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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 year. 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Sometimes we have to watch because there’s thing God is going to test us with. So look there in this verse. Now start off in verse 15 because there’s something here about some things to love things not the love. You see if you love flowers you have to hate weeds. Now why? We’ve heard flowers. Now when you talk about the Lord there’s some things that God doesn’t like. What doesn’t God like? I don’t know what God doesn’t like. Because if I love God, I want to please God.

Well, I want to know what doesn’t please God because he says in the book of Revelation in chapter 5 he talks about you and I, or chapter 4 I believe it is, for we are created by Him and for Him but it also says to please Him. We will create to please Him. So we should try to find out what pleases God. What makes God pleased? How do I please God? So you study the Bible to find out how to please God.

Now most people, their only goal in life is to find out what please is them. What makes me happy? And the thing isn’t about making you happy. That’s why really sometimes I really don’t care whether you’re happy or not. I don’t get caught up in people’s emotions. I’m sorry. I just know that you have a responsibility to God and you ought to do it. I have aoenix responsibility to God. I better do it. This life is short. And we have to give an account.

There is the principle of accountability. Every man shall give account of himself to God. And that account is what did you do with your life. So all these things that we’ve got to go through, God keeping books, you’re going to have to answer to God for everything that you did. So he says in verse 15, love not the world. If he didn’t say any more than that, love not the world. Okay, here we are. Are you in love with the world?

What is the world? Is it the planet, the stars, the galaxies? What is the world? Boys, girls, money, fame, popularity, what is the world? But whatever it is, whatever it is, you’re not to love it. Whatever it is. It’s just like I had a person one time says, I says, you know, everybody sends not me. I said, everybody sends not me. I said, you know, I don’t care what sin is. I really don’t care what sin is. Whatever it is.

Yeah, you did it. Whatever it is, you did it because God says all that sin. So whatever sin is, you did. So am I. So we have all sinned and And, evidently, if God wants us not to love the world, and we love the world, did we sin? Where is it saying the Bible that to Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to Him it is sin? Is that a verse in the Bible? Boy, that’s one of your favorite verses, isn’t it?

But He had that one right there. it makes a simple little statement to him that know it, to do good, and do it that not, to him it is sin. So we wouldn’t sin if we knew what to do, right? I mean we wouldn’t just do it purposely, right? Of course. So God says in His Word, love not the world. Look at the next part of this verse. Neither the things that are in the world, things, things. love the world and all of things that are in the world.

Is it easy for us to get caught up in the things of this world and just want more and more and more of the things of this world? Because think for a moment when Christ, He left Heaven’s glory. The Bible says, though he was rich he became poor that we do his Poverty might be what? Rich. Now, can you imagine God created the heavens and the earth, all that gold, all the diamonds and silver and precious jewels and all of that?

And he came into this world and was poor. He was in poverty. Maybe if he lived the day, he’d be on food stamps, but he was poor. He was poor. And so, he’s the one that’s telling us, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And look how much is in the world that we sometime will lose the blessings of God because we want the things of the world. And God says that things of the world are all going to be lost, they’re all going to be burned up, everything in this world is going to be going.

I keep looking for it and expecting any day now to be taken out of here. by rapture or by death. It really makes no difference to me because I’m gonna be where I’ve been waiting to go for for a long time. I’ve got some precious people on the other side and I got some precious people here. So whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord. And the Bible talks about, and Paul talks about this in Philippians, he talks about the people that are here.

He says I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better but to remain here in the flesh, in the body, is more what? Needful for you. In other words, Paul knew the reason God left him here was not for himself but for others. Now why did God leave you here after you were saved? For others, it’s not for you. So God is going to reward you according to the time he gave you to reach others.

Now we can either do it or not do it. And this is why we have such a great opportunity. see when we work together we get more accomplished. See by us working together, look at the various ministries God’s given to us. We had some people trust the Lord this morning on the internet. I just love that. I just think it’s so neat. Some of them like people were telling me it was a couple of clips before that we ever finished the service.

Isn’t that awesome? But we keep planting seeds and after a while some of this stuff’s gonna start growing. Do you realize that down the road I can see a lot of things happening and it amazes me. Let me just share this with you because I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I just want to let you know. Because I want you to pray for this. And I think it’s a great opportunity. The other day I got a phone call.

Well, it was because of an email that they sent to me, and I emailed them back and said, well, I’m interested. They emailed me and wanted me to come to California, and I thought, well, I like to know what do they want me to come to California for? So I emailed him back and says, who are you? how do you know me, what do you want?” So they email me back. Says, we know you through a guy named Chris Gould, who was the general manager of Salem Communication down here at the radio station.

He got transferred to California. And he, they call me, was the president of Capital Ministries, which has the Bible study at the Capitol in Washington. And they have Bible ministries that they want to get started in other states. And so he has a website and I went to it and I looked at his website and I couldn’t believe the people of endorsements that are on this thing. And so I asked him, I said, well, what do you want me to come out there for?

He says, we want you for about 20 minutes. I said, now let me get this straight. You want me to come to California, spend about four days for 20 minutes. I said, that’s right. We’ll pay all your expenses, airplane flight, everything. We want you to come. I said for 20 minutes. I said yes. I Said could you explain this to me a little bit? I’m just got a curious mind. That’s all he says because we want to videotape you How you present the gospel and the content of what you do in your Bible study downtown in the county building?

I said, well, I can do that. He said, that’s what we want. We want to use this video as a pilot to do this in all 50 states, every county. And we have people that are behind them to get this done. But as we know of, you’re the only one that’s doing it. I said, well, I didn’t start that. I said, a guy named Hank Linson started this about 15, 20 years ago. He said, yeah, but you’re the only one that we know of that’s doing it.

I said, but I didn’t start it. Yeah, but we want to do that. He says, we want you to come. And it says, as soon as it’s over, after we videotape you doing this, I says, now, I give the gospel. So, well, that’s what we want. I said, I’m not sure you understand how I give the gospel. And he says, I’ve already talked to Chris Gold. He’s already informed me. He says, and this is what we want. I said, all right.

He says, and then we’re going to be speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention at about 350 pastors. And he says, I got a meeting there and then he had other meetings. He says, and we want to show them this video. I thought, Lord has to be doing this. I thought, how in the world can you get a chance to reach so many people? And then you don’t need, and pray about that. Because anything that can be good and used for the Lord, the devil is going to fight.

If the Lord is in it, the devil is in it. Anything you want to do that’s good and right for the Lord, the devil is going to be right there with you. He’s not going to leave you alone. Now if you don’t serve the Lord, He’ll leave you alone. But if you’re going to serve the Lord, you can expect God to interrupt your schedule and the devil. And He’s going to do all that He can to hinder. There’s other things that I’m going to, that’s going on right now that I sure do need some prayer on because I’ve got a lot of interesting things that are happening.

And I need some special prayer on the Jim Tingen story and people I’ve got to find. And it’s just, we’ve been working on this for over eight months now, eight months. And it ain’t over yet. And the reason is because I believe a lot of things are hindered because of the devil. Paul says in the book of Philippians, he says, I would have done this and come to, he says, but Satan hindered. So you don’t get to do everything you want when you want to do it because Satan is fighting the Bible.

He will hinder you. And so he doesn’t care how he does it. So even if the devil doesn’t do it, God says, I want you to watch out for these things because these three things that are mentioned right here are the same things that God Eve, what she looked and thought about and make her wise and all that. It’s the same three things that are found right here. Whenever Satan met Jesus upon the mountain after 40 days, he didn’t have anything to eat.

And it says he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. See, he was tempted and he was hungry. And the devil comes along and says, why don’t you just take that piece of rock right there and just turn it into bread. Is he tempting him? He’s tempting him. But the Bible says that Jesus answered with Scripture. See, the The devil is going to offer you little trinkets of the world. And have you ever tried to figure out how that he was able to show the kingdoms of this world to Jesus in a moment of time?

Did he have a VCR? I mean, what did he use? Here he was, and he showed him the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And we think, we’re good with our technology, buddy, he was pretty good. And all these things you find out, he offers something to get you to worship him. All he wanted was worship me. And the way you worship the devil is by obeying the devil. He’s right ever balled down in them, pray to him and sacrifice to him.

But when you obey the devil, you’re worshiping the devil. Don’t obey the devil. There’s only one that deserves to be worshiped, only one that deserves to be obeyed. And you really are not worshiping the Lord if you’re disobeying Him. So keep that in mind. Now look what he says here in verse 15. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. It’s either one way or the other. Who do you love? And in verse 16 says, for all that is in the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

Those three things are things that the devil is going to use to get you to fall in love with the things of the world because every man is going to want the pride, the wealth, this intelligent, the wisdom, the praise, honor, glory. And so people seek that here. But God says that if you will forego that, and though the trial of your faith, because it says your faith is on trial, though it be tried with fire, may be found on the praise, honor, and glory.

So that the day will come when God will give you praise, honor, and glory. So you can either get it here from man, or you can get it later from God. I would rather get mine later. If there’s any coming, I’d rather get it from God. Because the devil, I don’t trust him. I don’t think he’ll keep his word. I think he’s a liar, he’s a deceiver, and I just don’t trust him. But for some reason I have a good idea that if God promises something, he’s gonna do it.

He’s gonna keep his word. And so he says here in verse 17, he says, and the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abotteth forever. You see, whenever you trust the Christ as your Savior, how long are you going to last? For all eternity. But the flesh, the flesh passes away. The world will pass away. The lust that is in the flesh, these bodies are going to die. They’re going to pass away.

This is why it’s so difficult for people to be really happy with this life. Because you see, from the time you were a little child, there are things that you loved. But didn’t your desires keep changing? Have you ever seen little kids that will play with a toy? Have his alarm. And somebody else have another little toy that he doesn’t have. How long does it take for him to want to have that toy? And then if you ever turn them loose in a toy or us, don’t.

And you’ll be surprised how desires can change. Have you ever seen something that you want that little child to have? Oh, they’ll love this. And you give them to them, and they’ll play with the box. And they have more fun with the box than they will in the toy that came in the box. You think, I just spent all that money for nothing. And then you find out that, oh, I love it. Oh, grandma, give me this, grandma, give me this.

And you finally get it for them. And it lasts about a week, and the desires have changed. It probably hasn’t changed much in all your life. Because as you got older, remember the girls? hate boys. You notice that boys hate girls, but then you get a certain age desires change. Aren’t you glad if they hadn’t, it’ll be the end of the human race. But then they desire to say, boy, life’s girl, girl, life’s boy. And they want to get married and love happily ever after.

Have you ever seen anybody love happily ever after? Well, that’s the goal anyway. But don’t desires change. Oh, if I can just get him to say, he’ll marry me. Oh, will you marry me? Yes, will thaw and he wilbs. And those rings get on their finger, but it don’t last long before they want to get that ring off that finger. This one girl she showed us, the girl that the office. Look at the ring, my boyfriend got me. He got pretty.

Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen that four times. Desires change. There’s desires that you have, the house you live in. There’s desires of the car that you drive. There’s all kind of clothes that you have because at one time, oh, I just got to have that. I just got to have it. And you have it. And it’s amazing how I mean I had to have that one, and I had to have that one, and I had to have that one, and I had to have that one.

That’s what I told me. If you find any kind of shoes that you really like, buy one in every color. The desires change. And as we get older, our desires change. When I was younger, 55, I’m going to build my own house. I built a house upstairs and downstairs and I got those stairs, but I can see in another five, ten years I won’t need those stairs. Now why? I’ll need an escalator or an elevator. So there’s things that happen as we get older.

I used to mock and make fun of those people as I drove down the road and I look over there and look at those old folks sitting out there on the porch and a rocking chair. I went out of the store down there yesterday, Cracker Barrel. Can you believe this? But take a picture of us. That’s all I, hey look, take our picture at Cracker Barrel. So send it to train us, send it to train us. Train puts it on Facebook.

Guess where my dad took my mother for her birthday. Everybody’s on a crack of arrow, crack of arrow, crack of arrow, crack of arrow. Well she wanted to go to crack our barrel. And it’s cheaper. But anyway, there’s times in your life where things like that can, you know, change. But always keep it in mind. The Lord knows what He’s doing in working in our lives. But if the Lord’s working in your life, the devil is working behind the scenes.

And I want the devil to know He’s been in a fight. I’d love to when life is all over, that I gave him a big old black eye. I remember in reading in the book of Acts. Well, the experience, you know, all that says, Paul, we know, but who are you? Who are you? I want him to say, I know that Yankee guy. I know that Yankee guy. When you read the book of Job, you find out how that he tried to get a hold of old Job.

God says, have you considered my servant Job down there? He’ll maintain his integrity. He loves me. That’s like God. He loves me. Have you tried him? I can’t get at him because you won’t let me get at him. But you let me get at him and he’ll curse you. So God allowed him to do certain things, but not other things. A limit. So you can’t just do anything he wants to do. But you’d be surprised that if you rebel against the Lord, you’d be surprised at things that God can allow the devil to come after you.

And the Bible talks about the blessings of God that can pursue you and the curses of God that can pursue you. It’s like trying to run away from them and they’re coming after you. The curse of God on your life when you rebel against the Lord. I’d want His blessings to run me down and run me all over and smother me than the curses of God, that God can chasten you. So you want to keep that in mind. But look at that last part of that verse 17, that he that doeth the will of God.

The will of God is love not the world. The will of God is love the Lord. So can somebody make you love God? No. They They couldn’t make you trust Him, they can’t make you serve Him. You see, serving the Lord has to be a voluntary thing, but God wants us to know there’s an enemy, there’s a price to pay for loving God. Because you loving God means that I want to please Him. And if you seek to please Him, there’s a devil who doesn’t want you to, so he’s going to be after you.

Bible makes it this way. He says the devil is as a roaring mouse. As a what? A roaring lion seeking what? Home he can devour and he devours you, he devours your time. He can devour everything that you have. He devours you, just eat up your life with something that’s not going to mount the hill of beans 100 years from now. I came to the conclusion years ago, I don’t want to spend my time, my life, the purpose of my life, doing what the lost man can do.

I want to spend my life doing what God wants me to do. So that whenever life is all over, I did something that amounted to something because this life’s going to be over soon and we’re going to be with the Lord and we’ll wish we had given him more. There’s a song about that. It’s really a great song. I wish I had given him more. Bob, let Yarlick get that song and sing it. Right down your alley. You know that song?

All right. Put him down to sing that song. It’s a great song. But all of y’all need to read those notes, know your enemy, know what you’re up against. It’s not going to be a free ride. The more you serve the Lord, the more problems you’re going to have. And I’m talking about, and you can’t imagine, where are they going to come from? See, even as a church, as a church, we got men on our board, we got decisions all the time we have to make.

There’s always something that’s hitting us, always something else going on. And we have to look to the Lord, Lord, walk me through this. Walk us through that, because we gotta love Him better than anything else in this world. I’m not in love with this building. I’m not in love with that gymnasium. I’m not in love with those peers. I’m in love with the people. Cause you’re worth something. These other things, they come and they go. I’m not in love with the bus.

We get a bus fine. If we don’t get another bus, I don’t care. Whatever God wants us to have, let God give it to us. God wants to take it, let him take it away. But I don’t want anything to happen to my love for the Lord, because I know He loves me. And I want to love Him that much, that nothing else comes between us. This hand represents you and me. And this wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us.

Now God says He loves us. But he hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in a place called hell. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. We’ve all sinned. That’s why we cannot save ourselves because we have to pay for the sin.

So there’s no way of ever paying for it. It’s eternal separation. That’s why you can’t save yourself because you’re eternally to be separated from God. And good works doesn’t pay for sin. Death pays for sin. That’s why no man has a chance. He can’t even help save himself. He needs a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him.

So Christ took the sin. on the cross came back from the dead and said that if we would believe He did it for us, He would give us as a free gift ever lasting life. It’s free. It’s the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Let’s pray, shall he? With every head down, every eye closed and no one looking around. Would you just talk to the Lord? Has the devil been after you lately? Have you been down a little bit, a little discouraged, a little into spare?

wonderful. I’m glad to hear that. It means a devil thinks you’re worthy of coming after. And there’s always going to be problems, but you can trust the Lord and heal walk you through it. I don’t care what it is. The Lord keeps his word. The Lord is faithful. The Lord knows our enemy. We learn a little bit, but learn to trust the Lord. And if you have not trusted Christ as your If you’re here tonight and you’re never trusted Christ, would you write down the quietness of this moment, say Lord, I know I’m sinned and I believe Christ died, paid for my sin, then I’m gonna trust him as my only hope of going to heaven.

Friend God said that if you would, he would save you, give eternal life, and never cast you out and never lose you. I pray that you have trusted Christ. Or if you’re watching by internet tonight, if you’re up there and you’re listening and saying, you know that made sense to me, I wanna be certain of eternal life. Know that I’m going to heaven. Then friend, the only way you can be certain is that you trust Christ as your Savior and Him alone and totally rest upon the work that He did.

He died for you. He paid for your sins so that you wouldn’t have to pay for them if you’ll believe that He did it for you. Would you believe it? Would you trust Him? I pray that you will. Our Father, we thank you so much for your blessings to us, for the privilege of knowing us our Savior and follow. we pray that even though we live in a world that is falling apart and we know it’s going to pass away one day and follow according to your word you tell us not to love the world.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. All these things that the devil uses to lure us away from you help us to love you and be faithful. The days come and we will be glad we did. So bless each one and Christ and we pray. Amen. tuning into today’s program. We hope that Bibleline is truly a blessing in your life. During this month to every person making a financial donation in any amount, we’re going to send to you the DVD series, The Poison of Bitterness.

In this series on bitterness, Dr. Arnold will explain how we poison ourselves, those around us, and especially our spouses with bitterness. Everyone can relate to the bitterness because it’s a human reaction to being hurt. But bitterness is a poison that can ruin your life, And this DVD series is yours this month with a donation of any amount. This is one of the most powerful teachings on the Christian life that Dr. Arnold has ever taught, so contact us today for this valuable lesson series.

Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address. 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.