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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. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleInemistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

your Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 Samuel, the book of 1 Samuel. In chapter 16, you know, there’s a wonderful little story here about how God looks at people and how people look at people. And what God was looking for was somebody that had the right kind of heart, somebody had a heart after him. So Samuel, he couldn’t find among the sons of Jesse just the right one. And God says, no, none of these. He said, do you have another one?

Yeah, well, yeah, I got another one. He just a little runt. Yeah, but that little little runt God wanted him. But look what he says in verse 7. But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord see if not as man see it. For man look at on the outward appearance. But the Lord look at the bond of the heart. Isn’t that a wonderful statement?

You know that shall give hope to every individual. That you know God come I’d be able to use me because you may not have all the talent in the world. You don’t have the height. You don’t have that like I’ve had people tell me. They said it in just but I would wonder. You think he has the face is perfect for radio. You know, I didn’t get that right off the bat, but after a while, I finally figured out what they were saying.

But anyway, aren’t you glad to know that God can use you? And that’s such a wonderful thing. Now, in 1 Corinthians, in chapter 14, verse 41, turn it, but God says, do everything decently and in order. We sometimes think, what’s talking about the, businesses. That’s probably talking about how you run a church decently and in order. But let’s take it down a little bit lower down to your own personal life. Do you think God wants you to do that which is decent and in order?

I think if it’s good enough for a country and good enough for a business and good enough for the state and good enough for the church, you know, it just might be good enough for the individual themselves. So there’s some things that God wants us to do. I thought about how to title this sermon tonight and I thought about three words. Convinced, convicted, converted. Not unlike the word converted so much because you could take a garage and convert it into a bedroom but then it’s no longer a garage.

When we talk about you and I, the Bible used the word more so is being transformed. God transforming you. Do not be conformed to the world, which means outside pressure conforming you. But He wants us to be transformed, and that’s because of the inside pressure. The Holy Spirit living within you, shaping you, and conforming you, and not outside pressure forming you. So there’s an external and an internal. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew 23.

We’re just kind of talk easy tonight. I’m not going to holler and yell at you, aren’t you lad? But in the book of Matthew in chapter 23, look in verse 23, there’s things that God says that we should do and sometimes we do them in. Sometimes we don’t. But as he was talking to the religious leaders of his day, he says in verse 23, whoa under you scribes and Pharisees. Hippocrates, you know, we don’t talk like that today. I mean, it’s just not politically correct.

We would offend somebody. And you know that Jesus was here. He wouldn’t offend anybody. Or Paul. I mean, they were the most, they read the book on Del Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. So they would know not to offend anybody. But knowing you read and study what these guys did, if it’s like they, They were afraid of nobody and no consequences. They just did what they knew was right and they stood. And Paul either caused a revival or revolt everywhere he went.

But look what he says here. He says, you did some things you should have done. You left off some things that you should have included. But look what he says. He says, for you pay tithes of mint and anus and cum and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, like judgment and mercy and faith. It’s not what you did that was bad, it’s what you left off. So, and you and I serve in Lord, it’s not gonna be all those things, well, I don’t smoke, drink, chew, and go with the girls who do.

Okay, that’s good. But do you do what I wanted you to do? Do we take that step forward in faith, believe in and trust in God, and do what he wants us to do? Do you show grace and mercy? But what he says here in the last part of it, he says, these things you ought to have done not to leave the other undone. Now, in spite of all that you are doing, is there something that you’re not doing?

Are you doing all you believe that God wants you to do? Now, these are things that you have to check in your own life, personally. But nobody really knows everything you’re supposed to be doing for the Lord. There’s general things, but there’s just a certain piece that you have between you and God. When you know that I’m doing what God wants me to do, I am where God wants me to be. And I have the peace that nobody can give and they can’t take it away.

So then he makes a statement in verse 27, he says, you blind guys, which strain at a net, you swallow a camel. Here’s, he’s somebody swallow a camel. You know, a camel would be pretty good size. Strain at a net. Swimming kicked this guy out of his house through the screen door. He says, he strained my relationship anyway. In verse 25, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee cleanses first at which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also. But when you read that, you kind of get the idea, you talk about clean up the inside first and then the outside. Because if you clean up the inside, the outside will take care of itself, but you can clean up certain things on the outside and it doesn’t straighten up anything on the inside. So first of all, you are to clean up yourself.

Okay, what about how does a Christian, how does a Christian clean up his life? Well, it would be good if you had something to find something with. So if a woman really wants to clean her house, you turned all the lights off and gets it real dark in it, right? No, you turn on all the lights, you open up the windows so you can see where all the dust is. Then you start like this one man, he asked us.

He was sitting there watching TV. Life came in and says, what’s on TV? He says, dust. And then the war began. Remember that little sermon? the war began. Well, it can start over nothing. And so the key thing is, is for you to learn how to keep yourself clean on the inside. Now, we often talk about the washing of the water by the word. So as you read the word of God, you and I, God says, we don’t need another complete bath in that sense because we’ve already been washed, saved, given eternal life.

But as we walk through this world, we kind of get a little contaminated. Our feet get dirty, therefore we wash our feet. And so there’s times when you need to apply the Word to your life so that you make contact with that which will clean you, keep you clean. So you read, you studied the Word of God and you asked the Lord as you read to reveal the things in your life. Like David says in the Psalms is a search, meal, God, and see if there be any wicked way in me.

And there was something that doesn’t belong there. So if you want to learn to walk with the Lord, you need to be convinced that there’s things in my life I need to deal with. And of course the God’s Word says that if we will judge those things in our life, well then he won’t have to. Now would it be better for you and I to deal with those things in our life? And if we will judge them, well then God doesn’t have to discipline us because we’re learning how to discipline ourselves.

This is one of the signs of maturing in the Lord, growing in the Lord. When you can detect the things that need to be corrected and doing it without being told, do you like people having to rebuke you? I don’t think I know if anybody just loves it. We would like to be able to see the things ourselves, but that’s see that comes from discernment. So this is the reason he says in the book of Hebrews in chapter 5, and he goes out into chapter 6, that we learn how to discern right from wrong, good and bad.

And he says, babes, well, they need milk, but meat belong left to them that are of full that are mature and in the Lord. So you’re able to eat meat. So if you can eat meat, it means you can feed yourself. You don’t have to always be fed. A lot of times you know, preacher, preacher’s a sermon and some people say, you know, I just, he just doesn’t feed me. I’m just tired of this milk. But somebody else who don’t know what you know, what they just heard that you call milk, they call meat.

And some people will say what you call meat, they call milk, because they already know that. It all depends on where you are yourself. But I believe that every person should be able to sit down and get some milk from the Word of God and get a little meat from the Word of God. And what do you do when you come across the gristle? Where you go over here and you get this knife, you go over here and you get a fork, you come back to that gristle and rightly divide the Word of God and take it in smaller bites and chew it.

Otherwise, you’ll choke on it and then it’ll stunt your growth and you will not mature the way that God wants you to. So the first thing is, of course, seek what to do about cleaning the inside of you. It’s so easy for us to want to look at everybody else’s life and find all the fault because that lets us know how spiritual we are. We can see all the dirt in everybody else’s life. isn’t it a good way to see how spiritual you are because you can detect when somebody else is doing wrong?

And when you do so, you’d be surprised how easy it is to become critical of other people and want to point out to somebody else, you know, we need to pray for so-and-so because, you know, that could be a good reason just to gossip because love covers what? A multitude of sins. In other words, your real motive should be as you want to help or restore such you when in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest you also be tempted to do the same thing.

And whatever somebody else’s sin is, if you don’t watch it, you’ll do the same thing. Thou that judge is another, do us thou not the same thing, Romans chapter 2. So you do need to be very careful. Or take your Bible and look at another verse with me. Matthew chapter 7. Matthew and chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7 kind of gives us something that you might. Yes, you got to clean up the inside, but you have to be able to see something that might need to be removed.

Remember I used an illustration one time up there at the church in Northside in Athens, Georgia. They had all these nice knotted pines. Well those knots is where something was cut off. A limb was cut off, but it made it so beautiful. All those knots on there. We say it gives a character. Well the more things you can get cut out of your life kind of helps build your character. You see there’s some things in your life that are not good, they’re not right, and they make you look ugly because there are things that puts a drag on you.

There are things that you don’t need to do. If you’re going to run a race, you need to eliminate all those things you don’t need that hold you back. They’re just awake. And so when you do that, you’d be surprised how much more effectively you can run for the Lord. So he says here in verse 1 in chapter 7, Judge not that you be not judged. Now it doesn’t say not to judge. It just says consider that however you judge you’re going to be judged.

Have you ever heard the statement that you know if you live in a glass house you shouldn’t do what? Why? Why? What does that mean? It means you live in a glass house. Somebody’s going to throw his home break your little house. Have you ever heard somebody say you You know, before you point out all my faults, you ought to go clean up your own backyard first. Before you start pointing your fingers at somebody else, you need to go look in the mirror.

Ray Stanford always did it. If I point my finger to you, I have to remember, I got three pointing back at me. And it’s so easy to point your finger at all the mistakes that somebody makes, but remember, you got three fingers pointing back at you. And so you have to be very careful that you don’t let your so-called discernment lead to bitterness and of a critical spirit, where the purpose is just to expose instead of to heal, to help a person.

And so, you’re not spiritual just because you can discern right from wrong. You’re spiritual when you do right instead of wrong. You’re not wise just because you know the Bible. your wise when you apply the Bible. Wisdom is one thing. You can accumulate knowledge and never have it do anything for you. That’s why do you have a working knowledge of the Bible? You can have a knowledge of the Bible. You can find everything in the Bible. But do you know how to use the Bible as a tool?

Can you use it as a tool to help somebody come to know the Lord or to challenge them to serve the Lord, to counsel somebody, do you know how to take the Scriptures and use it? That’s why it says about being a workman that need if not to be ashamed. In the Lord they steal craftsmen, able to take the Word of God and competent to counsel, able to help somebody with what you know, so that you not only have knowledge, you have wisdom.

Wisdom is simply the application of knowledge to experience. So when you put those two things together, okay, I got it up here. I’m living life now apply it to life That’s a wise man so When he says here in verse two, but for with what judgment you judge you shall be judged So that’s the explanation of the first part of that chapter And with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again like for example We say you reap what you sow and that true Okay, so if I if I want to reap love what should I sow?

Love if I want to reap joy. What should I sow? Joy if I so anger what will I probably reap? Now Proverbs 15 one says a soft answer Turn the way wrath But if you’re mean and ugly and unkind, just what you’re gonna reap. You’re gonna reap that. So a lot of people don’t want to reap all those things. So learn how to sow the right things. And in due time, oh, I may not be right away, but in due time, you’d be surprised how you will reap those things and sometimes from somebody you don’t even know.

Well, come along and be just as sweet and just as nice and just as kind to you. It don’t have to be the person that you sow it to. that’s a principle that you live by. You cannot control the actions of other people. Only you do right. You can control you and therefore God will bless you because of what you do and this is what I believe he’s talking about. So there’s something else that’s in these verses that’s very simple.

It’s so easy to want to try to get other people to straighten up. And you can see things in their life that they’re not doing right. So you want to, you know, give them your advice. And don’t we admire the wisdom of the person who comes to us for advice. You say, well, nobody ever asked me for advice. Oh, why? Why wouldn’t people ask you for your advice? Don’t answer. Maybe, maybe, maybe they don’t believe you have anything to offer because if you did have good advice why don’t you follow it?

Did you know that it’s easy to detect a person that is hypocritical because they say one thing and do what? And do another. Learn to be honest, straightforward but always be honest, always do right. Always believe in that if you really really want God’s blessing on you. You’ve got to do right by God. But if you don’t really want that. You can manipulate people, scheme with people, just use people, misuse people. And I’ve said this before, I’ve had people say, Yankee, I’m here, I’m yours, use me, use me.

You can any way you want, just use me. I’m here to be used, use me. So I use them. And then he said, all he wants to do is use me. So some people come, times you just, you can’t win. So look what he says here. He says in verse 3, and why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother’s eye, but consider not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or else will thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye and be holy beam like a big old two before is in your eye?

Isn’t it amazing the person with the two before can see the person with the splinter, but they can’t see their own? That’s why sometimes we have to be careful of all the so-called, maybe, wisdom that we have. And you’re afraid sometimes to give people biblical counsel because you know that you don’t follow your own advice. And so you don’t know what to say. And so sometimes you just don’t say anything. There is a certain amount of power of influence.

Every Christian has a power of influence. You can influence somebody’s life. And remember, it’s not always just winning somebody to Christ. I know a lot of people who are very effective in winning people to Christ, but they can also destroy them the same way. Because they don’t know how to build them. Because you can’t build people stronger than what you are. So whatever you are is what you reproduce. If you’re lazy, you produce laziness. You’re a soul winner and you can produce a soul winner.

If you’re excited about the Lord, you can produce people that are excited about the Lord. Whatever you are, you reproduce after your own kind. You’ll read that in the book of Genesis. Everything reproduced after its own kind. And that’s what we do. That’s why we have to be careful. So just to understand the principle, you want to see clearly. And so therefore you need to have self-examination. And unexamined life is not worth living. So every man, and we talked about this every time we have communion, examine yourself, to examine yourself.

Is there something that could hinder God’s blessings upon your life? Is there something that you’re doing that you’re tolerating because, well, it’s not that bad. It’s just a little bit he said. and you don’t take things like that seriously. I assure you remember, Satan said in his heart, I will, and he just said it in his heart. And God says, no, you won’t. You’re out. How many sins did Adam and you have to commit in the garden? One. How many sins can keep us out of heaven?

So you think a sin that big a deal? that little sin can keep us from a lot of blessings because we accept things. And when you begin to accept little things, those little things get bigger and bigger. You ever heard somebody say, he makes a mountain out of a molehill? You know the difference between a mountain and a molehill? More dirt. It’s more dirt. And so a lot of people just like to throw as much dirt as they can.

So keep that in mind. Look now in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 and look in verse 9. There’s something that he tells us that we need to watch because not everybody’s always around to hold your hand and tell you what to do and what not to do. This is why every person has to learn how to walk with God. You can’t serve God on my faith. I can’t serve God on yours. You have to have your own faith in the Lord.

You must learn how to walk with God. I do not want to raise a bunch of people in a church to always depend upon the preacher, because the preacher could die. It didn’t. And that’s why you got to learn how to walk for yourself. The Lord has to be He presses to you. You got to learn how to walk with Him if you didn’t have anybody. So here in Matthew, in chapter 16, to look there in verse 9, he says, do you not yet understand?

Neither remember the five lows of the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up. Neither the seven lows of the 4,000 and how many baskets you took up. How is it that you do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread that you should beware of the 11 of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? So what does he mean by that? Because you see down here in verse 6, down in verse 6, he kind of tells him something.

He said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And see, they didn’t believe the Sadducees, they did not believe in the resurrection, but didn’t believe the power of God. That’s why they were Sadducee. I appreciate it when somebody gets, sends a little jowls that comes out. But what is this leaven that he’s talking about? And so in verse seven, and they reason among themselves, is it because we have taken no bread, poor, poor us, we forgot to take bread, he said, look, you remember how many loaves you had here and how many you had here?

I’m not talking to you about that kind of bread. Leaven is like sin. It permeates the dough and causes it to rise. And a lot of preachers use a lot of leaven in their messages because it raises the dough. And they say all those things that makes people feel good. And we don’t want to talk about sin because that irritates people. You know, it makes people uncomfortable talk about hell and things like that. And so they tip toe through the tithers.

So he said, I’m talking about something else that’s important. Beware of the doctrine. This leaven is talking about doctrine, the evil teaching of those kinds of people that are rejecting Christ. That’s why I say the Bible makes this statement. Concerning those that have a doctrine, contrary to that which you have learned says and avoid them, not join them but avoid them. So here he makes the statement in verse 12, then understood they how that he bathe them not be aware of the leaven of bread, but in Yaraanda line it, the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

See if you want to stay strong in the Lord, you have to know what’s right and what’s wrong. If you want a sound mind, a sound mind come from sound doctrine that come from sound words. So you’ll see that in the book of Titus. So he says, we’ve given you sound words from sound doctrine so that you may be sound in the faith. So if you and I want to be sound in the faith, we have to know the word of God, apply the word of God, God, and be on guard that there’s a lot of false teachings in the world.

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. Your 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. 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.