will matter. And there’s consequences. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents all the bad things that we do. God calls it sin. This is what we’ve been talking about tonight. But now everybody sins.

God loves us though, but he hates what we do wrong. And for us to pay for the sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us and he wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We’ve all come short of God perfection. So you’ve got to be perfect to go there and we’ve all come short of perfect.

No matter how good we are, we’re not perfect. So God says that you cannot save yourself. You can’t work your way to heaven. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He is the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. Now he hates our sin because he separates us from him. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin, didn’t have to die. So he took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead.

The Sends… Of all the world was paid for it. And all that we have to do, because it’s the only thing we can do is to believe he did it for us. So God says, you can’t earn your way to heaven. It’s not going to church. You don’t have to go to church to go to heaven. You don’t have to get money to go to heaven. You don’t have to stop anything joining. You have to admit you are a sinner.

That’s what you are. And to believe it, Christ paid for all your sins. And if you’ll believe he did it for you, he would put that payment he made to your account and you get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. That’s a gift. That’s free. No gimme. Nothing. God gives it to you. You have it, and he’ll never cast you out and never lose you. Let’s pray, shall we? If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, friend, I hope that you will.

Listen to me very closely. The Bible says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. The hosts who ever believe it but then him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It means that Christ died for you. God gave his only begotten Son for you. And if you’ll believe that, you will not perish, you will not go to hell, but you will have everlasting life. You will go to heaven when you die. So in the quietness of this moment, just between you and the Lord, why not just talk to him and say something simple like this?

I know I’m a sinner and I believe Christ died for me, from my sense. And I believe He came back from the dead. And I’m trusting Him to take me to heaven whenever I die. And then if you’re making that decision just that much, you’re not promising to stop something or join something. You’re not becoming a religious hypocrite. But I’d like to know what I’ve said that made sense. And I’d like to have prayer for you in closing. I’m not going to embarrass you.

But right where you’re sitting, if you are trusting Christ as your Savior tonight, you never did before, but you will tonight. Would you just slip you in it very quickly and better write back down? Is anyone at all? Anyone at all? If you’ve never trusted the Lord before, would you do it right now? Oh wait just a moment. Right where you are, all that you have to do, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth on me, half, present tense, half, ever lasting life.

Is anyone before we close? Our father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come together and to study your word and help us to realize the importance of this message because of how much damage it can cause in our life. The price that we would pay. We ask your blessings upon each one here, help us to do right, help us examine ourselves on a daily basis and to confess things to you that we need to and to do right.

Help us to encourage one another. In Christ, then 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 Each Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool 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 line 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.