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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 air. and 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.

Paul doesn’t deny their faith. It’s just that they’re not living their faith. There’s no power in their Christian life. They’re not running to right. They’re not running to win. They’re comparing themselves among themselves. And they that do that, the Bible says are not wise because your race is not with them. Your race is what God has set for you to do. You remember in the book of John last chapter when God was talking about John and Peter says, Well, what about John?

And Jesus says, it’s none of your business. As you get to the phraseology, but you just do what I told you to do. Don’t worry about John. If I want John to last, wait until I come back. What’s that to you? So then he started her gossiping again. And then it got out that John’s not gonna die. That’s not what he said. But it never stops. Look there in verse 26, I therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beat at the air like a shadow boxer, nobody there just wasting your time spending your wheels accomplishing nothing.

And that’s what most Christians are doing, just marking time, getting nowhere. How many of y’all been in the military? All right, a few of you have. You know what mark time means? March and step right where you are. You’re not going anywhere, but you can stand here and you can mark time all day long. But I love the march. I used to love the march. Oh, I love the march. And we would have it when you get out of step.

If you get out of step, what are you supposed to do? You just skip. If you skip, you get right back in step. It’s so simple. I’ve watched guys when they get out of step and they’re trying to figure out how to get in step and then just keep walking just and there you are just skip and you’re right instead huh oh fiddle fiddle I might have known that was coming that was for those that could not keep and they always sort of left link.

Give me your lift, right in the lift, right in the lift. Anyway, I’ll get signed right here. Look in verse 27, but I keep under my body. In other words, I keep my body in subjection because I can’t trust my body. My old sinful nature lives in my body and my body is a good tool to use but it’s a bad master. Don’t let the desires of the body control your life. And you be surprised how many are controlled strictly by the body.

The things you see and hear, touch, taste, feel, want, desire, it’s all about the body. And the body is temporary. And there he goes, the hay, the wood, and the stubble. But he says here, but I keep my body under subjection, bring it under subjection. that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be disapproved, disapproved for service and disapproved for rewards. So instead of studying the word of God so that you can be approved under every good work, you might be disapproved.

That means you’re not fit for service. There were people in boot camp that had to be washed out because they couldn’t even finish boot camp. I went through boot camp twice. But anyway, it is so important to realize this word is disapproved to be rejected for service. Now, go back there to the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 13. Corinthians. Does Paul doubt their salvation? No. Do they examine their works? That’s what they should do. Did Paul say they evidently they weren’t saved?

No, he didn’t say that. But he does tell him some things. So if you’re looking again in verse 5, because he right above that, they have been putting pressure on about the Apostle Paul. So when you read 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and says Paul talks about have not either right to take a wife and kids and so forth. Don’t I have a right to live with the gospel? Don’t I have? But he says, I did not abuse my power in the gospel.

Unless somebody would say, he says, did I do you wrong by not letting you take care of my financial needs? He says, I supplied my own needs. Just so I wouldn’t be chargeable to any of you. He says, did I wrong? Yeah. He says, forgive me this wrong if I did that. He says, but I didn’t want somebody saying Paul’s just doing it for the money. He says here. And you’ll see that if you just look really quickly right there in chapter 11 where he says in verse 7, have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?

I robbed other churches, taken wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man. For that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplies. Those poor people in Macedonia. He says, in all things, I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you. And so will I keep myself. And he says in verse 11, why? Because I don’t love you. He says, God knows. Sometimes the more you love somebody, the more it hurts.

It hurt Paul that they felt about him the way they did. And this is why he also made the statement, if you look there in verse 14 of chapter 12, he relates it to a family that has children. He says in verse 14, Behold the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you. For I have, but I seek not yours, but you. That’s not what I’m not seeking what you have, I’m after you.

And if you read the book of Thessalonians in chapter 2, where Paul talks about when he came there, the way he was, his character, the way he behaved himself when he came there. He says, you know quite well what I’m talking about. So he says here, and I will not be burdensome to you. For I seek not yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.

Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. You know, he’s talking to carnal Christians. Do you think they really appreciated what Paul went through to get the gospel to them? I don’t think so. I think they just took them for granted. They listen to what other people say, and they were carnal. And if you read chapter 11 all the way through and see what Paul went through to get the gospel to him, and then for them to say and do what they’re doing and questioned, he said, wait a minute.

In verse 3 of chapter 13, since you seek a proof of Christ speaking to me, I got a question for you. You need to go and examine yourself. Is Christ speaking through you? Did not I lead you to Christ? Why do you say over and over again? Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ? Paul lived in such a way he could actually tell people look follow my example as I follow Christ Every one of us should be able to say follow my example Even if it’s not perfect it shouldn’t get you into too much trouble People ought not to get into a lot of trouble if I follow your example when you think What kind of a Christian are you?

I’ve had people say, Yankee, you ought not to tell people that. Well, the Bible said that. The Bible even says, somewhere be thou an example of the believer in word and faith and charity and so forth and Timothy over there. So yes, it does say that. And we’re supposed to be examples. Now go back to verse 5 of chapter 13. So now he says, examine yourself. Are you living for the Lord? Are you sound in the faith? Are you strong in the faith?

Are you standing in the faith? And so when you look at that verse, he says, prove your own selves. This is something that you need to see in a holder place right here. The very next book to your right has something that I think shits a little light on that. Look in chapter 6 of the book of Galatians.

And you’ll see because Paul wrote Galatians, Paul wrote Corinthians. And you’ll notice when he makes this statement a brethren. See there in chapter 6 verse 1, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault and were the Corinthian Christians been overtaken in a fault? Yes. ye which are spiritual and he is, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, which is what he’s trying to do. And he’s letting them know, just because he’s meek, he is not weak.

And that he is now, talked to them for the third time, he says, and don’t make me mad because I might come by to see you. So he says this, in verse two, bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Those that are strong ought to take the initiative to help bear the burdens of those that are weak in the Lord. In other words, He’s talking to those that see a brother walking in the flesh from chapter 5 of Galatians.

See chapter 5 verses 16 on down to there talks about walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Okay, so when When you see a Christian walking in the flesh, what do you do? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t push him down and put their foot in the mud and hold your foot on it. No, you pose a try to help a fallen brother. Help him up. Try to help one another.

And it makes a statement. In verse 3, for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, or what were the Corinthians Christians doing, that’s what they were doing. were being lifted up and I preached one sermon from the book of 1 Corinthians about they were puffed up, puffed up, puffed up, puffed up, knowledge, perfect up. But love edifies. They were puffed up with knowledge, but they had no love. And so therefore they were hurting one another and they were like Beige walking.

So he says here in verse 3, for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself, but let every man in here those same words prove his own work. Then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, not in another. You ought to realize it is your walk with God, it is your faith, it is your strength. It’s what you are doing between you and God. You abide in him and see your personal joy and happiness and so forth in the Lord doesn’t have anything to do with other people because they come and go.

People are coming into your life and they’re coming out of your life. But your strength and walk with with the Lord should not depend upon somebody else always propping you up. Are you strong in the Lord? Now you’ll notice in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 13 down a little bit further, he says, I want you to be mature. He already said your babe, but I want you to be mature. But notice what else he says in verse four, let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.

and everyone shall bear his own burden. So you have a responsibility to carry the load that God’s given to you. And then because you’re spiritually strong, you try to help a weaker brother carry the burden God’s given to him. Not add to it, but try to help others to serve with God. I believe that God will reward me when I get to heaven, not only for people that I witness to, but the Christians that I try to challenge to serve the Lord.

So every person has a problem and problems are nothing more than opportunities for the believer who is in tune and sees opportunities. Opportunities are on wheels. They’re always rolling and they come your way and sometimes if you’re prepared you can take an advantage of opportunities. But if you don’t, sometimes they’re gone forever. You’ll never get them again. So go back there to the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 13. Now notice what he says here. He says, see whether or not you’re in the faith.

Now in the faith is something that we’ve talked about in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 13. But I want you to look at two other verses, Shrenncher right here in this verse about in the faith. Look there in the book of Titus in chapter one. Titus in chapter one. Titus chapter one. And you know, he’s trying to encourage Titus that you’ve got people that are going to try to leave people away and they’re going to do some things that are not right.

So here in Titus in chapter 1, look there in verse 9, he says, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by Sound Doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the game-sayer. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision of the Jewish people, whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lochers say. So did Paul have problems in his day?

Sounds like it doesn’t he? So then he says in verse 12, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own said the Christians are always liars, evil bees and slow-bellied, I’d get in trouble saying that on Sunday morning. I might get in trouble just by reading that verse. Looking verse 13, this witness is true. Wherefore it rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. In other words, some people you have to hit them hard and sharp right between the eyes.

Some people you can say nice things too, and around the bot way, coming the backdoor approach and just sweetness and niceness. And they like it that way and they’re corrective. There are people like me that are a little hearted that you gotta hit them right between the eyes. And so some people you do it one way and some people you have to do it another way. But to rebuke them sharp that they may be sound in the faith. But you notice those words in the faith.

Now, is that talking about how to be saved? When he talks about, you know, examine yourself whether you’re in the faith. Well, in context, it’s where you have to put it. He wasn’t talking about, are you saved or lost? He’s talking about all those things that he has mentioned to them. Are you sounding the faith? Are you standing in the faith? Are you doing what God says to do? Are you living for God? And it says, talks about Jesus living for God and him living for God and both in the power of God.

And then he’s talking about the believer. As you examine yourself, are you living for God? You know the best person to answer that question would be yourself. Nobody can really answer that question good for you. You know. Are you walking the way you ought to walk, living the way you ought to live? Are you trying to help other Christians? There’s a lot of people. You can’t use people’s problems and think they say against you or about you to keep you from trying to help people.

That’s why you’ve heard me make this statement over and again. You have to live as though you’ve never been hurt. Otherwise you’ll let your hurts turn into bitterness and anger, revenge, and envy, and jealousy, and hatred. You want to eliminate all of that? Pretend like you ain’t never been hurt. You ain’t never been hurt. Don’t bother you. realize you stand for Christ, you’re in His place. And then whatever they do to me, they did it to Him. They just did that to Him.

Now if He wants to get Him, let Him get Him. But I don’t have to get in revenge against anybody. See? So if you understand that, it’ll help you. Look what else He says here. Verse 14, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. So they had to be rebuked and they were rebuked. Now go back there to verse six. When he makes this statement about how the Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobated.

In other words, Christ is not living in you. The Bible talks about us abiding in him. He talks about abiding in us. Living where you’ve been placed. My little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him and his coming. Then he says there in verse six, I trust that you shall know that we’re not reprobates. We haven’t turned our back up on truth. We haven’t gone against truth.” He said, examine yourself.

Are you walking according to truth? So then he says in verse 8, for we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you’re strong. And this also we wish. Now you won’t see this too many times about Paul wishing for something. He says, in your other line, your perfection, your maturing. See, they starts off in the beginning, your carnal. I couldn’t speak unto you as spiritual. Neither yet, now are you able to bear, but they should be.

And so he tells them the things that they need to know. There’s going to be the judgment seat of Christ. Your body is the temple of the Lord. So He uses doctrine to try to solve their spiritual problems, but He doesn’t try to convince them that they’re not really saved. Like you find a lot of lordship salvation is doing that. But these scriptures doesn’t bear witness to that. Now look in verse 10. Therefore, I write these things being absent, less than present, I should use sharpness.

According to the, and here’s this word again, power which the Lord hath given me to edification, not to destruction. The reason you have the Holy Spirit living within you is not to give you power to destroy anybody. The power of God is for you to edify. It means to beautify what’s there and add to it. Are you able, and are you trying to help people to be stronger in the Lord? I have believed all these years. My faithfulness in going to church helps motivate and exhort challenge other people to go to church.

By faithfully giving, I want to challenge other people to be doing the same thing. Praying and reading and witnessing, I want to challenge other people to do the same thing. But I realize that I have to be an example of whatever I preach, or you will call me a hypocrite. And I don’t want you to call me that. And so if I have to say things that come across sometimes as being sharp, Paul says there’s times when And he had to do it.

I don’t like doing that. I’d rather just always just honey flow. The honeydew just dripping all over the place. I’m just such a sweet, lovable guy. But sometimes I have to be unkind and comes across that away and mean. But I don’t think I really am. But sometimes you have to be sharp with people and tell them. So will you examine your own life? we’re trying to examine everybody else. You remember whenever we study the scripture that deals with the Lord’s Supper and the Lord tells us there in chapter 11, examine yourself?

Was he talking about, see if you really say it? No. There’s things that you’re doing in your life that you’re partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. You’re not really thinking about what it says and what you’re supposed to do, how you’re supposed to live, what you’re supposed to be thinking about. And so we think about the Lord and what He hath done and what He is doing and what He will do. And I think for the Christian life you ought to remember what He hath done and examine what are you doing.

And remember one day we’re going to be with the Lord and so we should understand this. And I’m not looking, the verse 11 is interesting if you think he’s still talking about, I’m not sure you’re really saved. He’s saying, he’s finally, what, brethren, farewell, be perfect and of good comfort, be of one mind. So is that how 1 Corinthians starts off that they were all in one mind? You go back and let’s just close with this one verse. there in 1 Corinthians 1.

And look in verse 10, and you’ll see a little bit of the problem that he’s had to deal with. So by the time he finishes 2 Corinthians, hopefully he has hit the nail on the head. So in verse 10, now I beseech you brethren by the name of our our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

He’s got his work cut out for him, doesn’t he? But at least you know where he was headed, and you know the problems he had to deal with it. And the conclusion was that he want them to mature, to examine themselves. Are you living for the Lord? Well, if you go by what you could see, you would say, well, there’s a problem here. So I don’t see that he gave forward an invitation in the choir song. I just know he finished the book.

He says, finally, brethren, be of one mind. Love each other. Mature in the Lord. grow up, stop acting like babies. He didn’t say that, but that’s what he means. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me. And this wall of represents sin. We all have sin on us. Now the Bible says that God loves us. He hates our sin, but he loves us. And for us to pay for sin, death and hell. Because, see, we are in debt to God.

We have sinned against God. And God says, the wages of sin is death. So we earn the right to die and to be separated from God because we’re not worthy to stand in His presence. And God will not tolerate one sin into heaven. So that’s why we can’t go. And God says, you cannot earn eternal life. You can’t change this. Nothing you can do can change this situation. That’s why you need to save you. This hand represents Jesus Christ.

He’s the Lord God in the flesh. came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from God. So Jesus Christ who had no sin, had no debt to pay. So He came into the world and took our sins. And so God smit His own Son. And Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of the whole world. Because God had every intention, saving every person in the whole world, if the whole world would trust Him.

But that’s what He did. It came back from the dead and said that whosoever would believe that He did it for them, that He would put that payment to their account, and we would go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Now, whosoever believe it in him should not perish a half everlasting life. Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With his bow nice clothes and no one looking around, if you have not trusted Christ as your Savior, right now would you just talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I don’t understand it all, but I believe you died on that cross, paid for my sins.

And God said, if you’ll trust him, he’ll save you. Give eternal life. If you’re watching by internet, You can trust Christ as your Savior right where you are. We’d like to know and that’s why on the screen, says, yes, I will trust Christ as my salvation. If you’ve never done it before, I pray that you would. And you’ll do it right now. What heads bowed nice and closed is Baltius, anyone at all say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight and preach our life to pray for me.

Would you just slip you in a very quickly and put a right back down there at all? Our Father, we do thank you for your blessings. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. Well, thank for that your word has been given and that it’s clear. Help us to look to you and to trust you, walk with you, that we will examine whether or not we’re sound in the faith. Are we strong in the faith? Do we stand in the faith?

And Father, we just commit ourselves to you because as you said in your word, the power of God in our life. Some people have no power. We ask your blessing upon this church, those that work in all the various ministries. We ask your blessing upon the kids that people are working with. Thank you for the ministry you’ve given us. We thank you for those who have supported the broadcast. Christ and we pray. 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 Arbeghast 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 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.