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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. See, when you trusted Christ, God gave you His divine nature. Now He wants you and I to live like we have a divine nature. What if God was to give you His nature? Then we should want to live like God. But remember, we also have an old sinful nature, totally opposite.

And we’re the one that determines which of those natures control our life. We can have a sinful life, still be a child of God, still going to heaven, or you can let the divine nature of God control your life by yielding to it. So He says there in verse 5, beside all of this, and that’s enough, giving all diligence, look what He said, add to your faith, add to it. So it’s not just that God wants to save you and give you eternal life and you become His child and now you’re going to heaven.

God wants you to add to your faith. And he says, if you’ll add to your faith, you will have many more things in your life to help you to live and to be the light of the world that God intends. Now look in verse 8, for if these things be in you and abounds, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. So that means that you can have fruit because of your life. You’ll bear some fruit if you’ll add to your faith and become a strong Christian.

And that’s why he says in verse 9, but in contrast to that, he that lacketh these things because he didn’t add to his faith. See, there’s a lot of difference between a person who adds to his faith and a person who doesn’t. If you add to your faith, you’ll be a stronger Christian. You’ll have the character in your life, the virtue that God wants. You’ll have the patience that you want and you’ll have the fruit. But as he says in verse 9, he that lack of these things is blind.

Well, that’s what we just read over there in the book of Revelation, blind, but they don’t know they’re blind. If you can’t see what God is saying is you don’t understand. When you lack the discernment of right and wrong, you don’t understand. You don’t see. And there’s a lot of people who say, well, I don’t see anything wrong with this or wrong with that or wrong with this and that. That’s because you don’t see. You’re blind. The word of God, giveth light.

The entrance of thy word, giveth light. My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” So he makes a statement here in verse 9, but he that lack of these things is blind cannot see a far off. Can’t see far. And if you can’t see far, you can’t have a vision. And if there’s no vision, not only do the people perish, but so do you. In the words you live for nothing because you can’t see.

You don’t understand. And you can even get to the place to the place because you did not add to your faith, you begin to lose your faith. Now salvation cannot be lost, but you begin to lose your faith. You’ll lose confidence in what God says. You’ll lose confidence in all of these divine promises that He’s made. And you’re going to forget that, yes, you can even forget that you’ve ever been saved. But once you trusted Christ as you’re saved, you’re still saved, but you will lack the assurance of your salvation.

A shame, but it happens. And so God tells us in this word that He wants us to study His word so that we can be strong and do the thing that He wants us to do. Now go back to the book of Mark chapter 4. Those are my introductory remarks. Verse 24, verse 24, Mark chapter 4 verse 24, and He said unto them, Tate heed what ye hear, with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you. In other words, as you understand, knowledge will be increased according to your understanding of previous knowledge.

That’s why the Lord says in His Word, here a little, there a little, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept. You don’t learn it all at one time. Growing in the Lord is let God say something and then you believe it. when you believe it, and then you study and meditate that you may understand it. And then when you understand it, God gives you more light. You understand it gives more light. Understand it gives more life.

But when you don’t understand because you don’t study, you don’t stay sensitive to the Lord, then God says you will lose what you had. You’ll lose the knowledge. You’ll lose your understanding. So there’s some people who understand and they get more understanding. And the more you understand, the more you can do. The more you can do, the more you can enjoy. And then when you get to heaven, the more rewards you will have. You see, it just kind of feeds each other that way.

So Luke, what he says in verse 24, he says, and unto you that here shall more be given. And you that here, that means you that understand and obey what you hear and understand, you’ll get more. So when you want to do the will of God, then God says in John chapter 17, the more you will understand, and the more you understand, then you’ll understand the will of God. And then when you do the will of God, God gives you more.

Open up another door, and you begin to grow in the Lord. Some of God’s children are no more spiritual today than they were the day they got saved. They haven’t grown at all. You see, just hearing the word of God doesn’t make you strong. Do you understand? Do you apply it? If somebody was to say, are you a light in this world? In other words, people can see the Lord through you because you share the gospel? Or when you do what God wants you to do, do you tell them why you do it?

So that the Lord gets the credit, not you. Or do you enjoy having people brag on you how wonderful you are? is it, well, I want to give all the credit to the Lord. I want to brag on Him. He’s the reason why I’m doing what I do. God loves it when His children praise Him and brag on Him. And you need to understand God has worked in your life. God has blessed. God has enabled. And so you ought to give Him the credit, because that’s just the way it’s supposed to go.

Look in the book of Luke, Luke chapter 8, Luke chapter 8 and verse 10. Luke chapter 8 verse 10, very quickly. Verse 10, he says there in verse 10 of Luke chapter 8, he said unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables that see and they might not see and hearing they might not understand. He says, so when he had a mixed crowd, those who wanted to know the truth, those that didn’t, he was speaking parables, and those that wanted to know the truth would understand it, and those that didn’t wouldn’t understand it.

Tremendous way to teach. He had that ability. Now he says, in verse 11, he says, now the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. Those by the wayside are they that here didn’t come up the devil and take it the way the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. So you see, even here at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, believe and be saved. It’s very simple, very clear, and that’s all they had to do.

In verse 13, they on the rock, are they which, when they hear, received the Word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation, follow away. In other words, they believe, but no root. They believe, but no root. So you can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, save going to heaven when you die, but you don’t have any root that holds you and this is what happens in verse 14. And that which fail among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with the cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection.

See, it’s not one thing, it’s one thing to be saved, but then there’s no root, there’s no debt to your life. And then there’s others who get caught up in the affairs of life and tangled with the things of life and don’t do anything. These are those who have no fruit. The other one had no root. But in verse 15, but that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.

So they have root and fruit. So you are the one that determines how deep does the root you have go? You see, you pretend like the verses in the Bible are like rocks. your faith goes around these rocks and they anchor there. So when the winds and the trials of life blow, you’re rooted and you’re going to stand because you’re trusting in those divine, precious promises. Your faith in what God says is strong enough that regardless of how strong the wind is or the criticism or the people who try to attack, it doesn’t matter what happens in life, just argue anchored and therefore you’ve got root in the Word of God.

But the Word of God is not just so that I can just stay strong in the Lord and look pretty with all my foliage on my tree. God wants fruit on the tree. So you want your roots deep and you want fruit because of the people that God’s been able to reach through you. See, we’re just like, he says, he’s the brine, we’re the branches and we bear the fruit, but he uses us. And so he made the statement in verse 16, no man, when hath lighted a candle, covered with a vessel or put it in under bed, or set it on a candle, said, he says, but they which enter in may see the light for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest.

Neither anything here that shall not be known and come abroad. He’d therefore, how ye hear? For for whom so ever have to him shall be given, whose so ever have not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemed to have. So you may seem that you have understanding. Okay, show me your life. Just show me your life. I love the Lord. Prove it by how you live. talks cheap. You’ve got to get into it and do what God says to do.

And you’d be surprised what God may bring forth in your life. Now, take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew in chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25, there’s a wonderful passage of Scripture here that sometimes a little confusing them. And I’ll have to admit, there’s times when I’m just not sure I got it all down right. But we know the Lord is coming back someday. Now he’s going to have two phases of his second coming. One is when he comes for you and I at the rapture and will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then there are going to be seven years of tribulation upon this earth, the worst period of time the world’s ever known. Then the The Lord is coming back to the earth and his feet will touch upon the Mount of Olives and they’re cleaving the mist. That’s at the end of the tree relation period right before he sets up his kingdom upon the year for a thousand years. But at the end of the tree relation period, when he comes back, there’s going to be what is called the judgment of the nations.

Individuals within nations are going to have to stand before the Lord. That is at the beginning. of the millennium, the thousand year kingdom upon the year. So he says in verse 31, Matthew 25, 31, when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. So when you see the glory and being revealed and every eye shall see him, this is talking about when Christ comes in power and great glory at the end of the tribulation period.

Verse 32, And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. You are born a sheep if you’re a sheep. And if there’s a goat, it was born a goat. The sheep didn’t become a sheep because of its good deeds, and the goat didn’t become a goat by bad deeds. It was born that way. Whenever we were born into this world, we were all goats.

When you trusted Christ as your Savior, you become a sheep. You were born into God’s family by faith and faith alone. That principle is taught throughout the Word of God. So he says here in verse 33, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, goats on the left, so that you understand as we go, the sheep are those who have believed on the Lord. They are the righteous. They’re the one that went into the kingdom, but the goats are the unbelievers.

The goats are those that are going to be cast into the lake of fire. The goats are lost. The sheep are saved. And he says in verse 34, then shall the king say unto them on his right hand. Now notice he doesn’t say the head of the church. This is the king of Israel before the kingdom is set up, and this is the king on his throne. So he says in verse 34, Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was a hungry, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. Naked and you cloged me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous enter him, sayin’ Lord, when saw we thee hungry and fed thee and thirsty and gave thee drink, when saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee, or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee, And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, in so much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Now, that is a little tricky to understand because we know nobody is saved by any good works. Can’t be, contrary to scripture. So what would you say this is talking about? because the opposite of this is mentioned about those that were the goats. And they said the same thing. When did this happen? Now, I want to read a couple of things to you. In Matthew chapter 18 and verse 5, let me just read this to you. He says, And who so shall receive one such little child and my name, receiveth me.

You receive the child, you receive me. Mark 9, 37 says, host so ever shall receive one of such children in my name. Receiveth me. And host soever shall receive me, receive if not me, but him that sent me. Okay. Gets a little confusion at times. And then in the book of Acts 22 and verse 18, he says, and saw him saying unto me, make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

I believe there’s a good possibility that Jesus is stating in a certain point that when I go and talk to a lost man, If I go and even if I’m sick, I’m going because he said to go and I’m going in his name, I’m going in obedience to him. And when I go and give the gospel and that person trust Christ as Savior because I gave it to the person for him. If that person rejects the message that I give to them, even though I was sick, they not only rejected me and the message, it is seen by God as a rejection of Him.

If I go to a person and I present the gospel and that person believes the gospel because Because he heard the word and he believed on Christ because I did it for him. By him receiving the message from me. It’s not my message. I’m just a cheap radio set. They’re receiving him. Through me, I’ve been into prisons. I’ve been in reform schools. And even though I go into a reform school or a prison or maybe even on the street.

And if I present the gospel and if they accept the gospel that they heard from me, they’re receiving him. And Jesus says, not only are they receiving me, they’re receiving Him that sent me. Now I don’t understand at all, but I believe that that could be a little bit about what He’s talking about here. You see, if you add it into what He’s talking about, for example, He says, when I came to you, He says, you close me. I was sick.

You visited me. See, when did we visit Him? You’d be surprised over the years how many people I have visited. I visited people in the nursing home. I visited people in the hospitals. I visited them in their homes. I have flown across this country just to visit with people. You see, I went for the Lord and I have done this for Him. And there’s people that have believed that. They received Christ through what we did. He visited me. I went for the Lord to talk to a person.

But in God’s I see it’s like, you did this for me. And some of these kids, they go out on Friday nights, so when, why are they doing that? They’re doing ans because that’s what God wants them to do. And there’s people that will trust Christ as their Savior. And when they trust the Lord, receive a message from the person that went to see them, and that person went for Christ. And Christ could say to them, I went to see you, I visited you, you rejected me.

I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. And all these things that you and I should understand that you and I are in the place of Christ in this life, we are the light of the world.” Another verse it says, in the book of Vileiman in verse 1 and 17, “…if thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.” Receive him as myself. But let me read that one verse to you again, in the book of Acts 22 and verse 18.

saw him sin unto me, make haze and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.” Paul went to jail for the Lord, and he says, when I was in jail, you rejected me. I went when I was poor and you rejected me. You did not do this, you did not do that because they did not receive the message that people from all walks of life in every situation have poured out their life and given their soul to try to wake people for the Lord.

You can’t make people do these things. But when he talks about these people, righteous people, going into the kingdom, and it refers to what they did. Let me read it again, verse 35, for I was hungry. You gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you took me not in. And he said in verse 30, then shall the righteous answer and said, look, when did we do all of this when you did it for me?

When you did all of this for me. When saw we just strange and all that, he says in verse 40, and the king shall answer and say to them, verily I send you in so much as you have done it unto one of the least of thee, my brother and you have done it unto me. You did this for me. It’s like you saw that person and you obeyed and you went to that person and I told you to do it and you did it.

And sometimes people do it when they’re sick, sometimes they do it when they’re weak. Sometimes God may send us into a prison. He may send us into a nursing home. You don’t know where all God sends. I believe there’s a lot more that’s deeper into these truths than what we see on the surface. And we’re just scratching the tops of it. But notice what he says in verse 41, then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye curse into everlasting fire, prepare for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry, you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you took me not in. Naked and you clothed me not. Because see, whenever he sent the people and they did not receive those people and believe what they said, it’s like Christ saying, you did that to me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . I send them, but they did it for me and you rejected them and this is how you treated me.

I had the message. I gave it to them. They presented it and you wouldn’t hear. You wouldn’t listen. And so he makes a statement here in verse 44. Then shall they also answer and say, Lord, when saw we thee like this, or not minister unto thee, then shall he answer in verse 45? I said to you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. You didn’t listen to what they said.

In other scriptures in chapter 23, we just talked about this last week. He said, I sent the prophets. I sent the prophets. And you have killed them. And they said, well, if we’d have been back then we wouldn’t have done that. But they did do that. And the crisis now, talking to that generation, whose fathers had killed the prophets. And they said, well, if we didn’t live back then, we wouldn’t have done that. And look what they just did to the one that was perfect, right in front of them.

They rejected him, they crucified him. And so he says here in verse 46, These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous and the life eternal. Do you think God in heaven knows those for him that are rooted and want fruit, and talk to people, and give their life for that. And there are people that will go to heaven because they heard the message. Because when we witness, we’re not doing it for ourselves. We’re doing it because God so loved the world.

You can’t make people love God, and you can’t make people love the lost. All you can do is say, this is what the Word of God says. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I pray that you’ll do so. I hope you understand that God loves you. And He sends a lot of people, perhaps your way. You can blow them off if you want to. You can take the track and tear it all up. Maybe turn that preacher off on that ready, oh, and don’t darken the doors of any church because somebody’s hurt your feelings.

But one day you’re gonna have to tell God why you rejected him. And you’d be surprised what he’s gone through to get the gospel to each and everyone. I pray that you will trust Christ as your Savior. God said if you would trust him, he would save you and give eternal life. Our Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Thank you for your word. Father, we wish we understood even more than we do know. But Father, you said according to your Word, when we do understand it, it should enlighten our minds and give us some more knowledge and help us to understand that.

But always with the idea of obeying that which we understand. Let’s each one for being here in Christ and 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 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, 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 Bible Eye, 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.