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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.

You and I are supposed to be the light of the world. Do you think the world is looking toward us for direction? I don’t think so. Because God’s people have messed up over and over. We become a laughing stock to the world. Preachers build great big churches and then they just fall into sin. They’re running around sleeping with somebody else’s wife and all that. And do you think that other people can do that? But it’s not that big of a deal.

but you let a preacher mess up. And buddy, that is news worldwide. Because see, it’s just another light that goes out, another light that goes out. Satan has got one main goal. Not only blinding the minds of them that believe not, but turning out lights. See, we are the lights, and he has got one goal to turn out the lights. And he turns out your light by getting you not to walk with God, you lose your effectiveness. You don’t have anything to say.

He can shut your mouth. So he’s laid out there, all kinds of traps and snares so that we’ll walk into them. Because the Bible talks about in the book of Ephesians, we’ll look at many. Walking circumspectly, walking circumspectly means like a long tail cattle on the fence with and barking dogs on both sides. You mean you got to watch what you’re doing? Where you going? So he makes a statement here in the last part of this verse 4 that we should walk in newness of life.

Look in Psalms 84, Psalms 84, way over there in the Old Testament, Psalms 84, Psalms 84 and look in verse 11, There’s a couple really top-notch verses down through this chapter, but there’s something that we need to have, I think, a good attitude toward, because the easiest thing in the Christian life is for the sins of the flesh to get a hold of us. And one of those is called envy, pride, jealousy. You see, whenever, even as a Christian.

When you see somebody being blessed more than you, praise the Lord. Man, I’m so glad they’re being so blessed. Man, they just got a million dollars. And your check hasn’t come in in six years. They just got six figures. You wonder what? Wait, God, don’t want to cause no fuss, but what about us? Did you know it wouldn’t take much and they got a position and you don’t have it? That jealousy, envy, greed, it don’t take that long for you to become covetous.

Covetous can destroy a Christian because you begin to covet what somebody else has. Sometimes it might be their husband you covet, might be their wife, might be their job, might be that position they have in something. You’d be surprised, but isn’t it true? Christians don’t do that. If you’ve got an old sinful nature and you do, you will. And you will be argumentative and you will be cause of your great wisdom. You’ll be able to see so much nobody else can see, and that cause you to be critical of other people.

They don’t do it exactly the way you want. They don’t know exactly what you know, and you’ve got to let them know that you know more. Pride is an ugly sin. I’m glad that nobody here that has that. I’ll probably struggle with that as much as anybody. But now what I want you to see is it better to be, well look what he says here in verse 10, for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand, I guess outside.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. Are you content with whatever place God has given to you? Are you envious of somebody else’s position or service? Or do you listen to somebody? Oh, I hate her. Oh, I can’t stand her. I mean, why did God have to give her such a purty voice? Or you look in the mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall, and it cracks.

And you think, if there is a God, if he understands, you know, the vanity that a woman can have in their beauty. And you think, God, I could have done better than this. Well, at times you probably did look better than you do now. But understand this, the way you look today, you’ll wish you had looked this good 20 years from now. Let me repeat that one more time. You’ve got to keep things in perspective. The way you look today, I guarantee you, is probably a lot better than you’re going to look 20 years from now, and you’ll wish you looked this good.

So just go ahead and be thankful now. But in twenty years you can cry all over again and say, do it again. But you see, things change. I’ve often wondered, you know, when Job really, you know, went through his trials and testings, it talks about, you know, he lost his kids, ten of them. But at the end of his life, God gave him back. And they’re called the Job’s daughters. There’s even people that have got groups and they call them a Jove’s Daughters.

But these daughters, they were lookers. I mean, it would even be recorded in the scripture that, hey, they weren’t just daughters. They were good looking daughters. So I guess God does know the difference between good looking and ugly. Doesn’t it say about Saul? He was heading shoulders above everybody and, and, and, and, and it was goodly. The Bible talks about David a goodly? Maybe it’s a reference to, hey, he was a handsome kid. Well, God, you made him handsome.

What happened to me? What about if you was me and when you was born? And you heard your daddy say on the day you were born, that’s the ugliest kid I’ve ever seen in my life. Who did that? Look in verse 11, look in verse 11, For the Lord God is a son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Now, I know this is in the Old Testament to them, but there’s just something that kind of gives you a little hope that, you know, if I honor the Lord, God’s going to honor me.

You know, in John chapter 12, God says, I will honor him that honors me. I believe it’s the same thing he’s talking about. You and I are supposed to live a godly life so that we can be confident that there’s nothing that would keep God from blessing me if he so desired. You see, God will not bless your disobedience. So as a child of God, we want the blessings of God. And God says, walk uprightly, do right, do right, Do right.

Walk uprightly. End look in verse 12. Oh Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusted in thee. Blessed is that man that trust in thee. Now turning to Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. This is an interesting chapter, it kind of deals with some things about government and our responsibility to, you know, pay taxes though we don’t like that part of it. But it says, paid tribute to whom tribute to whom tribute to whom?

and so on. But here in chapter 13, there’s something else that says in like in verse 8, oh no man anything but to love one another. Did you know that you and I are in debt to every person in the world to love them? Why? Because God gave us that responsibility. love one another. Except they hurt your feelings. They look at you cross-eyed it. They said something about you. Well see, then people begin to look at reasons why they don’t have to love some people.

Because after all, look who I am. Everybody should treat me wonderful. And because they don’t, we are partial in our judgment in the sense that we are a respecter of persons. And so we want to be, you know, nice to those who are nice to us, but Jesus said, if you are kind to those who are kind to you, what did you do? It’s whenever you love your enemies. Matthew chapter 5. When you do that, he says, then. and then, now you done done something.

When you can love and forgive the people that who hurt you are wrong you. Oh yeah, but look here in Romans. He says in verse 10, “‘Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, “‘therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.'” So see, God didn’t come to destroy the law. He came to fulfill the law. The law is still just as good and valid. God didn’t take it away. He didn’t destroy the law. It’s just that now he says, we did not have the ability to fulfill the law.

But now he wants us as his children that if we will learn to love, you will fulfill the law. All you got to do is learn to love. And that’s a difficult thing. And because you see, it deals with the fact of what people do to us, or circumstances that we have in life that we know God can control. So there’s only two things that we’re told to love, one is God and the other one’s people. So if I love God, what would make me not love God?

Well, things that happens that I can’t control, but he can and he did this to me. Or to realize that there’s people in this world who have an old sinful nature and they’re gonna wrong you at times. And you can hate them if you want. And you can be retaliatory if you want. And vengeful if you want. Or you can set yourself up as the judge of, they don’t deserve that, no, they don’t deserve that. And yet you could, but you didn’t, you didn’t.

And what I want you to see there in verse 13, let us walk and underline that word. Let us walk honestly. And there’s a reason why he says that, because in verse 14, he says, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lustre of, because you see, if you don’t, you’ll make provision means you’re going to walk in the wrong direction. You’re going to walk in the flesh. God wants you and I to walk in love.

So there’s always this battle that we have to go through. So here are little and there are little, but God wants us to walk by faith, believe in that what he says is true. Look there in 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, just turn to your right there. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and look there in verse 7, in verse 7, because it deals with how you and I think our attitudes, our perspective in life. But you go all the way back there to in it can enter, you know, no one.

And what Moses said, Abraham, I’ll walk with God, regardless of how young you are or how old you may be, regardless of what’s going on. And remember, Go a walk with God when things were bad. But it makes the statement here in verse 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Now what do you really think this means? We walk by faith, not by sight. Well the answer is usually pretty close by. It’s in the context, a text without context, it’s pretext.

So but you look there in chapter 4 and notice up there in verse 16. It’s talking about why we do the things that we do. It goes all the way back to verse one, we talked about seeing we have this ministry, we faint not. Seeing we have this ministry of ours to walk with God to fulfill whatever God wants is why I can’t stop. And so he makes a statement in verse 16 of chapter four, for which cause? See, there’s a cause.

Cause we faint not. Means we don’t stop, we don’t quit. We started a walk with God. Let’s just keep on walking with God. Even when Abraham was a 99 years old, I am the almighty God. Walk with me. Walk with me. You know, when you get right down to it, God must want you pretty bad to make it possible for you to walk with Him. You see, He had to solve a few problems. One is that He had to take that which was against us away.

All of our sins, He took care of that and made a way for you and I to get close to God. You see, you can’t get any closer to God than what God wants you to get. How close do you think he wants you to get to him as though there was no other? There’s a song that I used to hear the treble-air sing years ago. It was called Just Me and My Lord. Just Me and My Lord walking together.

Just Me and My Lord walking alone. And I might sing it for you one of these days, but it’s a good little song. I’ll have to have the Firehouse Five and the choir back me up with Ooh and on and make it sound good. But it’s a good song. It really is just me and my Lord. When I went to Florida Bible College, I had this big old record of the triple-ares. They were like a little gospel singing group they’d go around and sing, you know.

And I got, I had it. And we had this big old record player. And every time I could when I came into the house, I would put it on, turn it as loud as it would go. And I would lay there on the floor where my ears could hear the full blast. That might be why I’m dead. I just thought of that. But I used to listen to them and then while they were singing, I was singing to the top of my lungs.

You say, did you think about the neighbor? Never thought about neighbors. It didn’t matter what the neighbors thought. I just let her rip this scene and just me and out and I lay there and I cry. Because things were so hard. I was always struggling financially and then something medical and then two kids, it would get sick, it might not have been the hospital, no insurance. It seemed like nothing ever worked out for me. Nothing. It’s always wrong. It’s always bad.

And I dreamed of the day when I would be able to relax a little bit. Still looking forward to that. One of these days, that might be a reality. It ain’t happened yet. I talked to some lady and I says, don’t you ever rest? She was the secretary for Jim Scutters. She was emailing me stuff at midnight. I emailed her back and I says, don’t you ever go to bed? Don’t you need any rest? She emailed me back. Rest in heaven.

As Paul’s mom, Paul, that’s because of that. And maybe you won’t get the rest you really need. That’s why God calls it a rest. Because you’re going to get so tired and so weary down here. God is working in your life. And so he made this statement there in verse 16, but which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. See spiritually you can keep getting stronger and stronger in your faith in God.

See living by faith is. Being convinced that what God promised He will perform. I believe that when I trusted Him as my Savior. Now can I trust this God from day to day to work miracles? I still believe and I have been fortunate enough to be tried in so many areas that I’ve watched God move. Do things that I can’t make happen, but I just simply, but I believe it. And sometimes I’m ashamed of my lack of faith, but we’re always battling between that which you see and hear, and that which you know what God said.

Wouldn’t it be neat if we always believed, right, and everything else worked out right, but there’s always something challenging your faith. Like I said back there in the book of Deuteronomy when Moses had to deliver a message, that if somebody preaches a false message and even they have the signs and wonders, he said, I’m trying you to see whether you love me or not. And do you be surprised at things that can happen to see whether or not, will you put God does he mean that much to you?

And so he says here in verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, work it for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. See, faith means you believe that, and that’s why you can walk with God. So you have to believe that God knows what he’s doing. You have to believe that God’s going the right direction on your behalf. Otherwise, why would you walk with somebody that you don’t want to go where he’s going?

You see, I believe God knows where he’s taking me. So I decided 52 years ago, I’m going to walk with the Lord. I’m just going to walk with him. I don’t know where he’s going. I don’t care where he’s going. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t care what happens. Nothing matters. I’m walking with God. That should be your greatest encouragement, your greatest comfort, your joy, your hope, your peace of mind. Is that you’re doing what God wants you to do.

Living by faith, not by sight. You’re not putting your trust in people. You don’t put your trust in things. You don’t put your trust in the RNC or Obama or anything else. Put your trust in the Lord. And we walk and live and do right. And God says, because we do, he’ll bless us, look in verse 18. while we look, look, walking by faith means what are you looking at? What do you believe? While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

Living by faith is seen that which cannot be seen. Sound like a contradiction doesn’t it? You’re seeing what God says. You’re believing what God says. You can walk with God because you’re trusting Him. God knows what He’s doing, He knows where He’s taking Him. And that’s a very wonderful thing to know. In verse 18 closing, while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal.

The things which are not seen are eternal. So therefore, our faith is in what God said. not in what man says, is what God wants. And just decide in your mind, I’m just going to walk with the Lord. I’m just going to walk with Him. Look up here. I know this is something you all have seen before, but you can see it one more time. Let this hand represent you and me. And the wallet represents a whole of our sins.

God says that He loves us. Now He hates our sin, but He loves us. He loves us. And I’m so glad of that. God loves me. But He doesn’t like what I do wrong. Doesn’t like what you do wrong. And to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in a place called hell. I want people to know there is a place called hell, but God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

And God says nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s righteous. Because of sin, see we can’t get in. So God says you cannot earn eternal life. can’t work your way to heaven. It’s not by your good deeds. You see, you don’t have to join a church to go to heaven. You don’t have to give money to go to heaven unless you gave it here. No, that’s not true. You don’t have to give money to go to heaven. There’s nothing you can do by your good deeds that will get you into heaven.

This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God, and the flesh. He came§ into the world because he loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. But because he loved us and hates our sin, he took it, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said that if you and I, if we would believe it, he did it for us. He would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

Now that’s the best news in all the world. If I offered you my wallet and you accepted you’d have an empty wallet. If I offered you my watch and you accepted, you know what time it is. If Christ walked in here right now and offered you eternal life and you accept it, you would have eternal life. And if it’s eternal life, it would last forever. And if it lasts forever and all you’re sending are paid, where would you go when you die?

So can you know you’re going to heaven before you die? Yeah, boy, that’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads by a knife closed, no one looking around. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. your Savior. Friend, I can’t think of a better time than right now. You don’t have a guarantee you that tomorrow will ever come. But why not right now? In the quietness of this moment, just between you and the Lord, what?

Just talk to the Lord. And say something like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I’ve done things wrong, but I know you love me. And you sent your son Jesus Christ to die, to pay for all my sins. And I believe he did it for me. And I’m going to trust him right now to take me to heaven whenever I die. And friend, God said, if you would believe that he did it for you, he’d put that payment to your account and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you.

Would you believe that? If you’re making that decision, I’d like to have prayer for you. I’m not going to ask you to stand up. I’m not going to embarrass you. I’m not going to ask you to come forward or anything like that. I don’t want anything from you. I just want you to receive the free gift of eternal life. And I like to know it, because I like to have prayer for you. And I do it with heads bowed so that you’re not put on the spot.

Is there any one of all this morning say, yes, preacher, that made sense to me. I want to be certain of the one to heaven when I die and I’d like you to pray for me in closing. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put it right back down if you’ve never done before, but you’ll do it right now. Just slip it up real quick. You want it all. Yes, God bless you, sir. God bless you. Anyone else?

anyone else. You can slip your hand up very quickly, put it right back down. There’s no gimmicks to this, no tricks to it. I won’t probably know your name. I just want to know that what I said made sense to you. Anyone else before we close? Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. We’re thankful for the free gift of eternal life. We ask your blessings upon the individual indicated by an uplifted hand that they would trust you a savior by doing so they become your child and you’ll never cast him out, never lose him.

The Father because of all that you’ve done for us, we’re going to let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Lord we want to be used so that others can hear the gospel. Thank you so much for this ministry and all that it stands for is rich heritage in Christ name 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 by the line 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 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.