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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

A person said this, A blind man’s world is bounded by the limits of his touch. touch. An ignorant man’s world by the limits of his knowledge. A great man’s world by the limits of his vision. Vision is of God. A vision comes in advance of any task well done. Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for because unless we stand for something we shall fall for anything. Peter Marshall said that. He was a great man.

He really was. I have a few things in turning a word that most people don’t like. It’s the word called work. Do you ever heard that word? The only place that you will ever find success before work is in the dictionary. So generally you have to work before you have success. John chapter 9 verse 4 says this, I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. In other words we need to do for the Lord what we can, why we can, but what we have because now it’s daytime.

But there’ll come a time when it’ll be night and we won’t be able to work. There’s a, you only got so much time to live. And what are we trying to accomplish with our life? An unexamined life is not worth living. We should always be examining, who am I? What am I doing here? What does God want? Another statement, free men freely work. Whoever fears God fears to set at ease. Let me read to you again. Free men freely work.

Whoever fears God fears to set it easy. You know, even though I know what the Bible says, I’ve got a fairly good grasp of it. There’s a lot of that I don’t know, but I’ve got an idea. And even though I’ve been serving the Lord for over 50 years, I feel sometimes guilty when I’m not doing something, when I’m not busy. Because of my respect that I have for God, I feel like I’m almost wasting time and wasting opportunity if I stop too long to enjoy too much of the world.

I can enjoy some, but not too much. Because it wouldn’t take much for it to really get a hold of me. I love to play a little golf, but I can leave it alone if I have to. I love to take a cruise. I did three years ago. But if I get a chance to go again, I probably will, but when I go, you know what I wind up doing? Study, witness, but that’s what to do. Cause you’re, there’s a little fear that you’re gonna waste too many opportunities.

So you’re always on guard. James will go out on the cruise and it’s just nothing more than a missionary trip for him. But sometimes the Bible says that we need to come apart. It doesn’t mean go blah blah blah blah. I’ll come apart. That you we should come apart lest we come apart. There’s times when you need to back up a little bit and enjoy a little bit of life. And the Bible says God has given us all things freely to enjoy.

But the thing is is to learn discernment. Don’t fall in love with the world. Don’t be just totally caught up at entertainment. There’s a battle that’s on and our time is very important, so we need to be careful. Another good statement. Now all this is what I shared with those kids on graduation. Do you feel like it was just the stuff for them 30 years ago? Or do you think anything that I’m saying could help any of us today, just a tad?

get your happiness out of your work, or you will never know what real happiness is. Every man has to work, so you need to learn how to be happy in your work. But the ultimate purpose and goal of life is not to be happy. It’s just to do the will of him that sent us and to please him. If I have to wait until I get to heaven to be happy, so be it. But I’ll have to admit I have enjoyed life as I’ve gone.

You should enjoy doing what you do, believing that what you do. And when the woman has to do the dishes, she can wash those dishes for the glory of the Lord. Because God says whatsoever thy hands find it to do. Do it with all thy mind. That was strictly to the women. Huh? Do it with all thy mind. That was strictly to the women.

So I’m glad there’s, you know, you have to know that there’s some words in there that are masculine, some are feminine. And that comes from a feminine word. Okay, I’m joking. Henry Ward Beecher made this statement. He says, the purest pleasure lie within the circle of useful occupation. Mere pleasure sought outside of usefulness is fraught with poison. No, the guy wrote, though my head and my hand be at labor, yet doth my heart dwell with God. Even though you’ve got your mind on the things you’ve got to do and you’ve got your hands busy doing what you have to do, did you know that you could still rejoice in your heart to the Lord?

I remember when I was at a regular printing company there in Athens before I ever knew there was a Bible college. I’d get that folding machine and it was in a printing shop and I’d get that thing going and it would make just a beautiful music. It was a beat. It had a beat to it and it would get to run a sheet after sheet and I’d get that thing going. Well, it wasn’t long before I had a beat to a song and I’d be a hummin’ this song and this thing was a beatin’ along there.

The next thing you know, I would be singing the song. And because it was so loud, nobody could hear me. So it wasn’t long before I’m singing out. And I’m just singing along, and this thing is going to beat. I got my own music. I mean, hog heaven, and getting paid for it. And then the thing with jam, and there I’m going. And there’s 30 people working in this plant. And then I realized it stopped. It’s got a jam.

Everybody in the whole plant would look over to me that I was in another world. And sometimes it’s good to be in another world. Because you know you’re in this world, but you’re thinking about the things of the Lord. And it can be good for you. God sells us all things at the price of labor. God sells us all things at the price of labor. Another statement, if you want knowledge, you must toil for it. If food, you must toil for it.

And if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his life is a happy one. So true. Have you ever noticed there’s a lot of miserable Christians? Miserable Christians. And you don’t have to be miserable. You say, I’ll be happy when I get this raised. No, you won’t. If you can’t be happy without it, you won’t be happy with it. I’ll be happy when I go on a vacation.

No, you won’t. Because you know it’s on the end. Enjoy life as you go. Happiness is a way of travel. It’s not a destination. Men are naturally tempted by the devil, but an idled man or a lazy man positively tempts the devil. Now let me repeat that. This is a devil that tempts every man, but God pity the man that tempts the devil. And a lot of God’s children are tempting the devil to see, you can’t get me, you can’t get me.

You ever heard of the middle of the mosquito around the flames of the fire? The middle of the mosquito just flying around the flame. Well give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. You’ve got him. And you play with fire, you’re going to get? Burn. Burn. This is what a man by the name of Thomas or Davis said. He says, now I get me up to work. I pray the Lord. I may not jerk.

And if I die before tonight, I pray my work will be just right. I thought I liked that. But let me share this with you. Because these are things that can really help you now. And Psalm 103 in verse five. There’s a verse there that talks about, He had loaded me down with many benefits, many benefits. See, He didn’t just save us and put us in this room, but there’s a lot of benefits of living. I’ve enjoyed life. I’m not saying everything wonderful that’s ever happened, but overall, as I look over my life and as I look forward to more things, I’ve enjoyed life, enjoyed living.

But there’s a verse there in verse 5 that says, who satisfyeth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the ego.” Now in the book of Isaiah in chapter 40, it talks about that when we were without strength, he can renew us as the ego and to learn how to rest in the Lord, to trust the Lord, and he will renew your strength so that you might be busy doing the things that God wants you to do, but always remember this, you may get weary in the work, but don’t get weary of the work.

I get weary in the work because I get to doing a lot of things and you get tired and weary, but don’t get weary of the work. You should believe that what you’re doing is a right thing to do, regardless of what job you have if it has to be done and you have an opportunity to do it, you just have this nasty habit of loving to eat and having the place to live and close to where. So there’s things that you have to do, then do them and do it as unto the Lord and learn to have joy of the Lord.

And the Adam said this, young men have a passion for regarding their elders as senile. You know, when I was young, I never looked at older men as though they were wise. No, I wondered how y’all look at me. You’re going to keep me wondering, huh? Are we that are older, just old senile? Or do we have any wisdom whatsoever? Maybe just a little tidbit, huh? Do you think we have anything of value that young people can profit from.

You know the wisdom of young people is revealed by their respect for older folks. A young person should want to learn what those older folks know. But you know most of them don’t. Water seeks its own level and they don’t gain the knowledge they should have. Have you met young people? They know it all. Have you ever seen a teenager, a college kid you can’t tell them anything because I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know okay what you’re talking about I know I know you think you’re gonna know all right and you know they don’t know you know automatic you know they’re stupid you know they haven’t got a clue but they’re not smart enough to listen to you and you just say one day you’re gonna get yours One day you’re going to find out one day and we’re so thankful for time.

It has a wonderful way of leveling the field and those kids thought they knew it all sooner or later, oh after about 20 years, when they get married and have kids, and you’re thankful, I hope you have four of them just like you. you want them to be wise. And then they start learning a whole full life. But anyway, when I was young, I felt so young, so strong, so sure of God. You know, when you put your trust in the Lord and you really believe that, even though you may get old, I can feel so young, so sure, because my confidence is in the Lord.

You know, there’s something about the Lord and your confidence in Him, even though the outward body gets older, you’re renewed by strength in the inner man. and you feel younger. You know you’re not younger, but isn’t a nice way to feel that you still feel fresh in your mind, clear-headed. You got a vision, something to live for. Another statement to pass on to you. Could I climb to the highest place in Athens? I would lift up my voice and proclaim fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?

That was said by a philosopher. Socrates, why would you work your fingers to the bone as an workaholic to get all this money to leave it to a bunch of lazy good-for-nothing kids that never worked a day in their life and they’ll squander everything you work for. That’s the book of Ecclesiastes. And this is what Solomon was talking about. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. When you work so hard and you labor so long to gather that which will not be yours when you die and belong to somebody else who didn’t work a lick for it.

Kind of make you want to write your kids out of your will, don’t it? Don’t do that. Man said this, live as long as you may. The first 20 years are the longest half of your life. What it means is, after a while, it speeds up. The first 20 years, you just can’t wait. Man, I couldn’t wait till I was 11 years old. I was in the Boy Scouts. But I couldn’t wait till I was 15. Then it seemed like forever before I became 18.

And this seemed like forever before I become 21. And then after that, it seemed like it just flew. All of a sudden I woke up and I looked in the mirror and I’m 71 years old, 50 years just passed. And sometimes we don’t appreciate time. So we don’t know how much we’re going to have. Therefore we should use our time wisely, wisely for the Lord. It is as natural and as right for a young man to be imprudent and exaggerated, to live in swoops and circles and beat about his cage like any other wild thing newly captured, as it is for old men to turn gray or mothers to love their offspring or heroes to die for something worthier than themselves.

It’s like two lives. When you’re young sometimes you’re like a while man in the cage, struggling to get away from authority, do what I want, it’s my life, and break all the rules. And then for the rest of your life, you’re trying to find who you are and what you’re doing. And this is why people get that stage, they call it a middle age. What? A crisis. If you don’t know what a crisis is, just listen to the news.

They got one coming up every week. And we demand our government deliver us from the next crisis. So the government’s got to do something else to deliver us from this crisis they created. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. As 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 19, but do you understand what he’s saying? The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. But what if a man had the wisdom of God? How much wiser would he be? Should it make a difference with the decisions that he makes in life?

With his discernment, the greatest good is wisdom. What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away. A man doesn’t begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes that he is no longer indispensable. Let me read that statement to you one more time. A man doesn’t begin to attain wisdom till he recognizes that he is no longer indispensable.

Have you ever thought that this world needs me? They are very fortunate to have me. You know, there’s not another me like me in the world. I’m the greatest thing that ever hit planet Earth. I am indispensable. You will begin to gain wisdom when you realize that you’re not indispensable. You’re not as great as you think you are. And you know the world was moving right along before you showed up, and there’s a good possibility to keep on going when you leave.

One man in order to show a teenager how important they really were in the big impact they made in life says, he filled up a bucket full of water and he says, now put your fist in in that water. So he put his fist down in that water. He said, no, take it out. He said, take it out. He says, didn’t make much of a dent, did you? You came into the world and you’re going to be taking out of the world.

What did it be neat if why we were here we could at least do something that made the world different to do something that would be life-changing. You see, we may not be able to change this world, but we could get some people that are in this world out of this world. We can get them to heaven. My biggest goal in life is not to change the world. I just want to change people’s destinies where they go and they leave the world.

This world is going to pot. The tribulation period is coming and I don’t believe that little yankie is going to stop it. But one thing that I could do that could make a difference is to win as many people to Christ as I can. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are also the greatest fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as the knowing fool, but to know how to use knowledge is to have great wisdom.

Charles Spurgeon said that. And then this last statement, he who provides for this life but takes no care for eternity is wise for a moment, but a fool forever. Let me read that to you again. He who provides for this life but takes no care for eternity is wise for a moment but a fool for eternity. Eternity is coming. I want to be wise for eternity. So in this life as Paul says there in the book of 1 Corinthians 4.

The way they look at us is we are fools, but we’re fools for Christ’s sake. So in the eyes of the world we may look like fools because of what we do with our time and our talent and our treasure, but we’ll be wise for eternity. I also think we were wise for a brief moment of time, look up here. This is the wisest thing that anybody can ever know. It’s the simplest thing really, when you get right down to it.

And that is explaining how you can know you have eternal life. I asked this lady today, and I hadn’t had anybody answer it quite like this before. So she was behind the counter and she was waiting, but nobody was in there for this moment. I said, can I ask you a question? She said, share. I said, do you know where you’re gonna go and you die? She said, yes, I said, well, great. Where are you gonna go and you die?

She said, I’m going to heaven. And she was just gotta wait by it. I said, well, how do you know you’re going to heaven? She says, because I’ve been good. And I knew that she must have been good. So I said, well, God bless you and I left. No, I didn’t. I said, I got some good news and some bad news. So I explained the gothary, she trusts the Lord just like that. She just nobody’s ever explained it to her But it is the greatest story that you could ever tell anybody Look up here, and if you’re watching by internet and you’d be surprised how many people we have that watch by internet I mean all over But it’s wonderful to know that the simple little message is getting out But this hand right here that it represents you and me the wallet represents sin

All of us, everybody in the world. He’s a sinner. We’ve all done things wrong. And because the wages of sin is death, everyone is condemned. And God says, when we’re condemned, we’re condemned to death. Condemned to death. When we die here, we are eternally separated from God in a place called hell. And hell is a real place. We wouldn’t need a Savior if there is no hell. And we’ve got to stop apologizing for hell. as though, well, we don’t want to offend anybody.

If they die and they wake up in hell, then they might be offended because somebody didn’t tell them about it. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven. Heaven is a perfect place, and we’re not perfect. But God has a way of making this perfect. You can’t do it. You can’t even change yourself at all. As the labor can’t change the spots, you can’t make yourself clean. You can’t make yourself perfect. You can’t make yourself holy. You can’t make yourself good enough to get into heaven.”

This is in representing Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He came into this world to do what we would consider the impossible. Get us good to go. Jesus Christ had no sin. So He didn’t have to die. So He took the sins of the whole world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead, and said if we believe He did it for us, He’d put this payment to our account, and we get to go to heaven and what Jesus Christ did.

You don’t earn it, you don’t work for it. It is the gift of God. He says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It’s not of works, best any man should boast. So the only thing we have to do to go to heaven is to believe that when Christ died, He died to pay for my sins. If I believe He paid for my sins, then I’m not going to try to earn my way to heaven because, see, I’m not going to hell.

I’m not going to hell to pay for any sin, not one sin. Christ paid for all of my sins. And I believe He did it for me. And by believing, He gives to me everlasting life, and He says, and you shall not come into condemnation. You’re past from death and the life. You shall not perish, but have everlasting life. He says, these things have already done to you that believe of the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

Best news in the world. Let’s pray, Shavya. Our Father, we thank you so much for your blessings to us. We do pray, Lord, also, especially for these prayer requests, the ones in the hospital and Lord, there’s a lot of people that are hurting. We just pray your will to be done in the lives of each one. We’re thankful for the message that you’ve given to us, and for giving us a hope and a vision, a reason to live. And Father, I pray that you’ll take these thoughts that I’ve given tonight.

And Lord, you, by the person of the Holy Spirit, knows what each person needs, and we just trust that He will hone in, teach in every heart, and penetrate, and convict, and do His work. This is your work, not ours. We just serve tools to be used. People work so hard, give them the strength that they need. Thank you Lord, forgive them a vision that all these things that they do works together. And so many people can be affected because of it.

We thank you for them. Thank you for this day. And each person here in Christ’s name we pray, Amen. Due to the generous offer of an anonymous Colorado supporter of Bibleline, We want to make you an offer you cannot refuse. He has purchased 68 copies of the book, The Gospel Driven Man, by Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, to be given to anyone who donates any amount as they thank you for helping to keep Bibleline on this station. He writes, What would be the most important item one could receive that would be appreciated?

Which would answer many questions which would be easy to read, understandable, and uses God’s Word as the source? What came to mind was your book, The Gospel Driven Man. This book has helped me and my wife considerably. We have given the book out as gifts before and continue to do so. All the basic doctrines you hear me teach on the radio is found in this book. One book per donor. So remember, mail your gift up any amount today and we will send you your copy of The Gospel Driven Man.

Be sure to include your mailing address. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. 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. 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, just keep looking up.