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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.

If you wanna last, if you wanna finish your course, finish the race, the ministry that God’s given to you, It’s not just the matter of starting and meaning well. You’ll find this word in the Bible mentioned over and over again. Continue, continue, continue. Keep at it. And so it’s important. And then when it makes a statement here in verse 25, not forsaken the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching.

So we believe that the Lord is coming and the Lord is going to come soon. Now, Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews, chapter 12, just turned right over there. These are some very familiar verses, but what I want you to get from this is the perseverance in the race. Not that you’re trying to prove you’re saved, but because we are saved, there’s a lot of things that we ought to do. And in verse one, he says, therefore seeing we also are encompassed about it’s so great a cloud of witnesses.

Now we believe these witnesses that he’s talking about is chapter 11, all of these Old Testament saints that he brings up as those who have heard the word, believed it and walked by faith. And you and I are supposed to do likewise. So they you had a race to run, they ran their race. We have a race to run, we run our race. But He says, you can run better, faster, longer if you don’t crowd your life or get so entangled with the affairs of this life that you cannot please him.

It’s called you to be a soldier. So what he says, our comfort about what’s so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. That means the things that does not help you to run your race. When I say there’s some things that I don’t do, there’s places that I don’t go. One of the reasons is because of this, a lay aside every weight. Does it mean that it’s necessarily that wrong? It’s just that I can’t run the race as well as I’d like.

It might slow me down, keep me from doing what I know that I should do, and therefore because of my race, I must make decisions. You can’t live by my decisions. I’ve told people when they come to college where there’s here or in Colorado, you can’t come to college on my faith. You have to come on your faith. How much do you believe that God wants you to do this? It’s one thing, as he says in the book of Luke in chapter 14, that whenever you sit down, consider how much it’s going to be to finish this tower, less when you get halfway.

He said, we haven’t got enough money to finish. And so then you have to credit. Or you see that there’s an enemy coming and he’s got 20,000 people. You’ve only got 10. You may want to try to negotiate and say, well, maybe we need to have peace. But you see, it’s not that you don’t have enough faith to begin. Do you have enough faith to finish? I never began anything because I had enough money. I’d do something because I have enough faith to begin it.

And does my face stay strong enough to keep doing what I believe God wants me to do? Well, this is what you have to face. You’ve got to have. Do I have full assurance, my confidence in the Lord, that whatever it is I’m willing to accept. Now, here in this verse he makes the statement, let us lay aside every weight, not most of them, every weight. You’re the one that has to say, what holds me back? I don’t want to tell you every area of your life of things to decide upon, because you’ve got to decide for yourself how fast do you want to run.

How dedicated do you want to be? How much do you want to be used? How many rewards do you want to get when you get to heaven? How much do you want to please God? Nobody can answer that question but you. And I may tell you that I don’t do this because it will hurt my testimony. And if it hurts my testimony, I believe it probably would hurt yours. But you can’t live according to my faith. You’ve got to live according to what is yours?

What do you really believe is the best thing? I get this. He says, the sin and the sin, which does so easily be set us. And as you read the book of Hebrews, you’ll find out the besetting sin. It seems to be the sin of unbelief. What is the greatest sin of a lost man? The sin of unbelief. So whenever you present the gospel, you’re trying to get him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the Bible tells us in Hebrews and it goes through about believing God, trusting Him for more, moving on to some bigger things and some greater things.

Now look in your Bible to the book of Galatians and chapter 5. Galatians and chapter 5. Galatians and chapter 5. And you’ll notice there’s a couple of good little spots here where it says in verse 7. See there in verse 7 I mentioned that just a minute ago. But look what he says, ye did run well. You did. But then in chapter 1 and verse 6 he says, I marvel that you’re so soon removed from him that called into the grace of Christ into another gospel.

There is no other gospel. He’s been going angel from heaven preaching to you any other gospel to that which I have preached unto you, let him be a curse. I marvel. I’m astonished. I’m amazed. it happen so fast. Did you know you can be on cloud nine today and down below sea level tomorrow? Just that quick. And it doesn’t take much because the devil is going to work on the little brain up here. Try to get you to question and doubt.

But you know that you have the Holy Spirit of God living within you. Let him lead you. Let him guide you. Let him comfort you. But he will not do it outside of the pages of this book. Now here in Galatians in chapter 5 and verse 7, you did run well who did hinder ye that you should not obey the truth. Do you see, running well is the result of obeying truth. So when you don’t obey truth, means you obey and ally.

You’re having questions and doubts. You’re not having full assurance of truth. the truth. Believe what God’s word says and let it control your life. Be willing to follow truth regardless of where it may lead, regardless of what the consequences may be. Just follow truth. Run and run well. And he makes a statement up here in verse 11. He says, if I was to preach circumcision, then I wouldn’t be persecuted like I am because I would be preaching works for salvation just like everybody else.

But because I don’t do that, I am persecuted because you see teaching works for salvation, nobody persecutes people for that. People persecute you because you teach by grace. Well that works. And that’s why he says up there in verse 11, and I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet serve for persecution? Then is the offense of the cross sees because the cross teaches by grace. But if I was a teacher persecution that’s by words. So if I was to do that then the offense of the cross is over.

The reason that I’m suffering what I do is because I preach salvation by grace. And so then he says in verse 12, I would they were even cut off which trouble you. And now notice these few verses right here. And what it says to those who know the Lord, love the Lord, they were saved, they had been running well, but they got a little bit sidetracked. And whenever you don’t live by grace and you begin to try to live by the law, then you become judgmental and critical.

Because then you decide how righteous you are and how unrighteous somebody else is and you begin to be lifted up with pride and you look down your long fairs he’ll connose that other people and you try to condemn people and that’s legalism. That is not the will of God. So he says here in verse 13 for brethren, you have been called into liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. Don’t use this as an opportunity to walk into flesh.

And the reason is, is because when he makes the statement to them, he says, who hath bewitched you? That you should not obey. He says, is it the flesh that makes you perfect? No. So he says here in this verse, only use your liberty, not as an opportunity for the flesh, but to love one another, because after a while, see they get to where they don’t love one another as they should. And they don’t care for one another as they should.

And so they begin to walk in the flesh. And when you walk in the flesh and you live in the flesh, you’re not going to be a happy camper. It’s only when you realize that I live by the desire and the power of God’s grace, because of what He’s done for me. I do because I want to. And I let the grace that brought me salvation, that I did not deserve, I did nothing for it. And the way God loved me is the way that God wants me to live for others.

not because of what I can get from people, but I have something to give to people. And there’s a difference because when you want something from people, you do what you do to get. And if you don’t get, you get hurt. And when you get hurt, you get bitter. And then you begin to devour one another, chewing on one another, seeing everybody’s faults and trying to magnify them, saying things against each other. And that’s why he makes statement here in verse 14, for all the law fulfilled in one word even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

But if you get this bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one another. Why do you do that? Because you’re not obeying the truth. You did run well and when you run well, you loved one another. When you run well, you’re careful one another. And when you You run well, you pray for one another. When you run well, you exhort one another. But when you don’t run well, you become very bitter and very critical, judgmental, and you destroy part of the body of Christ.

And it’s not bringing unity, it’s destructive. And this is what he’s talking about. Now look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 6. Hebrews in chapter 6. Here’s chapter 6, interesting little comment here. There are people who should have, by now, been able to teach the Word of God, but they’re not able to teach the Word of God. They’re dull of hearing. In other words, they don’t want to receive. And when you stop receiving from God, you have nothing to give to others.

You have got to keep receiving. I use the illustration now, use it right now just to kind of give you an idea. Alright, here I am and I pray to the Lord. Lord, meet my needs and God gives me enough to meet my needs and a little bit extra. Thank you Lord. And I am sure that. Lord, I need a little bit more and God gives and I give a little bit more. Lord, and all I become in is a channel of blessing.

God is using me, blessing me, and He gives me a little bit more than what I need, and so I can share, and I give it to somebody else. Lord, as long as I keep going right, just being a channel, then God keeps the flowin’ and God gives, and all I can do is Lord, and God gives? Lord, Lord. Oh, yeah. And you lose what you had. And you dry up on the vine. As long as you remember, you are receiving from God so that you can give.

And if you fail to give, because of the things that God has taught you, there’s other people who need to know what you’ve learned. That’s why everyone is to be a good teacher. But he says some people have hardened themselves and they’re not able to do what they should do with their lives. So just look at it quickly in verse 11 of chapter 5 where he says, of home we have many things to say, hard to be explained or uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.

In other words like you don’t really caring anymore. You’re not growing. And see, if God gives you truth and you don’t listen. And after a while, there’s no reason to keep giving you any truth. It’s like asking God for light, and you won’t walk according to the light you already have. If you’re not going to walk according to the light, the truth you already have, why should God give you more? And after a while you find out that you can’t see and then become blind.

And you don’t even know why. And the Christian life becomes null and void to you. And the Holy Spirit, you’re not sensitive anymore. You start yourself like you’ve got the Bible taught by the conscience, seared with a hot iron. There’s no feeling, there’s no sensitivity. So he says in verse 12, for when for the time you ought to be teaching the Lord like God said, I gave you enough time. By now you should be able to teach the word of God.

Do you believe that God knows how long it should take for us to develop? And are we developing the way God wants us to. And then He makes His statement, you have need, you have need. Well, what do I need? You have need that one teach you again. So you’re not ready to teach others, you need to be taught again. You’re like little babes in Christ because you cannot handle spiritual responsibilities. God gives us spiritual responsibilities. Can you handle it?

And that’s why whether it’s in a ministry or not, you try to find people who can handle certain responsibilities. It means response ability. Respond according to your ability. Have you prepared yourself so that you can respond to greater challenges, greater opportunities? And so if you don’t prepare, you cannot respond because you have not developed your ability. And that’s why some people say, well I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. And so these little blocks breaks, they build a wall around themselves of I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.

And they can’t do anything and they have made themselves a prisoner and they can’t bust out of that wall. Because every time they said I can’t, it means they didn’t have full confidence and assurance in the Lord. And that’s why they can’t do what they should do, or they could have that they chose not to. So now look down here in verse 13 where he says, everyone that uses milk is unskilledful in the word of righteousness, for he is what?

He is lost. No, he is a babe. Still saved should be able to teach the word of God, but cannot do so because he’s a babe, because he wouldn’t listen. He would not believe. He would not trust. He would not grow. And so therefore he says, strong meat belonged to them who are of mature, full age. And then in chapter 6 and verse 1, he says, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on. Let us move on.

Let us keep on growing. Don’t stop now. Keep on growing. Doing the things that you should do. And God says, this will we do if God permits? See, God’s the one that can permit you to grow into maturity or stop you from growing to maturity because you refuse to obey truth. You cannot grow. You cannot become strong. Denying God, the right to teach you to grow you, to build you. That’s why when you read the book of Jude it says about building up yourselves in your most holy faith.

Holy faith building up yourselves. And some Christians want to blame everybody in the world except taking personal responsibility for their own negligence. Now another verse that I want to show you is down here in verse 10. Look there in verse 10 where he says, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward his name in that you have past tense menerster to the saints and look at the next few words and do minister.

It means you’re still at it. You did something that was good. You did something that was right and you still are. And God it would be a sin for God to forget your work and your labor of love. So that means there must be a God in heaven that’s watching his children, and he sees what you have done, and he sees what you are doing, and knows what you are to do.

And so is… It says here in verse 11, and we desire that every one of you, and here’s that big word again, do, do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end of your race. You’re in a race, and until the end, give it all you got. Look to the Lord, walk with Him, trust Him, continue, because the Bible puts it another way when He says, abide in him that when he shall appear, we may not be ashamed before him it is coming.

So you don’t want to be ashamed before the Lord. God has so much that he wants for us and what he wants us to do. And that’s why it’s such an important thing. Let me give you one more. And that’s the book of Hebrews in chapter 10, chapter 10, and look at verse 35. Verse 35, You know I use this verse an awful lot because I just love this verse to wait toward it. Verse 35 of chapter 10 says, cast not away therefore your what?

Confidence. It means don’t stop trusting God. Don’t let anything cause you to lose your confidence in God because remember I said this the other night your works It’s going to be rewarded. And when you get to heaven, he’s going to reward you for what you did. But what you do is a result of your work. And what work you do is because of your confidence. And so that’s where your faith comes in. So he tells you in the next chapter all about this word called faith, the great faith chapter.

So therefore cast not away, therefore you’re confident which has great recompense of reward. In other words, if you’ll continue to walk with God and you keep on growing, you keep trust of the Lord, you have no clue down the road what great things lies and stores for you. Not only in this life, if God’s a terry and you should live, but when you get to heaven, it will be worth it all. And I love that. You know I guess sometimes as I get older, I’m preaching to myself because I know that I’ve started and I’ve done 53 years behind me in serving the Lord and I don’t want to stop now.

I want to finish strong. I want to finish strong. Don’t you want to finish? But you don’t want to just finish. You want to finish strong and giving it all you got. So that wasn’t got to get ready to take it. There was nothing left to give. Totally give our God. And that’s why I don’t mind going seven days a week. So that you know, I mean, if you’re right here, I don’t have a day off. I go every day.

Saturdays, I’m over here all day long. I go every day. I’ve been like that almost all my life because I feel like I’m running out of time. But I felt like that 30 years ago, 40 years ago, I just got so much that I want to do that I just don’t want to waste time doing a lot of other things, it won’t amount to anything. But you do have to take some time. I know if you don’t come apart, come apart.

I know. But I enjoy, if I had a day off, I would do what I’m doing. Shouldn’t you enjoy doing what you’re doing? If you’re going to do it, you ought to enjoy doing it. I was talking to Greg one day. I said, Greg, you ought to know me inside and out. You listen to me all day long. All day long, he said, sir, and listens to me preach. How would you like to do that? And then I talk about how you need to enjoy your work.

I hope you enjoy your work because if you didn’t enjoy it, you got torture, torture, torture. But is it wonderful to know the Lord and love the Lord and believe that, believe that what you’re doing is the will of God. There’s the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. And so if you don’t have any joy, you won’t have much strength to keep going. I have never come close to this thing they call burnout.

I don’t know what it is. I’ve read a lot of people to talk about it, but I’ve never come close to burnout. The where I just can’t go anymore. I just, I just gotta quit all of this. No, I want to do more, and I want to do more, and I want to do more, because I know I’m only going to live one time and you don’t get an instant replay, no reruns, just one trip through life. So give it all you’ve got.

I’m running a race and I just don’t want to quit now. Look up here. This hand represent you and me and the wall that represents sin. The Bible says that we all have sin on us. God loves us. Hate’s our sin, but he loves us. But the pay for this sin is eternal separation from God in a literal fire burning hell. That’s why we need to be saved. A lot of people don’t like to talk about hell. Well then, why would you talk about being saved?

Save them what? I don’t want to go to hell. I want to have eternal life and go to heaven. But to go to heaven, you have to be perfect. Because righteous is God. None of us are perfect. Not in our own works. God says you’re cannot save yourself. And so the Bible says that we need to save you. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He is the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us. And He hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord.

So the Bible says that Christ had no sins to pay for it so He didn’t have to die. But because He loved us, He took all of our sins, paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead. And He said that if you and I, if we would be He did it for us. That is so simple. All I got to do is believe He did that for me. He’d pay from my sins. And if I believed this and I accept this, I’m not going to try to earn my way to heaven because I’m going to heaven.

Why? Because I can’t go to hell. I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for my sins. Didn’t He pay for yours? Well, if He paid for them, then I don’t have any to pay for. All I got to do is believe this. And when you say, believe it means I’m trusting that what he did was for me. And I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did. So he gives me everlasting life and I get to go to heaven and I know that I have everlasting life.

Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you’re here tonight and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, I urge you to do so. Or if you’re watching by internet, the only thing you have to do is to be just beyond us between you and the Lord, Lord, I’m a sinner. Friend, everybody’s a sinner. Nobody’s perfect. Only God is perfect. But will you believe that when he died, he died for you because he loves you.

He paid for your sins so that you wouldn’t have to. You don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve it. But that’s because he loves us so much. That’s why he did it. And he said, if you would believe that he did it for you, he would give you the free gift ever lasting life. Friend, if it’s ever lasting life, how long would it last? And if it lasts forever and all you’re centipated, where would you go when you die? You go to heaven.

And so in the quietness of this moment, it’s between you and the Lord. If what I said made sense to you, you say, yes, preacher, that made sense to me, and I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight. Would you just flip you in it very quickly and then rub back down? Yeah, you want it all. If you’ve already trusted Christ as Savior, you never have to do it again. because eternal life is a gift, and you only need it once.

Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one for being here. We pray the Lord that as we have begun our race, we would maintain our race. We would finish our race and finish it with joy. In Christ name we pray. You’ve been listening to another great lesson from Pastor Arnold, and we hope that you’re growing in the knowledge of the Lord through this ministry. To help you continue your growth and maturing, We are going to give those who make a financial donation in any amount the DVD teaching series, How to Witness to a Jewish Person.

You know, most Christians think Jews really know the Old Testament, but in reality, most know very little. Though most are familiar with some terms of the Bible, very few know any details about how Abraham, their patriarch was saved. Most have never read Isaiah 53 and have no idea, it’s all about Jesus. So for this month only, for a donation in any amount, we’ll send you this DVD teaching series on how to witness to the Jew. 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 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 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.