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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 to be able to help you. 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family. Well, well, well. I’m gonna ask Donald, come on down here just for a second. You don’t mind. There you go. You can do this. You don’t probably know this guy. I’m not sure I do either. But anyway, Donald comes all the way from Brandon, Florida. Right? Braden, Braden, Braden.

Give us your whole name. Donald Payne. Donald Payne. How do you know about Calvary Community Church? When Pastor Hank was a pastor, I heard him on the radio. I used to enjoy his, when he talked about end times, prophecies. And then I heard him talk about eternal salvation and you couldn’t lose it. I said, you got to be kidding. So I said one day I said, you know I’ll give him the benefit of doubt. And I listened to him.

Andillance469 And when I heard GIF, G I said, wait a minute. He’s saying that God gave us something and all we have to do is receive it and it’s I was free. And when I understood that and I kept listening and kept listening, so I started studying for myself. When I found out that salvation was a gift, I knew I was going to heaven. And my wife thought I had gone wild. I started making copies of all of the papers you see around the wall.

I started handing them outiege family members, all those that I knew I went to share with my sisters. They even said, man, I knew there was something more to it because they were trying to work to get to heaven. So I knew that I couldn’t do that, but I tried anyhow. But ii heard it clearly explained that salvation was a gift. And I started learning all those gift passages in the Bible for the wages of sin and debt. But the gift of God.

I heard him saying that, oh man, I just went prosec, he freezing two eight and not, I learned them, I just wanted, I wanted to get them, so that when I began to witness the people, they would understand their salvation was a free gift. And I tell you, it blessed my life, and I know I’m going to heaven, I don’t even worry about that anymore. So what I tell people, I say salvation, I don’t even worry about that because I’m kept by the power of God.

He keeps me, so what I’m trying to do now is earn joy and blessings and effectiveness assurance and then earned rewards by being a disciple, winning other souls to Christ. I think he got it down. I think he’s got it down. How long ago did you start to listen to Hank? You know, I first heard him back in the early 80s and like I said, I enjoyed his prophecies and for some reason I missed I couldn’t find his radio station and then early in the early 2000s I heard him.

That’s when I say, hey, I give him the benefit of the doubt. when I listened and I said, you know what, I understand it. It became clear. As clear as I’m looking at you all, that’s how clear it came to me. And I knew that I was going to have, and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. And I have a sister living at Atlanta. She said when she went to Sunday’s group, her teacher would always tell them, how many of you all in here knew you were going to have?

Don’t raise your hand. And they said, well, why are we coming to church? And so I got a whole turn and I began to explain to her, He said, I knew it was more to it than that. Because they were struggling. She was struggling because they were going to church, but couldn’t know that they were going to heaven. So when I understood it, I started telling everybody I could. Well, what did you come all the way over here for?

You knew Hank wasn’t here. Yeah, but you were here and you looked like to me. He just handed the baton off to you, and you’ve been just going on with it. So give me a big hand. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I think it’s good every once in a while to have a commercial. Now, I want you to have a copy of the notes, but I don’t want you to use them. I want you to get it, fold it, put it in your Bible and tuck it away.

Those are the notes, but I don’t want you to get to where all you do is look at your notes and you don’t open the Bible. That’s the only thing about bothers me about handing out notes is that you get to where you just, you don’t look at the Bible. And I think that’s more important. Because you got to learn the Bible. You got to learn the Bible. Memorize Scripture. Even when you keep turning to the Bible and you’re looking at it, you remember what side of the page it’s on, whether it’s down at the bottom to the left, that column of this column.

You’d be surprised. All that helps you down the road to find what you’re looking for. So take your Bible and turn now to to the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 9. 1 Corinthians and chapter 9. We’ve covered quite a bit on the subject of rewards. But today is good, but it’s not as good as next Sundays. I had a problem trying to decide which one I was going to bring today. And so next Sunday morning is the one that you really need to hear.

Isn’t that what they always do? That’s the kind of bait you to get you to come. And here’s the next one. Like I told somebody, I says, one of these days I’m gonna preach the best sermon I’ve ever preached. So you gotta hear every one of them because I don’t know when it’s gonna happen. But you know, one of these days it’s gonna happen. Our preach is the best sermon I’ve ever preached. But in 1 Corinthians and chapter nine, I want you to look at there in verse 24.

No, ye not that they which run in a race or run all, run all, but one receiveth the prize. So that’s in the races that we have in the world, you know, like in the Olympics, which is, I believe, a reference to that. But with the Lord, see, you’re running in a race, but you’re not running against another believer. You’re running against the devil. You’re running against the clock. You’re running against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

Can you keep yourself focused on your goal and not let those things deter you to keep you from winning the race, the running the race that God set before you? So there’s a course and this course may not be exactly like everybody else’s because God may put and allow obstacles to come into your way that he let somebody else seem like they got a pass and And sometimes it looks like you’re suffering and somebody else, they don’t have to go through that.

There is testing when the supply of funds and with the withholding of funds. There is an equal test of faithfulness to the Lord with good health and with bad health. When you have some money and you have no money, the test is the same. It’s your faithfulness that God is trying. So if you can remember that, you know I’m supposed to be faithful regardless of what happens to me. When everybody likes you and nobody likes you. Notice one thing when nobody likes you because you just plain mean and ugly and contrarian, you know, argumentative.

But when you’re trying to do the best you can and some of those things happen, that’s a different story. I always realize that God is watching. Now, you’ll notice in the last part of this verse, so run that you may obtain. Another way of saying that is, so live that you may obtain. Remember Paul made this statement for me to live as Christ sent to die as gain. So running your race is learning how to live your life. There’s a God who designed life and he designed you and me and says, this is what I want you to do and this is what I don’t want you to do.

So God knows the best. And so therefore we are to keep that in mind. But anyway, the second verse is 2 Corinthians chapter five, 2 Corinthians in chapter five. Now remember, sometimes you see these verses and you just quickly go over them, but you need to sometimes stop and say, now what is this thing really saying? Who is it talking to? What changes do I need to make in my life? How can I apply this verse? Because remember, the application of Scripture is the sign of wisdom.

And you’re not wise because you can quote the whole Bible. Or if you know every Hebrew and every Greek word, that’s not sign of wisdom, that’s a sign of knowledge. But you want to be wise in that you do what God says. So in verse 10, statement four, believeers, must, You know, there’s a verse in the New Testament in John chapter 3 where it says, you must be born again. And you must be born again, or you don’t get to go to heaven.

How are you talking about the believers and what you must do? You must appear before the judgments of the Christ. here is more than just a show it up. It’s being manifested. In other words, it’s something going to x-ray you clean through and through in all of your word. It’s a screening process. If you want to get on to the airplane, you got to go through these little things and The beeps go off. I was with a friend of mine.

He was 85 years old. And what was his name? They went to Israel with me. Doc. I just called Doc. And he was 85 years old, but he wanted to go to Israel. And I thought, I’m going to have to babysit this guy all the way over there. And that’s the last thing I want to do. I want to go here. I want to go there. I want to see this. And I don’t want to babysit somebody. I want them to go and I want them to have a good time.

But I don’t want to have a less of a good time because I’m trying to help them have a better time. So anyway, I have these emotions that goes throughout my body sometimes. Now it wouldn’t bother you, but it had bothered me. So I had already been up several nights and I was very, very tired, very, very tired. I was in some other state and I had to fly up to another place and I was going day and night And I thought, man, I can’t wait to get on this plane because it’s a long flight over there.

And all I gotta do is just sit back and I’m gonna go to sleep. And so when I got on the plane, there was a seat there and a seat here, and then another seat. And so when I sat down, he sat over there against the window. And I thought, this is great. I can sack out on two of these seats just go to sleep and sleep for next eight hours. So I thought, I’ll go to the restroom first so I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night.

I went to the restroom, I came back and he’d already been curled up on both of those seats and went to sleep. I had questions about whether he was really asleep. But the old man outfoxed me. He slept for the next eight hours. By the time I got over there, I was fit to be tied. And so, we’re going to get to our room. And I told the guy that I was with, I said, I’m going to go up here and take a quick shower.

But my goal was I’ll take a quick shower because if I get through the shower first, I get in the bed first. Because the guy snored. He snored. I couldn’t stand he said he laid the snort so I’m gonna outsmart this guy so we I said I’m gonna go take a shower and he says I’m gonna go with you so I thought he doesn’t know my plan though but he jumped into the shower and and he came out and jumped right into bed and started snoring I could I could I could have I mean here’s an an 85 year old little old fella outsmarting me and I’m smart.

I’m wiser than the average bear and I know that. But you know there’s sometimes, I think God has a sense of humor and God allows some things to take place. But we got ready to get on the plane coming out of Israel and he has to go through this little screening process. Now Buddy Israel really examines you. Well, he tried to come through the screener and it goes off. So he has to go back. And then he has to take off his belt buckle.

And then he tries again. And then that didn’t work. Something else went off and something else went off something. And they say, no, he had his shirt off. And he says, and he tried to go through it and something else went off. I don’t know what I only had metal plates into what was going on. And he just said, I’m just gonna take all my clothes off. And so he started pulling this belt off and he’s gonna take his pants down, he said, I’ll get naked about it.

And he’s talking about everybody in the whole place in here. I pretend like I don’t even know this guy. I don’t know the man. I know not the man. But they started laughing at him. They thought it was so funny because the guy had a sense of humor. But there’s going to be a time where you are really going to be examined and nothing gets past the screener. But this is not going to be screening you for salvation. This is to the believers when you get to heaven and God’s gonna reward you for what you’ve done.

Now see down here sometimes we’re not really good judges of our own works. That’s why the Lord says judge nothing before the time for the Lord will bring to light manifest all the things that we have done. But look what he says in verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now this is a rewarding stand where God’s going to reward you for what you’ve done, that everyone may receive. So this is a time to receive from God that which you have earned, you have worked for.

Take a Bible and look at 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians and chapter four. First, that’s the only chapter four. And you’ll notice there in verse 16, verse 16 and 17, where he says, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, now this is what we call the rapture. He says, with a voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ, shall rise first. That’s the bodies that are in the grave. There’ll be this resurrection because God says that when he comes back, he’s going to bring them with him.

And he says that when he comes back, he will bring them with him. See up there in verse 15, for this we say in the you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or go before them, which are asleep. So there’s those that are asleep. And so when he comes back, he’s going to bring the other ones that have already died. He’s going to bring them with him.

That’s their soul. The bodies are in the grave, so the bodies will be resurrected. And then it says, and so shall in verse 17, shall we ever be with the Lord. We’re for comfort one another with these words. So that you and I know that when someone dies, we know where they are. We know that we’ll see them again. And we know there’s gonna be a resurrection and Christ is coming back. So we know all these things, and the knowledge of the word of God is supposed to bring us great peace and great comfort.

Take your Bible looking Revelation 19. Revelation and chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19, now many times we cover some of the same verses and then sometimes we interject a few verses that we may not have covered from a particular point of view. For Revelation chapter 19 and look there in verse seven. This is at the end of the tribulation period. This is right before the Lord coming back to the earth power and great glory in every eye will see him.

So he says here in verse 7, let us be glad and rejoice. Now we’ve just come through, or they did, the worst period of time in the whole world that was taking place upon the earth, the great tribulation period which I believe is right ahead of us. But look what he says here in verse 7, he says, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife has made herself ready.

So when we go to the judgment seat of Christ, that’s a rewarding stand and we are the bride of Christ. It means we’re going to have a wedding and at the wedding we’re going to be dressed in the righteous acts of the saints. In other words, God is going to reward you for what you have done and these are called the righteous acts of the saints. See there in verse 8, to her was granted that she should be a raid in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Now there’s the righteousness of God and there’s the righteousness of the saints. You see I know we’re getting to heaven because of the righteousness of Christ but the judgment see to Christ is where God rewards you for your righteousness for what you have done. And God says, you will be dressed or decked out with certain praise, honor and glory that comes to you because of what you did for the Lord. And we’re ready to go to the wedding. And so we’re going to be all dressed out in whatever it is.

I don’t really know, I know Baba talked about the five crowns. How’s one head gonna have five crowns on them? You know, I don’t know how God’s gonna do all this. Or they stack on top of each other, or do I get five heads, either we’re five crowns. Or maybe all of them put together and you only get one crown. You know, that represents all five of them. I don’t know. I don’t care how God does it. That’s what I’m gonna talk about next week.

I’m gonna show you what I think. And I know you want to know. So you have an enquiring mind. And so we have the simple verses that tell us this is what is going to take place. Now look in Romans in chapter 14. Romans and chapter 14. Sometimes we have that little part of our lives that really bothers other people. We like to judge others. We like to sit in judgment. And we become critical. And we know that that’s what causes arguments, because we always know that, you know, you’re right, they’re wrong, and so there’s arguments.

And everybody thinks that they’re right, and everybody else is wrong. Being people, we have an old sinful nature, and we don’t always see everything, and understand everything. So we always think that our position is the best. Of course we do. Otherwise we wouldn’t have any problems in this whole world at all, if everybody just agreed with me. Well, don’t work that away. But anyway, in Romans 14, what are you looking at verse 10? And verse 10 says, but why does thou judge thy brother?

Or why does Thou said it not thy brother, or count him of less respect? Because He doesn’t see eye to eye with me on everything. You see, in life no Christian perfectly agrees with everybody else. I hate to say that, but that’s just the truth. Let me ask you this. Do you love your wife? Do you love your husband? Do you love your kids? And you all agree perfectly. Well it’s not like that with the believers either. certain people that I will take a definite stand on and I’ll say they can’t speak in this pulpit.

But then there’s others that I will say yes, but that doesn’t mean I agree with them on every thing that they say and do. You have to know when to draw the line and where are you going to draw the line. I always like to bend a little bit with things and then I snap back to my original position because you know you’ve got to be patient with people who are now where you once were. Did you know there was a time in my life when I taught that a man had to turn from his sins to be saved?

Do you know there was a time in my life when I thought that you had to ask Jesus Christ and do your heart to be saved? You didn’t know that? You still let me don’t you? But I don’t know now. But aren’t you glad that somebody, somebody out there loved me. Somebody out there tried to help me. Somebody out there helped me to see the light. Aren’t you glad? Now, be that way with others. You sitting right here did not always believe what you now believe.

You were one because somebody cared about you you and tried to help you. Yes. Donald back there would still be believing what he believed. If somebody like Dr. Hank Linson hadn’t been on the radio and he didn’t get it the first time from what I understand he had to hear him for a long time over and over and over again. Are you patient with other people? Well, we don’t believe the same way. Well, maybe you don’t. Have you tried to win them?

Try to win, try to convince somebody. And so the day will come when we’re going to stand before the Lord. And he’s the judge. Now there’s certain things that we as individuals do, there’s certain position we take as a church and things that you may do as a family that’s not exactly the same as somebody. For example, you may don’t see anything wrong would you go on out here and go into a movie and things like that? And a lot of people do.

There’s anything wrong with that? I haven’t been to a movie outside of my house. I haven’t been to a movie in 52 years or 51 years. Never been to one. I don’t go to a movie theaters. So should I judge everybody else by my standard? No. That’s what I do. I just know there’s a verse in the Bible that says something like, make not provision for the flesh. I’m always, and I’m still scared of it, of what I might see or what I might hear, that might make a difference in my life and cause me to go toward the flesh.

And I’m always, the reason I never took a drink in my life, because I was afraid I might like it, I never smoked a cigarette, why? Because I was afraid I might like it. I’ve never worn a cuss word in my life. Why? Because I thought if I ever say the first one, I might say the second one and they didn’t might become something and I say all the time. So I’d rather not do it than have to stop it.

But see not everybody has the same standards But you have to decide in your own personal life. What is it that I think would be the best for me to be strong? So that’s what you’ve got to take on. Why? Because I’m gonna have to answer to the Lord and you’re going to have to answer to the Lord. True? We may disagree on what we’re going to eat. You eat pizza? What do you got clogged arteries? You’re going to die.

And so you try to get everybody else to eat wheat germ. Have you tried to live on just wheat germ? If you want to, go ahead. But don’t sit in judgment upon somebody else that liked meat and potatoes. Romans 14 is a whole chapter on just this issue. Or what day is more important than another day? Well, Sunday is the most important day of the week. I don’t know if it is or not. Whatever I do on Sunday, I try to live that same way on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday.

To me, all the days are holy days. Because to me, they all belong to the Lord. And I don’t believe that I should be less godly on Sunday. Oh, we’re coming into the presence of the Lord this morning. So we’re all holy and we got, there’s only about eight inches between a halo and a noose. And you try to be too holy in some, you’re gonna get hung. Or you’re gonna make yourself a little prison you live in and nobody else is going to be able to live up to your standards and you won’t have any friends because you’re going to be so far above and so you should be natural in your spiritual life and spiritual in your natural life.

It means that whatever you are, it ought to be real and it ought to be you. And so each person has to decide what will make me strong and what will cause me to be weak. And then after you’ve done that, Now, whatever I allow myself to do, if I allow other people to follow my example or try to convince somebody to follow my example, well, they become stronger or weaker. And it’s your love for others that causes you to kind of watch what you think and say and do.

Now, when you don’t have that in your life, then you’re going to maybe give yourself more freedom or more liberty. Well there’s a God in heaven that says one day, we’re all going to appear before the the judgments of Christ and every man is going to be judged. Because God knows why we did what we did. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message.

Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach 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. Cut 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.