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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Mark. Alright, Mark chapter 1. part chapter one. And look at verse 20, and straight away, he left them and they left their father’s deputy in the ship with the hired servants and went after him. I mean, hey, follow me. Sure, sure. Drop everything. Bye, Dad. Bye, Mom. Oh, 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 that 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 mind you’re gonna be? If you’re gonna be in that, later on I’m gonna 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? He just got baptized, he didn’t have any. He couldn’t have washed away since.

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 was about, he came to die. Because remember, that is what baptism was a picture of. Christ is going to the cross, He’s gonna 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 gonna build a cabinet. He’s gonna get his staff together. Anytime you wanna do anything, you have to build a staff. You gotta try to find workers.

People that can do certain job. 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 and 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 back to. and the power he was going to give to them, make and do all kinds of things and do miracles and cast out devils and all kinds of stuff. And there was the whole city of the whole country of Israel. And this is what he gave them to do. So in verse 13, And that’s giving me verse 14.

And he ordained 12 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 wondering what that means.

Is it called in bezel munt, 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 gonna 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, 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. They say you you’ve heard people say you just make it a Mountain out of a molehill Well, what’s a molehill or dirt? What’s a mountain more dirt? You just add keep adding more dirt on it and that’s what happens in Christian’s lives Is that little things become big thing and I use the illustration just not long ago, but when I was in Colorado I love to go mountain climbing not because I love 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 the exercise though. 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. They caused you to slip and slide That’s why you’re gonna fall. You’re not gonna fall because of big things in your life You’re gonna fall because of the 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. I was 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 Zebedee, John the brother of James, now you’ll notice there’s some 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 king and I and Judas is Karyot.

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 or 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 nobody in this world, God doesn’t love anybody in this whole world more than He He loves you.

Don’t you like that? But He doesn’t love you any more 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 Lord depends 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. Now being used by the Lord, the Bible says you have nothing. You can do nothing. Without love. So our service to the Lord should be a reflection of our love for him. Because we love him. He kind of put it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He says, we are constrained for the love of Christ constraineth us or motivates us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then all were dead.

So that they which live should not henceforth from now on live unto them. but unto him who died for them. So we have a reason, a motive, for serving God. We should love him because he first loved us. But if you don’t love him, it doesn’t annul the promise that he made because he did not save you conditional upon you loving me back. You serve in me. There was no contingencies and it was totally free. But now that we have eternal life and we know we’re going to heaven, the The message of salvation, knowing that I don’t have to serve God, made me want to do it.

Just like somebody saying, you know, Yankee, you can’t jump over that ditch. Guess what? I got to try. I got to see if I can jump over that ditch. You don’t have to do that. Well, I’m going to then. I serve the Lord because I want to. I’m so glad I don’t do it because I, well, I have to do it. No, I want to do it. God gave me a good one, or so I like that. But anyway, you have those mentioned right here in the scriptures.

Now, take your Bible and turn to the book of John, the Gospel of John. Now, those are only the preliminary remarks. Now we’re back to John, where we’re supposed to start with in the first place. Jesus came along, John baptized him and John said, Be whole the Lamb of God which taken away the sin of the world. They were two guys that were there. And they heard him say that. SoFalmer 35 again, the next day after John stood in two of his disciples.

And Jesus, and looking unto Jesus as he walked, he said, the Baptist said that yesterday, these two disciples, they heard him say that when he said, behold the Lamb of God, and verse 37, and the two disciples heard him speak. They followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, what’s he key? They said unto him Rabbi, which is to say, been interpreted master. We’re dwellers now. He said unto them, come and see. And so he went to the holiday inn.

I’d like to know where he stayed. He says, the birds have their nests and the foxes have their hold, but the son of man have not where to lay his head. Come and see where I’m staying. But anyway, we know he spent a lot of time with Lazarus and Mary and Martha, but oh, in Bethany. But look what he says here in verse 40. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon, Peter’s brother.

He first finded his own brother, Simon, and said unto him, we have found the Messiah, which has been interpreted the Christ. This is how we know that the Messiah of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New Testament is the same one. So he is the Messiah and he is Christ. Jesus is Jehovah in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament, same as Joshua. So Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. I want to fit says that anywhere in the Bible.

Well, lo and behold, right here in the book of John chapter 1. And notice what else he says here in verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus. Now this is where we get the idea of bringing people to Jesus. I’ve had people say, well, you’re not supposed to try to persuade people, just let the Lord do it all. I remember reading about King Agrippa How did he made this statement when he was addressing the Apostle Paul? Almost. Thouperswaded us me to be a Christian.

Didn’t he say that? Almost thouperswaded. But a hundred percent, you’re lost or you’re a hundred percent saved. There is not no almost Christian or almost Savior. No, you’re either saved or lost 100%. I’ve had people say, well, I’m almost a almost a Christian. I’m trying. I’m working on it. I’m doing the best. You’re either saved or lost. There is no in between. There’s no dirty grave. You know, you kind of fade out of the one and fade into the other one.

No, there’s none of that. If you believe it, done. Don’t believe it. Not done. You’re saved or you’re lost. You believe or you don’t believe. So he says here, they brought him to Christ. So this is why we believe one of the greatest things we can ever do in life is to bring people to the Lord. And if you found something I was teaching the other night, And it was a simple little story about, you know, the four lepers in the Old Testament, Second Kings, where King Hadad of Syria, well, he was coming against Israel.

And Elisha told his servants, says, don’t you worry, because they came down into Israel to surround Elisha and they’re gonna take him because they couldn’t figure out how he knew what the king was always thinking and it says what we’re gonna do we’re gonna go down here and get him so they surround the place the serving gets up early in the morning goes out here and he sees the Syrian army he goes back and says hey you want to see what’s outside and he says don’t worry about it there’s more with us than they are with them.”

And he says, Lord, open up his eyes that he can see. And the Lord opened up his eyes and lo and behold, there was a whole army of God had him surrounded. Now, that was reality, but the servant couldn’t see, but the man of God saw that, saw what somebody else couldn’t see. Now, that’s being able to be close to the Lord. No wonder he wasn’t worried because he could see, but you and I were supposed to believe that God can protect us just as well, even though you don’t see how he’s going to do it.

So anyway, they all became blind and then they went back to Syria after a while and they could see. Well, it wasn’t long. Here they are again. They came back to Samaria. Now, Samaria would have enough famine. This famine, people were starving to death. They didn’t have anything to eat. And so, so we’re gonna get the cause of this problem. It’s the man of God, it’s his fault. Why he always gets blamed, it’s his fault. And he says, tomorrow you’re gonna have so much food to eat, the price is going down.

Right now it costs an awful lot to buy that old donkey head, but tomorrow it’s gonna be cheap. You’re gonna have so much food. So there was these four lepers outside the gate. They wouldn’t let them inside. And they’re sitting there talking to one another, and they’re saying, you know, we’re gonna die. We’re going to die. If we go into the city, they ain’t got any food. We’ll die there. If we stay here, we’re gonna die. Why don’t we go over to the Assyrians?

Maybe they’ll let us live. If we don’t, we die, we die. Sounds good reasoning to me. So they went over there to the Syrian camp. When they got there, they saw, nobody was there, but the tents were there, horses were there, food was all over the place, silver and gold, four lepers. And they go into this place. And they went into one tent, got some silver and gold, and then went out there and hit it. Eight until their bellies were full.

And then they went to another tent. And after a while they began to say to each other, you know, what we’re doing is not right. We’re not doing right. They’re starving in there and we’re stuffed. They don’t know, this is here. They don’t know, they’re dying. So they finally went back and they told them. And they says, the Syrians are gone. We got food. And lo and behold, the king says, see there? I told you, it’s a trap. They just want to get us outside of the walls of the city, and then they’re going to take our city.

It’s a trap. I don’t trust them. And somebody said, look, why don’t you just send in, you know, some people just buy it out and see if it’s true. They did it in lo and behold. It was just like they said. So you see, the truth of it is, is giving the gospel. is nothing more than one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves sitting here gloating about all this wonderful food we get to eat and there’s people that are starving the dead and God.

Says, share the bread. Tell the people. So that’s why we’re to get people to come to the bread. And Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He’s the bread that came down from heaven. And so this is what we’re doing. We’re just beggars, people that were lepers that God healed, telling somebody else how to find bread. One beggar, telling another beggar where the bread is. And so notice what he says here. before we quit. In verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus.

And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah, Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. The day following Jesus would go forth in the Galilee, find a Philip. Said unto him, follow me? And Philip said of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, Philip, find a Nathaniel. And said unto him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the He said, the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.

And so He came and said, and lo and behold, He told them, He says, how do you know who I am? He says in verse 48, He says, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. I would like to know that there’s somebody standing there not only can see you from afar, but know what you’re thinking. see what he says in verse 25, and native not that any man should testify, I mean, for he knew what was in man.

And that’s scary. Does God still know that today? Does he know who you are? Know what you think? Know when you’re discouraged, when you’re down. Now, there’s everything about you. I decided years ago after I trusted Christ as my Savior, sitting near it, Northside Baptist Church, and at the Georgia, Virgil Edvard was speaking, and they had everybody sing the song, I surrender all. Now you don’t do that to be saved, but as I stood there, and I was about right in that area, and I stood, and they were singing that song, and I began to have tears in my eyes.

I’d been saved about a year and a half or something like that, maybe two years, and I begin to cry because if there’s anything that I wanted, I wanted to serve the Lord. I wanted to follow Him. I don’t know where He wants me to go and buddy I struggle for a couple years too. But He began to work in my life and I’ve been following Him ever since. I have no regrets. Just wish I’d have known it earlier but it’s the greatest thing in all the world.

To know the Lord and to serve Him. There is anything greater. This hand represent you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin. Now God says that He loves us but He hates our sin. For us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves everyone. Once everyone to go to heaven but to go to heaven you got to be perfect. See if we went to heaven the way we are right now, well we would do in heaven what we do here.

Why? We lie here, we cheat here, adultery here, murder here. We would do all of that up there. God took all of us right now just the way we are. We would do up there what we do here. And God said, huh, you’re not coming up here unless you’re perfect. I’ve got a perfect place and I’m not messing it up. You messed it up down there. You’re not messing it up up here. You’ve got to be perfect to get there.

You say, well, how is that possible? That’s the problem. You have to be perfect. Not good, perfect. No sin can enter into heaven, so how you’re gonna get there? And all the religions of the world are trying to help you to be good enough that you’ll make it. And it’s impossible. You can’t change what you are. God said that He loves us, hates our sin. We’re guilty. Heaven is perfect, we’re not. Therefore we can’t get in. God says you cannot earn eternal life.

your good works will not make you any better. If you was a pile on a thousand good works, it won’t take away one bad sin. Even a little bitty one can’t wash it away. How can I be just with God? That’s a question that Joe asked. How can a man be just with God just as if he had never sinned? Well, this is only one way. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. Because we were in a predicament that we could not get out of.

We had no hope. So He came into the world. He has no sin. He had never done anything wrong. He loved us. He was willing to take all of our sins and pay for them. And This payment that he made would be put to our account if we would believe that he died. What varied and rose again for us. When I was 18 years old, I heard this for the first time. I knew I was a sinner and I could not save myself, but I heard that Christ paid for my sins.

He died for me so that I wouldn’t have to pay for my sins. And all I had to do was believe He did it for me and He would put this payment to my account. I go to heaven because He just took all my sins and washed my sins. them all the way. I have been made pure and holy in the eyes of God, not because of anything that I’ve done, but because of what He did for me. He gave me His righteousness.

He took my sins, and when I believe it, He gives me His righteousness. Now if He gave me His righteousness, that would make me as righteous as God. So now God says, you’re good to go. So when I die here, my old sinful nature is in my flesh, in my body. So I’m going to leave it here and it goes back to dust. I get to go to be with the Lord in heaven. I have been made pure and holy, set apart, sanctified, fit for the master’s use.

This is what God does for you. This is why it’s so important for everyone to trust Christ as their Savior. Let’s pray, shall we? Head bowed nice and closed. No one looking around. If you’re here this morning and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this? Lord, I don’t understand at all. I’ve got questions. I’ve got doubts. But I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died for me.

And right now the best I know how I will trust Jesus Christ to take me to heaven whenever I die. And Vint, if you will do that, God said He would save you. Save you right now, give you eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Would you do that? I’m going to ask in just a moment you to raise your hand, but that’s just to let me know. I want to have prayer for you.

And if you’re watching on internet, there’s a little line there just says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. Why don’t you just click that on it? That just lets us know that you trust that Christ is your Savior today. If you’ve already trust the Lord, you don’t need to do so. So it hits my mind and I’ll just say, preach to that made sense to me and I want to be be certain of going to heaven when I die, and I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior right now.

Would you just slip your hand very quickly and parep back down? It’s even at all. It’s even at all. Our Father, we do thank you so much for your blessings. Thank for the opportunity of giving us the study of your Word. We pray that we’ll take heed to these things and realize that we’re living in a, yes, a world of crisis. It’s always that way. We may never be able to change that. But Father, we know that what’s coming down the road is something that all believers can look forward to, and that’s the blessed hope.

You’re coming again for us. But if we should die in this whole world, we know that it’d be absent from the bodies to be present with you. We don’t have to worry. We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to live in fear because we put our trust and our hope in you. Thank you so much for this church, the people that make it possible for those that watch online, it was a prayer world to be done in a person’s line, in Christ’s name.

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 of 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. Epistles are filled with lessons of suffering, trials and your faith on the roles of husbands and wives, warnings of false teachers, and the imminency of the return of the Lord.

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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. Hada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.