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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. chapter three. I want you to notice in Galatians also the verse two, where it says, this only what I learn of you receive you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. How did you receive the Holy Spirit by your faith, not by your works?

It’s not because of something that you did, not because you got on your hands and knees and you went forward in the church and you pleaded down the power of God. No, you didn’t. A Holy Spirit indwells you as a result of the promise that Jesus Christ made to His disciples. And so when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you received the Holy Spirit by faith. You can’t get the Holy Spirit in any other way. Fill me, Lord. Fill me, Lord.

Like this one, birds, just don’t do it, Lord, he leaks. Come, Lord, to be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with love, love should control you. If you’re filled with hatred and bitterness and wrath, then those things control you. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means the Holy Spirit controls you. Will you allow the Holy Spirit to control you? And by his controlling of your life, he will minister to you.

And then when he ministers to you, you’re able to minister to others and to give to them the comfort where when you were comforted by the great comforter himself. Look in verse 3, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? How did you begin? You see, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, the Bible makes his statement in the book of John chapter 3, he says, you must be born again.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said it all the you must be born again. So when you were born again, you were born by the Spirit of God. Your new birth started with the Holy Spirit. You were born by the Holy Spirit. You are not made perfect and mature in your Christian life by walking in the flesh. The flesh could not save you.

The works of the flesh could not produce a righteous man. After you’re saved, the flesh still can’t. That’s why it’s impossible for you to live the Christian life. The Christian life has to be led and lived by Christ himself. Let me show you what I’m talking about. Look in chapter 5 and verse 25. Here in the book of Galatians chapter 5 and verse 25, where he says, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.

Let the Holy Spirit of God, who is Christ in you, live his life through you. Let Christ live his own life. You don’t have to live it for him. He only wants to use your body. Don’t you think if Jesus Christ, who could get off of his throne in heaven, could come down here and take over your body, don’t you think he would do a lot better job than you’re doing? Who do you think has the greatest power, the greatest wisdom, the greatest purpose that can lead and guide you, you or him?

This is why, as a child of God, we don’t tell God our plans and our goals and our dreams. We want God to give us His. God, I belong to you. What do you want me to do with my life? It’s not, Lord, this is what I want to do. Bless me, okay? And then you just want to use God as a backup plan every once in a while when you get in a jam and things ain’t working out your way.

Then you want to whine and pine and moan and groan to God. God get me out of this mess. You got me into. Instead of you realizing that God has a purpose and He has a plan, Lord, whatever it is, I’m yours. They sing a song sometime in ranch, sometimes on church on Sunday night. I’m yours, Lord. Everything I am or God or not or whatever it is. But it’s fairly good, because I think about it every once in a while.

Lord, whatever I am, I’m yours, Lord, I’m yours, Lord. Can you say that, Lord, I’m yours. The Holy Spirit of God lives inside of me. My prayers don’t have to make a trip, because He’s already within me. All I’ve got is just talk to the Lord. Talk to Him about everything. The Bible says, pray concerning everything. think that your problems are too big that God can’t do anything about or that they’re too small to bother him with. Talk to the heavenly Father about everything and you’ll be glad you did.

But when he makes a statement here in verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. This is mentioned because of something that’s mentioned there in chapter 2 of the book of Galatians. If you look at that real quick Galatians in chapter 2, look in verse 20. Verse 20. See when Christ died for you, He died in your place. So He says here in verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ live it in me.

Well, it just says the Holy Spirit lives in me. Christ lives where? In me. Christ is an out there, someplace else, Christ is in you. He’s in you. And it’s not a figment of the imagination. It’s the truth. Christ through the Holy Spirit indwells every individual. See, when he was in a body, he was limited. He could only be in one place at one time, but spiritually, he can be in every individual. I know that Christ is here this morning.

I brought him. Or I guess I could say He brought me. Now, are some places you may go that Christ didn’t take you, you took him. I won’t get into that at this time. And he says, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So I should now live of my life, for the one who loved me. He loved me.

He lives inside of me. I belong to him. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods. It belongs to God. My body belongs to God. Therefore he owns my eyes. He owns my ears. He owns my tongue. He owns my body. He has a right to say what I should and should not do. I am under authority. Rebellion is when you want to use your life, your body, to do whatever you want to do, and it doesn’t belong to you.

My life doesn’t belong to me. And if a man will lose his life for his sake, he will find his life. But if you live your life for your sake, you will lose your life because that’s not the purpose of your life. It wasn’t for you. It was for him. I hope that I’m getting through here in my little, mild-mannered way, but look there in the book of Galatians in chapter 5 again. Galatians in chapter 5 and look there in verse 16.

Verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Look, I’ll be a real quick. I do this every once in a while. When we were born into this world, we had a flesh birth. We all have a sinful nature. You say, where did I get mine from my daddy? Where’d you get yours from your daddy? It’s all passed on. So we have a sinful nature and because we have a sinful nature, we sin.

And because we sin, the wages of sin is death, we all die. So therefore God says, you don’t take this one to heaven. If God took this birth to heaven, then we would sin in heaven. And then what fun would that be? We’d turn that into what we did here. And to be lying and stealing and cheating and murder and rape and all the rebellion. Because if he took us to heaven the way we are, then that’s what would have up there.

So God says you can’t come. You have to be perfect. Because see, that’s a perfect place and only perfect people get to go. You say, okay, how do we get to go? I’m glad you asked. See, God says because we’ve all sinned, we’re all going to die. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, you are born in the God’s family. This is a new birth. This one is born of God. God is not a sinner. God doesn’t have a sinful nature.

Your new birth doesn’t sin. If it doesn’t sin, it doesn’t die. That’s why once you become a child of God, you have eternal life. That’s because you’re a child of God. of God. But where does this child of God live? What he lives inside of this body. Now, it’s a spiritual birth, so you can’t see it. This is a physical birth. You can see the one I got from the first time I was born, but you can’t see me when the second time I was born.

My second birth is a lot prettier than my first one. This is the flash birth. It’s going to die, but this one will never die. So the Bible says the Holy Spirit of God indwelled your body when He gave you your new birth. Now the Holy Spirit lives within you to teach this new little baby how to grow. So it was born by the Spirit of God it must feed upon spiritual food. The word of God is spiritual food and the little baby is hungry so we got to feed it.

It will not get strong, taking it to football games. It won’t get strong playing golf. Oh I love golf but that will not make this new birth strong. He doesn’t get strong because he eats cherry-o’s. Some Christians are so spiritually skinny they could use a cherry-o for a hula hoop. This one gets strong because the Holy Spirit feeds it and that’s because you yield yourself and if you will yield yourself to this awesome power, this awesome person who lives inside of you.

He can raise this little new birth and you’ll become stronger and stronger and stronger where you can do the thing God wants you to do. So there’s going to be a battle in your Christian life. You see this one over here, he ain’t dead yet. God didn’t change him. He didn’t annihilate him. He just gave you a new birth with new desires. But these are desires that has to be fed. And if you feed them, they grow. This over here has sinful desires.

So this one says, I think I’ll go to church. This one says, no, you’re not. You’re going to stay home and watch Batman. So what do you do? You stay home and watch Batman. What? Because that’s what the flesh wants. But if you’ll feed this one and get strong, then when everyone says, says, I think I’ll have a curse. No, you won’t. You’ll have milk. And you can have some victory in your Christian life. But there’s going to be a battle, battle.

And there’s a war going on. And that’s why he says, if you will walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Because you still got the lust of the flesh. You still got the desire to live like you please do whatever you want to do. You can tell me as rebellious as you want. You’ve got this old birth. You can live a wicked life. That doesn’t mean this one doesn’t exist. It means that you have yielded yourself to the flesh and not the spirit.

So you’ve got a choice. You had a choice when you got saved. You could choose to trust the Lord or not. And then after you’re saved, you can choose whether to walk in the flesh or walk in spirit. And if you’ll walk in the spirit, it means letting the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you teach you, challenge you, motivate you. And if you’ll do that, you can have strength in your life and you’ll be able to control the flesh.

But it’s a warfare that will last as long as you’re in the body. And this one won’t stay down long. Because he’s gonna get up and sock it to ya. And that’s why you as a Christian can be sitting here this morning, studying the word, and thinking how you’d like to just give your wife a good old pop in the mouth. Or you’d like to take those kids and just blister their bottom and be mean and ugly and unkind.

You’d be surprised how ugly you can be just that quick. See my wife maybe. No, it’s you too. Everybody who has a sinful nature is subject to all the deeds of the flesh, and they’re bad. They’re bad. Look at some of the things that happen in your life as a Christian if you let the flesh control your life. Look what he says in verse 17, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary one to the other.

two extremes. This one, look up here. This one can’t do any good. This one can’t do any bad. That’s as extreme as you can get. This one loves self. This one loves God. You got a choice. So you see, that’s why he says concerning your life. So to the Spirit. I just want you to see this in Galatians in chapter 6, look down there in verse 8, where it says, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

That’s the first birth. But he that soweth to the spirit at your second birth shall reap life everlasting. Fruit that will last forever. And see there in verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit of Galatians chapter 5 verse 22. Fruit of the spirit fruit is a result of something that was sown. You sown and you’re gonna reap. If you let the Holy spirit control your life, you’re going to have some fruit in your life that you’re going to like.

But there are things that maybe somebody else can’t see is the joy and the love and the peace, the lung suffering, all these things, the gentleness and goodness and meatiness and all that’s what you want in your Christian life. Well that’s the result of you as a child of God yielding to him. And if you will, you’re going to have the result. But if you You don’t and you sow to the flesh. It’s a choice. This is what you’re going to get.

See there in verse 19, verse 19 of chapter 5. Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, various simulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresy, murder, reveling, drunkenness, reveling, such life. Oh, which I tell you before as I told you in time passage, they would use this thing, so not inherit the kingdom of God. See, look up here. That’s the flesh. And you as a Christian still have an old sinful nature, you have the flesh.

You are capable of committing every sin in the book as a Christian. But it’s not the new birth that did it. You have two natures dwelling within you. And if you let the flesh control your life, that’s what you’re going to have. But if you let the Holy Spirit control your life, you’re gonna love the fruit. And that’s the love and the joy. See that in verse 22, fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, maintenance and temperance.

Against such there is no law. See, there’s a law against the sins of the flesh. Thou shalt not, but there is no law against bringing forth the fruit of the spirit. You see, this one can never be condemned, but the Bible says concerning the flesh. He says, you in the flesh are going to die. Sin is still, sin is still wicked, but those that are in the Spirit, there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. You can never be condemned again.

That’s why whenever I die, and that day will come, when I die, this body of mine, they’re gonna put it in the grave. And I won’t have to worry about my old sinful nature anymore. But I will until that day comes. Or until the Lord comes and He changes this corruptible body, this mortal body, He who’s going to change it. In the moment the twinkling of an eye, and I’ll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

But until then, I’ve got to put up with it. But whenever they put this one in the grave, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And as Jesus was talking to them at the graveside of Lazarus, they said, Lord, if you had been here, he wouldn’t have died. Haven’t you often said, Lord, if you had been here, this wouldn’t have happened. If you’d have been here, Lord, this wouldn’t have happened. He is with you. He is there. There’s some things that God sees as more important than you have in your own way.

God may want to teach you a lesson. Sometimes your greatest need is a need. Sometimes the greatest thing you can have happen in your life is a problem because it drives you to the Lord. Most of God’s children really pray when they’re in a crisis situation. See, God sometimes have to put a two before over our head to get our attention because we get so high and lifted up in pride, I don’t need the Lord. I don’t need to go to church.

I don’t need to study the Bible. I don’t need, I don’t need God. He says, oh, I’m going to show you how much you need. And He can allow a lot of things to come into your life you don’t have answers for. And you’re ready to commit suicide or blow your brains out because you just don’t know how to handle life and you fall apart spiritually because you’re not strong spiritually. And some Christians I believe are afraid to find out how weak they really are.

That’s what Moses had prayed, Lord. Don’t let me see how wicked I am. That’s why David says, Lord, search me and try me and see if there’s any wicked way in me that I can deal with it. Because I don’t want to go against you. But because we don’t sometimes examine ourselves, there’s a great problem in our life. in our life. I want you to see this. If you look there in chapter 5, in chapter 5, look in verse 5, where it says, we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcisions of a let anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.

You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth. You see, when you have the Holy Spirit living within you, the Holy Spirit is to teach you truth. And when the Holy Spirit teaches you truth, you are to run, live according to that truth. He says, you did run well because you believe the truth. Who has now hindered you that you should not obey the truth? You see, everyone, I believe, of God’s children would serve the Lord with all their heart if they believed the truth.

The only reason you don’t serve the Lord faithfully, completely, is because there’s something you don’t believe that’s right. There’s something that’s wrong with your theology. Because you see, how would you justify rebellion to God? It’s not important. I don’t believe that’s going to happen. I don’t believe that’s what it says. It’ll always boil down to you don’t believe something God said. Because if you really believe it, if you really believe this, it’ll change your life. It will change your life.

Now you may know Christ is your Savior, but you don’t apply it. You’re not faithful, you’re not consistent, you’re not a soul winner, you don’t talk to people about the Lord, you don’t pray like you ought to. What is it that keeps you from doing the things you ought to do. Is there a time in your life when you used to run better than you’re running now? When you used to live for the Lord better than you live for the Lord now?

You see, I don’t live a certain way so I get to go to heaven when I die. No, I’m already going to heaven. I’m going to heaven because he paid the way. He did the work. All I had to do was believe he did it for me. So he would give me eternal life and I get to go to heaven. but I’m not there yet. I believe there’s some things that God wants me to do with my life. There’s a way in which he wants me to live.

And I don’t worry so much about how I’m supposed to live. I just want to get out of the way and submit myself to the Lord and let him live his life through you. Nobody can live the Christian life as good as Christ. And he just wants to live it through you. Will you just submit? Submit. Don’t argue with God. Don’t fight with God. Don’t battle against God. You lose. How can you battle against God and when? You can’t.

Look up here, let me show you this. This is so important. This is you and me. This is sin. We’re all sinners. God loves us. Hates our sin. Always remember that. God loves you. He doesn’t like what you do wrong, but He loves you. I love my children. Didn’t like what they did wrong. When they did things wrong, They belong to my wife. But God loves us, but the pay for that sin is eternal separation from God. In hell.

But to go to heaven, you have to be righteous as perfect as God, and none of us are perfect. None of us are good enough. So the Bible says, you committed the sin, you’re guilty, you have to pay. And good works does not pay for sin. That’s why doing good deeds will not pay for the bad that you’ve done. So go in the church, we’ll not get you to heaven. Give him money. get you to heaven. I ought to tell people just the opposite would really help, but I can’t do it.

Money, good deeds, all those things, though they’re well intended, will not get you to heaven. This then represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into this world because He loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us. But our sin separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, the patron on the cross, came back from the dead. He said that if we believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account.

We get to go to heaven. Oh, what Christ did for us. That’s a gift. That’s free. And once you trust Him as your Savior, you become His child, God’s child forever. And He’ll never leave you. It never forsake you. You’re going to heaven whenever you die. And He’ll never leave you alone because He gave you the Holy Spirit to live inside of you. You can’t feel the Spirit. You can’t see the Spirit. Well, how do I know He’s there?

God’s Word says so. Now let him start teaching you the word. You just start yielding and you’ll be surprised how it can change your life. Let the Holy Spirit minister to you and through you. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every act closed and no one looking around. If you hear this morning and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, if you’ve never trusted the Lord, would you do it right now? This is a good time to do it.

There’s no guarantee on life. But why not right now in the quietness of this moment, just talk to the Lord? God knows what you’re thinking. You can’t make a mistake. Only the true and living God knows what you’re doing. Said, Lord, I’m a sinner. Friend, let’s just be honest. Lord, I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died and paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust him as my Savior. I believe he died for me. He paid for my sins.

I don’t have to pay for them because he paid for them. And friend, if you would do that, just that much. I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand does not save you. Just let me know what I said made sense to you. You’re saying, preacher, that made sense to me. And I want to be certain of going to heaven. And I will trust Christ as my Savior. Would you just slip your hand up very quickly, better write back down as anyone at all?

Anyone at all? Yes, God bless you, man. Appreciate that. Anyone else? Just very quickly just slip it up and put it right back down. God loves you. He wants you to have eternal life. He wants you to go to heaven. Doesn’t matter if you’re young or old. He will give you the free gift of eternal life. With your head still by nice clothes, can you say right now that you are yielded to the Lord? That the Holy Spirit has freedom to use you for whatever He wants without any complaints from you.

Just Lord, whatever you want from my life. Help me to be the person you want me to be. Friend, I pray that you do. Would you just talk to them? Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us. We thank You for the individual that indicated by an uplifted hand that they would trust Your Savior. By doing so, they become Your child and You’ll never cast Him out, never lose Him. We ask Your blessings upon each one here.

Help us Lord, Yield as we ought to. 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 toll 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