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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for us to be able to help you. 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

We’ve been speaking on the subject, Chasing and rewards and just as clear as the gospel needs to be to the lost man The Christian life needs to be made crystal clear to the saved man You need to know what it entails What is the Christian life all about? Chasing and rewards Understanding that though you have eternal life life, you cannot live as you please and get away with it, that your Heavenly Father wants to bless you here and reward you when you get to heaven.

But if you choose not to, that is your choice. Because salvation is voluntary and the Christian life, your service to the Lord is also voluntary. And if you choose not to serve the Lord, you need to understand that God will chasten you. And chastening comes in various forms. We are not to despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. Because you are not and I am not wise enough to guide my own life.

We need to be rebuked. We need to be told when we’re walking in the flesh. And therefore, we need to know the consequences of continued disobedience. The word tells us that if we judge sins in our own life that God will not have to. You may wonder why some people are in the Lord’s work and others are not. I believe that anyone who trusts Christ as Savior, becoming a child of God, are to be in full-time Christian work. Now you may work at a secular job, but to you that’s not a secular job.

That’s a sacred job. Everything to the Christian should be sacred. Your friends should be sacred. And your family should be sacred. Your job should be sacred to you. Therefore, you’re to live like a Christian regardless of where you may be. You should act like a Christian. You are an ambassador for Christ. So your life is to be a full-time testimony. Never forget that. You may not be paid as a missionary on the foreign field, but you are a missionary.

All of us, as God’s children, are missionaries. We’re either a missionary or a mess. We either need to be reaching someone or someone should be reaching us, because that is the will of God for us. I want you to look there in 1 Timothy 1 and 1 verse 1, and 11 verse 11. According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, now I want to bring your attention to that word glorious because that word glorious is also like when we read in the book of Romans chapter 3 in verse 23 for all have sin and come short of the glory of God.

The glory of God is the perfection of God. When we see Christ we will see perfection. He will be glorified. There is the perfection of the gospel. Now keep us in mind, the gospel cannot be an imperfect message or it could not do a perfect job. Only a perfect gospel can produce perfect results. You and I need to be saved from hell. The gospel is that perfect message that can do the complete perfect job. Only a perfect gospel can produce perfect results.

You and I need to be saved from hell. The gospel is that perfect message that can do the complete perfect job. And that’s why there’s statements mentioned in the book of Hebrews that the law could not make the comers there unto perfect. It says the sacrifices that were made in the Old Testament could not make the And that’s why there’s statements mentioned in the book of Hebrews that the law could not make the comers there unto perfect. It says the sacrifices that were made in the Old Testament could not make make a person perfect, but the coming of a better testament did.

Jesus Christ, Him coming and making a payment was a perfect payment to make the comers there unto perfect. And then He says, for He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So we have a perfect gospel that can make a sinner perfect forever. So it’s a glorious gospel. And Paul says, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Now I want you to understand, the Bible says in Thessalonians chapter two and verse four, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as please in men, but God which triath our heart, as we were entrusted with this perfect message.

God uses this perfect message that’s housed in a northern vessel, that the power may be of the message and not of the man. So that you can’t take credit for what you did. God had to do it through you, but it’s that perfect message that takes the perfect word of God which is incorruptible and plant that seed into the heart of another individual, and a soul is born again. And when they’re born again, they’re born of God, and it’s a perfect birth.

And if it’s perfect, it cannot sin. If it cannot sin, it cannot die. And that’s why once you become a child of God, you’re always a child of God. Paul says, I’m thankful for that message, and I’m thankful that that message was committed committed to my trust. God trusted me with that message. I believe that if you know enough on how to be saved, you know enough on what to tell. If you can’t tell it, you need to wonder why can’t you tell it?

Don’t you know enough? If you don’t know enough, then how do you know you’re saved? How do you know you’re saved? Whatever you did, you can tell somebody else. If you can’t tell it, you need to question whether you are. Because if you know what it takes to be saved, you know what it takes to tell to somebody else. In verse 12, he says, I thank God our Lord who had enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Now there’s three things I wrote down in your notes. I want you to look there. number one, God enabled him, Paul was faithful, God put him in the ministry. God entrust you with a message, if you’ll be faithful, God will put you in the ministry. Believe that. God has entrusted you with the gospel. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you You have the same message, every missionary, every evangelist, every preacher has ever had, you’ve got the same message.

You’ve got the same gospel committed to your trust. If you will be faithful to it, God will put you in the ministry. That ministry might be in some Sunday school class, it might be on your job. But you’ll have a ministry if you’ll be faithful. That’s all you have to be. God didn’t ask you to be rich. He didn’t ask you to be good looking. He didn’t ask you to be famous. He just asked you to be faithful. Now can you handle it?

Can you do it? You can But most people won’t So that’s why you need to understand chasting and rewards God is going to chase in you if you will not be faithful to the message that he committed to your trust It is the will of God, that every chalice of God, when people to Christ, you are a tree that is supposed to bear fruit. I love it when we all work together on getting the gospel out. But it will never eliminate the personal responsibility that we have to talk to people about the Lord.

Yet the hardest thing you’ll ever face is getting started. It’s kind of like the guy that realized he had to have surgery. He was laying on the operating table and there’s the doctor. He says, Doc, he says, this is the first time I’ve ever had surgery and I’m scared to death. The doctor looked at him and says, you know, this is the first surgery I’ve ever performed and I know exactly how you feel. This one guy he never been bear hunting before, but he always figured that he could do it.

So he went up in the mountains with this guy to go bear hunting. The old bear hunter, he was going to get something to eat here and then we’re going to go get us a bear. He’s, well, you know, I’ve never been bear hunting before. I don’t know what to do with him. He said, well, you’ll learn. You’ll learn quick. So, okay, he left with his gun and left the guy in the shack and he left. About a half an hour later, he comes back to Holland.

He came through and he opened the door, he went in, opened the back door and he went out and closed the door. That bear came right in behind him. He says, you clean that one and I’ll go get another one. You’ll find out what to do if you just get started somehow, someway. Kind of like this guy was down there in the field. He looked up there and the guy was out there in the field with him. He said, did you see that?

He says, that mountain lion just went in your house. Isn’t your wife in the house? So yeah, well what you gonna do? He says nothing. That mountain lion will just have to get out of there the best way he can. She wants you to know how to do the job. It’s easier after a while. But this is what he said in verse 12. I think Jesus Christ our Lord who at the naveled me, he gave you something. He counted me faithful.

I was faithful and then God put me in the ministry. You see, God don’t just put you in the ministry. It’s because of faithfulness. And verse 13, who was before? He said, look what I was before. He said, I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding the abundant with faith and love which is in Christ you. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptations that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

And if God can save the chief, he can save all the little Indians, right? He says, I’m the chief of sinners. I mean, if there’s anybody he didn’t know anybody worse than what he was because he persecuted the Christians. He caused them to be put to death. He was even instrumental in Stephen’s been stoned to death. In verse 16, he said, how bit for this cause I obtain mercy that in me, first Jesus might show forth all long sufferings for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

In other words, God, saving Paul as bad as he was, was a pattern that if God can save Paul as bad as he is, God can save who? Anybody. He can save anybody because he committed murder. He did it all. God saved him. All he had to do was believe and God gave him eternal life. And Paul says he gave me this message and I want to be found faithful to it. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation.

Christ Jesus came into the world of safe sinners of whom I am chief. He cleansed the ass, he’s chapter 8 and verse 11. We won’t turn to all of these scriptures for sake of time. But look at this. God has given us the real reasons why many people do wrong and think they can actually get away with it even in the sight of God. You see, because God is so loving, He is so patient, He’s long suffering, that God seemed like He’s taken forever and or He didn’t see it and you’re getting away with something.

And God gives people room, gives them time to correct things in their life. And he makes this statement, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, people forget that there’s usually a time lapse between planting and reaping. Those are the scriptures that we read this morning, that God says that if we sow, we are going to reap what we sow, and to be found faithful to the Lord, and we will reap if we faint not. It’s so important.

Deuteronomy 32, 35 says, to me be long with vengeance and recompense. Reconpense means I’m going to get even with you. Recommendance means to pay back. And God is going to pay back. Remember, He is patient. He’s long suffered. You can choose to rebel against the Lord and not do right. You don’t have to obey God. But there are consequences to not obey in gun. It may be… It could be several years, but whatever it is, God is going to pay back.

And you’ll wish you to serve a Lord. You can never go against God and win. You don’t win, even though at times it looks like it’s not worth serving God. And you become so tired and weary of well doing, but he says, be not weary in well doing. He says, don’t faint. We shall reap if we faint not. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Trust in God. God, keep believing what He says, and He will come through. He always come through in the nick of time.

He knows how much you can take. The only reason you fail in certain Lord is not because you had to, because you chose to, it was a choice. The result of what we do is often not produced until later. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap of the flesh. The flesh is your first birth, that you are all sinful nature. If you sow two sin, sin is a seed that will grow and produce more corruption in your life.

It’s not that you can do one thing and forget about it. It’s a seed that’s planted, words or seeds that are planted and they grow. And a lot of damage can be done. So be careful. I wasn’t looking Luke chapter 12 and verse 15. There’s people who are worried more about the things of this world. Look in verse 13, we’ll start in verse 13, it says, And one of the companies said unto him, Master speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me.

Now chances are this is a younger brother talking to an older brother because generally everything is left to the older brother in Bible times. And he would inherit everything. That was the value of being the first born. And this is what was so wrong with Jacob and Esau, because he saw his birthright for a mess of pottage. He says in verse 14, Jesus speak, he said, he said in him, man, who made me a judge or a divider over you that I’m supposed to sit down and divide up an inheritance between you and your brother?

But he used it as an opportunity to teach a very viable lesson to the young man. He said in him, take heed and beware of covetousness For a man’s life consists of not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Covedness means you covet, desire, what everybody else has. You want more money because it makes you happy. Are you trying to live under some image that you got to portray to somebody? And you got to have a certain car because that’s your image.

Or a certain house because that’s your image. You got to dress away, that’s your image. Women. You make sure that it’s not just you’re a covetous individual and you desire all these wealthy things. Be an individual that if God took away everything that you have, it wouldn’t change you one eye over because you’re still a person of character. There’s nothing wrong in having things as long as those things don’t come between you and God, but you’re a fool when you don’t lay up treasures in heaven.

Understand, chasing and reward. to heaven is free. What you have when you get there is a result of what you do for the Lord. So God sends you a lot of problems in life. Every problem is an opportunity for you to gain rewards, for you to prove faithfulness. And some of our trials and testings are not going to be perdy. Some of them are going to be mean and ugly. There’s a lot of rough spots in the old road.

And you’re going to lose loved ones. Are you going to have people that’s going to get sick. It’s grace to go through it, not escape from it. It’s the temptations we want to escape from. But there are certain problems we don’t escape from. We must learn from the things of the world are trouble to get. Don’t satisfy when you get them and produce great sorrow when they’re lost. It has been said that the life of the world is the life of the constantly bursting bubble, a disciplined life for the Lord will cost you work time and effort, but an undisciplined life costs much more.

Usually you will find it is not so much a question of knowing God’s will for your life as being willing to do it. You see, if God walked in here right now and told everyone of exactly what he wanted you to do, you’d have trouble with it. You’d have trouble with it. Not that you don’t know it. It’s it to you don’t want to do it. But you want the benefits of a dedicated discipline life, but you don’t want to be disciplined to get it.

It won’t work. It’s like you love the cake, but you don’t like the ingredients that goes into the cake. You are in short, change it, not putting certain ingredients in it. And so you get upset when you don’t like the results. It didn’t turn out the way you expected. You see, God is the one that designed life and And he knows the ingredients that goes into a good Christian life. And you want to leave out some of the ingredients like prayer.

And you want to leave out Bible study. And you want to leave out faithfulness to church. Or you want to leave out giving. You want to leave out something because you don’t see no need for that. And then you rub yourself because it doesn’t work the way you think. Well, I tried the Christian life. You don’t try the Christian life. You live the Christian life. It’s a way of life. It works on you. You don’t have to work on the Christian life.

Determine that your life is going to amount to something for the Lord and then discipline your life to that end. Aim for the highest. Don’t settle for being an average Christian. After all average is just as close to the bottom as it is to the top, ain’t it? Well, I’m just an average Christian. That means you’re nothing. You ain’t no closer to the top as you are from the bottom. You’re just average. If you want to be an unusual Christian, you have to do unusual things.

You have to be unusually disciplined to be more. Don’t be ordinary. Stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him. Well if all that is within you, you’ve heard me make this statement so many times. Your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. What you do this day is going to affect eternity. It affects the Jevins of the Christ where God’s going to reward you. It affects the blessings that you’ll receive tomorrow. And you make wrong decisions today and those wrong decisions are going to plant seeds that you’ve got to deal with tomorrow.

If you want to accomplish great things for the Lord in the future, you must accomplish something great for the Lord today. Now in 2 Chronicles 16 and 9, the Bible says it’s like God’s eyes are like radar screens. And he searches to and fro throughout the whole earth, looking for a man that God can show himself strong on his behalf. In other words, God says, without me you’re nothing. But with me, I can make you great. I can do things for you.

I can do things through you. I can use you. See, God says that he’s looking for people to use, but he can’t bless disobedience. And he wants to use you, he has to have a person whose heart is right. Do you love God? See, if you love God, all these other things will fall into place. But if you don’t love God, all these are just rules and regulations and you can’t stand that. Then it becomes legalistic to you. And living by grace means I do it because I want to, because of what he’s done for me.

He loved me. And that was unmerited. He died for me. That was unmerited. He saved me. That was unmerited. That unmerited benefits that I received is why I live. So I live by grace means I live because of these unmerited things that I’ve received. That’s why he says, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, mean in view of what God’s done for you, you yield your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. which is your reasonable service.

In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 24 through 26, the Bible tells us that Moses had respect unto the recompense of the reward. But when he chose to suffer with the people of God, he had to refuse something. And that’s the way it is in life. You’re always choose, if you choose something for God, you had to refuse something in the world. He refused be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He refused that honor and that position. He refused all of that.

He refused the treasures of what he could have, what he could have been. He refused all of that and he chose something else. Every day you make a decision, you’re choosing and refusing. There’s temptations that you’re going to face and somebody might look mighty good to you and you’re You’re going to have to refuse, refuse. Let me ask you a question. If a person was to approach you, proposition you, would you yield?

If nobody else would know, there’s a God in heaven that knows the answer to that question. You have to be willing to refuse, but you see, you need predetermined decisions. Determine before that moment. I will not. I will not. Determine ahead of time. Pre-determine dedication to God. If I dedicate my life to the Lord, and I’ve said it’s so easy to dedicate your life which you don’t have, it’s so difficult to dedicate the day you do have. But if you dedicate your life to the Lord, that’s pre-determine dedication.

I’m determining that tomorrow belongs to the Lord. The next stay belongs to the Lord. The next day belongs to the Lord. I’ve given him my life. I predetermined I’m going to refuse certain things. I’ve refused them. There are certain things in the world I have refused that I might choose something better and you’ll face that every day of your life and some days you may fail and when you fail what should you do? Own up to it, confess it to God and keep going.

Never let some sin that you’ve ever done. Today or in the past or tomorrow, whenever, ever keep you down. Because I got good news for you. We serve a God of second chance and third chance and fourth chance and fifth chance and seventh chance and eighth chance. He’s always willing to forgive and he can always use you. He may not be able to use you to the extent he could have at one time, but he can still use you.

Let God use you to the fullest. Wherever you are in this Christian life of yours, God will bless you for it. This isn’t representing you and me. The wall represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God, He loves us. He loves you. He loves me. He loves everybody in thelower world. It’s the sin that we have a problem with because you see our sins separates us from God. This is representing Jesus Christ. God is our sin separates us from Him.

That’s That’s why God hates sin, because He’s perfect and we’re not. And He can’t fellowship with us. We can’t fellowship with Him. We can’t go to heaven because of the sin. And God says that since we committed it, we have to pay for it. It’s eternal separation from God in hell. But He loves us. He wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven. We have to be perfect because righteous is God and nobody’s perfect. Nobody is.

We’re all sinners. The Bible says we cannot save ourselves by the good deeds that we do. The only payment for sin that God would accept is the payment of death. The sin represents Jesus Christ, God in the flames came into the world because He does love us. He took the sin, paid for it on the cross. This was His way of showing us that He loves us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, whosoever in the world made it even, whosoever believe it.

where anybody can have it. It’s not hard, it’s not complicated. Even a child can understand it. That all they had to do is believe that he did it for them and he would put the payment to their account. They’d go to heaven and what Christ did for them. If I offered you my tie and you accepted, you’d have a tie. If Jesus Christ walked in here and offered you eternal life and you accepted, what would you have? Eternal life.

If it’s eternal life and it lasts forever, And where are you going to go when you die? You go to heaven. 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. live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.