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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. and 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.

But, you know, something’s lost and you gotta find it. Now, I want you to look there now in verse 11. because he says a man had two sons. Now these two sons is gonna be a picture of the Pharisee and the center. The Pharisee, not a Republican. What we read about in chapter 18, it’s a good picture of it. So if you understand it, you can understand this a little bit better. There was one son, look at in verse 11, a man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that follow to me, and he divided unto them his living.

And not many days after the younger son gathered, altogether took his journey into a far country and their ways of his substance with righteous living. So if this happened to the younger son, their chances are his older brother was not a very good older brother. He was probably a little on the dictatorial side. He probably filled with a little pride. Probably looked down his nose at his brother, and he didn’t change, because he didn’t see how bad he was.

He didn’t see that what he did could have helped drive his younger brother out of the house. And you see that in just a second. So I wondered, here’s a father with two sons. If a man loves his children, he loves his kids, and so he probably fought and trained them. lot of stuff. There were stains that they knew about what’s right and what’s wrong. Probably truth that was embedded in their mind that they would have a conscience that would work for them, that they could discern, make good decisions.

They also knew that they’re going to inherit what Daddy had, but so they had to have a Daddy who had quite a bit because Daddy had servants and all that, you know. And they’re going to inherit what daddy has. But the younger son also knows that usually whenever the daddy dies, that all goes to the number one son. But why he was able to say, well, whatever I can get, the heart that falls to me, whatever I have, the younger son decided to leave home.

And it wasn’t a pretty picture. You see the reverse trump and the younger of them said to his father, give me the portion of God that followed to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. In other words, get as far away as the public could. So when you got away, you know, whenever you have just been given something, did you realize that somebody just gives you a bunch of stuff if you don’t really appreciate it, don’t take long for just like water just go right through your hands.

Easy come easy go. So far God has blessed me. He’s not allowed me to inherit anything. All of them thought about it. I had this one guy who was in church and he says, preach, I want you to pray. Pray hard. I says, why? He says, because if I win the lottery, I’m going to give 10% to the church. No, I don’t play the lottery. I don’t believe in the uniform of the gambling. It doesn’t like it. I don’t want to take and get to where I’ve gotta, you know, taste the big dreams of getting rich quick.

A lot of people just live that way. Well, that’s fine. Do whatever you wanna do. It’s not from this boy. And I’m not gonna pray that you win the lottery. Cause it’s to be ashamed. That’s how God has to support his work is by you winning the lottery. So don’t even come and ask me to do it for ya. I’m not gonna do it. So he says here in verse 13, and not many days after the younger son gathered all together, took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Now, we can imagine a little bit about what that means and what it refers to. And evidently, the older brother already had a clue what he was doing and how he was living because he throws it up to him later. So anyway, verse 14, you see when you run away from that which is right, you’d be surprised how quickly you go downhill, downhill, downhill, downhill. That’s what happened to Jonah when he ran from the Lord. When you don’t serve God like you should, you’d be surprised at things that’ll happen in your life.

your life and it just seemed like one thing after the other just gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. So he says here in verse 14, and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his field to feed swine. Isn’t is a perfect little setup for a little Jewish boy, feeding the swine, the hogs, pigs.

I was talking in Sunday school, I think it was Sunday school, I was talking about slopping the hogs. Well, this is what you do. We’ve done a lot of that. And sometimes all the leftovers for a week put it in a trough and hogs just seem like they just go, wow, over, swap. That’s what they call it, slop the hogs. So he says here, he began to be in want and in verse 16, and he would feign have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did he that no man and no man gave unto him.

In other words, I’ve seen people that rebel against mom and dad. Now on a rare occasion I would maybe pray that God take them home. But most of the time they, Lord, put a hedge of thorns about them. You see, that’s what happened to this guy, begins a hedge of thorns where he’s so uncomfortable, where he’s totally humiliated, where he’s ashamed, where all of his decision begins to hurt the prick that so that he wakes up and realize, hey, this isn’t working out the way I thought.

Have you ever realized that you might like to go fishing and you got a $5 lure? And soon you’ve had, you know it, and then they hung up on the bottom. And you’re sitting there in the boat, just hung up on the boat and you can’t get it loose. Let it loose and it’ll hold further away. Nothing happens. Nothing works. Now, you can sit there and hold that thing for the rest of your natural life. Or you can learn to cut your loss and put another one.

That’s what I do every time I go with Jim Seismore. I just put another one on there. Now he’s got a knack for doing that there. I just hate doing that there. I can’t tie that little knot with that little nylon, nylon or cat gut or whatever that thing is. But there are some people that are just playing good on how to do these things, but sometimes you have to just take your loss whenever you’re serving the Lord. And you have even a child, sometimes it’s a husband, sometimes a wife and you’ve got problems.

And the only thing you can do is go ahead and keep you serve in the Lord. Don’t get hung up on one thing because it may not work out that away. But you don’t want something to so paralyze you that you can’t move. God’s Word says this young man was going to learn some lessons. Jesus is telling this story and He’s telling it because some trusted in themselves that they were righteous. You see, the older son, he believed he was so much better than the son who went away from home and wasted everything on righteous living.

But because the older son didn’t do like he did. Therefore, he wasn’t as bad. You’d be surprised how many people think they’re so much better because, well, I don’t live like so and so, and I didn’t do this like somebody else did. Did you ever think about the sin of pride, which is a thing that God despises? It’s because a person, instead of humbling themselves before God, they exalt themselves. And God said, if you exalt yourself, he is going to humble you.

But if you humble yourself, he will exalt you. which way you want it. So he says here in verse 17, look at this verse, and when he, and you ought to underline these words, he came to himself. When he came to himself, there must have been something there. That he did not lose. Something that daddy had to put inside of him years ago. Because he had the sense at this time to figure out, hey things are not working right.

He has learned a very valuable lesson. He has left home, wasted his money, his substance, living a riotous life, a wicked life, rebellion, And now He came to Himself and realized there are things that He remembers that He did not forget. He says, My Father, My Father, I have a Father. And He says there in verse 17, and when He came to Himself, He said, How many hired servants of My Father have bred enough and despair? So He knew You, daddy, has a lot.

Daddy has servants. My servants are living better than I am. They got more food eat than what I’ve got. They work for my dad and get taken care of. I’m in a hog pen. Did you know as a child of God, even if you run from the Lord and you fall into a mud hole, You can lay in that mud hole if you want to, or you can realize, you know, I don’t have to stay here in this mud hole.

I have a Father, and I have a good Father. I have a wonderful Father. A Father that loves me, and He knows where I am, and He knows what I’m doing. And He still loves me. You see, there’s times in your Christian life when you may stray away from the Lord. Totally ignorant because you just don’t know. You make wrong decisions, but you don’t have anything to guide you. Then there’s other times when never you’re just plain careless. And you can do things on purpose even.

And rebellion to God. But you should understand and learn enough that your heavenly Father always loves you. And when you rebel against the Lord and you don’t serve God like you should, hey you still belong to him. You see there were some things that he did not forget. There had to be something inside of Him that said, you know, I have sinned. I’ve sinned. He was able to discern His condition. You know, the problem with a lot of people is they can’t discern very well.

They don’t see what they’re doing and how it hurts their life, it hurts their family or it hurts their testimony or it hurts God. It grieves the Holy Spirit. They don’t see. And therefore they don’t think it’s that bad. You know like a Pharisee, a wicked Pharisee. He’s a hypocrite, but he doesn’t even know he’s a hypocrite. Trying to give the impression. And it’s all phony. There’s people that come to church probably every week that are just like this Pharisee.

And they can always find fault in everybody. Some people probably get their kicks out of having rose reverend or potted pastor. And all they’d look for is false so they can criticize and chew up and spit out and destroy. And very something do they ever look in a mirror and see themselves? What kind of a person are you? How you doing? Are you a Pharisee hypocrite? You see, God knows the way you really are. And there’s sometimes there’s an image we like to project.

But this part of the verse I like when he says, he came to himself, there’s things that he did not lose. And he has not lost his memory. He remembers his dad. He remembers where he came from. And evidently he knew how to get back. Did you know that there’s a song that came out with years ago called, Wasted Years? Wasted Years? Have you wandered along on life’s pathway? La da da, it’s a good song. I’m going to sing it one of these days.

I’ll warn you in advance. But talking about a Christian who has lived their life and wasted so many years that it didn’t have to be. And then you realize I don’t have to waste anymore. I might have fell in the mud, but I don’t have to stay here. I don’t have to keep feeding the hogs and living off the husk. I’m a child of the king. And I know I’ve got a father that loves me and it can change everything but you have to come to yourself and realize that.

So he says, I will arise in verse 18 and go to my father and we’ll say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before the… and admit it. You see, why does Jesus receive centers? Because they know their centers. They admit it. Did you know a lot of people never trust Christ’s Savior because they can’t admit they’re a sinner? They can’t believe they deserve to go to hell. Did you know every person born in this world deserves to go to hell.

No oneometown has lived good enough to ever save themselves, but you have to understand I’m a sinner. I’ve sinned against God. I deserve to go to hell. I want mercy. And God says for my grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works. But see a lot of people will never believe it because they just, Well, I’m going to try the best I can. I’m doing all that I know.

And I ask people, where are you going today? Well, I hope I’m going to heaven. I’m trying. You don’t have to try. You don’t have to hope. You can know it. It’s free. It’s a gift. All that you have to do is admit I am a sinner and believe Christ died paid for my sins and trusted with my Savior and I get to go to heaven. Oh, what Christ did for me. So you look what He says there in verse 20.

He said, and He arose and came to His Father. But when He was yet a great way off His Father saw Him and had compassion and ran and fell on His neck and kissed Him, see, Your heavenly Father even has compassion upon You. God wants more for you than your desire could ever be. Did you know there’s a God in heaven that wants you to be happy? But see, happiness to most people is based upon happenings. If the things don’t happen to you the way you want them to happen to you, you’re not happy.

You’re unhappy. But what if you was to understand when God says Christ told him when he was the foot washing ceremony. He says, happy are ye if you do them. Talking about doing what he says do. You live the way God wants you to live as a child of God and happy are ye. Because it’s not based upon just what’s happening because you know the Lord. And the joy that God gives, the world cannot give to you. Now look what he says.

Verse 21, 22 just says, hey, this boy is still my son. Kill the fattest calf. Get the best. Put the robe on him. Put the ring on his hands. And the son just said, I don’t deserve all this. I don’t deserve all this. You know, 53 years ago I trusted Christ as my Savior. I didn’t deserve that. To be able to live after I trusted Christ for 53. I don’t deserve that. That’s grace. And then for God to give me an opportunity as His child to serve Him.

I didn’t deserve that. Look how good God is. And you need to look at it. Look how good God’s been to me. Look what He says now in verse 23. Bring him to the fatted cat and kill it. Let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and he’s alive again. He was lost and he’s found and they began to be married. Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s excited. Well everybody almost. Except the older son. You see the older son had a problem way before.

You see he didn’t do like the younger son did but there’s nothing that shows that his attitude about his younger brother has affected him in the sense that he had no compassion for his younger brother. He had no forgiveness for his younger brother. He had no mercy for his younger brother. All he wanted to do was cut and criticize his younger brother. Why? Because he wasn’t like that. You know, I fast twice a week. I give ties of all that I have.

I do all these good deeds. Look at me, Daddy. You know I’m the best son because I didn’t live like the other one did. You know, a lot of times people don’t realize how bad they are off. You see, those Pharisees that were talking to Christ couldn’t understand why He would receive centers. But He could receive those centers because those centers knew they were centers, and they would come to Him. I never came to Christ until I realized I was lost.

and most righteous people and church people, they go to a lot of different kinds of religions, can’t come to Christ because they don’t think they need Him. Or they think He’s necessary, they just don’t know He’s enough. He’s enough, and He’s all that we need. Now, when you go down through here, talk about all these things, look what He says here in verse 28, And he was angry, he was angry, would not go into the party. He wouldn’t celebrate.

Don’t he want to be around his young brother? Therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answered to his father at low, these many years do I serve thee. Look what I’ve done. Neither transgressed, I anytime thy commandment, boy, I am a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And yet thou never gave me a kid talking about a goat. You didn’t kill no animal for me. You didn’t give me a kid. You won’t kill a bullet for him. Fat and cack.

Yet I’ll never skip me. That I may make Mary with my friends. It was all about me me me me me me me me me me. And that’s the way it is with people who are trying to earn their way to heaven. It’s all about them. When they do a good deed for anybody, it’s because this is helping me get to heaven. And when I go to church, it’s because I have to go to church because I have to be good to go to heaven.

And when I give, I give because this helps me to get to heaven. So the reason and the motive of everything they do is tainted. It’s not done because of love. It’s because I have to do this. Do you understand? You don’t have to go to church to go to heaven. You don’t have to give money to go to heaven. You don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments or do any good deed. Not one good deed to go to heaven.

You mean that you still go to heaven? Don’t you get it? God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for your sins. If he died for your sins, that means you don’t have to pay for your sins if you will believe he did it for you. Believing is not a work to him that believeeth on him that justified the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. That’s why it’s so important. So he says in verse 30, But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

Look what he did, and boy am I glad I’m not like him, and he is despising him. See this is written as a parable. And over there in chapter 18, it was a parable. But both of these parables teach the same thing. Those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous. When you think in yourself, I am righteous, I deserve it. I deserve that kid and I deserve the party and I deserve everything because I didn’t do like him.

him. So there’s people that never get it. Everyone in this room, if you have not trusted Christ as your Savior, you would if you understood unless you are a Pharisee. You don’t have to be rich to be a Pharisee. You just have to be filled with pride and think you’re better than what you are. Or think you don’t need to be saved. I’m good enough. When God says, God so loved the world, everybody, He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, whosoever anybody, believe it, should not perish, go to hell.

But have everlasting life. This hand represents You and me and Waller represent sin. We all have sinners. God says He loves us, hates our sin. We have all sinned. There are some people that don’t think they’re that bad because they didn’t sin that much. I didn’t sin as much as you, so therefore I’m better than you. You see, the thing that can separate you from God and from heaven is one sin. How many sins of that have been even committed to the garden to get kicked out?

One? God will not tolerate one sin in heaven and if you’re not perfect, you can’t go. You don’t deserve to go. You’re a sinner. And the wages of sin is death, the eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us. He wants us to go to heaven. They go to heaven, you have to be perfect. It’s right, this is God, nobody’s perfect.

So how are you gonna get to heaven? God says, by your works, it won’t work. Your works don’t work. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, for everybody. And said, if we believe that He did it for us, He would put that payment He made to our, I go to heaven because He paid for my sin.

Well, He paid for yours too. But you have to believe He did it for you. See, when you believe He did it for you, then you’re not gonna try to earn your way to heaven because you’re already going. I’m not trying to get eternal. I already got it. So you believe He died and paid for your way to go to heaven. You’re not gonna try to do anything else to pay your way to heaven. And that’s how I know I’m going to heaven because it doesn’t depend on me.

It’s what Christ did for me. And He made that payment, paid for my sins, paid for yours, and all we have to do to believe that He did it for us and He gave us eternal life. We go to heaven on what Christ did for us. God gives us His righteousness the very moment you trust Him as your Savior. Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Have your head bowed and have your eyes closed. No one looking around.

If you hear this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ, I hope you understand that everyone needs to. But maybe you’ve never understood before. Hopefully I’ve tried to make that clear. But wouldn’t you like to go to heaven? You can know it if you’ll do one thing. If you’ll believe that when Christ died, He died for you. He paid for your sins. That means you don’t have to pay for them. Yes, I know we should, but He paid it so that you and I wouldn’t have to.

And you said, if you’ll believe it, He would give you as a free gift ever lasting life. Never cast you out, never lose you. So in the quietness of this moment, is there anyone else? Yes, that made sense to me. And this one, and I will trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and preach, I’d like you to pray for me. Would you just slip your hand over it quickly and put it right back down? June, what at all? I’m logging in bearish and I’m not going to have you forward, right where you’re sitting.

All that you have to do is the only thing you can do is if you’ll believe it right where you are. Would you do that? In one of the world, I just say, yes, that made sense to me. I will trust Christ as my Savior. And I’d like you to pray for me in closing. In one of the world, just slip it up real quick, but rub back down. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, that means your God’s child.

As a child of God, that means you’re going to heaven when you die. The best news in all the world. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one for being here. Then we thank you for this day and there’s a person here in Christ and we pray. Amen. Listening to another great message from Pastor Arnold and we at Bibleline thank you for tuning in. In appreciation to those who support this ministry financially, we would like to send to you a copy of the Jim Tingen story.

The Jim Tingen story is a true story about a young man that just couldn’t explain the gospel clearly. He wasn’t the type of kid that most people made friends with, but he knew that people needed to hear the gospel to be saved. Believe me, you’ll be affected by this story in a profound way, and this book is offered to you as a gift for your donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well.

So for this month, receive a free copy of the Jim Tingen story with your donation of any amount. It’s a small token of our appreciation for your support of Bibleline because without your thoughtful gifts and prayers from listeners like you, we would not be able to remain on the air. Once again for your continued support. 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.