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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.

I do want to speak to you about something that I was talking about a little bit in Sunday school class So they get to thinking about it, you know, there’s just nothing like walking with the Lord People are nice But there’s nothing like him He’s never failed me yet And I I Guess he gets more precious to you The longer you live There’s one thing you can’t counterfeit, and that’s the seriousness and the honesty, the integrity you have between you and him.

We can fool people, deceive people, but God knows so much. He knows everything. Isn’t it scary? He knows your thoughts, knows your real motive. Man, that’s scary. That’s scary. You ever feel really holy and godly, and then you realize it. knows the truth. You ever feel ugly inside? Say and do something you know you shouldn’t know and you did it anyway and just make you feel so terrible? For sin is an ugly thing. I’ll be glad when it’s all over, when it’s all gone, when we finally get to heaven.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Galatians in chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5, given us There’s a lot of good teachers in the book of Galatians, talks about how we’ve been running in a race. He says, you did run well, but who had hindered you? Look there in verse 7, you did run well. That looks like that refers to past tense. You did. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? You see, running well and obeying the truth seem like it’s parallel down it.

Obeying the truth and running well. One of the themes that they’re having the reunion is running well, finishing the race and thoughts are a good thing, finishing well. It’s one thing to start, it’s another thing to maintain, and then to finish the race. There’s always something going on in your life to try to keep you from running the race. Now the devil would love to keep you from even starting. And then once you start, he doesn’t want you to maintain.

And then he doesn’t want you to finish well at all. You know, he’s a bad man. You are not trusted, devil. He works on your mind. And if he doesn’t do it personally, he got a whole bunch of demons that will do his work for him. Sometimes he uses people to discourage you. You know, say things to you. What do you think even in back in the book of Joshua, be thou strong and very courageous? Why? Because you don’t want something, you don’t feel strong.

You don’t feel very courageous. There’s a lot of things in this whole world, scares you half the death. How would you like to be in charge of all those people? And we’re going to take Jericho. Joshua, have you done this before? No. No. He was always second in command. It wasn’t his responsibility. Now it is. But it says in verse 7, You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion come if not of him that called you.

But you see, whenever you let a little 11 into your mind, little thoughts, little deeds they grow. I believe it’s not just the doctrine that somebody sells, but it’s the thoughts and so forth that are negative. That you can hear one little thing, and next thing you know you can permeate your whole mind. Cause you’d imagine all kinds of things. They don’t have to be true. But if you think it is, it’ll have the same effect on you, though it was.

So he says, verse 16, If you don’t have this verse underlying you should underline this verse. It’s a very strong verse a very helpful verse This I say then walk in the spirit. You shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Why would you? Want to walk in the flesh? Well because there’s always something that would trouble you Causes you to Get deterred from your race Keep you from running. Look what he says in verse 12, I would, they were even cut off which trouble you.

So there are going to be people that are going to do whatever they can to cause you trouble. By the things that they say or their attitude or their actions, their look, there’s just so much. We’re so easily influenced by little gestures that people may have. You know, there’s been time, and I’ll just be honest with you, There’s been time when people come out and you know when they come out and they enjoyed and they give you that big smile and they grip your hand, preach it, that was a good sermon.

But when they come out of the church and they hand you their hand and they’re looking straight ahead. You know, they don’t have the same attitude. I must have said something. I must have done something. And then you find that later on, they have some serious problems that they were having to deal with and they were just very lucky. They didn’t even came to church that day. But I imagine things and it wasn’t true at all. I’ve done that before.

I’m so glad y’all don’t do that to us. It works on your mind. There’s another world being lived at the same time but the Lord tells us, here’s what happens. Look in verse 13, brethren. He says, brethren, we have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. But as you want to serve a Lord, remember there’s somebody else that might want to take away your liberty. You know, the freedom that you have, the joy that you have in the Lord.

And they can rip that away from you just by being negative to you. And you know, sometimes they may not even be aware that they do it because we’re all deceived people. We don’t always say the right thing at the right time. The Bible talks about it, you know, Word been like silver and apples of gold. I mean, saying the right thing at the right time, speech-seasoned with salt. But it seems like I never said the right thing at the right time at all.

And it doesn’t sometimes matter how hard you may try it. We fail. But look what he says, this is what happened. In verse 14, for all that the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And then it says over in the book of Romans in chapter 13, all the law is fulfilled in one word, and that’s love.

It says in verse 14, for all this. Then it says in verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that should be not consumed one of another. See, those are things that are signs of walking in the flesh. So what’s the cure? In verse 16, walk into Spirit. You will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The desire to want to bite, the desire to want to devour. The desire is there because you have an old sinful nature, but you’ve got to have something stronger within you that keeps you from saying and doing what’s, sometimes you’re in nature to want to do.

Remember God gave us a new one and it’s totally opposite. It seemed like, boy, if you talk about a struggle in your life, it’s there. So he makes a statement, walk in the Spirit. That doesn’t mean float through the air like a hank. Walking in the Spirit is walking according to truth. See there in verse seven again? You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth. So walking the Spirit is obeying the truth.

So that’s why you study the word of God. Know what the truth is and walk according to the truth. Now look there in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, and you know there’s a couple verses there that I kind of like a little bit. Chapter 2 verse 8 and 9. And verse 8 says, for by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. not of works lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained, and you ought to unwind this in your Bible, we should walk in them.

Walk in what? Good works. Walking in good works, walking in living according to truth. So we always have this battle, the battle, the old man versus the new man. I am so glad that of all the things that I learned when I was at Florida Bible College, they taught the two natures. The teaching on the two natures helped me as much as anyone’s sermon I’ve ever heard in my life. Because now I knew for the rest of my life why I did what I did, what I do, what I do.

And I know that in the future as long as I got the whole sinful nature, I’m going to mess up. I’m going to offend. I’m going to hurt. You may not want to. That’s why he says in the book of Romans in chapter 7, for I know that in me that is in my flesh, to all of no good thing, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For to will is present with me. I want to do right, but when I want to do good evil is present with me.

What a battle. that battle is definitely, it’s real. Look in chapter 5 and verse 2. Chapter 5 and verse 2. Look first of all in verse 1, because verse 1 tells us, if you want to imitate anybody, well here’s somebody you can imitate. Be therefore followers of God. Means being imitators. Imitate God. Even the Apostle Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. Could you tell people, look, follow me as I follow Christ? In other words, if you follow me, you’re not going to get in trouble.

You won’t get too far off the path. We are supposed to be good examples and love and faith and spirit. That’s what Paul told Timothy. He said, be thou an example of the believer. Here he says, be therefore followers of God as dear children, and look in verse 2, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet, smellet, and saver. Did you know the offering of Christ, even while he lived, was like a sweet-smelling saver in nostrils of God.

You see in the Old Testament they used to burn the sacrifices and they would offer them upon the altar and the smell that Bible talks about how it was such a sweet smell and the nostrils of God. Even in the book of Hebrews in chapter 13 it talks about the sacrifices that we make. How that they are sweet. Oh that smells good. Did you know as God looks over the banter of heaven and he sees the sacrifices you made, not when you die.

We are a living sacrifice, and the sacrifice you make now is a sweet smell in the nostrils of God. That’s why in Christ’s life he says, daward my son in whom I am well pleased. Oh, what he’s sacrificing for me. It smells good to the Lord. Now this is what I believe, he says, a sweet smelling saver. But there’s some things that he says not to do in verse 3, let it not be once named among you as become of saints.

So there is something about the saints. You have trusted Christ’s Savior, you are his child, you’re going to heaven, we are ordained of God to walk in good words, to get to heaven, but it is the will of God that we walk in good works. That means walk according to truth and walk in according to truth. And as you’ll notice in the book of Ephesians, it talked about speaking the truth in what? In love. Walk in love, walk in truth, walk according to the Spirit.

You did run well. Are you running as well as you used Two. Are you closer to the Lord now than you used to be? Do you love him more now than you used to love him? How precious is the Lord to you? These are just things you’re supposed to think about and do. But look down in verse eight. In verse eight says, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord? Walk as what? Children of light.

Walk like you can see. Walk like you can see. Don’t walk with your eyes closed. Walk with your eyes open. And I believe he’s talking about spiritually. And that’s why he says in verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, looking all around, watching, guarding, because you know that there’s a devil who wants to trip you up, mess you up. He wants to cause you to stumble. He wants you to fall. He doesn’t want you to walk. And so God says, redeem the time because the days are evil.

That’s part of the walk. A lot of people waste their life. They waste their time. I don’t like sleeping my life away. I go every day. I go every day because I enjoy. I can’t wait to see what God’s got for me tomorrow. I can’t hardly wait for tomorrow morning to come. I can’t wait to go to bed tonight but I can’t wait for the Lord to see what He’s going to do tomorrow. Because to Mars, it’s a brand new day.

There might be another email. And it might be good. I might get a phone call if somebody read my book and they enjoyed it. I might get a call from somebody that I led to the Lord 30 or 40 years ago and they just called up to say thanks. You see, there’s seeds that you planted all your life. One thing I’ve come across is this, you plant a flower seed and whatever it comes up, what’s the name of a flower?

A tulip? Somebody said something? Give me an easy word. A what? A sunflower. Alright, a sunflower. A flower. You see, if you plant a sunflower seed, you don’t have to try to make this plant turn into a sunflower. It’s already in the seed. All you’ve got to do is nourish it and sunshine and it’s a sunflower, you know. It’s some water and a little time. You don’t have to make it have so many petals on it. You don’t have to determine the color of it.

You don’t have to determine the shape of it. You don’t have to determine anything. You see, it’s all in the seed. You see, whenever you have a Christian, they’re almost like this plant. See, the seeds is the word of God. Just plant the seed, and when a person obeys that seed, God uses the person and their yieldedness to the seed, and God will flower them and caused him to look the way he wants him. I do not try to make people in my image.

I want people to be in God’s image, in Christ’s image. I want you to be just like the Lord wants you to be. And all I have to do is water it, nurse it a little bit, and lo and behold, you will develop into that pretty little flower that God wants. Now if you don’t, you might develop in a ragweed, a dandelion. Yeah, we don’t love dandelions, do we? No, nobody likes. If I love dandelions, then we probably won’t have so many of them.

But when it comes to the Christian life, you don’t have to try to make yourself into something. You don’t have to work on yourself and determine the color of this and that. And all you’ve got to do is just yield. Yield to the Lord wherever you are, and whatever’s going on, Let God shape you and build you. It’s all in the genes. It’s in the flower. It’s in that seed. And let you flower and be what God wants you to be.

And it’s so much easier. Then you see, you don’t have to worry about all those other pretty flowers. I wish I was a pretty flower. All right, they are. Shut up. Just let God finish you. If you will be the flower God wants you to be and don’t have to worry about what somebody else is or isn’t. I think I’ve lost y’all on this a little bit, and I’m not sure. Can y’all understand anything that I’m saying? Not a person raised her hand.

I’ll give his one back there in the back, and he didn’t hear me. But you’re supposed to… Be what God wants you to be, imitators of God as his dear children. And then when you do, you’ll be how he wants you to be. Because he knows what he’s trying to do out of your life. And to put into your life, all these things are so important. Look in verse 15, I showed you this just a minute ago, but see then, see then, and based, because of all the things that’s gone on, that you walk circumspectly.

Not as fools, but as wise. Because a man is a fool who doesn’t guard his steps. He doesn’t watch what he’s doing. And that’s why it’s so important. Look there in the book of Philippians in chapter three. Just turn to your right a couple of pages. Philippians in chapter three. And notice there in verse 16. It is the will of God that you walk according to the light that you now have. Now parts of these things I’ve shared with you at times, but refreshing your mind is not always bad to stir up your mind.

And so he says here in verse 16, nevertheless where to we have already attained, let us walk. Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mine the same thing. See, it’s the will of God that all of us, all of us obey the same truth. But did you know that if all of us obey the same truth will be all alike except for the personality that you have, that you bring to the table? There’s something that’s different about you and me.

There’s not another one like me. There’s not another one quite like you. The word of God is the same. And if we all think the same way and live the same way, the only thing that will make us different is your own personality. Because the same Lord with the same Holy Spirit, with the same Word of God, will work the same in every individual. The Word of God can’t change. It doesn’t change. So God wants us by the things that happens in our life, all these experiences is what makes us different than everybody else.

Because there’s things that you have learned that somebody else didn’t have that same thing happen to them. They got the same word, same Holy Spirit, same Bible, and it works. God is going to take you and make you what you ought to be. And that’s what makes you different. Let’s take away all of that. In the world, you’re just a lost man with a whole sinful nature. And the Bible says you walk according to the course of this world, and you’re a slave to sin.

You’re not free. You’re trapped. But when you trust Christ as you’re saving, you become His child, There’s a new birth and you can be different. God can do things for you and through you. Desire of that. But He wants us to walk according to the truth that we already have. If you will do that, then God will give you more truth. More light, more understanding. But that all comes as you walk with the Lord. Look there in Colossians in chapter one.

We just covered a book of Colossians. So you should be very, very familiar with this verse. But as he talks to the people here in the book of Colossians and he gives them this chart, look at in verse nine of chapter one. For this cause we also sense the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. And to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and always to him in spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy.

Now we’ve talked about walking in faith, walking in love, and walking honestly, and walking, walking, walking. So how you’ve been walking? Are you walking worthy of what God called you to do? What do you know right now that would be the will of God for you? Don’t worry about it five years from now. Don’t worry about it 10 years from now. What do you believe is the will of God for you to do right now, then do that. Do what you now know you should do.

And what you don’t know, trust the Lord for that. You just go ahead and keep doing all the right you know to do. Don’t let your ignorance of the will of God 10 years from now cause you to be foolish and stupid and idiotic now. In the present. Because if you’ll do what God wants you to do today and then when tomorrow comes you do the will of God and then the next day comes and you do that will of God and the next day you do the will of God.

Well after a while you’ll look back and says I have lived the will of God for my life. See a lot of time what we want to do is God to reveal the future so that we can see whether or not do I want to do that or not. I don’t know if I want to do that or not. Because I might not like what he has for me. But see, living by faith is I can trust the Lord with my future.

I can trust tomorrow with the Lord. And I don’t know what tomorrow brings forth, but I can trust the Lord and know that he’s gonna take care of me. And just walk worthy of that thing we call faith. You see, look what he says in chapter two, look in chapter two in verse seven, Excuse me, verse six, where it says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Does the word of God have anything to say about how you live your life?

All these words about walking, walking, walking, walking, walking is because God is letting you know he’s concerned about how you live. How you walk is how you live. Walking by faith, living by faith, according to truth. You’ve got a race to run. How are you doing? When the race is all over and you stand for the Lord and God says, tell me in your own words. Did you walk with me? Well, no. Wow. I was going to. I tried.

Well, there’d be a lot of excuses you think when we see the Lord. My little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If we are ashamed, I wonder what we’re ashamed of. What happened? Could have done more. We did too long to get started. I didn’t finish well. I wonder why I would be ashamed as it’s coming. He wanted me to do something, I didn’t do it.

Or now I gotta stand in the jim and city of Christ and I realize that most of my life is going up in smoke. Hey, wood, it’s double. Do you think when you get to heaven, he’s gonna say, well done, now good and faithful servant, that he was pleased with your life? Do you think about stuff like this? I do. Scares me to death. I think about it because I know it must be important. God would not tell me to do all of this if it wasn’t important.

How many times would God have to say something in his word for it to be true? One time. How many times do you find in the New Testament even about walking with God. Just one time? Many, many, many times. In many, many different ways. You think it might be important? 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 Watch 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 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.