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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Don’t you take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews chapter 4? Hebrews and chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 and start there in verse 12. Notice in verse 12 where he says, for the word of God is quick, means it’s alive, powerful, sharper than he He needs two-edged sword. Pearson even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and the moral. Joints and the moral, that was first to your body. So in this one version we got body and soul and spirit.

So I thought I’d just do a little, you know, cutting up tonight. You know, separate the spirit from the soul and the soul from the body. Wouldn’t it be an interesting thing or a preacher to do. Did you know that it’s one of the keys to understanding the scriptures, knowing that, you know, what makes you take? What are you? Well, you have a body and a soul and a spirit, but something I also wanted you to see, it says here, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

How can the word on paper be a discerner of my thoughts and the intent, the motive of my heart. But that’s what the book says. This book has to be alive. And that’s what he says. It’s quick. It means it’s alive and it can discern your thoughts, discern my thoughts. It can discern our ways. This isn’t just any old book. This is the book. And he tells us that going from childhood to adulthood is learning how to rest in the Lord.

So we labor that we might rest. We work and study in the Word of God because studying is a weariness of the flesh, that we may learn how to rest. He talks about learning how to rest, rest for the soul. Not so much talking about the body, but rest for the soul. Because it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And what wears most people out is the things they think about. It’s not so much the physical things they do.

It’s the mental anguish that they go through. So the word of God shows us and helps us to see and understand some of these things. See there in verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. And the only thing that can keep you and I from stumbling and messing up our lives is using the word of God and let it discern us to cause you to have discernment concerning the choices we make in life.

That’s why you see in chapter five when it makes the statement here in verse 11. He says, of whom we have many things to say, hard to be uttered or explained, seen you are dull of hearing. You have become dull of hearing. You no longer want to hear what God has to say. There’s two things I had mentioned them earlier. And one is that in the book of Matthew when he talks about he that had ears to hear let him hear.

And especially mentioned over and over again. In the book of Matthew, chapter 13, when he’s talking about the kingdom of heaven, he that hath ears to hear, he that hath ears to understand. You see, God reveals things to those who want to understand, not just curiosity seekers, but God is looking for those who want to understand. And then when you go to the book of Revelation in chapter 2 and 3, it keeps talking about let him that have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

So it’s talking about a different group altogether. So that those who lived on the church age, which is where we are, might have ears to understand. And it talks about in Chronicles having the ears to understand the times in which we live so that we’ll know what to do. We’re going to face a lot of things in life and it’s good to be able to discern those things. But more is going to be revealed to those who seek to understand.

And that’s why he makes the statement there in verse 13, for every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for his obey. This word of righteousness is the same as the word of God in verse 12 of chapter 4. So as we study the word of righteousness, it helps us to mature and to discern, and that’s why in verse 14, but strong meat belong to them that are of full age, that are mature. Even those who by reason of use have their senses, their mind exercised to discern both good and evil.

When he talks up there in verse 12, in the previous chapter, a discerner of the thoughts and the intense of the heart, it is so that you can learn the Word of God so that you can have your senses exercised to discern right from wrong. What is the will of God? What is not the will of God? So that you’re not just like everybody else. It makes you different. I think it’s a good thing to do. Good thing to know.

But take your Bible and turn also to the book of 1 Thessalonians in chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians and chapter 5. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, there is a verse there in verse 23, and he kind of gives us a little intro before it makes this statement about verse 23. But he says there, and I just want you to start there in verse 15, where it says, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, unless he really takes you off.

No, you’ll see what he says. It makes it very clear that it says, see that none, that means nobody, render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men, to the saved, to the lost. Do not render evil for evil. Don’t have a vengeful attitude.” Boy, that’s as easy preaching and hard living. Then he makes a statement in verse 16, Rejoice every once in a while when things are going your way.

You know, maybe I should have wrote the Bible, huh? If I’d have wrote the Bible, I could have made it more compatible with the desires of the people. Maybe that’s why other people are writing their own Bibles because they’re leaving out a lot of stuff and adding in what they want to. But who is it? Rejoice evermore. Somebody’s treating me wrong in verse 15, doing me evil and I’m supposed to rejoice ever more. Something don’t seem right. Do you know the, it’s like a paradox.

It just doesn’t make any sense humanly speaking. It’s contrary to the human nature. And yet to live the Christian life is virtually an impossible life. The Lord can live his own life through you if we just simply yield to him. And there’s a problem because we fight the Lord. We argue with God. We got to debate it with God. We got to use philosophy on God instead of just willingly submit to whatever his will is and doing it. But verse 17, pray without ceasing.

It means to stay in an attitude of prayer, of dependence upon God. See, a person who’s always praying to God is going to be a person that is submissive to the will of God. is humbled himself to God. And therefore God says, if we will humble ourselves, he will exalt us in due time. And then in verse 18, if you really want to know what is the will of God? Well, if you knew the will of God, you would do it, right?

Well, of course you would. So in verse 18, in everything, give thanks. Why? For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. That’s what God wants you to do. Learn to give things. You know if you always was given thanks to the Lord for everything, you wouldn’t be so bitter and upset, so uptight. Have such a bad attitude. Be mean and ugly and unkind. Then He says in verse 19, Quench not the Spirit. In other words, there’s things that God wants to do.

Do you know this is something that was hard for me to the swallow. It was difficult for me to believe that God wasn’t interested in souls. I just couldn’t understand why God didn’t love me the way that I knew he should have. And I thought to myself, self, if you were in charge, you could make a lot better decisions that would have greater outcome. Have you ever thought that you ought to be used in a greater way than you are?

And God doesn’t know how much talent and ability and skills and wisdom you really have. If he only knew how great you were, then I’m in his move, heaven and earth, to use you. Put you up on that mountain top and let your little light shine. But evidently God doesn’t know everything about how great we are, does he? Well, well, well, I often wondering that God can I love souls more than you? Am I more concerned about people in the church than you?

Where did I get that desire from? To want to help everybody. And then I thought, well, God, if I want to help everybody, why don’t you give me supernatural power to do that. Some of you already know the answer. He has. He has. It’s just that sometimes we don’t let him use us. We get stuck. We’re the cog in the wheel. Quench not the spirit. It means don’t hold him back. He wants to do something and And we’re quenching it.

It’s like something that quenches your thirst. We’d like to be really thirsty and something quenches your thirst. But I do believe that there’s things that God wants to do in our lives. And we prohibit him from doing so. There’s sins of omission and sins of co-mission. O-mission means that you’re not doing what God says to do. And sins of co-mission means you’re committing something that you shouldn’t have done. So, man, sometimes you know they don’t seem like we can win.

Then he says this in verse 20, despised not prophesying or the teaching forth of the Word of God, because not only do you need to do it, but you need to receive it. You should listen to what God’s Word has to say, and you should want God to use you as you explain and teach and help people understand what the word of God says. In verse 21, prove all things, mean testing all things, like you said in Philippians 1 verse 8, that you may know what is, you know, sincere things, the sincere will of God, knowing the truth, and you study toward those things.

And he says here, whole fast that which is good. In other words, the older you get. Just keep doing right. Just keep doing right. And you don’t have to see how it’s going to work out. Just just keep doing right. And leave the results to the Lord. And then He says this in verse 22, abstain from all appearances of evil. I think it’s self-explanatory. Don’t make provision for the flesh and abstain from things that could give the appearance that you don’t love God.

There ought to be things you say and do that could cause anybody else to think that you really don’t love the Lord the way you should. And then in verse 23, and the very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, the God of peace is something that is descriptive of the characteristic of God. It’s like it’s an attribute of God.

It’s what he has. He has peace. He has joy. He has love. And he wants us to have his joy, his peace, his love, his compassion, all those things. But it’s because you have a body, a soul, and a spirit that is divided by the Word of God. Now let’s say for example, you have a body, you have a spirit, and you have a soul. And we often try to explain that by saying that we are a Trinity like the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.

So I have a body and I can put my body in the chair over there. I got a soul, that’s me. And I got a spirit and I can put my spirit over there in that chair. So I could put my body and my soul and my spirit in three different chairs. Wouldn’t it be neat if you could do that and then talk to yourself? I know people who talk to themselves. I saw somebody the other day talking to themselves.

But sometimes the trouble comes when you start answering yourself. But you talk to yourself. You can encourage yourself. You can defeat yourself. You can start thinking about things and just totally humiliate yourself. And you can start thinking of somebody that did your voice. start crying. But did you know that you can do that? But you got a bod, you got a soul, and you got a spirit. And so those things are important to realize. Now take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of Ecclesiastes.

In the Old Testament, the book of Ecclesiastes. And right after the book of Proverbs, you’ll find a little bitty book called Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a book that has a lot of good stuff in it, written by Solomon, the prince of preachers, and well, he writes a lot of it as though he was a man under the sun, and as a lost man, as a man that doesn’t know God or doesn’t know spiritual things. How would a natural man look at life?

Well, the book of Ecclesiastes will give you that picture. And in spite of all the wisdom that he had and all the wealth that he had, the conclusion that he came up with was everything is vanity and vexation of spirit. In other words, it’s vexations like a curse upon you because you can work hard and make things, make money, and get possessions only to leave it to somebody else who didn’t work for it. Because you don’t, in other words, if you knew when you was going to die exactly, you’d make sure you’d spin it all before you died.

But usually when you get a good butt, you say to yourself, self, take down knees, eat, drink, and marry for tomorrow, you die it. And so young, play the fool’s game. And then there might be a God in heaven that says, thou fool. This day thy soul is required of thee.” You see, what does that mean? God says, time’s up. What? Not yet, not now. Do you know, there’s sometimes there’s things that I want to do so bad. I hope God doesn’t come back yet.

… … … … … And there’s sometimes I would say, Lord, I’ve got so many things I want to do, so many dreams, not yet. Don’t take me yet. Now, when I get up to, you know, I always age, I may not care. But not yet. It’s like there’s so much it can be done. I love excitement and adventure. I love stepping out as though you’re, you know, walking the plank. And you don’t know what’s going to happen. Am I going to drown or is this big old whale going to get me?

Or maybe you’re shark. But a lot of people are afraid to walk the plank. They’re afraid to get out on a limb. But out on a limb is where the fruit is. And so you don’t know how it’s going to end, but you know you don’t want to play it safe. You don’t want to stay on the land. You want to walk on some water. You want to see if God can cause you to float. Can God keep me afloat?

Can God do this for me? I love the adventure, the excitement of putting God to the test, believing that He wants to do something wonderful and great. And I’m just thankful that I can be the object of his love, an object that he might be able to use. So you studied the book of Ecclesiastes and you see that yes, there was a man who God had blessed with all the wisdom in the world and he was doing fine for a while and then he got old.

And when he got old, he played the phone. You know, a lot of people do that. They think it doesn’t matter anymore. And so, yeah, vanity and vexation of spirit. But look there in Ecclesiastes in chapter 10. Most of you ladies in here especially, use perfume probably. Perfume. Why do you wear perfume? It smells good. And everybody wants to smell good, don’t you? But look there in verse one, when he talks about your life, God wants you to be a sweet smelling savor in his nostrils.

It means he wants you to smell good. Do you know what makes a Christian smell bad? Sin. in a Christian’s life makes you stink. Ooh. Dead flies in the ointment. I remember Bill Butterworth. He wrote a song. He called it Dead Flies in the Ointment. Dead flies in the perfume. Now ladies, if you had some perfume and had dead flies in it, would you still use the dead flies in the ointment. Something that’s supposed to smell so good can stink the high heaven.

Have you ever seen some women who put on deodorant and you can smell them coming a hundred yards away? I’ve seen guys that it’s in that they take a bath and after shave lotion. They take a bath and it’s like they’ve taken a complete bath and buddy they They will smell, I mean for a guy to say, no, he smells good. It’s the aftershave. See you as a man, you still smell the same way. All there’s smell and that sweet stuff you put on.

When it comes to you as a Christian, there’s things in your life that you’re supposed to be aware of. Ephesians in chapter 5, he talks about spots upon your feast, your love feast, spots upon your garments. It means that like we’re in a white robe and you’ve got dirty spots all over it. And there are things that causes spot or wrinkle. And God doesn’t want anything that detracts from your life. That would cause somebody not to believe on the Lord or to look to the Lord or to trust the Lord.

In other words, always be examining yourself. And you do that with the Word of God. The Word of God is a mirror that you can look into and it shows you, hey, you’ve got dead flies in the ointment. You got spots on your garment. You got something in your life that needs to be cleaned up. This is what the Word of God does. And so he says there in verse 1, Dead Flies Cause the Ointment of the Apothecary to Sinforth a stinking smell of that paraphrased.

But that’s what he’s talking about. And then you go there to chapter 11. And he talks about you as an individual learning to sow that you might reap. And he says, casting forth bread upon the waters. And after a while, you’ll get some soggy loaves back. No. See there in verse 1, cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shallst. I shall find it after many days. You invest now because you believe that return is guaranteed. I believe that if I invest in the Lord’s work, I’m going to get a great return better than the stock market, better than buying gold or silver or anything.

You know what I have invested in for 50 years? People, I invest in people. Because, see, I want to invest in something that’s in this life that will live beyond this life. And gold won’t, silver won’t, the stock markets won’t, people will. I don’t want to be a success. at something that won’t amount to a hill of beans a hundred years from now. So you have to make choices, decisions. The Word of God gives us discernment so you can make wiser choices.

Some people get it and some people don’t. But look what he says. As he makes the statement down here, even in verse 5, as thou knowest not, what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her, that is with child. Even so thou knowest not the works of God who make a thaw. There are things that God can do that you do not understand. you can’t see inside the mother’s womb and watch it grow.

Now today we’re getting a little bit more technology, but you see, there are things that are hid from our eyes. Some of the things that are hid from the eyes of God’s people is how God works. We haven’t fully understood all of it. Only that He does work, but He has revealed some things his word, but he also makes a statement in Deuteronomy. He said the secret things belong with unto the Lord. God doesn’t tell everything. He doesn’t explain everything.

He just simply wants us to trust Him. 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. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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.

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Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, 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.