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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 a 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. There’s things that makes a family a family. If the man will just love the Lord so that he can love his wife. And see, if you don’t love the Lord, you’re not gonna love your wife, right? The wife needs to love the Lord. So one of the things that helped us over the years, 50 of them, 52, is because we both love the Lord.

And when you love the Lord, the closer you get to the Lord, the closer you get to each other. But most families today, they don’t love the Lord. It’s all about me. Make me happy. Please meet. No, if you learn to please the Lord, then God says, if you want to please me, I want you, please your wife. I want you to please your husband. But see, there has to be something on the inside of it that motivates you, that helps put all these things together.

I remember a lot of times when I go to the Georgian, especially at Christmas time. I love Christmas with the kids and the grandkids. They all get over there at my daughter’s house and we sit around, we have a lot of fun. I don’t know why. There must be something to it. I’ll sit down in the little lounge chair there and I am so comfortable and the grandkids will come in there and I don’t know why. They know I don’t have much hair up there.

But for some reason rather, they like to play with my hair. And they’ll twist it, and they’ll try to make it stand up straight. They put roll it, put bobby pins in it, and I’m sitting there, and they’re decorating my hair. And I said, don’t do that. I don’t want you to mess with my hair. Whatever you do, don’t touch my hair. Well, that don’t work. They climb up on both sides, and they both are just pilling in. And then they got to get the camera and take a picture.

I said, I know this is gonna be on Facebook. I just, it’s gonna be on Facebook. Nothing is safe today. And one day, little Abbie, she got up there and she’s playing in my hair, says, Abbie, don’t pull my hair. And she says, Abbie, don’t pull my hair. That hurts, hon. Don’t do that. It hurts. And I’m being honest. And I’m afraid that she’s gonna pull out what little I got left. And she’s pulling my hair. Abby, don’t pull my hair.

She said, pop, I’m just trying to get my gum out. Now you haven’t had that happen? God pity you. But there’s all kinds of things that make a family. But you’ve got to learn how to laugh at things because some things, they make you cry. They’ll make you weep. How would you take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew chapter five. Real quick Matthew chapter five. All that was just my introductory remarks. Now we’re ready to get into the message.

But Matthew in chapter five I want you to notice something here in verse 13. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost his savor, where would the shall it be salted? If it hints forth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trod done to foot of men. I want you to think about something just for a moment. You remember years ago when they used to have this little commercial came on air, where’s the beef?

You know, it’s a little old lady. Where’s the beef? I mean, she had to make a million dollars. It was everywhere. Everybody was saying it. Where have you went to a restaurant? Where’s the beef? Where’s the salt? Where’s the salt? You see, you need a man with some salt. That means to have a spine made out of steel. A man that got some salt to him. You see, you need salt in the man himself to know what he believes because salt, see, is a preservative against decay, against something being rotten.

Salt is what every man needs to do. be, Christ says, you are the salt of the earth. But just stop and don’t think about of the world. I want you to think concerning yourself. Here you are, you’re a man. Are you the salt of your family? Are you the preservative of your family? Are you that which holds it together And you try to get out of your family anything that would cause your family to decay or to rotten. Are you trying to preserve that which is good for your family?

You’re the man. Be the man. You are the salt. Where’s the salt? Where’s the man with some salt? I’m afraid there’s not too many men the day that have the salt. Not only for himself, Because see, if you got some salt for yourself, then you want to make sure that you don’t say and do things that destroys your own life. Why would you do that? Because if you’re not around, you can’t protect wife and children. So you want salt.

And you get salt from the Lord. You get purpose from God. You get a mission from God. You get drive from God. Motivation from God. You get it from the Lord. The Lord is what every man needs because to be the leader every man needs to be. He needs to know how to love, how to protect, those three main things. How to love, how to protect, how to provide. That means if you can’t do it for yourself And ladies, always look for the man that’s got some salt.

Is what he’s doing going to preserve his life? In the sense that he is a good man, a godly man, a man that walks with God and seeks to do what’s right. Because see, when you marry that man, you’re going to put yourself under his authority. And what kind of a man is he going to be? Is he a man that’s going to be able to preserve the home, the family? Is he going to try to preserve those children and see that those kids are taught correctly and that they have some salt, some preservative in them?

You see, it’s the Word of God that preserves us, that keeps us. Our minds are fixated upon the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lead not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways, acknowledge God, and he shall direct thy paths. And so you and I, we need, we need the Lord. And we need to know the Lord because we’re the salt of the earth. But did you know it also makes a statement here in verse 14?

Ye are the light of the world. You’re the light of the world. See light dominates, salt dominates. The man is supposed to dominate the home. Not the wife, not the children. Wife and the children are not supposed to run the home. the man is supposed to run the home. Be the man. Be the man. Take leadership. Assume responsibility. God gave it to you. But how you rule, how you lead is so important. That’s why God says that we’re supposed to love our wife.

And he talks about when men get right with the Lord, their hearts are turned to their children. Do you love your children? I love my children. I want my children not only to know the Lord, I want my children to walk with God. Now they may not, but don’t let it be because daddy didn’t try to be the best example he could be. at least you make that effort. But don’t give up on them too soon because you see, don’t judge them under a teenager and totally everybody is.

Give them a little time like another 20 years. You’d be surprised how they come around and say, you know, maybe mom and dad wasn’t so stupid after all. You know, the longer I live, the smarter my mom and dad seems to be. Because they also know you’re going to die soon and they want the inheritance. Be nice to your kids because they might determine the nursing home you go to. So you see, one hand washes the other. But utilize that position that God has given to you and I to be the leader in the home that we ought to be.

God says, you don’t take a light and hide it under a bushel. A man should not take that which God’s given to him and hide himself under a bushel. No, you’re the head of the home. Act like it. Think like it. Study the word of God so you can be everything you ought to be to the wife, to the children. You see, your wife needs to know you love her that much, that you’re willing to fight to be the leader and the protector and the provider.

You see, there’s so much that they rest in. I was telling them early in Sunday school. I used to love listening to music when I’m driving over the road. the faster the music, the faster I go. Sometimes I’ll be listening to something really slow. And Betty says, Janke, if you go in his slower, we’re going to be stopped. That happened very seldom. I’m usually boogieing down a highway and I’ll run up, have and put it on cruise controls so I can monitor it better.

You and I need the Lord to monitor our lines, to help guide us, to keep us kind of steady. Otherwise you’ll be up here and then you’re down here. You’re up here and then you’re down here. You see the Christian needs to learn to be stable. Your children need to see a stable man. Not a yo-yo. Not up here down here, up there down here. They never know where going to be? And wife or children should not be afraid to come to you with advice or opinion or correction or rebuke or that you’ve fallen apart.

Ooh, that hurt. Sometimes when I’m talking to you, I’m talking to myself. But you see, God has given to us and He says, you are the light of the world. Where’s the light? Do the family, do they have light? Do they know how to live for the Lord the way they should? That’s daddy’s responsibility to see that those kids and that wife, see I knew years ago, I wanted to serve the Lord, but I know if my wife doesn’t serve the Lord, it’s going to hinder me.

I knew it was important to see that my wife is in church as often as possible wife because she needs to be fed spiritually. Because if I can keep to the place where she loves the Lord, she’ll love me right. If you’ll love the Lord, she’ll love my kids right. She loves the Lord, she’ll love the ministry. But you take away all of that because see a person is body, soul and spirit. And we forget some time about them spiritually.

Do you know know how to meet the spiritual needs of your wife or of your children. A good father is not someone who can just put clothes on their back and food in their stomach and a roof over their head. Can you help them spiritually? Can you counsel them? There’s a lot of problems in life. Trying to understand all that goes on, all the pressures that you’re under, and the raisin of kids and grandkids and live long enough to be able to see the results of what you taught and apply biblical principles in your life.

That’s why I admire the men who bring their children to church, not the ones who just send their children to church, bringing them and sitting with them and letting them hear the the Word of God, letting them kids know that daddy’s hearing the same thing I’m hearing. My children are hearing what I’m hearing. They know by responsibilities and I know theirs and vice versa. My kids know that I’m supposed to love my wife. They heard it from the Word.

They heard it from the preacher. And in the home, they know whether or not do you really love her? Do you act like it? Do you show it? All these things are so very, very important. A man wrote this and I want to share it with you. You know, in the book of Acts in chapter 17, verse 6, I also shared this verse in Sunday School, where it talks about these have turned the world upside down. God’s people turn in the world upside down, but you know today it’s the world that has turned the Christians upside down.

It’s the wrong way. The world is influencing our home. The world is influencing the parents. The world is influencing the children. And very few parents today care enough about their families, their kids, to get them on the spiritual teaching of the Word of God, so that they can make a difference. God says, be not conformed to this world, but be it transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So God give us men, rib with steel of the Holy Spirit, men who will not flinch when the battle’s fiercest, men who won’t compromise or fade when the enemy rages. God give us men who can’t be bought, bartered or badgered by the enemy, men who will pay the price, make the sacrifice, and stand the ground and hold the Lord torch high. Lot of talk today about this, stand the ground stuff. I believe that a man of God ought to stand his ground and not move, not give it up.

Fight for your families, your wife, your kids, the right to fulfill your God-given responsibilities. God God give us men obsessed with the principle true to your word, men stripped of self-seeking and a yin for security, men who will pay any price for freedom and go to any length for truth. God give us men delivered from mediocrity, men with high vision and low pride. Faith widen, love deep, and patience long. who will dare to march to the drumbeat of a distant drummer, men who will not surrender principles of truth in order to accommodate their peers or the world.

And God give us men more interested in scars than metals, more committed to conviction than convenience, men who will give their life for the eternal instead of the indulging their lives for a moment in time, men who are fearless in the face of danger, calm in the midst of pressure and bold in the midst of opposition. God give us men who will pray earnestly, work long, and wait patiently. And give us men whose walk is by faith, behavior is by principle, whose dreams are in heaven and whose book is the Bible.

God give us men who are equal to the past. those are the men, the church, the family, and the nation needs today. We have a lot of corruption in our country. I believe it’s because we don’t have salt as a preservative. We need good men running for office and good people voting the men. If we don’t, we’re gonna have chaos in this country and it’s on the way. It’s It’s destroying our homes. If you love your wife and your children, protect your home, have standards and say, this is what I believe, this is what is right, and we’re gonna do what’s right.

A man by the name of Joshua says, I don’t know what course others may take, but I’m gonna do this. Me and my family will serve the Lord. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Like Nathan Hill, I regret that I’ve only got one wife to give to my country. No, he didn’t say it like that. But you and I have a responsibility as a child of God to put him first in the servant. You know, you can’t do any of that if you don’t know the Lord.

I’m so glad that years and years ago, yes, I was raised in a family that did not know God. My dad, I never saw him in a church. My mama never saw in church. I don’t remember one time ever standing in church and singing with my family or reading from a hymn or seeing him and singing in a quiet night and I saw none of that. Not once.

I took this little girl that lived next door and we ran away to Anderson, South Carolina, and we got married. Her dad came looking for me. He was going to part my soul in eternity. I was not a Christian. I had no clue where I was going to go and I’d die and I wasn’t ready to go. I was young. I was only 18. But I heard for the first time from my father-in-law, God loved me. Didn’t like what I did wrong, but and that I could have eternal life.

I could be certain of going to heaven, but I never heard anybody ever say that before. I didn’t know anybody could know they could go to heaven. I always thought everybody just hoped you were going to go, and if you weren’t good enough, you’d go to hell. But I was kind of with mixed emotions. There was times I thought I’m good enough to go, and there was other times I knew I wouldn’t. And buddy, I needed some good news.

Now, look up here. This hand represents you and me. This wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. He loves you. Now, he doesn’t like what you do wrong, but he loves you just like your children. You love your children. Or you’re supposed to. You don’t like what you do wrong. But God loves us. But he says, everybody sins. as things wrong. We’re all in the same boat. There is no difference. And God says, the wages of sin is death.

Death in hell. And so we don’t want to go to hell, at least I don’t. God doesn’t want us to go to hell. But how can we go to heaven if we have to be perfect? Because heaven is a perfect place. God is perfect. I’m not. So how can I get in? God says, you’ll never be good enough. Your works will never get you to heaven. Go in the church won’t get you to heaven. Giving money won’t get you to heaven.

Trying to live a good life, keep the 10 commandments, doing your prayers and all that will not pay for one sin. That’s why we needed a savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. Now he hates what we do wrong. because our sin separates us from the Lord. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin, didn’t have to die. And because He loved us, He took all the sin of all the world and paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead, and God said that if you and I, if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account, and we get to go to heaven on what Christ did.

So you don’t earn it you don’t work for it. You don’t become a religious hypocrite You don’t have to go to church to go to heaven. You don’t have to give money to go to heaven You don’t have to stop anything to go to heaven. You don’t have to promise God. How you’re gonna live to go to heaven? Get all of that God loves you He Paid for your sins says if you’ll believe he did it for you you, he’ll put this payment to your account and all your sin see are credited.

It’s been paid in full. You don’t have to pay for once. I don’t have to go to hell and pay for one of my sins. As bad as I’ve been or am or ever will be. He died for all of them. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. Never have. But love me. And that’s why he says, you need grace. Grace means I don’t deserve it. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works list any man should boast.

You see, if I was to offer you this microphone and you accepted, what would you have? A microphone. If offered you my Bible and you accepted, what would you have? Bible. If offered you my wallet and you accepted it, what would you have? An empty wallet? So if Christ walks in here right now and offered you eternal life and you accepted what would you have eternal life? If it’s eternal life, how long would it last? Well, forever. If it lasts forever and all your sins are paid, where would you go when you die to heaven?

So can you know you’re going to heaven before you die. Yes. That was the best news I ever heard. I was 18 years old. And my father-in-law, who loved his daughter, knew this is what I needed. So I trusted Christ as my Savior that night. And then he began to teach me my responsibilities because I never learned him at home. But this man knew the Lord and he loved the Lord. He taught me to love the Lord. And loving the Lord I wanted to love my wife.

Loving my wife, I wanted to love my kids. I wanted to be a good example for my children. My kids have never seen me do a lot of things that most parents don’t think is important. I believe it’s right to do right. You want something better and different, you’re going to have to do something better and different. But see, however good I may live, it’s not going to get me to heaven. I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me.

What I have when I get to heaven, or the blessings of this life is because of what I do for Him. So going to heaven is free. It’s a gift. I trust in Christ as my Savior. I have eternal life. I’m going to heaven when I die. And if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him? Would you trust Him right now? Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around.

I’m not going to have you forward. I’m not going to have you raise your hand in order to try to trap you and try to trick you in any way. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to ask you to raise your hand in just a moment, but it’s not to trick you. It’s just so that I can have prayer for you. And so we heads bowed nice clothes and no one looking around. If you say, yes, that made sense to me.

I want to be certain going to heaven and preach your I’m not likely to pray for me. If you will trust Jesus Christ right now as your only hope of going to heaven, you may have heard about it all your life, but you never trusted him. As your only hope, because there is no other way, God said he would save you right now from hell and give you eternal life as a gift, would you believe it? If you’re making that decision, I’d like to know and I’d like to have prayer for you.

So would you slip you in it very quickly and put it right back down, sing with all. God bless you, man. You can put it down. Anyone else? Just slip it up very quickly. Yes, God bless you, buddy. I appreciate that. It’s just a sign of good judgment because there’s no trick to this. You say, yes, that made sense to me. I will trust Christ as my Savior. I want to be certain. I’m going to heaven when I die.

You’re not trusting the preacher. You’re not trusting the church. You’re trusting the Lord. He’s the one that knows what you’re thinking. And I’d just like to have prayer for you. Not going to have you forward. Not going to embarrass You know what else before we close? Our Father, we thank You so much for Your love for us, for giving us eternal life and making it possible for us to go to heaven. We thank You, Lord, for the ones that indicated by an uplift at hand that they would trust You as Savior.

By doing so, they become Your child. You’ll never cast Him out, never lose Him. We ask Your blessings upon each family here, and Father, we know there’s a lot of women that had to assume the responsibility for their home because their man will not step up or because of some other reasons. But, Lord, we just pray that you would bless every man that’s here, helping to be the leader that he ought to be, to love his family, provide and to protect because we are the salt, not only of the earth, not only in government, not only in church, but in our home.

We thank you for it in Christ’s name, 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 Bible 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. 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.