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Bibleline, hear God’s word on Bibleline. Hear 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.

So, we have a desire to see kids, no Christ is Savior, and I deserve a Lord. So we are always trying to give them a purpose in life. You know it’s hard to give teenagers a purpose in life if those that are trying to give them a purpose in life don’t have a purpose in life. Don’t you think that we ought to be an example of whatever we want them to be? Oh, now that’s easy preaching and hard living.

But we gotta give a teenager something worth living for. And if it’s worth them changing their lives for, well then it should change ours. Don’t you think? If God’s Word doesn’t do anything for you, why would you want somebody else to do it? Why would you want somebody else to go to church if you don’t go to church? Why would you want somebody else to support God’s work if you don’t support God’s work? Why would you want them to pray if you don’t pray?

I think it all hits home all the time. And so we’re always examining ourselves. What kind of a Christian are you? You say, I’m a Christian. I’ve trusted Christ in my Savior. I know I have eternal life. That’s good. What kind of a Christian are you? Well, I’m going to help you decide which one you are. Don’t they like that? I’m going to help you decide which kind of a Christian you are. And what I mean by that is, are you an unfed Christian, an unfed Christian?

Or are you a lazy Christian? Are you a lazy Christian? Just plain lazy. Good for nothing lazy Christian. You ever met anybody like that? Aren’t you glad it’s not you? I met myself and there I was. What about a worldly Christian? Are you a worldly Christian? What about a tied up Christian? Christian, a defeated Christian, a victorious Christian. There I am, finally. Well, maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. You know, there’s times in our life when we go from one stage to the other to the other to the other to the other to the other.

Wouldn’t it be neat if we were just top-notch all the time? No down time. Just always up, always on the top of the mountain. Wouldn’t it be great if we were never really down in the scourge and defeated. Wouldn’t it be neat? Maybe that’s heaven. But sometimes we go through those various stages. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah Old Testament, Old Testament man Jeremiah. And he would have on a rough day.

He would have on a rough day. Well he had a lot of rough days. His whole ministry was rough. He was called a weeping prophet and he had things to cry about. Not only because of what was happening to his people, but what they were doing to him. You know, they didn’t like Jeremiah too well. And even the Lord had to tell Ezekiel, look, don’t be afraid of their faces. He says, they are a stubborn, hard-headed, rebellious people. But I want you to tell them anyway.

You know, sometimes we don’t get the easiest job. If we just faithful to serve the Lord and shine, God puts us where He wants us to. And sometimes it’s not our call. But notice what He says here in verse 16. Verse 16, thy words were found. Oh, any chapter, it doesn’t matter. It’s just wherever you want. It’s the Word of God, you know. Thy words were found. So find any place you want. I don’t hear. No, in the book of Jeremiah 15, I thought I told you that.

I didn’t tell you that. I didn’t tell you. I was just testing you. I thought whenever I said those words, you knew where it was at. I thought y’all had a photographic memory, you know he’s good. Jeremiah 15 and verse 16, thy words were found and I did eat them. Now I did not find the Word of God until I was 18 years old. And then the Word of God found me. I bet his dad got the Bible and brought it to me.

I sat down and began to read the Bible. But he says, Thy words were found and I did eat them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of Host, isn’t it a good verse? It’s fine if everything else is going on. The word of God is to be rich, dwelling in your hearts richly by faith. So you’re to know the word of God, read the word of God, study the word of God, but are you an unfed Christian?

Are you a Christian that just don’t want to eat? Have you ever been able to eat that in life that just don’t want to eat? And if you don’t eat, you’re going to get weak. Isn’t that true? Don’t eat, you get weak. So, the key thing is, are you an unfed Christian? This is why we want to feed God. I’ve had people that, you know, they don’t come to church for a month and they said, you know, he just doesn’t feed me.

Well, I put the food on the table, you didn’t come to eat. I’ve had people say, you know, I’m tired of the milk. I want some meat. I want meat, eat. Did you know what meat for one person is milk to somebody else? If you already know it, that’s just milk. If you’ve never heard it before, that’s meat. So if you teach the word of God, there’s milk and there’s meat. And if it’s meat, you can eat. You can eat it all on your own.

Because see, whenever you get older, aren’t you able to eat meat on your own? Or does your mother still have to cut it up for you and little bitty bites and chew it for you and then put it in your mouth? Now little bitty kids, you mind. But the preacher is to teach the word of God and you decide what you’re going to eat. So sometimes there’s milk, sometimes there’s meat, depending on what you know and what you don’t know.

And so some people have heard about the rapture, oh that’s just milk. It’s all I hear about as the rapture, because I already heard about that. Somebody else has never heard of it. Buddy was I fed today. I mean they got something that they hadn’t had before. Can you satisfy everybody? Don’t even try. You’ll go nuts. As Christians, we are supposed to feed upon the Word of God. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter chapter 2, over there in the New Testament, 1 Peter and chapter 2. When the Lord tells us that we have been saved or born again by the Word of God, and see it makes that statement in the previous chapter up in verse 23, where it says in chapter one of first Peter, verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveeth and abideth forever. So the word of God gives to us eternal life.

It’s the incorruptible seed. So when you and I trust Christ as Savior, we have the new birth and the new birth comes from an incorruptible seed means you can’t die, means it lives forever. But the Lord tells us that in chapter 2, chapter 2, verse 1, wherefore layin aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envies and all evil speaking, how do you lay all of that aside? It’s part of your nature. That’s the way you are. That’s that old sinful nature that you have.

But how do you lay it aside? Well, he tells us how to do that in verse 2, as newborn babes desire. Desire something else. Now you can desire the flesh, or you can desire that which comes from the Word of God. So if you have a hunger for the Word of God and you want to feed upon the Word of God, it will make you whatever it is. If the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, it can make you sharp.

Powerful, it can make you powerful. It can discern, you can discern. You can discern. You see, the Word of God can make you what the Word of God is. The Word of God is perfect. The Word of God can make you perfect. It’s the only thing that can. It gives you that perfect birth. That’s why the glorious gospel is a perfect gospel. There’s nothing lacking in that message because if I have to be perfect to go to heaven, then the gospel has to make me perfect.

If it doesn’t make me perfect, it’s not even good. So all I’m left with is the flesh. I got to try to do my best, but I don’t have to worry about that because the Word of God makes you fit for heaven. It means if I believe it, it gives me a new birth which is a perfect birth that I’m good to go. Isn’t that good news? That’s good news. I knew you like that. But notice what he said in verse two, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may what?

That you may grow. So an unfed Christian is not going to grow as they ought to grow. Now take your Bible and turn to John chapter nine, the gospel of John and chapter nine. John chapter nine. And look there in verse four, John chapter nine and verse four. What about being a lazy Christian? Just don’t want to do anything. You know, some people just have a motivational problem. I found out this, everybody is motivated to do what they want to do.

Some people are motivated just to sleep all the time. Some people are just motivated just to be lazy. That’s their motivation. There’ll be a beachcomer, you know, or be a bum. Well, that’s what they’re motivated to do. everybody’s motivated to do what they want to do. But now the key is can you find a way to motivate people to do what they should do but don’t want to do? So they say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

So you put salt in his oats and make him thirsty so that they’ll want to get some water. Well, I think the Lord does a little bit of that for us also, but look here in verse one of John chapter nine and he says, and as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And the disciples asked him and said, Master, who did sin? This man or his parents? That he was born blind. Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. work. In other words, the only time you have to work for the Lord is while you’re alive. When you’re dead, and there’s not too much you can do about it anymore. So we need to work while we are alive. Be motivated. Encourage yourself. Challenge yourself. Motivate yourself to do what God wants you to do. Because see, somebody else may not be able to do the job.

Encourage and motivate yourself. Don’t always be dependent upon somebody else. Learn to walk with God on your own. Learn how to stand. Because when you get to heaven and you have to face the Lord, well, Lord, you know it’s not my fault. Obama said it was Bush’s fault. And the reason I don’t do anything is because it was Bush’s fault. Now, you are to assume responsibilities for yourself. Learn to discipline yourself. I’m talking about that a little bit tonight.

How to discipline yourself. How do you make yourself do what you should do? Because you see that’s the biggest key. To keep going. Otherwise you quit. You stop. And that you do not want to happen. Look in Matthew chapter 21, Matthew chapter 21, time to work. Matthew chapter 21. And you’ll notice there’s a little parable that’s mentioned here. But look in verse 28. I had two sons, the Lord uses an illustration here about a man who had two sons.

So he said in verse 28, but what think ye? A certain man had two sons. He said to the first, he came the person said, son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answered as a typical teenager would. I will not. Now, is it okay for the dad to tell the kid to work? It’s a probably pretty good thing. Learning responsibility. Learning to work. because the natural tendency is to be lazy until you find what you want to do.

But sometimes in growing up you have to do what you’re told to do whether you want to or not. Remember this in building a ministry it’s not always built because you do the things you want to do but because you do the things you don’t want to do. There’s a lot of things in the ministry or in jobs that everybody has that you don’t want to do but if you want it to succeed you have to do it. So you have to learn.

Don’t be lazy. Don’t be a lazy person. Nobody loves a lazy person. It’s just you just don’t want to be lazy. Do what God says to do and you’ll be surprised how it will be a blessing to you. But anyway, he said, he came to the first and he says, son go work in my vineyard. He says, I will not. But afterwards, he changed his mind, repented, and he went. Came to the second and said, likewise, and he answered and says, I go, but then he didn’t go.

He said the right thing, but he didn’t do the right thing. So there’s a lot of people that trust Christ’s Savior. And the Lord says, I want you to work today in my vineyard. And how many people I’ve seen dedicate their lives to the Lord? I will. I will. And they don’t. Never doing anything. Nothing changes in their life. They stay the same. Do you think God expects there to be some changes made in a Christian’s life? I do.

To be saved? No. Prove you’re saved? No. But He says, if you love me, do this. Now, it may beat it. Some people just don’t love them. You can trust Christ as Savior. Remember, going to heaven is not because you love God. You’re going to heaven because He loves you. After you trust Christ as Savior, I believe that if you start reading and feeding on the Word of God, it just kind of creates a love on the inside of you where you want to do those things.

Take your Bible and turn to James chapter 4, the book of James and chapter 4. Now you know, So what about, you know, being a Christian that just won’t separate? Do you think that’s in the Bible? Should a Christian have a separated life? Well, I guess, you know, some people just separate themselves from everybody, get them a little old hut in the backside of some mountain in Alaska. Well, I’m separated. I’m living that separated life. I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about.

Well, I got away from the world. You have to be where there are people. God didn’t take you out of the world. He left us in the world so that we could influence the world. So we are to influence the world. But there’s something that’s important for us to remember. Look there in chapter four and look in verse four. Yeah, adulterers and adulteresses. No ye not that the friendship of the world is emmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Ooh, but in fact that’s strong. Does the Bible say anywhere be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind? Is that a verse in the Bible somewhere? Where? Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. Those are two very good verses. But verse 2, be not conformed to this world. So if a Christian is conformed like the world, what do you mean by are you conformed to the world? Don’t be conformed to the world.

If the world makes you into its mold, it’s outside pressure of the world making you what it wants you to be. Or to be transformed means that there’s a power on the inside of you that shapes and molds you the way you’re supposed to be. So either the world shapes you because of its pressure or the Lord shapes you because of his pressure. The Word of God puts pressure upon you, teaches you how to restrain yourself from certain things and to refrain from certain things.

So the change your life is the renewing of your mind. Sometimes people make the biggest mistake of trying to get people to change their life when they haven’t renewed their mind. Then that means that they only conform to certain rules and regulations but it never got to the heart where their mind has been changed. And as as soon as they can get away from authority. Have you ever seen teenagers that they may obey you as long as they’re under your authority?

And then they can’t wait to get 18 or get on their own and then what happens? Woo, look how old here I come. You’ve been waiting on me. And so it never got inward changed. It was just external laws that they obeyed. they may be disciplined in the sense that they obey. But being disciplined does not mean spiritual. You can be disciplined to obey a lot of things. Everybody who goes into the military and they go to boot camp, they’re all disciplined.

They do exactly what they’re told, how they’re told, does that make them spiritual? No, I don’t spear so mind it. But they’re disciplined. So you can have a Christian school and have disciplined, but not spirituality. You can come to church and you sit where you’re supposed to and you sing like you’re supposed to and you give money like you’re supposed to and you do all the things like you’re supposed to. But that doesn’t make you spiritual. It means you’re disciplined.

It means you’re obedient in certain areas. But it may not be that the reason that you do it is because I love the Lord. And I’m doing it because the Holy Spirit has taught me from the Word of God to do it. Or you do it well, the preacher said. If you do what you do, only because the preacher says, that’s not gonna be very good. It’s not gonna last very long. Because the preacher will then say something that you don’t like, and then you’re gonna get mad at him.

But if you do what you do because the Lord guides you, well then you have something to help you for the rest of your life. And it doesn’t matter what people say and don’t say or how they live and don’t live. So take your Bible also and turn over there to the book of 2 Corinthians and chapter 6.

2 Corinthians and chapter 6. And look in verse 17. Verse 17. Verse 17 says of chapter 6, This is on page 12, 34, 1, 2, 3, 4. Wherefore come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. That means if you don’t, he’s not going to receive you and you don’t get to go to heaven when you die. Now that’s not what he said. He’s already talking to believers.

He’s talking to those who already know the Lord. even though these Christians weren’t too spiritual. He said, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal babes in Christ, saved, but live in like lost people. So a Christian can be saved and live like a lost man. But that’s not the will of God. And so God says, one thing that will help you in your walk with God is you don’t be a fence straddler, you know, on this side and on that side, trying to satisfy the flesh and trying to satisfy the Spirit and it says that is a double minded man and don’t think that man should receive anything of the Lord.

James chapter one. So it makes a statement here, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate? Say it to the Lord. So whatever it means, that’s don’t even worry about what it means. Does it say it? Is there a verse in the Bible that says a Christian should be separate from somebody else. Yes. Well whatever it means. But then when you start studying it and applying it, look what he says up here in verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Now we often take that, I mean just you know if a man is saved, he shouldn’t marry a person that’s not saved. So that is true and that’s good, but he can go further than that. Could it also even apply to business? Could it apply in a church? Teaching of a Sunday school class? Preachers that come into preach? What do they believe? We should not yoke up with those that are teaching in air together and they could be the problem that we’re trying to solve.

Just like there’s a lot of people in this world that maybe love freedom, but they want the freedom to teach their heresy. And I know that we have to have freedom for everybody in order for me to have some. So he says in verse 14, be it not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? You see righteousness and unrighteousness just don’t get along. They say oil and water just doesn’t mix.

And what he’s talking about here, light and darkness are opposite. You don’t put them together. One another knows the other. and works, it doesn’t mix. So there’s an understanding of keeping things clean and pure. Even God, when He wanted His people Israel to go into the land, He didn’t want them to adopt the gods and the idols of the heathen that were there, that He was whooping them and for His own people to adopt them. That’s why he’s taken the land away from me because he says in Genesis 15 that the sins of the Amorites was not yet for.

So God was patient, but that’s why He put a curse upon Canaan because the land of Canaan was then given to Israel. And so we have today. We will cross 8,000 miles of water to get over there to another country to fight the religion of Islam. You see where we’re fighting the jihadists, you know the the the terrorists, the extremists. No, we’re fighting the religion of Islam. The religion of Islam promotes what they’re doing, the terrorism. The Koran is a war manual.

And so do away with the things because it does not teach love. It teaches hate and murder and the force and it’s an overthrow of another person and in another country. now they want to take over the world. Well, we are Christians, Christ is going to all the world and preach the gospel. So what’s the difference? Well, because Christianity is light and Islam is darkness. They’re not compatible. But now there’s a new religion trying to come together called You know, Christ, Christianity, and the religion of Islam, we all worship the same God.

No, we do not. There is Jehovah, and there is nobody that’s Allah, because there is no God. Allah is not a God. There is no God. Only in the mind of people. There’s only one true and living God, true and living God and his name is not all. And God, Jehovah has a son and they’ll tell you their allah does not have a son and he has no mercy, he has no forgiveness and he has no love. Study the Quran, it’s not there.

Even though old merciful one, they got a beg for mercy because there’s no love, there’s no forgiveness, there’s nothing, there’s no sacrifice. It has nothing, it promises nothing except that if you were to kill somebody, might get 70 virgins, but understanding God wants his children to walk in the light, not in darkness. God wants his children to walk in the spirit, not in the flesh. You see, separate yourself as much as possible from that which feeds the flesh. One of the things that I try to do as a preacher and for myself personally, is try to figure out what helps me to grow spiritual and what will take and lead me to desire the things of the flesh, and that becomes a goal.

So you have to decide what is it that helps me to stay strong. Well it’s almost Christmas and we’d like to give every listener a Christmas gift. Just for listening, we’d like to send Dr. Arnold C.D. understanding difficult passages of the Bible. No donation is required. We’ve compiled on CD Dr. Arnold’s teachings on difficult passages. For example, does James chapter 2 teach that true faith will produce works? Does 2 Corinthians 5 17 mean that a true believer will no longer desire to sin?

These and many other verses are explained in their biblical context so that you can have confidence in the agreement of all the Word of God. Call us today, toll free at 1-800-576-3771, or you can write us at 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, no donation is necessary, just your address so that we can send to you this important teaching. God bless you and Merry Christmas, and thank you for listening to 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.