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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.

Turn in your Bible to the book of Romans, the book of Romans, the book of Romans, Romans. In the process of time, we expect those that we lead to Christ to grow in the Lord. We’d love to see everyone who knows the Lord to become strong in the Lord. And sometimes we get a chance to see some of it. But of course we can’t see everybody. And I’ve had people say, well, you ought not lead them to the Lord if you can’t disciple them.

Can you think about that for a moment? I would rather them get there in diapers than not at all. I mean that’s maybe a crude way to put it, but I’d rather them get to heaven if they never grow an itch. But at least they’re in heaven. I like just getting people saved. And I find out that God has a wonderful way of working with all those that I’m not able to work with. And so he does a pretty good job.

He knows what he’s doing. But look in Romans in chapter 1, as you know Romans is a great book on being justified by faith. And it starts off with a great plea to some wonderful people there in Rome. And Paul wanted to go there. So he says that in verse 7, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called saints, graced to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So to those that are in Rome, to the church there, those that are called saints, he writes this wonderful letter.

And have you ever read the whole book of Romans? Is that the size letter that you usually write? Isn’t it something that a man, if it was just a man writing just a letter, do you realize how this letter has been scrutinized for 2,000 years? And you You can’t improve on this book. You can’t improve on it. It is so loaded with so much, you can’t improve. And then you can’t get everything out of it because it’s a living book.

You’re always learning more and more and more. It’s a very unusual book. But look what he says up there in verse 8. He says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.” So here was a man that led people to Christ.

He knew some of these people that were there in Rome. He writes to them and he tells them in the end of the chapter certain things to say to certain of those believers and how precious they are and Paul just goes through this whole book and explains what a wonderful, wonderful thing it is. To not only say this is the gospel, which he does in verse 16, and it is the power of God in the salvation, which it is.

And that you’re saved by grace through faith and it displays his great love for us while we were yet sinners. And then he talks to us about how we ought to yield ourselves in chapter 6 to the Lord and how we ought to serve the Lord. He talks in chapter 7 about the struggle in the Christian life that we go through. And then he talks about the Holy Spirit in chapter 8. And how put the Holy Spirit indwells us to lead us?

And how we’re supposed to believe that all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. And then if you leave out chapter 9 and 10 and 11 because it talks about the past, the present and the future of Israel, and jump all the way to chapter 12, you’ll see something else that’s very wonderful. wonderful. He says, in view of what God done for you, I beseech you that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

So he finally gets to the service part. All this time you’re justified by faith. You don’t have to work. You don’t have to earn. It’s all by faith alone in Christ alone. And you’re justified as though you never sinned. What a wonderful message we have. But God also pleased with us because we don’t have to serve Him. He beseaches us that we would. And so God wants us to serve Him. And you know what? I have found out serving the Lord is not so bad after all.

You know, after about 50 years, you kind of get the hang of it. You’re trying to get in a routine. you kind of get to know what to do and what not to do. When you’re young and you’re learning how to walk, you fall all over the place. But isn’t it wonderful after you have finally learned how to walk, to walk? And you walk and become so natural, you don’t even have to think now, which foot do I start with?

I mean, do I lean on this one or do I lean on this or do you just walk? Do you really have to think about it? You just do it. But let me share a few things with you. As you know last week, Min Betty got a chance to leave on Sunday afternoon and take a little drive. Well, it was 500 mile drive to Athens, Georgia. But anyway, I drove over half way up there. So Min Betty, we stopped and got a nice little place and kind of relaxed a little bit.

And so Betty got this one because they had a hot tub there. I love a hot tub. I don’t like a cold tub. I like a hot tub. Just like my coffee. I like hot coffee too. So I get in this tub and there’s this little story here is about three minutes of tub. You heard of one they got three minutes of baby and three minutes and something. This is three minutes of tub. And there was four counting me, but I’m not counting me.

I’m counting them three guys. So they They didn’t know how to get the bubbles to work and so we turned them thing We couldn’t get the thing to work and it was by the grace of God It didn’t work because if it worked it a bubble of mates much more than I couldn’t hear and I can’t get in water with my hearing aids So I got to leave those out so anyway, I’m Getting there in the first thing I say was you know got to open up a conversation What kind of work do you guys do?

They were all three together. What kind of work do you all do? Well, they said We paint water towers. I said, you mean you go around and you paint these big old tall water towers? He says, all over the southeast. That’s what we do. I said, isn’t that a dangerous job? He said, it sure is. I said, you know, you could be up there painting. What if you fell off? He says, well, one guy thought that I wasn’t on the rope, and so he untied the rope on the other side.

He says, and I fell. He said, but they had a little catwalk there in the cotton. So he didn’t die. I said, but what if you had fell and died? I said, do you know where you’re going to die? He says, I will say when I was young. He said, my mama says I was. So he knew he was safe when he was young, and his mother convinced him that he was safe when he was young. And I think he’d said, then I’ve been baptized, too.

But he said, he wasn’t real sure now. And I looked at the other two. They didn’t have a clue. They didn’t know. And so I proceeded to talk to them a little bit about the Lord. And so I went through and I explained to Gospel. And so this is the guy that I was mainly talking to. And I said, this is what I say. Does it make sense to you? And the other guy looking across me, he says, it does to me.

It makes sense to me. I said, just a minute. I’m talking to this guy. And he finally said, yes, that makes sense. I said, well, you right now, will you trust Christ as your Savior? The guy said, I will. I’ll do it right now. I will. I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to this guy right here. And it was funny. And finally he said, yes, I will. And the guy, yeah, yeah, I will too. The other guy said he would too.

So three minutes in time, they all trust Christ as their Savior. Not but that is so neat. That is so great. Now you know that every once in a while, I do it here on the job too. You know, since I wrote that song about, you know, amazing grace amazes me. Sometimes when I’m walking around and I’m going down the hall, the sky was blue, the grass so green. Anybody hear me do that? Yeah, I know you do. Well, I’m up there with my grandson and my grandson’s between 12 and 13.

Now, you know when your grandson starts to like you, when he hits you or trips you, that’s a sign. Now, if they don’t talk to you at all, they want to stay away from you, then that’s when they don’t like you. Or if you know they’re irritating you or trying to sabotage you or, you know, get on your nerves and they do it on purpose because they liked you then. Well I can tell my grandson really liked me. He was doing it all.

And so I’m walking along and I hadn’t thought about it but all of a sudden I started singing my little song. The sky was blue and my grandson thinks the sky was green The grass so green The grass so blue That says um Jordan the sky was blue the grass green And I forget all about it none and after a while The sky was blue And I could hardly hear him, but he was there. The sky was green. The grass was green.

The grass was blue. Just enough. Just a little big. But that’s what they do. They don’t just tell you, hey, I like Grandpa. They will irritate you. They’ll try to get on your skin just a little bit. And then when I stopped and I looked at him, he just smiled. smile just as big because he knew what he was doing and I knew he was doing. Anyway I thought, at least he’s listening to my song. Yeah he’s writing another version of it.

The bluegrass, the blue, why did you say that? Now when I sing this song I am gonna get this in my mind and I’m gonna be singing. Thus I was green. And I’m gonna get I did that one time on something and I kept messing it up and then I got ready to sing it and I messed it up But anyway, we had a great time and we got To have breakfast this morning and so some of my relatives came out, you know my brother and Anyway, I’m I’m standing there and everybody else has left and so it’s just me and my my grandson Michael He’s 28 years old now and so we I finished eating and I got up to go around the edge of the table and this great big guy.

I mean he was huge. He was big. He was as big as Randy. He seemed to Randy. Randy Hines. He’s a big guy. But he was way up here. I mean I had to look up at the guy and he came down and I could hardly get around him. So I tried to get around him and he stepped over there. thought I’ll come back this way and then he stepped back over there. And I, so fine I looked up at him and he looked at him and he says, are you Yankee?

I says, are you the IRS? His smile says, no. I says, then I’m Yankee. He says, you don’t remember me? I says, no, I don’t know who you are. I said, How do you know who I am? He says, years ago, I went to ranch. He said, my name is Samuel Weaver. Does that ring a bell? I says, no. No recollection at all. He says, I was that white kid in ranch that caused all the trouble. I was always in fights.

You kicked me out of ranch. And when he said that, I thought I ought to drop to my knees right now and hug his knees and say, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. I apologize. But I didn’t. And he says, I used to play on the basketball team. I says, now it’s coming back to me. And I kicked you off, right? I had to take him home several nights. And he was nothing but trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble.

Trouble. And so I had to stop him from coming. He’s standing there. Now he’s looking down at me like this before. No, I wasn’t looking at him. It’s amazing how time passes. These little kids can grow up and get big. And he says, I want to thank you. He says, you planted some seeds in me that finally started to grow. He said, now I’m married and I’ve got four children. I’ve got four kids. He says, and I love the Lord and I want to serve the Lord.

And I’m walking with God. And I just wanted to thank you. And I thought I haven’t seen his kid in probably 15 years. And he was a terror. Wild, rebellious. But he would sit there and he heard enough that it made a difference, just not then. And so I thought I said, you have made my day. it did, it made my day, made me feel so great. I was so thankful. You know, sometimes you have to wait years to see some teenagers come along and appreciate what you’ve done for them.

You know, sometimes you can even raise some kids and your kids don’t always appreciate who you are and what you’ve done and your sacrifices. They’re in their own world, they’re not in yours. and it might take 10, 15, 20 years, and all of a sudden, they begin to back up a little bit. They realize a few things. But you did it too. You weren’t always thankful and appreciative, but you learned some lessons, and sometimes we wish that others could learn it a little bit faster.

But we went up there to the, there to share in Chattanooga. Now I drove all the way from here to Georgia, Georgia so that I can get my grandson who’s 12 years old and take him to the dare to share in Chattanooga. That’s 750 miles. And then you’ve got to come back home. So you’re talking about, you know, good 15, 1600 miles in a week’s time. So it’s a lot. But I wanted that opportunity to spend some time with my son and my grandson.

Because I know that we have to get him to like that taste about serving the Lord and feed that desire while they’re young because the time will come when they get older and they may not want to. So you’ve got to nurture them along. And if that’s the price you pay, it didn’t so be it, but it’s worth it. So anyway, we got up there to see Greg’s deer. And Greg Steer came from my ministry in Colorado, and he has the big youth meetings, and they had several thousand there, but he already has had four or five before this one here in Chattanooga.

Then he’s gonna be having one, I think, in St. Louis or Chicago and then maybe some other place. And so he’s been doing that for 15, 20 years now. So there’s a lot of people who trust the Lord. And it was good being there and listening. So my grandson said, we walked into the big room, he says, where do you want to sit? He wants to sit on the front row. And there’s the front row. And it’s close to the stage.

And they have the singing groups come in, and they are loud. And I don’t like all that loud music. But that’s me, I’m not saying everything they do is wrong. It’s just that I have a personal preference. It’s just too loud. But my grandson wants to sit here. Grandpa is going to sit right there. So they roped off a special section just for us three so that nobody else could have those three seats. That was ours. And so we listened and we enjoyed and got a chance to talk with Gray and got a few pictures.

And the night when Greg spoke, there was probably, I’d say way over a 500 or more than trusted Christ’s Savior that night. And then when he had him dedicate their lives to the Lord, it was just incredible. But he did do something that I didn’t know he was going to do it, but he did it. He wanted everyone in there to realize the importance of praying that you can get so caught up in these teenagers, So caught up with the big stars and rock stars and this person and that one and chasing all these things.

And there’s nothing like knowing the Lord. And you need to learn how to talk to him. He says, and that’s what prayer, talking to God. So he asked everybody to pray. And so all over the place everybody just got out of their chairs. It knelt on their knees on that concrete floor. And so one of the highlights to me was for me, my 12 year old grandson and my son, who’s 42, all being kneeling side by side on a concrete floor, talking to God.

Now it wouldn’t be precious. That is so precious. And you didn’t have to make them. I just slid out of my chair and boom, boom. They just follow. So the thing is, you can’t make people spiritual. Well, if I could, I would figure out some kind of a concoction to make it work. But one of the greatest things is they can see you being a good example. And so it worked out good. We enjoyed it. Saturday afternoon, we got ready to leave.

Well, they’d talked a little bit about Daniel, and I had talked about it that Sunday morning right before I left, about Daniel and Joseph. You know, they’re talking about Daniel too. So we got to the restaurant, gonna get something to eat before we started back down to Georgia. We’re in Chattanooga at this time. And this waiter comes up there and he has long hair and kind of built, kind of strong, you know, like Tyler. And anyway, he walked up there and he says, My name is Daniel and I’ll be your server.”

I says, are you the Daniel that was in the lion’s den? And he smiled and he says, no, I don’t know if he knew about Daniel in the lion’s den. So anyway, he waited on us, we got our food, we ate, and he got ready to pay, and he came back to the table. I says, can I ask you a question? He said, sure. I says, do you know where you’re going to go when you die? Well, it didn’t take long.

He trusted the Lord. You know what was neat? for my grandson to see his grandpa talking to somebody about the Lord. You see, I want him to see his grandpa praying. I want him to see his grandpa talking to people about the Lord. You see, most people are concerned about leaving their kids well off. Well, I don’t want them to go through what I went through. I do, I do, let them learn to stand on their own two feet.

Let them learn how to walk with the Lord. Let them learn how to work and to work hard and not give them everything they want on the silver platter. But the greatest thing you can ever give your kids is a good example. love the Lord and serve the Lord and stay at it all your life. The worst thing your kids need is a mom and dad who fight all the time. Didn’t that us, James? Some kids they never see harmony.

The home should be almost like heaven on earth, where a man and a woman love each other and do right. I’ve I’ve talked to kids that want to get married. And I said, well, tell me this. Have you ever seen a marriage like you want? No, no. I said, what about your parents? No. And most people don’t want a marriage like the family they just came from. They said they want something different and better. Of course, they always want it, but they don’t know how to put the right ingredients in it.

And sometimes it takes years of people working together and learning how to iron out some of your differences and realizing that you all have problems and so forth. But it’s so important. Along the way back, we stopped and got a place to spend the night in. The next morning, I’m sitting there reading my paper and drinking a cup of coffee and got a little bit to eat there. And Betty comes and kind of all her stuff and she’s eating.

And I’m reading the paper. The baby looks around and she saw this cleaning lady, a cleaning lady over there against the corner and she says, Yankee, there’s nobody over there whether you could go witness to her. Okay, so I finished up and I go walking over it. By the time I got there, she didn’t already moved over to the desk and was talking to the lady behind the counter. Well, the lady behind the counter, I’d already led her to the Lord.

So I looked at her and I said, come here just a minute. It’s a clean. And so she walked over to me and she was very shy, very shy. And she had a broom in her hand, it might have been a mop, I can’t remember, she had something in her hand. And she’s a cleaning lady and she’s cleaned up the mess that everybody makes in there, you know, and the little kind of breakfast set up. And I said, man, can I ask you a question?

I says, you don’t know me, do you? She says, no. I says, I don’t know you either. I says, so we don’t know each other, do we? It’s my, I don’t know. I says, but my name is Yankee. And she told me her, but I don’t remember what it was. And anyway, I asked her, I says, can I ask you a question? She said, yeah, I said, if you were to die right now, do you know for sure you go to heaven?

She says, no. So I says, now I use this a lot. Isn’t it true? that you have heard all your life, that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for all the sins of the world. And Jesus said, I says, think about this. If He paid for all the sins of the world, why should you or me or anybody go to hell and pay for our sins if He paid for it? And she looked up at me and she goes, oh, I I ain’t never had anybody do that before.

She looked like, I never heard this before. Oh. So I went ahead and explained to Gosh, when I asked her, I said, will you trust Christ, is your Savior? And so she trusts the Lord. And I thought it was so neat. And every time I was thinking about that, I’m driving and I was, oh. So I’m rehearsing again in my mind. And I told the story down there to the people that the Bible said downtown and oh I can still see her doing this and nobody’s ever done it before it’s like a light bulb goes on oh So anyway She trusts the Lord and so it was a good experience.

It really was I Got the thinking You know and pretty soon It’s gonna be church time. I gotta I gotta go to church somewhere. No, I’m not I’m not dressed to go to church But they don’t know who I am. They don’t know I’m a preacher. They don’t know anything so it doesn’t matter So anyway, I told Biddie I says honey, it’s 15 till 11 Most churches Baptist Church will start at 11 o’clock. So we’ve got 15 minutes to find us a church So the very next exit I got off Well, there was no gas stations, there’s no stores.

There’s nothing, just the next set, onto a road. There’s a couple of scattered houses. We went down to one road and I didn’t know whether they go that way or go this way. So I turned to the right. We drove about a mile and there’s a couple of houses scattered and I said, Betty, there’s no town. And I thought, if I don’t find something soon, It’s gonna be too late. So I’ve gotta find something soon. I said, I might as well turn around, she says, all right.

So I got rid of the turn around and she says, now she’s got the legalized. She got like radar. She looked way down the road about a half a mile and she says, there’s a sign down there. A road turned and went down a window, there’s a sign. Right in the corner. I could barely see the sign. I said, all right, so we’ll go down there. I went down there and it says, Lake View, Lake something, Baptist Church. We turned to the left and we went down about a half a mile or more, and lo and behold on the right hand side, upon the little hill with a little white Baptist Church.

So we decided to drop it. Hello, this is Peter Amato from Bibleline. We hope you’ve enjoyed the message from Dr. Arnold and pray that Bibleline is helping you to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thanks for your donations and support of Bibleline, We’d like to send Dr. Arnold’s complete teaching on the book of Revelation. Compiled on one disc are 27 lessons in MP3 format of all 22 chapters of the revelation of Jesus Christ that was given to the Apostle John.

Dr. Arnold provides clear insight and understanding to this often misunderstood book and for a donation in any amount, we’d like to send this gift to you today. You may contact us by calling 1-800-576-3771. or by mail to 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. Once again, thank you for supporting Bibleline, and may God richly bless you. 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 4081 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 and meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.