This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. Now get this, this is very important. Here’s God, and here’s man. There is a problem between the two, why? There’s God’s will, there’s man’s will. We always clash. God wants me to do certain things and I wanna do what I wanna do with my life. I didn’t ask to be born, so here I am.

And I want my way and God says, no you don’t. You are gonna do what I want. No, I’m not. And so you become an enemy of God. There is a barrier between the two of you. Now this can happen in a family where a man and a wife can have a fight. And they need to have reconciliation. They have to be reconciled. That means to make peace. See what he says here in the last part of verse 21?

Yet now had he reconciled. That means there’s peace has been made. But always remember this, it is not God that is reconciled to man. It is man that must be reconciled to God. You see, God never moved. God never changed. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is a righteous, good, holy God. God didn’t sin. has not wronged anybody. We did all the land. We’re the one that’s bad. We have an old sinful nature. So hold your place right here, but I want you to see this in Ephesians chapter 2, the book of Ephesians and chapter 2.

Here in the book of Ephesians in chapter 2, he says, this is the way we were, now concerning you, alienated from God. Enemies in your mind, in your mind. Notice what it says in verse 2. We’re in in time past. You walked according to the course of this world. What’s the course of this world? Your own way, the flesh. It’s doing what you want to do. This is why we don’t have so much peace among each other. That’s why there’s always these wars.

Listen to your news, trouble. What about all these people that are having all these protests because there’s war and it’s because it’s on the inside. People are greedy, they’re selfish, they’re filled with envy and bitterness and they hate the people that’s got money because they don’t have it. The love of money is the root of all evil. And it’s not always the people who have money that are guilty of love, of money. Most times it’s poor people, the middle class, because they don’t have it and they want it and they don’t care how they got to get it.

And they will vote for hired taxes to take it from other people so they can get all the freebies. I wish they’d let me on Fox News. I could tell them a few things. But anyway, it’s because of the sinful wickedness of individual. we have a sinful nature. Don’t you tell me what I can and cannot do, where I can and cannot go? That’s our nature. And we rebel. That’s why we have all the wars that we’ve had over the years.

It’s because of the same problem. If everyone was right with God, we wouldn’t have a problem. What must it be a sign of? They’re not right with the Lord. Now, he makes a statement here according to the course of the world. According to the prince of the power of the heir, the power of the heir, that’s the devil. He’s the prince of the power, that’s the devil. And what does the devil want you to do? Or me? to go our own way, do what we want.

That’s what the devil wants. Look at the last part of it. The spirit, get this, the spirit, that’s the attitude, the desires of the Him, the spirit that now work it in the children of, what’s that big old word? That’s a big old word, disobedience. You see, as he writes the letter, he’s not talking to little babies, he’s not locking the teenagers, He’s talking to the adults. This is the way adults are. We are rebellious. We don’t wanna have somebody over it, but wait a minute.

If God is the Lord over all creation and He is the head, the supreme authority over the church, and then it gets down to the individual. You have He reconciled. You as an individual, Does he have the right, the authority to command us? Tells us how to live. He means he has the right to tell me how I can live. Well, who made you?

God. So everyone is living for the Lord, right? Because that’s what God wants. Everybody does his will, right? No, we do, like he says right here, according to the prince of the air, the spirit that now work in the children of disobedience. And then look what it says in verse three. Among whom also we all, all, you see the word all? Does it leave anybody out? All, all what? Had our behavior, our manner of life. In time passed, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

And we’re by nature, the children of wrath, just like everybody else. Everybody’s the same. That’s why when Christ died, He died for the whole world. You ever look at somebody and find fault? Look in the mirror, you’ll find some more. But then He says this, and look, look, this is what you’ve got to see this. Look in verse 4. These two were, but God. man had no hope. We’re all this way. We’re all rebellious. Nobody likes somebody telling us what we can.

Why do you think there’s so much trouble in the world? It’s because it’s our nature. We’re rebellious. But God who has rich in mercy for his great love, where he loved us. And then he says, by grace are you saved. By grace are you saved? Because See, you couldn’t earn it by your nature, you’re rebellious. You’ll never find your way back to God. How do you remove this being an enemy of God? Look what he says here in the book of Romans in chapter five.

Romans chapter five, won’t you see this real quick? Romans and chapter five, look there in verse nine. Romans chapter five verse nine. He says much more than being now justified by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath through him. So through Christ, we shall be saved from the wrath to come because of what Christ did for us. We all deserve the wrath of God. In other words, we deserve it. If God was a beat upon all of us.

But because of his love, his mercy, his grace, Christ paid for our sins. She had been verse eight, But God commended his love toward us in the while we were saints. Now while we were yet, what? Sinners, Christ died for us. So he’s the one that took the initiative. He paid for our sins. What was our sins doing? It was keeping us from God. God’s a holy God. God doesn’t just overlook what we do, how we think and how we feel.

And so that’s why God went to work. He sent his son into the world, the die for everybody in the world, to make a payment so that we could be reconciled back to God. So we wouldn’t be as enemy. God wants us to be a friend, not an enemy. But look at, first of all, at this verse, looking in verse 10, for if. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by our good works, no, by the death of his son.

You see, it was his son that did this and made this payment for us. Now, take your Bible and turn all the way over to the book of James, the book of James, and chapter 4, James, and chapter 4. There’s a mighty good verse here in the book of James, chapter 4. Luke there in verse four. Verse four, it makes a statement. Yee, adulterers and adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is emmity with God. Did you know he’s talking to Christians here?

He’s not talking about the lost people. He’s talking about believers. Luke, when he says in verse one, talking to the believer, From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lust that war in your members. It’s inside of you. What does all this badness mean? It means that you’ve got no sinful nature. Every person in this room is a sign you still have your own sinful nature. Sometimes he just flares up, but everybody has one.

And everybody can lose it any given moment. You got to do it to have the right thing happen. But look what he says. He makes a statement here in the last part of verse 4 He says whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Now do you want to be a friend of God or an enemy of God? I’m gonna talk about after you trust the Lord Did you know that in your life God says be it under you?

according to your faith. You have no idea all the various ways in which God can deal with us. Can I live the way I please? Yes I can. Can I live the any way I please and get away with it? No, again. You can try it. But you cannot get away with it. This is what he’s talking about. What I want you to see a very in chapter 2, just look at this verse real quick. See there in verse 24 where he says, excuse me verse 23, and the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham, believe God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

And he was called and you ought to underland this phrase, the friend of God. You see, the Lord says, if you are a friend of the world, you can’t be a friend of God. Abraham was a friend of God. I want to be God’s friend. That means I don’t want anything between me and him. Why should I pick a fight with God? Why should you pick a fight with God? Do you think for a moment you can win? When he’s the one that holds my breath in his hands.

He’s the one that determines whether I get another heartbeat. He’s the one that determines whether I get blessed in my life Well, I have happiness and joy and peace or a life of misery. If you go through life and you’re miserable, good. So wait on the beam. You deserve every bit of that misery. Fine. You bring it on yourself. You did it. You sowed the seeds of discouragement. You say whatever you want to say, do whatever you want to do.

That’s the way it’s going to be, according to the way you wanted it. You know, sometimes when people Think about the subject of heaven and hell, because I’ve never seen heaven. Haven’t seen hell. But we often, as individuals, we pray to the Lord. Lord, according to Thy will, those who wants the will of God, Lord, according to Thy, whatever you want, Lord. When we trusted Christ as our Savior, why? That was according to God. Well, that’s what God wanted.

I trusted the Lord because God wanted me to. He made a way for me to. People who reject Christ as their Savior in one of these days are going to be in hell. And the Lord is going to say to them, I will be done. I will be done. It’s the way you wanted it. That’s the way you wanted it. It won’t have to be a shame. I think it’s a shame to realize that a person would be in hell a split moment for all eternity and it didn’t have to be that way.

According to thy will, or I go to heaven because I trust the Christ as my Savior, I want it as well. And when He gives me all of those rewards for what I’ve gone through, and yes, a lot of things maybe didn’t go my way, and people wrong me here and they wrong me there, but it didn’t matter. I’m still going to serve the Lord because God hadn’t done anything wrong to me. And when I get to heaven, he says, this is what you earned, this is what you work for, thy will be done.

You see, you’re going to get your way. It depends on just what do you really want. The one thing that everybody should want is what God wants for me. Did you know God wants the best for every one of us? Now, go back there to the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians And look what he says here in verse 19. Verse 19 in chapter 1 says, For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Everything we need, all power has been given to Christ.

He has been given all judgment. He is in charge. He is going to be the judge of the quick and the dead. He is everything. Now in verse 20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. Now here it doesn’t include the principalities and so forth in high places and all that, because that’s not why Christ died.

He didn’t die for angels, the mystical world and so on. That’s not what he did. He died for you and for me. And that’s why he made the statement in verse 21, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. And the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unprovable in his sight. This is why Christ died. To To remove everything that was between you and God, all that rebellion, because one of the day, see God is going to transform us.

We’re going to have a new body. This old one has my old sinful nature. And one day I’m going to get a new body without this sinful nature, and I’m going to be presented to the Lord, totally perfect and holy. And I’ll never have to worry about that old rebellious nature that I’ve got. But as long as I’m in this body, as long as you’re in your body, you’re going to have a fight on your hands. You’re going to have a struggle.

That doesn’t mean you’re not saved. It means you have an owe sinful nature. It means you might be rebellious and disobedient. But you’re a heavenly Father. Now He loves us. We know that. That’s why He died for us. But He’s not going to allow us to live any way we want and get away with it. He’s going to chase and He’s going to discipline us. Then look what He says there. In verse 23, there’s the word if. The word if.

You ought to circle that word if. Because this little word if is contingent upon something that you do. If you continue in the faith, now remember over there in verse four, where he says in verse four, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. So they already believed on the Lord. They were already in Christ. So now he’s talking about continuing as a child of God. That’s why he wants them to learn in verse nine, all the wisdom of God.

So that in verse 11, you can walk worthy of the vocation, as he says in the book of Ephesians chapter four and verse one that God has given to us. So there’s these two things that God wants us to continue to learn so that we can continue to do. And those two things that are mentioned that I just gave to you is found right there in chapter two, look in chapter two and look down in verse seven. Verse seven says rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.

You see, when you see that rooted and built up in him, look back there in verse 23 where he says in chapter one, if he continue in the faith grounded, settled, Be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard. You see, there’s always the devil lurking where you cannot see, trying to undo everything God puts together. He wants to destroy your life, my life, wants to ruin my testimony. So I have to always be on guard.

It is a constant battle. I’ve been fighting this battle for 52 years and as long as you stay in your body, you’re gonna fight the battle. Don’t give in to the devil. Don’t let the lust of the flesh control your life. Don’t you want more? Don’t you want something more? I’ve wanted that. I just want it whenever my whole life is over with the devil didn’t win. I don’t want the devil to get advantage of me because I don’t want him throwing that up in my father’s face.

Hey, I got Yankee. I got Yankee. I told you he’d love me more than he would you. I told you I could get him to rebel against you. Look at his life. He’s a mess. I told you I’d get him. Do you want the devil to have the victory? to be able to accuse you before the Father. Well, I don’t want that. I wanted something more, and I hope that you do too. But you’ll notice what he says in verse 6 of chapter 2, these two things, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, how by faith, so walk ye in Him by faith.

So now that you know the Lord and you’re His child and you’re going to heaven when you die, God wants each one of us to walk with Him in the servant. And He says, He wants to present us. Paul is talking about we want to present you. In the words, I would love to have every person that I’ve ever led to Christ walk with the Lord. Never happened. But there’s been a few over the years and I’m so thankful for every person that decided as a child of God, I wanna serve a Lord.

Look what he says here. In verse 23, if you continue, he’s going to do something. He’s going to present you. See that in verse 22? To present you holy and unblameable. Now look over there in verse 28. Whom we preach, talking about Christ in you, the hope of glory. Warning, she is down to every man. This God that’s over all the world. Think of how big this world is. I’ve been up in the airplane and I looked out of the window the wind did not look down there and I said, look at that.

I mean, those people, they don’t like ants. This guy said, and he says, they are ants. We haven’t took off yet. But people are so small and so seemingly insignificant. And yet the God that created me looks down and sees that little person. I was someplace the other day, and I was looking, and I saw a car way off into the future, and so small. And I thought, that could be me and that car going down Look how small and significant we are.

And yet God loves us. And this life is so short, but we’re going to have any eternity to enjoy. So while I’m here, all this is nothing but a big opportunity of testing my faithfulness and my love to the Lord. So the devil’s going to come after you every way he can. He said, do you love God or do you love the world? You want your way or his way, thy will be done, my will be done.

His life, my life. Look what he says as I close on this one word. See that Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three. You notice what he says here in verse two, set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. First, when Christ, and you ought to underline this statement, it’s a wonderful statement. Who is our life? He is my life. He is my reason for living.

He is my everything. He is my all in all. He is my life. Well, that Christ, I am nothing and I know that. But I know that if I circle, or God is bound by His word, to bless me. He has to bless me. He doesn’t have a choice. Cause He’s already made up His mind. I’m gonna bless those that obey, and I’m gonna chasten those that disobey. The rest is left up to us. Lord of the universe, Lord of the church, as a Christian, should He be the Lord, the master of our life.

Not to be saved, but because we are saved. Look up here. This hand represents you and me, the wall of represents sin. We all have sin on us. The Bible says that God that He loves us. Now He hates what we do wrong, but He loves us. And for us to pay for the sin is eternal separation from God. See heaven is perfect, God is perfect. But we have a problem, and this is what causes us, see, not to be able to get into heaven.

We’re enemies of God. Because all of us, we want our own way. We are naturally rebellious. It’s all in the Bible, I’ve read it to you. But God says that He loves us. He hates what we do wrong. And to pay for this is death and hell, and everybody’s condemned. So because Christ loved us so much, He did something for us. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God, and the Christ came into the world because He loves us.

H.R. sin because it separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ took that sin, paid for it, came back from the dead. And he made a way for you and I to be reconciled, nothing between. And it was because of what he did, it’s not because of what we did. You see, it was to bring us to God, not God to us. That was in the person of Christ when he came into the world. You and I have the privilege of sharing the good news with others.

This is why I love camp because I want to plant all this teaching into the mind of kids that may never hear it, never understand it. A lot of kids don’t have a Christian home. I never went to a Christian school, my kid did. But a lot of them never have that chance. And sometimes they may never darken the doors of a church, but they may go to camp. Might be our only chance to reach some of them, to challenge some of the, not only to to trust the Lord, but we want them to serve the Lord.

I want kids to have a reason for living, a reason to live, because I know what it did for me. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every act closed, no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, or if you’re watching by internet tonight, hope you enjoyed the broadcast. But more important, I hope that you understand what I’ve said. God loves you, and He made a payment for you. And He said, if you would trust Him, believe that He died for you.

He said He would give you as a gift, the free gift, everlasting life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven because He said so. We get trust Him. We head bowed here in the auditorium and no one looking around. There’s anyone who will say, yes, that made sense to me, and I will trust Christ as my Savior. Mind if you’ve never done it, would you do it right now? And if you’re making that decision, I’d like to have prayer for you.

And I’m going to have you if you just skip the hand out very quickly. But wrap it down. I’m not going to embarrass you. In what all? You that know Christ is your Savior, I want you to serve the Lord. I want you to be what God wants you to be. But maybe you have never even dedicated your life to the Lord. Probably most of you have. I know that I have. But are you to the place in your life where you’re saying, Lord, I want your will to be done, thy will be done.

If you’re not sure, you have questions and doubts. I’m going to talk to the Lord right now about it. So Lord, I’m your child. I know your word. I know you will. And I want you to take me and mold me into whatever you want, not in your glory. Our Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one. Help us to be what you want us to be. in Christ’s 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 Bibleline programs, just go to our home page 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.