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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 BibleInemistries.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.

Take your Bible and do something with it. Open it. I wrote a little statement down on my little note here. And it says, serving God is not always with the absence of fear, but the addition of faith. Courage is not courage if there’s no element of fear to bother us. So courage is fear that says its prayers and charges ahead. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews. book of Hebrews in chapter 11, Hebrews in chapter 11.

We’re living in some very dangerous days, and there is the element of fear. The Bible says it’s kind of like this, men’s hearts failing them for fear, seeing those things which are coming upon the earth, and they don’t know what to do about it. They say behind every crisis somebody planned it. So think of all the crisis that we’ve had in so many different ways just lately that are being revealed. But some of these crisis are generated. They’re manipulated.

They’re planned. And so the reason some people don’t do anything about a crisis because they want the crisis to serve a purpose. So behind all of that, yes, there’s somebody who has a reason for doing what they’re doing. The main instigator behind the world sings as a somebody you’ve heard of before. He’s called the devil, the dragon, Satan, the serpent, and he’s one bad dude. He has wanted to rule this world ever since Adam and Eve showed up and he couldn’t let them alone.

He had to get in there and mess that up. And all the way down through the centuries, Satan is always trying to mess up everything till he has an agenda. The Bible says in the book of Revelation chapter 12, he knows the end. And he knows that he had but a short time. And the Bible says, woe to them that dwell upon the earth. So the Bible tells us that when the rapture takes place, that’s when the Lord reaches down and snatches out all of those who have trusted Christ’s Savior and takes them to heaven.

And the only ones that go are those who have trusted the Lord. And God’s the one that knows every individual, regardless of who they may be, wherever they may be, that are trusting him and him alone as their only hope of going to heaven. So he’s not coming down here to take the baptism out. He’s not coming down here to take the Catholics out. He’s not coming down here to take the Pentecostals out. He’s not coming down to take all the Methodists out.

He’s not coming down to take all the Muslims out. He’s coming down here to take only His children. And they are scattered everywhere all over the world. And some may be in different churches, but if they have sincerely, honestly, trusted Christ as their Savior. As their only way of getting to heaven, they will go. And yet there will be churches that will go on as though nothing ever happened. Because they may have churches full of people who have never really trusted Christ with their Savior.

It was interesting today. Man better with time to hospital and I was kind of getting a little irritated because I couldn’t get something done. Have you ever want to get something done? You can’t get it done. One we couldn’t find a place that we wanted. We had a walk about it. It seemed like I was a mile and a half. It was in another wing and you have to walk through all these places and you finally find it. And you finally get on the floor and you finally go to the room and nobody’s there.

He hadn’t got out of any recovery so I couldn’t visit with him. And I thought, man, hey, wasted time. I want to get something. something done. You ever get like that? It’s like something. Just keep me from accomplishing something. You know, something else. So anyway, we started down the thing and I’m walking along. Betty mentioned something to this one guy. You know, how do we get back to our car? He says, I’m going that away. I’ll show you. And Betty says, you ain’t gonna give him a track because we got to walk.

So I had one track left. I don’t even give up. So I had one track after I gave it to him. So as we’re walking down through there I asked him a question. Guess what I asked him. I said, do you know where you’re going to go when you die? He says, no. I hope I’m going to heaven. I said, so then you don’t know and we’re walking along, you know, and a pretty good place. But we had a long way to go and he’s going to walk us all way over there.

So I know I got to talk fast or slow down the pace just a tad. And so I’m talking until as we go. And so I says, you really don’t know where you’re going to die. No, I don’t. I said, now listen to me. Isn’t it true you’ve heard all your life that what? Christ died for our sins. Isn’t it? You’ve heard that all your life. Christ died on the cross paid for all the sins of the work you’ve heard.

They say, yeah. I said, if he paid for all the sins of the world and we’re walking, I said, then why should you or me or anybody? Why are we going to hell to pay for our sins if he already paid for him. And he looked at me and says, I never thought of that. So I have one walk in. I says, think of that. It’s because you have to trust him as your Savior. You have to believe he did it for you.

You can hear he did it for the world. I don’t get you to heaven. The church can’t get you to heaven. Your good works can’t get you to heaven. The only way you can get to heaven is to believe that the one who paid for your sins, that he did it for you. I says, can you believe that? He says, I can believe that. Well, you’re right now. Trust Christ is your Savior. He said, yes, I will. He said, I’ve never understood this before.

This makes sense. And so, of course, I gave him a track and explained it to him a little bit more. But by the time we got to the door, it was time to him go one way and we went another way. And I thought on the way home, I was thinking, that guy that trusted the Lord when he gets to heaven and he sees others that have not trusted the Lord cast into hell. That’s a great way to throw judgment.

Do you know he probably doesn’t care that I spent a couple extra hours here and there and running around doing this and walking and all that. He could care less. All he wants to know is he got the gospel and he’s in heaven. So in his mind, whatever I went through, was it worth it to him? It’s worth it to him. And that’s the way you have to think. When your car breaks down and you’re out of gas, you lost your job and you got sick, went to the hospital and all kinds of things that happened in life that put you in a different place that you might witness to a different person.

Did you realize that person you give a track to or that person you explained the gospel to? They think whatever you went through was well worth it. It was well worth it to them. Now you might think I was a waste of my time but they don’t I don’t think it was a waste of your time because they get to go to heaven because of it. So it is valuable. And believe it or not, it helps in your thinking because it’s the best news in all the world.

To know that you can explain the gospel to somebody like that. Did you know there’s a lot of preachers? They can’t win people to the Lord the way we do it because you see, they believe they got to talk them into turning from their sins. And they got to get them to commit their life to Christ. Well that takes a while. You can’t do that in five minutes. Here’s a lost man. You can’t get a lost man willing to quit all of his sins in order to get saved because you probably have been tried and he can’t.

Well you’ve got to quit your drinking. You’ve got to quit your smoking. You’ve got to quit your cussing. You’ve got to quit this and quit that. And he thinks I’ve been tried that for 30 years and I haven’t been able to succeed. Forget it. I guess I’m going to hell. And I told the guy one day I said, look, I would rather you smoke here than smoke there. That has nothing to do with it. And then if you’ve got to get them to make Christ the Lord and the Master of the Life, to serve God and to do good and live right and go to church, you rely on how long it takes to convince a person that that’s what they got to do.

You can’t do that in five minutes. That’s why people can’t win people to the Lord in a small period of time because their gospel won’t fit in there. But if all they have to do is trust Christ as their Savior and it’s good news, it doesn’t take long to tell that’s good news. All you got to do is look, you’re a sinner. Means you’re not perfect. And you got to pay for your sins. And heaven is perfect and you’re not.

And you can’t earn eternal life by your good deeds. So Christ came into the world because He loved you and He paid for your sins and came back from the dead and said if you believe he did it for you, he would give eternal life. How long did it take? And would you believe he did that for you? As I was walking down the next I said, you can do this. You can believe that, can’t you? He said, I sure am.

And he trusts the Lord. You said, well, how do you know they really trust the Lord? I don’t have to. I don’t have to know if they really trust the Lord. There’s a God in heaven that knows whether or not you have really trusted the Lord. How do I know you trusted the Lord. How did you know I really trusted the Lord? Because I said I trusted Him and you said you trusted Him. Well, how do I know you didn’t?

You see, am I lying when I say somebody said they trusted Christ and saved you? No, if they’re lying, they’re lying. Not me. They said they would trust Christ as their Savior. Now why shouldn’t I believe them? I have no reason to doubt them because if it makes sense it’s only reasonable for a intelligent individual to say, you know, that makes sense. And I’m going to trust Christ in my Savior. And if you’ll do that God will give you eternal life.

Now here in the book of Hebrews I want you to look there very quickly, chapter 11, chapter 11 and look there in verse 5. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not seed death was not found because God had translated him. In the word be me up Scotty, he was there and all of a sudden he’s gone. This was before the flood. This is before Star Trek. This is before Captain Cart had anything to do with it. This was already written in the Bible.

Here God disappeared because God had translated him before his translates. He had this time of He pleased God. Then look, look when he lived, he lived before the flood. And the world was wicked before the flood, all kind of ungodly people. But he lived differently than the rest of them. And he pleased God. And so God took him without dying. Good night. I haven’t heard of him doing that for anybody else. Well, Elijah went up in a whirlwind, but he had that kind of a testimony.

But look what he says in verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that comeeth to God must believe he is, and that he is a reorder of them that diligently seek him. This is tied to Enoch. Enoch believed not only that there is a God, he had trust the Lord, and he believed that God would reward him if he served him. You see, I don’t have to serve God to go to heaven. I serve him because I want to.

I want to please the Lord. Why? Well he gave me eternal life as a gift. I didn’t have to earn it. I didn’t have to work for it. He loved me that much. So I want to serve him. I want to please him. And I know that he is a rewarder of them that diligence seek to please him. So I know that it’s to my advantage. I know that as a child of God, if I rebelled against the Lord, I know my heavenly Father.

He’s going to chase in me. And he’s going to chase in me pretty bad. And he could take me home before my time. I know I’m going to have him when I die, but I just don’t care to go yet. I want to stay here as long as I can in good health, of course. Now look there in verse 7. And notice what he says here, by faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen yet, move with fear, prepared an art to the saving of his house.

Now think about what he says, God warned him, hey in about 120 years they’re gonna be a flood, gonna be some water, gonna be some mud. And I want you to be a big old boat. And the Bible says that know with a preacher of righteousness, not man’s righteousness, but God. But when you’ve got time to go into that boat only… No one, Mrs. No one, the three sons and their wives, went into the ark. But he said he was moved with fear.

So you see, there is an element of fear that he had fear, I don’t like from the world. Maybe the fear of, you know, I’m going to die. Fear of, you know, what’s going to happen, I’ve never seen a flood before. The unknown. Or the fear that he has a high reverential respect for God. The Bible tells us over and over again, fear God, fear God, fear God. But then the Bible also says, fear not, fear not. But don’t be afraid.

And so I wrote down a little statement and I wrote it down. Christ says, I’m the boss. Everything’s under control. Now if I can believe that, why would I be afraid? Whenever we’re afraid is because we’re lacking in faith, taking God at His Word. Now we know that all the things that are going on in this nation right now is slowly we’re seeing our foundation crumbling. We see our nation getting worse and worse and worse. And people are becoming more and more ungodly.

They mean they’re not like God. To live a godly life means it’s like God, according to the Bible. Godly means you’re not like God. And so we have more people doing more things, more wicked, and it’s no better than it was in the days of Noah or Solomon Gomorrah. And it’s a terrible, terrible thing. I want you to take your Bible and look in the book of Luke chapter 5, the book of Luke in chapter 5. Luke chapter 5.

And there’s a simple little verse here. He talked to his disciples. They went fishing, didn’t do too good. My like me. I don’t turn out to be a very good fisherman. I am very impatient. I give you the worm. I expect you to bite it now. I’m feeding you now. You don’t want to eat now? Well, you let me know when you’re hungry and I’ll be back. I am very impatient. So the Lord tells us here in verse 10, and so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.

So they were in a business partnership, and Jesus said in the Simon fear not from henceforth, now on thou shalt catch men. Thou shalt catch men.” Now remember this, when Christ was on the cross there was somebody else on the cross that says remember me when thou come us into that kingdom and Jesus said to Him, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. So here’s that thief hanging on the cross. He was a thief. And Jesus said, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Now, this thief on the cross, did he have to go to church if he did it? He was hung up. He couldn’t go. Could he go get baptized in water. Couldn’t do that either. Well, he could promise the Lord, I promise I won’t do anything else wrong. If that might be the only thing he would have said, it would have been honest. He was dying. He wasn’t getting off the cross. Jesus could have saved him and took him off the cross because others had said, let’s see if he is the Son of God.

Let him come down and save himself and us, if he is who he claimed to be, listen, why He saved us then. Well, Christ didn’t keep him from dying, but He told him that when you die, thou shalt be with me in paradise. So that thief on the cross knew something that very moment. He knew he was going to die that day because today shall now be with me. And when he died, He knew he was going to be with Christ in paradise.

And if Christ is who he claimed to be, God in the flesh, that thief on the cross knew before he died. He was going to be in paradise. And he knew there was nothing that could change it. There’s nothing he could say or do or think that could change it him to him not be there. because Christ already gave His Word. This will happen. You’re gonna be there with me. Because He had made the statement, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

So he already knew that this was the Lord and he had a kingdom and he was the king and he was dying. And he says, whenever you die, remember me. And that’s all he did. And he gets eternal life with the Lord forever. So simple. Now what if Jesus had told him, says no. You have to promise not to do anything wrong anymore. and you got to go to church and you got to be baptized and you got to promise you’re going to live right.

I promise. See, the Lord saves everybody the same way by faith alone. No one has ever lived good enough to earn eternal life. Nobody. It’s the free gift of God. And so when a person believes that, they can know they’re going to heaven whenever they die. And so he says, from henceforth, thou shalt catch men. That’s a promise. If we do what God says to do, the way God says to do it, I believe we ought to catch fish.

But a lot of people are not doing what God says to do. They’re not giving them their crystal clear gospel. They muddy it up with a lot of things that God never said to do. This is why you hear some people say, you know, good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. But that’s not in the Bible. Why? There are no good people. They’re all bad. I know even your little Aunt Susie, she’s still bad. And that little beady baby that was just born, still bad.

It’s a maybe. Got a sinful nature. Don’t believe it, just wait a little bit. You’ll see. As real as real can be. Everybody has a sinful nature and everybody needs a Savior. And that’s what the Lord is talking about. While you’re right here, look in Luke chapter 2. Just turn back to you, left a couple pages. And you’ll notice there when Jesus was going to be born, something wonderful happened. See there in In verse 8, chapter 2, and there were in the same country shepherded, abided in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

Low the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore. Oh, afraid. What were they afraid of? Oh, when’s the last time you saw an angel? I’m not talking about angels, they come to church, you know what I’m saying. When’s the last time you saw an angel? scare you half the death and here’s people out there just doing their normal thing keeping watch over their flock by night.

Hello the angel of the Lord Selamim, behold I got something for you. So you see there in verse 10 and the angel of the Lord Selamim fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. You know something good to remember? Israel’s got a lot of problems going on over there right now. They really do. And can you imagine go over there and stand upon the highest hill in Israel? It says, fear not, for behold I bring you good titans of great joy.

And here come another missile. I got good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. The best news you could ever hear. And you would think, well, it would be the best thing to do is if they didn’t have any troubles. If there was no Palestinians and no Hemosin, you know, none of the jihadists that are trying to wipe out. If there was none of those, that would be good news. No, no, no. This good news overrides all good news of anything in the world.

This good news is good news. And why is it such good news? In verse 11, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a what? Savior. That’s something that everybody needs. There will be wars and rumors of wars until the end of time and he says the end is not yet. So I have a choice and I come close years ago. Because I didn’t like at least 35 years ago, this nation was pathetic. And I thought somebody needs to do something.

And I thought very seriously about running for office. And I’m talking about the President of the United States. That was burning into my mind. And why because I couldn’t believe that it seems like so many people are so naive about what’s right and wrong. You read the Bible and the Bible is truth. Put this truth into your mind and you can discern right from wrong. That’s what reveals character. But we have a lot of characters up there in Washington, that’s for sure.

But they don’t have character. They don’t do things based upon what is right. Which way is the windblowing? What’s the opinion poll say? They do things based upon what do the people want. It doesn’t matter what people want, it’s what is right. I thought I’m going to run for office and my platform is going to be simple. I promise that if you vote for me, I’ll do nothing for you. I’ll give you nothing. How many votes you think I would have got?

I won’t give you anything, but I’ll let you keep what you earned And we will take and go back to the taxation that we had back before 1913. And before 1894, when they mutilated the income tax thing. But anyway, that’s another sermon for another time. I believe that they’re setting up this country for civil unrest. They are provoking. Have you ever seen a dog behind the fence? I’ve done that, and you poke at him. I used to look at a dog and then, I was, and that dog was all right back to me.

I’m provoking the dog. I shouldn’t do that, but I could anyway, not as a kid. I’ll want to do that now, I’m mature now. But back then I was a- and I was a hostile stone dude, and I would irritate that dog, and I would run up down the fence, because I had a fence. He couldn’t get at me, and I knew that. If he ever got over that fence, How it did mean, but I’d run back and forth and irritate that dog.

See, we have people today that are provoking anger from the people so that it stirs up civil unrest, because when you get so sick and tired of all the injustice that you see, people are going to take matters into their own hands to solve the problem. And they’re going to clash with government. government is going to issue martial law and take away all of your rights. It’s coming. We’re being set up, but understand that. So should we live our lives in fear of what government might do?

I don’t believe that we need to. I believe we have the word of God that can give us all that we need. But he says up there, fear not, verse 10, because I bring you good Titans of great joy. We shall be to all people. Hello. Thank you for 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.

He told us today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep in looking up.