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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. For 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.

My mama was a little bitty woman and She was dying she not much left from just getting bone and I would you go back in my mind? When I would talk to her about the Lord and I was asked if I would speak at this one church It was five years after I had trusted the Lord and mama came out to this little old church We out in the boonies right in the woods small church pine trees And I was preaching to everybody that was there, but I was really only talking to one person.

You know how that goes? I was honing on one person. That was my mom. And I gave the gospel over and over again and trying to explain it. And I asked for a raise of hand and my mom took that little hand of me and put it right back down and on. I talked to her many times after that. So anyway, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. book of Ecclesiastes. Way back there in the Old Testament after the book of Proverbs, you know where it’s really wise in talking to people, Proverbs, and then uh oh, Ecclesiastes.

As you read the book of Ecclesiastes, you’ll find one of the key phrases under the sun, under the sun, under the sun. What it means is as a man without God, how you see life without God. Now, let’s just pretend, we’re going to do a little pretend in the name, pretend that there is no God. Now, according to the 14th chapter of Psalms, 14th Psalm, verse 1, a fool has said in his heart, there is no God, but let’s just be foolish for a moment and say there is no God.

If there is no God, what would become the purpose of life? Why are we here? Now you’re going to have to do a lot of search and try to find a purpose in life, a purpose for life itself. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and look there in verse 19. So you’d have to come to the conclusion that if there is no God, And there is no real difference between man and animals.

For in verse 19, for that which befall of the sons of men befall of beast. Even one thing befall of them as the one dyath, so dyath the other. Yeah, they all have one breath so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all his vanity. Same thing happens to animals, it happens to people. You ever look at an animal? They got eyes, we got eyes. They got a nose, we got a nose. They got a mouth, we got a mouth.

They got ears, we got ears. They can walk, we can walk. I mean, so what makes the difference between you and animal? They die, we die. You see, when you can’t see God, you can’t see what happens when something dies. Then it’s left up to your imagination while if there is no God, then death is the end of everything. So we just pretend there’s no difference between us and an animal. Take your Bible and look there in the Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Just turn to your left or chapter 2. And look in verse 17. Verse 17 and verse 19. Therefore I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me. For all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That’s because there’s no purpose. When the sea of the sun is no purpose, why do it? Why do anything? There’s no purpose. So then you had to try to figure out how to just make you happy. And this is where I really believe it or not.

Most people are. They live like an atheist. They have no purpose in life. So they go from one thing to the country of what will make me happy because it all will revolve around themselves. What do I want to do? Sorry, says in verse 18, yay, I hated all my labor, which I had taken under the sun because I should leave it unto the man that shall be. after me. Why should I work and slave and build all of it and just all of them do is leave it till the person comes after me?

Why? Well, we’re just pretending that there’s no God. No difference between us and animals and the purpose of life is gone because there is no purpose Because that means a planner, unintelligent, designed, reasons. Well, there can be none of that. We’re just a bunch of accidents. And, oh, we’re just a big bang. Lord, behold, the blob flipping around in the ooze of a now. And, Lord, behold, here we are. But we’re just an accident. And there is no God.

There’s no purpose to life. So power would make right. Just do whatever you want to do. Where would morals come from? Who was standards? What right does one dog got to tell another dog what a dog can and cannot do? I mean, what right would a person have to tell somebody what they can and cannot do? So what’s wrong with, you know, if you want to kill somebody, you just kill somebody? You know, they’re just an animal anyway. Even if you want to treat somebody wrong, steal, lie, cheat, so what?

Who says it’s wrong? According to who? She, there would be no right and wrong. But we’re just pretending because there is no God. So the fair is no God, all these other things that I’m saying would be true. So, in verse 19, he says, And who knew of whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have ruled over all my labor wherein I have labored and wherein I have shown myself wise under the sun?

This is all so vanity. In other words, I may have been wise and produced all these, this wealth only to leave it to a fool. What’s the purpose of that? So it’s kind of deflates the purpose of life, kills the will to live. You know, there’s a lot of people that live under that assumption because they don’t believe there is a God. There’s no purpose to life. Why should I make my marriage work? If I don’t want to, I don’t.

Who cares how the kids turn out? Who really cares? What’s right and wrong? What’s my goal? What’s my purpose in raising children? So I’d just do whatever you want to do. Most parents do. Nothing matters. Look in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Chapter 4. Look there in verse 1. In verse 1, so I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done. done under the sun. You keep noticing that phrase under the sun. It’s like a lost man’s viewpoint. A lost man who has no hope in God.

And this is what the conclusions will be. This is how you’re going to think. And behold, the tears of such as were oppressed. They had no comforter. And on the side of their oppressors, there was power, but they had no comforter. Because see, You and I, we know, okay, there’s the Holy Spirit, He’s a comforter, He helps us God. Oh, but for those, there’s no God, there is no such thing. A lot of people get a lot of comfort out of believing, you know, in what God said, but there is no God.

And so if there is no God, He didn’t say anything. And if He didn’t say anything, we’re on our own. You’re on your own. So we’re all on this globe, I hear in the middle of space, where are we going? What’s the purpose? What’s behind all of it? Look in verse 2, Wherefore I praised the dead, which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive. In other words, the dead person is better off than the person that’s alive.

You know if all this is true, if there is no God, then the people that are dead are better off than those that are still living. You realize how much longer you might have to live, and you may have a lot of sorrow and a lot of misery coming down the road. road. So this is why people who have no hope. What I end it sooner. So that’s all there is, you know. So where are you going? You die.

We just go to the grave just six feet under and That’s what a lot of people think There is no hope all is vanity and vexation of spirit means everything’s empty. It’s all hollow. There’s no no purpose to anything So here in verse three says yay better is he than both they, which had not yet been, who have not seen the evil work that is done under the Sun. In other words, a man that’s dead is better than the person that’s alive or the person who is yet to be born.

Doesn’t this sound very encouraging and uplifting. I mean, this is the way it is when you live without God. But I got some news for you. There is no purpose, not only there’s no purpose in life, but without God’s it, there’s no purpose in death. What’s the purpose of death? Why? If there’s no God. It’s not why is there life? Why is there death? Explain it. They can’t explain it. Why does anything die? What’s the purpose of death? What’s accomplished by death?

Well, so if there is no God, then you’ll have to admit that there’s no heaven, then there’s no hell. and we are of all men most miserable. And then, and then, Christ came, and then Christ came. That changes everything. If Christ is real, and if He is who He claimed to be, It changes everything. It means that there is a God. Jesus coming into this world proves there is a God. Because God had it wrote in the Word and told all this in advance.

So if there is a God and Jesus is God, then there is a purpose to life. And there is a Creator, and we were created. And if we were created, then a God created you and I for a purpose. That means that I have a purpose in living, and there is a purpose in dying. There’s a purpose. The key, of course, is always to find out what it is. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7 says that your joy may be full.

They’re saying that God wants us to know about Him. So what would you think would be the total reason for being, for living, our goal? The purpose of a man’s life. What is the duty of man? What is the duty of man? What does God want him to do? So Christ’s coming says that there is a God. Christ’s coming says that there is a difference between man and animal. And that there is a purpose to life and the purpose to death.

There is a reason. It also means that there is hope beyond the grave. And there’s something that man needs to listen to. I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12. You’re in the same book, just turn over there to Ecclesiastes and chapter 12. Now I believe that Solomon living under the law because David lived under the law. And this is a conclusion, a sum of the whole matter. Look at verse 13.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. God keep His commandments for this in your underlyingness in your word in the Bible. This is the whole duty of man. Now since we’re not under the law and we’re not living, you know, 3,000 years ago, we still understand from the teaching and the principles laid down in in the book of Ecclesiastes that there is a God. And that man should fear God. And the whole duty of man is to know his word and certain.

In verse 14, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be bad. God will. So there is accountability. There’s accountability. You know, there’s a lot of people who think that, well, I’m a self-made man. I don’t need God. I don’t need God. Let me just kind of give you a little bit of an idea how stupid that statement is. A man to say, I don’t need God. All right, let me ask you this.

Do you need food to live? All right, you do. Who made it? God. So. All right, you do. Who made it? God. So God made the food, and you need food to live. So you don’t need God, But God made the food. Okay? See if you can live without the food. Because you don’t need God. Another point. Does a man need air to live? You need air to live. Okay question. Who made the air? So God made the air that you need to live.

But you don’t need God. So let’s do away with what God provided. Let’s do away with the air. Are you still so independent? I don’t need God then you don’t need food and you don’t need air. You see, I need God because God supplies the air. God supplies the food and without God there would be no food, there would be no air. Do you need water? I think you probably need water. Question. Who made the water? God?

But you don’t need God? Do you need water? Then evidently you need God. Because God is the one that made the water. Do you realize I could go on and on? And yet there’s people that I don’t need God. Okay, take away everything God provided. See how well you’re doing. Maybe you don’t need that body you got either. Maybe God could take that body away from you. And then what? Well, so I must admit to be an inferior and I must admit that I am dependent upon God for life.

My life came from God and I depend upon God for sustaining my life. Remember in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and he made that garden and took the dirt of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul and God put him in this beautiful beautiful beautiful garden? God has provided everything that we need, because we could not exist without God. And you don’t need God. Sounds a little like a man’s deal with.

He’s arrogant. Besides being a fool, he’s dumb, stupid, ignorant. Because anybody with reasonable thinking power knows that without the Lord there there would be no life. I was looking at that little baby that Betty was holding yesterday at the wedding. Little old bitty type, little bitty thing. And the little boy was there and I had told him this earlier and I says, is that is that a real baby?” I said, that’s not a toy. I said, it means it’s real.

And you look a little baby and you think, how in the world could anybody think that this was created by a man? God had to do this to make a baby. He realized that everything has the power to reproduce after its own kind, just like God said, to reproduce. The power to procreate, it’s unreal. It’s a miracle because you could not have designed it. What part of this baby could you have developed without the other parts being developed in the baby live?

You see, it was all one time. He got his ears, nose and eyes, and all that. All at once. It’s all there. Arms and legs, it’s all there. I consider it to be a miracle. Turning your Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 14, the book of Romans, and chapter 14. Romans 14, and look there in verse 12. You don’t have verse 12 underlining your Bible, you maybe could should consider it. But you-see, there is a God, and because there is a God, I am different from animals.

And I do have a purpose in life and there is a purpose in death and The whole duty of man is to find out what Does God want man to do? And Romans in chapter 14 look there in verse 12, so then every one of us shall give a count of himself to nothing to God because there is a God, man is accountable, man is responsible. That means that I’m supposed to do something that this God wants me to do.

So the key of course is to find out what is it that God wants me to do with my life that he gave to me. I love these verses. Look at in verse 10. Well why does Thou judge Thy brother? or why said if not thy brother, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. This is those that no Christ is Savior, yes? And all the people that don’t know the Lord, they still got a given account to the Lord.

It’s appointed unto every man once to die and after this, the judgment. So there is accountability. Man does have to, he’s going to have to do it. So I am personally responsible to God. And I wrote something down in my little notes here. This is what I wrote to him. No power or another line of authority can relieve me of a God-given responsibility. Nobody has the right to relieve me of my God-given responsibility. I am personally accountable. I am personally responsible.

And there is coming a day of recognition. Payday, someday. We’ve got to give an account to God. So life is just getting ready, preparing to meet God. You know that’s a verse in the Old Testament that says, prepare to meet thy God. Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum. Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. You know this talks a little bit about the parables and all in chapter 13. But look in verse 38. Verse 38. Just kind of give you a little bit of an idea as God looks at this world.

He says, the world is a field and God has placed us into the world means into the field. So he says, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom. Now that would be a reference to those that know the Lord. But all I know is that here is the world and I’m in the world and there’s two things I need to find out about this whole world in which I live. One, what am I doing here?

And where is it that He wants me to do it? So what is my job? And where does He want me to do my job? The Bible talks about us being sores and reapers. You’ll find many illustrations given where sowing and reaping, sowing and reaping. The 126 Psalms is about sowing and reaping. There’s another verse found there in the book of Galatians in chapter 6. Look at this verse real quick. Galatians in chapter 6. And look there in verse 7, verse 7.

If you see and understand just a few simple things, you’ll notice there as he talks to those who know Christ is Savior, verse 7, be not deceived. God is not mocked. So how do you mock God? By thinking you can do whatever you please and get away with it. It’s what it boils down to. There’s a price to pay. Bad decisions will reap certain consequences. consequences. Good decisions will reap certain consequences. But in verse 7 He says for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.

So we’re put into this world for a purpose and I believe that main purpose is sow and to reap. So you and I are going to sow things and we’re going to reap things. So you said, well, I didn’t ask to be born. Who did? But here we are. And so you and I, while we’re in this world, for the last 50 years, I have been sowing. Now, when you read the book of Ruth, you’ll find that it talks about sowing handfuls on purpose.

In other words, She’s sewing seed on purpose. Why is she doing that? Because she has a purpose. It’s going to be sewn and something’s going to grow and something’s going to come up and somebody’s going to reap something. Every time you go to work, you’re sewing a certain amount of work. You’re dispensing labor. and people are paying you for something that you gave. So you are sewing and reaping a paycheck. Everyone that’s in this room, if you’ve ever held a job, you sew and you reap.

When it comes to a wife, you are sewing certain things and you’re gonna reap certain things. So be careful how you sew. And the wife is sewing and reaping. Children are learning how to sow and reap. To the Christian. Is it not true that we are to sow and to reap? That’s what the word of God is talking about. Now you and I know that we’re in a field and we’re supposed to sow the good seed, the good seed.

Now wonder what that is. and it tells you that the seed, the good seed, is the Word of God. So you and I have a perfect word to sow the good seed. If I’m sowing good seed, then I expect certain things to come from that. You know why over the years I have sought to be faithful to sowing and sowing on purpose. In other words, doing it deliberately, not accidentally, but deliberately. In other words, it’s something that I do because it’s a right thing to do.

It’s something God wants me to do. And I do it because everyone should do it that knows the Lord. 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 by the line 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 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. 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.