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

Well anyway, Sunday night I talked a little bit a little bit about, I guess we call it, pregnant faith. You know where there are those who believe because of faith, it should produce fruit. And if there’s no fruit, then you didn’t, evidently you weren’t pregnant. You didn’t have faith. But see, that isn’t the truth. You can have faith in the Lord and not have any fruit whatsoever. That blows most people’s minds, especially preachers because they just can’t see that.

They just don’t believe it. Well, tonight I wanted to talk to you about a different subject. Deal this with faith, but I call it hemorrhaging faith. You know, there was a time when I had, um, all took some medicine I wasn’t supposed to and I took twice as much as I supposed to. And then I didn’t take it the way I was supposed to. And next thing you know, I had a bleeding ulcer. I guess you could say that you’re hemorrhaging on the inside.

You’re bleeding. And I didn’t know what had happened. I was just getting weaker and weaker and weaker. And Betty got me down to the hospital. I didn’t die. But I did come close. I did come close. And you know, when you start losing all of your blood, You know, there’s not much left to keep you alive. Well, the life of the flesh is in the blood. And if you lose your blood, you lose your life. So it’s a scary little thing to go through.

But one of the scariest things that ought to really cause fear in a Christian, is when their faith starts hemorrhaging. You see, even Jesus made this statement, when I come back, well, I find faith. You see, faith is our life. It is why we do what we do. And Christians are losing their faith. So to grow in the Lord and getting stronger, they’re going the other direction. And I’ll have to admit, over the years, I’ve seen quite a few Christians that were hemorrhaging.

And I couldn’t find just the right pressure point to stop the hemorrhaging. And I’ve watched Christians totally lose their Christian testimony. They’re zeal for the Lord, they’re love for God, stop coming to church, lose their families. I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen it all. And I saw them when they started hemorrhaging. And sometimes you can’t find the pressure point to stop it from happening. And spiritually, they die. Their faith is dead, as it says in James. It’s lifeless, fruitless, they’re barren.

And there’s no sign of any life whatsoever. So I wanted to mention that to you a little bit tonight. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter four. The book of Romans and chapter four. So in the book of Romans and chapter four, I want you to look there in verse 19. Verse 19. You see, according to the teaching of people, Christ has got to be the Lord and the master of your life and every area of your life.

Well, what if you’re not strong in the Lord and you’re weak in faith? When you’re weak, then you’re not strong. That ought to make sense. But look what he says here in verse 19. And being not weak in faith. So that means it is possible to be weak in faith. And when you’re weak in faith, it means you don’t have confidence because as we talked about the other night. Confidence in the Lord is what faith is about. So how much confidence do you have in the Lord?

Are you losing your confidence becoming weak in the faith? And when the Lord told Abraham certain things that he was going to have a son at his old age, of course we know that his wife laughed a little bit about that. She got rebuked a little bit about that. And says here, and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, not dead. When he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was, and here’s another word, strong in faith. Weak in faith, strong in faith. But what does it mean to be strong in faith? Have confidence in what God says. And here’s one of the clues. And verse 21 and Ben, and here’s that word fully persuaded. To be strong in faith is to be fully persuaded that what God has promised, He will perform. So you have that wonderful word here.

It’s a good promise. And you can be weak in faith. that means you don’t have confidence in what God’s Word said. And you know that the Word of God has loaded with promises, and yet you won’t believe them. You’re weak in your faith because you’re weak in your confidence. Growing in faith is growing in confidence. And that’s where your peace of mind comes from. So the fears and the worries and all those things is because you lack the confidence that you should have in what God says.

So strong in faith is being fully persuaded. So that’s important. Take your Bible and turn to chapter 14 of the book of Romans. Romans in chapter 14. Romans chapter 14. And there are those that are strong in faith and there are Christians that are weak in faith. And those that are strong in faith should not put down those that are weak in faith. Not everyone sees the same thing. Not everybody has the same confidence in the Lord. There’s different degrees of faith, different size.

God talks about you know small faith and great faith. So it talking about the level of your confidence that you have. Some people can trust the Lord would one thing and not trust Him in another area. Sometimes you can believe your parents about something but you don’t believe them about something else. You may know that your dad’s going to go to work and supply the needs and so forth but you don’t trust him that he’s going to get that present that you wanted for Christmas because he didn’t get it last year.

But there’s some things that people keep their words on and some people don’t keep their word on other things. Wouldn’t it be great if we just all did everything we’re supposed to do all the time, but we don’t. And so as we live our life, we are giving people reasons to have confidence in us, to believe us, to trust us, have faith in us. I would like to believe that after 50 years that I’ve had a testimony where people would believe that when Yankee says something that he means what he’s saying and he’s demonstrated his confidence in the Lord by what he’s done or what he says he tries to practice what he preaches but you know it won’t matter to what some people what I do there’s some people that still don’t have any confidence in me but it’s the way she goes but here in verse one it says him that is in your on the line

is weak in the faith. So you know that a Christian can be weak. It means they can lack the confidence that they should have. I try to get people to understand whether it’s in ranch night that Jesse’s trying to get kids to become strong in the Lord. Grow in the Lord. Giving them reasons why they’re confidence in what God said will help them. You want to build their confidence in the same thing with the RU program, the same thing what we would do with college, same thing I try to do every service with people in the church.

I want you to be strong in your faith, not weak. And so therefore, this is why I want you to see that this is taught in the Bible and not everybody is on the same page, same level, with the same understanding of their confidence in God. That’s why we keep growing. We keep listening. We keep learning. And so he says, him that is weak in the faith, receive, but not the doubtful disputation. In other words, not just to argue with him, not just to put somebody down, because they don’t see and agree with you on everything that they, well, if they was mature like me, they would see why I do what I do.

Not everybody’s there. It’s to teach you and I, patients with people who are not now where you once were. Did you get that? I hope so. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Peter in chapter 5. 1 Peter and chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5, look there in verse 9. The Bible talks to us about being steadfast, not just to arrive at a level of confidence, but maintain that level of confidence. That’s what we mean by steadfast.

steadfast. It means that you’ve reached a level of maturity. Don’t go backwards. You want to maintain that and add to it. So you have to be careful that you don’t allow what happens in life. What people say, destroy your faith, destroy your confidence in the Lord. It wouldn’t take much for some people to say certain things about the Bible and you could lose your confidence in the Bible. And if you lose your confidence in the Bible, where are you going to get faith from?

Faith cometh by hearing means confidence cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So that’s why if you want to build your confidence strong in the Lord then you have to study the Word and to believe it and to be steadfast. See what he says here in verse 9, whom resists talking about the devil, resists steadfast in the faith. So it means that if you are in the faith and steadfast in the faith, you can resist the devil.

The devil is real. The devil is powerful, but he doesn’t have to get victory over your life. It means that you know enough of the word of God that you can be steadfast and not yield to the temptations of the devil. So when things happen, goes wrong, you don’t have to fall apart, wine and pine and mown and groan for sake or bake. No, you ain’t got to do all that because your confidence is in the Lord. And so you know the devil is going to try to instill fear within your life and he can’t do that until he shakes your faith, shakes your confidence.

And you’re the one that determines whether he does or doesn’t. So this is a very good verse, and I want you to see this, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. You’re not alone. You’re not alone. But the God of all grace who had called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect or complete, established, strengthened, and settled.

God wants you to be, as the Bible called by sober minded. It means to gird up the loins of your mind so that you don’t trip over your thoughts. You can discern your thoughts. Why do you do what you do? Why do you think the way that you think? And all of that is important. Now take your Bible and turn to the Colossians in chapter two. You’re right there near Colossians chapter two and look there in verse five because Paul has talked to the Colossians in a letter that he wrote to them telling them that they are complete in Christ and therefore because of that position that in Christ is his all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in verse three and then he says there in verse five for though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit?”

I’ve had a lot of people tell me that too. Joying and beholding your order and your underline instead, fastness of your faith. But where is your faith in Christ? So you see, growing in the Lord is growing in your confidence in Him. And that means you got to spend time with them. You got to learn to walk with them and talk to him and cast your cares upon him. It means that sometimes you’re not going to understand everything and when you’re close to the Lord you’ve learned long enough that you don’t have to understand.

I don’t understand why God does well. I don’t need to know. All I know is that he’s God and he’s perfect and he does me no wrong and he’s a good God. That’s all I need to know. And he said he’ll never leave me for a second. That’s good enough for me. And he’s already told me I’m gonna have a rough time and I’m gonna be persecuted and everything ain’t gonna go smooth. So what’s my problem? What’s your problem?

So anyway, when you’re talking about being steadfast in the faith, this is what he’s talking about. In verse six, as you have therefore received Christ, Jesus the Lord so walk you in and how did you receive him by faith? How do you walk by faith? Then you notice the very next verse where he makes a statement rooted and built up in him and established in the faith and established in the faith. This is what identifies you. It lets people know who you are and what you know where you stand.

Did you know that somebody is always watching you? Somebody’s reading you. Somebody’s studying you. Somebody loves to see you have a problem so they can see how you handle it. They don’t have to say a word but they want to know how can you handle your problems? How you do it? And they’ll know whether you’re strong or whether you’re weak or whether you’re on the verge of him ranging to death. You know what reveals your problem that you’re hemorrhaging is how you fall apart when things around you fall apart.

When you can’t fathom things and you whine about everything or cry about everything and you’re just always down in the dump, or you always it, and this one thing to be down in once in a while, that is not my guess, but you’re not to stay there. It’s one thing to fall in a mud, but you don’t stay there and roll around in the mud. You’re supposed to get up out of the mud. And if you see somebody who falls in the mud, you don’t go up and put your foot on their back and push your milling down further.

You’re supposed to help lift people up. But that’s something we’re supposed to do. See verse 7, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as ye have been taught. Remember, studying the Word of God and growing, and there’s another scripture that talks about no teach, but you’re to be taught these things. You don’t just automatically know these things. That’s why sometimes the older a preacher gets sometimes, the better he can advise you because he’s had to practice what he preaches.

He’s had to go through a few things. And so therefore, when you talk about kids, hey, I’ve had them. Well, if you get married, oh, yeah, well, I’ve been married 52 years. I know a little bit about that. Finances, I’ve had them and I’ve lost them. I’ve had everything, you know. So I know a little bit about that. Car breaks down, yeah, I, I’ve got a lot of experience there. You name it and I, you know, but so the longer you live, the more problems you have, the richer you are.

Because you’ve had the Lord teach you so many things from so many areas, and that’s why He says, counted all joy when you fall into divers temptation, because the more experiences you have, the wiser you become and the more useful to the Lord you will be. You can’t wait, huh? You just can’t wait till tomorrow until the sea was going to happen. Well, that’s what the book says. And then he says, counted all joy. Rejoice always. Okay, how you doing?

Well, I was doing pretty good. Turning your Bible to the book of Titus. Titus and chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 and look in verse 13. Now this is a hard verse for a preacher to do, because we want everybody to like us. All preachers want people to like them. people to like them. Don’t you want to be liked? Of course you do. You want people to like you? What did you know that you can come into a lot of trouble when you have to rebuke somebody?

Have you ever rebuked your wife? How did that do? See, well, I didn’t see her for about two weeks and just a little bit out of his eye. So those that are closest to you are the hardest to rebuke because they figure, who in the world do you think you are trying to tell me? adorned So you do have to be careful, but now look what he says here in verse 13, this witness is true. or rebuke them sharply.

That they may be sound in the faith. Well, why would you rebuke anybody at all? Because if they’re doing something that’s going to hurt their faith, destroy their life, cause them to lose their confidence in708 the Lord, you see them feeding the flesh, making provision for the flesh to get in the trouble. And if you love them, you may have to say something like that’s not wise. Rebuked them sharply like hitting them over the head with a 2×4 or right between the eyes, with a Hawaiian punch.

Well, I do believe that sometimes the preacher has to be rough. You have to be hard. You would rather not be. You’d rather just talk about the love of God. Well, the love of God says, rebuke them when they do wrong. Stand up, say something, and blah, blah, blah. And this is why the preacher doesn’t want to incendiary close to anybody because the closer you get to somebody, the more you know about what he does wrong. Instead of you listening to what I say, yeah, but what about you?

So that’s for a lot of preachers to keep their distance. Most preachers don’t. Everybody to love them and talk about it. They’re problems. The kid problem. The parents problem. this problem, financial problem. And then when you make an enemy, they remember. And you be surprised what they will say. This is why even you among yourselves have to be careful what you share. You may be reading it on Facebook. It was only for prayer, but you better be careful. You’d be surprised at times because it always comes back.

And I’ll read a lot of things by a lot of people right here in the church. And I know things because I can read. I don’t read good, but I can tell you, you do need to be careful what you say to anybody because your friend today may not stay your friend. And then when that friend leaves, they may know things about you, you wish you had never said. So weigh your words carefully and make sure that you have a good friend that knows how to button the lip because if you realize they, if they will gossip to you, they’ll gossip about you.

That’s why you have to be very, very careful. So here in Titus, he’s told in this verse 13, rebuke them sharply, and here’s the reason that they may be sound in the faith. Because you see, what causes you not to be sound in the faith is believing something that’s not of the faith, or that’s It’s not part of the walk of the faith. You see, that goes all the way down there to verse two in chapter two, looking in chapter two and verse two, where it talks about that the age men be sober, grave, temperant, sound in faith, sound in the faith.

And the sound in faith is, you’ll notice the verse right before it says, sound doctrine. Not everybody is sound in their doctrine, and the Bible says rebuke them sharply that they may be…in other words, if you see somebody teaching something that’s not right and you know it’s not right, you have to be very careful that person doesn’t take what they teach, and it’s contrary to what sound doctrine is, and you have to confront them. He likes the preacher to do that, and the preacher doesn’t even like to do that.

But does the preacher have the responsibility he still has to do it, whether he likes it or not? A lot of people think it, you know, the preacher says whatever he wants to say, and it doesn’t matter. The Bible says in the book of James chapter 3 that the teachers have more responsibility. It means that God is going to make you give account of what you’re teaching. Do you know that teaching and being a preacher? It’s a scary thing when you realize how much you say, and you got to give a count for it.

Now, if you don’t care what God says and what God thinks, you just say whatever you want, tickle people’s ears and nothing. It’s no problem, but it scares me to death. Because I would hate to think that I taught something wrong and somebody believed it. That’s why I try to go buy this book as close as I possibly can. And I’ve told people, if you can prove that whatever I’m saying in teaching is contrary to the Scriptures, you can come to me and see me.

Just be nice. But now notice something else he mentions, all the way down there in verse 10 where he says not for learning, but showing all good fight-delloting, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. So not everybody believes everything the way they should. And whenever there’s different winds of doctrine that come by and people start believing them, you’ve got to confront it. For example, a couple weeks ago, I preached a message on Repentance Redefind that somebody has come out with and people are starting to fall for it.

So I feel like I have a responsibility to confront that, to say this is wrong and here’s why it’s wrong. And to look at the Scriptures they say teaches what they believe. And if I don’t agree with that I do not want people in this church just easily swallowing what they hear or whatever they may read. So I want you to be knowledgeable of the Scriptures. I can’t control you. I can’t make you come to church. I can’t make you come on Wednesday night.

I can’t make you come Sunday morning Sunday night. I can’t make anybody do anything. So I’ve got to take whatever I’ve got and give it the best I can to try to help those who want to know what the book says. And so therefore, a lot of things to consider. Look there in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, 1 Corinthians and chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, look there in verse 13. In verse 13. Where it says in verse 13, watch ye stand fast in the faith.

Now remember, you can’t stand fast in the faith if you don’t have any faith. Stand fast in your confidence, if you don’t have any confidence. So therefore you are to know what the Word of God says, believe it, stand there and you don’t move. Regardless of what you hear, if it doesn’t jive, I’d use that word, with the Word of God, then you will not obey that. You stick with the boat. And then he says, quit you like men.

We had a teacher named Dr. Seymour and he says, quick you like men because men don’t quit. Quit like a man, cause men don’t quit. But it means to carry through, to do or to perform something to the end so that nothing remains, to discharge or perform completely. In other words, know what your job is, know what you’re standing for, what are you trying to accomplish and finish what you’re after? Because there’s so many people who do not complete what their start off to do.

And that’s the reason that this is here. 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 4 D 8 11 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, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.