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Bibleline Bibleline, here got word on Bibleline, here got 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn in your Bible to the book of Galatians in chapter 6. Reaping what you sow. You’ve heard it. You know it’s in the Bible, and I believe you believe it. It should be something that if you understood, should help us make the right decisions about what we’re going to do with our lives. God has given to us a great command. He says, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That’s God, our Heavenly Father, telling us what to do.

So I wrote down some things on this message today, the purpose, the plan, the position, and the promise. Because I believe that after you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, this is something that’s very, very important as you start your journey with the Lord. I believe as time goes on, some people kind of forget what God said. Some of the warnings that He’s put into His Word. And yet at the same time, some of the blessings that God has put in His Word.

Remember, when we talk about salvation, going to heaven, always grace versus works. Always trying to make sure that a person understand that a man is saved by grace and not by his works. So that is a tremendous topic in and of itself when we talk about salvation. It’s either free or you have to earn it. But once you have understood that Christ paid for the sin and all you had to do was believe it, you were saved by your faith in what Christ did.

So you didn’t work for it, you didn’t earn it, you didn’t deserve it, he saved you by grace. Now, once that’s done, it’s over with. You never have to think about your salvation again, it’s over with. You’ve been saved. That took place 53 years ago for me. I never have to get saved again. I can’t lose what I have. I didn’t do anything to get it. I can’t do anything to lose it. Christ saved me. I have eternal life.

I’m going to heaven. Now, what we’re talking about now is God trying to get us to understand this principle. You reap what you sow. There is a cause and effect. You do this and this will happen. You do this and this will happen. You do this and this will happen. We have by now understood that. that if you do something that you’re not supposed to do, there’s a consequence. And if you do something that you’re supposed to do, there is a consequence.

So it is important, the choices that we made. So here in Galatians in chapter six, I want you to look there in verse seven, eight and nine. Be not deceived, so evidently it is possible for a child of God to be deceived. God is not mocked. How do you mock God? by thinking that you can sin against God and get away with it. Thinking that for a moment you can walk in the flesh without serious consequences. It won’t really matter.

No harm done. It’s okay. It wasn’t that bad. Begin to make excuses. Mock sin is how you mock God. I don’t have to do what God says do. I don’t have to listen to God. So there is a price to pay, and I can say this, Ignorance is not bliss. And you’ve heard it said in a court of law, ignorance of the law is no excuse. After you trusted Christ as your savior, ignorance of the word of God is not gonna be an excuse.

You are not gonna be able to plead out of ignorant. Especially if God knows, you had it available to you. If you had a copy of the scriptures, but you’d never take the time to read or study, you’re hell responsible for the word of God. And there is a price to pay. Now, here I want you to see where he says, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is found in verse 16 of chapter 5.

This is an admonition to you and I. So we know what our purpose is, or I should say the plan, this is how to fulfill it. Now, I want you to turn your Bible to the book of Matthew, the book of Matthew and chapter 6. You need to see that there is something that God wants you to do while you’re here on planet Earth. He left you here to do something that will affect eternity. And you’ll notice here in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth for moth and rust of corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.

In other words, you can lose it. Things laid up on the earth you can lose. but he does say there in verse 20, lay up for yourselves. Now, did you understand what he says, lay up for yourself? This is something that you are going to get. You’re laying up in heaven something that’s for you. Because see, going to heaven, that’s free. That’s a gift. What you have once you get there depends upon what you laid up. And there’s something that you’re going to lay up in heaven, heaven which is going to be rewards or some kind of treasures as a result of what you do in this life.

So your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. But I can also say that your future is being determined by your disobedience to God today. So we are commanded in the scripture lay up treasure in heaven. So I know what He wants me to do in lay up treasure in heaven. How do I do that? Now go back there to the book of Galatians and chapter 5. Galatians and chapter 5. And you’ll notice a very powerful verse.

We use it often because once you trust Christ as your Savior, you have an old sinful nature. Your old sinful nature is what you were born with and God did not change it. He gave you a new birth with a new nature. And now he says, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It means you still have the lust of the flesh, but you don’t have to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

In other words, your purpose of your life is not to satisfy the desires of the flesh. In other words, doing whatever you want to do with your life, being whatever you want to be with your life. God says, no, let the lost man live like the lost man and do what the lost man does, but the Christian should not live like the lost man. or for the same reason, same purpose as the lost, but you’re different. So God says, I want you to do this.

Walk in the Spirit and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. So now I wanted to show you the position that you now have. And there’s several things that I mentioned here. I am so thrilled to have a cell phone that has a GPS in it. If you’re gonna follow the Lord, God has to know your GPS. He has to know what is your current location? Do you know he knows every person in here and he knows your current position, how you are spiritually, where you’re growing from a child to a man of God, he knows where you are and what you need.

And he knows how to get you to where you need to be. Now, the Bible tells us that God’s Word shows what our position is. Now, You have two positions, one, you have the flesh and you have the Spirit. You have these two positions, two verse. And if you walk in the flesh, that’s your position. And God tells you in the Word that if you’re in this position and this is your current location and you let the flesh guide you, it can tell you what’s going to happen.

He can tell you what’s going to mean your path. He can tell you what the consequences are. He can tell you your destination. He can tell you all the things are going to happen and you’re not going to like them. But if you decide to walk in the Spirit, He can tell you your current location where you are. How well you’re doing. He knows your spiritual temperature. He knows how you’re doing. And He knows where you need to go and He knows how to get you there.

And all you have to do is walk with the Lord. But He says, look, don’t be deceived. God is not mocked. You can’t give your location is here and then you walk over here. You can’t get to where God wants you to be if you follow the desires of the flesh. You’ve got to make up your mind and majority of Christians never do. They just take it one day at a time, do whatever they want to do and call up the will of God.

Do whatever you want to do and say, well, I prayed about it. More sin has been committed by what I prayed about it. Just because you prayed about it didn’t mean that God gave you the answer. You can pick and choose, you think it’s a multiple choice, and you do whatever you want to do and say, well, God led me. You’re either be led by the Lord or driven by the devil, but God’s way never leads you contrary to the word of God.

God’s way always leads you toward holiness and godliness. His path is a perfect path, and it leads to glory. Now, I want you to notice when He makes the statement about walking in the flesh and so on, I want you to take your Bible, hold your place in Galatians and look there in Romans in chapter 8. Romans, in chapter 8. Romans, chapter 8, when He makes the statement there in the book of Galatians, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for He that soweth to His flesh.

How do you sow to the flesh? Well, I’m glad you asked. You’re in verse 5 of chapter 8 in the book of Romans, says, for they that are after the flesh. Now, you’re not in the flesh as far as what God concerned, you’re in the Spirit. That’s how He sees you. That is your position in Christ. You are in Christ. But you as a Christian can walk after the flesh. You still have the flesh. And you can let the desires of your own thoughts guide you.

And he says in the book of Jeremiah, it is not within man that walk up to direct his steps. So he makes a statement here, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. So how do you walk in the flesh? It means you become fleshly minded. It means you mind the flesh. You do what the flesh wants you to do. You do what you want to do instead of doing what God wants you to do.

think that you are so perfect in your own thoughts that you can guide yourself and it doesn’t matter and there’s no consequences. Yes there are. That’s why you’re to study the Word of God in order that you might discern the thoughts that you have or the thoughts that I have. Do they come from the new birth or the old birth? Are they of God? Oh they of the devil. How do I know? How can I discern? And the Bible says there is a way that seameth right unto a man, but the end there are the ways of destruction.

It means that the end of the road is going to destroy. So here in Romans, he makes this statement in the verse 5, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. In other words, which one do you mind? You see in verse 6, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. life and peace. Only the Christian has the choice of being carnally minded or spiritually minded. So that means because you still have the flesh and now you have the new birth, the spirit of birth.

The lost man only has the flesh birth. He cannot be spiritually minded. And that’s why the Bible says the natural man, hey, understand if not the things of the spirit of God for they are spiritually discerned. He cannot know them, can understand them, can’t figure it out. Don’t see it. Isn’t it a shame when God’s people don’t see it? Because they have a carnal mind, a fleshly mind, they lead and guide themselves and never really understand the will of God for their life.

It will change your life. If your life has not been changed since you’ve been saved, you’re still saved, aren’t you glad of that? grace WARN. But it doesn’t mean that you’re walking after the Spirit. You’re following the Spirit. You’re doing what God wants you to do with your life. So there are these two things. And look there in verse 7, because the carnal man is emmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If the laws cannot please God because he’s in the flesh, you can’t please God if you walk after the flesh. Now go back to the book of Galatians, back to the book of Galatians in chapter 6. There’s two little statements that I wrote down here where has please notice. The farmer is not the seed which he sows, and if you sow corruption the flesh you will corrupt your thoughts, your words, your actions, your life, your family, your job, your children, your mate, your friends.

Because see, you have a corrupt seed that produces a corrupt birth. When you were born into this world, you had a corrupt seed. You came from corruption. That’s why you sin and that’s why you die. So when you walk and live after the flesh, That’s what you’re going to produce. You are going to, as a child of God, you are going to corrupt your thoughts. You’re going to corrupt your mind. You corrupt your word. You corrupt your deeds. You corrupt everything about you.

And then you’ll corrupt your family. You corrupt your wife. You corrupt your husband. You corrupt your kid. You corrupt them all when you, as a child of God, walk after the flesh. Because, you see, you are not an island unto yourself. And you’re corruption. your mind because on all sinful nature and you will not do what God wants you to do, you’re going to have a corrupted life and then you’ll blame God for everything that goes wrong in your life.

And God’s the one that says, I told you, God is not mocked whatsoever a man soeth that shall he also reap. Now if you will do what God says to do and walk after the Spirit and obey the Lord, then you have a pure mind, a cleaner mind, a mind that can see and sense and discern and make wiser choices. And those wise choices will preserve your life. It preserves you as an individual. And then you can help protect your wife and your husband and your kids.

See, when you’re not spiritually minded, you can’t help anybody because you’re living in the flesh and the flesh always corrupts. It always leads to a dead end. It always destroys. But many of God’s people don’t get that. Now take your Bible and turn it to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 45. But notice what he says here. As he did in the Old Testament, he does in the New Testament and it’s important. Verse 45 says, more over all these curses shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed.”

And notes the next word, because there’s a reason, a cause and effect. There is a reason. And see a lot of people don’t understand there’s consequences to their decisions. Let’s say for example, you don’t have time to study the Bible. Okay, you just took the wisdom of God and traded it for the wisdom of man. And tell me it ain’t going to make a difference. It doesn’t matter. You’re telling God that is not as important. I don’t have time.

After all, Lord, my television shows are on. I got to watch my programs. Have you ever given up an hour of a program and studied the Bible? You ever give up something and talk to the Lord and pray to him? I don’t have time. I don’t have time. Yes, you do. You have as much time as everybody else. You do what you really want to do. If you want to serve God, you will. You want to know the word of God, you can.

You want to witness, you can. You can do everything you really want to do. It’s that the people don’t really want to do it. You want their life to be changed. It can be changed. You see, God’s word changes people. But you ain’t got time for that. And then your life becomes humdrum. One long boring life. Nothing exciting. Nothing going on. Don’t be bored. Serve the Lord. So yes, you do have the Word of God. But God says, if you don’t, it’s because there’s a reason.

And He says here, because thou hearkeneth not unto the voice of the Lord by God. You didn’t listen to what God said and look what happened. Now you don’t see God. You don’t see God. I mean I can’t get up there. God come down here and there he is. I can’t show him to you. But he’s real and he’s watching every decision. Did you know that if God is going to fulfill this law of sewing and reaping, in other words I did this and this happened.

I did that and this happened. blah, blah, blah. Then God must be watching every step I take. Every step, every decision causes cause and effect, cause and effect. And he promises that. God is not mocked. So that means that God, my heavenly Father, is giving me personalized attention. And he wants to bless my life. And some of God’s children, he’s going to I didn’t have to chase him. I had my earthly father give me more weapons than I ever deserved.

I assure you. I think sometimes he’d come home and just whoop me just for general principle. He knew I did something. I didn’t have to have a reason. He just, I got it. But now look what he says there in verse 47, because thou serveth not the Lord thy God with joyfulness. And with gladness of heart, I want to. I want to. I’m so excited about serving the Lord. Did you get up this morning? Well, we got to go to church again today.

I hope he’s not going to be long winded. I just heard this. I heard it from Jay. Jay told me about somebody who preached the longest sermon in the world. Wasn’t you, Jay? A man preached the longest sermon. so far ever recorded. He preached for 28 hours. So we’re going to try to break that record this morning. So I hope that you’re ready for the long haul. If I’d have told you before you got here, you wouldn’t have come.

No, I’m not ready. But he says, for the abundance of all things. So God’s Word says in the Old Testament, if you do this and you listen to what I’m saying, I won’t put those curses upon you. You see, you can’t see a curse. Oh, here comes a curse. Now there comes a curse. Now which things that happens to you without you knowing why, why, why, why, why, why, but don’t you always ask why? And then all of a sudden God says, I’ll bless you with abundant blessings.

Even in the New Testament he says that if you just ask, just talk to the Lord and you’re right with God and he will give you things which is above everything that you could ask or think consider. So he says in verse 48, therefore shall thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall sin against thee in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, in one of all things, and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thine neck until it destroys you.

Now that doesn’t mean that he came down here and he got a literal big old yoke of iron and he put a yoke of iron upon your neck. Have you ever seen anybody walking around with big old yoke of iron upon their neck? A real one? No. But have you ever seen about it weighted down with all the pressures and the problems that’s destroying them. And then you hear someone say, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. I can’t have that anymore.

That’s a last stroke. I can’t stand it. You never see anybody like that? You ever heard anybody say that? And the reason is because they’re not humble enough to cast their cares upon the Lord. So they carry the pressure and they carry the guilt of sins uncontested. They weigh themselves on and what’s happening is they’re destroying themselves and you don’t enjoy like in there is no joy. There’s no smile on the face. There’s no happiness because everybody’s so burdened down and you don’t enjoy life and hope that the martyr will come.

Or do you wake up every more men you can’t wait you just excited about this is a new day and I’m excited about that this is the day that the Lord hath made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. So these are things that God’s Word has said. Now take your Bible and turn very quickly to the book of 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians in chapter 5. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 is a verse that you all have heard many times.

This is where you’re going. This is where you’re headed to, the judgment seat of Christ. In the words, once this life is over and God has taken his home, and it may be because of the rapture, we’re just caught out of here, or it might be that we have to die here. But to be absent from the body present with the Lord, and then he says, and we shall all appear before the judgment to the Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in the body when the good or bad.

Look what he says here in this verse 10, that everyone may receive. Everyone may receive. So that means that when we get to heaven, we’re going to receive something. Everyone may receive what you’ve done. You see, we work here, we get paid there. Paid day someday. Someday we’re going to get paid. And God says, He that wins souls. He says, you receive it wages. See, God is paying us when we get to heaven for the work we did for him.

Isn’t that wonderful? Going to heaven was free, but what I have when I get there is a result of what I did for him. How rich do you want to be? So he says, lay up treasures in heaven, not here. Everybody thinks that this is where you lay up to treasure. No, no, you lay up treasures in heaven. And God says, if you do this, because you believe in, It makes a difference on how you live, the choices you make, where you live for.

All of it comes together and makes so much sense. Now. I know that I’m running out of time and there’s some things that I want to say to you. But we’ll cover this one of the verse. I look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews in chapter 12. Let’s say for example, here you are and well, you made some bad decisions in your life. Those bad decisions, there’s the price to pay. God, yes, God is a good God.

He’s a forgiving Father. You ask Him and He can forgive you and everything can open up doors for you and still bless you in a wonderful way. God is a merciful God, but you don’t know at what point He may have to chase in you and discipline you because He’s correcting you for benefits down the road. So there’s lessons for you and how to learn. But He makes a statement down here in verse 9, furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us.

I’ve had one of those. You’ve had one of those or a mother, but our heavenly Father has too many times correct us. We don’t always walk in obedience. So whenever your heavenly Father has to chase you, he wants you to know it’s because he loves you. You ever had your parents tell you that? I’m only doing this because I love you. This hurts me more than it hurts you. You ever had them say that? You didn’t believe in me that, I didn’t think so.

So now look what he says in verse five. Verse five said, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as children. My son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint one thou art rebuked of him. Sometimes God has to tell you no. take it now. He can’t let you have your own way. And because you don’t see and understand it, you get mad at God. Don’t get mad at God. When God says, don’t do something, it means don’t hurt yourself.

That’s going to hurt you. And when he wants you to obey him, do right. He wants to bless you. If you can believe that about your heavenly Father, you can enjoy life a lot better. When you know he really cares about you, he really loves you and he will not place upon you anything more than what you can bear but will make a way of escape that you might be able to bear it. And so he says here in verse 6, for whom the Lord hated He chasteeth.

Is that what he said? For whom the Lord what? Loveth He chasteetheth. It means that your heavenly Father’s going to have to correct you and sometimes this correction is not fun and sometimes it hurts. You see sometimes those corrections come because God will allow you to reap what you sow. Sometimes God lets you reap what you sow, because God is not mocked. So God knows why we do what we do. I have lived long enough to see so many of you have been have wasted years, wasted lives.

You don’t want to waste your life walking into the flesh, walking after the flesh, and then to live in the grave. It is so important. 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 by the line 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. 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. Friends, 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.