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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. Let me just show you this one verse. I think it’s important for you to see. Look there in the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 And look there in verse 13 It’s good for you to know this if you will walk with the Lord and serve the Lord.

There’s a promise that God has made In verse 13, there have no temptation taken you you, but such as is common to man, it’s common. Nobody knows what I’m going through. No, just everybody else in the whole world. But God is what? God is faithful. Now get this. Who will not allow you, permit you, suffered you to be tempted above that you’re able, will with the temptation also make a way and you ought to underline that little word, escape.

In other words, the devil cannot put me in checkmate unless God wants it. That’s fine. But as long as I do what I’m supposed to do, I believe I can accomplish the will of God for my life. And I don’t have to worry about there’s a problem coming down the road that I can’t handle. I’ll be in checkmate. There’s something that I can’t do. I always believe between men God. I can do anything. And as long as I believe that, I’m not afraid to step forward, to try something, to do something.

Because see, I believe these verses in the Bible is true. You need to believe that they’re true. But there will be times in your life when you’re swear up and down, I’m in checkmate. You know how out and you’re going to have a pity party for yourself. And why, why, why? No, because you got your confidence in the Lord and learn to trust the Lord. Now go back to the book of Colossians and notice and I know that many of you have done this.

We drive down the highway, we day dream a lot. Play the radio. The music’s fast. You drive fast. Just moving along. And you’d be surprised you’d be going 10, 15, 20 miles over the speed limit and not even knowing. And lo and behold, you look down there and there’s a cop car. And without even thinking you slam on the bracelet and hope you didn’t see anything. Did you know that you can lose control because you see you’re not paying attention to everything that’s going on.

And you forget about how fast you’re going. And that caught down there is a reminder that you may be going over the limit. And so you don’t have the peace of mind, the confidence to enjoy the ride because you’re always afraid that you know what you could do. They even make cars now with a thing called cruise control. Did you know if you put it on 60, chances are you won’t go 65. And then you can just relax and just let it ride and you ain’t got to worry about it.

You can listen to the radio, it still can go the same speed. You can think about a thousand things but you still couldn’t say it’s me but a lot of people say they don’t realize your peace of mind and joy is not going to be because I’m trusting the weight of my foot upon the pedal. I’m trusting that cruise control to regulate. You and I will have greater peace and joy in our life when we trust in the Lord to regulate our life.

You see that’s what he’s talking about when he says about peace and grace unto you. But peace and grace unto you is because of something. Look there what he says in verse 2, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossians. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the word saints and to the saints and faithful brethren. So you can be a saint and not be a faithful brethren But if you are a faithful brethren you are a saint So it’s to those that are saints because you’ve been made pure and holy By the blood of Christ because you trusted the Lord But just because you are a saint of the Lord doesn’t mean You are a faithful brethren So it’s a letter written to both to the saints and to those that are faithful saints.

Every time I preach, I know that I’m talking to different classes of people in the Lord. Those that not only have trusted Christ as Savior, but there’s some of God’s people, believe it or not, that are totally rebellious in their heart. They’re not right with the Lord. You can be sitting in the church with your Bible open and not be right. Then you have those that are kind of like riding a fence. Then you have those that are on fire for the Lord.

That’s why God says in the book of Revelation, he says some of you are hot and some of you are cold. But he says those that are lukewarm, he says you make me sick. Either be hot or be cold, but lukewarm makes God sick. Now, Every time I preach, I’m preaching to those three classes of people. I would like to believe that everybody who knows the Lord is not only saying, but they’re faithful. But then sometimes you have lost people and they come in all classes.

There’s those that want to hear, there’s those that don’t. There’s people that are searching for the things of God and there’s those that don’t. Some people want answers and some don’t. So it makes the Lord’s work very interesting. Been a pastor’s a lot of fun. It is not boring that for sure. But there’s a few things that I want to just mention to you real quick. And that is, there’s these three main things that I had mentioned to you earlier.

You see, in this book, you’re talking about people who love ceremonies. You know the ones that love to celebrate, you know, certain days and certain months, certain months and certain years. And they almost worship things like that. That’s all they think about. Well, that could be all right. I’ll remember the day that I graduated from Florida Bible College. My aunt and uncle that I lived with in Franklin, Virginia, they couldn’t believe that I was gonna graduate. They thought I’d be dead by then.

I lived with them when I also ran away and was gonna run off the Africa. They’re the one that left me on the side of the road one day. And many times have changed. I’ve gotten a little older and a little bit more mature. They wanted to come down and see this miracle. I’m graduating from Florida Bible. My mom came down. My sister, they had to come down. Because this was a great moment. This had never happened to Yankee before.

I’m 26 years old, never graduated from high school. Lo and behold, Yankee got to walk down the aisle. I had to stand up there and I got a picture in there on the wall. Me with that little black cap on and that little gown, you know, and they had to put the little tassel over and Dr. Cameron and Dr. Stanford were both there and they shake my hand. I love the pump and the circumstance. I love the thrill. I finished something.

I finished. I started, but I didn’t know how long I was going to school. Nobody ever told me how long you’re supposed to go. I didn’t know how many credits I was supposed to have, hours out. I didn’t understand none of this stuff. I know here I am, educate me, and then when I am through, let me go. And I didn’t know I had to have a high school diploma. Nobody told me that. All kinds of things happened, but loving the ceremony.

That was a wonderful thing. But there’s some people who love that. They thrive for that. Because it’s really all about them and what they get. They love the accolades of people thinking that, look, look what I have done and I’ll have to admit, I was a little proud at that time. But I found out that little piece of paper didn’t get the job done. I had to go to work now. It wasn’t the ending of something, it was the beginning of something.

And buddy, did I have a beginning? At one year I was blackballed in two denominations. Who meant a wonderful heritage? You see, there’s the ceremony, and that’s what the Judaizers was all about. And they were kind of mixing in some of this stuff. And then you have those that are steeped into the deep, dark mysteries. And they want to go through these things. But just look here right quick in the book of Colossians and look in chapter 2. You see what he says in verse 16.

Verse 16 says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of a new moon or the Sabbath days, which were a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. In other words, there’s people who do certain things and they think they’re more spiritual than everybody else because I have insight. I’m more godly and I’m more holier than you are because you see, I observe all these things.

Well, that’s all about them. They become bitter and critical of other people who don’t do exactly like they do and you have to be careful. You see down there in verse 18, let no man begow you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding into those things, which you have not seen. Vangly puffed up by his fleshly mind. See, this is what people also get into in because you see, there’s a mysterious thing out here.

And I have insight that you don’t have. Therefore, you know, it lifts me up. I’m somebody. I’m different from you. See, you’re down here. And then I am up here because of my great spiritual insight. The Lord says that’s wicked and that’s wrong. I looked there in chapter two and verse eight. In verse eight, you have the intellect and you can go to all the universities and schools and read books and study the philosophy of man. Because you see, that makes you smart.

And buddy, are there a lot of smart people in the world? You see, there’s some people who think they know things nobody else knows. Then you got those who are so intellectual, they’re smarter than everybody else. Did you know you reveal your wisdom by the decision that you make? So all three of these things puts the spotlight upon the person. You see, the book of Colossians puts the spotlight upon Jesus Christ, upon the Lord. religion offers ceremonies, the new age, well that offers these angels, the universities and books and so forth offer the human philosophy.

And he says there in verse 8, be where lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit because it, suppose you lift you up and makes you think you’re somebody when it’s vain and you’re conceited, you’re deceived. That’s what’s called deceit. And he says, after the tradition of men. So yes, there’s a lot of Christians who think they are so much spiritually minded, they’re no earthly good, and they want to impose legalism upon everybody else. You have to be careful.

Now look what he says here in verse 2, grace and peace, yes grace and peace chapter 1, but grace and peace comes because you are without error in your basic philosophy, your basic theology. You see peace between you and God is because you believe what God says. If you don’t know what God says and you believe in the intellectualism of humanism, you are not going to have the peace of God. God gives grace to those who believe in grace and go to the throne of grace that you may have all that you need to live the life that God wants you to live.

And so He makes this statement there. In verse 3, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray in all ways for you. Where was Paul in prison? You see, in prison he wrote Ephesians in the book of Philippians and here the book of Colossians and probably the book of Philemon. But you see, these are things that Paul was he trapped. The devil, I finally got him in checkmate. And here we are, lo and behold, with books, letters that have been sent around the world, at a time.

time when Paul couldn’t travel a prisoner in bonds for two years in Rome. There will be times in your Christian life when you feel like I’m at a dead end, a standstill. Nothing’s happening. Did you know in those times you just just stay faithful, just stay faithful to the Lord. God will work out all all the other stuff. And you know that sometimes when it seems like there’s nothing for you to do, and it seems like it’s so boring, that that’s a time for you to see how faithful can you be to the Lord?

Do you whine, complain? Did you know that there’s lessons to be learned when it seemed like there’s nothing you can do? Patience. I was told it was probably a virtue. You say, I don’t need no more virtue. patience is supposed to be a virtue. And there’s a lot of things that God does, and it says wait up on the Lord, wait up on the Lord. Why? Because God has his timing. Paul had to wait a long time before he finally got to Rome.

And then when he did get to Rome, remember he was in prison a couple of years before he got there. And then after he got there, he’s still in prison, but he wasn’t trapped. He wasn’t in checkmate. Yeah, he got to go home to be with the Lord, but not until God was ready. God knew what was being done, and God blessed. But what I want you to see here in verse 3, we give thanks. He’s in a place where he, you say he can’t give thanks for him, but didn’t God use him to write the letter that we’re now reading right now?

How many people around the world has read this letter in the book of Ephesians? Think of how wonderful that book of Ephesians is. It is a treasure house of jewels. And then he makes this statement here in verse 4, since we heard of your faith, you’re to underland that in your Bible. When you hear about what God has done for somebody else, aren’t you glad? When you hear how God is using somebody else, aren’t you thankful? Or do you get a little bit of pride filled up inside of you and it gets filled with envy and jealousy?

Because you think, hey, that ought to be me. You realize how many times I’ve wondered. Here we are serving the Lord doing the best we can. And there’s some preachers that have got 10,000 people in their church. I’ve never had that many people in my church. There’s people that’s got Bible colleges that have got 10,000 in their college, or 5,000. I’ve never had that. There’s preachers that have been on nationwide and worldwide television. I’ve never been there. And I’m so bitter and mad at God.

After all, I’m better than they are. I deserve it. Look who I am. Do you know who I am? Yeah, God. I said, I know who you are. You better stop whining, complaining. Does God see who you are and where you are and what you’re doing? Yet you better be faithful to do what you can with what you’ve got where you are.

Wine and God doesn’t tolerate. Merman God doesn’t put up with God. I’ll just put you on the shelf and just let you sit there. See God is always looking for those that are teachable and pliable because God wants to shape and mold them and God knows at what time of your life, what you need. And he knows that the things that are going on in your personal life, you can’t fool God. And he says here in verse 4, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all the saints, not only did we hear that, yeah, you trust the Christ, but we’ve also heard about your love for one another.

How you care about one another. Now did everybody think this way? Evidently, a paphorous, the pastor, says, hey, we got a virus in our church. And this virus is starting to spread. And Paul had to address the problem. So this was a pastor who loved his people, but there is a problem. You see, there’s all this humanistic philosophy coming into the church. Did you know that even today, a lot of people who have been educated in the world, gone to the world’s schools, they have a mindset?

You listen to Dredio and television all day long, you’ll be right. You’re gonna have a mindset of a certain way of thinking because they’re teaching you how to think. They’re giving you their discernment. It won’t be long before you’ll look like the world, think like the world, and act like the world. And so you are being conformed to the world. The world is conforming you. You’re becoming just like the world. So then whenever the world decides to go to church, you trust it, try to make it happen.

is your Savior and then you go to church and you bring in all of that worldly thought and humanistic philosophy into the church and then the pastor tells you this is what God says you got a problem. You’re going to be in rebellion. Well, I don’t like what the preacher says. I don’t agree with that. Why not? Did I teach something wrong? Or you just don’t like it. If you had the Bible yourself and then you’re own little room in your own little corner in your own little house and you read the Bible and it said the same thing.

What would you do then? Blame the neighbor down the street. It’s his fault. Who are you going to blame? Oh, it’s that guy on television. This is wrong why because Hannity’s on TV. What’s he got to do with this? And you’ll be surprised how that your humanistic philosophy determines whether or not you will it will not accept what God says, or whether you will or will not change in your life to make it compatible to what God’s Word has to say.

We are rebellious people. We want our own way and we don’t like people telling us how to believe what we can and cannot do. And then the preacher gets up there and says, Thus save the Lord. I just yanked his opinion. Okay? When you stand before the Lord one day, whatever the excuse was, just tell him all about it. He’s just dying to hear. And see whether or not that will work with him. Every one of us will have to stand before the Lord and give an account of why we did what we did.

I want you to read the Bible and study the Bible because I believe there’s so much in the word of God that can help us to think the way God wants us to think. And so he says in verse 4, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel?

I remember one time I was talking to a Jehovah’s Witness. you can’t find any place in the Bible where it says we’re going to heaven. I thought you are on the go ahead. The Bible says in Peter it would reserve for us in heaven, reserve in heaven. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that we have another body that God has for us, reserved for us in heaven. Well, why I’m reserved there if I’m not going there. And then he says right here in this verse for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.

Where have ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is coming to you as it is in all the world, and bring the forth fruit as it doth also end you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth? You heard the gospel, you spread the gospel. You believed the gospel. Just like the same message that God told him, says, going to all the world and preached the gospel and to everybody in the whole world.

He says, you heard it and you believed it and you spread it. And verse 7, and as you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ. So he’s putting his stamp of approval upon this young pastor. He was a faithful minister to you, for you. And verse 8, who also declared unto us your love in the spirit. See, I believe that a preacher shouldn’t love his people. And doesn’t matter whether you’re obedient or disobedient.

You have children that always obey perfectly. You don’t. Do you still love them? You know you’re supposed to, and your love for them has nothing to do with how they live. You still love them. God still loves us, regardless of how we obey or disobey. But He may have to chasten us. And sometimes if I get on your toes, you might think the preacher doesn’t like me. He doesn’t care about me. Yes, I do. I really do. I know that one day, both of us will stand before the Lord, and I’ll have to give account to the Lord for what I told you.

And you’re going to have to give account to the Lord for what I told you that He said. Oh, we’re both irresponsible. We’ve both got responsibilities to fulfill. So anyway, hope you enjoyed the lesson in the first chapter of the book of Colossians. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. This wallet represents sin. We all have sin on the. Now God said he loves us and I hate our sin. And for us to pay for sin, turn of separation from God.

Well, since everybody’s a sinner, everybody does things wrong. So we’re all condemned and the payment is a separation from the Lord in hell forever. So what are we going to do? Well we can desire to go to heaven, but how do we get there? God says heaven is a perfect place. God’s perfect, but because of sin we can’t get in. God says you cannot earn eternal life. You cannot work your way to heaven by your good deeds. There’s nothing that you can do to save yourself.

You’ll never be good enough. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ who did not have to die because he had no sin, never did anything wrong. He came into the world and took all the sins of the whole world and paid for them on the crossing came back from the dead and only those in the world, he says, who so ever?

God so loved the world, who so ever of those people in the world, he says, if you’ll believe he did it for you, you would not perish. You would get to go to heaven. So the world isn’t saved, but he doesn’t believe it. You’re the one that decides, well, you believe that he did it for you and if you’ll believe He did it for you. He would put this payment to your account. You get to go to heaven on what He did for you.

For God, God, so loved the world, you and me, that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Now, whosoever, believe it, all you had to do is believe it. Believe that He took your sins and paid for them. And He says, you will not perish but have everlasting life. You go to heaven on what Christ did for you. no tricks to that. There’s no gimmicks. That’s the best news in all the world. And I pray that you’ll trust Christ as your Savior.

Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank You so much for all that You’ve done for us. Thank You for Your word You’ve given us. And Father, we thank You for the individual who we indicated by an uplift at hand by trusting You as a Savior. We know that You give Him as a free gift everlasting life. That You’ll never cast Him out, never lose Him. He can know that when He leaves the day, I’m going to heaven. Because today I trusted Christ as my Savior.

He died and paid for my sins. In Christ name we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach 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 Bible Line 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.