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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.

Alrighty, take your Bible. I want to talk to you about just one little word, one little word. I want you to take your Bible and turn there to the book of 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. Hard to know where all world go because I just have an idea in my mind and we’ll just kind of run through some verses. But this is one of the verses that I really love in God’s Word. Second Corinthians in chapter 5 and look in verse 14.

The Lord has told us that we’re going to stand up the judgments of Christ. Gonna have to give an account of ourselves for the things that we’ve done since we’ve been saved. And He says, no one there for the tear of the Lord we persuade men. And then of course there always come now, well why should I? Why should I? Why should I serve the Lord? Why should I care? In verse 14 it says, for the love of Christ constraineth us.

Means the love of Christ motivates us. And see everybody’s motivated to do what they want to do. But God wants us to do what He wants us to do. So how does God motivate us to do what we should do? Because it’s a reasonable thing. It’s only reasonable for us to serve Him, not to get to heaven, but because we’re going there. And we knew that he loved us. He told us. He showed us. And he says, the love of Christ dwells within us.

And it says in the book of Romans in chapter 5, for the love of God is shit abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So we have the Holy Spirit given to us, and he wants to live through us. And if we allow him to live through us, and he’s only borrowing our bodies that really belong to him. We’re just letting him use our bodies, which he purchased belongs to him. But he says, because we thus judged that if one died for all, then we’re all dead, and that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again.

So this is what God wants us to do, and there is a good motive of why we should do it. Turn in your Bible to the book of John, the book of John in chapter 15. You’ll see there in the book of John in chapter 15, an interesting little statement about the vine and the branches. Talks about us abiding in Him, abiding in Him. When He talks about abiding me, abiding me abide in my love. So you’ll notice there in verse three abide in me, abide in me.

Done verse five, he let abide in me. You say, well, what does it mean abide in me? Well, it says up here in verse seven, if you abide in me. You see, you are to live where you have been placed. You’ve been placed into the vine, live there. And you say, well, what does that mean? Well, if you look there in verse 9 where he says, as the Father hath loved me and I have loved you, continue ye in my love.

If ye keep my commandment ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandment and abide in his love. So when he’s talking about abiding in me, abide in me, abide in me, he’s abiding in my love. So we are abiding in His love. You know He loves you. Now abide there. Always knowing and believing that regardless of what comes and goes in life, God loves you. And nothing can separate you. Now, the love of God that’s found over there in the book of Romans in chapter eight, he actually refers to also salvation because salvation is how God proved to us how much He loved us.

So when he tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God, nothing can separate you from salvation. Once you’re saved, nothing can ever separate that. That’s why he says you have eternal life. Now here in the Gospel of John, he was the one who leaned on Jesus’ breast. He’s the one that says the one whom Jesus loved. John was the youngest of the apostles, but later on he was the only one left, the oldest one. And in his 90s when God used him to write the book of Revelation, he’d been exiled onto the Alapatmas and was used by God to write some wonderful books.

God used him to write the Gospel of John, then first and second, third John in Revelation. But here in this book of this chapter it talks an awful lot about love, love, love. If you see there notice when he says there in verse 9, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. In verse 10, abide in my love, the last part of verse 10, abide in his love. And then verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another, as I have loved you.

Greater love hath no man than this. So love is mentioned through here an awful lot. Then of course he tells him, he says, this is not love like the world has. The world can’t love like his children can, because see they haven’t become one of the beloved. As you read the Gospel of John and also you look over there in the book of 1 John, you find, be loved, be loved, be loved. Now how do you become one of the beloved?

Be loved. Accepting Christ as your Savior is your way of letting God love you. A lot of people reject salvation. Rejecting salvation is rejecting God’s love. So those who accept Christ as their Savior are accepting the love of God. You see, Jesus Christ coming into the world was God’s way of manifesting His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So love is used an awful lot, and one of the reasons is because the Bible says God is love.

It says that all the law is fulfilled in one word, love. Because if you love, then you don’t have to worry about them stealing from you. If everybody loved one another, there wouldn’t be any murder. There wouldn’t be lying and stealing. Not if we love. But see, all those things are sins and because of sin, love wax is cold. And when love is waxing cold, this is when the husband and wives, They stop loving each other and it’s just thing turns cold.

It happens between parents and children. Happens in a church. All right, I’ve been here four years last week or two weeks ago, something like that. A month ago, whenever it was, it was a long time ago. Four years ago, everybody loved the preacher. But I’ve ventured to say after four years, not everybody loves the preacher as much as they used to. And I would probably think there might be some that loved me more than they I did when I first came.

When I first came here, I really didn’t know y’all. I just knew y’all were just wonderful. Now I’m convinced of it. So because I get to know you better, I love you better. And the more you get to know me, well, we won’t go there. But the Bible tells us to love one another. Now, all this love, love, love, love, love, and abiding in his love is really what goes on in the first part of the chapter when he says, I am the true vine and my Father is the husband.

Every branch in me that bear UCH not fruit, he take it the way. Every branch that bearth fruit, he purgestrak that it may bring forth more fruit. Now, ye are clean through the word which I’ve spoken you abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except that abide in the vine no more can you accept you abide in me. I am the vine you’re the branches. He that abide it in me and I in him the same bring forth much fruit.

Then in verse 80 makes the statement here in is my Father glorify that you bear much fruit. Much fruit. But you see, all of this is because if you abide in him and abide in his love, that’s what makes you a greater soul winner. That’s what gets you more fruit than anything else. And if you have this one fruit, which is love, did you know that love, all the fruits of the Spirit, just mentioned is the fruit of the Spirit, not fruits of the Spirit.

But when you get love, you get all the rest of them. Love, is the greatest of all. So when you have that, it kind of gives you everything else, gives you a greater intent. So the key thing is, is can God do anything or what could He do to get us to love Him? Now remember this, love which God is, wants an object because if you love you have to have an object to love. So God created somebody to love.

And if you love, you want to be loved. This is why when little kids, you know, mommy loves you, daddy loves you, everybody loves you. So the kid grows up thinking, hey I’m loved, I’m loved. But they come the time when the little boy and little girl grow up, they want somebody else to love them that doesn’t have to. So they begin to look for somebody else outside of the family. And it’s a good thing because otherwise you’d have to take care of all your life.

So the girl is looking for somebody to bestow her love on and him the lover back and vice versa. And so we want to be loved and give love. God made us like this. Because if it wasn’t nobody would ever get married. It would have been the end of the human race. There wouldn’t be any kids. So as you go through here and you see what he’s talking about, loving one another, love, love, love. Now, one of the best love books in the whole Bible, now there’s a love chapter in the book of Corinthians in chapter 13.

But look there in 1 John, the book of 1 John, and I want you to see this, the book of 1 John, is old now. He’s done seeing a lot of things and seeing people come to know Christ as Savior. He’s trying to challenge and motivate these people in the various churches. God used them to write a letter to seven preachers that they took the letters to those seven churches in Asia Minor area. And He tells them, He says to the church at Ephesus, He says, you’re You’re doing a good job.

You’re doing a good job. He said, but one thing I have against you, he says is you’ve left your first love. See, this is what the Lord saw. John writes it because this is how God sees things. He said, you’ve left your first love. You’re still doing the same thing. You’re in the same spot doing the same thing, doing the right things, and that’s all good. But you don’t love the Lord like you’re used to. Do you think the older we get, We should learn to love God just a little bit more and a little bit more.

And the more we abide in His love, more love comes through us to somebody else. I’ve seen a lot of people as they get older, they get meaner. Mean, mean, mean. And we don’t have to get meaners, we get older. So here in the book of 1 John, I want you to look there in chapter 1. one and look there in verse four. The purpose of this book, it’s a love book. It’s a book about how to love. It’s a book about how to abide in Christ like he was talking about there in John chapter 15.

So it says here in verse four, and these things right way unto you that your joy may be full. You see, joy is also one of those fruit of the Spirit. And the more you learn to love God, the more joy you’re going to have. But when you don’t love God the way you should, you can’t have the joy that you should have. So he makes a statement, this is talking about your fellowship between you and God. See I’m so glad that we separate salvation from service.

A lot of people believe that you must love God as the proof that you’re saved and if you don’t then that means you’re not really saved. No. You can be saved because God loves you and you do not have to love him back. But it’s a reasonable thing that we do, but if you don’t, you’re still going to heaven. Sometimes I think about asking them on the FBC webpage. A simple little question, just to see what they would answer.

And the question would be is this. Can a practicing homosexual be a Christian? Never changes ways, never stop anything, never changes lifestyle, and die and still go to heaven. still go to heaven. That’s a loaded question, you know that. But the answer is yes he can. But I’d venture to say there’s a lot that would say no, that’s a sign he’s not really saved. Because you see, now people have gotten to where they’re fruit inspectors. And if they don’t find you just beaming over with love and they want to talk about the unity, unity.

And you can take two cats and tie their tails together and thumb over a clothesline. Now you’ve got union, but you don’t have unity. A lot of people are joined together in holy deadlock. It does not mean they have unity. When the Bible talks about Mark them which caused evasions among you in doctrines contrary to the doctrines which you have received and it says avoid them. most times you’re not going to change people’s minds. Sometimes I get involved a little bit for the simple reason.

I don’t want somebody that loves the Lord and the gospel and the clarity of it and love what we’ve been taught to be swayed into believing something that isn’t true. So here the Lord’s talking about that your joy may be full and your walk with the Lord. So every one of us needs to understand that God wants us to have fellowship with him to walk with him, to abide in him, to abide in his love. And when you do, then there should be in your life the evidence or proof that you’re walking in his love.

But you see you don’t do that to be saved. It’s not a proof or sign that you saved, but it means that you are supposed to have something in your life that says, I love God if you do. If I was to tell you I love the Lord but I live like I don’t. You may not believe me. So the only way that I can show people that I love the Lord is by the way I live. But I’m not doing that to be saved or to prove that I am saved.

Because a lost man can demonstrate the same thing that I can. Can a lost man be kind and loving and sharing and courteous? They can do anything. They can they go to church and read the Bible. So those evidences would also prove them, yes, that all the lost people to go to church, they’re really saved. No. Now look what he says here in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2, you’ll notice that there is a word that talks about that if we really know him, if I know him, and if you took the word no, this is not time I just being saved.

Just talking to the children already. This is already talking to God’s children. See, I put in verse one, my little children. So we’re talking to believers, but we’re talking to believers about something specific. And that is, do you love your father? Do you love your spiritual daddy up there? Do you care? Do you love him? Well, he makes the statement here in verse three, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. word no is if you took the word love and put it there it might make a little bit more sense to you.

Hereby we know that we love him if we keep his command because see you tie this book together with the gospel of John and you’ll find that it’s talking about if he loved me keep my commandment because it’s mentioned in John chapter 14 where Jesus makes that same statement if he loved me So if you love him, keep his words, all he’s saying. And verse four, where he says, he that saith, I know him or I love him, and keep if not his commandments, he is a what?

He is a light, the truth is not enemy. He’s not obeying the truth. He’s not telling the truth. If you say you love the Lord, but you don’t live like you love the Lord, then we shouldn’t believe you love the Lord. That doesn’t mean you’re not saved, you may be saved, but you don’t love him. So he also makes a statement here in verse five, but who so keepeth his word or obeys his word and him verily is the love of God being perfected.

In other words, you’re maturing, you’re growing in the Lord. See growing in the Lord doesn’t mean you don’t stumble and fall. It just means you should stumble and fall less and get up quicker. You see, years ago you probably fell a lot of time, but you got up slower. Matureting the Lord is not you don’t stumble. It’s just that you respond faster. And so you’re learning how to walk with the Lord. And so he says here, here by know we are in him or you’re abiding in him.

So you have to take what he’s saying here here and the purpose of the book talking to believers about loving the Lord and nobody can make you love him. But does God want you and I to love him? You know it’s true. And so he says, if you do love me, lift for me. And like he says in John chapter 12, if any man will serve me, him with my Father on earth, but he’s talking about serving the Lord.

And And he says, my Father will honor you. And so you see there in verse six, he that saith, so you can say a lot of things, all the way down to him. He that saith in verse four, he that saith in verse six, you can say it, not in verse nine, he that saith, see, you can say it, but it not be true. And this is what he’s talking about from the first chapter. Say in something, but it’s not true.

If I was to ask you, is the Lord precious to you? Oh yes, he’s so precious to me. Is the word of God precious to you? Oh yes, when’s the last time you read it? I think it was about four years ago. See, if you say it, it should be true. But if you say it and you’re not walking the walk, then people shouldn’t believe you. And you should not be deceiving yourself. That’s why he says in the first chapter up there, talking about if we say that we have no sin and we don’t walk in the light.

He says, you’re not being honest. The truth is not in you. You’re lying to you. You’re deceiving yourself. Do you really think that Christians would deceive themselves? Is it possible? I think it might be. So you’ll notice as he goes through here, he tells him who we ought to love and why we ought to love him. But notice he also tells us that, if you love flowers, you’ve got to hate the what? If you love flowers, you hate what?

Weeds. See, college kids down here knows the answer. He must have learned that in college. If you love flowers, you hate the weeds. So God says, if you love me, and remember in John 15, when he talks about love, love, love, the last half of that chapter, he says, the world hates me. The world hates me. And the world hates me. The world’s going to hate you. So why would you wanna love the world and the world hates him?

As it says in Amos, how can two walk together unless they be agreed? So he says in verse 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world and the world hates Christ, then there’s something wrong with your love. You’re loving the wrong things. So you can say you love God, but you really love the world. And that’s why it’s so hard for some of God’s people to walk with the Lord.

See, walking with the Lord is not hard, not if you’re loving, but if you love the world and you want to fame, honor, glory, the majesty of the world, the things of the world, if that’s what you want, you can’t love God with all your heart. You see, you can’t love both. They’re opposites and you can’t serve them the way you ought to. And so he says, if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

But you notice how many times you see the word love, love, and how it affects your walk, it affects your talk, it affects your whole life. And then he says in verse 16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. In other words, the lust of the world, the lust of the flesh. Do you love the lust of the flesh? That’s why you want to fulfill them.

Or the lust of the eyes, the things that you see, the pride of life, the things you could be. You see, all those are things that are the love of the world. He’s not talking about do you love the grass outside or do you love that telephone pole or do you know you love that rock or you love that tree. No one’s talking about these things, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. And the pride of life.

But God says, if we would serve Him, He says, when you get to heaven, every man will see praise, honor and glory. See, we would love to have it down here. But if you have it down here from people and you do it just to be seen of people or heard of people or appreciated by people, you’re going to compromise. And then whenever you do it for that reason and you get it for that reason, God says, you have received your release.

word. You got it from man. And did you know that the praise, honor, and glory that comes from man doesn’t last very long? It doesn’t last long. Or if you can be patient and do what you do because of Lord and sacrifice for him when you get to heaven, praise, honor, and glory will never fade away. You’ll have that for all eternity. So right now, see, making investments. You ought to hear about Obama makes tells us about always making these investments.

All his investments is tax increases. But we’re talking about investments for eternity and the small little bit you give to the Lord down here, it will be for all eternity. Will it be worth it? It’ll be worth it all. Now look in verse 28 of chapter 2. My little children abide abide in Him, that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. So He’s talking to God’s children, talking about us abiding in Him, abiding in His love.

In other words, the love that He had for the lost, we let that love motivate us to love the lost the same way. The love that he had for his children is the love you and I are supposed to have for his children. The same that he had were supposed to have and what he didn’t love were not supposed to love. So he tells us what to love what not to love. Did you know if you understand this it can truly help you in your Christian life to be able to distinguish, to discern things that are good and things that are not.

Now look in chapter three. In chapter three, the very first words there, behold what manner of what? Love, love. The Father hath bestowed upon us. Now the love he bestowed upon us, living for the Lord, is revealed by the love that we bestow upon others. Won’t it make sense? So God wants us to love him the way he loved us, And then He wants us to love others the way He loves others. And He has bestowed love upon us, but we’re to shed that love abroad.

You don’t keep it, you become a channel. This is why you sacrifice and you go through all the things that you do. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were 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 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 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 broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the 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.