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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 air. 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.

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 gonna be accountable for it. And the more you have to be accountable for it, you’re really gonna watch everything it’s just saying do.

There’s always someone where they magnifying glass. There’s always somebody with a little shotgun. They wanna knock you off your little perch. You see, I have determined years ago, 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 deliberately. 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 of the thing you didn’t do right. It doesn’t matter what it is. You can do a thousand things right, one of the things wrong and everybody will see that one of the things. Look what he says here, James.

He says he received the greater condemnation, the greater judgment. So the key thing is to watch, watch, just say. This is really what James chapter 2 is about. Tayyip 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 brother? If a man say, I have faith. Well that 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 comeeth down from God, but there is another kind of wisdom,eatured wisdom, but it says it’s sensual, it’s devilish. It’s not the kind of, see there in verse 15? This wisdom descendeth 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 inveen and And strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated 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 we 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, 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 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 if 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 figure that if they both have a life, I’ll be able to do it. an owe sinful nature, they’re just lava to lose 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 come out of the one and go to the other one, they can’t even hardly see each other because of the timing.

You say, that’s so legalistic. OK, then you do it your way and I’ll do it 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 life 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. It’s 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 this, don’t say that. Well, if you can 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 two, for in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same as a perfect man or a mature man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Then he gives us a couple of 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. All right, I went too far. I went too far there. That just went right out too fast before I had a chance to curb that. Now, Bob, you don’t even know what I’m talking about.

But look what he says there in verse four. 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, yield to 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 though the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things behold how great a matter a little fire can live. It only takes a spark to get a fire go in. 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 He totally changed. Like this woman, she come and asked her her, and she says… She said, what’s on TV? It’s a dust. And then the war began. Then the war began. I remember one time I preached a whole sermon on it. Then the war began. Do you 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, he 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 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 trouble. And yet God says it can be such a wonderful thing, but he says, no man contain 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 you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Now look what he says. In verse 7, every kind of beast, a bird, serpents, things in the sea, tamed, and have been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therefore, bless we God, even the Father, and there would curse we men, which are made after the similar, oh God, I love the Lord, I love the Lord. How many of your guilty of road rage? Be honest, Road rage.

There you go. Half of you in here. Most of you. All right. The other half that didn’t raise your hand. Would you answer for your husband? But the tongue can no man tame. And then he says this in verse 10, out of the same mouth, proceed the blessing and cursing. My brother, these things ought not so to be because that’s a sign of a double-minded man. You see, you have the flesh and you have the spirit. You’re saying things sweet and wonderful and godly and holy and then you come along and you say, so, and the tongue can cause little fires and it does a lot of damage.

Like this one woman, she just blessed out somebody. She said, oh, I like to tell people what I think. At least I got it off my chest.” I said, yeah, shotgun blast doesn’t last too long, but it sure does a lot of damage. And a lot of damage can be done. I’ll tell them what I thought. Yeah, you might feel better now. You’ve got it off your chest. But you might have just killed 15, 20 people. And you can kill their will to want to serve the Lord, just because you remain a nasty and ugly.

guard the things that you say because there’s consequences. And he says this in verse, the last part of verse 10 where he says, my brethren, these things ought not so to be. So it means that you can. The Christian can say things they should not say. You can be praising the Lord one moment and curse not somebody the next minute. It means that you’re not able to bridle the tongue. If you can’t bridle the tongue, it’s a sign of an undisciplined individual.

The person is not as mature as you think. Learn to control it. Then he makes the statement, does the fountains and forth at the same place, sweet water and bitter? No. Can the fig tree, my brother, bear olive berries, can a vine fix? So get no fountain, both the o’ salt, water, and fresh. Who is a wise man and in dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation or behavior, his works with meekness of wisdom.

You see, in verse 13 here, this is James chapter two, explained. This is what he’s talking about, but you know. Being here’s endures. There’s people who hear and they never, it never changes anything. They never mature. They don’t grow in the Lord because they can’t, they can’t control their tongue. And you can always be sharp and bitter. And it’s, it’s something we all have to watch. Because it can happen to you at any time. And we, we have an old flesh nature.

And so it does bother. But look what he says. Here in verse 13, who is a wise man and in dude with knowledge? 14. But if you have bitter, envy and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. Because see, there’s always going to be things happening in life as he starts in chapter 1, trials and tribulation. Trials can make you bitter. Problems can make you bitter because they don’t work out the way you think.

People let you down. Say things against you. You have maybe justification to let the whole world know how I really feel. Okay, but always try to remember this. Serve the Lord as though you’ve never been hurt. Because you’re the one that determines how much hurt people can do to you and how long it lasts or you can get over it. Forgive and don’t worry about it. Don’t feel like you’ve got to go through life straightening out everybody. You’re going to be defrauded in this life.

Things in life are not fair and so because of that it gives every person a reason to be envious of somebody else. It didn’t happen to him. why did that happen to me? Somebody got something and I don’t have it. You got to do this. I didn’t get it. You inherited how much? You know at this point I don’t know if I’ve ever inherited anything. I’ve had a rich uncle I thought and then I found out he died and didn’t have anything.

Uncle Merle. I thought the man was rich. If he had anything we never found out about it. Did you get anything? When my brother dies, I’m going to inherit a million dollars. He didn’t know you had a million dollars. He didn’t even know he had it. No, but do you realize how easy it is to be filled with envy. And when you get hurt, you’re disappointed. And if you don’t get rid of the hurt, it leads to bitterness. But remember, you’re not really hurt and bitter at a person that may be doing this to you.

you’re bitter at God. God is the real one behind the scenes. Because, see, as a Christian and you realize that nothing can happen to me that doesn’t pass the deaths of God and is okay. All right? You wrong me? Are you trying to tell me that God didn’t know that was going to happen? Somebody lie about you? You’re trying to tell me that God didn’t know that was going to happen? And God let it happen? God doesn’t keep everybody from hurting you, from saying things about you.

So you ought to understand, if God can allow people to so wrong me, I guess it’s God’s fault, so therefore I’m going to be mad and bitter toward God. So your hurt and bitterness is really toward him. You won’t say that, but it is, because God could have changed it. God could have controlled this. you’re in power, you put me in charge and you let it happen. But I’m too spiritually mature to ever say a thing like that. So you take that on people and you’re sharp and you snap.

Why? Because something’s going on. It reveals how close of a walk you really have with the Lord. And just hearing the scriptures is not going to suffice. It’s the application of the scriptures. So he makes this statement down here. In verse 15, this wisdom, this wisdom that comes from God, that’s supposed to help you go through all these things. Well, if you don’t listen, you can’t apply it. So if you see there in James chapter 1, look what he says, problems of life is what reveals to you and me, we’re lacking something.

If it wasn’t a problem, then there’s no problem. It’s a problem because you can’t solve it. And so that’s what makes you go to the Lord to find out what to do. So that’s why it says, knowing this in verse 3, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, tribulation worketh patience. It means It means that God doesn’t let you have what you want when you want it. And that’s what upsets you. Because God doesn’t always… Jump and I snap my finger.

God, did you hear me? Come on. That’s not. You mean you haven’t got God jumping to your every little wimp? I don’t think so. Wouldn’t it be neat if every time we wanted something? Well, I needed a million dollars. There it is. I want to paint Cadillac. Elvis had one I want. And there it is. But it don’t work that away. But if you saw somebody else getting something, you know, I’m not going to do it. and you don’t think they deserve it.

Do you ever get bitter, jealous, envious? It’s a sign that you’re not as mature as you ought to be. And because of that hurt, it dwells within you and the Bible says the root of bitterness brings up and defilement because you can’t keep it to yourself. It’s affecting the way you think. It affects your attitude. When your attitude is affected, It’s going to affect this little member right here. And you’re going to say something and do something to turn somebody against, somebody, or to hurt somebody, because you’re trying to make it even justified.

You got to pull somebody either down or try to lift yourself up or exalt yourself so you can look down on people and your whole attitude drawn. Learn to think differently. There is the wisdom of man And the Bible talks about there is a way that’s seen with right unto a man, but the end there are all of the ways of destruction. It destroys. And it destroys you because it’s like having a wrecking crew, destroying a house from the inside.

You see, you don’t have to worry about somebody destroying you. They can’t. You can destroy yourself, but it’s an inside job. So he makes this statement in verse five, if any of you lack wisdom, wisdom, then you do. And I do. So it’s designed, life is, that we would go to the Lord, and he says, he will not mock you or make fun of you, chide you. But as he says here, and it shall be given him. If you’ll believe, you trust, because you’re seeking God’s wisdom.

God’s wisdom is what affects your mind. His word affects your attitude. The attitude controls the tongue. And if you can control the tongue, it says here in James chapter 3, it talks about the peace that comes. Look in verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, Peaceful, gentle, easy to be desired, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. You see, when you are not at peace between you and God, it’s difficult for you to be at peace with other people, and this is why you’re going to clash like this because there’s something’s not right.

So you always know to go back to the book and see. And this is why he says you will ask and you can’t receive because you asked him is. So that’s in verse 2 of chapter 4. You fight your war yet you have not because you asked not. And then in verse 3 you ask and receive not because you ask him is that you may consume it upon your lust It’s not because of the Lord. It’s because you have a sinful nature and you’re feeding it.

It feeds your old sinful nature feeds up on envy and strife. That’s why some parts of your flesh love’s gossip. You love the gossip. This is, I forgot this is just for prayer. And then you enjoy telling. But see, your old sinful nature feeds upon those things. Bittleness and hatred really gets so strong on those things until it destroys you. And then because you are this way, you reap after your own kind, you sow bitterness. You sow anger, you sow envy, you sow jealousy.

So when you sow, that’s what you reap. But he’s talking about here the wisdom that’s from above, You sow peace, you reap peace. You sow joy, you reap joy. You sow love, you reap love, you reap what you sow. Make so much sense, so easy to understand. Look up here. If you’re watching by internet tonight, or if you’re here tonight, you’ll never trust the Lord. This is the most important thing in all the world. This hand represent you and me.

The wall represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says He loves us. H is our sin. But He says that we have all done things wrong and no payment for sin is eternal separation from God in Hell. Not to go to heaven. We have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’ve all done things wrong. And God says you cannot save yourself. So going to church is good, but it won’t get you to have.

heaven. And given money, that’s very good, but it won’t get you to heaven. So you can’t save yourself by any good deeds that you might do. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. God so loved the world. He sent His Son Jesus Christ. Into the world, He never did anything wrong. He was perfect. He had no sin to Him. He didn’t have to die. He was innocent. So He could die for us. And because He loved us and He hates our sin because it separated us.

Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said, if we would be lead that He did it for us, that He would put this payment out account, we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. There’s no tricks to it, no gimmicks, best news in all the world. I know I have eternal life in that I’m going to heaven when I die. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bound, every eye closed and no one looking around.

If If you’re here tonight or if you’re watching by internet, if you’ve never trusted the Lord, would you do it right now? All that you have to do, it’s the only thing you can’t do, admit to God’s and Lord I’m a sinner because, friend, we all are. But I believe Jesus Christ died on that cross, paid for my sins. I believe He died to pay for my sins. And friend, if He paid for your sins, that means you don’t have to pay for them.

If you’ll believe He did it for you, would you believe that right now? you trust them to take you to heaven when you die. If you’re making that decision, I’d like to have prayer for you. So I’m going to ask you right now with heads by a nice close. Is there anyone at all? So yes, that made sense to me. I’ll trust Christ as my Savior tonight and preach our life here to pray for me in one of the hall before we close.

With your heads to your by nice close, how are you doing in this subject? We just finished talking about tonight. Talk to the Lord into those things that you need to talk to USL Lord about. Say, Lord, I failed in this area. I haven’t been watching what I’ve been saying. I haven’t thought that it was that important. Maybe I don’t have control like I ought to. And Lord, I need your help. Friend, all of us do. But make it a conscious effort on your part and say, Lord, I’m going to trust you to help me control my mind.

Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one. There’s a lot of things that we don’t know what to do. We don’t know how things are going to work, but help us to be obedient to you and to trust you. And we follow, we just want your blessings in Christ’s 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 were blessed by today’s message.

If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Each Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Cut 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.