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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.

take your Bible and turn to the book of John in chapter 9, the book of John in chapter 9. John chapter 9, and look in verse 3. When Jesus was here, He was always talking about Him doing the work of the Father. And you’ll notice what He says here in John chapter 9, verse 3, Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the, and And here’s those words, works of God should be made manifest in Him.

I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. So there is a time in which we won’t have any more opportunities. All of our opportunities to work will be over. So we’d like to say that, you know, I’m in the work of the Lord. But the work of the Lord, when I break it down and I study the certain scriptures and it seemed like the work of the Lord was all about the gospel.

I don’t believe the work of the Lord is me just building the building. We may build a building, but why are we building the building? It’s not about us having a bus and we just run a bus, but why do we have a bus? Why do we have a radio ministry? Why do we have the internet ministry? Is it that’s why I could say, well, there’s lost people that have all those same things. Don’t lost people have buses? Don’t lost Most people have internet, most people have radio programs.

What makes it different than what we have? You say, well, we’re doing it for the Lord. If it’s not for souls, it’s not for the Lord. The gospel, the work that Christ came to do was to get people saved. That’s why he came, that’s why he died. That was the work that God sent him to do is to make that payment on the cross for our sins. and he paid the price. He did the work. And this is why he says, this work, I work the work in your day that you will not believe.

So this work about their what they not believe in is the gospel itself. Isn’t it so important? And then he says here in verse 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Another scripture just came to my mind, just turn over there to the book of John chapter 4. Look what he says here in verse 34. The disciples had left Jesus, he had gone to Samaria and they went to town to get something to eat, came back and said, you got anything to eat?

And he said, oh yeah, I had a lot to eat. Anyway, he says up here in verse 32, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore in verse 33, said to disciples one to another at any man brought in something to eat, aught to eat. Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me to finish his work. What was he doing? He was sharing the gospel with who? The Samaritan woman, the woman at the well.

He called that the work of God. He was witnessing to somebody. That was the work of God. And whenever he went to the cross to pay for the sin so that a person could be saved simply by believing, that’s the work of God. We say we like to be involved in the work of God, but what is the work of God? Is it just we’re in a coat and tie and looking important? I’m in the work of God. I think it narrows it down a little bit finer than that.

And then notice what he says here in verse 34, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me to finish his work. That’s the work. And therefore we do have some work that we’re supposed to do. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of John 14. John in chapter 14. John 14, he had made the statement that he said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. He says, my father’s house for many mansions were not so.

I would have told you. He said, I go to prefer a place for you that when I come, I will receive you unto myself that where I am there, you may be also. And then he says there in verse six, Jesus said unto them, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now we know what the work of Christ was. And then He says, as the Father have sent me, even so send I you.

I wonder, I just wonder, we don’t have to down the cross and pay for anybody’s sins, aren’t you glad? But can we tell them what Jesus did for them? Can that be the work of the Lord that God gave to us to do? What did He say? Go into all the world and… Priest, you know, go into all the world and buy buses. Go into all the world and get on the Internet. all the world. We can do all things, can work together to accomplish a purpose, but the purpose must always be remembered.

What is God after? He is after the souls of which He died for. And so He says here in chapter 14, He makes a statement down here in verse 9, Jesus said unto Philip, He said, Have I been so long with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that have seen me have seen the Father and I’ll say as thou show us the Father. Believe us, not that I am He in the Father and the Father in me, the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself but the Father that dwelt of Him, He doeth the works.

He doeth the works. You ought to unalike. He doeth the work. Even Jesus said it is the Father that does the work through Him. You and I are supposed to be in the place as His representatives, as ambassadors for Christ, we’re to do the work of the Lord. But the work of the Lord must be the work that the Lord does through us. And so he says in verse 11, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very worksake.

Another place he talks about, for the soul’s sake, for the gospel’s sake. And then he says in verse 12, very, very I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than thee shall he do, because I go unto the Father. What work can I do greater than him walking on water? What work can I do that’s greater than fiend to five thousand? What work could I do that would be greater than making the blind to see and the death they hear and the dumb to speak?

What work is there that’s greater than raising a man from the dead. What could I do? Priest the gospel. Do you realize that when you preach the gospel, you’re helping a dead man come to life? That’s better than the resurrection out of the grave. That when you help a man trust Christ to save and you show him the gospel, did you make, you’re making him see and you’re helping him to hear the voice of God and you, you’re doing all those things for him.

That’s a greater work than what Christ did physically while he was here, except of course, when he died on the cross to pay for our sins. So he says here, also, and greater works than they shall ye do. Do you believe that God wants us as His children to work for the Lord? We work for the Lord, but as we work for the Lord we also know the Lord works through us. There’s a responsibility that God has and there’s responsibility that we have.

Now that you have trust in Christ’s Savior, God says you are created unto good works. We are to maintain good works. There are things God wants us to do, but I believe that what we do, it should be because it has something to do somehow, some way, for us to reach souls. Now I know you have to work and you’ve got to take and pay your bills and you’ve got to have food to eat, you’ve got to have clothes to wear.

And so there’s an awful lot of things. because eat up an awful lot of our time. But wouldn’t it be a shame to live your whole life and never had any time to do the work of the Lord? Or do you give your funds in order to do the work of the Lord? Do you pray because this is the work for the Lord, this is the work of God? And you believe that this is what God wants and you do it.

Look at another scripture with me, look in Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five, as I was reading this the other day, I thought, you know, I didn’t read this verse so many times. I wonder what it says. You ever do that, read a verse and you read a verse and you’re re-averse and you’re re-averse and you sound, I wonder what it means. It doesn’t matter how many times you even preach it. You just know, I wonder if I can get into one of those.

Or you just clap, squeeze it again. But look there in verse 16. Let your light so shine before men. Let’s see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Now if you was to glorify your father, which is in heaven, is there anywhere in the Bible that taught by here in my father glor Sakuya that you want? That you bear much fruit. Is it possible that we could influence other people? That we have the let your light so shine?

That others may see your what? Good works. So there must be some. something in your good works that somebody can see of which they would glorify your Father which is in heaven. I would like to believe that over the years, about 53, I’ve led a lot of people to the Lord, but I didn’t just lead some people to the Lord. There are some people that I have trained to serve the Lord, to walk with the Lord, so that they have seen my good work because I saw somebody else’s good work.

I was at Florida Baba College and I watched Ray Stanford sit in a ranch meetings week after week, after week, after week and in camps and in church and people trusting the Lord. I watched that good work. You know, it wasn’t going to church that caught me. It wasn’t wearing a coat and tie that did it for me. It wasn’t the jokes that Ray Stanford told, as corny as they were. That is not what got me. That’s not what did it for me.

Is that I saw people come to know Christ as their savior because of this one good work. He was a soul winner. He won people to Christ. That’s the work of God that I wanted to do. That’s why I would drive a vehicle and wife and kids across the country in order to go to Indian camps so I could do the work of God. So I could preach the gospel. You take that away, take the soul winning out of it, take the work of God out of it in that sense.

Show me a purpose in anything else. It’s all just no purpose. It’s all vanity and vexation of spirit. But when you put in there this idea, the focus in upon the work of the Lord is the presenting of the gospel for the salvation of soul. It gives purpose to the bust that we have to the ranch meeting, to the reformers unanimous, and to the radio broadcasting, to the internet. It gives purpose to everything that you’re doing. Why, that’s the work of God.

And we want to be involved, and we want to do as much as we possibly can. But I often wondered, I wonder if in verse 16, let your light so shine. What light? Is just how you live? You think he’s talking about just lifestyle evangelism. So if I just live so good, everybody would just flock to me and ask me, Why do you live so holy? And then I get a chance to tell them. Or is it possible that they saw the light of the gospel?

Because isn’t it true that there are some atheists that can live as clean a life as you? They can go to church too. But their light does not shine by which you can glorify God because it’s the message. There has to be a light, something that helps a blind man see. And there’s only one thing that I find that answers that. And I believe it is the gospel. Take your Bible, look in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 4.

2 Corinthians in chapter 4. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, look in verse 1. This is on page 1232 in an old Schofield reference Bible. In verse 1 says, therefore, see and we have this ministry. This ministry is this work of God. And we have received mercy, we faint not means because the importance of the ministry we don’t quit. We don’t stop. Whenever you read there in verse eight, we are troubled on every side, but we didn’t quit. We are perplexed, but we didn’t quit.

Persecuted, but we didn’t quit. Cast down, but we didn’t quit. Because we have this ministry, we don’t quit. we can’t stop because it must be important. If it’s just about looking nice, that’s not that important. If it’s just in walking inside of a building, that’s not that important. But if a man’s going to hell and God’s giving us a message to tell him, that is important. Wouldn’t you think so? That is important. That’s worth telling people about. That’s worth going through all that you go through for the gospel’s sake.

Now look in verse 3, but if our gospel be hid… And how can the gospel be hid? Because Satan wants to silence those who know the gospel. They can’t see the gospel. They don’t hear the gospel. So if you let your light shine means you let the gospel shine. And he says, in whom the God of this world had blinded the minds of them, which believe none, lest they get this light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should what?

Shine unto them. let your light so shine, I believe is a reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And therefore men can glorify your Father, which is in heaven because I have been thankful for 53 years for that man who said in my living room, well I said in his living room, and he told me the gospel. And I trust that Christ was my Savior that at night. So he makes his statement at number six, for God who commended, commended the light to shine out of darkness, had shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The light shined to us so that we could shine the light to somebody else. So I don’t believe that Christian life is kind of nebulous, a spacey-gracy. You do your thing and I’ll do my thing and you do your thing and it doesn’t really matter. You know, we all got our lives to live and we’re just going to live by grace and no, no, no, no, no. There’s a work that God has given us to do. There’s a command that God’s given us to fulfill and I believe that we ought to get busy doing just that.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Ephesians, the book of Ephesians in chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, looking verse 1, be therefore followers or imitators of God as dear children. Then in verse 2 it tells us how we’re supposed to walk in love. There’s things that we’re not supposed to do in mentions in verse 3, things that are not supposed to be mentioned among us at all. Not once named among the saint. God wants his children to live a cling light, a pure life, a holy life.

And then he says here in verse nine, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. In verse 10, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and have no fellowship with the unproofal works of darkness. Now if we’re not to have any fellowship with the unproofal works of darkness, it means that we are supposed to have fellowship with the fruitful works of light. When you call that conclusion, I do that conclusion. I think everybody can be able to draw that conclusion.

I think it makes sense. If he says, you don’t do this and no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, then I am to have fellowship with the fruitful works of light. So that means that light is to produce fruit. Think about it. Light is to produce fruit and we have the light, the knowledge of how to go to heaven. That’s true. That’s powerful. A lot of people have no clue where they’re going to spend eternity and we do.

So what are we going to do about it? Well, I’m glad you asked. Take your Bible, look here in the book of Philippians, Philippians in chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2, and look there in verse 12, verse 12. Wherefore might be leavened as you have always rebayed, not as in my presence only, but not much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well that doesn’t say you work for your salvation. But the Lord has put something inside that He wants to be worked out.

And He tells us what it is. He which has begun a good work in you, He wants to keep performing. Now look what He says in verse 13, For it is God which worketh, for it is God which worketh. Where? Where is God doing his work in you. So if God working in you and through you to get done what he wants done. And the work of the Lord is for you and I to be lights in the world.

And look what he says just to prove this to you. He says in verse 3, 13, for it is God which worked in you to will and to do with his good pleasure. Now, if this is what God wants, and God wants you to be faithful and given the gospel, the light, the knowledge, then isn’t it of his own will and good pleasure to place that… Light wherever he wants to. Do you ever feel that sometimes you’re in a place where you don’t want to be?

And you desire this or that and the other. Listen, God can move his candles around, his lights around, but he doesn’t want the light of candle and then hide it under a bushel. But he wants it to be seen. So there must be something that’s not just look at you glow faces on the glow. Son be my son being Jesus wants me for a son being well I’m not right there yet God does want you to shine and look what he says in verse 15 that ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the mist of a crooked and perverse nation God may want to put you in the darkest of places it may be on your job, it could be in the home.

It can be in grocery stores, it can be anywhere. You never know where God is going to put you. And it might seem like it’s so dark. And I thought about this. And I thought about this mainly because Peter made a statement the other day and I was, I forgot where I was, but I heard him say it. I thought that’s a good statement. I want to be realized how nice that statement was. I thought, no, he doesn’t know that.

He just said it, but he doesn’t really understand it. He don’t know how good that statement was. And it was boiling down to this. Because when you stop and think about the work of God, here’s Abraham pleading with God. You know, if you have 50, and if you have 40, if you have 30, would you spare it because you know, lots there and so forth, and it came all the way down, you got down to Halleluh. Got down to 10.

Evidently, there wasn’t 10 there that was righteous, right? Now, what when he says, if there are 10 righteous, What made a man righteous was a lot a righteous man. And God’s eyes, a lot was a righteous man. He was a just man. Not because of his lifestyle, not because of where he was, because the Bible says he vexed his right to soul from day in the day. But God had a man there, but the man didn’t shine. You would have thought, If he had been a soul winner of any kind, could he have won five to the Lord?

Or six? And he says, the whole place would have remained under this day if the works Christ says, that I do here in Capernaum in Corazon, if this work that’s done here, and the work is the work of the gospel, if I had a man there that would have preached the gospel, there it would have remained to this day, But I had a man there, but he would not fulfill the responsibility.

Interesting. And he says, I would have done many works here, but because of their unbelief, the Bible says he did not many wonderful deeds there. Why did Christ do all the miracles and stuff that he did for people to hear and understand and to believe the gospel? But you see, there’s places all over the world, And there’s nobody there to preach the gospel. There’s nobody there. Is it because God didn’t call anybody? Or is it because nobody wanted to go?

And it’s almost like Jesus was saying, these places would still be their entire insight on. They would still be there if he had a man. He had a man there that would do the work there that I’m doing here. If they were to do that work, if they’d have preached the gospel, it could have made a difference. Do you know why Nineveh was spared? Why was Nineveh spared? Because Jonah gave the gospel. God sent a man. Did he want to go?

But God made him want to go. And he went. And God didn’t destroy them because of the impact of their believing the message that Jonah preached. one man make a difference. One man can make a difference. One man, one person. But God is working in us and the fruit is supposed to be the result of the light shining. At least it makes sense to me. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin.

We all have sin on us. The Bible says that God loves the whole world, but the whole world has sinned. So therefore the whole world is guilty, the whole world is condemned to an eternity in hell. We’re all in debt, but God loves us. Wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God. Heaven is perfect, God is perfect and you have to be perfect to go there. There’s the problem.

Nobody’s perfect. We have all sinned and come short of God’s glory, short of His perfection. So because of sin, we can’t get in. So the Bible says, you and I, we cannot save ourselves. Man cannot produce any good works to save himself. And like we’ve said before, good works, can’t even get you into a good heaven. There is no good heaven. There’s only a perfect heaven, good works only help. You cannot save yourself. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh.

Came into the world because he loves us. He hates our sins because our sins separates us from the Lord. So Christ can’t come to me and I can’t come to learn. So what Christ did is He took all my sins, all of yours, sins of the whole world, paid for them on the cross and came back from the dead. So the sins of the whole world already been paid. Now He says, preach the forgiveness. God will forgive you when you believe He did it for you.

All you had to do was believe that He did this for you. So when you believe He did it for you, He gives you as a free gift everlasting life. He gives you His righteousness. If God gave you His righteousness, that would make you as righteous as God. You go to heaven on what Christ did. This is the work of God, this salvation plan. Being saved is the work of God. It’s not the work of man. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, man’s works.

And God says He gives you eternal life the very moment you trust Him. If you trust Him right now, He gives you eternal life right now and never cast you out and never lose you. It’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re watching by the internet on your screen, there’s a little tag that you can punch and say, yes, I am trusting Christ right now as my Savior.

If you’ve already done it before, you don’t need to do it again. But if you’ve never trust the Lord, would you trust Him? Say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner, and I believe Christ died and paid for my sin. And I’m going to trust Him and Him alone to get me to heaven because you cannot save yourself. The church can’t save you. I can’t save you. No preacher can. Only the Lord would you trust Him. I pray that you will.

And if you do, I’d like to know it. You’re there in the auditorium if there’s anyone here, and you never trust the Lord. Would you trust Him right now? Would you believe that when Christ died, He died for you? And if you accept the payment He made on the cross for you, God said He would give you as a free gift everlasting life and it never cast you out and never lose you. That’s how you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die.

Friend, that’s the best news in the world. Is there anyone at all before we close? Yes, that made sense to me, and I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight, and what at all. Our Father, we do thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us. We pray for wisdom in all these things, help us to be faithful and given the gospel, to be clear, understandable, and to be faithful in doing so, because there’s so many people that’s never heard.

We ask your blessings in Christ’s name. Hello, this is Peter Amato, and from all the staff at Bibleline we want to thank you for tuning in to today’s program. This month we’d like to send to our listeners and supporters the book, The Declaration of the Gospel. This is yet another book authored by Dr. Arnold, and it addresses the concerns over what is called the Crossless Gospel. Is it enough to simply tell someone to believe in Jesus for them to be saved?

Does the topic of sin need to be addressed in order for someone to understand what the gospel really is? What are the essential points that a lost man must be told in order for him to be saved and what does believing in Jesus really mean? These are just a few of the topics that are covered in this book. So for the month of May, when you send a gift in any amount, we’re going to give you the book, the Declaration of the Gospel.

Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bible Army. 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.