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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. Be sure to watch our website 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.

Look there again in James and chapter three. I know what it says there in verse three. In verse three, behold, we put bits in the horse’s mouth that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body, their whole body. Well, he says, if a mature man, a child of God, will learn to discipline himself and to learn the word of God and discipline his mind, then you don’t have to be a double-minded man. That’s why he says in the book of Matthew in chapter six, that lay up treasure in heaven where thieves cannot break through nor steal.

And then he says, but lay not up for yourselves, treasures upon the earth, because you can lose it. But lay up treasure in heaven because you can’t lose that. And then he makes his statement, for where a man’s treasure is, there will, if heart be also. But I’d also like to say that where a man’s heart is, there will be his treasure also. So if a man has his heart set upon the things of God, and he wants to please the Lord, That’s a wise thing to do.

But he says, a man cannot serve two masters. It means God in heaven or money on earth. God in heaven or man on earth. You can’t please both. You’re either going to seek to try to please God, or you’re going to try to seek to please man. It’s a lot easier to please God, and a lot more profitable. Because what you lay up in heaven, you’ll have forever, and you don’t have to worry about the stop market. You don’t have to worry about whether, you know, you got a job, you lose your help.

You lose everything down here, but you can’t lose what you’ve laid up in heaven. And this is what God’s talking about. Why it’s so important. And then he makes a statement here in verse four, behold, also the ships in verse four, which though they be so great or driven by fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small hem, whether so ever the governor listed. In other words, it can be guided by something so small. You ever get in a boat and they got a motor back there, and that little propellers, some of them are bigger than your hand.

You can sit back there and just put the puddle along with that big old boat and all that weight in there and you’re going fishing, it’s totally under control. This baby-go-boat just by that little… Now, always remember, when it comes to serving the Lord, He says, if a man wants to win the prize, He must play by the rules. And there’s things that God says not to do. So sometimes we listen and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we want to stretch things.

But God is watching and recording everything in the believer’s life. I want those rewards when I get to heaven. And I realize I can’t cheat to get them. I got to do right. And God says that if I love him as my main motive. And I do what I do because I love the Lord because of what he’s done for me. Then it’ll help me in every area of my life. So I’ve got to learn how to think because that will help me to bridle my tongue so that I don’t say something that I shouldn’t say.

And that’s the most difficult thing. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to always be in control of your mind. Have you ever seen somebody lose their mind, lose their control? Well, I’ve had people tell me, I’ll give you a piece of my mind. Don’t give people a piece of your mind, not when you’re in desperate need of it. You need it. But look what he says here. In verse 5, even so, the tongue is a little member.

it’s great thing. Behold, how great a matter a little fire can let. In other words, this little fire, you can strike a match and burn down a forest. But anytime you want to start a fire, a control fire, it takes the whole pack of matches to get it going. One little match can lighten a forest fire. And the Bible is telling you that this little tongue of iris can do the same thing. You can kill somebody’s love for you that quick with a sharp tongue.

And you’d be surprised that as you look back over the years and you go all the way back when you were a kid. And especially if you had brothers and sisters. You say things and you do things and then you think, can you ever forgive them? Will they ever forgive you? Because you say you can say and hurt one another and it can last for years. But the Bible talks about a thing called forgiveness. We forgive one another. And we forgive somebody.

Why? Because God has forgiven us. Think of how bad we are and how much we have sinned against God. And yet He forgave us of all of our sins. So if He can do that for us, why should we have so much problem forgiving one another? Because here’s the key. say things and they hurt and digs deep. And if you don’t get rid of that hurt, it turns in the bitterness and the bitterness can destroy you. And it eats inside of you like cancer.

And you know how people hate cancer today? We want to get it out, get it out, cut, cut, cut, get it out. Radiation treatments, you name it, they want to get rid of the cancer cause they know if they don’t, they’ll kill them. And a lot of people have died the same way from the bitterness that they have in their heart. So always remember. And looking for six, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that defileth the whole body and set on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.

This little tongue? Remember this. If a man has these two birds, I got this one 72 years ago when I was born into this world. Came with an old sinful nature. Then I trusted Christ as my Savior about 53 years ago and I got me a new birth. This one is born of God. this one is born a flesh, my mommy and daddy. So God didn’t do away with this one just because he gave me this one. But if I walk in the flesh after the desires of the flesh and live like a lost man, well then I’m gonna have a problem.

I’m gonna wind up saying the things that the flesh wants me to say, this whole sinful nature. And And then I am capable of every sin in the book. So I can wind up being bitter and filled with hate and envy and jealousy. You name the sin and every Christian is capable of thinking the most nastiest things, grossest thing. And even though you may never commit adultery, you might in your mind. You’d be surprised the passions of the flesh.

It can totally control you. That’s the flesh. But when you trust Christ as you say, He gave you a new birth. In the new birth, God wants to develop a new mind. So He says in the book of Romans in chapter 12, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove or discover what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So God wants me to develop a new way of thinking.

And so that means I’ve got to study the Word of God and get the wisdom of God so that I can think differently. If I think differently, then I can talk differently. I can act differently. So I’ve got these two words. And God says, no, you’ve only got one tongue, but I’ve got two natures. This one can’t do anything good. This one can’t do anything bad. Two extremes living on the inside of man. Is there a battle? All the time.

Battle back and forth. Fighting for the use of this little instrument that I’ve got called a body. And so that’s why the Bible talks about the your instruments of righteousness in the book of Romans in chapter 6. So it goes down here and he talks about The tongue shouldn’t say good and incursant. It should be, make up your mind. That shows a double-minded man. So he says here in verse 7, for every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and has been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no maintain.

It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Did you know that there’s poison under the tongue of a man in the flesh because a man in the flesh he can cut and destroy, he can set on fire. And he can say just a few words and make people feel with hate and bitterness and anger and wrath. All the things you’re not supposed to do. Look this first. I want you to see this. Look there in first chapter and look what he says here in verse 19 verse 19.

Verse 19, Wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear. That means if you swift to hear somebody is speaking and the next part slow to speak somebody is saying something and as he says slow to wrath. For the wrath of man work if not the righteousness of God. So that’s why you’re not to let the flesh control your life. You’re supposed to let the Word of God control your life. And if you let the Holy Spirit through the Word of God control your life, you’re going to get a different results.

Now go back to this look at it again. You’ll notice there in verse 9. Now get this. Where? They’re with blessed we God, even the Father. And there with curse we men which are made after the similitude of God. So here we are, look up here, I’ve got my new birth and I’ve got my old one. The old man, the new man. I praise the Lord and bless the Lord and curse my brother. That’s not nice. And the person you curse God says was made in the similitude of God himself, made in his likeness.

He is made in the image of God. And you’re cursing something that God created. Do you think that it’s the will of God for us to go around cursing one another? And for some people they are asking God, God to damn this person to hell. Is that wise or unwise? That’s not right. But do people do it? Can a Christian use profanity? Yes. A Christian can say as many nasty things as anybody else might because he still has an old sinful nature.

God didn’t save this gave a new birth. This is the new one. This one doesn’t sin. It’s born of God. It has an half a sinful nature. That’s why if it can’t sin it can’t die. If it can’t die it will live for all eternity. So whenever this old body dies and he buried underground, absent from the body, present with the Lord. I’m going to heaven one day. So it makes this statement here in verse 10, out of the same mouth, proceeded blessing and cursing.

Now, if cursing comes out of my mouth and blessings come out of my mouth, would you say, I must be a double-minded man? Yes. So God says, one of them, and it should be the noober has got to be strong in order to bridle the flesh. And if you don’t bridle it, you can’t control the flesh. You’ve got to get strong enough to be what God wants you to be. Look what else he says. When he makes this statement, my brethren, in the last part of verse 10, my brethren, these things ought not so to be in verse 11.

Does they fountains in forth at the same place, sweet water and bitter. Or would you turn on your water? Is it bitter? Is it sweet? I mean, you only got one. Now today we’ve got it fixed up where we can turn it on and we can turn hot water and cold water and mix them together. Isn’t that wonderful? They didn’t have that back then. Well, we got it now. And he makes this statement in verse 11, doth a fountains in forth at the same place, sweet water and bitter.

No. can a fig tree, my brother, bear all of berries. No. Either a vine, bring forth figs. And so no fountain, both yield salt water and fresh water. So here you are and you’re a Christian. And God wants you to learn how to walk by faith. That’s what James chapter 2 is about. It’s people looking at you and your testimony and you’re not saying or doing the things that you ought to do. And you And you wonder why people might call you a hypo-crit.

Maybe you are. If you say one thing and you do another, or you’re really sweet and nice, and I’ve seen people, oh they’re just so lovey-dovey, everything’s just so wonderful the honeydew just drops all of them. And soon as they get home or out of church, man, they’re just chewing out one another and bruscheting out a lot of wringing out a little, you know like a tiger and a vampire trying to kill each other, you know. But you don’t have to touch, oh you can just do it with words, just with words.

And God says, hey wait a minute. Now look in verse 13, then you get to the subject of the wisdom of God. Who is a wise man and in dude with knowledge among you? You say, I am. Show it. If you’re a wise man, prove it. How do you prove you’re a wise man? Making wise decisions. I used to do marriage counseling. I’ll try not to do it anymore. I should tell them look, if you’ll make three right decisions in a row, your wife will think you are brilliant.

But if you make three dumb decisions in a row she’ll think you are not a fool. He says, you know how hard that is. Because I can do one or two, but three? Man, that’s pushing it. So anyway, sometimes you know you can’t win. I told this one man, I said, there are no such thing as the perfect woman. And you couldn’t have her if there was one because you’re not a perfect man. There is nobody perfect except God.

We’re all sinful, but the biggest part that people have to learn is learning how to adjust with people to work, to forgive. I’m sorry. I loved you. All those nice sweet little things like that. I’m gonna learn in one of these days. Believe it or not. We’re gonna verse 13. Who is a wise man and in dude with power among you? Let him show out of a good conversation or manner of life his works with maintenance of wisdom. Show by your works.

Now remember, now we’re not talking here about salvation. Going to heaven, that’s free. You don’t have to show anything. You don’t have to do one good work. You don’t have to go to church. You don’t have to give any money. You don’t have to change your life. You don’t have to turn from your sins. You don’t have to commit your life to Christ. You don’t have to do nothing. All you have to do is this Lord, I believe you doubt on that cross and pay attention and I’m gonna trust you to take me to heaven.

And God is bound by His Word. He has to save everybody that trusts them. He can’t say no, he can’t refuse you. It’s impossible, he can’t do it. He can’t go against his Word. He says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believe it in him should not perish. He can’t go to hell, but have everlasting light means you get to go to heaven. I mean, that’s all he requires to go to heaven.

You believe that he did that for you. Now, after you trust Christ’s Savior, know you’re going to heaven? Well, we may live down here in another 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years. So in the meantime, what’s going to control us? We all have an old sinful nature, and there might be times in your life when you might just want to take somebody and just, two can put on the neck and do another dead. You see, I’d never do that.

You probably thought about it. You just won’t admit it. And in that case, that makes you a liar. So God says that we’re all liars and we’re all thieves. And we all say things we shouldn’t say and we think things we shouldn’t think. Welcome to the club of humanity. And yet so many people have. Nobody knows how I feel. Seven billion people on this earth and nobody knows how I feel. And everybody goes through pretty much the same thing just at different times in our life.

And everybody’s got pretty much the same kind of problems. One is trying to stay alive, trying to help good health, and trying to pay your bills, having a place to live, closing your back, food in your tummy, kids, grandkids. And you don’t mind your kids leaving? You just want them when they do leave, they get married, they stay there. time they come back. Hello, Ma. We’re going to go on the vacation. You watch the kids, okay?

Look down at the last thing here. See there in verse 14, but if you have bitter envene and strife in your heart, are that bitterness and strife? Look up here. Which one does that come from? This one or this one? This is the flesh. This is the spirit. If you have this in your heart, the flesh. So if you have that it says glory not. You can’t glory about that. You’re walking in the flesh. You’re letting the old sinful nature control your life.

And that’s why you say all those mean nasty ugly things. That’s why you let your mind run wild. The Bible talks about because of our sinful nature. We imagine the worst. The phone rings. Oh, but it’s the IRS. It’s a bill collector. You know, it’s always bad news. It’s bad news. You know, it might be different. It might be,Depths, no. In verse 15, this wisdom descend not from above. That’s of the old sinful nature. That’s why he says it earthly sensual.

That’s from the flesh. Then he talks about the wisdom that’s from above. That’s for the new birth. And so look what he says here in chapter 1. Look in chapter 1. Look in verse 17. James chapter 1 verse 17, where it says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from where? Above. Get this. Come down from the Father of lights. With whom is no verableness, nor shadow of turning. So, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.

We were born again by the word of truth. So, what do you think God wants his children to learn to grow on the word of truth. God wants us to think the way he thinks. And he says, if you don’t, you’re going to be a double-minded man. And that man, God says, don’t think he’s going to receive anything of the Lord. Look what else he says here as we close in chapter 4. Look in chapter 4 and verse 1, this is talking to the Christians.

This is not talking but the last people, this is talking to Christians. From which come wars and fighting among you, come they not hence even of your lust that war and your members, it’s in your body. You have a sinful nature and these things are going to cause you have problems unless you can bridle it. Got to control it. So he then he makes the statement in verse 2, ye lust. Okay, where does is lust come from is that talking about the spirit or that headquartered flesh the flesh because you got two natures to birth God does not want my one mouth my one tongue to bless God curse man say wonderful thing all how I love the Lord that’s just people I can’t stand wait a minute God says how can you say you love me and you can’t see me and you got

all these people. You don’t love them that you can see.” And so he makes this statement. You lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and you war, yet you have not because you asked not. And you say, well, I asked, but remember, he says, let not that man think he shall receive anything if he’s asking in the flesh, if he’s a double-minded Man, in other words, what does God want you to do?

Okay, you’re his child. Make up your mind. You’re gonna serve the Lord or not. Are you gonna trust the Lord or not? You’re gonna walk with God or not. And every man who will make up his mind says, Lord, I’m not fighting against you anymore. I’m just gonna do whatever you want me to do with my life. I’m yours. And stop arguing and fighting with God. And just do what’s right because it’s right to do. Seek this to please the Lord and be single-minded, single-minded.

Set your affections on things that are above. And do what God wants you to do. The wisdom that comes down from God, he put it in a book. He says, now this is my love letter to my children. And I want you to read my love letter. And I want you to learn how to love like I love. I want you to forgive like I forgive. I want you to have patience like I got patience. all the things that God has, He wants us to be like that.

He says in verse 1 of chapter 5 of the book of Ephesians, it would be imitators of God. Can you handle that? You can do that. Only thing that keeps us with our sanity. Otherwise, you’ll lose your mind. And that’s why so many people have lost their mind. And they’re not disciplined. And they worry so much. And that’s why he says, casting all your cares upon him because you know he cares for you. But when you don’t know that, you try to carry them yourself.

And the more you try to carry, the more it’s gonna bog you down because you can’t carry the weight. And say, God said he just wants to give you the strength and the great hidden one to remove all of our problems. Our problems are just opportunities for us to prove our faithfulness to him. Look up here, this is you and me, and this is while it represents sin. We all have sin upon us. Now God says that He loves us.

Now He hates our sin, but He loves us. And He says that we’ve all sinned, so we’re all condemned to a place in hell. But God wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect, no sin, but because of sin we can’t get in. So God says you cannot save yourself. You need to save your. And that’s why He says your good works won’t take away your sin. Just because you go to church doesn’t go, that doesn’t help you get to heaven.

And just because you pay all your bills and you love one another and you do all the right thing, thing, that’s not going to get your little pinkies one inch closer to the perlite gates. You don’t get in unless you go through Christ. There is no other way. No man comeeth unto the Father except through Christ. Now this hand represents Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh. Came into the world, He didn’t have any sin, so He didn’t have to die.

But because He loves us, He hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord. So He took all the sin. And the cross came back from the dead. And God said that if you were not, if we would believe He did it for us, He would put that payment to our account. And we get to go to heaven on what Jesus did. Christ died to pay for my sins. And if I believe it, that payment He made is put to my account as though I had died and paid for all of my sins.

And you only have to die once. So in God’s eyes, I paid for all of my sins. I really didn’t do it. My substitution person did it for me. He paid for my sin in my place. So as far as God is concerned, all my sins are paid. And so because I died in Christ, the law can never condemn me again. The law can’t condemn a dead man. I’m a dead man. When I trusted Christ as my Savior 53 years ago, I became a child of God.

And that’s why I know I have eternal life, and I know that I’m going to heaven when I die because of the payment Christ made on the cross for me. Let’s borrow his showering. With headbound eyes closed and no one looking around. If you have never trusted Christ as your savior, would you right now just in the kindness of this moment? Just talk to the Lord. Say something simple like this, Lord, I don’t understand it all, but I know, I know that I’m a sinner.

I believe that when Christ died, He paid for my sin. And right now I will trust Him as my savior. And if you’re making that decision, would you trust him right now? Would you do it? God said, if you’ll trust him, he’ll save you and give you eternal life. If you’re watching my internet, even right there on the screen, you can just click on and say, yes, I will trust Christ right now as my savior. We’d love to know that.

So in the quietness of this moment, is your new one also? Yes, I will trust Christ as my savior and preach I like it to pray for me. We’ll just let be in it very quickly, or rub it down in one dollar. Our Father, we thank You so much for Your blessings. Thank You for giving us the free gift of eternal life. We pray that You’d help us to realize the importance of not being double-minded. That would be single-minded, like a mind, as Your children, to serve You with all our heart.

In Christ’s name You pray, amen. What another great message from Dr. Arnold. Friends, we hope more than anything else that you know You’re saved by believing Jesus died for your sin, and that Bibleline is helping you grow stronger and stronger in the Lord. Would you know how to witness to an atheist? What do you start with if a person doesn’t even believe there is a God? For this month, all who send in a financial donation in any amount, we will mail to you Dr.

Arnold’s DVD teaching lesson on how to witness to an atheist. You’ll gain some great insight on reaching people who may just need someone to explain the truth to them. DVD series is yours for this month only with your financial donation in any amount. 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 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.