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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 notice what he says here. Look down there in verse 6. If we say, now see you can say anything you want, doesn’t make it true. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in what? Darkness, what do we do? We lie and we’re not telling the truth. The day you trust the Lord, you have passed from death on the life. So God wants you not to walk in newness of life. And you say, well, we’re walking in the Lord.

And God says, no, you’re not. This is where you are. And you can’t see it sometimes. You’re deceived and you excuse yourself. And you think, well, it’s not that bad. All right, let’s fall. Look at what he said in verse seven. If we walk in the what light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, continually keeps us clean. So you see, here you are. And you know that in Christ, there is no sinful nature.

In Him, there is no sin. He is the light. So when you’re talking about walking in the light, means walking with the Lord, that’s your fellowship. There’s two fellows in the ship going in the same direction. So you’re with the Lord. Then notice what he says in verse eight. If we say we have no sin, our look appearing. If we say we have no sinful nature, We don’t have no sin. Well, what does he say? We do what? You deceive yourself.

There’s people say, well, I’ve never sinned in 40 years. Line your down and they’re lying. You have an old sinful nature and you will always have this sinful desires within you. And you have those sinful desires, even most times when you’re not even aware and you’ll think things and you don’t always perfectly discern and split the two. So God gives us a few things to look at. So when He makes the statement here in verse 6, if we confess our sin, that means when you’re walking in the flesh, in the darkness, then admit it to God.

Say, Lord, I’m walking in the flesh. I’m fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And that breaks God’s heart. So that’s not where God wants you to walk. And I’ll show you a verse in a minute that talks about, He was manifested to take away our sins. Look in chapter 1 and verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, we do what? We make Him a liar. So you can’t say you don’t have a sinful nature. And you can’t say that, well, I don’t sin.

Yes, you do. As long as you have this whole sinful nature, you’re going to sin. Now, when will we get rid of this soul’s sinful nature. When you die, or when God changes this body and we’re caught up to meet the Lord in the ear. Look in chapter 2, my little children, these things right eye unto you that you sin not and if any man sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the right. Which one does God want you to walk in?

The Spirit of the flesh, light over here, flesh, darkness. So this is why he writes this so that you can have your fellowship with the Lord and have the joy God wants you to have. Because sin ruins your joy between you and the Lord. Sin will just rip it right out of you. You won’t have the joy, the peace, the love, the happiness. You won’t have it. You can’t have it. You’d be surprised how much torment God’s children bring upon themselves.

They do it to themselves. Hold your place right there. I’ll be coming back to you. Look there in chapter 4. Chapter 4 and look in verse 17. Herein is our love made what? So we’re talking about as a Christian, you growing in love and understanding what love is. Most people don’t really know what love is. He also says this. that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in the world, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts us out fear.

Because fear hath what? Torment. Christians torment themselves because of fear. And you fear because you know something’s not right between you and God, and you’re afraid. it will drive you nuts. So God doesn’t want you to have fear that brings poor men, he wants you to have joy. Now I hope you can see that, but now look back there in 1 John 2. Look what he says here in verse, let’s just look there in verse 4. He that saith, now you know that he said, he that saith, he that saith, so you can say anything you want, that doesn’t make it true.

And this is what they’re doing. So he said, just because you say something doesn’t make it true. He that sayeth, I know him or that word, I mean, I love him and keep if not his commandments is a what. You know he’s talking to believers here. He’s not talking to lost people. This is to the believer. And in verse 5, but who’s so keepeth this word, obeys his word, and him barely is the love of God perfected. See God is trying to perfect this love that He has in you.

God wants to love others through you. And you may be hindering that. This is why, in regards to what people do to you, God wants you to love them. That hurt. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, send them to your moon. Well, in love. So you’re supposed to turn the cheek, but it doesn’t say what to do after that. Anyway, one moment right along. Now look what he says in verse six. He that sayeth, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walk.

Look up here. Light, darkness, spirit, flesh, good, bad. So as he says here, he that says, he abides, where does God want me to abide over here? So this is why he makes a statement in chapter 2 and verse 28, my little children abide where in him that we may have come and not be ashamed because if I walk in the flesh and he comes, I’m going to be ashamed. I don’t want to be ashamed. So then I got to walk over here.

there is a difference when you’re walking in obedience or you walk in disobedience. So the Christian learns how to discern for himself. Where are you? And so going down through here, he goes to all of these things. But look there in verse 10. He says, he that loveth his brother abideth in the light. Look up here. Love, divine love comes from the flesh or the spirit. Spirit. He that loveth his brother abided in the lighter darkness. So you can tell when you hate your brother.

Now I’m just not talking about, I got a brother. You say, well I don’t have a brother, I ain’t got a word about that. It’s talking about your brother in the Lord. And if you don’t do right by each other and that hate and that envy and bitterness and jealousy and malice and all that, is that a work of the Spirit or a work of the flesh? I know this is hard to understand. That’s the flesh. You may say, well, I love the Lord, but you live like the devil.

Thank God says, you’re lying. You don’t love me. You see, You’re not going to heaven because you love the Lord. You’re going to heaven because He loved you. You got your new birth because He loved you. He paid for all of your sins because He loved you. He gave you eternal life because He loved you. Had nothing to do with you loving Him. But now what you have this new birth. And the Holy Spirit entwilling you. God wants you to love Him.

You say, well, I love the Lord. But you’re not living like you love the Lord. discern that. Now you may sit in judgment on somebody else but you don’t even know if they’re saved. But you might say, well, I don’t believe you love the Lord because of what you do. Whether that’s true or not, that’s something else. God just talked about you examining yourself because that’s all the evidence you can go by is you. And so you examine yourself and you can see whether…

Now you can tell if other people are walking in the flesh, but you can’t tell if a lost man is saved or lost. All you can tell is, that’s flesh, that’s flesh, that’s flesh. Can lost people give the appearance to do the same thing that believers do? Can a lost man go to church, lost man read his Bible, lost man pray, lost man give money, lost man go to all that? Well he must be saved. No. This is written to the believer so he can judge for himself.

And if you can judge for yourself and you realize something is not right, you can correct it. And if you’ll correct it, God will bless you for that. When you own up to it, Lord, I confess, I have been walking in the flesh, and I confess that to you. Now look what else he says. In the last part of verse 10, there is none occasion of stumbling in him. So this is so that you can realize if you walk in the flesh, you’re going to stumble.

You’re going to fall. If you walk in the light, there’s no occasion of stumbling. Why? Because you can see. You can discern. So that’s why you study the word of God. Picture every verse in the Bible as like a flashlight. It’s a light. Every verse, it’s a light. Thy word is a light unto my feet. So the word is lights. And the more light you have, the better you can see. But when you don’t know much of the Bible, it’s kind of dim.

You can’t discern it’s good because it’s not clear. You don’t have good focus. That’s why you need to read and study, study, study the Bible. And it’ll help you. So God even tells His children, down in verse 15, there’s things not to love. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father’s not in Him. Look up here. Here you are. If you abide in the flesh and you love the things of the flesh, this one does not have the love of God living in Him.

So therefore you’re going to make decisions and it’s going to hurt your life. And you’re not going to like the consequences. So be a little bit wiser concerning that. Now look what he says here in verse 28. Now little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him and his come. Now it’s to all of the little children. But everybody can’t be responsible for your decision. Just because everybody else walked with the Lord and everybody else abides in the Lord doesn’t mean you did as a personal individual.

You have to do that. You have to learn to make your own decision and don’t judge yourself by what other people are doing because the one you’re judging that, this is good as that you are, yeah but they might be walking in the flesh. Don’t compare yourselves. The Bible talks about they that compare themselves among themselves are not not wise. Now why? If you want to compare yourself, compare yourself to the Lord. Now how you doing? Because see, he’s perfect.

How you doing there? So you always have room for improvement. You can always be growing in the Lord and God will truly bless your life. Now look in chapter 3, chapter 3, look in verse 8. He that committed sin is of the devil. For the devil sineth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Or like a bear. He the commit of sins of the devil, which one commits sin?

This one. See, this one doesn’t commit sin. This one commits sin. So if I as a Christian commit sin, did that come from my new birth or my old one. Come from my over so I can discern that. Then I know that sin. I’m committing sin. It lets me know I’m walking after the flesh. I may say I love the Lord, but I’m producing the works of the flesh. And this one here is of the devil. This first birth is of the devil.

Remember Jesus when he told those Pharisees, he says, ye are of your Father the devil. You see, it has the same nature as the devil. Don’t think that everything you do that’s wrong, the devil made you do it. You have a sinful nature just like the devil. Mama told her, boy, no, you cannot go up to the lake. Mama, why can’t I go up there? All the other kids get to go. You’re not going to the lake. Mama, please let me go.

All right, if you go up there, don’t you dare get in the water. Yes ma’am. And if the devil tempts you, you say, get behind me devil. Yes ma’am. He goes up there and later on. Mama goes up there to see what our boy’s doing. He’s out there just swimming, having a good time. The son did not tell you not to get in that lake. Yes, ma’am. Did not tell you if the devil tempted you to say, get behind me, say, mama, I did, and he pushed me in.

So you can’t always blame the devil. You have an old sinful nature of your own. And God’s not going to be pleased with you trying to blame everything on the devil. Now look what he says. The last part of verse eight says that he might destroy the works of the devil. Look up here. The only way you can destroy the works of the devil by the new birth is you walking in the light. If you walk in the flesh, you are doing the work of the devil.

Not to serve God is to do the work of the devil. You’re either being led by the Lord or driven by the devil. It’s one way or the other. There’s no mutual agreement. You’re either flesh or spirit. You’re either obedient, disobedient. Well, I’m just going to be neutral. You can’t. You’re either obeying or disobeying. So God wants to destroy the works of the devil by getting you, this new bird gives you the new bird, and then you walk in the spirit so that you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Not fulfilling the lust of the flesh is not doing the works of the devil. Now let me ask you a question. Do you want God’s blessings or you want the devils? You’re gonna get one or the other. Be not to say God is not mocked. And how do you mock God by mocking sin? You mock sin. And so that’s why he says in verse 9, who’s server is born of God if not commit sin? For his seed remaining in him he cannot sin because he’s born of God.

Look over here. This one is the one that’s born of God. This one’s not born of God. This one over here is born of God. It can’t sin. If he can’t sin, he can’t die. This one over here is sin. It, the flash burst. And so that’s why he made this statement. Look down here now in verse 14. Now remember, God used John to write the Gospel of John and also to write first John. And here you see that phrase again.

In verse 14 we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Our look appear. He that loveth not his brother. Okay, means is over here. Abideth, this is where you live in. You’re living in the flesh. You’re walking in the flesh. And And that’s not the will of God. So that’s why he makes the statement in verse 15, who so ever of the children of God hated this brother is a murderer, look up here, hate, joy, one’s the food of the spirit, one is the work of the flesh.

And if you walk in the flesh and you hate your brother, then God says he doesn’t have eternal life abiding in him. He does. So therefore, you know when you hate, that’s not of God and you’re walking in the flesh. You’re not walking in the Spirit. Your discernment will become better focused, sharper, keener, when you can discern for yourself and be able to judge for yourself. An unexamined light is not worth living. Learn to look at the Word of God as the light of the the word of God.

And that’s why he says in the book of James in chapter 1, be not a forgetful here. Just somebody who looks into the perfect law of liberty and then goes this way and doesn’t do anything about it. He sees it but then goes this way. And what he does, God says, the man who looks into the mirror and does it, this man shall be blessed in his deeds. God will richly reward him. Now, look there in chapter 3 and verse 16, here by perceived we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brother.

You may or may not forget every other person, that I get all the Christians. You just said, in judgment of yourself. You discerned, where are you? Are you spiritually minded? To be spiritually minded means you mind the spirit. Fleshly minded, you mind the flesh. And if you live in the flesh, walk in the flesh, and you abide in the flesh, then you’re gonna bring forth the results of the flesh. And you’re not gonna like the results. And you’re gonna be ashamed before the Lord when He comes.

Or if God happens to take you a little bit earlier. And you have to give an account. So this is given and written so that we can make decisions. Look what he says in verse 17. And who so hath this world’s good and see it his brother have need and shut up his bowels of compassion, the love of God will show compassion. Have compassion, but you can’t prove that with anybody else. It’s your compassion. Do you have compassion? Do you care?

And then notice what else he says in verse 18. He’s still talking to his little children. He talks to his children, those who know Christ the Savior. Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but indeed and in truth. And hereby we, when you do that, you as a Christian, we are of the truth and shall assure our heart. You can’t assure anybody else’s. This is personal. It’s where you are personally. Do you have the assurance in your own mind that you’re doing what God wants you to do?

Are you treating people the way you know God wants you to treat them? Do you love the way God wants you to love? Do you see room of improvement? We can always do that. But it’s also to let us know when you’re walking in the flesh lusting after things as you should not. There’s the power of the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. If those things are drawing you and they become stronger in your life, it won’t matter what you say you think and feel about God, is that you’re not telling the truth.

You are deceiving yourself. You’re walking into flesh. You’re not walking in the light. You’re walking in darkness. And you need to understand and see that. But nobody else can make you see it. else can do that for you because we can deceive anybody. We can see all the right things. God knows the heart. That’s why he made the statement here and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart can dim us, God is greater than our hearts.

And if our hearts can dim us, then you know you feel guilty about something because obedience to God ought not make you feel bad. Should it? But when you don’t do right in any area of your life, you don’t do right. Doesn’t it plague your conscience just a little bit? And you, you know, nobody have to tell you, but you know, kind of like the guy that went into the pet shop. There’s this parrot in there talking parrot. And the guy walks in there and this parrot says, Hey, mister.

Yeah. You’re ugly. The owner came back there and he swatted them and said, don’t you talk to the customers like that again. The guy went down one aisle, came back. Mr. Parrot looked at him and said, hey mister. Yeah, he said, you’re ugly. The owner came back there with a broom and swatted him off the mountain floor and put him back up and says, don’t you talk to the customers like this one more time? What diner came back? He’s a mister So yeah, I said you know you know You know when you’re right You know when something’s wrong and If you’ll judge and take care of it God won’t have to that isn’t that the way you want it?

Or do you want the preacher to come to your house and do inspections? I don’t And I don’t like you do either. I don’t care to play God in people’s lives If you want to be carnally minded, go ahead. You want to walk into flesh? That’s up to you. You want to live like sin? Go ahead. Live like the devil. That’s up to you. But I’m going to do everything that I possibly can to stop you because it’s not right.

I want to try to warn you, but I can’t make you do anything. I want you to live as Godly, a light that you possibly can’t live. Why do you think He says over here in 1 John, chapter 4, just look at it real quick. Look here in verse 20. If a man say, so easy to say, if a man say, I love God and hate it this brother, he’s what? You know that word liars, you’re quite a bit through here.

We don’t usually like calling people a liar, but you know some people apply. Does Christians tell lies? Whoo, whore of hoars. And you’ll notice him. Look in verse 10 of chapter 5. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him, ooh, not calling God a liar. And because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son, and this is the record that God had given to us.

He turned life, his life is in his son. He that hath the son hath what? Life? He that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. These things have a written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal. But you can’t know if somebody else believe, but you can know if you believe. You can’t know if somebody else loves God really in truth, but you know if you do, and you’re supposed to be able to discern when you’re walking in the spirit, walking in obedience to God and walking in the flesh.

Look up here. This hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. Everybody does things wrong. But God still loves us. Now He hates our sin, but He loves us. And for us to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And we can’t take this with us. So what are we going to do with it? I mean, nobody else wants it. What are you going to do with it?

You have to pay for it. Well, how do I pay for it? Go to church. No. Give money. No, I’m not. You’ve got to die. The wages of sin is death. So everybody sins. Everybody must die. And we’re all going to die. This hand represents Jesus Christ, He’s God in the flesh. Came into the world because, well, He loves us. He hates our sin. And God says, you can’t earn eternal life, you can’t work your way to heaven, you need a Savior.

Well, there’s only one. Jesus Christ came and redeemed us. Means He paid for our sin in His own blood. And then when we believe that, He translates us from the kingdom of darkness, from being lost to being saved. And we are made in His likeness. We are created in Christ Jesus. We’re given a new birth that has no sinful nature, where we’ll live with the Lord for all eternity. So if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, you can take care of that.

Right now, all you need to do is be honest. We’re all sinners. Christ, pay your sins. And believe that when he did it, he did it for you. And if you will believe it, you will be saved. God will save you. If nobody else believes it, then he won’t say it. He saves the one that believes it. Will you believe? It’s a personal thing. Let’s pray, shall we? It heads by nice clothes and no one looking around. If you’re here this morning and never have trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him?

Would you just say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner, I believe Christ died, paid for my sin, and I’m gonna accept Him as my Savior. And for in God’s head, if you would, he would save you. And I’d like to know, I’d like to have prayer for you. really would. So if you’ll let me know just by raising, I’m not going to have you forward, not getting embarrassed by right where you’re sitting. He said, pre to that made sense and I will trust Christ as my Savior right now.

And I want you to pray for Him. We’ll just slip you hand it very quickly and put it right back down. You don’t want it all. You’ve already trusted Christ. You don’t have to do it again. But if you haven’t done it, would you do it right now? I follow we thank you so much for being good to us, for giving us your word so we could even understand some of these things. We’re without your word. We wouldn’t know that we were lost.

We would know that we could trust you as our Savior and have you turn life and go to heaven. We would know that you want us to have joy, but you tell us how to have it. So Father, I pray that you bless each person here, help them to discern, to examine themselves 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 Paulus at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the gospel-driven mane.

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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.