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

I was talking to Peter Amato and was talking about the kids that go out so with him, and some people always want to know, Well, all those people that you led to the Lord, where are they and how strong are they and what are they doing? They may be running around in diapers, but I’d rather them run around in diapers than no diapers at all. I’d rather them be a babe in Christ and go to heaven than not go at all.

But you ought to see what it does to those who go. Those that do work with those kids and those that do go, you know they grow. But you notice how that Jan, who was up here just a minute ago, you see how he’s growing, see his concern, see the compassion? Have you listened to Jesse lately? Have you heard Peter Amato? They’re doing the work, and when you do the work, you grow. You get stronger because you get involved and you do it.

It will work. It always works God’s way. So here in 2 Timothy chapter 3, study the Word of God. It is profitable. Isn’t that what you want? Look back here to notes. Number four, spiritual growth requires spiritual teachers. I’ve had people say, well, I’ve got the Holy Spirit. That’s all the teacher I need. Well, evidently you didn’t read what the Holy Spirit told you to read. When the Bible makes a statement, and we just read it just a minute ago over there in the book of Hebrews in chapter five, when he says, fourth, the time you ought to be what?

teachers. Well, if you’re a teacher and you’re supposed to be teaching, evidently somebody needs to learn something. You can’t be a teacher if there’s no students. So evidently God wants you to be a teacher. So there must be students, somebody to learn. Can you see that? You’re smart enough to see that, can’t you? So for the time you ought to be teachers. So is there wrong in having teachers teach the word of God? I believe that it’s what God wants us to do.

Look at letter A on the number four. God has given to you the Holy Spirit as your inner and ultimate teacher. He lives inside of you, the teacher of the word of God. But you know that Holy Spirit that lives inside of you has already lived inside of a lot of the other older believers, mature believers and the Holy Spirit that taught them can teach you and you can learn faster and you can grow quicker. And instead of taking you 20 years you might be able to learn it in just a few years.

This is why we encourage people to go to Bible college so that you can learn. In three or four years what might take you 25-30 years to learn because you’re learning from the people who’ve already had the Holy Spirit in them teach them and now they’re teaching you. You know, that’s the way it is in life. We assume that parents know more than babies, don’t you? Don’t we assume that it’s going to be the parents that’s going to pose a teach that little baby?

And it learns how to walk, learns how to talk, and then you spend the rest of your life teaching a shut up and sit down. But you’ve learned. That’s what you do. Look at now, let her be there. The Lord wants you to know the truth and he is willing to personally teach you through his Spirit who indwells you. Let us see, always pray for spiritual understanding and enlightenment like the psalmist says in Psalms 119. When he talks about in 119 Psalms, thy word is pure, making wise the simple, enlightening the eyes, more precious than honey and so forth.

The word of God is rich and able to make those who obey it wise and the chastening of the Lord and the things that you’ll learn all those wonderful things that God has given to us. And 119 Psalm. Look at letter D. God also gave teachers for the students. Take your Bible and turn to Ephesians in chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. So the Bible says that when Christ ascended into heaven, what is it that that He first descended into the Lord parts of the earth and led captivity captive and brought them out and gave gifts on the men?

That’s mentioned up there in verse eight and nine and 10. And gave gifts on the men. Now look what he says there in verse 11. And he gave some to the church. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. In verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints. Did you see the word teachers there? Well, if everybody has the Holy Spirit, You don’t need a teacher. Just let the Holy Spirit teach you. Well, the Holy Spirit put it in the scriptures to have teachers teach you spiritual things.

Is it possible that I might as the pastor be able to teach you some things from the word of God that would help you to understand it better? I got a letter this morning from somebody in another state that heard one of my YouTube messages and emails his, Thank you. That really cleared up. And he’s a pastor. Really cleared up my thinking on this. And another one on Calvinism. They heard a message that I did on Calvinism. And I got another email.

I have given some of these, I give them to Peter and I give some to James and I give some to Jesse and says, because it’s too many, I can’t handle all of them. But I figured they can handle this one. They can handle this one. They can handle this one. Some of them, they got a dig and, you know, do a little work. But I think they can handle that. But someone one that I think is that this is really hard.

This is a good one. And now I’m trying to just take care of that. But you’ve got to have teachers. That’s what the word of God says. Look what he says these teachers are supposed to do for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, to all coming to the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect or mature man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that ye henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but you learn what the word of God says so that you’re not weak.”

Now let me ask you this. If you are asked to teach a Sunday school, could you do it? See, I can handle it. Somebody else says, well, if you give me five-year notice. I’ve enjoyed once in a while when I’m right, spring it upon the deacon board. I told the deacon that says, be ready always to have a sermon at the drop of a hat. I said, I may walk into the pulpit and all of a sudden I get sick and I can’t preach.

And I says, the only time you’ll have to prepare is from where you’re sitting to the time you get to the podium. You better be ready. Or you’re going to be very embarrassed. But I expect every deacon to be able to teach the Word of God. Shouldn’t I? Shouldn’t you expect that from them? And so far they’ve been ready. They live in holy fear of every board meeting we have. I’m sinned just because we have another one right after church service this morning.

But to be prepared, be prepared. The Boy Scott model, be prepared. On my honor, I will do my best. Take what they give me and steal the rest. No. We’re to be trustworthy, law, help for a friendliest, kind here for brave, clean, and reverent. There’s 12 of them. The 13th Scott Law was, I’ll remember the other 12, but you’re to study the Word of God. The Word of God says that and there’s this to be teachers. Look at letter D.

There’s a little part that I put in here. It’s in bold, but I want you to look at this because you need to understand and consider this. If the church cannot present the gospel to you clearly enough so that you can be saved, it will not provide you with the sound biblical doctrine you need to grow. There’s a lot of people say, well it doesn’t really matter. I’m saved. I know the clarity of the gospel, so it doesn’t matter where I go because I can stay strong.

But if the church, the pastor, cannot truly make the gospel clear enough for people to be saved, why would you trust Him on the Christian life? If he can’t get this right, how do you know he’s going to get that right? It isn’t that important, but some people say, well, it doesn’t really matter. It does matter. Everything matters. You’re to know truth and stand for truth, contending for the faith that bold again. If a church cannot present the gospel to you clearly enough so that you can be saved, it will not provide you with the sound biblical doctrine you need to grow because growing in the Lord is learning how to share the gospel.

And if you’re not clear on the gospel, you’re not going to be as strong as you ought to be. You’re not going to have confidence like you ought to have, and you’re not going to be as bold as you ought to be. It does matter. Look at the little letter F there. The reason that’s so important to me, Kerry, see, the gospel is your foundation. If you’re not sure of your foundation, because you’re not positive, you’re going to have it when you die.

How can you build a strong Christian life on sand? You’re not sure. I talked to two people yesterday and I asked them, I said, where are you going to go in the day? I’m going to heaven. Just like that. I said, is there anything you can do to keep you from going to heaven? Oh, yes, a lot of things. I’ll think. Did he really know where he was going when he died? No. I said, you mean if you died today, but you don’t know where you’re going to be when you die.

So you really don’t know where you’re going when you die. He said, I guess you’re right. This is just yesterday, two of them. All they were positive. And when I got through explaining to them, they were positive they weren’t going. Cause you see, you can’t grow a Christian on insecurity. You’ll never be strong in the Lord if you believe you can never lose your salvation. Because the stability of the Christian life is all based upon your foundation. Is it a sure foundation?

Are you really trusting Christ in Him alone? then because there is no other foundation than that is laid, which is Christ. Now, be careful how you build upon that foundation. I may shake upon the foundation, but the foundation will never shake under me. Look at the next statement, letter F, God provide pest for believers to give us opportunities to apply his word. Over and over again, you’ll see the word he’s unskillful in the word of righteousness. It means that He has not been tested.

He hasn’t been tried. This is why whenever you’re talking about a pastor, which is what I do, you want to know and they want to know about what is your experience. Well I just got saved last week. Trust me. I think if I told them that I’ve already had several churches and I’ve done this and that and the other. Then I’ve already come and preached a number of times and blah blah blah blah blah. They had a little bit more confidence.

True? Look at letter G. It’s a good little story. Now follow the little story because I’m just gonna read it to you. God allows trials in your life to keep you dependent on him and growing in grace in order to make you more like his son. This reminds me of the story about codfish Where in the northeastern United States, these fish are not only delectable, but are a big commercial business. At one point, the supply of such fish could not keep pace with the demand, especially the demand for fresh cod.

At first, suppliers would freeze the fish, ship them to various places, but the freezing process took away much of the flavor. So they experimented with shipping the fish alive in tanks of seawater. But this proved to be even worse since it was not only very expensive, but at the time of the cod arrived, they were soft and mushy. Finally, one creative person solved the problem with an innovative idea. The codfish was placed into a tank of water along with their natural enemy, the catfish.

From the time the cod left the East Coast until they arrived at their western destination, The catfish chased the cod all over the tank so that the cod were as fresh as they were when they were first caught. There was no loss of flavor and their texture was not adversely affecteditution. If anything, the cod were better than they were before. Seem thing there. Do you wonder why you that want to serve the Lord? God seemed like he opens up the floodgates and let the devil come and get you.

you’re running like crazy trying to keep from getting trapped. But it kept you fresh and it kept you moving didn’t it? Because you were scared to death that the devil is gonna get you. And you called you one a servant of the Lord and be something and do something with your life. You were very much aware of all the tricks of the devil and he’s always after you and you’re like a long tail cat on a fence with barking dogs on both sides.

You are walking circumspectly. The Lord has allowed us in this world as bad as it is, as wicked as it is, and it keeps us on the move. And it always seems like there’s a battle going on. It’s always battling, battling, battling. But look at the next statement, the next paragraph. Could it be near believer that God has allowed a catfish in your tank to keep you turning in faith to the Lord and grow spiritually instead of getting soft and mushy and flavorless.

Can you name the catfish in your tank? Who’s that person that God brought alongside of you to be a, you know, a point of irritation? The other day I was talking to Angel and I walked up to him and I says, do I irritate you? Do I bore you? And I would harass him a little Now I wouldn’t do that to somebody if I didn’t like them. That’s why I stopped. Anyway, look back here at the donut ship. Can you name the catfish in your tank?

Perhaps you live with one of them. Or is it someone you work with? Isn’t it time to stop the griping, complaining and pity party, and start thanking God for the catfish in your tank, and how all things are working together for good in your life? life. Someone has said that a Christian is like a tea bag, not much use until he’s been through some hot water. So maybe God is bringing out the flavor by turning up the heat in your life, putting you in a little hot water.

You say nothing ever happens to me. So you’re soft and mushy, huh? Maybe God needs to put a catfish in that tank with you to stir up your life a little bit. Do you expect to serve the Lord and to grow strong in the Lord without opposition? That’s what makes you careful of every step you take. But as you begin to grow in the Lord and you become wiser, you begin to enjoy the trip. And then as you look back over your life, you can see, boy, the Lord, you ought to see what He did to me there.

Then He opened up the gates and meant everything will happen. But the Lord walked me through it. The Lord never forsook me. He always stayed with me. And you grow and you grow stronger and stronger and stronger in your faith. Because one of these days it’s all going to be over and you’re going to wish you to have opportunities. You see, God gives you opportunities but when you’re not wise enough you don’t see them as opportunities. You just see them as problems.

You don’t know the problems that I have in my life. You mean opportunities. No, I mean problems. Problems are just unsolved. They can be solved. There is a way out of every situation. Look down at number five. Number five. Spiritual growth requires trust. And this is why when you read the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, it’s talking about you trusting the Lord. Living by faith. So if you want to mature in the Lord, it’s walking by faith. The Bible says in the book of Colossians in chapter 2, he talks about as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walking in him.

How did you receive him by faith? How do you walk by faith? So is your faith in the Lord getting stronger? And if it gets stronger, then God has to send you bigger problems to increase your faith and then bigger problems to increase your faith. You say, well, when did the problem get smaller? when you get to heaven. You’re not there yet. You don’t want heaven here. This isn’t heaven. This is a war zone and you’re right in the middle of it.

So look there letter A, walking by faith, meaning putting God’s word into practice. Letter B, you’ll notice, God says, and I want you to see that 1 Corinthians chapter 10, looking 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. You can look at some of these other verses later on your own time. First Corinthians in chapter 10, notice in verse 13, verse 13. This is written to the believer, to the Christian, because you’re going to have problems. That’s just normal. But those are opportunities for the Christian to grow.

That the trial of your faith been much more precious than gold and silver, though it would be tried with fire, may be found on the praise, honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Count it all joy when you fall in the divers, temptation, different testings, count it joy. Boy, I’ve got a lot of problems. You ought to see the opportunities I’ve got. I’ve got to trust the Lord to walk me through this and this and this and this, there’s no end to it.

Or you can be soft and mushy and you never grow strong, you never have any backbone, and you can just always be a weak Christian and let everything that happens turn you into a sourpuss. A lot of people just look like they’ve been baptized in lemon juice or something, you know. But here in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, look at verse 13, there have no temptation taken you but such as his common to man. but, and see those three words, God is faithful who will not permit you, suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear.

But if you don’t know the word of God, how do you find this escape by the knowledge you have in the Word of God? God’s Word gives you the escape. What to do when it seems like the world is falling apart? How do I do this? How do I solve this? Well that’s because of your knowledge of the Word. And you’ll find your way out because of the Word of God. And it says that you may be able to bear it may be able, but you can’t bear it if you don’t know the Word.

That’s why he teaches you. So if you’re not strong in the Lord I I wonder whose fault that is. So look there at letter C. I put this in bold. And he said unto me, do you know that Guy Coke can save you 15 percent? Anybody ever seen that commercial? Everybody knows that. But I wrote, but did you know his grace is really sufficient for you? For his strength had made perfect and we did you really know that? I thought they ought to have something like that on that.

still let me write their commercials for them. Yeah, but did you know His grace is really sufficient for you? Was everybody, no, but did you know this? Not everybody knows this. And the last part of it, I got it underlined. If you’re not hearing, because faith commit by what? Hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So if you’re not hearing, you’re not growing. If you’re not hearing, you’re not growing and you can’t hear without the word. Do you see why some people that will get involved and they get to doing this and that and the other?

It’s because they’re listening and they want to hear more and more and more. Some people just want to see just how little they can get away with it. Who are you hurting? You hurt yourself. You’re robbing yourself of eternal rewards. See, going to heaven, that’s because you trust the Christ, you say, you’ll go to heaven. But it’s not all about just getting to heaven. Now that I’m going to heaven, what am I going to have when I get there?

I don’t know. Never been there before. But he says, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory of which shall be revealed. I know that whatever it is, it’s going to be something. It’s got to be awesome. And I just know whatever it is, I’ll be glad I did. And if I don’t, I’ll be sorry that I didn’t do what God wanted to do. He said, abide in Him, my little children, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be, what’s that word?

Not be ashamed before Him and His coming. Do you think that might be possible? Some Christians are going to be ashamed when the Lord comes because they didn’t do? But if you do serve the Lord, you’ll be glad. And this is why it’s so important. at the last statement here. Spiritual growth requires training. Proverbs chapter 22, just look at the scripture there in your notes. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Even the child of God must be trained. Do you believe you have to train children? Oh, what’s any difference in a spiritual realm? Don’t children have to be trained? Did you know that Peter started the Friday night soul wedding? And Then he took James, Jesse, and trained Jesse. And not Jesse’s trained in some others, and now others are trained in others. And it’s just amazing if they are shown what to do, it makes it, you have to be trained.

You have to learn. Learn to do it. Train. 2 Peter 3, 18 says, but grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But some people will not grow. And you will not grow because you will not hear. And you don’t hear the word of God. Look up here very quickly. This is you and me. This is sin. God says that He loves us. So God loves all of you. I love you that are watching the internet.

God loves us, but he hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation. From God, since we’re guilty, we got to pay for it. So we are in debt to God. We have a sin debt. But God loves us once us to go to heaven and none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’ve all come short of God perfection because of sin we can’t get in. So God says you cannot earn eternal life.

You can’t work your way to heaven. It means you can’t be good enough by your good deeds. So going to church and giving money and trying to keep the 10 come out, all that, that won’t help you at all. It won’t even help at all. It won’t get your little pinkies one inch closer to the pearly gates. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He is the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from him.

So Christ took the sin, paid for a long cross, came back from the dead. He said that if you and I, if we would believe this, believe that He paid for our sins. He puts this payment to our account, means I don’t have to pay for my sins. He paid for all my sins. I don’t deserve this. I deserve to go to hell. But he loved me. And he said, if he doesn’t do it this way, there is no other way.

He has to give it to me as a gift. He had to pay for all of my sins, or he didn’t help me at all. If he left one sin unpaid, it didn’t help me. Either he paid for all of them or it’s no good. So he made that payment. I believed that. And he gave me eternal life as a gift. I’m going to heaven when I die because I have no sense to pay for it. He paid for all of my sin.

The penalty for my sin is paid. Now that I’m going to heaven when I die, I want other people to go with me. I believe God left me here to keep spreading the gospel, keep getting the news out. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you write now in the quietness of this moment? Just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this.

Lord, I know I’m a sinner and I believe Christ died and paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust him right now as my only hope of going to heaven. I believe he died for me, paid for my sins. And friend, if you’ll believe that he did it for you, he’ll put that payment that he made to your account. You get to go to heaven because you have no sins to pay for it. He paid for them, but you must believe he did it for you.

Will you do that? If you’ve never done it before, but you say, yes, that made sense to me. I will trust Christ as my Savior and preach your life to pray for me. Friend, would you just slip you in a very quickly and put it right back down? It’s annual as long. I’m not going to ask you to stand up and come forward, but right where you’re sitting, it heads by night closed so nobody’s embarrassed. Would you say, preach of that made sense and I will trust Christ right now as my only hope of going to heaven?

Would you do that? Is there anyone at all? Just slip it up very quickly. If you have trusted Christ as Savior or if you’re watching by internet, and what I said made sense to you and today you trust the Lord. Would you just click on the little button there on your screen? We’d love to know. We’d love to hear from you. Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us and help me Father to try to explain these things as honestly as I can.

I know the time is short. I don’t have a lot of time left. I don’t know how many good years I’ve got left, but whatever the Lord I want to try to teach and train as many as I possibly can. We ask your of blessings upon each person here. And Lord, unless you work over it in their heart, it can’t be done. But I just commit it to you. Bless them. We pray Lord that they’ll have the desire and that they want to study and be what you want to hear being.

Christ, do we know? You have been listening to another great message from Dr. Arnold, and we hope that Bible line is a blessing to you. In appreciation for your support of this ministry, we’d like to send to you a gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send the Bible promise book. It is a book that organizes verses of the Bible by topic. For example, if you wanted to know of verses that address humility or forgiveness or obedience, you would simply find that topic in the table of contents, go to the chapter listed, and there you would find the verses that address that topic.

It’s a wonderful study guide and resource for your own devotions, as well as for lesson preparation, and we’ll send it to you for a gift in any amount for this month. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 40- Luo 11 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. Cut up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.