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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. 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.

Every person has to have something that he considers worth living for. Now there’s not much in this world if you stop and think about it. The whole world is going to go, it’s going to explode one day. Everything is going to be burned up, everything. The only value of anything on this earth is people’s souls, the souls of people. So you project yourself past the explosion of the earth to something more solid that’s going to be in the future that will be eternal.

And you look at that and you think, that’s where I’m headed. That’s where I’m going to be. It’s kind of like, you know, little kids, they grow up and then they get to be teenagers. They get on that teenage bridge and know it kind of sways back and forth. They can’t go back to childhood. They don’t want to go to adulthood. They don’t like what they see there. And so these teenagers think they’re going to stay right here all their life and they This is where you’re headed.

You’re not going to stay here forever. You’re going to get older. All it takes is a little time. You’re going to go from 14 to 15 to 16 to 17 to 18, 19. You can’t stop it. You can’t stop it. You’re going to grow up. Whether you like it or not, why you may not grow up. And you may even grow out. out. Well anyway, we’ll change the subject, but you’re headed someplace. In heaven is where we’re going to be.

Can you project yourself into the future as you could do time travel? We’re in heaven. We’re at the judgments of the Christ. And the Lord calls your name and you stand before him. And the Lord is able to show you all the opportunities that he gave to you. He shows you every trial that you had and the trophy that was waiting for you and the reward for all the suffering that you went to, all the times that you bragged on him and you gave him glory and all the tribulation and you didn’t complain and murmur and you didn’t back-biting, you didn’t curse God and all these opportunities and God has said, look, look, look at all that.

I was keeping the books on you. And all those things that you had to go through, I saw all of that. I knew everything. And he says, I’m sorry, but you don’t get any rewards because rewards are not given by grace. These rewards has nothing to do with how much I love you. Oh, I love you. But the rewards you have to earn these. Getting here was because I loved you. These rewards, well that’s because you love me. Do you love me enough to sacrifice your life for me?

Do you love me enough to work for me? And if you do, God says, I want to pay you wages. Look what He says there in verse 35. Say not ye, there are yet four months and then comeeth harvest. Be the whole eye send to you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields for their white, already to harvest. And eat that reapeth, receiveth, wages, and gather a fruit and the life eternal. The thing about being a soul winner is the fruit lasts forever.

It’s fruit that lasts forever. And God says He pays wages. He pays wages to those who are soul winners. He said, well, how much am I going to get out of it? You can bet your bottom daughter. Well, you ought not do that. You’re going to have great rewards, great riches because God owes you for your labor. And you and I don’t really know exactly how much that’s going to be. But God says it is worth it. Now look what He says in verse 37.

And hearing is that saying true, one saw it, another reaper. I sent you to reap that where on you bestowed no labor. Other men labored and you’re entered into their labors. People going in summers, spreading the seed in some, you know, water. And next thing you know, you come along and you reap for other people’s labored. Then somebody else is going to reap where you have labored. We just keep sowing the seeds and we’re to be found faithful and doing this for the Lord.

But labor, labor, labor, labor is works and works. God is going to reward you for. It will be worth it all. Take your Bible and turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. And the thing that you need to keep in mind is you cannot make somebody trust Christ a Savior and you can’t make somebody serve the Lord because that’s got to be that’s between them and God. You can’t make a person do these things. You just hope that something that you say and do will influence a person, but look there in 2 Peter in chapter 1, look in verse 3.

In verse 3 says, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Now just think, by grace, God has already given to us by grace that we didn’t deserve. What we need that pertains to life. You see, just to know that you have eternal life and they’re going to heaven, you were saved by grace. It was by God’s grace that He left you here. It was by God’s grace, He gave you the Holy Spirit.

See, that’s something you didn’t deserve. An opportunity to serve a Lord. That was free. And to live your life, God has injected a few things into your life like troubles, trials, that all of these testings. All the things seem like it goes wrong. Those are nothing more than opportunities. Problems reveal what you don’t know. something maybe you can’t solve. And that forces you to go to the Lord and ask him for the wisdom so that he can teach you more.

So every problem you have you can’t solve is to show to you what you need to learn. So there’s things God wants you to learn from every difficult situation and it’s to be looked upon as a blessing and not a curse. That sounds easy preaching. But if you can only listen to what he’s saying. So God has given us these opportunities. So he now wants us to keep in mind these two main things. The decision to serve and the diligence to work is our contribution.

That God rewards your decision to serve. You make a decision. You did it. You made that decision. And then the diligence to apply yourself, to do whatever it takes in the studying of the word, taking advantage of opportunities, the attitude you have, the way you are with people, your prayer, your witness, everything about you, is because of your decision to serve and your diligence to do something about it. Is the rewards given to you because of those two main things?

You have to make a decision to do it and then the diligence, that determination, I am going to work for the Lord. I am going to labor for the Lord. And yes, it will be worth all the sleepless hours, the things you sacrifice, the things you give up. It doesn’t matter what it costs, but serving the Lord will cost. And sometimes cost you everything. But will it be worth it? Can you out give God? Can you out give God?

I haven’t found that it’s true. I believe that whatever I have given to the Lord God has given me back. But not only for that in this lifetime, but I’m looking forward to the day when we get to heaven because there is a good possibility. My father-law who led me to the Lord. He’s in heaven Anglensham’s in heaven. You ever heard a guy named Ray Stanford? Yeah, he’s up there too Sometimes I wonder this great cloud of witnesses Like they’re in heaven, but these they’re not laboring anymore They’re not on the football field It’s see like they’re in the stands and they’re cheering us on It’s like a great war a great battle going on down here and we have these cheerleaders There’s great witnesses that have already done run their race, they’re finished with their course, and I believe they could be cheering the rest of us on.

I don’t know if they can see us, but there’s a good possibility that verse might refer to that they can. I don’t know. But you’d be surprised how many times I think. I’m not just doing what I’m doing because I know the Lord’s watching every step. know that, but it really bothers me when I think my father-in-law is watching me and he really knows me and all those hours that he spent trying to teach me the Bible. It was late at nights and if it hadn’t have been for him, I wonder if he’s watching me and he’s chilling you on.

So as you live your life, do you ever think somebody beside the Lord is watching? You won’t believe this, but I sit in office this afternoon and I was thinking about Stephen. You know he preached a great sermon, cost him his life, but it must have been all a doozy. Anyway, as he was being stoned, the Bible says he looked up and he saw Jesus standing. Remember that? Saw Jesus standing. Now did he have eyes that could penetrate through the heavens to the far end of the galaxies and he could see all the way into heaven and lo and behold with the naked eye he saw that far?

Or is it possible that heaven is right there? He says my earth is my footstool and that There’s another dimension right around us. And he’s right up there. Now I know Christ is within me. But you remember there were times when sometimes God’s prophet would just have to say, Lord, let open his eyes so he can see. Lord, behold, there were chariots all over the place. as angels because of the enemy. He said, don’t don’t worry about it. There’s more of us than it is with them.

And yet they were there but they couldn’t be seen. And it’s right there. How far is heaven from here? How far is there a way? Mile. Zillions and zillions of miles away? How far is heaven from here? And yet it may not be that far at all, just in another dimension that we cannot see with the naked eye. You’d be surprised that as we live our lives, all the things that are being done and angels that we cannot see, and all the things that happens, you think it’s not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened unto you.

God wants us to serve Him and He cannot reward you by grace. His gonna reward you according to your works. You must work for them and deserve them where you don’t get them and whatever they are they have to have such value to them that it’s worth every person who serves God and gives up everything in this life. He gives up who He wants to be and where He wants to go and what He wants to do and give it all up and just Lord whatever you want and you sacrifice all of that for the Lord.

Those rewards must be awesome. And rewards are not selfish. Now look at this verse, I want you to see this. Go all the way over there to the Book of Matthew in chapter 6. But you’ll notice that in those Scriptures 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 that God has given to us what we need, then He says, add two. That’s something we do. Add two this and then add this and add this and add this. So you keep adding.

You see, you have to have something inside of you that think, I’m not being treated right here. Things are not going my way here. But there’s a God on the other side that’s keeping the books and it will be worth it all. I cannot lose. I cannot lose because my trust is in the Lord and I’m serving Him with all my heart. I would say this, your motive should serve in the Lord and get any word on that. should be that it should be the love, the love of what?

Because I love the Lord, because I love Christ, because I love the Gospel, because I love lost people, because I love the rewards, because that’s what Christ wants me to do. So yes I think you can serve the Lord for the rewards, but you’re serving it for those because God would love to reward you. And rewards are nothing more than the evidence of your love for Him. You see, your rewards, when you get to heaven, it’s going to be the result of your labor of love.

And if you love the Lord and you will love those rewards, you’re going to have to learn a few things. I wrote this statement down. To seek the heavenly rewards, one cannot afford to be unloving. Think about it again. To seek the heavenly rewards, one cannot afford to be unloving, because you see God wants you to work and work hard, because you love Him, you love souls, You love the Gospel and you love those rewards. Those rewards are for eternity and they are a token of my love for Him.

When we get to heaven, we’ll see the scars in His hands which shows us for all eternity how much He loved us and He saved us by grace alone. the rewards you have when you get to have a nine know sometimes we think maybe in the book of Revelation where he says and the elders took their crowns and they cast him at his feet. But what’s the value of working for all these crowns all I’m going to do is just give them back to him.

It doesn’t say that we will give him back. That’s what happened and that’s what they did. But that’s not necessarily the whole story. I believe that there’s more to it and the service you have the position, the honor, the glory, the praise that God says He gives to every man has to last for eternity. So although I don’t understand at all and I can’t see it all clearly, I do believe that whatever the rewards are, it will be working.

Now if you think, well that’s just selfishness. It’s just all about me. No, why would I do all of this? Because He wants me to. you. Look in verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. What did it say? Yet I’ve seen a lot of Christians. Well, I just want to get rich and make a lot of money and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth.

Look in verse 20. But lay up for yourselves, lay up for yourselves Traysers where? In heaven. And the reason is because of verse 21, where your treasure is there will your heart be also. You see there’s one person in heaven that deserves to be worshiped and followed, obeyed, and that’s the Lord. And where your heart is there will your treasure be. Because of my love for the Lord I want my treasure to be there because that’s where I’m going to be and my treasure and whatever God’s gonna reward me they are gonna be like an appreciation of all my love for Him and would it be a shame To get to heaven, because you got there by grace, you didn’t deserve that.

You don’t have to do one thing for the Lord. But now that you’re there, and you didn’t do anything for him. You just lived your own life the way you wanted to, and thought it doesn’t matter. As long as I get my little pinkies inside the pearly gates, it doesn’t. Nothing else matters. And then when you get to heaven and find out that you didn’t do anything for him, he has no rewards for you. You still love you. You’re still in heaven.

But it has nothing to do about him loving you. He already proved that. But where do you have anything that says, I love you Lord. You’ll let me live down there for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. What did you do for me? What did you do for me? I think it’s something we’re all going to be thinking about. In the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 3 and verse 11, just look at that real quickly to close.

1 Corinthians and chapter 3. A verse here, we’ve looked at it many times before, but it’s a verse that I want you to look at real quick. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 looked there in verse 8. Verse 8, where he says, Now he that planted and he that water through one and every man, every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. There’s nothing in here about grace. This is something you earn, you work for, you deserve, God’s going to pay.

These are rewards and you haven’t seen them. You don’t know what they are. You don’t know the value, but can’t you take God at His Word that it must be worth it? And then we make a statement over here in verse 14, If a man’s work abide which he hath built there on, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer the loss. Loss of all those rewards that you could have had. You’re going to suffer the loss of what you could have had.

going to be hay, wood and stubble. That’s what’s done in no flesh and the gold, silver and precious stones is what you did for him. And God’s going to sort it out in the quality of the work. And then he says this in verse 15, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire. And verse 16, know you not that ye are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defiled the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. And let no man deceive himself if any man among you seem to be wise in this world, in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. And then you look over there in verse 9 or chapter 4. You might look like a fool. I’ve had people say, Yenga, you’re throwing your life away. Because I didn’t have many people say that. When I decided to go to Bible school, going to life away, I didn’t have much of a life to throw away.

He says in verse 9, I think that God has set forth us the apostles’ missionaries last. As it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and the men. A spectacle. Evidently, somebody can see you. We are fools for Christ’s sake. Oh, but you’re so wise. You’re so smart We’re weak, but you owe you’re so strong and You are honorable and we’re so despised and they were just like the garbage in verse 13 being defamed We intrigued we are made as the filth of the world and Are the off scaring of all things under this day in?

In the eyes of the world we’re nothing. We threw our lives away by the cause of Christ. So evidently the apostles, they all died, strange deaths, and heads cut off, crucified upside down, all kind of stuff that happened to them. They wasted their lives, didn’t they? They all lost, they all wasted their lives. What a bunch of fools. And they could have been so rich, they could have had so much, and they blew it all. That is if you look at it from this world’s point of view, but now they’re in heaven.

Do you think they lost? Or do you think they’re the winners? They’re the winners. They were the smart ones. the other people that don’t serve God are the fools. The Bible says, a fool has said in his heart, there is no God. What’s the difference of that? And a Christian who lives his life like there is no God. What’s the difference there? Both fools. This man represent you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us.

We have all sinned. We all deserve to die to pay for sin. We are going to get our just desserts. We should die and spend eternity separate from God and hell. We don’t deserve to go to heaven. We haven’t done one good thing to go to heaven. But because of this sin, God can’t let us in. And He won’t move from that. He doesn’t bend. So God says, you need a Savior and you can’t 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 sin because it separates us from the Lord. So there’s nothing that the man could do. He had no way of redeeming himself. He had no way to pay the debt. So So Christ took the sins and paid the debt, came back from the debt. He says, the debt’s been paid. It’ll be put to your account if you’ll believe He did it for you.

So I said, yes, I believe He did it for me. So we have our sins paid. It’s been put to our account. We have the free gift of everlasting life and we’re going to heaven when we die. That’s all by grace because of what Christ did. once you have eternal life God can never cast it away, can never stop it. Grace must last for eternity. Now that you and I have eternal life and we’re going to heaven God’s talking about what you have once you get there.

See going there is free but what you have when you get there depends upon what you do for the Lord now. When I understood this there’s nothing else I want to do with my life. This was all consuming in my mind. It’s got to be real to you. I don’t like trying to talk somebody into serving God. If you can’t serve God because of who He is and what He’s done, then do whatever you want to do. It won’t be no skin off my nose.

I grieve and I hurt for so many people that have made such foolish decisions for their life. I’ve lived long enough to see those who have wasted their lives and have also watched those who made something of their lives. It will be worth it all. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for giving us the free gift of everlasting life and for giving us the privilege that we don’t deserve to walk within to serve you.

And Father, we pray that we will realize that these rewards are precious to you, the things that you want to give to us that show that we loved you. And all the opportunities that you give us, and sometimes they’re very hard and difficult, but you want to know like you asked Peter, love a stomme, do you love me? Father, every tribulation, every trial, every testing, is another way of you saying them. How much do you love me? Do you love me?

Enough to keep praising me and honoring me and glorifying me and not quitting, hanging in there and struggling. The Lord, we know you see it all. We know you love us. And bless each one. Thank you for those that are here tonight. and bless those Father to make it possible for the message to go out over the air. In Christ’s name we pray. We hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson today from Dr. Arnold and Pray that Bibleline is a blessing in your life.

We are so grateful to our listeners and supporters who help us accomplish so many great things for the Lord. During this month to every person making a financial donation in any amount, we’re going to send to you the DVD teaching series on how to witness to Roman Catholics. Many Catholics love the Lord so much, but sadly they are lost. Although the Roman Catholic Church uses words like grace and mercy, they rely upon works as the cause of salvation. So many wonderful people are being deceived by the world’s largest religion, and this DVD series could help you win them to the truth.

Again, we’re so grateful to those of you who support this ministry. 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 for supporting Bibleline. 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 4081 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, just keep looking up.