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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now look here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, chapter 3. And there is a portion of the scripture that I want you to notice because as you and I live, we may know the Lord’s coming, or when I die, I’ll be with the Lord, but that day hasn’t come yet. So he says in verse three, “‘But the Lord is faithful.” Just five little words, But look how important those five little words are, but the Lord is faithful. What does that say to you?

What does it tell you? That if this is the word of God, if God makes promises, God will keep His word. Has He said anywhere in His word that if we think the way He tells us to think we can have the peace of God, that He will keep in guard our minds. Does it say anywhere in the Word about casting all your cares upon Him because He cares for you? Say anything like that? Or, my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

Will God keep His Word? Does God lie? Titus chapter 1 and verse 2 says, God cannot lie. God cannot lie. If he can’t lie, he has to be faithful. If he’s not faithful, he breaks his word. And I don’t think he’ll break his word. So you see, if he says that when we leave this world, we’re going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. You can count on it. And when he says we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, we’re going to be rewarded for what we’ve done for him and suffer the loss of of what we could have had.

And we don’t see what that’s going to be, but we’re supposed to believe that if God said it, it has to be true. If God only says something one time in His Word, how many times would He have to say it for it to be the truth? Just one time. And He says that every man shall give a count of himself to God. So yes, you can trust Christ as your Savior. free, no strings attached. But as a child of God, you and I are supposed to know and understand belief that when we get to heaven, we’re going to have to give an account to the Lord how we lived since we were saved.

And God says that He’s going to reward us for what we’ve done and will suffer the loss of what we could have had. And yet we do not see how all that’s going to play out. We know that there’s going to be a thousand years upon this earth when the earth will be like the Garden of Eden. And we’re going to rule and reign with Christ. There are some people that teach that a believer will be excluded from the kingdom if they don’t live right.

I can’t say I can’t believe that. Because he says that we will always be with the Lord. Comfort yourselves because we will always be with him. Therefore I don’t believe that any of God’s people will be excluded. Nor do I believe that when the rapture takes place, He’s only coming for the faithful. There’s some people believe in a split rapture. Only the faithful get to go. And all those that are rebellious, they don’t get to go. No, we are the body of Christ.

He’s not coming for a leg. Next time you’re gonna come for an arm. He’s coming for His body. Gonna take us all out. Here I come. Ready or not. You ever play hide and seek? I used to love play hide and seek. I always cheat. If I had to be the one, I would have to. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. You say you wouldn’t do that. Yes you would.

Anyway, I used to play with hide and seek with a little eddy. And I says, here I come, ready or not. Where are you? I’m over here. It took a long time before I told him I said, don’t answer, but he’s always told to obey. So he always, over here. Anyway, he learned, they learned quick. But look in verse 3, about the Lord is faithful. shall establish you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which we command you.

See, there’s so much that God wants us as His children to do. And He says, if I would as His child, if I would just look to Him and walk with Him and serve Him, He said, there’s so much that He will do for me. God says He is faithful and He He will do what He says He will do. First Timothy chapter 2, I want you to look at this verse, first Timothy chapter 2. First Timothy chapter 2.

And look in verse 5. It doesn’t debate it, it just states it. Doesn’t debate it, just states it. Look at these five little words where He says, for there is one God. There is one God. There’s not two gods, there’s not three gods. There’s not five gods. You see, when people are ignorant, there’s some people and nations that say, there’s a million gods. I’ve been in India where they believe there’s a million of them. There’s only one God. One true living God.

And there’s only one mediator between God and man, And it’s the man Christ Jesus. The only way any man can get to God is through the Son Jesus Christ. There is no other way. And that’s why Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father except through me. And you have to go through Him in order to get to the Father. And what it means is when Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for the sins of the world you had no way of getting to God because he heaven is perfect and God is perfect and we’re not.

How can a sinful man stand in the presence of a holy God? So Christ came and he died to make it possible. He took all the sins of all the world and bore them in his body on the tree and paid for all the sins so that every person can have access to God, but only through Christ. But the only way you can get in Christ and go through Christ is to accept Christ as your Savior. So when you believe that when Christ died, He died for you.

And you trust Him as your Savior, He will give you as a free gift everlasting life. And we who sometimes were far off and nigh unto the precious promises in the The commonwealth of Israel are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So we can have access unto God only through Jesus Christ. Best thing in all the world. Take your Bible and turn it there with me to the book of Revelation chapter 22, chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22. the days coming when we’re all going to be out of here.

And so we should be looking for the Lord to come back. And buddy, the world don’t look too bright right now. Things look like they’re on a downhill sled. So we should all be in tears. We should be worried about no. Do you know if we had been born back in the days when Moses lived? You know, it wasn’t too good of a day to be born, especially for the guys. Why? They just had a little law like kill all the male children.

You know, it wasn’t a good day to be born in Christ’s day. Do you know they came in there and they killed so many babies that were approximately his age? Not a good time to be born. Well, what about today? People say, oh, this is a terrible time to have kids. It’s always been a terrible time to have kids. I shouldn’t have said that like that. There’s always problems and there’s always something. You have to trust the Lord to have children, to raise children for everything that goes on.

So until Christ comes back again, we live in a sinful world and we’re fortunate that we live in America where we have freedoms. But these freedoms are going to be going pretty fast. Well look in Revelation in chapter 22. Look in verse 20, He which testify of these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. See that phrase? Even so come Lord Jesus. Five little words. But don’t they say a lot?

If you was to say those words, What would those words mean to people who heard you say those words, even so come Lord Jesus? If God heard you say those words and you said it as a prayer to Him, what does those five little words say? I think it says an awful lot about your faith about what you believe that you know Him and you’d rather be with Him than you’d rather be here. I’ve been in some people’s homes and they look like mansions.

I said, man, I’m glad I don’t I don’t have a mansion like this. I may not want to go to heaven. I used to sing a song years ago, we learned it as kids. I have no clue where we got it from. Lord, build me just a cabin in the corner of glory land, in the shade of the tree of life at end thy glory stand, where I can just see the angels. Ad-a-da-da-da-da, I can’t remember the rest of it.

It was called, Bill Me Just the Cabin in the Corner of Glory Land. Well, since then I’ve changed my mind. I want a big old mansion on Hallelujah Avenue. I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I want everything God can give to me. And I want to serve them with all that I’ve got. And I want to pray, yes, even so come Lord Jesus. So what do I want for this coming year? I want the Lord to come.

I wouldn’t mind it if he came before the end of this year, but I serve the Lord every day believing. I should serve the Lord like He’s not coming for 100 years, and then I should live like He’s coming tomorrow. You know, it’s best to try to live this way as though Jesus died yesterday, came back from the dead today, and He’s coming tomorrow. Think about that. Live as though He died yesterday. He arose today. And He’s coming tomorrow.

I want you to turn in your Bible with me to the book of John. The book of John in chapter one. The book of John, chapter one, I want to show you something that, at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, because this is a statement made at the very beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry, that that day when he saw Christ, he had already been baptizing and he had already told the people that I’m not worthy to loosen his sandals.

And he says, He’s coming, He’s before me, but He’s coming after me. And he makes the statement in John chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 28, look there, these things were done in Bethebora beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John C.F. And evidently, this is at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, the John to baptize him, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. It’s just five little words, but look what those five little words have to say.

When he says, Behold the the Lamb of God. He wants them to look at something. They were looking at a man, but they were looking at a lamb. Behold, the Lamb of God. If you only heard that, what were you in the nation of Israel supposed to think? A man being a lamb? What was the connection? And it says here that take it the way the sin of the world. So did John the Baptist at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ say anything about Jesus being a lamb?

And about a lamb being slain. About a lamb taken away the sin of the world. Do you think the Jewish people had any understanding of the world? Do you think the Jewish people had any understanding of what he was talking about? I would have a feeling that they must have had an idea that he’s talking about Jesus Christ as a man would become a lamb, a sacrificial lamb that would pay for the sin of the world. You notice it says, of the world.

Jesus Christ came to be the Savior of the world. A lot of people say that, you know, it doesn’t say much about why Jesus Christ was doing what He did, only just to believe on Him, but it had nothing to do with the payment for sin or anything like that. John chapter 3. And look at another famous verse, verse 16. We talked the other day about a part of this verse where he says, God so loved the world. Just five little words.

But notice what he says. He gave his only begotten Son. He gave his only begotten Son. So when And he says, he gave him, does the word gave mean more than this, he sent him into the world. What is wrapped up in that one little word gave? He gave his only begotten Son. This is the beginning of his ministry. If they understood anything, they should maybe have understood that God was giving his Son in order for the world to be saved, and that they would not perish, but have everlasting life.

You know, it’s just a possibility, but some people read it and they never seen anything in the scriptures about the payment he was gonna make. They just see Jesus and just to believe on him. But what’s he talking about? I believe you can’t just take those verses out and throw them away and say, whether or not they are because they are there. So for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believe it in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

I want you to take your Bible and turn it with me to the book of 2 Timothy, the book of 2 Timothy and chapter 4. You and I have been blessed to have the free gift of eternal life. And because of that free gift of eternal life, you and I are going to go to heaven whenever we die. And God has asked us to serve Him. We don’t serve the Lord to get to heaven. We serve the Lord because we’re going there.

And God said, He would bless our lives, reward us when we get to heaven. And we all believe that that’s the truth. But look there in verse 7. Verse 7, I have fought a good fight. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. But I want you to know where he says, I have finished my course. A lot of people can fight a good fight for a little while. But he wanted you to know that this good fight that he thought it was that he finished the course.

I have finished my course. It’s just five little words. I have finished my course. That means that I did run. It means I got started. It means that I didn’t quit. It means I finished. You and I, it’s so easy to dedicate our lives to the Lord because sometimes our life is that period of time I’ve got yet to live and we forget about dedicating today. It’s just easy to dedicate what we don’t have but hard to give this day, this moment to the Lord.

But if I would give to the Lord every day, well, when I get through, I have given my life to the Lord. I would like to look at it that I have given my life to the Lord. not that that I don’t have. I’ve given what I did have. I could say I’ve given 52 years to the Lord. I can’t say what about tomorrow and the next day, the day. But we try to get kids, will you dedicate your life to the Lord because they haven’t done that, so your starts now, but will you give him today and give him tomorrow?

And so a person should examine their life to see whether or not, not only am I in the faith, but am I walking with the Lord, am I living the faith that I have in the Lord. But notice what he says, not only did I finish my course, the race, the time, but as he says here in the last part, I have kept the faith. See, fighting the good fight, running the race, finishing the course is keeping the faith.

And the thing that’s so interesting about certain the Lord is you cannot live by faith by giving it away. Living by faith is given it away. It means taking what I do have my faith, this body of evidence, this truth that I have and giving it to somebody else. So it’s hard to live by faith without giving it away. Who do you win to the Lord? Who do you challenge the power that you have in your life? Now look in verse 1, verse 1 up there says, I charge thee therefore, brethren, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

Preach the word, be instant in season out of season. When you have fruit, when you have no fruit, when you want to, when you don’t want to, when should you be faithful all the time? And the Bible says, if you’re faithful in that which is little, you’ll be faithful in that which as much. But if you can’t be faithful in little things, you won’t be faithful if God gave you big things. Be faithful in little areas of your life.

You may not think it’s important, but that’s what determines whether or not God gives you more. Because if you won’t be faithful to do what you can’t wear, what you have, usually your time, treasures, and your talent, how are you doing with those? If you’ll be faithful, God can increase. But if you’re not, God don’t need to, because you’re not faithful. And yet everything depends upon our faithfulness to the Lord. Look what he says in verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

But after their own lust, shall heap to themselves, teachers, have an itching ears. They want to find a preacher who tells them what they want to hear. That’s what he’s talking about. Itching ears, tell me what I want to hear. A lot of people don’t go to church because they want to know truth because they want to learn the Bible because they want to change their life. They want to discipline areas of their life. They just want to be, just make me feel good.

And there’s preachers out there that are a dime a dozen that will try to make you feel good. They don’t want to talk about sin. They want to name a sin. They don’t want to irritate you in any way. They don’t want to talk about hell because they know that makes you feel uncomfortable. They don’t tell you anything that’s sinful and wicked and wrong. They just want you to feel positive about yourself and how that you can do this and you can pull your thrills out through and all the good things.

But nothing to do with the Lord. Nothing that changes your life or changes the destiny of a lost man. Cause they don’t deal with truth. They deal with whatever makes people feel good. And that’s what they want. That’s what they’re gonna get. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me, the wallet represents sin. You see, we all have sin on us. God loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us. And He says, for us to pay for sin, the wages of sin is death, so everybody sins, everybody dies.

But when you die, you’re eternally separated from God in a literal fire burning hell. the Bible says that God loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him. But He doesn’t want you unless you want Him, unless you want to go. So He made two places and gave you a choice. He says that I love you and I want you to be with me, but because of sin you can’t get in. So if God really loved us, He would do something wonderful for us.

And so He did. He says, you can’t pay for your sins except by death. You see, going to church, that’s good, but it doesn’t pay for sin. Giving money, that’s wonderful, but it doesn’t pay for sin. So the Bible says that Jesus came and died for us. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God, and the flesh. He has no sin, so he doesn’t have to die. We have sin, we have to die. He hates the sin that separates us.

So what Christ did for one person, He did for everybody. He took all the sin and paid for it on the cross. Came back from the dead. The payment for our sins has been paid. The only thing we have to do is believe He did it for us. God didn’t ask you, you don’t have to turn or burn, shake or bake, cry or fry. You don’t have to…nothing. All you have to do is, will you believe He did this for you?

And by your faith in Him, believe in He died, He paid for my sins. So if He paid for my sins, I don’t have one sin to pay for. I don’t go to hell and pay for one sin because He paid for all of my sins. And so if you’ll believe He did it for you, He’ll put this payment to your account and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you. Believe it and you can know that you have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever anybody, some people will, some people won’t. But whosoever, believe it in Him, should not perish. That means won’t go to hell. But have everlasting life, I pray that you will trust Christ as your Savior. Let’s pray, shall we? I hope that what I’ve said made sense to you. And there may be quite a few of you. Maybe you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. Why not right now in the quietness of this moment?

See, I can’t ask you to come forward because where you are, how are you going to come forward? So coming forward is not going to save you. You don’t even have to raise your hand because I wouldn’t be able to say it anyway. But you do have to believe on Jesus Christ. That means to trust Him as your Savior. God said, if you would trust Him, He would save you and give you eternal life as a gift, I pray that you will.

For you that are in the audience, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you do it right now? I’m not going to have you stand up and come forward, but I’d like to know what I said made sense to you. And I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. And so if you’ve never done it before, and you say, yes, I want to be certain of going to heaven when I die.

I believe Christ died on that cross paid from my sins and I’m going to trust Him and Him alone as my only hope of going to heaven and pray child life for you to pray for me in closing. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a right back down? Not going to embarrass you, not going to point you out. It’s over and done with when you make a decision. You don’t want it all. Our Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity we have to come together as a body of believers to study your Word and we pray that you would take these different points that we’ve mentioned tonight.

And Father, we must trust that the Holy Spirit knows exactly where it belongs. To take a truth and penetrate it into the hearts of your children because of what they need. You’re the one that examines our lives. You’re the one that knows truly what we need. And we trust that. We trust you to use us as an individual in in your Word, for your honor, for your glory. Christ and every praise, amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again, or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30, and at six 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.