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 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.

So then he says here in Psalms 37 and verse 7, rest in the Lord, not verse 4, it’s not in your note. Or simply says, delight thyself in the Lord, and I will give thee the desires of thine heart. Learn unto trust the Lord. Delyte yourself in the Lord. But that’s in verse four of Psalms 37. But here in verse seven, it says that all over again, rest in the Lord. See, worry and fretting about things means you’re not resting in the Lord.

And don’t we despise when we really mess up And we realize that I’m not really trusting the Lord like I’m supposed to. We wished that we could just always live, you know, holy. Never have any signs of weakness in our life. Wouldn’t you always like to be on top of cloud nine? Always exhibiting, manifesting, all the attributes of a child of God that’s mature in the Lord, walking with God in the Spirit. And then sometimes we let the flesh get the best of us, and it makes us so sick at our stomach, like somebody in their playing ping pong back and forth, makes you just sick at yourself.

And can it happen at any moment? Just how quickly you’d be surprised how you can lose it. And worry and fret. But those are signs of a person who’s not trusting the Lord. So he says, rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for him, fret not thyself because of him who prosper sin his way, because of the men who bringeth wicked devices to pat, just because there’s wicked people in the world, and they may even be wicked towards you and do wicked things to you.

Learn just trust the Lord, just learn to trust the Lord. Look at the next one Psalm 37 verse 8, sees from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Now I’m not talking about it, and I’m not a pacifist by the way. I do believe that there’s a time when you are supposed to protect that which belongs to you, like your wife or your children, and you have the right to life and liberty and pursuit happiness if you want.

But there’s a place where you have to be careful that you don’t just out of vengeance when anger controls you and you say and do things that you should not say and do. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with somebody trying to break in your house. What would you do? Open the door says, I mean, be no harm stranger, but I’ll stand it’s right where I’m about to shoot. So you got to give him a chance. No, but anyway, be wise on that.

Genesis 21 17, look at this. Now, hey, she’d already, she was this bondwoman, the slave of Abraham that came out of Egypt. And Sarah told Abraham, why don’t you have a child by her? Well, he did. you know, the kid’s 13 years old and the kid, well, he always was picking on their child that they had. You have Abraham, Isaac, Isaac, and he would always, there was a problem between them. And so finally, Sarah had enough of that. She says, you’re right out of here.

So Abraham made her leave. So here’s this woman, this slave lady, with her son and out there in the desert. She’s going to die. Son’s crying. Show she put him down and… She goes off from him and the Lord says, I heard the cry of the sun and he’s going to be the head of a lot of nations. He’s not going to die and he didn’t die. So he says here in verse 17, and God heard the voice of the lad and the angel of God called a hager out of heaven and said to him, what a lift thee, hager!

Fear not for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Don’t fear. Well, what would you do if you were dying and your son was dying and you didn’t know what you’re gonna do and Everything looks dark It’s hard to trust the Lord when you can’t see clearly See a lot of times even for you and I it’s easy to trust the Lord when it’s daylight But whenever the Lord turns out the lights and it seems to be a little on the dark side when you don’t see it’s clear and You begin to wonder You begin to have doubts.

You beginillance to fret and worry and have grief Sometimes that you can’t seem to get over Well those are things remember that happened to all of God’s people as you go through the Bible you’ll find out Hey, they were just like you just like me. They went through these things look down at Exodus 20 verse 20 Yeah, here’s just talk about Moses Moses said unto the people fear not for God has come to prove you and that his fear may be before your faces that you sin not.

So God wanted his people to do right. Thanks to this chapter 20 he gives them the law. Told them what to do. He says, don’t be afraid. If you break the law, well there were sacrifices that had to be made, appropriate sacrifices for appropriate sin. I don’t get any sins appropriate, but I mean if he said there’s a sacrifice to make. Look at the next one, Deuteronomy 1-21, Behold, the Lord thy God have set the land before the go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers had said unto thee, Fear not neither be discouraged.”

Now they were going to go into the land, the promised land. They sent twelve spies into the land. Tenom came back with a terrible, terrible report. There’s giants in the land. Children of Aenak there. like grasshoppers in their sight. But there were two of them that says, God promised us the land. God says we can take it. God says He will be with us. We don’t have to be afraid. But those 10 that came back with the bad message, defeated attitude, convinced the rest of the people.

And so now they were mad at Moses. Bring us out here into the desert to let us die. It’s all Moses’ fault. But it all started back there whenever God says, I’ve heard the cry of my people that are in bondage. They cried out to me, I’ve heard their voices, I’ve come to deliver them. Oh, how quickly they forget. Now they begin to fall apart and weep and wail, fret, worry, giants in the land. Those giants were nothing more than problems.

They’re just big problems. But it all depends on what’s the size of your God. Is God bigger than your problems? God, anything is possible. And if God says, I’m going to give you this land, I brought you here, you can take it, and then they’re worried and fret and cause other people to be the same way. You see, all of us affect somebody. either encouraging people in the Lord or we’re discouraging people. But not everybody is excited about the things of the Lord because some people are just worrying about something.

I bet you this. We weren’t going to take a toll. But I would bet you to say that some of y’all are sitting here listening to me and you’re worried about something. You’ve got something that’s on your mind and you’re worried. Now we won’t never know because you’re not going to tell us. But should you talk to the Lord about it. If God walked into this room right now and He told you, now I know every one of you in here, I know every one of your problems.

Fear not, be not afraid. I am the possessor of heaven and earth. I can move heaven and I can move earth with me. All things are possible. And then He says, will you trust me? And He said, well, I don’t know. You know, You can’t trust anybody these days. Could you trust Him? But you’ll be surprised how easy it is to walk out those doors. A worried individual fretting about tomorrow. All kinds of things that can happen. Learn to cast all your cares upon him, for he careth for you.

Look in verse three down here of chapter 20, Deuteronomy, and shall say unto them, O Israel, you approach this day in the battle against your enemies, let not your heart faint fear not and do not tremble, neither be terrified because of them. Why? Because they did tremble and they were terrified in their hearts. We’re faint. And he says, don’t be afraid. Because, hey, these people of Israel, they’re just like you and just like me. These are the greats. These are the ones you say, I wish I could have been there.

I wish I would have been like them. Oh, you are like them more than you know. And there’s moments in their life they probably shined as a great leader. But there’s also times when they were down on the bottom. Look down at the bottom of that page. Joshua chapter 8 verse 1, and the Lord said in the Joshua, fear not. Neither be thou just may take all the people of war with the arise, go up to A.I. See I have given him to thy hand the king of A.I.

and his people and his city and his land. Don’t be afraid. Go ahead and do it. Do what I tell you to do. In Joshua chapter 10 verse 25, now you’ll notice that whenever you read some of those things in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses was told fear not I am with thee be not afraid be strong be courageous. When Joshua came along in chapter 1 he told him the same thing as I was with Moses so I will be He would be.

Why did he have to tell Joshua that? Because he says, be thou strong and very courageous. Because sometimes God knows how we think and feel on the inside. Nobody else knows they’re on the outside. They may think, hey, Joshua, he never gets afraid. He’s never, you know what courage is? Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is fear that says it’s prayers and goes ahead. If there’s no fear, there’s no courage. You can’t have courage without fear. When he said be courageous, means in spite of your fear.

That means generally because of your limitations. You can’t do it. But you’re going to trust God too. So you step out and you trust the Lord. And some people never get to see what God can do because they’re always too afraid to trust the Lord. Because you know, he’ll have it to let me down. I’ve said this before, when there was out there in the boat. And they saw Jesus walking on the water. Peter says, can I come to you on the water?

And Jesus says, come on. He get out of the boat. And what did Peter do? Walked on the water. You know, the rest of them, it was in the boat. You know what they said? I was just fixing to do that. I was going to do that. I could have done it too. I mean, he’s not the only one. Yeah, but how many of them got out of the boat and walked on the water? this one, but he did it.

Now when he took his eyes off the Lord, what happened to him? Glub, glub, glub, glub, glub, glub, glub, glub, glub, glub. But you see, it’s better to attempt and fail than never attempt at all. Some people want to stay in the boat all their life. They just feel safe there. But they never get a chance to see what can God do with my life because I’m afraid, afraid, he will let me down. He’s not going to keep his word.

I’d venture to say that some of these kids come to Baba College trying to figure out how in the world am I going to live? How am I going to make a living? How am I going to pay my school bill? How am I going to get a job? You know, it’s just interesting. I love watching them struggle, sweating it out. But God seemed like he just kind of keeps making a way for them, just meeting their needs a little day by day.

But there’s a lot of fretting you can be married, have kids, and have a good job and you still worry about your kids? Worry about your grandkids? No, I never even think about them. Okay, look at the top of the page up there. Where it says Joshua chapter 10 verse 25, and Joshua said it in fear not, nor be this made, be strong and good courage. King 16 and he answered fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

When Elijah told him that, told his servant his servant was concerned because the king was serious. He’s going to hurt us. They’re going to get us. He said, Lord open his eyes so he can see and all around them were the Lord’s angels chariots. He said, but he couldn’t see them. They were there all along, but he just couldn’t see them. Do you realize that God may have already to make the answers to your prayers, and he’s fixing to give it to you, and then you become disheartening, quit right before the blessing.

See, there’s a hole up there in the ceiling, and all of God’s blessings come down to that hole. They say, you’re over here. So God’s gotta work into your life until he gets you right under that certain spot, and boom, there it is. And you almost got there, and then you… You quit trusting the Lord and went your own way. Right before victory, you could have had it, but you walked away from it. Because a lack of faith, because you were it and you fret it.

Well, if God ain’t going to do it, I might as well do it myself. Wait a minute, that’s what Abraham did with that. How do you guys remember? Impatient, not waiting on the Lord. And God will work. Now notice this one. In 1 Chronicles where he says, then David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage. Do it. You know that Nike commercial doesn’t do it. Just do it. Do it. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even thy God, will be with thee.

He will not fail the norfer safety until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. God will be with you until you finish the work he has for you to do. Now that’s what I get out of that. But also that David was telling his son, son, trust the Lord with all your heart, be strong, be not dismayed, be courageous, and do, just do it, do what you’re supposed to do. Look at the next one, and Isaiah 35, for say to them that, or of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, Behold, your God will come with vengeance.

Even God will they recommend him. He will come and he will save you. The last part of the next verse, fear not, I will help you. Look in Daniel, you say, well none of these people ever had to do it. No, no, no, no, what he says. Then said he had to be fear not Daniel. Fear not Daniel. Why do you have to tell Daniel that? Now I don’t know anything against Daniel’s testimony or even Joseph, but God still says Fear not, God knows the thing that goes on and works on the inside, the turmoil that goes on in your mind, all your emotions that you’re going through, the fears that you have, the anxiety that you have, the worry that’s going on.

Wouldn’t it be neat if we could just not have any of that and just serve the Lord? You know what I would think, if they could go to the VA and have an operation and tell them that, go in there and find that old sinful nature and just cut it out. I mean, it’s got to be in there somewhere. Don’t you have an old sinful nature? John John says he’s got one. Well, wouldn’t it be night if you could just go in there and cut out that old sinful nature?

It’s got to be in there somewhere. Sure, we ought to have some special glasses or some kind of an extra machine. They can find that thing and get it out of there. But the Bible says it’s in our flesh. I guess you have to just do away with a flesh. Ooh, that means you got to die. Ooh. So I guess I would rather live here a little while with that old sinful nature. So at least I can do something for the Lord while I’m here.

So you go down through here and you see these things and it’s wonderful, it really is. Look down at Matthew in chapter one and verse 20, but while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared under him in the dreams and Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take into thee married thy wife because he wasn’t going to. He was gonna put her away. He wasn’t gonna take her. I’m sorry, lady, you got a child, it ain’t mine.

I’m out of here. And he would have been that away if God had not intervened. And God intervened. But he was worried about how do I solve this? He don’t want to have her stone to death. Oh boy. Look down at the bottom. Acts 27, 24. Here’s the apostle Paul. The great apostle Paul. At least you don’t have to find that God tell him Paul, the fear or not or anything like that, would you? and fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

So God had to talk to Paul and not to be afraid, not to worry, trust me. Paul did, he says, all those that are on the ship, if you abide and stay with me, you’re not gonna die. Everything’s gonna be fine, everything’s cool. And not a one of them died. So the way to be saved is you have to abide in the ship. That’s the new salvation plan I got. We call it the shipites. No. That’s talking about your physical life.

And the last done down there, Revelation chapter one, verse 17, when it says, and I saw him and I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, send him fear not. He’s talking to a man about 90 years old. So whether you’re young or whether you’re old, you’re going to live with fear. You’re going to have it all your life. But remember this, the Lord has not given unto us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and of a sound mind.

Fear didn’t come from the Lord. That’s because we have an ostenther nature that gets us not to trust the Lord, not to believe the Lord. The more you walk with God and the closer you get to God, the less fear you will have. But every one of us… With our all sinful nature, are not without this element of fear. We’re human. Because we know we’re limited. There’s things that we don’t know. There’s problems we can’t solve. There’s things we can’t do.

There’s abilities we don’t have. Things that we want and can’t have them. Where will all to get it? And maybe you like to have a nice big old nest egg that you don’t have to worry for the rest of your life. Do you remember all the apostles? They all had it for a win-k. They had big bank accounts. They had national health care. They had all those things, didn’t they? They had none of those things? But you ought to see their retirement plan.

They’re not here. They’re there. And if a man dies, he gets everything he needs. See, the very moment you die, you don’t need to pay any more taxes. They may come after you, but they appear grave. They say, look, I think it’s wonderful to know that God has provided everything that we need. But isn’t it easy to worry, to fret, to get upset? When we do all those things, that’s not because we’re strong and though, that’s because we’re not strong in the Lord.

That’s because you’ve got an element in your life that causes you to not trust God. And the devil wants to use that old sinful nature, get you to worry. He’s got to get you to question God. That’s why God had to tell Abraham, I am thy shield. I’ll protect you. you. And I am thy graded exceeding reward. You’re not going to lose anything. But Abraham knew he had an impossible situation. He was an old man and his wife was old and he was trying to figure how am I going to do the imposs.

It was out of his hands. It was what God was going to do. And God would quicken his body. And that little lady, when she was 90 years old had a youngin’. Now do you really want to be like Sarah? And a hundred years old do you really want to have a little child? I don’t even know if I want my kids or grandkids to have one when I’m a hundred. But God is good and you’re supposed to remember that and to believe that because God is good.

Look up here. God meets all of our needs. When Jesus Christ came into this world, He came to meet our need. And what we needed was a Savior. Because you and I couldn’t save ourself. This church can’t save you. I can’t save you. I need a Savior. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. Our good works can’t save us. That’s why we have people joining our church. Joining the church. Do you have to join the church to go to heaven?

unless it’s the Calvary community church. No, scratch. No, eternal life is free. It’s the gift of God. It’s not a works last year you mentioned, boast. And see, the reason we don’t have some time, you know, people walk down the aisle is because I can’t find it in the Bible. I like to be as biblical as I can. Jesus says, believe. Well, if you believe it, then you should have it. And I’ve seen a lot of times, the preachers will have everybody stand, Everybody stand, sing 15 verses to just as I am and plead with people to come down here.

If you come down here, we’ll show you how to be saved. Well, if they don’t come, they don’t get to hear it. Whatever I’m going to tell you down here, why can’t I go ahead and tell you where you’re sitting? Why makes it… Well, if he can come all the way from glory into this world, surely you can walk that aisle. Why do I have to walk that aisle? He had to do that. I don’t have to do this.

All I need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I would be saying, but what do I got to believe? Well, this is what I got to believe. One, I’m a sinner. We’re all sinner to represent sin. We all have sin on it. God loves us. Now I should believe that God loved me because He did something for me. Nobody else would do or could do. So because of sin, we can’t get in and heaven is perfect.

So the Bible says that the wages of sin is death and so no other payment will do. So that’s why going to church won’t pay for sin. Living a good life won’t pay for sin. Money won’t pay for sin. The way is in death. That’s how you pay for it. But God says, that would mean eternal separation from God. So God says, you can’t save yourself. You need to save good. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because he loves us.

Hates our sin because our sin separates us from him. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin, didn’t have to die. But because he loved us, see, we can’t get to him. He took the sin. paid for it on the cross. How many did he take? All the sins of all the world. Paid for all of them, came back from the dead, and he says that if I would believe that he did it for me, he would save me. He’d put this payment to my account.

So the reason I can’t go to hell today or tomorrow, I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for how many of my sins? All of them. So that’s why I can’t go to hell. I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for all my sins. And all I had to do was accept that payment. Christ was my payment. So when I accepted Him as my Savior, He is eternal life. So when you accept Christ, you got eternal life.

He’d that hath the Son hath life. He’d that hath not the Son, hath not life, because that’s why He says in John chapter 5, done at the bottom, He said, He is the true God and eternal life. So when you trust the Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life. So I have eternal life. I got Christ. That’s why I’m going to heaven because I’m in Christ and He’s in me. That’s a wonderful thing and that’s free. That’s the gift of God.

You don’t earn it. You don’t work for it. You can’t buy it. And once you have it, you can’t lose it. I can’t go to hell if I tried. I haven’t tried lately, but I can’t go to hell. I can’t, regardless, why? Because God means what He says. He that believeth on me hath what? Temporary life. Life to your sin again. These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life.

So you can know you have eternal life. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed. If you hear this evening and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now? Just talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I’m normal sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sin, and I’m going to trust Him as my only hope of going to heaven. And when God said, if you’d trust Him, then give your eternal life, and you can know that you’re going to heaven.

If you’ve never done it, do it right now. And if you’re making that decision, I’m going to ask you to raise your hand. That’s just to let me know that what I said made sense to you and say, preacher, would you pray for me? So is there anyone at all? Just slip it up very quickly and say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight. I want to be certain of going to heaven when I die. If you’re watching by internet, you’re right where you are.

All you need to do is say, yes, I will accept Christ as my Savior. And God said He would save you and give you the free gift of everlasting life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven, because it’s the gift of God. It’s not a works list anymore. You should boast. But if you’ll do that, they’re right there on the screen. It says, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. We’d love to hear from you. Father, we thank you again for your blessings.

Thank you for all you’ve done for us. We’re thank you for our church and all the good people, the good workers that love you and sacrifice so much of their time and their money to see that other people come to know Christ that they’re Savior. Bless us in Christ’s name we pray, Amen. 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. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline 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.