This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleignmenistries.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.

Anyway, I got a little bone I want to pick we did today. But it’s a good one. It’s a good one. I want you to pretend for a moment because illustrations are just windows that let light into a dark room. So we’re going to pretend this morning you are sitting and this is inside of the Bible. This is the Bible. This is the Bible. Okay? Now you didn’t get in here through the roof. you didn’t get in here from the floor and you didn’t get in here through the wall.

You got in here through the door. So once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you got into this Bible, this new world. God says you cannot see the kingdom of God or enter into the kingdom of God unless you’ve been born again. So we’re going to pretend this morning. We’re going to pretend that all of you that are in here have trusted Christ as your Savior. But I’d be all right just for the illustration. Some of you may have, some of you may not.

But you may just be visiting with us. Maybe you’ve been visiting here for 20 years. And you still have never trusted the Lord. But we’re going to pretend this morning that you have. And all of those that are in here are saved individuals. Now, take your Bible and go to the first Corinthians chapter 2. First Corinthians in chapter 2. I’ll follow a little bit of my logic this morning. First Corinthians in chapter 2, there was a day, there was a day when all of us in this room was on the outside of the kingdom of God.

We were outside. See this here and here, this is the kingdom of God. This is those that are going to heaven when they die. And so not everybody is in here because there’s a lot of people have not heard yet how wonderful we are. And so they don’t know yet, but we’re going to tell them. Because we’re so glad we’re going to heaven. We want everybody to go to heaven. True? We want everybody to hear. So inside of this room is only those that have trusted the Lord.

Now look in chapter 2 and verse 9. But as is it written, I have not seen or eareden neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. Now you know from just read that verse there’s something that God has prepared for them that love him. Now the way you get to love the Lord is that first of all you must be loved. You’ll find in the book of John beloved now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that we will be like him for we shall see him as he is we are beloved means we have allowed God to love us through the gospel of Jesus Christ so beloved when you reject God’s love you’re saying I don’t want God to love me but

friend, he already does love you. But you won’t accept his love, and if you don’t accept his love, you reject his love. And so when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you became a beloved. You have been loved by God. And because you have been loved by God, we love him because he first loved us. So you and I didn’t get to go to heaven. We didn’t get inside of this room because we love God. We’re We’re in here because God loved us.

And we accepted His love. We accepted that payment Christ made for us because that was an expression of His love for us. We believe it. So here we are. We have come into this new world for believers. It’s believers only. But there’s a world that God loves and you want some to hear this. So He says in verse 10, but God had to reveal them unto us by His Spirit. You hear the Spirit, church, if all things, you hear the deep things of God.

But what man know the things of God? Say the spirit of man which is in him, even though the things of God know of no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So there’s things that God wants us in this room to know. And he says, I have not seen ear, have not heard, neither has energy to the heart to things which God has prepared for them to love them.

You haven’t yet seen all that God has for us. Now we are in this room and we’re going to heaven when we die, but there’s so much more that God has for us. But he says, the things of God are spiritually discerned. In other words, without the Holy Spirit of God, you cannot discern. You can’t see it, you don’t understand. So the key is that first of all, you must be born into God’s family. All of us in this room have trusted Christ to save it.

Therefore we have been born into God’s family and God has given to each and every one of us his Holy Spirit. So I have his Holy Spirit living in me. You have the Holy Spirit living in you and the Holy Spirit of God knoweth the things of God and he wants to teach us the things of God. And all these things are new things. They’re good things. They’re things that God wants us to know because we’re a privileged group.

We are believers in Jesus Christ. Therefore we should not be ashamed to be called a Christian, to be one that belongs to Christ. And so he says here in verse 13, which things also we speak. Not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things or by spiritual means. So there’s a spiritual world that you can’t see, you can’t enter unless you’re born again by the Spirit of God. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you entered into a new world.

Now you may not think it and you may not act like it. You may do nothing that God wants you to do, but you have entered in, and here you are. The Bible makes a statement, verse 14, but the natural man, the lost man, the man that’s still outside these four walls, the world out there, the natural man receive it not the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned. The things of God are spiritually discerned, and he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit to discern, to understand.

We see something the world cannot see. We understand something the world cannot understand. So God says in the next verse, but he that is spiritual, judges, all things, in other words, all these new things, you can discern if you’re a spiritual guided man. So if you and I let the Holy Spirit guide us, we can discern things that the lost men cannot understand. But some of God’s children don’t listen to what God’s Word has to say. And because they don’t, they don’t have the discernment that is to be theirs.

So you may have a, it’s a child of God, live as a child of God for the rest of your life and never have the discernment that you should have had, because you don’t let the Holy Spirit teach you the word of God. Now, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of John chapter 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1. And there’s an interesting little verse here that lets us know that when we were outside of this church.

When we were lost, there’s a God in heaven that loves the whole world and wants everybody to come into this room, into this new world, so that they can have, for all eternity, the blessings of God, to have eternal life. But lo and behold, there’s a world that… That’s still lost. Now, in the Gospel of John in chapter 1, look in verse 3, all things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. And him was life.

And the life was the light of men. Eternal life is the light by which we see. The entrance into this new life is what the gospel is all about. about. The gospel is the good news on how a blind man can see. Remember we always sing that song Amazing Grace, I once was blind but now I see everyone in this room. You once were blind but now you see. But do you realize the value of having this new discernment, this light, this knowledge.

Shouldn’t you and I be different than those that are on the outside of this kingdom of God, this realm? You and I suppose to know something, understand things, see things that the world cannot see. He says, my joy I give to you, not as the world gives, and the world can’t take it away. So there’s advantages that you and I have, but we may not take advantage of those advantages. And so he says down through here in verse 6, there was a man sent from God, his name was John, the same came for a witness, a bear witness of a light that all men through him might believe.

He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. So what is the entrance into this world? Now remember this, I said just a moment ago. We didn’t get here through the roof and we didn’t get in here through the floor. We didn’t get here through the walls.

We came into the door. The other night I was asked to give a chapel for the Bible and Institute, which I tried to do in the first and the last one of every session that we have. And I gave them an illustration. It’s only an illustration. All illustrations all break down. Nothing’s perfect. But you’re trying to let light into a dark room where people can see and understand, kind of graph something. Over the years I’ve had people say, Yankee, you know, you’re all right with that wall of illustration, but you’re not deep in the Word.

You’re shallow. It means I’m just skimming the surface, but there are some who can go so deep and stay so long and come up so dry. But they’re deep in the Word, and Yankee, you’re just shallow. I mean, everybody knows what you’re saying. There’s a lot of people, you can’t figure out what they’re saying. They are so deep, and they are so good that you have to hear them over and over again to find out what they really said because they’re so intelligent.

Okay? Okay. And I’ve had people wonder, why do you always want to give this gospel of that little wallet trick? It’s not a trick. I’ve never seen, now watch my hand closely, at no time will it ever leave my risk. Now if it did, that would be a trick. But it’s always got to give the gospel in there. But why? And I want to explain that to you. So take your Bible and turned to John chapter 10, the Gospel of John, and chapter 10.

We came into this auditorium today through a door. Now the doors are not everywhere, they’re in certain places. Whenever you and I approach the Bible, somewhere along the line, even if you just casually read the Bible as a lost man, hopefully somewhere along the line a lost man as he groves along the outside of the wall, try to picture all those people, blind people outside of the church and they’re walking and they can’t see, they know there’s a wall and they’re feeling along the wall but they can’t find the door.

Occasionally somebody will come across John 1 12. As many as believe on him can have eternal life and become a child of God to then give he the power to become the sons of you become a child you found the door. And some people they feel along that wall and next thing you know they come across the verse it says he for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe it and they believe it.

They found the door that gets into this new world, and without the door you don’t get in. You see there are salvation verses, and when we go out to witness we share a verse that tries to help them find the door. So here in John in chapter 10, I want you to look in verse 7, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.” Now, that’s an interesting verse. There are several things in that verse that used to kind of give me, you know, reason for a little concern about it. What does that mean? Go in and out and find pasture. I mean, which side of the gate am I supposed to go in on? Come out of. I mean, now it didn’t say, and you shall be saved and lose it, saved and lose it.

No, it says a pasture, pasture on both sides of the door. But anyway, I’ll make the comment about that in a little bit. it, Jesus is that door. Jesus is that door. Jesus is that door. And nobody got in here, except going through the door. There is not another door. There’s only one door and that door is Christ. Now, when we read over there in the book of Revelation chapter 3, where He talks about, behold, I stand at the door.

And if any man will open, well there he’s standing at a door. No, here he’s talking about I am the door. There he’s talking about to the church of the believers and about us getting along with each other and examining ourselves and see if there’d be wicked ways in us so that we can, as he says, chasten ourselves lest we’ll be chastened so that we’ll do what’s right and have some good, warm fellowship between us and God. But that’s to the believer.

Here we’re talking about something different. He said, I am, I am the door. And by me, if any man come in, he will be saved. So one of us, all of us, found the door. I was 18 years old when my father-in-law pointing me to the door. He explained to me how to get safe. And he did that by using John chapter 3 verse 16. He used that verse as a door to show me the door how to get in, because I couldn’t have got in here if somebody hadn’t have showed me the door.

Now let’s just pretend. All of us have come into this big, beautiful room. This world on the inside of the Bible, We have finally not just read the Bible, we have entered into the Word. We’ve entered into a new world, into this as a child of God, a new family. We’re believers in Christ. So I came in through John 3, 16. You may have come in from John 5, 24. Or you may have come in from John 6, 47.

Or maybe you came in from Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, Whatever verse, but there had to be a verse. There had to be a truth about the door, which is Christ. Somewhere along the line, you heard it and you trusted Christ as your Savior. Okay, so we’ve all come into this room. And as we come into this room, we have now entered on the inside of this gigantic library. In this library, it’s got 66 books in this library. And I’ll have to be honest, When I first entered into this new world, I found me a seat and I sat down and I began to read the Gospel of John.

Now when you came in, maybe you got buried back there in the book of Genesis and you were doing fine as you started reading the book of Genesis. And then lo and behold, you got two. So and so and they got and forgotten all those names of all those people. And you got buried and choked on a gristle. And you died right there. Never learned another truth because I just can’t understand the Bible. But as I look around, I look over there and lo and behold, there’s Randy over there and he just buried himself into the book of Jeremiah.

All the weeping prophet. He got all carried away with Jeremiah. And I looked over there and there’s Tracy where she’s in love with the book of Psalms. And did you go down through there? There’s…what’s his name again? Angel? He’s buried himself down there in the…you know, the Psalm of Solomon. Love story. And he just loves…and I look out there and lo and behold I see all of him. old him. Gary back there, he’s unfounded himself. Oh, he just loves to study the Old Testament.

He’s buried himself in the Hebrew, and he knows every word in the Hebrew, but J over here. He don’t like Hebrew, so he studies Greek. So he’s buried himself over here in the New Testament, and all he wants to do is study the Greek. But he does he know Greek. I mean, does he know Hebrew? He knows Hebrew. And there’s other ones that get in here. Oh, man, I just love prophecy. So James Taylor just buried himself in the book of Revelation.

Oh, he loves Revelation. And different ones of God’s children have found the little book that they love. And they just love to get so deep and stay in the Word. Well, somewhere along the line, I wanted to go all the way in. I wanted to sit there and just absorb the Word and just study the Word and get deep in the Word. But I keep forgetting about all those people that haven’t found the door yet. So what I try to do is just maybe I just skim a little bit here and there, but I keep watching the door and going out and standing by the door because I know there’s some lost people and there’s some blind people that are groping along.

They know there should be a door there. They know there has to be something beyond this life. There has to be something out there, but they don’t know who God is and they don’t know where God is. They don’t know how to find God. And I just want to kind of stand at the door over here, over here. And they get a little bit close to see here in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, 4, by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Do you understand what I’m saying? Yes, I do. And that person came on in. They got to come into this world, this library, and they went over there and sit down and just begin. I said, he’s studying the book of John. When I’m starting reading the book of John, he’d read some from the book of John, and then he’d go over there and stand by the door.

Because he knows there’s somebody else out there who grew up and along the wall. See, some of God’s children have never learned. Yet you can go all the way in and just spend the rest of your life just study in the Word and you’re so deep and you’re getting so fat and sassy, but you forgot about it. Hey, there’s still people that’s never found the door yet. So for 50 years, I’d like to say I’ve studied a little bit.

I’m not as deep as all those radio preachers out there in those television preachers. I’m not as good as they are, but still can point people to the door and there’ll be thousands and thousands and thousands of people that’ll be in heaven. They got to come into the room because they can’t get in here no other way except through the door. And some Christians have never learned how to point people through the door because it’s all about them getting spiritually fat.

And how much I love Jesus but they never tell anybody about Jesus. They never tell them where the door is. And hey there’s there’s the door right there. And I want people to know that. That’s why at the end of every church service, I don’t care what we talk about, I’m always gonna try to point people, hey, let me tell you what the door is. Because they can’t get in here, except through that door. And some people, it’s just us four and no more, and let the rest of the world go to hell.

I don’t believe that philosophy. I’m glad that 50 years ago, 54 years ago, Somebody said, Yankee, here’s the door. Because without that door, I’d have never been saved. If somebody hadn’t have showed me. Yes, there’s a lot of people that can talk about how much they know about them, how deep they are. Yeah, but you forgot about the door. I want you to look at this verse. Look in Psalms 84. 84 Psalm, 84 Psalm, and look in verse 10.

Verse 10, this is on page 640, and it makes a statement in Psalms 84 and verse 10, for a day in thy courts… It’s better than a thousand. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than the dual and the tense of wickedness. Rather be a doorkeeper. If that’s all I am, because see what I’ve noticed is when I stay close to the door, I stay close to the salvation verses. Now I know some verses about serving God, but you see, I can’t get people to serve God if I don’t get him in the door.

they have to get saved first. And what some people fail to remember, they come on in and they get deep into the Word and they’re like, you know, this is what people need. So they go out and tell the world, you need a relationship with Christ. You need a relationship with God. But you’ve got to be born first. You don’t get him in the door. They’ll never have that. You know, you need to walk with God. Well, that’s true.

But you’ve got to get in the room first. And if you don’t get them into the room, into this body of believers, they’ll never go, see that’s why you have a lot of people. They do well on teaching people the word, but they’re sheep stealers, because they had to steal the sheep because they can’t produce them. They have to get them from someplace else. Let me just say this word about all the big mega churches, you know, a mega church is like a person a great big old vacuum cleaner.

All they do is come down upon a city and they suck out all of these people from these other churches and say, look what we have done. Yep, you just suck the people that was in other churches into a big church, but you didn’t win them, and you didn’t build them, you didn’t train them, you only robbed them. And the Bible talks about there’s some who try to get it another way. I believe what a top still win people to Christ.

Show them where the door is. There’s other people I like to show them the door. But we’re talking about when you trust Christ as your Savior it’s because somebody stayed near the door. Stay near the salvation versus those simple little O verses. You know John’s everybody knows that. No they don’t. And by the way, that verse is as deep as any verse in the Bible. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, there are still people who know Hebrew and Greek can understand the depths of Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.

They can’t understand what God meant when He says, by grace are you saved. They still can’t believe that. And that it is the gift that they can’t understand that. Because see there’s some people trying to get in here and they’re trying to climb over the wall and Christ says those thieves and they’re robbers and they’re trying to steal, get inside. But they can’t get it. You have to go through the door. There is no other way. And that’s why it’s so important.

Hello. Thank you for tuning in to 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 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.