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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

The title of tonight’s message, if you wanted to put a title, is how to save yourself. yourself, how to save yourself from one of the worst enemies of all time. You realize you are your biggest problem? It’s not the devil. It’s not the devil. It’s not your husband. It’s not your wife. It’s not your kids. The biggest thing you have to worry about is you. And so I want you to take your Bible and turn to first Timothy chapter 4.

1 Timothy and chapter 4. The Bible tells us that there’s things we should be aware of because if we’re aware of certain things we know how to deliver ourselves from certain things. So you have to learn how do I save myself from myself. Did you know that fear produces torment? The Bible says that but perfect love cast out fear. How do you save yourself from the fear? And that is to learn how to love. Learn that God really loves you and you can trust Him and trust can remove the fear.

But if you don’t, it won’t work. And you can live with fear all your life of what’s coming down the road. So here in 1 Timothy and chapter 4, I want you to look there in verse 15. Verse 15 says, meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. In other words, he’s telling young Timothy, there’s a lot of strange teachings out there, and you’ll see that in verse 1 of chapter 4.

A lot of strange teaching out there. A lot of false doctrine out there. And it says they’re coming after you sheep. So you need to learn how to save yourself and then that hear you. How to deliver those that are under your authority. You’re the pastor. You’ve got to learn how to save yourself. Because if you don’t keep yourself from the wolves, how do you keep the sheep from the wolves? They need a good shepherd, right? So therefore you have a responsibility.

So it makes a statement that thy profiting may appear to all. So the other people benefit from what you have learned in your own life. Now, I say this, I don’t believe that I’m a legalist. I’ve had people, excuse me, have been a legalist, but I don’t think I’m a legalist. I do believe that there are certain things that are right and there are certain things that are wrong. I believe that we should raise the bar, raise the standard.

And that standard shouldn’t be any higher than what God’s Word has to say. Living by grace doesn’t mean a license to sin. It means to develop the discipline that you need in your life to fulfill the will of God. So when he says, make not provision for the flesh that you may fulfill it according to the lust thereof. So therefore, I believe there are certain things that the flesh desires that if I keep myself from certain things and make no provision for the flesh or opportunities to get in trouble, I’ll be safer.

So I know that if I never take a drink, I’ll never become a drunk. I know if I don’t flirt with the girls. I’ll be safer. See, the key is, can you learn how to discipline yourself to keep yourself out of trouble? Some people look for trouble. They create trouble. They are nothing but trouble. And yet there’s other people who will go out of their way to keep from causing trouble. They don’t want to produce trouble. And you know, the Bible says this in the book of Proverbs, chapter 15, verse 1.

what? Because if you don’t sometimes have a soft answer, it creates more trouble and a mean argument sometimes. Or learning how to let yourself be abused. Let’s people defraud you. And there’s times in your life when people will say and do all kinds of things to you, but you don’t have to return the favor if you want to call it that. You are you and don’t use excuse. Well, they made me man, you made you man. Because no one can do anything to you that changes your emotional status without your permission.

So I have to give people permission to destroy me. But I don’t want to be destroyed. I want to save myself so you have to learn how to think. That’s why I said the other day. In your own mind, try to pretend like, I am the happiest man in the world. I’m the happiest man in the world. And let’s say you come up to me and you want to do everything you can to upset me. Say whatever you want, do whatever you want to try to upset me and make me mad and angry.

I’m still the one that decides whether I will do that or not. Because if I can’t control that, than you control me. And a lot of people live their whole Christian lives letting circumstances control them or letting people control them and their happiness or joy or peace is always dependent upon somebody else’s activity instead of your own personal walk with the Lord. So he says here in verse 16 take heed upon unto thyself and unto the doctrine continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself.”

See there? You got to learn how to save yourself, but you get works and continuing in good works. Well, this is not talking about how to go to heaven. This is talked about the effectiveness of your life, keeping yourself strong enough that the devil doesn’t destroy you because if he can, and he will, and he will take advantage of you, and he will seek to destroy you.” Let me just show you this over there in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

I just thought of this verse and it came into my mind. So I want you to see there in verse 24 of chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patience, in meekness instructing those that opposed themselves. If God pervention will give them repentance, a change of mind to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

So the devil is trying to capture you and you want to know how can I save myself from being captured. It’s like playing Capture the Flag. But this is the enemy trying to get you, ruin your life, ruin your testimony. The devil can’t get your soul but he could sure mess up your life pretty good. And you’ll notice when it says in verse 25 where it says, if per adventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

So you get into trouble because you believe a lie. And if you get out of trouble, it’s because you believe the truth. Satan captors with a lie. Christ sets you free with the truth. So he tells Timothy, learn the word, study the word that you may deliver yourself and those that hear you by teaching truth. Live the truth, know the truth. That’s why it’s so important. Now look there in the book of Isaiah chapter 55. The book of Isaiah and chapter 55.

So what does Scripture say about a person that wants to seek his own way? Why you should not seek your own way? Things are going to get pretty ugly. But when you decide to go against God away from God, Then your life is going to get pretty ugly. Believe it or not, you’re not going to light where it leads you. So you’ll notice here in Isaiah 55, I want you to look there in verse 7. Verse 7 says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways, say it. the Lord. So there is a difference. Your ways are not His ways. And there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. In verse 9, for as the heavens are higher than the years, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So God’s word tells us that we’re not on the same page with the Lord. You and I have a problem. It’s built in. We have an old, sinful nature. And so I want you to see the goal, one of the main goals of all of scripture and take your Bible and look there in the book of a hundred and eighteenth Psalm, the hundred and eighteenth Psalm. The hundred and eighteenth Psalm is a wonderful verse. Some say that’s the middle verse of the whole Bible.

Well, I have to be honest. I have not actually counted all the verses in the Bible and divided it by two. I just took them at their word that after this is the longest chapter in the Bible and before this is the shortest verse in the Bible which is 117th, the longest 119th and right in the middle of all of these is the middle verse of the whole Bible and that’s found in Psalm 118 and verse 8 where it says it is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in man.

In other words, God wants to deliver you from you. You do not have it within you to guide yourself. As it says in Jeremiah, it is not within man that walk up to direct his steps. You don’t have the wherewithal to get the job done. You will only have human wisdom and that will not be sufficient. Now, turning the Bible to the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs in chapter 12. Just a little bit to your right there, Proverbs chapter 12.

This is on page 680 and notice there in verse 15, in verse 15. It makes this statement, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. It seems right. It looks right. It must be right because my motives are good. No, it doesn’t mean that it is right. And one of the things that most people do is they believe that because they prayed about it, it’s right. A lot of people have committed a lot of sin by simply saying, well, I prayed about it.

But if it’s wrong, it’s still wrong. Okay, how much you prayed about it? The Holy Spirit never leads you contrary to truth, contrary to the Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit, not on Holy Spirit, He is the Holy Spirit and He teaches and leads us according to what is revealed in the Word of God. So learn the Word so that you can go by it. Now look in chapter 14, chapter 14 and then look in verse 14.

14 14 says the back slider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. No, there’s a version of the Bible that says the same thing. It says, whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. So a lot of people are not satisfied with their life, but generally it’s because they don’t like the crop. That’s a result of what they sowed. You sow wild oats when you’re young, chances are you’re going to reap wild oats when you get older.

Many adults are suffering consequences of bad decisions they made years and years ago. So if you want to have something good coming down the road sow something good today. Do you know he says you reap what you sow? In other words, if you want peace, So peace. You want to reap joy? So joy. You want to reap love? So love. So anger and see what you get. So bitterness and see what you get. So malice and envy and jealousy and all those things.

See what you get. You see, you reap what you sow. Regardless of what people do, you do right. You do good. One thing that said about Jesus in Acts, it says that everywhere Jesus went, Acts chapter 10, He did good. You may not always get the chance to win somebody to Christ. Maybe just teach the Bible, but wherever you still do good, you still do right. Do right by people. And be kind. Be loving. But why you’re right? Do you?

Just look in that chapter 15 in verse 1 where it says, a soft answer, turneth away, rep. Grievious words stir up what? So you see, if you sow grievous words, you’re going to reap something. And you may not want to reap that. So how do you save yourself from these things? Remember, God does give us some good counseling. Proverbs chapter 3, you’re right there. Proverbs chapter 3, and look what it says in verse 5 and 6. You’ve probably never seen these verses before in your whole life.

You probably have them underlined in your Bible. You probably say, we need one of my favorite verses. You know, it’s very difficult sometimes to recall what you want when you want it, Because you forget at the moment the heat of anger and so forth. And that’s just all over with you. Oh, I wish I remember that. Oh, what did I remember? Well, in verse five, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, with almost all your heart, all your heart.

Leng not unto thine own understanding. In the Lord’s, don’t trust yourself. I do not trust myself in a room with a beautiful woman. I don’t trust her either. I don’t trust me. I have a sinful nature. Therefore, I try to keep the door, make sure it’s unlocked or cracked or somebody knows where I am here or my wife is close by with a ball bat. No. You’ll find out you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble. That’s where wherever I go, I do my dead level best to have my wife go with me.

me. Now there’s times when it doesn’t work out that away, but most times yes. So I have to watch myself all the time because you know my whole ministry of 53 years can go down the drain in 15 minutes. Do you understand what I’m saying? It takes you all those years to develop a testimony of faithfulness. I have wanted to and desired to that my life would be an example of what does it mean to be faithful? Whether to my wife, to my kids, to my ministry, to the Lord.

I want to be an example of faithfulness, because the Bible says, moreover, it is required in a store that a man be found faithful. And faithfulness is something that every person can do. Everybody can be faithful. You may choose not to be, but you can be. You can be faithful. Faithfully do the things God wants you to do with your life. Then he says in verse six, and all my ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Do you know this is talking about acknowledge him and he thank God.

And all my ways you thank God. What does God want me to do? Where would God have me to go? What color of tie should I wear? You get a little nitpicky on that if you wanted to. Like I said, I don’t have to worry about that. I just ask my wife and she tells me what. should do. And so I know that if I just keep, listen to my wife, we’ll make it to 54. So learn to walk with the Lord.

Trust Him. Just trust the Lord He’s going to work things out. He doesn’t have to tell you how He’s going to do it. We should, well, I could trust Him if I knew what He was going to do. No, then it, the, a null is the purpose of the testing. the net eliminates all the fun. He may do you like Job, not tell you anything and let you squirm. Job didn’t curse God, but he should curse the day he was born.

God had to let Job see not only how far he’s come, but how far he needed to go. There was so much more that God had for him to learn. And that God didn’t owe him an explanation. God didn’t have to explain everything to him. And so the test was, can the devil get Job to lose his integrity, his trust in the Lord.

And the Bible says, in all of this Job said not, nor charged God foolishly. He simply said, the Lord giveth and the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Sounds good to me. Take your Bible look also there in 1 Samuel 8. 1 Samuel and chapter 8. You got 1 Samuel, then you got 2 Samuel. So 1 Samuel will be first. 1 Samuel in chapter 8. And look in verse 5, Israel demanded a king. Because you see, one of the signs of living for yourself is that you really don’t want God as an authority over your life.

You don’t mind a man being over you because you can get a man to change his mind. You can get a man to make bad decisions. You can control a man, but he’s God, God, he’s permanent. God don’t bend. He’s truth. He does right. He’s just. But it says down here in verse five, ends said unto him, Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

But the thing displeased Samuel. And when they said, give us a king to judge us and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And verse seven, and the Lord said unto Samuel, harken unto the voice of the people and all that they said unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, they have rejected me. And here’s the reason that I should reign over them. You see, when you don’t want God to rule over you, you want to set up your own king.

Somebody that’ll maybe let you do what you want to do. Someone that won’t maybe eat quite as hard. Somebody that you can get to bend with the wind. You see, they offended God. And also, I want you to look over there in verse 19. Verse 19 says, Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. For they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us that we may be like them, all the nations. So he said, we want to be like everybody else.

Isn’t that the way it is? I didn’t want to be like everybody else. I didn’t want to be one of all humanity who was born, lived, and die like everybody else. I want to be different. I had somebody tell me, it says, you are. But I wanted to be different because I wanted to be what God wanted to be. And I couldn’t compete with the people in the world. There’s too many of them. But I know if I serve the Lord, I don’t have any heart, much competition because not many people want to do that.

I want to serve the Lord. And I knew that if I serve the Lord, God, who made me different, will keep me different. I want to be different from the world. I don’t want to be like the world. I don’t want to live like the world. Think like the world. I want my thoughts to be different. I want my thoughts to be like God. I want my ways to be like the Lord. Am I bad because of that? Does that mean I’m lifted up with pride because I want that?

But isn’t that the will of God for all of us? Is that we not only know Him as our Savior, but we love Him and want to walk with Him and live with Him? That is so important. So we won’t take time, but you can go through the book of Judges and there’s one statement that will kind of stand out. Every man did that which was right where? In his own eyes. just doing what’s right in their own eyes.

And so that’s the way society is today. And so whatever is right is whatever the majority says is right. But you and I know that if you go by the Bible, what’s right is what God says is right. And it doesn’t matter what the majority of the people say, it’s what does God’s words say? God says this is right, this is wrong. But you see today they want to make everything a dirty gray. There is no right, there’s no wrong.

Let’s do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt nobody. So you can do anything that you want to do as long as you don’t get caught. So that is a philosophy. Looking Isaiah 65, the book of Isaiah in chapter 65, Isaiah 65 and look in verse two. Verse two says, This is on page 769. First, I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, talk about Israel, which walked in a way that was not good after their own thoughts.

Do you believe that God wants to save us from our own thoughts? Remember in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 10, we talked about having vain imaginations, talking about that we don’t fight our battles with guns and bazookas and tanks and hand grenades, but ours is a spiritual battle. And he’s talking about pulling down the strongholds out of our minds so that we could be captured, talking about our thoughts, captured by the Lord. And so that’s where real freedom is, is when you become a prisoner of the Lord.

When the Lord has captured your mind. And like Paul says, I am a bond slave, do you lost a love slave of the Lord, a prisoner of Christ. And he had his ears bore through as I am a lifelong prisoner of the Lord by choice. Voluntary love slave of the Lord for the rest of my life. And I believe that’s what God wants us to do. Now in Matthew chapter 6 verse 21 says, where your heart is there will your treasure be also.

So God wants to help us to realize how to save you from the things of this world. Because see, if you focus on this life and this world as though this is all there is to it, then it might as well just be dog-eat-dog. Get all you can get, doesn’t matter who you walk over, who you hurt, as long as you get your way and you win and you got it and you lose it all. Or is it better to lay up treasure in heaven where you can’t lose it and it lasts for eternity?

Eternal rewards that God wants to give. Because you see, if that’s where your heart is, then you’ve got to find out, well, how do I get these treasures? How do I get these rewards? And so God allows all these troubles and trials and tribulations to come and gives you a chance and me a chance to prove our love to him by allowing us to have all these other things happen in our life and we get a chance to prove.

Do I love God more than anything? Do I love God more than anybody? Do I love God more that whatever he can do with me and whatever he wants to make me, I’d rather have that. I don’t need fame, honor, power, glory here. Because he says that the trial of your faith been much more precious than gold and silver. Though it be tried with fire, may be found in the praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Can you wait till then? Can you with patience wait until you get to heaven? And the Lord gives you all the praise, the honor, and the glory. Will it be worth it then? That’s where the rubber used to run. 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. This 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.

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.