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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. Look in 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 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 see anything in the scriptures about the payment he was going to 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 a 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 fought, 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 at 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 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 face 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 except by giving it away. Living by faith is given in a way. 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 one, verse one up here says, I charge thee therefore brethren and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead as 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 and that which is little, you’ll be faithful in that which is 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 three, 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’ll 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 of a lost man, because 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 going to get. So he says here in verse 4, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.

But watch thou, you, you watch in all things endure afflictions.” It didn’t say enjoy affliction, but endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make foolproof of thy ministry. For I’m now ready to be offered the time of my departures at hand. In other words Paul says, I haven’t got much time left. My time is almost up, but he’s talking to young Timothy. And he tells him, even though he’s the pastor, a young man in the Lord, do the work of an evangelist.

Tell people how to have eternal life, because that’s what an evangelist does. Take your Bible and look into the book of Titus in chapter 2. Titus in chapter 2. Titus chapter 2, and look there in verse 11, verse 11, for the grace of God that bring of salvation hath appeared to all men. God’s grace concerning salvation hath appeared for all men. All men haven’t seen it. All men haven’t heard it. But God’s grace is sufficient for every individual. God’s grace is greater than our sins, or the sins of the whole world.

And so when you trust Christ as your Savior, what God did for us teaches us a lesson. So if you will look there in chapter three and verse one, where it says, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates to be ready to every good work. To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, showing all meatness unto all men. Get this now. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. Disobedient, means rebellious, deceived, serving divers lust of our own flesh and pleasures, Levonians, malice, and envy, and hateful, and hating one another.

And then verse 4. You see, this is the way you were, but God. But God. After that the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man, appeared. See, it says in verse 11, the grace of God that bring of salvation hath appeared to all men. Then he explains the way all men were, the way they were. And then in spite of the way men are, God the Savior did something. He says, He appeared. And what did He appear?

What is this grace that’s so good? Verse 5, not of works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by the Washington regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. So grace is that we’re saved without works. And this teaches us something. See the way you were lost, blind, wicked, rebellious, And now, because of the grace of God, look how good God has been to us. That He would pay for all of our sins, still save us and give us eternal life without works.

We didn’t do anything to deserve it. We didn’t have to change the way we were and merit it. It was given to us freely by the grace of God. So that little story is supposed to teach us how to live. See there in verse 12 of chapter 2, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly. This is what we should do. Do you have to? No you don’t. Can a person trust Christ as his Savior and not serve the Lord?

Yes. But should he serve the Lord? Yes. Does he have to? No. Tell me what he says in verse 12. But the grace of God that bring of salvation teaches us. What does it teach us? That regardless of how wicked other people may be, we are supposed to demonstrate the grace of God toward them. them. When you’re mean toward me, grace means I’m not going to be mean toward you. But if I am mean toward you, I am saying you deserve to be treated this way and I am God’s avenging angel and you’re going to get it.

No, they are simply opportunities for us to demonstrate grace of God. In the book of Ephesians in chapter 2, it makes the statement that we are like little trophies of God’s grace, that when we get to heaven and in the ages to come, God is going to demonstrate what His grace has done. You and I are those little trophies that God can put up there and say, look what I did for this one. Look what I did for this person.

Now look what I did for this person. These are trophies of my grace and what I’ve done, not because of what they deserve, but because of what I did for them. And so God gets all the credit, all the honor, and all the glory. So now, God did that for us in salvation when it comes to serving the Lord. You and I are supposed to have trophies of God’s grace that He worked through us toward them. So God’s grace teaches us how we’re supposed to the Stow grace, not because people deserve it if they get only what they deserve, then what value was it?

You see, that’s not how you and I are supposed to live. If we love those that are lovable, what have you done? Nothing. But to love people who won’t love you back, to be kind to people who are not kind to you, who you are forgiving, but they’re not forgiving. Isn’t that a different way to live? If you can think about it and remember when the time comes. Now look what he said, teaching us that denying ungodliness and whirly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

Looking for that blessed hope, looking for that blessed hope, just five little words. This is just five little words. But you and And I are supposed to live our life looking for that blessed tribulation? No, the blessed hope. What is the blessed hope? Christ’s coming back for us. So even though we’re living in this world, and I don’t have to serve the Lord to go to heaven, I should live soberly and righteously in this present world. Does God tell us in His Word how we’re supposed to live?

Yeah. And what the meaning of grace is about is not because, well, they deserve me. We’re only saved by the grace of God, not by any good deed that we’ve ever done. But does God want His children to maintain good works? Yes, because they’re good and profitable on the men. He says, when He makes a statement here in verse 13, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, who gave Himself for us.

How many words is that? Oh, yes, just five little words. Who gave Himself for us. You know, I bet you could just about preach a sermon just on what does that mean. He gave Himself for us. But why throw that in here? Because he wants us to give ourselves for somebody else. And if you do it only for those that deserve your love, you’ve done nothing. If you do things only for those that can repay you, you haven’t done anything.

In Matthew chapter five, that philosophy is also taught in the Word of God. And Jesus is the one that tells all of that. So he says, love the poor. Love those who can’t help you back, be kind. And notice what he says here. In verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, a special people, a strange person. As far as the world is concerned, we’re strangers because we’re away from home, but we’re pilgrims because we’re going home.

So we’re strangers and pilgrims in this world, in this world is not my home. I’m just passing through. Aren’t we? We’re just passing through. We’re just here temporarily. And so he says in the last part of that verse, zealous of good works, zealous of good works. So why do I wanna do all these so-called good works? Now look down here in chapter three and in verse seven, where he makes a statement that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Verse eight, this is a fateful saying, and these things I will with thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to, and here’s three wonderful words, maintain good works. See, it’s one thing to start. It’s another thing to finish. If you maintain good works, you will finish. You have to maintain. It’s just like you can build a building, but it has to be maintained. You are born into this world, but you have to maintain the body.

Doesn’t eating food help maintain the body? I’m gonna do a little bit more of this Sunday. And when you drink, you’re maintaining the body. You’re trying to keep it healthy, so you can keep on going. But your body, the older you get the more maintenance it needs. Most of the people we pray for are older folks. True? Why? They need more maintenance. And you know that if you don’t keep it maintained right, you can have a problem. You have to get a good car, a good running car, and then you don’t put oil in it.

you realize that you run a risk of blowing up that engine. Or if you run it without water in it, you know you could really do a number on that thing, blow the head gasket, then you got problems. I’ve had everything happen. And sometimes you think for the lack of a few quarts of oil, you just cost yourself a motor. Because you didn’t maintain it. So God tells us in His Word not only to begin the race, but to maintain the race.

Keep doing good works. The Bible tells us in the book of Acts, talking about in chapter 10 about Jesus everywhere when He went about doing good. Sometimes we do good for people if I can give Him a heaven track. Okay, well what if you can’t give Him a heaven track? Can you just do good for somebody if you don’t get a chance to say a word? I’ll open the door for you if you let me preach to you for two minutes.

You’re to do good regardless. And the Bible says especially to those that are of the household of faith. Do good. Not to get to heaven but grace teaches us discipline. Grace teaches us to serve the Lord. And serving the Lord is serving people. And if you don’t serve people, people, you don’t serve God. Figure out how you’re going to serve God without people. Now when we get to heaven, maybe there’s a way, we’ll just worship there. But notice what he says.

He makes his statement there in verse 8. In the last part of verse 8 says, these things are good and profitable unto men. They’re good and they’re profitable. And he also makes his statement in verse 14. See the verse 14. Let ours also learn to maintain good works, good works, as he says here, for necessary uses. Good works are necessary. You see, good works is the stone upon which you build another good work. And the Bible talks about let men see your good works so that they can glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

So you need to tell people why you do what you do. if it’s possible, but that’s letting your light shine. People seeing the grace of God through you. And therefore that means you’re going to bestow love on those that are not lovable, and you’re going to be kind to those that are not very kind to you. And you’re not going to be mean and ugly toward those that are mean and ugly toward you because then all you’re doing is walking in the flesh.

You’re living like a lost man. What’s the difference? A Christian is supposed to be peculiar. Oh, but you’re all right. I’m talking about you’re supposed to be in a good way, strange compared to the way other people are. You’re different. A Christian is supposed to be different. Do you know there’s lost people that show more compassion than God’s people? and are more forgiving and understanding, and have a sweeter spirit. And here’s some Christian is mean and ugly and as cantankerous as can be.

You know anybody like that? I’m glad they’re nobody like that here. Nobody here like that. Everybody here says, I know somebody, this sermon is just perfect for. And you duck down and pose the hit the one behind you. But the person on the last rope that you got it, that’s you. But anyway, turn to Hebrews in chapter 13. Hebrews and chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. You and I need to keep this in mind because it is so important. In Hebrews chapter 13, look in verse six.

So that we may boldly say five little words, the Lord is my helper. The Lord is my helper. Why should I say something like this that’s boldly say, the Lord is my helper? Because you see in the verse right before that, when he says, let your behavior, your manner of life, your conversation be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have.

I don’t know anybody like that. Be content with such things as you have. Let’s say everybody lives intense. One is content and the other one is discontent, but everybody lives intense. But anyway, he says, for he hath said, now what did he said? He hath said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Well, that doesn’t help me unless I know the reason why he will never leave me and never forsake me. The next verse tells me the reason.

And you can boldly say, the Lord is my helper. Why won’t He leave me? Because I need Him to help me. He won’t forsake me. Why won’t He forsake? Because I need Him to help me. But did you know that you can get to where you want to live your life without His help? That’s when you become so frustrated. You lose focus and you become helpless. And you don’t understand, you have somebody living inside of you. They will never leave you and never forsake you.

And the reason is because of what he says right here. I will not leave you, never forsake you. The Lord is my helper. And because of that, I will not fear what man shall do unto me. But you see, verse six goes back to the foundation stone in the previous verse, verse five. So you and I are supposed to know this and we’re supposed to understand it, we’re supposed to believe it and it’s supposed to change our life. You can?

Look at the book of James. Turn to your right, we’re going to write a little bit here. Look at James chapter four. 4. James 4 and look in verse 6. When he talks about the lesson that God’s grace teaches us, as you live your life, you know from the book of Hebrews in chapter 4 that there is a throne of grace, a throne of grace. You mean I need more grace? Because okay, let’s say for example, it treats you really dirty.

And you want to treat them right, but you find it a little difficult. Been there? All right, God has a throne. And if you’ll go to that throne of grace, He will give you the grace that you need to help in time of need. Because there’s sometimes in your life when you’re not as strong as you ought to be. So going to the Lord who is your helper and calling upon him because he will never leave you and never forsake you.

And he’s there to help you. There’s times in your Christian life when you need a little extra boost. You know, the little extra strength to keep you going. The Lord knows all about that stuff. See there in verse 6, but he give giveeth more grace, but he giveeth more grace. Just five little words, just five little words. And verse six, where he says, but he giveeth more grace. For what? Look who he gives it to. Wherefore he says, God resisted the proud, but give it grace unto the humble.

He give Give it more grace. He give it more grace to who? The one that’s what? Humble. 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 Bible Line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free. 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 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