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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. 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I told the kids in college, sometimes an instructor will have a blackboard behind him in a piece of chalk in his hand and every once in a while he’s like he’s going to write something and teach the whole class without ever writing anything. It just causes people to pay attention a little bit more. Now you can see this on the screen doesn’t mean that I’m going to talk about that. It’s just to make you wonder what I’m going to say next and what it might have to do with the message today.

But there is a question and that is, is God’s best good enough for you? Now I want you to think this morning. I want you to put on your thinking cap because I got some things I want to share with you. God’s best good enough for you. How you live your life will reveal whether you really believe that or not. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of John, the gospel of John. I want to cover a few scriptures real quickly without making any comments at all.

But what I want you to do is try to figure out in your mind ahead of time. What do you think I’m going to say about this verse without me telling you. Do you ever do that? Do you ever try to figure out what the preacher’s going to say before he says it? Or the next verse he’s going to go to before he does it? I used to do that all the time. But here in the Gospel of John in chapter 3 I want you to look in verse 17.

Verse 17 says, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Verse 18, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now turn in your Bible to the book of Philippians and chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, and this is on page 1258 in one of the church Bibles, or an old Schofield reference Bible, Philippians chapter 1 and look in verse 21.

Verse 21 says this, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now what do you think I’m going to say about that verse? Well I’m not going to tell you yet. Look in Romans in chapter 12. Turn in your Bible to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, there’s another verse that I just might say something about just a little bit. But in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1 it makes a statement. I beseech you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, Now you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Look in Proverbs chapter 18. Now I want you to remember all these verses that I’ve already shared with you. That will keep me from having to go back to them if you’ll just photograph those in your mind and you just remember all these verses. You can do this. I know you can. So it turned out to Proverbs in chapter 18. Proverbs chapter 18, and you may wonder what in the world does this verse have to do with anything? In chapter 18, I want you to look at verse 22.

Verse 22 says, Who so findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtained a favor of the Lord. Now we could dwell there for quite a while. But I’m not. I’m not at this moment going to tell you one thing about that verse. But believe it or not, there is some continuity to it. these verses. Now turning your Bible to Ephesians in chapter 4. Because I know that you are people that can remember all of these things. You can watch a TV broadcast and tell somebody everything they said.

So I’m just telling you a few things about what God says. So I know you can remember all of this. So Ephesians chapter 4, look there in verse 15. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things which is the head even Christ. Isn’t that a wonderful verse? Now, turning your Bible to the book of Romans. Romans in chapter 6, we’re almost through. Romans chapter 6, look at verse 13. Verse 13 says, neither yield ye your members as instruments unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Number 16, know you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin under death or of obedience unto righteousness. There. Now you have all the verses just about that I’m going to cover this morning, but I’m hoping that you’ll pay a little bit more attention that when I refer to these verses you’ll know that yes I did see that in the Bible and yes it does say that because now we need to fly.

Is God’s best good enough for you? Before we get into the message in your own mind What is your answer? Don’t tell your outline. Do you believe that God is better at designing the purpose of your life than you are? I was talking to Freddie a little bit earlier and I said, I was at Bush Gardens yesterday with the kids and as soon as we got in there we saw them alligators. And better they got some big fat alligators.

All they do is feed and they just lay around and sleep. They don’t have to work for anything. They have to belong to the government. But now these alligators and one of them didn’t even have the courtesy to look at me. I’m right there. He doesn’t care that I could be a threat to his life. And I even made grunts and stuff and it didn’t move, didn’t blink an eye, nothing. I thought to myself, I wonder what that alligator’s thinking.

And I thought he’s probably thinking, I wonder what the purpose of my life is. Now some Christians are just like that alligator. They just enjoy life and they don’t think about what is the purpose of my life. And then if you say, okay, I want God’s will for my life, how do we even find it? So there’s three important decisions that you’ll make in your life that I believe are the most important decisions. One is salvation. Don’t you think that trusting Christ is your Savior is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make in your life?

Yeah, you believe that. Well, after you trust Christ is your Savior, the next most important decision you could ever make, and that is to dedicate the rest of your life to the Lord. Wouldn’t you agree to that? Now the next one you may have a little problem with. Marriage and marrying someone else who wants to serve the Lord. If you have trusted the Lord, and if you want to dedicate your life to the Lord, then you should understand the one you marry is very important to fulfilling God’s will for your life.

It is so important. So therefore, I want to talk a little bit about this interesting subject. But anyway, look at number one, salvation, trusting Christ as your Savior. Now look at this verse, John 3, 17, we read it just a moment ago, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world. Now think about this, he only had one son. And the missionary. One son, he was a missionary. This verse also tells you the reason why he came.

Here’s God that created the heavens and the earth and all the stars, everything. You and me? He had a son and he sent him into the world and he says, not that the world be condemned, and he come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So be and save must be the most important thing of any individual. You’d agree with that, wouldn’t you? John 3, 18 says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.

So you’re not waiting to be condemned some day down the road. You already are condemned because he hath not believed. Now, if there had to be more to it, then it should have said so. But it only says that He is condemned because He hath not believed. Not because He didn’t serve. And this is why this statement is so important. Trusting Christ as your Savior is not a commitment to serve. It is a decision to trust. they’re two different things.

I trusted Christ as my Savior. I made a decision. I’m going to trust Him as my Savior so that I would be saved. Because being saved is the most important thing that can ever happen to anybody in life. If you inherited a million dollars and died and go to hell, it did not help you when I yelled at. If you born of rich parents in another country. Think of all the things that you could have or do or be, but if you don’t trust Christ as your Savior, that’s the worst thing that could ever happen to you.

So I believe that it’s so important that you understand. Now, service, serving the Lord. This is why we should dedicate the rest of our life to serve the Lord. It’s the decision you made. And the reason But I believe that every Christian should come to the place where he makes a definite decision. Maybe it could be something you gradually grow religulant to do in because you heard it. But with me it wasn’t quite that way. Everything seemed to happen in my life as always dynamic.

But I was listening to a man by the name of Virgil Edwards one year. And it was at Northside Baptist Church in about 1961-19, somewhere in through there. And I don’t remember what he preached on. I don’t remember what the choir sung. I just know at the end of the service, I was sitting about right there and they had everybody stand and they sung this song, I surrender all. And I started singing it and thinking about what I was saying.

I surrender all, but I never had. And that night, peers in my eyes, I determined I am going to serve the Lord for the rest of my life. I did not know what even that meant, but whatever it was, something’s going to change. I needed something more in my life. Now, not everybody makes the same decision, the same way, at the same time, but there ought to be something that God has done for you, that is so impressed you that you want to serve Him.

Now, nobody can make you do this because this is an inside job. It’s something that’s on the inside of you that says, I want to please God. I want to know Him in a greater way. I want to walk with God. But you see, the most important decision is you’ve got to be saved first. You’ve got to trust Christ as your Savior. Become a child of God. This is why Paul made this statement. For me to live is football.

Now you’d be surprised how many people, That’s what they live for. How many people, for me to live is girls, or boys. Today you’ve got to be careful, you know. But anyway, we’ll let that pass for right now. But you can live for a lot of things in this life. But Paul says, for me to live is Christ. That means I’m living because I want my body to magnify Christ, like a magnifying glass that makes it look bigger. I want Christ to use my body for his honor and for his glory.

Therefore, in Romans in chapter 12 and verse 1 where he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God means in view of what God has done for you, that you present your bodies, this body that I have, that body that you have, as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your what? Reasonable service. It’s reasonable. When you sit down and think about it, it makes sense. But you see, the devil wants to keep you in touch with God.

You’re so busy doing so many things that you never have time to think. You don’t really see it. That’s why he says over and over again in his words, he that had ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit said unto the churches. And as the scripture that was read this morning by Jay, they have ears tocellent, but they hear not. It means they don’t understand. So when he says that over and over again, it means you hear, but you don’t understand.

You have eyes to see, but you can’t see it. So there’s things God wants you to hear and to see. And he says that you don’t because you’re dull of hearing. And you cantoc what God’s talking about. But when you really stop and think it through, this is why this little word called meditating is such an important word. like the cow that eats the grass and then goes under the shade tree and lays down and brings it back and chews it again.

It’s chewing it over and over and over again. What God says, parser shooting, getting everything out of it that you can possibly get out of it and it’ll make a difference in your life. Marriage, of course, marriage is important. someone who wants to serve the Lord or if you decide not to marry, don’t you think that’s also a big decision? It’s a big decision to get married. It’s a big decision not to get married. Do you realize that if you don’t get married you also have problems?

Because the Bible says that God created a woman to be a help-meet to the man. It means that she can be there to help meet the needs of that man, help him to fulfill his dream in his vision to be part of his life. A man needs that woman, that encouragement to always know and to pray and encourage all those things are so important and a woman can give those things. But a man without a wife, it’s terrible thing sometimes to be alone.

This is why those that have been married for years and they lose their mate, it just devastates them. They called them and married for so long. Now, there’s also the other side of the coin. If you do get married, do you think it’s important to kind of a person you marry? Think about it. Well, it really doesn’t matter as long as she is good looking. Well, you might fall in love with the temple, but you get the whole thing.

And that pretty little face, you’re gonna get her bad attitude too. You’re gonna get her temper too. You get all of it. And you don’t just get her, you get her mama. Ask the man one time, are you married? Yes, I am. Do you have a wife? Well, I don’t know. Now there’s a dumb man that gets some mother-in-law and doesn’t even know if he has a wife. So you see, you have the whole family that becomes part of your family.

And so does it make a difference if say you’re a man and you want to go to Bible college and your wife says, God may call you to be a preacher, but he hasn’t said a word to me and I’m not going. What you going to do? And I’ve watched a lot of men grieve because they wanted to serve the Lord, they wanted to do something, but they married somebody who doesn’t want to be part of that. It’s like another world to them.

And then you find yourself sometimes thinking, it doesn’t matter what she really believes or what he really believes because we just love each other. Because the day that it’s not about doctrine, it’s about just love. Well if you really love, you got to love according to doctrine because there’s things God says to love and things God says not to love. So we’re not to love everything. So every child of God got big decisions to make. And there’s these guys that are always looking for this perfect wife.

I had a guy tell me what that means. He says, preach, I want you to pray that I can find just a perfect wife. I says, why? He says, so I can marry. I says, wouldn’t she be looking for the perfect husband? Why should a perfect wife marry you? Are you perfect? Well, that’s not what I mean. I said, yes it is. You want her to fit in every area exactly like you want to. I says, don’t you know opposites attract and then attack?

I mean, you’re supposed to grow in the Lord and learn together. God doesn’t give you everything in advance, but it does help you when you know that wife of yours or that husband of yours is going in the right direction. They don’t have to mean they have arrived, but you can see they’re walking with the Lord. Not promise. I promise you, honey, I’ll walk with the Lord. I’ll take you to church. Is he going now? Well, he says he will.

You drop him like a hot potato. It’ll affect your whole life. You see, you got to find somebody. And that’s why this verse is so important. Look at there, in Genesis in chapter 2 and verse 20, up on the screen, for Adam, there was not found a help me. It means God made everything, but for Adam he made Adam, and lo and behold, he has to have a companion. I think it’s just wonderful that God made a woman. Do you realize what this word would be like with just guys?

But get this, the next verse says, and the Lord God calls a deep sleep to come up on Adam. Some people when they get married, they go into a deep sleep. Like this girl, she says to the guy, she says, I can’t wait till we get married so I can help you carry all of your problems and your burdens and your heart aches. He says, I don’t have any of those. We’re not married yet. But he calls him to sleep and he took one of his ribs.

Genesis 2, 22 says, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made, he a woman and brought her unto the man. So who made the woman? God made the women and he brought her to the man. So it is the will of God and there’s nothing wrong with a man getting married. But God didn’t make the choice for you. married this little girl, this little angel. And later on you said, look what God did to me.

God did not make you get married. That was your choice. And hopefully you can learn to live with your mistake with your marriage. Because you’ll think down the road, boy did I really mess up. Look, you go from where you are, and both of you need probably a lot of help. Learn to walk with God. Did you realize if a man and a woman both dedicated their life to the Lord, that they wanted God’s best for each other, how much more easier it is in life to go through life, knowing that you’ve got somebody to walk with you and knows the way you really are and loves you for the way that you are and you don’t have to put on a face or you know impressed that’s do you my wife treats me like a king.

Yeah boy. No. I treat her like a queen and she treats me like a king and now we’re been going on 54 years and I thank the Lord. God give me a good wife. But she’s not a perfect wife because she married me because I’m not perfect. That would have been her first mistake. Her dad told us she did. If anyway, her dad got to where he liked me a little bit. But her mother, she’s in heaven now and she still doesn’t.

She called me, she’s called you hula. You are hula. I didn’t know at the time what that was. I thought it was a compliment. I was at Northside one day and I came walking down and there was these two girls sitting in front. One was Gina King. And what I have walking down this island. And I came by there and I said, Yankie. Yeah? You are so autistic. Wow. Thank you. I’d say that. I had never heard the word before.

understand that now. I did not and I’m making fun of it. I did not understand and they, but they giggled. They giggled. They thought that was funny. I thought not. And then they explained to me what they said. So it was not a compliment. Did you know between husband and wife you have to be careful of everything you say even in jest? Because words are like arrows. Once you’re in flight you can’t bring them back. And that’s why we need to be so careful of everything that we say and everything that we do.

I want to go on with this here because I got something I want you to see. If you don’t serve the Lord, if you don’t, we’ll see nobody can make you do it. But if you do, God’s going to bless you and you’re going to be productive. But if you don’t serve the Lord, you’re not going to be productive. You see in the book of John and chapter, it talks about bearing much fruit. hearing is my father glorified that you bear much fruit, you will not bring forth much fruit.

You may have a little fuel of sprinkle here and there, but not the way God intended. So it is going to cost you something. The next statement, your greatest problem is that you don’t realize that you have a problem. Do you know I believe and I’ve been doing this for a while now that a lot of people don’t realize they have a problem. I’ve had to have other people sometimes make me aware of things that I say and do that I shouldn’t have done.

But I didn’t know it at the time. So because now I’m old enough I can say hey I’m seeing out. You know I didn’t know that but I don’t forgot that. I’ve been taking these little memory pills and their own problems with it is that I keep forgetting to take them. It’s a God counts it a great problem when his children will not serve him because you’ve got to understand Why don’t you serve him? Why wouldn’t you serve him?

Is God’s best good enough for you? It should be if you don’t serve the Lord your decision may be based upon What somebody else is doing see we often talk about the kids in school and the peer pressure they’re under because they’re under such peer pressure to be like all the other kids and that’s why sometimes you don’t want your kids to be around other kids that are doing wrong because you know they’ll influence your kids and yet as an adult you do the same thing if you’re not faithful to church you’re not faithful to be around the kind of people that God wants you to be around did you know that Christians are supposed to influence other Christians you’re supposed to influence others.

You and I are supposed to have an impact in other people’s lives. We’re supposed to know and love one another in such a way that if we had to we could rebuke one another. But today nobody wants to say anything that’s going to cause anybody any, you know, to be uncomfortable. Because we want everybody to like us. But a good friend who loves somebody, sometimes we have to say things that we don’t want to say. 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 a 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. Cut 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.