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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 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.

I want you to take your Bible and turn with me Turn with me to an interesting verse. Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Now, I may just ramble a little bit tonight. You don’t mind that. But Romans, in chapter 12. Let me just kind of mention a couple things to you. Let me give you four words, four words that I want you to remember. The first word is transformation, transformation.

And the reason is because here in the book of Romans in chapter 12, it gives us this word, be transformed, be transformed. And he’s gone through and talked about justification by faith, talks about the struggle that you’re gonna have in your Christian life in chapter seven and on. Chapter eight talks about the Holy Spirit. And then to realize that it is the Lord who have saved you and nothing can separate you from the love of God. So that you know you have eternal security.

Can’t separate you from the love of God. Can’t separate you from salvation. You are eternally secure. And that’s such a good thing to know. And so we leave out chapter 9, 10, and 11, because we believe that’s the past, present, and future of Israel. So for right now, and so you go from chapter 8, and how that you are eternally secure in the Lord, and nothing can ever separate you, and then you go into verse 1 of chapter 12, I beseech you, therefore, and I believe this goes back to chapter 8, the last part of that chapter.

And chapter 19, 11 is how like a parenthetical expression you put into a sentence. Now You can take it out and doesn’t hurt the sentence and it still flows. But he makes a statement here in verse 2, and being not conformed to this world but be a trance formed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove or discover who is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God so on. So we’ve covered this many times. When a woman goes to cook or to bake, she don’t just start off putting all the ingredients together until first of all she decides what am I going to make?

I mean if you’re going to make cookies well that might require certain things and certain tools. If you’re going to make a cake you know something like an ink clear cake and put all that nice thick chocolate all over it. When you figure out what is my goal what am I going to make? Well then that depends upon what you put into it. So So sometimes you have to figure out what is the end result. What am I after?

When you talk about your own life, before you just start doing something, you have to try to understand, what do I want the end result to be? What is that product out there? What does God want me to be? So we know that when you trust Christ as Savior, you are born into God’s family. Now as a child of God, God wants to transform us in everything about our lives so that we can be in the image of God, because that goes back to chapter 8, where God wants to conform us to His image.

He said, be not conformed to the world, but be conformed to Christ. In other words, God wants to make you like Him. So whatever discipleship is, whatever serving the Lord is, it’s not just do this one little thing or this one little thing. What is the ultimate goal God has for me to make me like him as much as possible? So when I know what that end goal is, now that determines something else. So the next word I want you to remember is this and that’s information.

So you got transformation, you start at the end, what is the product? Now, you got to figure out if that’s where I’m supposed to be, then I know I got to have something else. In other words, if I’m going to go to Denver, Colorado, it means I got to get on certain roads. Because I know where the end resulted. Where are you going? So then that determines what road I get on. But if you don’t know where you’re going, And then it doesn’t matter.

Any road will do. So we have to figure out what is that end result? Where am I headed? Where am I going? Because if I don’t know that, then I don’t know what road to take. But once I get that figure out where I’m going, then I can get a map and try to figure out, or as we all do, GPS, and we tell it, and it courts a route. And then you just follow that route. I love GPS.

I am enthralled with GPS. I was traveling one time and I had it on my motorhome and I got it right there and I’m following this GPS. And I was supposed to speak at the roll-off homes down there in Corpus Christi, Texas. People’s Baptist Church would put it in there and I’m just a boogin’ down the expressway about 70 miles an hour. And it comes on and says, you are there. I’m in the middle of an expressway. And it says that I’m there.

And I’m not there. I’m on an expressway going 70 miles an hour. And so I guess I should have just stopped and opened the door. But I could see. I’m not there. So I don’t always trust those things. And one day when I was down here, I was going to go to the VA hospital. And I said, navigate to VA hospital. And there it is. Oh, that was neat. So I got in the car. I didn’t know exactly where it was at at the time.

So I got in the car and it led me that way and this way and that way and over there. And it led me to all the back roads. And one stopped sign after. The other stopped sign and it was pathetic. And I was looking over there and I said, there’s the expressway right there. There’s 275 right there. Why did that stupid thing send me over here on this road when all had this global? So it’s good and it’s bad.

When you know who you’re going, then you know what roads you can take, but you may not always take the right one, but God can work in your life and get you back to the same place where He wanted you to be. So the next word was the information. So turning the Bible to Second Timothy chapter two, Second Timothy and chapter two, You got your transformation. Okay, now I know what God wants to accomplish. Now I need some information.

I need knowledge. I got to have the knowledge. And so we’ve said this before, that frustration is when you wanna do something, get somewhere, but you don’t know how to do it. If you wanna be something, but you don’t know how to do it, you don’t know how to do what you’re supposed to do. It can be so frustrating, but it can also be frustrating. When you know what to do, but you don’t wanna do it. But you wish it would happen, but you don’t wanna do what it takes to make it happen.

So 2 Timothy 2, 15 says study. That is the intake of the knowledge that you need. You can’t renew your mind if you don’t study. So you have to study the word of God so that you can be a workman. So you first of all have to study, get knowledge, but the purpose of the knowledge is not an end in itself. It’s so that you can be the workman that God wants you to be. In other words, there’s a purpose for it.

So you see, being a disciple means you have to discipline yourself. You have to discipline yourself when it comes to the knowledge and how you get the knowledge. Do you have what it takes to study the word of God so that you can know what it is and how to reach your goal? So I know God wants to transform my life by transforming the way that I think. And then I need the information. I got to study the Word of God.

Now the next word I want you to think about is the word activation. You have to be activated. Have you ever gotten these cards in the mail or a credit card or a debit card, but it’s no good unless you activate it. You might know what I’m talking about? All right, most of you do. You see, it’s one thing to study and you know what it says, but you in your life, you have to be activated. In other words, active.

You’ve got to do something with what you learn. And so discipline is not only learning something, you also have to do something. So in the book of Colossians, and take your Bible just looking Colossians real quick, Colossians in chapter two. Colossians chapter two and look in verse six, where he says, as you have received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk. So you’ve received, and now you receive some knowledge, so walk, that’s action. That’s James chapter two. That’s been active.

That’s doing something that God says to do. Now, a lot of times we wanna just sit and soak in sour, But God says He wants us to do something with the knowledge that we’ve gained. So we know what our goal is, we know where we’re headed. Now I need to have some information. So I gotta study the word of God. But studying won’t get me there. Cumulating knowledge won’t change my life and knowledge will not transform my life. Now I need to have action in my life.

I gotta put the word to work. And so God will allow all kinds of things in my life because he knows what I need to apply. So he’s the one that’s got this school of hard knocks we often talk about. And so he’s the one that’s gonna bring along the things that we need to do and what we need to learn and what we need to apply. And so the Lord can do that. And he’s always busy. Now the other word that I want you to understand is, Now, we’ve got transformation, we’ve got information, and we’ve got activation, but the last one is motivation.

The motive, why do you do any of it at all? You see, just to learn something can just make you so legalistic. And you can do the things that you’re supposed to do, but the heart’s not there. And so the motivation is that you live by grace. grace is the greatest motivating force you can have in your life. In other words, what Christ did for us should motivate us to do what we do for Him. So we let His love for us motivate us.

So what Scripture would you have? 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14, right? For the love of Christ constraineth us or motivates us. So you’ve got to have some kind of an inward motivation and the greatest motivation is your love for the Lord. But if you try to do all those things without loving the Lord, the law killeth. You can have the knowledge, you can do the actions, you can be in the right place, you do all the right things, you can pray, you can read.

But if the love isn’t there, See, the love is the joy. You are supposed to enjoy serving God. Enjoy Him, because the Bible says this, the joy of the Lord is my strength. And without the joy, there is no strength. And without the strength, you will not continue. You will not accomplish what God wanted in your life. You will not have what you need to weather all of the problems that comes in life and it will cause you to fail, to stumble, to fall, to quit.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke in chapter 14, Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter 14, and And I want you to look at this verse with me, because we know that love is the greatest motivating force in our life. Do you love the Lord? Nobody can make you love God. But you see, if you want to reach that destination, and the thing is not just to reach a point, you’re talking about, I want my life transformed.

I want to think differently. I want to be what God wants me to be. I want to be that mature Christian that God wants me to be. So you have to know what is it that God wants. And then you know you’ve got to study, can’t do it without that. You’ve got to do what it says, can’t do it without that. But if you try to do it without the love of God working in your life, you don’t last.

Because you see, there has to be a motivating factor in your life that pulls you through all the trials and so forth, the temptations, what makes you do it? And when you realize how did God work in your own life, When we failed, God loved us, forgave us, and he used us. So look here in the book of Luke in chapter 14. And this is not talking about how to be saved. It’s talking about discipleship, been a disciple. Disciple is where we get the word discipline.

Comes from the same thing. And lots of God’s children, a lot of do not discipline themselves. And if you don’t discipline yourself and make yourself do what you’re supposed to do, you will never attain what God has for you. So he says in verse 25, and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them, if any man come to me, hate not his father, mother, wife, children, brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple.

Now you can be saved. Have you turned light to go to heaven, but you’re not his disciple. A disciple is a follower, a learner of Christ. Does God want all of his children to serve him? To follow him? Yes. So he wants us to be like him. That’s why he says in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5, be imitators of God. It means imitate God, be like God would want you to be. So whenever you have problems with all things, think, what does God want me to do?

What does God want me to be? How does God want me to respond? And you’re always thinking about that. So you see there in verse 27, and whosoever, doth not bear his cross, come after me, cannot be my disciple. In other words, if you can’t discipline yourself, you cannot be his disciple, you won’t follow him. You have to learn how to discipline yourself. Can you make yourself behave? Can you tell yourself what to do and then make yourself mine?

That’s why he’s talked about being spiritually minded, fleshly minded. What do you mind? So when you have a child and you say that my child is a very obedient child. He minds me. Means he does what you say. And some kids are just, you know, they don’t mind. So they’re rebellious. So you have a choice. Now take your Bible. And as you think about this thing here, God is building something. You see, once you’re on the foundation which is Christ, you’re saved.

God wants to build you. Now he talks about how God is the one that built the universe. God built it. He built all of this stuff. He even talks about Moses and how that Moses. He was like a builder. He had a house. So look there in the Bible to the book of Hebrews in chapter 3. Hebrews in chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3 and you’ll notice in verse 2, Hebrews chapter 3 verse 2. Talking about how the Lord is a great high priest, he says in verse 2 who was faithful to him, that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house concerning Israel.

He helped organize it. He established Israel as a nation and what God did through him and all the stuff that God was able to accomplish through one man. So he says in verse 3, for this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, talking about the Lord. And look what Moses was able to do. And so much as he who had and build the house had more on than the house. And every house is build by some man, but he that built all things is God.

And Moses was very faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. Now Moses was a faithful servant of God and God used him to build something, but somebody that’s better than Moses was the Lord himself. And the Lord, the Lord wants to build you and me. So does God have an idea what He wants to build us into? What do you want to do with me? So God is busy and He’s working in your life to build you strong in the Lord.

And that’s why there’s a verse, and I want you just to hold your place right here, but look there in the book of Jude, the Book of Jude. And you’ll notice there in verse 20. Look what he says in verse 20. In the book of Jude, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life and of some have compassion, making a difference, making a difference.

God wants to build you where you’re strong enough to make a difference. This little letter that I got up here is because about 40 years ago I was strong enough to make a difference in somebody’s life. But I get these things all the time. You know that since you’ve been here, how many of these things have I been read? A lot of them. From all over. But you’ve got to make a difference and you’re not going to make a difference if you’re not strong and don’t let God build you.

So you read the Bible so that God can give you the knowledge and then you apply it in your life so that God can build you strong and so he’s going to bring things in your life so you’re going to apply it. Because God knows what he’s trying to make out of you. He’s not trying to make you into an E. Clair cake. I love E. Clair. But anyway, he’s trying to make something of you. He wants to try to make you like him.

Now he’s already saved you, gave in you eternal life. You’re his child. You’re going to heaven, but he’s not through working on you. He’s still working on you. That little song, he’s still working on me. He’s still working on you. And so you and I need to understand that. Go back to Hebrews in chapter 3. And notice what it says in verse 6. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we? If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoition of the hope firm until the end, till we reach that mature point.

Till we become what God wants us to be in our life. You see God is building you and working on you. You’re a house that he’s working on, he’s building. And he says, and you can be this, you can do this because if you keep walking with the Lord and keep trusting the Lord, He can build you or whatever He wants. But if you become rebellious and hardened, that God will have to just break you because you’re not teachable and pliable in His hands.

And so He says here, if. See that one place here if we hold fast, hold fast the confidence, not hold fast our salvation. Salvation you already got it. We’re not talking about salvation. We’re talking about this confidence that you have. Remember whenever you know what God wants to do with your life and you have confidence in that, God wants to use me. God wants me to be prepared. So I read the word of God because I’ve got confidence, this is what I need to do to reach that goal, to transform my life.

I need to be active and do what God wants me to do because I got confidence that this is what God wants me to do. And now because of that, I know that everything that comes into my life, God can use it to shape me into the image of Christ. And He’s going to teach me patience. And sometimes we don’t want patience, but God’s going to teach you how to slow down. Some things you’re going to teach you just to walk by faith and trust when you can’t see anything, a lot of work God has to do.

But I want you to notice when he says we hold fast confidence. See, the things that you have already learned don’t let that slip. Don’t let that go. it’s so important because you see tomorrow’s truth that God’s going to teach you is to be added to the truth you already have. When I want to lay the blocks in our house, when I built our house, when I want to lay this block, I had to put it on top of this block.

But if I do away with this block, then this block can’t be built on this block. So I got to keep these blocks where they are and lay blocks on top of those and I can keep building. And so in your Christian life, there’s truths that God wants you to learn. And so you keep walking according to the light that you have, the truth that you have, and God will bless you. Also, I want you to look down here at another scripture because it’s so important.

Look down in verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Now, start talking about your salvation. It’s talking about, see, once you trust Christ as Savior, well, That’s a done deal. Now we’re talking about you and I going toward maturity. And we can go toward maturity if we’ll hang on and keep believing the things that we’ve learned. But sometimes you kind of get weak in your faith.

And so there was these people in Israel and they no longer would trust the Lord and believe what God said. And because of their unbelief, they just would not believe, hardness of their heart. So he kind of warns us as Christians. See there in verse 12, take heed brethren, but brethren is to the believers, not to the lost man. This is talking to the believer. And so he says, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, and departing from the living God, so that you don’t serve God.

See, there’s things that will happen in life that will cause you to, I’m not gonna serve God anymore. Or you can believe what God says, and just keep believing it, He’s getting stronger and stronger and stronger. But you have to believe what God says. Take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter four. Look in chapter four. And you’ll also notice as there’s another part of this that’s very, very important. See there in verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast.

Let us, us is, I believe the apostle Paul, but I’m gonna read that right now. Let us, believers, hold fast our profession. That word, profession, same as your confidence. Hold fast to your confidence that you have in the Lord. Things are gonna happen in life. And always remember this, if God is in it, so is the devil. If you’re doing what God wants you to do, so is the devil going to be after you. And a good statement to remember is when you face the light, darkness is following you.

When you face the light, darkness is right behind you. And he’s always after you. The devil will never stop and he wants to destroy you. He wants to get you where you don’t believe what God says and you’ll stop believing and up, trust them, and you won’t grow in the Lord. This is why in chapter 5 when he says, for the whole time, you ought to be teachers. See what he says in verse 11? Of whom we have many things to say hard to be explain, seeing your dull of hearing, but you don’t want to hear it anymore.

I’ve had enough. You don’t read the Bible. You don’t study. You don’t want to go to church. And you just leave it all. Then he says in verse 12, for a win for the time you ought to be teachers. You ought to be mature enough that you could now teach the word of God and you can’t. And you’re just like a child. You can’t handle spiritual responsibilities. 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.