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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, I got something that I wanted to share with you and hope that it’ll be a blessing. But everybody is, no, we’re running a race. You know the scripture talks about us running a race. Well, a couple years back, I was asked to speak at the Florida Bible College Alumni Association up there in Philly, Pennsylvania. And it was on the title of finishing well, finishing well, running and finishing well. Because a lot of people start running and then after a while they kind of fizzle out.

You have kids go to camp, dedicate their lives to the Lord in about two weeks later. They feel the love. Someone like a shooting star and then they’re like a falling star. Where are you at in this thing? Are you still shining, climbing and shining for the Lord? Want to do more and more? Now you know Christmas is over. The end of the year. We’re tired. We run a whole year. I mean, the cantatas over with, so now we can let down.

We don’t have to worry about ranch. We finished the year. It’s time for my break. Well, not so fast. Somebody says, yeah, don’t you realize that we’ve got some other things to do yet? Yes, but you ought to see what we did last year. Yeah, but that was last year. This is a new year. What are you going to do for this year? I’m on a glide and slide along. And the Lord says, wait, wait, wait, wait. You got college starts next week.

You got a board meeting that starts next week with the college. You got a vote in the congregation thing. We got a congregation meeting the next month. You got the sweetheart banquet coming up and then you’re gonna have a lady spring banquet coming up and then you got camp coming up and you got time to lay down. Rest. I wanna tell you what the Bible says. You would think if there’s somebody who has really been gung ho for the Lord, give it all they got.

And then they kind of got a little tired, a little weak along the way. So I think there has to be something else, that there ought to be a story in the Bible about that. And I thought I would show you in the Bible, because chances are some of you are gonna fit right into this real nice. Nice, lock those doors. But I want you to see what the scripture says because I believe it is so very important. You see there in Hebrews in chapter 12, you got your book of Hebrews.

I just wanna kind of give you a few thoughts as I ramble here, there, and there. But you’ll notice in verse one, wherefore sin we also accomplish the by what’s so great, a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily beset us. Let us run with patience, race that is set before us. We have a race. Now spiritually these people had been vital, serving, compassionate, doing something. And then you see why this book had to be written to these Jewish believers who had this Tennessee, you know, this serving the Lord business is getting us into a heap of trouble.

I mean, we’re getting a lot of persecution. We’ve even had some of our company killed and then we’ve given up a lot of stuff. I mean, we surrendered a lot of things. We have fought a lot of battles. We’ve endured a lot of afflictions. You know, if we went back into Judaism, it wouldn’t be so bad. And buddy, it can start looking really good. Just like today, we don’t have to worry about the temple and the law and all that, but we have people to bathe.

You know, I made up my mind years ago, I’m going to serve the Lord. I dedicate my life to the Lord. But you know, the longer I serve the Lord, the devil has not let me alone. He fights me all the time. I even try to serve people and people stab me in the back. Christians can be mean and ugly and unkind. Treat me mean and dirty and ugly. I quit. I didn’t get treated like this by the world.

I’m going to take and just stop certain alert and live like the world because I don’t have enough of this. before you get too carried away. Before you get too excited, let me tell you about what God says about people who think like that. And believe it or not, that’s all right here enough in the book of Hebrews. So turn in your Bible to the book of Hebrews in chapter six. Look in Hebrews in chapter six. Hebrews chapter six, and now what I want you to see, and I want to try to show you as we go, There is these people that started off serving God, doing what’s right.

So he says in first hand, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, it wasn’t in vain. Your work and your labor, it was not in vain. God didn’t forget. It would be a sin for God to forget what you did. So if you did it for the Lord, keep doing it for the Lord. If you started out serving God, keep on serving God. You’re not impressed with other people who start things. It’s, can they finish the race?

Do you wanna finish the race? Finish the course. Pause to finish it with joy. Are you getting to the place where you’re just getting sick and tired of the Christian rat race? Go on to church, reading the Bible, having to do this, having to do that. And you have a tendency to say, well, I’m tired of the afflicts. I’m tired of that fight, that battle. It’s time to let up, see what I’ve been missing on the other side. Now, a lot of teenagers try that too.

And they live ruining lives many times later on. Because they just can’t believe that it’s not a good life out there. So they got to find out for themselves and they put scars on themselves and it really hurts and it causes you a lot of pain and a lot of grief. When you see somebody that you love running and hurting their life, well don’t you think God feels the same way when you put scars on yourself that you didn’t have to?

You think adults don’t do that. You’re right. So he says here in verse 10, which you have showed toward his name. You did. You’ve already done this and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. Some of you have done it and you’re still doing it. But look at verse 11. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. End of what? Now you’ll find this mention in quite a few places this end.

But I do believe it’s maybe the end of our race. You know the end isn’t over until it’s over. It ain’t over yet. I was watching the ball game the other day and I said this is over. They still had a quarter to go and I said this over. I won’t tell you what game I was watching. But I was over with Bob Brooks and Bob Gilbert and it was over. And it was, it was over. But one day, and I’m just going to share this with you, because sometime you don’t know when your life is going to be over.

I’ve always had this fear. I’m going to die by drowning. My wife knows this. I’ve said this a number of times. I never told you I’m going to die by drowning. I had so many occasions where I had been almost dead because of drowning. So I went back there with my sister Lizzie when I was drowning. She saved my life. She regretted it, but she did. She saved me. And I’ve been under waterfalls and started swimming through in the water, pushing me down and I almost drowned at that time.

But let me tell you this. I’m not a fisherman, but I go fishing occasionally. And Jim Seizmore right here one day, him and Peter Amato. We went out and he has a boat and it’s a nice boat. So we got this boat. And we’ve done it several times and we’ve had a few fish and we’d enjoy it. But he all told me, he says, don’t sit in that chair because that chair is kind of weak. And I don’t want you to fall off of it or something.

I don’t want it to break on me. Yep, yep, I got it down. So I’d always sit up in the front and they would drive the boat and you know, wind hitting me in the face, water hitting me in the face. But this one day I forget about it. We started to come back in, hadn’t caught a lot of fish. I can’t remember if we caught any fish. But anyway, it was coming back in. And lo and behold, there was this pontoon boat that was stationary, and it wasn’t going to wear, and they wanted a toe.

So kind hearted, he put a thing on, toeing it behind us. So we’re just boogying down, and we’re not going fast. Come on, we’re pulling this big old boat. And I just thought, I’ll just go back here and sit on that chair. So I went back there and I settled in that chair. And I fell asleep. I literally fell asleep. Well, they were talking. They were talking. They figured out all about me. And so I fell asleep. And when I fell asleep, another boat had come by.

And I guess going maybe a little bit faster. And it caused a little wake. And it caused our boat to go like this, and caused my seat, to go like this. And the next thing you know, I’m asleep. I’m going backwards. I’m doing a back flip with the chair. The chair is going with me, a back flip. And I landed in the water and I come to. I’m under water. That quick. I’m asleep and all of a sudden I’m out of it.

I’m under water. I didn’t take any air with me. I didn’t know to take any air. I didn’t know I was going there. And so I’m backwards in this heavy, heavy chair. And it’s on me and I’m under the water. Well, the chair floated. I didn’t. And I call it a second, I remembered. There is a pontoon boat behind me. And I thought, it’s gonna run over me. But I thought in my mind, it’s gonna have a motor and the blades gonna come up, you’re gonna chew me all up.

I forgot about it. It didn’t have a motor running. But when I went under, I was conscious that that thing has come up and I thought, if I come up too fast, it’s going to hit me. It’s right behind me. I knew it was right behind me. So I try to get out of the way and come up at the same time. So when I came up, it must have missed me by this much. I’m under the water. When I look up, I saw Peter looking at me and I think he was still driving the boat.

But it didn’t take long to kill the motor because it happened just that quick. And then I tried to get a hold of the thing and they didn’t have a handhold for people who were in the water to try to get a bottle of the thing. And so I went all the way around to the back and these two guys were in and they pulled me into the thing. And just that quick, I thought this could have been my end.

I keep thinking I’m going to die by drowning. I didn’t die. But I don’t even take baths anymore because I’m afraid of water. I’m lying, I’m dying, and I’m dying. But you never know how long it’s going to be. That little lady that I came down here after I spoke last week, and I shook her hand, I didn’t know that she was going to get pneumonia and die in two days. And we had her funeral yesterday. What if somebody, just like Mary Marshall, who just happens to invite somebody to come to church and they trust Christ as their Savior?

How important was that? And then she became a link that reached how many others. They could have been 60, 70, 80 people to trust the Lord. It’s hard to tell, you never know. But just to get the gospel to people that’s never heard it before. See, our race isn’t over until it’s over. It’s not over yet. It’s so important. Take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. And I want you to notice there in verse 6.

You and I, to remember that because, yes, we’re on a foundation and God is building us, He is building you a spiritual house on the foundation. And the spiritual house is to be built by spiritual stones found in the Word of God, the scripture, where you learn how to live within the Word of God. So that he says abide in me, abide in my book, abide in my word. So we build a spiritual house so that we can live in it.

And God says that you’ll be a wise man if you do so. So you’re a house in process progress and you’re been built. And he says in verse six, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are ye, are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the whole firm unto the end. Now one of two things, to we mature in the Lord or until our race is totally over. See you were to mature in the Lord so that we can finish the race.

You might have started, but to finish you’re going to have to start maturing. You have to grow stronger in the Lord because the problems in life don’t get easier. They don’t get weaker. They get more difficult. The the lure of the world becomes even greater. The lust of the flesh. They grow and become like monsters to you. So we have a responsibility. Do you want to finish the race that God has for us? I do. I want to finish the race.

I want to finish strong. Now look there in the book of, look down in verse 14, however, right there. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. So you’re trusting Christ to save you. You know you’re going to heaven when you die. And you just say, I’m going to serve the Lord. And you start serving the Lord. This confidence that you have, don’t cast that away. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse verse 35 says, cast not away therefore your confidence which has great recompense of reward.

Because your reward in heaven is going to be a result of the work that you do. And the work that you do is going to be a result of the confidence that you have. That confidence is what gives you boldness. You began with some confidence. You had confidence. It’s serving the Lord is going to be worth it. And then lo and behold, when you find out, you know, I didn’t know it’s going to be like this. I didn’t know it’s going to be this difficult.

If you’ll stay close to the Lord and learn, he will never leave you and never forsake you. He will always walk you through whatever it is. He’ll walk you through it and he’ll bless you because of it. Now look in chapter four, look in verse one. He said, let us therefore fear lest a promise be in left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it. Understand this. will give us everything we need to finish our race.

But you have to grow in the Lord. You have to believe the Lord. And as you learn the Word of God and keep trusting in the Lord, you have all that you need to finish the race. But because of unbelief, begin to question, to begin to doubt, You’d be surprised how easy it is to come short of finishing the course. You’re not going to have enough to finish. It’s not that God wasn’t able, is you didn’t trust Him. Don’t let the things of the world get you so sidetracked.

The thing, well it’s not worth it. It is worth it. This life is going to be short. It’s going to be over soon. Our race is going to be done and then no man can work. So we do what we can while we can. And God said to He would bless us because of it. So this is found, I believe, in the Word of God. Now look in chapter 10 in verse 32. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 32. And you’ll notice they had been doing some of the things that they should do in verse 32, but called to remembrance.

Remembrance. This is the reason for our memorial service, our service that we’re having today, the Lord Supper, remembering. Now as you start getting older, do you find yourself dreaming of the way it used to be, remembering? Look in verse 32, but call to remember the former days in which after, get this, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of affliction. You’ve already been there. You’ve already been fighting. You were enlightened, you saw it, you realized it, and you dedicated your life, you’re gonna serve the Lord, and you begin to grow, you fought some battles, you endured the afflictions.

But now, but now it’s things have changed. And so you become in verse 33, partly while you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches, afflictions, partly while you became companions of them that were so used. You saw what happened to your friends. You saw what it cost them. You become disappointed. You become discouraged. And what do you do? You think quit. It’s not worth it. So many of God’s people have erred. Now look in Hebrews in chapter 12, chapter 12, and look in verse 3.

In verse 3 makes a statement because as we run our race we should consider, consider what Christ went through. Remember when Christ ran his race he was faithful, faithful till he got to the garden and that was it. Or was he faithful until he got to the cross? He was faithful till he died. True? How long should we be faithful till it gets hard? Until everything is going, or long as everything is going my way. And then when things don’t go your way, you get hurt and bitter and mean and you quit serving God.

You’ll use people. You’ll blame, but it’s you. You didn’t consider, what did Christ go through? Look what He says, for consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself lest you be wearied and faint in your own mind. Consider the one that ran his race, and this is what he’s telling us to do in chapter 12. But he didn’t quit. He didn’t quit. He finished his course. You remember him saying the words. It is what? Finished. It was finished when he died.

When do you think ours will be finished. When is our race over when you’re dead? When you die, I guess you can stop worrying about it then. But until then, you and I are called to be found faithful. Now, evidently, these people in the book of Hebrews, they had started off well. They were doing everything right. But as time goes on, things begin to fall apart. They begin to have questions. they had doubts. Also look there in verse two, I just wanna show you the first two I will write to him.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was sent before him endured the cross until death, he endured the cross. What is God asking us to do? Endure, you say it’s hard, endure it. You get tired of doing right, tired of going to church, tired of reading the Bible, trying to discipline your life, trying to live a holy life, trying to be a God. Get tired of it. On your job, you get tired of trying to be a Christian with a testimony and just, no, no, you keep fighting.

You keep on fighting. There’s somebody who went before you and we have the Old Testament saints and how many died and we’re put to death, they died, but they were found faithful. You don’t want to be somebody who just starts well, runs well, finish well. You’ll be so glad that you did. Look there in Hebrews in chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And look in verse three. Verse three says, remember them that are in bonds. Some of those people were putting bonds, put into prison, persecuted as bound with them.

Consider that those people who are in bonds that you were also shackled to them. Like the apostle Paul was in prison, he said, pretend like you’re in prison with me. We share this. I may be here and you may be there, but we suffer for the Lord. We’ve given up our lives so that we can see other people come to know Christ as Savior. The price that we’re willing to pay. Did you get tired of giving money? Tired of hearing the preach to say, hey, we need money for this and we need money for this.

We need money for scholarship and we need money for the radio. We need money for this. Big, big, big. It’s all they ever do. All they want is money, money, money, money, money. Yeah, I know. So, for yourself or for the cause. Paul says, having this cause, we faint not. There is a reason. There’s a purpose. And you can use whatever excuse it is that you want not to do it, not to give, find a reason. You’ll find a person.

I’m not a person, somebody who hurts your feelings as justification to leave the church. A justification because, well, I don’t like those flowers or flowers. I’m not giving my money for that so you don’t give any. anything, God bless you. You’re so holy. Have you ever heard the choir mess up? Well, how pathetic. I’d never join a choir like that. You wouldn’t anyway. People are looking for excuses. Why not to do something? Why not to get involved? Did you know one day we’re going to stand before God and give an account to him for why we did not do what we could have done?

Should have done. And you could have based upon that. But look what he says here in verse 3. as bound with them and them which suffer adversity, as becoming yourselves also in the body. You see all believers are part of the body of Christ. When it hurts one person it should hurt you. Whenever I hurt my finger, Betty came to me other day and she said, that hurts. I looked at it. Now my brother, he’ll walk up and says, feel how that hurts.

You can’t feel that hurt. You see that right there? I said, no, I don’t see anything. It’s right there. It’s right there. I need a magnifying glass. Honey, I don’t see anything right. But it hurts right there. I’m still, you don’t have that little big thing that was hurting her. She kept on until it started hurting me. But I couldn’t find out what was causing it. I never saw anything in her. But it was so small, it caused pain to out their whole body.

Paul says, look, you’ve seen people go through these afflictions. You’ve seen people being put into prison. You’ve seen people killed. So I don’t mind this certain Lord bit, but I mean I’m getting concerned. Because you don’t want to go through things and you think that sometimes you know those people are really suffering, they deserve it. Probably got sin in their life. You watch, one of the days I’m gonna have me a jail minister and you’ll say, I’m here, it’s gonna be there sooner or later.

That’s just a matter of time. He shouldn’t have said all those things that he said. Yeah, when we get to heaven, you’ll probably say, you know John the Baptist, you know if you had a shut up and not say anything about that man’s wife, you’d have probably kept living. And Jesus says, no man born a woman greater than John the Baptist. Some people just don’t know who to appreciate. You ought to appreciate those people who are trying to do what’s right in Serva Lord.

Anybody can blow their little flame out. But that doesn’t make your light brighter because you’re able to destroy somebody else’s character.++++++++++++++++ It doesn’t work that way. Hello, this is Peter Amato from Bibleline, and I’m excited to tell you of our free book offer for the month of January. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send to you the mysteries of the New Testament. Have you ever wondered what the mystery of the Gospel was or the mystery of the blindness of Israel?

How about the mystery of Babylon? Well, we’re featuring a book written by Dr. Dan Arbergast that explains all these mysteries found in the New Testament, and we’d like to send a copy to you for a donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, or you can call toll free at 1-800-576-3771. We hope you enjoy the teaching of Dr. Arnold and thank you for your continued support and prayers. Once again, contact us today for this wonderful book on the mysteries of the New Testament.

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 4011 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.