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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.

Alright, well you have a Bible, so take your Bible, turn to the Book of John, the Gospel of John. John chapter 2, remember these two important things. One is you can be a disciple and not be saved. And you can be saved and not be a disciple. One is your following, learning, a disciple, and you can teach many things. But salvation is, it means you’re trusting and dependent upon somebody to do something for you. So when you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life, that’s settled.

That’s a done deal. God can’t change it, you can’t change it. There’s no renegan on the promise. Once you believe you have eternal life, serving God, following Him, there’s a different thing altogether. And so Christ came on the scene and John the Baptist had been preaching and last what we talked about, how that He baptized Jesus and so on. And that Jesus began his ministry at about 30 years of age. And we went back to the book of Numbers and showed how that the priests were supposed to begin their ministry in about 30 years of age.

Of course they got to retire when there were 50. So you got another year to go and you can retire. I don’t know what happened to me. But anyway, it’s interesting as you read some of the Scriptures, one of the biggest problems I’ve always had is trying to figure out when exactly where the disciples saved. and it looks like they were saved at the beginning and then sometimes it looks like they weren’t saved at all. And then you have some scriptures that kind of throw you for a loop, but let’s just take a look at some of these things here in the book of John and chapter 2 in your Bible.

You’ll notice there that Jesus had done his first miracle at a wedding. Now it didn’t say he performed the wedding, but he attended a wedding. And I think I have performed a lot of weddings. I hope God forgives me for all those that I’ve joined together in Holy Dead Law. But you know, but as I’ve looked out over the years, you know, there’s only a few of them that have ever, you know, I must have been a slipnautist, I don’t know what it just got loose.

But if you look there in the book of John chapter 2, look in verse 11. The miracle that he performed there at the wedding, changing water into wine, this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canaan of Galilee, manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. Now it’s a blanket statement, his disciples believed on him. But there were some of the disciples that had not yet even joined him at the first miracle, as following him because we go to other scriptures and there were other miracles that were done and then he chose certain ones and you’ll look at that in just a second.

But also look there in verse 23. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, at the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. So there were many people that came, watched, and saw the miracle, then believed on Christ. Now the gospel of John is written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have faith in Him and have eternal life.

So this is mentioned in the last part of the book, and we call it a very evangelistic book because it is true. And you can lead a lot of people to the Lord with simple verses from the gospel of John. But he says these things are written so that you’ll know. So there’s illustrations they’re using the Scriptures and there’s these stories of salvation so that we would believe. So the miracles and the stories work together. The Lord only had one main goal for people to believe him, that he was who he claimed to be.

So John the Baptist was the forerunner. So he came preaching and his message was very simple, that you’re to believe on the one whom he have sent. So John the Baptist actually preached the simple gospel just like we preach. John 3 16 here is not at the end of his ministry, it’s at the beginning of his ministry. So the ministry that Jesus had and the ministry that John Degas has at the beginning, they preach salvation by grace and grace alone.

Hold your place right here, because I want to show you that. But look in the book of Acts in chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. There were a few great successes going on after the resurrection of Christ and people spread and preaching the Word and going to different places. But two people, Aquila and Priscilla, found this guy named Apollos and he was mighty in the scripture. That means he knew how to use the scriptures. He was doing a good job, but the Bible says they explained on him a better way, but he didn’t understand everything that he should have known.

And so the apostle Paul then comes there in chapter 19, verse 1, and it came to pass that, While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus, finding certain disciples. They were Jewish. He said to them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? They said unto him, we have not so much as her, whether there be any Holy Ghost. He said unto them, under what then were your baptized. So being baptized was because you believed what was preached about that.

If they believed the message that John the Baptist had preached, they were to be baptized because what he said was, I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. So they weren’t baptized in water without the other because it’s a picture of the baptism that Christ was going to do. So he makes a statement here. In verse three, he said, what then were you baptized? So baptism is unto something. It doesn’t save, but it is a picture of something.

So in verse four, then said, Paul, John truly baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, this is what he said, that they should believe on him which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus. So John the Baptist preached that the people were to believe on Jesus Christ. Yes or no? So that was from the very beginning. That’s what he preached. He didn’t preach that they had to keep the law and all that stuff. No, no, no.

He preached the gospel that we preached the same way. Now go back there to the book of John, back to the book of John. And you’ll notice there, in the book of John chapter 6, John chapter 6, this is used by a lot of people to show you that you can be saved and lose your salvation. Well, not so fast. Jesus said many things that he knew they weren’t going to get. He even said something that he knew was going to offend people.

Now you don’t think he would have done that do you? But he did. So we see there in verse 60, he had just finished talking to them about some things that were hard to digest. You know, like eating my flesh and drinking my blood. And maybe this is where those people who make these vampire movies get it from. But you get to have eternal life, you know. But anyway, notice what he says here in verse 60. Many therefore of his, see that were disciples, they were followers, learners, doesn’t mean that they’re saved.

They may have been, I don’t know. But he says, when they had heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? I mean, who can understand what you’re saying? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said to them, does this offend you? If this offends you, what do you see? What else is it coming down the road? What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?

Did that actually happen? Yeah, it happened. But now notice what he says in verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh, prophet of nothing. The word that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life. In other words, I want you to believe what I’m saying. propheteth nothing. The word that I speak unto you. They are spirit. They are life. In other words, I want you to believe what I’m saying. What I’m saying is the bread that came down from heaven.

He says, your fathers did eat man in the wilderness. They ate it. And what happened to them? They died. They’re dead. And they had to eat it every day. But this is bread that once you eat this bread, you only have to eat it one time. and you’ll have eternal life. And he is that bread that came down from heaven, born in Bethlehem, the house of bread, and he was the bread for the world. So anyone who believes in Christ has eternal life.

So he’s letting you know that it’s a spiritual thing. But he also says this in verse 64. But there are some of you that believe not. Now if he’s the Lord, he ought to know who believes and who doesn’t believe, but to some of you didn’t don’t believe what I’m saying. But they were disciples. But he says, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. So he knew those that were saved, who did believe.

He knew those that did not believe and he knew who was going to betray him. was Judas among the 12 and who chose him? He just weaseled his way in. No, no, no, he was chosen, but the Lord knew he didn’t believe, but he was considered a disciple, but he was lost. And then he says his, here in verse 66, from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. So a disciple is someone who walks with their teacher to listen, to learn, to watch, to observe.

And so if Jesus was to come across here today and he looked over there and he says, Keith, I want you to follow me. Well, if you’re going to follow him and he’s moving, you’re going to have to leave wherever you are. You may even have a mom and dad. You’re going to have to leave them. Poor wife, you just got her Dragonbound You have to leave your job, leave everything, and follow him. And that’s why he says, you can’t follow him, whatever you’re, because this is where I’m going.

You’re going to follow me, then you have to give up all of that. Why aren’t you glad that’s not for salvation? Salvation is simply you believing and trusting what he did on the cross for you, but serving the the Lord the Bible. I love that you have to have to yourself. what it cost you. But see, serving the Lord can cost you. And I can say that I’ve paid a few little prices over the years, but it’s a price that I don’t mind at all.

You know, a sacrifice for the Lord is simply giving up something in this world for something better, and you call out a sacrifice. Because you can’t lose. You can’t lose serving God. Or whatever you give up for the Lord, you don’t lose. You gain. But down here in the Scriptures, he says they didn’t walk anymore with him. Then verse 67, then said Jesus onto the 12, will you also go away? So these that he was talking to was some others, but he also said this to the 12.

Then Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, so he’s speaking for all the disciples. And Jesus has to say, wait a minute, not so fast Charlie. He says, we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God, Jesus answered them, have not I chosen you 12? One of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas Iskery at the Son of Simon, for it!: He that should betray him in one of the 12.

So he was one of the 12. So he was a disciple, but he was not of God, and he was not saved. Some people like to try to say, well, he was saved and he lost his salvation. No, he wasn’t. And the Bible tells us that God can use all kind of people for vessels. You see in the book of Romans in chapter 9 it says there are vessels of honor and there’s vessels of dishonor. So God, been a just God and a loving God, a compassionate God, a wonderful God.

Well God wants certain vessels that he can demonstrate all that through and then we’re supposed to God is God and a just God he hates sin. And if he has to judge the wrath of God. So we have to have a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a hearted and turned against God. And God says, I have chosen him because of his own rebellion to use him as a vessel of wrath.

And God can take another person who is sensitive and teachable and wants to be used by God. And God can bless that person, have compassion on that person, honor that person because there’s a vessel of honor vessels of dishonor. Well what makes the difference? You, after you trust it Christ is your Savior. Did you know that principle still holds true? Now that you trust it Christ is your Savior, you can be a vessel of honor or a vessel of dishonor.

So take your Bible and look there in the book of Second Timothy Chapter 2. Second Timothy Chapter 2. And look at verse 19. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 19. Now understand once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, it’s great to be able to say, I know the Lord. But better than that is when God says I know you. And we have this confidence that God knows His children. Now, Believe it or not, men, better we know our children.

They may forget us, but we know who they are. God knows his children. If God gave birth to you and you’re born of God, and you’re a child of God, do you think God knows who his kids are? Well, of course. So he says here in verse 19, nevertheless, the foundation of God’s standard of sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are what? So God knows you. So whether you are an obedient child or disobedient child, you are still his child.

And so he says this in verse 20, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor, some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meat fit for the masters you prepared under every good work. So there’s other kind of vessels. And so if you’re the right kind, you flee, youthful lust and so forth.

But if you don’t, then you’re going to get trapped by the devil and see that in verse 26, and they that may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his womb. So if you will serve God, then God like puts a hedge of protection around you. When you want to be a rebellious child of God, then you have become a vessel of dishonor and God says, the devil traps you. You don’t become free.

You do my own thing, go my own way. No, you’re messing up what you’re doing. You’re rebellious and the devil can take you captive. When you don’t yield to God, the devil can take you and destroy your testimony and destroy your life. Now he can’t get your soul. Aren’t you glad you’re still going to heaven. The Lord note them that are his, but he says up there in this verse in verse 21, or he says, if a man therefore purge himself, that means you as a child of God, will you decide yourself to serve the God?

Will you purge clean out some of those areas of your life that are kind of holding you back? Things that will destroy your testimony that’ll hurt your your walk with the Lord. God wants to use you and you will be fit for the masters you see. Some of God’s children are not fit to be used. They never study. They’re not faithful. They don’t pray. They don’t see. They don’t do anything God wants them to do. And I wonder why God doesn’t use me.

Duh? You clean up the vessel and God will use you. I’m not telling what the book says. So you can be a disciple and be lost and you can be saved and not serve. But wouldn’t it be great if all of God’s children, those who are saved, will see the wisdom in serving God and do it because you want to. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Mark, the book of Mark. You’ve got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Hezekiah.

All right, Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, and look at verse 16. Jesus is walking along. Verse 16, Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and drew his brother cast in a net into the sea and they were fishers. Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little further, then he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who are also in the ship mending their nets.

In other words Jesus found people that were busy, people that were doing something, people that were already working and he called to him and says follow me. Well verse 20 and straight away he left them and they left their father’s Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him. I mean, hey, follow me. Sure, sure. Drop everything. Bye, Dad. Bye, Mom. Go. Some people have to, well, let me pray about this. Oh, wait a minute. It was the Lord that asked you.

Well, I have to ask the Lord if it’s Israel. It was the Lord that told you. Do what God says do. Delayed obedience is what? Delayed obedience is disobedience. Well, I’m going to dedicate my life to the Lord someday. You can’t plan that. You see, all you have is now. So either you dedicate your life now, you don’t know if you will later. You can’t plan you will later because you don’t know what kind of a frame of life is.

frame of mind you’re going to be. If you’re going to be in that later on, I’m going to really be in the good frame of mind. Well, if it’s so good later, why not now? So go ahead and serve the Lord now immediately. Also, you’ll find out there’s a lot of planning that God’s goes through. So here’s Jesus Christ coming on the scene. Now, he’s already been baptized and he wasn’t baptized because he was a sinner. He didn’t have any sins to wash away.

So that shows you that baptism doesn’t wash away your sin. Why? Jesus got baptized. He didn’t have any. He couldn’t have washed away his sins. And Jesus got baptized and he had nothing wrong. So why did that get baptized? See, he was the one as a man, given a picture of the death, the burial, and the resurrection. This is why it came. He was beginning his ministry, and his whole ministry is about, he came to die. Because you remember, that is what baptism was a picture of.

Christ is going to the cross. He’s going to die and be buried. Come back again from the dead. And so this is what my ministry is about. And he says, we have to do that, which is right. Now there’s other things we can get into a whole sermon, but not right now. And Jesus then, the very next verse says in chapter four, and verse one, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And then when he got through with that, he comes down and now he’s going to build a cabinet. He’s going to get his staff together. Anytime you want to do anything, you have to build a staff. You’ve got to try to find workers. People that can do certain jobs. If you don’t, you can do the work of 10 men or you can get 10 men to help do the work. Now, which way you think you’ll last the longest? This is why so many people get burned out because they do all the work.

get people to do the work. See the job of the preacher is supposed to get you to do the job, to do the work. We are supposed to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. So we got a lot of work to do. All right, look, they’re also in chapter three. You’re looking chapter three. Just turn your page over there. Chapter three, and you’ll notice in verse 13, And he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would and they came unto him.

And go to underline this word, or day. Now this is their unordination service. Now see they had been followers but now he wants these people to commit themselves to doing what he wants them to do because there was a ministry. There were things he was going to do. There was places they were going to go and he’s going to send them out two by two. And if power he was going to give to them, make you do all kinds of things and do miracles and cast out devils and all kinds of stuff.

And there was a whole city of the whole country of Israel. And this is what he gave them to do. So in verse 13, and that’s, excuse me, verse 14, and he ordained twelve that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach. Now, ordaining them to serve him is not salvation. Now, we know that Judas was one of these and he got to do the same thing that everybody else did. He even got to be the secretary, the financial secretary.

And what did he do that was so bad as a financial secretary? The Bible says he bore out what was put in. I’m going to know what that means. Is it called embezzlement, something like that? In other words, he was taking money out and well, I’ll put money in. Now, isn’t ashamed that the Lord didn’t know he was going to do that. That he did that. But that greed, see when you don’t solve a problem it gets worse. Did it get worse by the time his ministry was over?

Remember he was willing to deny Jesus, to sell him, betray him for how much? Thirty pieces of silver? Is that what it was? Now, why, it’s called greed gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. It always gets worse. Any little thing you let go in your life will get worse and worse. You see, you ever heard people say, you just make it a mountain out of a molehill. Well, what’s a molehill? What’s a mountain? More dirt.

You just add, keep adding more dirt on it. And that’s what happens in Christian’s lives. It’s a little thing. And I use the illustration just not long ago, but when I was in Colorado, I loved to go mountain climbing. Not because I loved to climb the mountains, but I was looking for an elk. I was looking for a deer. I just didn’t want to do it just for the exercise. Oh, I got a lot of it. But it wasn’t the big boulders that caused you to have a problem.

It was all those loose gravel on the side of the hill. It’s the loose gravel that gets under your foot that causes you to slip and slide. That’s why you’re going to fall. You’re not going to fall because of big things in your life. You’re going to fall because of little things you let go. And those little things became bigger things. Deal with little things in your life. There’s a scripture talks about the little foxes spoil the line, the little foxes spoil the lines.

and so there’s little things in your life that can destroy you. But now notice what he says here in verse 16. It’s going to be verse 15 says, and to have power to heal sicknesses cast out devils. Now they weren’t given the power to save anybody, but they had power to do certain things. They were to preach about Christ is coming and so forth and to get things straight in your life. He was coming. In verse 17 James the son of Zabbity John the brother of James, now you’ll notice there’s some you know brothers in this thing here.

There’s Peter and James and John and it says also they were called the sons of thunder that means they probably had a problem with their temper. In verse 18 Andrew in Philip Bartholomew Matthew, Thomas, James, and Thaddeus, and Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas is Kariot. He knows he named him last. I don’t know why. Which also betrayed him that they went into a house. So these are the ones that he had chosen and they were the ones that got to be with him and close to him.

But even though you have some that get close, there were a few out of that. They got a little closer Peter, James, and John. And so they got to see and enjoy some things that some of the others weren’t a part of. See, how close you get to the Lord depends upon you. I’m so glad that somebody else can’t keep me from getting close to the Lord. The Lord says, I’m sorry, Yankee, I’ve already got half a million people and you’re half made in one and I don’t have any more room for you.

God is not a respecter person, wait a minute. I like it knowing that God doesn’t love anybody in this world more than He loves me. Aren’t you glad that nobody in this world, God doesn’t love anybody in this whole world more than He loves you? Don’t you like that? But He doesn’t love you anymore than He does anybody else. I didn’t like that last half but I know it’s the truth. God loves all of us. But the thing is how close you get to the the Lord, depending upon how much you love Him.

How close do you want to get to the Lord? Nobody can make you dedicate your life to the Lord. No one can make you be a disciple. You can be a child of God and never serve God. Because you and I, we’re not going to heaven because we love God. We’re going to heaven because He loved us. We at Bibleline would like to extend a free offer to those who support this ministry financially. This month, we are sending a free copy Dr.

Arnold’s teaching series on First and Second Peter. It is a small way that we can show our appreciation for your support of this radio program. Peter’s epistles are filled with lessons of suffering, trials in your faith on the roles of husbands and wives, warnings of false teachers, and the imminency of the return of the Lord. The CD Series is certain to help you in your home Bible studies, so contact us today to receive your CD teaching series by Dr.

Arnold on 1st and 2nd Peter. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. Without the thoughtful gifts and prayers of our listeners, we would not be able to remain on the air. God 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 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.