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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. regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for a Bibleline to continue on the air. 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, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew 14, Matthew in chapter 14. Jesus knew that people get hungry. He knew they had to have things to drink, you know, foodie. He knew this as a man. He was here. He got hungry. He got thirsty. So what he’s doing is showing them that, look, in the Old Testament, when they were hungry in the wilderness, God gave them manna to eat, miraculously supplied them manna to eat, a heavenly food.

And God gave them exactly what they need to live on. Now you might get tired of eating the same food every day, but whatever it was was some kind of miraculous food. I wish I could invent whatever it was. Because evidently they stayed in pretty good shape. You know, they lived in the wilderness. And did you know that the Bible says that their clothes never wore out? Their shoes never wore out? Can you imagine they were there for 40 years, your wife’s saying, honey, I’ve been wearing the same dress for 40 years.

So, I hope she had two dresses. Wear one dress for 40 years? What about the shoes? The day you find one shoe that you like and fit shoe and you’re biting all colors and get it now. And going to most houses and you’d be surprised how many shoes a woman will have in a house. I made a comment about that one day to my wife. Not the smartest move in the world. She pulled that closet thing back and she said, look at your ties.

I had as many ties as she has shoes. And I think in the Old Testament, I don’t even know if they ever word tie. Now, you know where ties come from Thailand So when I get to heaven, I’m gonna find a guy. I hope he’s in heaven because I’m gonna beat a tar out of him for inventing ties That’s been the curse of mankind is ties. I only do it because I’m supposed to look dignified But if I had in all way, I have dungarees and a t-shirt and tennis shoes When I was growing up, I went barefooted.

I’d just squashed the mud between my toes. You may ever do that? Just getting the mud, just squashed the mud between the toes. Now when I get there having, I’m going to squish gold dust between my toes. But anyway, in Matthew and chapter 14, look there in verse, oh, what’s a good verse? Look at verse 13. They were in a desert in a desert place In verse 13 when Jesus heard of it he departed dense by ship into a desert now Why would you go to a desert in a ship?

I mean if it’s a desert, how do you get a ship to go and? I’m just being cute But you’ll notice over there in verse 28 same chapter It’s coming to be on the water. So whether with the Lord, desert water, the Lord is always with you. I was told to be faithful in season out of season. Always be faithful. Because you never know when there’s gonna be a harvest. Especially when you’re talking about winning people to Christ. So whether it’s on the internet or wherever, you want people to trust the Lord.

And sometimes it seems like there’s dry spells. and then it seems like a lot of them. And it’s just a wonderful thing. Be faithful all the time. In your Christian life, when it seems like being faithful doesn’t pay off. There’ll be time when it seemed like I’m doing right, but nothing goes my way. Just keep doing right because it’s right to do. Always do right. God will bless you for that. And in verse 14, now this is similar to Matthew chapter 9 when he says, he saw the multitude and he was moved with compassion on them.

For they were like sheep having no shepherd. So God is interested in teaching you and I things so that we can be leaders. See when the Bible talks about be an example of the believer, an example of the believer means other people are supposed to follow your example. So that makes you a leader. So whether you’re a wife or whether you’re a husband, but whoever, if you’re a child of God, you’re to be a leader because you should be able to say to somebody else, follow my example, follow me as I follow Christ.

If you’re not following Christ, they ought to follow you. Follow me as I follow Christ. Because some people, they’re just lost without a shepherd, somebody that helps them and teaches. So the reason we try to teach people the word, because so you’ll live by the word of God. And so people will follow you example because you’re gonna influence people. That’s what serving the Lord’s all about. But look in verse 15, when it was even in his disciples came to him saying, this is a desert place, the time is now passed, send them all to the two to weigh.

that they may go into the villages and buy themselves digital, in the words that their people are hungry. So send those people away so they can go into the towns nearby, you know, McDonald’s or Burger King and someplace like that or Village Inn and get something ate. And verse 16, but Jesus said of them, they need not depart. Give you them to eat. Give them something to eat. Now, when you read the same story over in the book of John chapter six, the Bible says that Jesus knew in Himself what He was going to do.

He already knew what He was going to do. He didn’t tell them. So He says, we’ll go feed them. Well, what? Because they were helpless to do anything. They couldn’t feed them. People, what do you have? Well, there’s a little lad here. He’s got a little bit. So what does he got? Is he in verse 17? And they said and to him we have here but five loaves and two fishes. He says, bring them, heather to me. Now buddy, this is a miracle.

Now there were some people who followed Christ in chapter 6 of John who only followed him because of the miracle that he did because they were on the Gimme train. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. He wanted people to come to him and want him more than what he could give. Well, there’s people like that today. You know, God is somebody that you always you put him back there and like an escrow town And you you stay put until I need you and let me live my life when I get in trouble I’ll holler then you can help deliver me from my devastating dilemma And the Lord said you don’t get it.

I want to lead you and guide you where you ought to go. I Want to walk with you. I want to talk with you God wants to fellowship with each and every one of us, not just park in some place and then live our lives. Down here we need food to maintain these bodies, but Jesus says, in the Old Testament, yes your father’s eight manum and they’re dead. He says, but I have some bread that if you eat this bread you’ll never hunger again.

Now he was actually teaching them eternal security. that when you eat this bread, you never hunger again. So it means that once you come to Christ and you trust Him as your Savior, He gives you eternal life. How many times can He give you eternal life? Only one time, if it’s eternal, it’s eternal. So you can’t lose it so you never have to do it again. So when I trusted Christ as my Savior when I was 18 years old, 54 and a half years ago, I’ve never had to do it again.

I can only get saved once. you can’t get saved and then lose eternal life, and then get eternal life again. Because if I can lose it, it had to be a sin that he never paid for. That means if I wanna get saved again, I can’t get saved again because Jesus is coming back to pay for that sin that cost me my salvation the first place. So when Christ died on the cross, how many sins did he pay for?

All of them, past, present, future, All sin all paid one payment never coming back to do it again So once you believe that and you accept that payment he made for you He gives you as a free gift eternal life and so it’s the water that Springs up in the life everlasting and you never have to do it again It’s the bread that you eat and you never have to do it again but now he’s gonna make some bread and Feed it to them and they’re gonna die because that wasn’t the same bread.

They were eating that bread He says, I am the bread of life. And he didn’t believe it on me half everlasting life. So it’s a total difference. So look what he says here in verse 19. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes in. Looking up to heaven, he blessed and brag and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were filled and they took up the fragments that remained 12 baskets full.

Do it 12 baskets, both left over the scraps. Is he able to do abundantly, exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think? You think the disciples thought about this before he ever did it? No. So he was showing up, but see later on, when he’s no longer here, you’re supposed to remember these stories. He says, the Holy Spirit will bring these things to your remembrance. So you know, there’s a lot of things he can do. Doesn’t mean you will, but he is able to do everything he wants to do.

So if you have a God who is that powerful, what problem do you have that’s greater than what he can solve? Do you and I have a problem too big for God? I don’t think so, because our God is able. Now, if he doesn’t, he may have a higher purpose. A lot of times I go to the hospital, nursing homes, things like that, and I have to talk with people. And there’s people laying there in the bed, and they don’t want to die.

They don’t want to die. I talk to others. They read it. They want to go. But just because they don’t want to die doesn’t mean they’re not going to die. And sometimes I pray for them, and I know God may never get them out of this bed. They may never get healed. And I’ve done a lot of funerals. But was God able to get them out of that bed? Could God have quickened their bodies? Yes. But God may have a higher purpose.

Did you know that if God gave me another 15 years, does God already know what I would do with those 15 years before he gives them to me? The Lord gave me 15 more years. And the Lord knows I may blow it and ruin it and do more damage. Well, wouldn’t it be wiser for the Lord to maybe take me home now instead of letting me go through that? You have to trust the Lord. You never know what you’re going to do.

And yet you may do some great things, but God says, no, I got something for somebody else. It’s time for you to come home. Every one of us going to have to come home in the days, unless we live until the rapture, which is my dream. I want to stay alive until the Lord turns, but I want to be able to be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, and cut up to meet the Lord in the air.

But I want, I know it’s supposed to happen so fast. You know, you disappear, in a peer at the judgments of the Christ. But I hope he slows it down just a little bit so that on my way up, I can look down and say, I told you so, I told you so, I told you. Haven’t you ever wanted to be just, I told you so just a moment. I want to shout it real loud. So now God is able to do that for me.

Well, now will He do that for me? I don’t know. But He says, you have not because you asked not. Now if I don’t get it won’t be because I didn’t ask. I asked God for everything. And so He says you’re in get this in verse 21. And they that had eaten were about 5,000 men beside women and children. So that could have been 10,000. That could have been 15,000. And to take this little bit of food and multiply it.

Have you ever had a little bit of money? You don’t have much. And you wish that God would you multiply this. You know, like you did with the fish and the bread. Lord multiply it. Did you realize, believe it or not, I’ve always trusted the Lord and I wasn’t in this habit of going to church. And so Betty’s dad talked to me. Now that hurt. And so I started going to church. And it was a little bad, this church.

And then he told me and he says, you need to start, you know, tithe him. You know, give a tenth of it least. And I said, do what? He says, you’re supposed to give it to the Lord. That says, why? He said, because you should give back to the Lord what He’s given to you. I said, why didn’t He just keep it to start with? He said, Yankee, you just do it. Why? I was like a teeny. I don’t know why.

I didn’t understand. Because at the time I was making almost a dollar an hour. And I had a wife and, you know, kind of hard making it. Sometimes the end of the week we’d have a quarter left over. And so I’d give Betty a dime, maybe not keep 15 cents. at the end of the week she’d tell her her, you know, $1 a dime. And so I bar her dime a lot. But anyway, I thought, I’m already making, you know, $40 a week.

And you owe me how much am I supposed to give? He says, well, 10% be at least $4. What? I went in the cardiac arrest. He said, let me just tell you this. He says, believe it or not, he says, you might take that $4. and give that to the Lord through the church. He said, that would leave you with 36. I said, yeah, you’ll do more and get more with that 36 than if you kept the 40. I said, no, wait a minute, let me make sure I understand this because this is very hard for my little brain to figure it out.

He says, you give that $4 and you’ll get more with the 36. Really, you’ll be wiser with this because you are wiser with this. If you try to keep all of it, shows you don’t have good judgment and you don’t really trust the Lord. So you’ll become careless and won’t have the wisdom to use the rest of it in the right way. As it really is, yeah. I don’t know, but I’ve been doing it now for 50 people over and a half years.

And it’s amazing that I never died. But I did have a sense of peace that I didn’t rob God of what I thought God wanted. And you know that peace of mine was worth $4. That was worth $4. Because my peace of mine, I mean, I did it. Now I expect God to bless me. Because I knew I had removed any possibility that may hold him back. It may not have done anything. I don’t know. All I know is that I learned how to grow, and I had to learn to trust the Lord.

And God will bless. Take your Bible, look over there and know. Ah, let me see. Book of Philippians in chapter four. Philippians in chapter four. I want you to see this. This is really good for you. Philippians chapter four, look in verse 13. Philippians four, verse 13. He says, I can do all things through Christ Christ, which strengthened it me. I can do all things. Well, the what he was talking about is these all things, as there were times when the people that Philippi had not supported Paul as a missionary.

But now it says, you have flourished again. And so you see there in verse 10, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last, your tear of me had flourished again, wearing you were also careful but you lacked opportunity. You were also careful. Up there in verse 5, 6 he says, be careful. In other words, you were worried. You didn’t see how God was going to do it. You maybe had a little trouble trusting the Lord and so you quit giving the missionary work.

So then he says in verse 11, not that I speak in respect of one, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, whether it was Georgia, Colorado, or Florida, whatever state. Okay. I have learned that whatsoever state am there with to be content. I know how to be abased to have nothing. I know how to abound everywhere in all things I am instructed, been taught both to be full and to be hungry, to heaven and not have. So as you go through life, Sometimes you have and sometimes you don’t have both to abound suffer need Then he says I can do all things I can go through this I have learned how to trust the Lord Now a lot of people just quote the verse But they don’t apply it to their life.

I can be faithful to the Lord With or without good health bad health Money, no money, whatever it is, I’m going to serve the Lord because I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to honor Him. And I can do all things through Christ which strengthen this man. Then then look what He says in verse 19. But my God shall supply all your need. Now why would he say that? Paul just finished saying that there were things that he didn’t get.

He was hungry and you read some of the places where it was pretty bad for Paul. Now he’s saying God will supply your need. What were they going to do now that was different than what they were doing before? Supporting Paul. giving you. So he says, but my God shall supply all your need, not your greed, not all that you want, but what he considered to be what is your need. Does God know what you have need of? You say, well, I need some money.

God must say, that’s not your greatest need. Your greatest need is you learn, you need to learn patience, you need to learn how to love. You may be carrying bitterness against somebody you might need to learn how to forgive. Sometimes God will take and have your little flashback. In your mind and you’ll think of somebody you wrong and you haven’t made that right yet. And you begin to examine your own life. You’re not examine life is not worth living.

So as you examine your life and you see that there’s things that needs to be corrected and you know it and you refuse to do so, you could have just turned the veil that shuts off God’s blessing upon you. You see, you can’t as a child of God, you can’t just live as you please and get away with it. Can you live as you please? Sure. Can you get away with it? No. There’s a price to pay for making wrong decisions.

There are many great blessings for making the right decisions and rewards in heaven for making the right decision. So you and I are the one to decide whether we’re gonna make good decisions or bad decisions. But as a Christian, you can make any decision you want. You can honor God or dishonor God. But try to keep that in mind. But look what he says in verse 19 again, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ.

He has the ability, the power to do everything that’s necessary. Now let me show you that one verse that I talked to you about just a while ago. And I want you to see it Ephesians chapter three, Verse 20, this is chapter three, verse 20. This is an awesome, awesome verse. And verse 20 says, now unto him, and see that word, you ought to underline that word, able. You and I are supposed to live without a confidence in God because we know that he’s able to do all things.

But we know in God’s wisdom, And for what I really need, it may not be to meet that particular need the way I want it met, because God knows the future also. And He knows what’s best for us. Though God has all the power and all the ability to do whatever needs to be done, can we trust Him to hold back, to change, to alter. You see, when you dedicate your life to serving God, expect God to interrupt your schedule.

It’s not going to be according to your schedule. It’s according to his purpose, his plan, and he will bless. And so he says, able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that work within us. See that one little phrase, according to the power that’s working in us. That means that God wants to work in us, Philippians in chapter two talks about that. For this is the will of God that He wants to work in us.

So how is the power of God, the Holy Spirit, working in you now? If you don’t allow Him to work in you, is it because you just wanna receive from the Lord, but do nothing for the Lord? God is willing to pay His people to serve Him. If you’ll serve the Lord, He’ll pay you. And all you needs will be met. And they’ll be met according to His will, and you’ll have all that you need. Look up here. This hand represents you and me.

The wallet represents sin. It’s all the bad things that we do. But God says that He loves us, He hates our sin. Because we committed the sin we have to pay for it. And that is eternal separation from God. So since everybody sends everybody’s in the same boat, we’re all condemned. We’re all guilty. So there’s nothing that a man can do to make himself pure, to make himself perfect. It’s impossible. But heaven, see heaven is perfect. God is perfect.

To live forever with the Lord, you gotta be perfect. Well, where are you aren’t? So how are we gonna get there? God says, your sins won’t let you in. I can’t let you in because of that. Plus, you got a payment to make, and that’s eternal separation from God in hell. So it don’t look very good for us. God says it’s impossible for a man to save himself. Christ This hand representing Christ, God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us.

Now He hates what we do wrong because it separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And God said that if we would believe that He did it for us, He would put the payment He made to our account. And we get to go to heaven on what He did. See, there’s no tricks to that. There’s no gimmicks to it. It’s a gift.

It’s totally free. I trust that Christ is my Savior, and God gave me eternal life. When I explained this the other day at the funeral, there was about 10 or 12 at trust that Christ is Savior. Because you see, there’s power in this message, and when they hear it, and you don’t know where you’re going to die, and you hear it for the first time, you mean I can go heaven when I die? Being that I don’t have to promise anything, Stop anything, just like I am.

I can accept Christ as my Savior, and He’ll give me eternal life, and I get to go to heaven. That’s true. You say, well, what if I do something wrong tomorrow? You will. It’s paid. What if I do something really bad? It’s paid. Is it what if I do something right before I die? It’s paid. How many of your sins did He pay for? All of them. They’re all paid. there won’t be one sin for you to pay for.

You see, you say you don’t deserve it. I know, nobody deserves it. That’s why it says by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head down, every eye closed, and no one looking around. Friend, if you’re here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, Would you just talk to the Lord?

See, you don’t make a mistake this way. Only the true and living God can know what you’re thinking. I don’t know what you’re thinking. I can’t read your mind. But I do want you to trust the Lord. I want you to go to heaven when you die. So right now, if what I said made sense, you say, I want to go to heaven. And I believe Christ died on that cross and paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust him right now as my only hope of going to heaven.

When God said if you would believe that He did it for you, He would save you and give you eternal life and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you. So it heads by nice closers to anyone with also, yes, preacher, that made sense to me. And I’ll trust Christ as my Savior this morning. And I’d like for you to pray for me. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put a wrap back down?

The hand was all. Just slip it up very quickly and put a wrap back down. Remember there’s no gimmick to it, no tricks, over and done with when you make that decision. anymore at all. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us for the study of you, we’re blessed each one, and Christ, me. 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. Our leaders’ 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. 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. 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 shout. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.