This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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.

This is part two of what I spoke on last week Because you see, understanding how God treated us. We’re supposed to learn from that and develop in our own life some of the characteristics of the Lord, so that we will be like the Lord. Now we’re not the Lord and we can’t do everything exactly like He did. He could walk on water and I could not. But number one, when God forgives you, it is complete. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath it quickened together with Him, means made you alive with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

Now this is something God can do. We have a difficult problem doing that with people who wrong us. We may forgive some and none on others. We may forgive certain sins and then not others. So we’re not exactly like the Lord. It would be wonderful if we all were able to totally be complete in our forgiveness. When God forgave us, it was because of grace in Him. We have redemption through His blood, because of the payment Christ made for us, the forgiveness of sins.

could not forgive you of your sins if he had not made a payment for your sins. So the only reason God can forgive us is because a debt was paid for your sins and for my sins. He that sineth the soul that sineth shall die. And so because of what Christ has done for us, we can have this free gift of everlasting life. We get to go to heaven because I’ve been forgiven of all my sins. I’m not going to heaven because of anything that I’ve done or ever will do.

It is unequal. I mean nobody can do what God has done. Nobody can go to the extent that He has. Who is a God like under the, that part of the iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retained not His anger forever. Because in the life and mercy. You and I should understand that. We don’t always forgive everybody because we We don’t always like to bestow mercy. We love having something on somebody that we can say they wrong me and feel justified in the way that we are.

So this is why it’s very difficult for us. But the more you study the Word of God, study about the Lord, the more you will see how God is and how we’re supposed to be. Now you’d be surprised the things that are happening today in our homes, families with their kids, jobs, even in churches. People are not developing spiritually. We would think something is wrong if little children do not develop. God wants us to develop spiritually. That means becoming some of the characteristics that Christ had and having those in our life.

your quest to serve the Lord, wouldn’t it be great if the Lord sent to you someone because wouldn’t you like to be able to be like God in the sense that you’d love to have someone so wrong you that you could display forgiveness, display mercy? Wouldn’t you like to be able to be stow something on somebody, it’s by grace and they didn’t deserve it at all. So you know God may allow somebody to come along to really hurt you, to really wrong you, deeply so that you have an opportunity.

To manifest the love of God or how gracious God is, how merciful God is. I’m a preacher. I’ve talked to many couples about marriage, divorce, remarriage, all those things. Kids, you name it, I get a chance to hear it all. And I’ve heard just about everything. And I think sometimes I’ve seen marriages totally crumbling, fall apart. kids against parent, parent against, all because some little bitty thing that was never resolved. Some little hurt, some little bitterness that springs up and does a lot of damage.

And then after a while, I’ve had guys that I don’t know what happened. I don’t even remember how it started. Because it was some little thing that we let in claim, and so this message is really about how to poison yourself. Not other, how do you poison yourself? Well, we must serve the Lord, and I wrote this years ago, we must serve the Lord as though we’ve never been hurt, or you’ll never serve the Lord. And you won’t be worth a quarter if you’ve never been hurt.

You have to know what it’s like to be rejected, to have people stab you in the back, to cut and criticize, to be bitter towards you. You’ve never had that happen. You haven’t lived yet. You’ve got to be able to live in such a way that people are offended by your righteous life. Those that live godly will suffer persecution. well it’s certain and he is the propitiation or the payment for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world that means that if he is the payment from our sin and it’s not just for us and to some people say well he just died for the elect okay let’s just say he is the propitiation for our sins we’re the elect but then he says but also for the sins of the whole world He died for everybody.

Everyone sends. It is infinite. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Because you see the Bible says that He has separated our sins from us and moved it as far as the east is from the west. So far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Never to be seen again, never to be brought up again. They’re placed in the depths of the sea. And I heard there’s a place that they’ve never seen the depths yet.

That’s where mine is. It is merciful for you Lord are good and ready to forgive. Did you know that God is good and God is ready to forgive? And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you. You see, when Christ died on that cross and paid for all the sins of the world, it’s so that He says in the book of Luke chapter 24, to go into all the world and preach the forgiveness of sin. You can be forgiven.

Regardless of all the things you said, thought and done against God. Just forget about what you get against people, what you get against God. And God says, I’ll forgive it all. I will forgive it all as though you never did it. That’s mercy. It is loving. Behold, for peace, I had great bitterness. But thou hath in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hath cast all my sins behind thy back. In other words, it’s moved on the other side.

There’s nothing between me and God. God has removed it. But for peace, I had bitterness. Bittiness is the poison from which the Bible says is the root that many things come from. And I’ll show you that in just a second. It is only through Jesus Christ. To Him give all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever, believe it then Him, shall receive remission of sins. There is no other way to have your sins taken away or forgiven, or as we say, been washed from your sins.

We often sing a song, I’ve been washed in the blood, You’re not literally washed in blood. That means that he shed his blood in order to pay for your sins so that if you believe he did it for you, he takes your sins away. They were paid for it and leaves you without a debt to pay. That’s grace. You don’t deserve it. I do not deserve it. That’s because of his mercy. We deserve to go to hell, but we don’t go there.

It is only through faith alone. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man Christ is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sins. That’s what all of this is about. Wouldn’t it be neat if everybody just admit what sin is? But see, today we have people that don’t believe there is such thing as sin. You see, there’s no God. There’s no heaven, there’s no hell. There’s no right and wrong. Therefore there’s nothing that we need to worry about.

And so all of the people who keep talking about this sin, we need to do away with them because they make us feel uncomfortable. We don’t feel right. They make us feel guilty. Well, there’s a way of removing this guilt. It’s not denying what sin is. It’s confessing that you are a sinner and you are guilty and you didn’t do it. That’s why you have a guilty complex. You’re guilty.

And by Him all that believe or justify from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. You and I can be justified just as if we had never done anything because this is what Christ has done for us. You see, it is motivating. Great love toward God. It gives us this. I’ll I’ll cover these verses later at a different time. But it also gives us a deep respect for the Lord. When you understand what God has done for you and forgiven you of all sin, and I know that I’m going to heaven.

See, if he didn’t forgive me for all sin, then I couldn’t know if I’m going to heaven because there would be one sin, unforgiven, I couldn’t go. But to say that I have eternal life, and I know I’m going to heaven because it’s forgiven me of all my sins. That’s such a motivating thing. The grace of God is a motivating factor, a person’s life and it causes you to have a deeper respect for God because if he paid for almost all my sins but not all of them, he didn’t do me any favors.

I don’t still have, he hasn’t earned my respect if he only paid for some of my sins and left me to deal with the rest of them but when he paid for all of them, it motivates gracious forgiveness toward others. You know why I’m so gracious and forgiven people who wrong me because he He forgave me of mine. And because I know that it’s true. And because He forgives me of every sin that I’ve ever done, I can forgive anybody of any sin.

I don’t care what you’ve done. You can lie about me and I’m not going to come after you. You can be bitter toward me and say hateful things about me. You can criticize me. You can do anything that you want to do. And I’m not going to retaliate against you. I forgive you. And I go on and live my life. I don’t have to retaliate. I don’t have to go eat my gun because I’ve learned how to commit you to the Lord.

And I trust that God will do a better job on you than me on you. I am not his avenging angel and learn how to commit those things to the Lord and you’ll learn how to live. One of the problems among believers in Christ is these relational breakdowns. Now, like I said before, a husband and wife, that is your relationship between the two of once the husband, once the wife, that’s your relationship. And when I was born into this world, there was my mom and my dad, and I was their child.

I was their child. That’s our relationship. I’ve got a mother and dad. We’re related. You have an employer and employees. That’s your relationship. And it can follow through in a lot of ways. But there’s breakdowns in all of these things. I wish there were no breakdowns in the marriages. Now next week, I think it is. Betting I’ll be married 55 years. You see, do you ever have any struggles? Well, once or twice.

You always agreed. Yes, I agree with me and she agreed with her. Sometimes we agree with each other. But in our families, our local churches, in our neighborhoods, on our job. Now, sometimes you’re going to have problems and breakdowns because you’re doing something right. You can stand for that which is right and suffer consequences, breakdowns, due to our stand for Jesus Christ and biblical principles. So you can suffer because of that, because you did what was right. Give what Jesus said.

He says, think not that I am come to send peace on the earth. I come not to send peace, a sword. Jesus, do you realize what you just said? He says, I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against mother-in-law. I can understand that. And a man’s foe shall be the day of his own household. In your own family, sometimes you can do right and suffer because you’re doing what’s right and it can cause a breakdown.

It’s just like in a family. family and Lord behold, somebody witnesses and the man trust Christ is a savior and the wife does not. You have a believer and an unbeliever. Can that cause trouble? Here he is. Here’s kid. They come to Ranchi, trust the Lord. They go home and mommy and daddy hasn’t trusted the Lord. Can there cause a division and it can happen anywhere at any time with anybody? You can see to do what’s right, take a stand and suffer for it.

Now you ought to know that. You ought to understand that in advance. And when you know that and understand that in advance, you’re going to be a person who is forgiving. You’re not going to recaliate. You’re not going to get even. Because you’re going to remember there was somebody else that was here and people lied about him. They said all kinds of things against him. They even crucified him. And if they will do that to him who was perfect, why you get upset because you’re a sinner.

There may be some things that happen to you because you had it coming. Maybe you deserved it. But this is talking about because you did something that was right and you suffered the consequences. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. and he that love of son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me. God doesn’t want anyone putting anybody between you and him. You see, God’s a very jealous God. You don’t put your wife in front of God.

Well, I love my wife more than I love you shouldn’t. So see, you can lose your wife, but you can’t lose God. If you love God the way you should, you’ll love your wife the way you should. But you can love your wife with whatever limited love you have, and not love God. Loving God is learning how to love your wife and your children. You always put God first. And He’ll teach you all the other things you know. And you put God first.

And He says, if you don’t love me more, you won’t serve me. You’ll serve them because you don’t want to hurt them. But if you serve God, you may hurt them, because they may not see and understand or agree. And you may have to take a strong stand and suffer consequences for it. Just understand that. Just because you decide I’m gonna serve the Lord doesn’t mean now everything’s gonna be wonderful. With most people, their lives were better before they ever met the Lord.

After you trust Christ to save and you have eternal life and then you dedicate your life to serving God, But the problems are coming. The devil is on his way. And it can be nothing but headaches from the rest of your life. Struggles in areas that didn’t bother you before. Now it seems like everything will bother you. Because you see how many things are not right and your discernment becomes very keen. And he says, and he that takes not up his cross and follows me is not worthy.

In other words, you don’t deserve what God has. You don’t deserve the best because you don’t want the best. If you want the best in this life, then you’re going to have to make Him number one. If you don’t, you can’t have the best. You can crave it, desire it, but you won’t have it. It will flee from you. He says, He that will lose His life for my sake and the gospel the same shall find it, that you live for something else and you won’t have it.

Yay? All that will live God in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution. For as much in his Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourself likewise with the same mind for he that have suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. It means that the more you dedicate your life to serve God, you’ll stop doing the things that are wrong. You’ll start doing the things that are right. It’ll help you. And if you’re suffering because you’re doing what’s right, it means it kept you from doing the thing that you shouldn’t have been doing.

Get so busy doing what God wants you to do and you won’t have time to get in trouble. That you no longer should let the rest of your time and the lust of the flesh. But to the will of God, there’s a division there. Not everybody is always going to have the same desire. And so therefore your decision to serve God may not be the same as your mate, may not be the same as your children. And it hurts.

You suffer. But you have to make a decision. Do you love God more than anything else in this world, even though it may cost you and cost you dearly? These are things to think about. For the past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. When you were lost, you lived a certain way. Maybe nobody cared. Now that you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you need to understand. Where they think it’s strange that you run not with them to the same excess of right, speaking evil of you.

So just because you dedicate your life to the Lord. And you don’t do the same things you used to do or go with the same people you used to do. It can bring you persecution and they can speak evil of you. And maybe you can put a little holy joke, preacher, better than us. You’d be surprised what people would say, just to hurt, to hurt. And you’re going to have to go through that. So we have all these things, but sometimes it’s not always because you took a strong stand.

Sometimes it’s because of your own sin, such as pride and selflessness and unbelief, a lack of agape love and a lack of forgiveness on your own part. Sometimes these divisions and these relations to break down is not because you’re standing for the truth, but because you’re wrong. Have you ever considered the possibility? Have you ever looked in the mirror and says, dawg the person. You’re the blame and correct the problem because see a lot of people become deceived. They don’t want to own up to it and admit and say those words.

It’s so hard to say. I was wrong. Will you forgive me? Aren’t those hard words to say. But pride keeps you from doing it. And you’d rather just ruin a home, ruin kids, ruin a marriage, ruin a job, split a church before you’ll admit I was wrong. Now I’m glad we don’t have anybody like that here today. In connection with so many personal problems and relational breakdowns in this sin of bitterness because it is nothing but poison. It gets inside of you.

The Bible says in Hebrews in chapter 12 verse 15 says, looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. And this bitterness spring it up, up, trouble you and defile other individuals and say, many become defiled because of this. So number one, bitterness troubles you and bitterness bothers others because you contaminate others. Like getting a virus and everybody you get around will become part of your bitterness and you’ll get people to be bitter toward somebody that’s never bothered you.

Never said anything to you. They weren’t a part of the problem. They’re not a part of the solution, but there’ll be people that will hate you because somebody else got bitter toward you and they spread that bitterness. That is a shame and a disgrace. But people will do this. It’s like poison on the inside. That last statement down there, bitterness involves an inward resentment due to real or perceived injustices or wrong doings that causes grudges or an unforgiving spirit.

That’s a good definition of bitterness. Whether it’s real or not real,ilings can be perceived. Have you ever thought your wife said or did something or your husband I know he’s guilty I know he’s guilty he didn’t come home when he said he’s gonna be home I bet he’s out with somebody and he when he comes in how where have you been I was at the church praying with the preacher that’s a likely story and next thing you know they’re getting a divorce percip but it doesn’t have to be real but if you think it’s real you’ll take It acts as though it’s real.

Have you ever thought something about somebody and it’s wrong? Have you heard somebody say something and you believed it? And but you don’t know if it was right or wrong, but you perceived it to be true. The damage that can be done. So you, we’re destroying ourselves. We’re destroying our homes because the when waxes cold, sin abounds and becomes very destructive. These are the words that come from this whole sinful nature that we have. The Bible says this is a root of bitterness that comes up.

The clamor, we could have used a lot of these words, but I wanted you to make sure you understood this one word of what it means. It’s found in the book of Ephesians in chapter 4, and it says, extreme hatred of the heart. Ill will that is unprovoked. Sometimes you are going to have people that will be so ill towards you and you never give them a cause. You don’t know why? You’ll never understand it. And they’ll hate. They can carry grudges for years and years and have an unforgiving spirit.

They’ll never apologize. And so you can be bitter toward that person who hurt you. Or you can just forgive them because God has forgiven you and gone with life. And not hold it against them. Now this is a very important thing. Bittleness is like drinking poison and hope the other person dies. You understand what I’m saying? You’re drinking the poison and you hope that other person, you hope they die from you drinking the poison. and poison. Bittleness is like cancer that eats on the inside of you.

All of us because we won’t forgive them. We won’t forgive. And what’s the whole lesson about going to all the world and priests? The forgiveness of God. We are forgiven people. We’re sinners but forgiven. And that’s why we’re going to heaven. And think of how much peace would being a home between mommy and daddy, between the kids and the parents, in the church, where you work if people just forgive each other, cut them a little slack. Everybody’s the center, nobody’s perfect.

But sometimes we just get our magnifying glass out and we watch for any amount of dirt we can find on anybody and magnify it. So did you see that dirt? Did you see that dirt? You make a mountain out of a molehill. What’s the difference between a mountain and a molehill? More dirt. As Freddy Colall would say, we’re just made out of dirt. But he referred that just to the guys. For I perceive that thou art in the gall or the poison of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.

Do you know what it does to you? It puts handcuffs on you. It puts handcuffs on you And you can’t enjoy peace and joy and happiness because you’re in the gall of bitterness. You’ve got poison and it’s affecting your physical body. That’s why I put in this little statement. Is it bad for the health? Is bitterness bad for your health? There’s thing the Bible talks about merriment is medicine for the soul. You wanna be happy? Learn to forgive. Because if you don’t, you’ll be a bitter person and you’ll make other people bitter around you.

Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. book The Gospel Driven Man covers all those topics and we want all new listeners of Bible line to receive a free copy.

There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of The Gospel Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.