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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 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.

What we do for the Lord now in this little moment of time works for us for eternity. What we’re going to have for eternity based upon just that little bit of time that we gave to the Lord, it must be worth it, and it will be worth it. And that’s why he says in verse 17, for our light affliction, whatever we’re going through, it’s just a light affliction. All of these things that Paul mentioned about all the trouble and the persecution and been knocked down, all these things that happened to him, the stonings that he went through, the people that left him, all the the heart aches, it went through.

This light affliction, see it all comes to pass. One of the greatest promises in the Bible, it came to pass and it came, but it passes. And one of the days we’re going to pass. You know, it was just yesterday, I was 17 years old. You know, one of the biggest kicks that keeps me young is my track. I always showed them this track. This is my picture when I was 17 and had hair, see? And you’d be surprised how many people said, you know, he looks just like you.

Well, I drew it anyway. But you’ve got to find something that keeps you moving, keeps you going. Now look what he says in verse 18 as we close. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. What are you looking at? See, you and I are supposed to look beyond this life. We’re supposed to be able to see into eternity.

We can see all the way to the judgment see to Christ. You ought to be able to picture yourself standing there. And knowing that you’re going to give an account to the Lord. Every man shall give a count of himself to God because God has given us so much time, so much talent, so much ability, and he wants us to do something because he gave us a reason to live. He gave us a cause. And when we get to heaven, we’re going to have to answer for how we did.

Of course, we would like to hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant, but we may be going to a big old bonfire because he says he’s going to take the haywood in the stubble, the wasted life is going to be burned up. But there’s should be some gold silver and precious stones. Some of the things that we’ve done for the Lord since we’ve been saved. Can you see that? Can you picture that? It’s because it’s going to happen.

One day it’s going to be real. Did you know that any day now, any day now, any moment you could hear a trumpet and we’d be taken out of here. I’ve often And wonder how long will I hear that trumpet before I get changed? Because he says he shall appear and he’s going to sound the trumpet, voice of the archangel. Women, if it all happens exactly at the same time, I’m changed before I hear it. I want to hear it.

And then I want to go up slowly. I want to enjoy it. But I know he says you’ll disappear here and you’ll appear there, but I want to go slow enough that I can be able to tell somebody I told you so. I told you so. I told you. I told you. And I hope it happens on the daytime so that I can look at some people and say, I told you, I told you. But what do you see?

Can you see that? Can you believe that it’s going to happen? And that one day it will be worked at all. It will be. You realize that in just a few short years from now, we could be in the Kingdom upon the Earth. Did you know seven years from now we could be living in a place like the Garden of Eden? When God takes that thousand year reign and we’re going to be here ruling and reigning with Christ. All the things we got between us and that is seven years of tribulation and I’m going to be up there doing that period of time.

So it’s a wonderful thing to know and it should help challenge and motivate every last one of us. I was talking to you the other last Wednesday night about the subject of our bodies and how that the Lord says that we’re supposed to dedicate our life to the Lord. So if I dedicate my life to the Lord, I’m supposed to let my body be a living sacrifice. So God wants my body. So in the book of Romans, he makes the statement about, yield ye your members unto God.

So I’m supposed to take this body of mine and yield it to the Lord so God can use it, because the body belongs to him. Says he bought, he paid for it, it belongs to him. So God has a right to use me, however he wants. Now when we say we dedicate our life to the Lord, It doesn’t mean a thing if he doesn’t get your body because it’s the only tool you have to use in this life. And it’s only thing God wants to use is He wants to use our eyes and our ears and our tongue and our hands.

So last week we sung a little song, you remember? Oh, be careful little eyes what you see. Oh, be careful little eyes what you see. There’s a father up above looking down in tender love. Oh, be careful little eyes what you see. Oh, be careful little ears what you hear. Oh, be careful little ears what you hear. And there’s a father up above looking down in tender love. Oh, be careful little ears what you hear. Oh, be careful little tongue what you say.

Oh, be careful little tongue what you say. There’s a father up above looking down in tender love. Oh, be careful little tongue. What you say, oh, be careful to the hands. What you do? Oh, be careful little feet. Where you go? Because there’s a father up above looking down in tender love. So be careful what you say and what you do and what you hear and what you see. The body belongs to the Lord. So we looked at a few things.

It talks about the the eye and what you see, how we see things. So why don’t you take your Bible and turn to the book of James in chapter one. James chapter one, James chapter one, I want you to look there in verse 19. Verse 19, very, very important verse. Because it tells us in verse 19, wherefore it might be levered brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. So you see, you still can get filled with wrath.

You can get mad and angry, but be long fused. When it talks about being long-suffering, it means you can suffer for a longer time, which gives you time to cool off so that you weigh your words. You can sometimes determine whether or not a person is maturing in the Lord by his control of his tongue. And you watch that and you can control that by being swift to hear. But it all depends on who you’re listening to. That’s why every day we should study something from God and let God speak to us.

So if God speaks, we ought to hear. And so he says here in verse 19, wherefore my beloved brother and let every man, every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. And look in verse 24, the wrath of man, work if not the righteousness of God. There is a difference. There is a contrast here. So God is trying to let us see that there’s some things that will help us in our Christian life. The book of James is written to believers, not unbelievers.

That’s why he says in verse 2 of chapter one my brethren counted all joy when you fall in a diverse temptation. You’re going to have a lot of troubles in life, trials and testings. These things are going to work up on your spirit, up on your attitude. Everybody’s got troubles. Everybody’s got an attitude. Is it good or is it bad? Have you ever had somebody you would like to give them a good attitude adjustment? Well I’d like that go mad at your adjustment.

But sometimes one of the biggest problems is not you giving somebody else an attitude adjustment is your own attitude adjustment. So you learn how to just, that’s why I mentioned the other day, that when it comes to certain alert, every good automobile needs a good transmission because it kind of Helps you to learn how to shift gears. When you go to slow down, how to downshift. That great big old motorhome I had at one time, it was a continental trailway bus.

Designed like a motorhome. It was a three speed. It was a big, heavy bus. When you wanted to slow down, you had to race the motor. Now that’s just the opposite of what you really want to do. You race the motor so that you can get the gears right so you can shove it into gear and Whenever you see a place of coming up in the stop sign and you got to stop the last thing you think you got to do is race the motor so that you can get it in sync and Downshift Betty did not want to drive that motor home.

I Would not even want to be in the motor home if Betty was going to drive that motor home because it’s just works against you and see and serve in the Lord there’s time when it seemed like we just want to shift gears and get out of something and said the Lord may want you to go right to the middle of something. So there are problems and it works upon our attitude. That’s why he says in verse 8 a double-minded man.

In the words he’s not sure what gear he wants to get in he’s not sure what he sees he’s not sure what he hears, he’s not sure what he wants to do. He’s for it and is against it. Somebody said that one time. I was for it before I was against it. Was that outdoor or maybe it was one of the other guys? But anyway, in times some of these guys do this stuff, you know, I always think, oh, that’s a verse in the Bible talks about that.

But you see, God wants so much for us. So in James it’s talking about the things that you do. And so that’s why James chapter 2 is so important because everybody talks about do you know James chapter 2? Faith without works is dead. So for the Christian faith comeeth by what? Hearing okay so you’ve got to be swift to hear what God has to say so that it causes you to respond correctly. Everybody’s got pressures and we judge one another by how they handle pressure.

So he makes a statement here in verse 22, looking verse 22, but be he doers of the word and not hears only. When God speaks to you through his word he expects you to obey it. So he doesn’t want you just to hear what he says and this is what happens when people go to church year after year after year and there’s no change in their life. They are here’s only they never do anything. The reason you hear it is so that you can do something.

It should change your life and a lot of Christians lives are not changed. I’ve said this before. My life is like a constant Indiana Jones life. It is filled with adventure and excitement. I mean something’s always happening. When I say something’s always happening means I always look at something’s always going wrong and that creates a crisis and it’s like I go from one crisis to another crisis to another crisis it never stops but it has been one terrific ride so that when my life is over with I don’t want there to be anything left of this body to give.

I want it to be totally used up. Nothing left. Gave it all, Lord. So I told somebody that I plan my life to run out of money and to run out of life on the same day. According to this, I’m going to die tomorrow. No, but be here’s of the words. Look in verse 23, for if any be a here of the word and not a doer, He is like unto a man behold in his natural face and a glass.

He beholdeth himself and goes his way. But he forgets what kind of a person he is. You’re looking in the mirror in the morning. And you say, you tiger, you don’t you ever die. Now you’re looking in the mirror and you see that you’ve got to brush your teeth and you’ve got to comb your hair. You’ve got to shave. You’ve got to do all these things. But some people they just read the Bible and there’s never anything done. like looking in that mirror and they never come, they never come their face, they never come their hair, never washed their face, you know, got mad in their eyes, you know, I like to go for that, I don’t know if I can go like that.

But all this is important, so look down in verse 25 now, but whosoever look it into the perfect law of liberty, talking about looking into the Word of God itself. And continue if they’re in, he be not a forgetful here. But a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deeds. The reason you hear is because God wants you to work. Not just been a here, but blessed in his work. So the reason you hear what God says because there’s something God wants you to do.

So if you’ll do what God says to do, he says you will be blessed in your work. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everybody just automatically did everything God wants them to do? You wouldn’t need to preach to them. Did you know everybody’s problems is what gives everybody else a job? If everybody, if nobody had a problem, nobody would have a job. Every job is solving somebody else’s problem. So if you want to be valuable, learn how to solve somebody’s problems that’s got more money.

And now you increase your value. you learn by doing these things. But now look what he says in verse 26, if any man among you seems to be religious and bridalith not his tongue, but deceivest his own heart, this man’s religion is vain, it’s empty. You hear it, you know what the word quoted, but it doesn’t change you and if you can’t bridle that right there, you’re going to be in the heat of trouble. Now turn in your Bible to chapter 3, chapter 3.

Have you ever heard that song that goes? It only takes a spark to get a fire going. It only takes a spark to get a fire going. I’ve seen some things be so nice and quiet and peaceful and then somebody has to say something and I think, oh, just slap your jaws. Cool a little bit of time. You can be jitterbugged again in a minute. But look what he says in chapter three, my brethren, so we’re talking to Christians.

Christians don’t always say what they should say. They don’t always hear what they should hear, so they don’t always do what they should do. He says, be not many masters. That means instructors in the teaching of the Word of God because the more you know, the more you teach, and the more you teach, the more you’re going to be accountable for it. And the more you have to be accountable for it, you’re really going to watch everything you’re saying.

There’s always someone with a magnifying glass. There’s always somebody with a little shotgun. They want to knock you off your little perch. You see, I have determined years ago, there’s There’s always somebody that wants to find fault with everybody. So over the years I have determined that every time I speak, I’m going to do something wrong delivered to me. Just so they won’t have to worry about it because I would hate for them to leave so disappointed that they didn’t find anything wrong with me.

So I’ve decided that every day I’ll do something that I shouldn’t do. Working pretty good so far. But nobody’s perfect. But there’s people who still expect people to be perfect. And it doesn’t matter how much good you do, they always looking for that one little thing you didn’t do right. It doesn’t matter what it is. You can do a thousand things right, one little thing wrong and everybody else see that one little thing. Look what he says here in James.

He says he received the greater condemnation, the greater judgment. So the key thing is to watch, watch, you say. This is really what James chapter 2 is about. You see, it’s the effect that you have in the lives of other people and what they see and what they hear you do. And therefore he says, what did that profit, my brethren, if a man say, I have faith without works. I want to show you my faith by my works. I want to show you what I believe about the things that I say, things that I do.

attitude that I have. He says, perfect wisdom coming from God. But there is another kind of wisdom, a human wisdom, but it says it’s sensual, it’s devilish. It’s not the kind of, see there in verse 15? This wisdom descend not from above, but it’s earthly, it’s sensual and devilish. And this kind of wisdom is human wisdom and it conflicts with God’s divine wisdom and look what it produces in verse 16 for where in being and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, peaceful, gentle, easy to be entreated or pleaded for, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. So, you see, that’s a different wisdom. That’s the word that comes from God. And he says, every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord. So God says, I have something that I want to give to you.

And the world has its own wisdom, and it’s sometimes difficult for Christian to discern the difference between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. One of the things that’s always helpful, he says, make no provision for the flesh. So like I was talking about one of the ago, but when we have camp we try to have it to where make no provision for the flesh. Leave out some of the things that maybe they do on their own on their own time, but because you want to try to help them spiritually in a certain direction you try to eliminate as much of the problem that you can.

So I had someone who emailed me a letter the other day. They They wanted to know why don’t we allow the boys and the girls to swim together at camp. And I thought, they can swim any way they want when they’re on their own. They can go naked. I’m not in charge of them. They’re not my kids. But if I want to try to help them spiritually, I think that it’s easier to control an environment. I don’t put them together half naked in a swimming pool.

I mean I’m just trying to think humanistically, I’ll list a little bit. But I just figured that if they both have an owe sinful nature, they’re just live on the loose control. And it might be hard for them to focus on the right things. So therefore I say it would be better if the boys go swimming at a different time than the girls. And then we try to work it out to where even when they coming out of the one and go to there when they came in Harley’s seat, just because of the timing.

You say, that’s so legalistic. Okay, then you do it your way and now go my way. But I find out there’s a lot less trouble. I’ve even had camps, believe it or not, in Colorado. Well, we didn’t even have any swimming poles, and We had no, we didn’t have a beach. You ever been to Colorado? There were no beaches there. And yet I had camps three a year for 20 something years. So, and we had a lot of kids dedicate their lives to the Lord.

And not one of them. So you know, I don’t like camp because I didn’t get to swim with the girls. And most time it’s not the boys you want to swim with the girls. just the girls who want to swim with the boys. Now, I’m not against them. They can go to the beach, do anything that you want to do. Let the mom and daddy be in control. But I don’t know how to control all of those things. So I eliminate the problem.

It works better for me. So as he says here, when you’re trying to help somebody spiritually, you can pass all the rules you want to about, you know, don’t say this. Don’t say that. don’t say that. Well, if you could get to their mind and change the way they think, you’d be a lot better off. The Bible says that the tongue no man can tame. He says, you can tame all the animals. You can even tame a serpent, but there’s some things that you just can’t get ahold of.

And look what he says here in verse 2, for in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same as a perfect man or mature man, enable also to bridle the whole body. Then he gives us a couple illustrations because he says, we put bits in the horse’s mouth that they may obey us and we turn about their whole body. You can turn that little bridle and that the whole body can be turned just by controlling this.

Why do you think they put a ring in the nose of a bull because it hurts them if they don’t yield. Why do you think when a man and a woman gets married that that woman puts a ring in his nose? I mean on his finger. Oh, I went too far. I went too far there. That just went that just went right out too fast before I had a chance to you know curb that. Now Bob, you don’t even know what I’m talking about.

But look what he says there in verse 4. Look how big the ships are, which though they be so great and are driven by fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whether it’s whoever the governor lifted, something so small that can determine which direction the boat goes. Even so. The tongue is a little member. So when we talk about, he says, you do your members of your body as instruments of righteousness. This is one of the littlest members you have.

But it’s one of the most difficult to control. Have you ever said something you wish you hadn’t said? Every day? Every day. Every day. Every hour. Every hour. Every minute. Every minute. You never stop. That’s what your wife told me to do. Anyway, he says here in verse 5, but even so the tongue is a little member and boasted great things behold how great a matter, a little fire can live. It only takes the spark to get a fire going.

Did you know you can kill somebody with a sharp word. Just by saying the sharp word to the wrong person at the wrong time, you can really do a lot of damage. People’s attitudes can be totally changed. Like this woman, she come and asked her happen, she says, she said, what’s on TV? He said, dust and then the war began. Then the war began. I remember one time I preached the whole sermon on it. Then the war began. Do I remember that sermon?

Oh, was it funny? Yes it was. Oh, it was good. I feel like preaching it all over again. Then the war began. But notice what he says here. In verse six it says, And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. You’re talking about it. This is a terrible thing. As big as you are, this little thing right here gets you in the heap of trouble.

You say, well, I didn’t get me in no trouble. You remember those two words you said, I do. I do. I did. I will not. You’d be surprised what that little tongue can get you in trouble. And yet God says it can be such a wonderful thing, but he says no man can tame the tongue. That’s why the only way the tongue can be tamed, really tamed, is to control the mind that controls the tongue. That’s why it says be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tappa, 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 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. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.