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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. Just 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.

If you make wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision, it’s possible that somebody’s gonna question your judgment. Isn’t it possible? So if you want people to think you’re smart and wise, then you try to make the right decision. So you may be a little slower in coming to the conclusion because you want to listen to more facts, because you want to be right. Some people make decisions, and they don’t even have to have all the facts at all.

They say, did you know? I know the answer. I got the answer. Wait a minute. You don’t even have the question. You won’t listen, listen to the whole thing. Remember, everybody has problems. And as a preacher, I get to find out what some of those problems are. I have no desire to hear every life’s problems. But sometimes, in trying to solve problems, I have to listen to a problem. And there’s always her side, his side, and the truth. And just because the person who came to me with the problem doesn’t mean that he’s telling me the truth.

True? It might be because I don’t know the whole thing And I can give advice on little knowledge and to be the wrong thing to tell them. I love talking to everybody involved. So he says there in verse 20, when the men were come unto him unto Jesus, they said, John, Baptist, have sinned us unto thee, say, an art thou he that should come, or look before another. And in that same hour, he cured many of their infirmities and the plagues and of evil spirits And unto many that were blind, he gave sight.

Wait a minute, you ought to know if I’m the son of God, or do you look for another? So in the same hour, look what he did. So a wise man would look and observe and watch and come up with the right answer. Now, can you come up with the right answer? As you read the word of God, and if you’ve looked over your life and you’ve seen those results of many of your own decision, Can you find out that God is right?

God is right. Well here they were able to watch and observe Jesus doing something miraculously. And look in verse 22, Jesus answering said unto them, go your way, tell John what things you have seen and heard how the blind see, the lame walk, the leper’s are cleansed, the death here, the dead are raised to the poor, the gospel is preached, and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” You have your answer. Their judgment is revealed. How wise are they?

But now see, they saw and they went back and they told. And he says in verse 24, and when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. But see, they had the message, they went back and they told. Others were there also, and they watched Jesus. They saw the same thing that these that came from John saw, but they did not come out to the same conclusion. Everybody has ears, but not everybody hears.

People got eyes, but not everybody sees. So he says there in verse 24, What went she out into the wilderness to see? See, there’s a question. The question deserves an answer. The answer reveals the wisdom of the person that answers the question. In light, there’s all kinds of things that will happen in your life, trials and tribulations, testings. All right, how you handle them reveals how wise you are. People watch to see your choices. For example, if I had a are men telling me, oh I love the Lord.

Oh I love the Lord. Okay. Do you read the Bible? I haven’t got time. Hmm. What church do you go to? Well, I don’t go to church. But he loves the Lord. He really loves the Lord. Who’s the last time you won somebody’s Christ? Or have you talked to him? Well, I haven’t got time to do that. Now, by the things he’s telling me and the choices that he’s made about what he does or doesn’t do will answer my question.

Does he really love the Lord? Christ says, if you love me, serve me. If a man don’t serve him, I don’t believe they love him. Am I wrong? That’s how the Bible says the judge. So you see, there’s things that people do that reveal things, can give answers. Wisdom is justified by our children. Here’s a woman. She has kids. Look at the kids. She might be looking at the face of the mom. The way they act might reveal how they’ve been taught out of train, especially when they’re little small ones, they get big enough to hate their own their own.

But sometimes you hope, oh I hope they’ll serve the Lord like you’re supposed to. Look what else it says here. So he says in verse 25, but what went you out to see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold they which are gorgeously apparled and lived delicately are in King’s courts. But another question, what went you out for to see? A prophet? Yea I say unto you and much more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” You know, a lot of time you wonder about that last statement. no prophet ever born greater than John the Baptist. But I say unto you, he that is, as he says here, least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist. He says, that doesn’t make any sense.

What a statement to make, but don’t understand it. And if you don’t understand it, it seems like Jesus just made a statement that doesn’t make any sense. No prophet as great as John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he is. Remember this, in this world as a man, John the Baptist, but he’s limited. He’s in a physical body. He can only do so much. But let’s say for example, long come janky.

Then I trust Christ as my Savior, and God’s Savior gives me eternal life. But I’m not a good servant of the Lord, but did you know what? I would rather be me saved, and the least in the kingdom of heaven, than John the Baptist is here and be unsaved. As great as he is as a man born of a woman, but the greatest thing is a man born of God. The second birth is greater than any man ever born of a woman, excluding Jesus, you know, because you can be the greatest man ever born upon this earth, able to do anything and everything.

But if you haven’t trusted Christ as your Savior, the man who does is greater, regardless of how that person may live. He made the wisest decision. Now, get this. In verse 29, it’s very important. It just looks like it’s just stone in there, it hasn’t had much value. But look in verse 29, and underline this word, all, or circle that word, all. All the people that heard him and the publicans. So the common people, the tax collectors, the worst justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.

In other words, when John came and he preached, the people believed what John the Baptist said. And if they believed what he said, then they were baptized. So they heard, they believed, and they were baptized, and that reveals their wisdom. So those people were wiser than those in verse 30. See the verse 30? But contrast the Pharisees and the lawyers, and there’s another word, you ought to underline that word, rejected, rejected the counsel of God. But who is the one?

That gave the counsel of God, John the Baptist. See, God can use people to bring forth the Word of God. Is it possible for you to come here to Calvary Community Church and hear the Word of God and you take what I say from the Word of God as the preacher says. That’s just what the preacher says. And you don’t have to listen to what the preacher says. But what if the preacher gave you the counsel of God? If you rebal against what I’ve taught from this book, and it’s the Word of God, you’re in trouble.

You are not to reject it just because of the messenger if the message is true. That’s where you reveal your wisdom. Yes, you can separate it if you wish, but you better listen to what the preacher has to say. They didn’t listen to what John said. They didn’t like John. John didn’t praise the Pharisees. John bowed to no man. But what he said was the counsel of God and some people, the common people, the tax collectors, they listened to John.

Now that revealed their wisdom. So whenever the Pharisees and the lawyers did not believe did they reveal their wisdom? Yes. And their wisdom was inferior to those they looked down their nose at. Look at those sinners, those publicans, and yet here they were, and they couldn’t see it. They didn’t understand. They weren’t wise. They were fools. So Jesus told him something in verse 3 where he says, what can I compare them to? So in verse 31 he says, and the Lord said, we’re unto the enchal I liken the men of this generation and to what are they like?

What are they like? Now some people will never even understand the illustration that he gives. He says they are like unto children sitting in the marketplace place calling one to another and says, hey, we piped unto you and you have not danced. In other words, it’s like, hey, we played the music and you didn’t dance. And then he says, we have mourned and you didn’t weep. In other words, somebody died. We mourned and you’re supposed to cry so they didn’t dance and they didn’t cry.

What’s wrong with you people? Jesus is using this as an illustration. Some people just never get it. They don’t have the wisdom of discernment. Now this is one of the advantages of when you trust in Christ’s Savior, you have the indwelling Holy Spirit to help you to see, to understand and make wiser decisions. So he says here in verse 33, He’s refers not back to John and back to himself. You see John the Baptist coming on the scene force the people to make a choice.

They had to decide, what are you going to do with this man? Who is this man? Are you Elijah? Are you one of those prophets? He says, no, no, no, no. He says, I’m just a voice in the wilderness. I’m not even worthy to bend down and tie shoes. Now, he knew who he was and he knew what he was. And so he says in verse 33, For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say he hath a devil.”

So in other words, what they said about John was wrong. Their conclusion was wrong. John the Baptist, you don’t find where he’s talking and having all these meetings in the house of the Pharisees and sitting around here eating food. John the Baptist was like a wild man out of the wilderness. And he ate locusts and wile honey and who knows what he looked like, but he was a prophet of God. He didn’t come to fellowship, he came to preach.

And what he said, some people believed, some people did not. And so because he didn’t fellowship with everybody mean to everybody like, well like Jesus did, the Bible says they said he hath a devil. That statement he hath a devil. The truth is, did he have a devil? No. So their judgment was what? Wrong. And because they were wrong in what they said, they didn’t listen to his message, they didn’t believe it. And the reason they baptized is because they believed the preaching of John the Baptist.

And he preached that they should believe on him. Who was coming after him? He taught them to believe on Jesus Christ. Well, they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ coming and they didn’t believe in John the Baptist. And Jesus says, this is the one that’s prophesied in the Old Testament that he would come and be the forerunner. And he says, this was the one that if you believed on the Messiah, then John the Baptist would have been your Elijah that was to come in Malachi.

because John the Baptist and Elijah were same type of an individual. So look what he says here. Verse 34, this is what they said about the Son of Man. He did come and he did eat with everybody and he drink, but I don’t believe he drinks strong drink, but because he mingled with the people and he fellowshiped and he talked and he ate with them and all that, and they said, he sits with the sinners. If he only knew how bad that woman was, he was neither of loud hurt to touch him.

They said things about Jesus that wasn’t true. They said things about John the Baptist that wasn’t true. That revealed how wise they are. And so wisdom is justified of her children. In other words, your decisions that you make, your conclusions reveal your wisdom. And these decisions are the children of your thoughts. So he says in verse 34, the Son of Man is coming eating and drinking and ye say, now if they were wrong what they said about John the Baptist, I believe they were wrong on what they said about Jesus.

Well, he’s just a glutton. Oh, he doesn’t sit around eating food all the time. And believe it or not, when you read, he went to a lot of parties. I would rather be Jesus any day than John the Baptist. I mean, locus, they’re, well honey, well honey, it’s not so bad but eating grasshoppers just on appeal to me. Listen, of course, maybe you can dip them in chocolate. But look what he says here in verse 34, and you say, behold, a gluttonous man and a wine member, a friend of publicans and sinners.

Now, he was a friend of publicans and sinners, but it didn’t mean he did what they did just because he reached them and he sat with them and he always taught the truth. And no man was able to ever find one fault in Jesus. He never broke the law. He did not do anything wrong. He didn’t do what those religious hypocrites think that he ought to have done. He didn’t obey then. But what he did was right. But they revealed their wisdom by accepting or rejecting.

Now when a person is given the gospel, some people revealed their wisdom by accepting crisis their Savior. Now there’s by rejecting Christ as their Savior. But what about those individuals that know Christ as their Savior? You know the Lord, you know you’re going to heaven when you die because you have accepted the payment Christ made on the cross here. Now that is a very wise decision. It’s one of the smartest things you’ll ever do in your life. So why is this thing you’ve ever done?

Was to trust Christ as your Savior. But now after you trusted Christ of Savior. Did you know that there’s still a battle for your life? Satan can’t get your soul, but he’s after your life. He wants to ruin and to destroy you. So God says, for my children, I’ve got wisdom for my children to have so that they can know which way to go, right or left, you know, what to believe and not to believe. So he gave us sound words sound doctrine so that we can have a sound mind and a good solid life.

Otherwise you’re going to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes along and the Bible says the wisdom of this world is not the wisdom of God. So therefore you have a choice to make. This is why you read and study God’s Word because the study of God’s Word will give you discernment for life. Then you have something more to offer people than just the humanistic wisdom of the world. Given people your opinion, and how many people love to give their opinion, and don’t we admire the wisdom of all those individuals that come to us for our advice?

And look at all those fools that don’t take our advice. Do you even follow your own advice? Can you tell yourself what to do and make yourself behave? Do you even listen to you and you want other people to listen to you? So that’s why if you’re going to give counseling to people. And tell people things, you want to know the book so you can tell them correctly. Because, see, we’re going to have to give an account one day for every idle word.

And God talks about, in His word, about the things that people have decided based upon what we said. And in the book of Matthew chapter 23, when He’s talking about the Pharisees, He says, you make two fold the children of hell by you’re not going and you keep other people from going because you’re telling them wrong. You’re lying to people. You deceive the people. You go back and you read the book of these, Jeremiah, where it gets on to the people because they did not do what they should.

And they said that God said, and God says, I didn’t say that, and they lie to people. They deceive people. They lead them astray. There was consequences to all those people who didn’t go into the land because they listened to what a couple people had to say that went into the land. Eight people come back with an evil report or ten of them, and all that damage that was done because they misled people. So do you think it makes a difference?

Oh, it makes a difference. And it makes a difference in our life. Now, there’s a lot more to this that I don’t have time to cover right now, but I just want you to know that it does make a difference. in your Christian life, people will judge whether you’re wise or not by the decisions you make and they’ll know whether or not you are a fool by the decisions you make. Sometimes we prejudge quickly and I always like to give people a chance to save face.

I hope they do that for me. And nobody wants to make a decision and everybody jump all over them and stomp them down with your feet. Now sometimes you let people along and they’ll see it and you pray that they’ll be able to correct that problem. And whenever you give some advice to somebody, make sure it’s the counseling that comes from this book, knowledge that you have from what God has to say, what does God want? And it’ll help you tremendously.

Look up here. The loads that are here and those that are watching by the Internet, the most important thing you can ever do and you will reveal your wisdom by the decisions you make. I can’t make anybody trust Christ as their Savior. I can only share the message and I hope that you don’t reject the message because you don’t like the messenger. I may not say it though, sweetest way. I wish I could talk real smooth and sweet. I just never have learned how to do it.

But there are some that can do a great job at that. But I’m not that away. I just this the message and I want you to listen to what it says. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us. That means He loves you and loves you. And if you understand, God loves you, now He hates what you do wrong, but He loves you. Now did you know that every time I’m doing this, I’m counseling somebody.

If somebody is lost, I’m trying to tell them something on how to make the greatest decision of their life. And believers who have heard this a thousand times says, is that all He knows that you’re not thinking about the ones that have never heard it before. What if you were sitting here and you were lost? Wouldn’t you want to hear it? I think so. God loves us. H. R. sin. To pay for sin, the wages of sin is death.

Eternal separation from God and hell. Since everybody sins, everybody is condemned. We’re all in the same boat. The whole world is guilty before God and God says to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect, none of us are right. Because of sin, say we can’t, get in. So the Bible says there’s only one thing that has to be done you have to pay for your sin. Well, that’s good.

What do I have to do? Go to church. No, give money. No, the payment for sin is death. You have to die. It’s eternal separation from God. And so therefore you don’t want to pay it. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God and the flesh. Came into the world because he loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. He took hours, paid for them to cross and came back from the dead.

And He said that if we would believe that He did it, the payment He made, this death payment He made, He puts it to our account. And I have a payment for my sins. I am to accept this payment. I have a payment for my sins. It means I don’t have to pay for them. I have a receipt that says I got it paid in full. So that’s why I can’t go to hell today or tomorrow or in the future because Christ paid my full debt, my whole debt.

I don’t have any sins to pay for. I can’t go to hell and pay for one sin. They’re all paid. The law can’t touch me. The law can’t condemn me because I have a receipt. Jesus Christ is the living proof of payment. Those scars in His hands is my eternal proof of payment. My sins are paid for it. I go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did on the cross from me. And that’s the best news that I ever heard.

And I heard that 53 years ago. Now, I wasn’t the smartest kid in the world, but I heard this. And this may change. sense to me. I trusted Christ as my Savior. That was the smartest, wisest decision I’ve ever made in my life. There’s other people that have heard more than I have, raised in the Christian home, gone to church all their life, and still they’ve never trusted Christ as their Savior. They might someday, but they never trusted the Lord.

And that reveals how foolish they are. Only a fool would turn down a free gift. Thinking they got a lot of time, what would you wait for? I had one person tell me this. I says, why haven’t you trust in Christ as your Savior? He says, because if I trust the Lord, I’ll be God’s child. And if I’m God’s child and I live the way I am now, God will quit me. So I can live the way I am now.

And I’m lost. And it won’t matter. I never heard anybody say that before. You have to have a certain amount of understanding just to say that. I says, well, if you thought about this, what if you died before you trust the Lord. And he stared at me. He said, I’ve never thought of that. So he said, he said, he trusts the Lord. He was a 17 year old kid. He was a missionary kid, but he never trusted the Lord.

This is what he told me. Blow your mind. Some people always trying to figure out, well, if I trust the Lord, I’ll be God’s child. And if I’m God’s child, and If I don’t serve the Lord, then God will whip me. So why shall I become God’s child? That way he can’t whip me because I’m not his child. Yeah, but he could let you die. Oh, I ain’t thought of that.

But you see, one little wise statement helped him to make a wise decision. Let’s pray, shall we? Here he hid down, there he I closed. No one looking around. If you hear this morning or this evening, you’ve never trusted the Lord, why not right now? I hope you understand that yes, God loves you. And He sent His Son to die for you. And He said that He would give you as a free gift everlasting life. And all you had to do is believe it.

There’s no tricks, there’s no gimmick. I’m not going to have you stand up and come forward, not going to embarrass you in any way. You don’t have to join this church to go to heaven. You don’t have to give any money. You don’t have to do anything. Salvation is a gift. It’s free. All you need to do is believe that when Christ died, He died for you, paid for your sins. And if He paid for your sins, friend, that means if you accept that payment, you don’t have any sense to pay for.

Christ is your Savior. He is your payment for your sins. Doesn’t that make sense? So the head’s bottomed, nice, close, and no one will look around. I’m gonna ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand does not save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. And say, preach to that made sense to me, and I will right now, I will trust Christ as my Savior. And friend, if you’ll do that, just that much.

Would you just slip your hand very quickly and better write back down and what it all? Just say, yes, that made sense to me, and I will trust Christ right now as my Savior. There ain’t no law before we close. If you’ve already trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. We ask your blessings upon these that are in the auditorium and those that listen on the internet. Bless each one, and help us Lord to read and study your word so that we can be wise as you want us to be.

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 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 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 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 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.