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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. The 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 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.

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, reasons for a little concern about 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 a comment about that in a little bit. 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 priced. Now, when we read over there in the book of Revelation chapter three, when 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, chasing ourselves lest we’ll be chasing 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 pointed 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, 9th, 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 to 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 looked 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? Why? There’s what’s his name again? Angel? He’s buried himself down there.

You know, the son of Solomon. Love story. And he just loves. And I look out there and lo and behold, I see all the Gary back there. He’s in found 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 a 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. 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 28 9 4 by grace or you say through faith that not of yourselves 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, you’re studying the book of John. When I’m starting reading the book of John, he’d read something 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 in a lonely 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 studying 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 and those television preachers. I’m not as good as they are, but I 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 him 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 where 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, about 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 that it makes a statement in Psalms 84 and verse 10, for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. Then the dwell on the tents of wickedness. There’ll 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 these 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 say, 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. Oh, that’s true. But you’ve got to get in the room first. 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, mega churches like a person with 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 sucked 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 tribe still wins 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 verses. 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.

You 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. That’s why it’s so important. Let me just read this little thing to you. Samuel Schumacher, he wrote a little statement called, I stay in the door. And I thought, if I can do anything, if I can just stay near the door, I’d rather just stay simple and just keep pointing people to Christ.

Somebody else wants to take all the honor and glory for raising all these people. That’s fine. Just let me get them in there because you don’t raise anybody. Nobody matures. Nobody serves God. So first of all, you come through the door. If you didn’t come through the door, you didn’t get saved. I’m talking about you have to get saved first. People need to be born into God’s family first before you can raise anybody and a lot of people train a lot of people, but they never want them.

I stay near the door. I need to go too far in or stay too far out. The door is the most important door in the world. It is the door through which men walk when they find God. There’s no use my going way inside and staying there when so many are still outside in they as much as I crave to know where the door is and all that so many ever find is only the wall where a door ought to be.

See, there’s blind people groping, trying to find. You know, there’s a verse in the book of Acts, chapter 17, where it says that you may grope after him, feel after him that you can find him, though he be not far from all of us. It’s like people are groping and they’re blind and trying to find the door, and he’s not far. All it takes is a person to explain the gospel and he can hear and understand, and then boom, can know the hadsy, and know that he’s going to heaven when he dies.

It is neither even in thy mouth. People faith commit by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And how shall they hear unless somebody speaks it with their mouth? So he says here, is only the wall for that door ought to be. They creep along the wall like blind men without stretch groping hands, feelings. Feeling for a door, no one there must be a door, yet they never find it. So I stay near the door. The most tremendous thing in the world is for men to find that door, the door to God.

The most important thing any man can do is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands and say, right here, here’s the door. Explain to people how to have eternal life. Because you see, eternal life is the light of man. That’s what helps them to see, to understand. You’ve got to get them in the room before they can start feasting on the word. You see, the Bible did talk to Martha and it says about Martha and you also have Mary and Martha.

Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus. That’s a good thing. And he commented about that. But you still don’t leave the other undone. The serving part, I think you need a balance. When in end training, men die outside that door as starving beggars die. on cold nights and cruel cities in the dead of winter. Die for one of what is within their grasp. They live on the other side of it. Live because they have found it. Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it.

And open it and walk in and find Him. So I stayed near the door. Yeah, there’s a time when you want to go all the way in and just want to bury yourself. I told Betty, you have no idea how many times. I’d love just to go to Israel and spend about six months just studying all that’s happened in Israel and studying the Bible and going and learning the Hebrew Institute. I would love that, but I know too much.

I would love to get myself a little cabin on the backside of some mountain up there in Alaska. I’ve been here three times. I love the place, but I know too much. I can’t do that. I would love to get a motorhome and and just travel around. Oh, I’ve done that. But I know too much. I’ve got to stay near the door. Got to stay where you can have opportunities. Whether through an internet, the radio broadcast, or all the minutes we have, it’s more important.

We’ve got to keep showing people where the door is. This is why I want it is important. You just gave $2,400. Why? Because you had it this fair. You didn’t need it anyway. Or do you believe in something that’s going on because we’ve got a few good, godly men around here that likes to show people where the door is? I mean, hey, guys like Jesse are rare. Jan, they’re rare. James Taylor, so are they rare. Not everybody is doing what they’re, they’re men who like to stay near the door because when they see a lost man, they don’t walk up there.

Can I just teach you the book of Revelation? True? Go in, great saints. Go all the way in. Go way down into the cavernous cellars and way up into the spacious attics in a vast rooming house, this house where God is. Go into the deepest of hidden casements of withdrawal and silence and sainthood. Must inhabit those inner rooms. And some, yes, must know the depths and the heights of God. And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.

I like to take a deeper look in myself. Sometimes venture in just a little further. But my place seems closer to the opening, so I stay near the door. The people too far and do not see how near these are believing. Preoccupy with the wonder of it all. Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door but would like to run away. So for them too, I stay near the door. See, there’s a lot of people that come to the room.

They’re God’s children. And so Christians need to understand, you can come on in here and take these 66 books in this library and you can just live there in feast on how wonderful God is, how great God is. But you’ve got to remember there are still people on the outside of the door that don’t know what you know. They can’t even get started. So yes, you can go out and find pastor outside because remember in John chapter 4, we said, I must need to go to Samaria.

Why? Because there was somebody there that needed to know the Lord. I must need to go. When the disciples came back later, they said, have you had anything to eat? He said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. In other words, I can feed here, but my meat is out there. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and it’s not just to spend the rest of my life sitting at the feet of Jesus.

As precious as that is, there’s work to be done, work to be done. And a lot of people never get a balance in their Christian life. There’s some of God’s people that have come in and they love it all, but they love the world more. So they want to go out there and have pasture and they want to feed at the world. They’re not interested in reaching the world. They just want to live in the world and to get who they are.

And one of these days, yes, we’re all going to die. But when we are caught up to meet the Lord, whether by death or through the rapture, we’re going to have to give an account of ourselves. There’s some people that all they want to do is just win people to the Lord, but they never spend time helping God’s children. They never spend any time studying the Word of God. So are there people who are good soul winners but not deep in the Word?

And are there not people who deep in the Word but they’re not good soul winners? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to be balanced in your Christian life? Where you feed upon the Word so you can stay strong enough to go out into the world and influence the world instead of the world influencing you. This is where we get our strength from. This is where we feed. But this is not where we stay. We’ve got to go outside those walls.

And we are supposed to tell people about the most wonderful message in all the world. I admire the people who go way in, but I wish they would not forget how it was before they got in. Then they would be able to help the people who have not even found the door. You know the people who want to run away and not serve God. You can go into deeply and stay too long and forget the people outside the door.

As for me, I shall take my older custom place near enough to God to hear him and know he’s there, but not so far from men as not to hear them. And remember they are there too, where outside the door, thousands of them. millions of them. But more important than me, one of them, two of them, ten of them, whose hand I am intended to help show them the door. That’s why we call it. Let me introduce you to my friend.

Let me introduce you to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the door. And by Him, that inner end will be saved. It’s so important for people to trust Christ as their Savior. There’s nothing better. And even though we have trust in the Lord and we know we have eternal life, do we want to get lost and just reveling in all this new wonderful stuff and forget to tell somebody else how to get to heaven. Yeah, I guess I’ll just be a shallow preacher all my life.

I’ll just stay near the door and I would rather know nothing more than John 3, 16, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and give me my wallet. Then to know all the Hebrew and all the Greek and never win a soul. So I guess I’ll just rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. Here we are. We’re all inside this little room. Say we all got in here because somewhere along the line we all trusted Christ as our Savior.

Are there people outside that’s never heard the gospel and need to be reached? Is this why in our Our internet is important because it can reach anywhere. Our son is cool. Anywhere we can teach and train. The college important. The Bibleline. Have you taken advantage of the ministries we have to get involved, to do something, to learn something? You have no idea what God may have for you down the road. It might be something wonderful, something great. But it’s not just so we can go to Bible college and, well, what are you going to be?

I’m going to be a Bible and just bury yourself into studying just the Bible. Yeah, but do you realize God wants us to know His Word so that we can do something? When we get to heaven, we’ll know it all. But until then, there’s work to do. He says, the night’s coming when no man can work. This is why it’s so important. And by the way, if you’re watching by internet or if you’re here the first time visiting, I want to show you the door in a good way.

I want you to see the door. I want you to find the door. I want you to know how to have eternal life. This hand represents you and me. This is what it represents sin. We all have sin on us. Now God, He loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us so that you know and you know God loves you. He really does. And He knows that we’re blind. We can’t find the way. We don’t know how to get to heaven.

We imagine things. We can make up something. But if you think that you have to earn your way to heaven, friend, you’re blind. That’s not true. You don’t see it. If you think you have to join a church and you have to give money. You don’t see it. If you don’t see, you’re blind. So a lot of people are blind. They don’t see that the wages of sin is death and we’ve all sinned. We’re all condemned. We’re all condemned to die.

We’re all guilty to go to heaven. You have to be perfect. So I never saw that before. That’s because you’re blind. Well, you can’t earn your way to heaven. Well, I didn’t know that. Well, it’s because you were blind. Now, this is what can open up a person’s eyes. This hand is a person. He’s in Jesus Christ. He’s God in the flesh. He came into this world because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him.

So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. He took all the sin of all the world, paid for it. And if you can see that He paid for your sins. And if you’ll believe that He did it for you, He’ll put this payment to your account as though you paid for all your sins. You see, if all your sins are paid, then where would you go in today? heaven. So can you know you’re going to heaven before you die?

Yes. I’ve known for 54 years, I’m going to heaven whenever I leave this world. Why? Because Christ paid for my sins. And He promised me as a free gift eternal life and I get to go to heaven on what He did for me. There’s no tricks to it, no gimmicks. That’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed, every eye closed, and no one looking around. would you right now right where you are?

Be honest with the Lord and say, Lord, I’m not sure that I’ve ever came into the door. I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never really believed on Jesus Christ. I’ve never trusted Him as my Savior. And friend God said, if you would believe it, if you would trust Him, He would give you the free gift eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you dying. Would you trust him? I pray that you will. And if you’re making that decision this morning, I’d like to know and I’d like to have prayer for you.

And so I’m going to ask you the kindness of this moment, if you’ll trust Christ as Savior, just to let me know by an uplifted hand, just slip it up real quick, but right back down, I’m not going to embarrass you, not going to have you forward. But right where you’re sitting, just say, yes, preacher, that made sense to me. I want to be certain of going to heaven. And yes, I will trust Christ right now as my Savior, anywhere at all, before we close.

If you’re watching by internet, right there on the screen, if you click on that little button, let’s us know that you trust the Christ is your Savior, we’d like to know. Our Father, we thank again for your blessings, help each one of us to realize the importance of just going into your Word and studying your Word, but not to forget to tell people about the door. They may never know how to get in, but Father help us to use great plainness of speech.

Bless each person here and thank you for this church in Christ name we pray. Amen. 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 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.