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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.

You’d be surprised how blind we can be. Now I want you to see this. You see in verse 20 to 24, these were maybe good men, but they were blind to spiritual service. They didn’t know how it works. They just didn’t know how it works. They thought it just gives you the position. Those are positions that are earned. You have to earn that. Salvation is free, but those positions of honor to serve must be earned. They didn’t want to talk about that.

Now I’ll show you this in just a minute. Now verse 25 to verse 28, they were blind to physical service. They just couldn’t see how this thing worked. So Jesus refers to the Gentiles and kind of gives them a little bit of a picture. So in verse 25, then Jesus called them unto him and said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them. and they that are great exercise authority upon them. This is similar to what they wanted to have.

The dominion, you know, the authority. We’re somebody, look at us. So in verse 26, but it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, Let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.” So you see, this was a simple little lesson in humility. You don’t rule until you learn how to serve.

If you want God to use you, you have to submit yourself to his will. that might be. Hold your place right here and just look over there in chapter 23 of Matthew. This is a couple verses just to look at real quick. Look in verse 11. In verse 11 says of chapter 23, but he that is greatest among you shall be your what? Boss. You servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”

Now there are several places in the scripture that you will see where it talks about the first shall be last and the last shall be first. When you try to exalt yourself, you’re gonna be last. But if you’ll humble yourself and be last because you put others first, you will be first. And most people never see it and then never grasp the simplicity of what Jesus is talking about. Now look what he says in verse 12, Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, but he that shall do what?

Humble himself shall be exalted. So the way up is down. The way up is down. Submitting your will to God. Now nobody can make you do that. You can be as ordinary and mean and as cantankerous as you wanna be. Nobody’s gonna tell me what I’m gonna do. No, I guess not. Do you think you win with that kind of an attitude or do you think you lose? You’re the loser. That dirty job, I’m not going to do that.

Have you ever thought that you deserve so much better? And I’m not going to get down and do this dirty little thing, this dirty little job. I mean don’t you know who I am? And you exalt yourself and you’re too good? You don’t mind if somebody else does it, but not me. You got a spiritual problem. You might not know it or believe it, but does the Bible ever say anywhere about deceive not yourself? You can be deceived and not even be aware of it.

But it’s revealed by the little things that you say and do and somebody else might have to reveal it to you. But anyway, if you’ll look over there in verse 30 of chapter 19, you’ll notice in verse 3, but many that are first shall be what? And the last shall be first. is dealing with the subject of humility. And if you exalt yourself and it’s you above everybody else and everybody make me happy, everybody serve me and I dominate and I’m the victor, the tater, you lose.

The person who humbles and submits himself to the world, they win. And there’s a lot more to that but we won’t get into that right now. Now go back there to the the book of Matthew. Matthew in chapter 20, and you’ll notice now he comes to something else. Look there in verse 29. Now we have the story about two blind men. So see there’s some people that are just, well they’re blind to spiritual service. People are blind to physical service and there’s people that are just blind.

We can’t see it all. But notice what he says here in verse 29, and as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. Now from Jericho, it was a long hill up toward Jerusalem, and it’s a dry, dusty old road. I’ve been on that road six times. I’ve been in Jericho, I’ve been in Jerusalem. But now notice, he says, a great multitude followed him and behold two blind men.” I was just kind of interested, you know, that’s amazing that this happened to be two blind men.

Sitting by the wayside and when they heard that Jesus passed by and cried out saying, have mercy on us O Lord, thou son of David and the multitude rebuked them because they should hold their peace but they cried them more saying, oh have mercy on us, oh Lord, thou son of David. And Jesus stood still and called him and said, what will ye that I shall do unto you? See there’s people hollering quiet, quiet. What if you were one of those that were blind and you knew that the Son of God was coming by the Son of David?

They’re supposed to be able to make the blind to see and you were sitting there and you were blind. What would you want? You see, when there’s people that are blind to the position of service that is supposed to be of humility, you don’t see that other people are blind. You can’t sense how they think and how they feel. But when it comes to service, you’re supposed to care about people who can’t see. Maybe they need a little milk.

spiritual people can understand and see because there’s other people that are blind and they’ve never seen before. They don’t have the eyes with which to see. He says, what do you want me to do for you? In verse 33, they said unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. What was he doing also with the disciples teaching them? He was opening their eyes so they could see something, a lesson in humility. See, those that could see had no mercy on those that couldn’t see.

I can see that’s all I care about. It’s me, me, me, me. Yeah, but what about the people that can’t see? Well, I know I’m saved and I know I’m going to heaven. I know my little pink is going to be inside the pearly gates. Yes, but what about those who’ve never heard the gospel? When you really care, You have no trouble with the preacher always giving the gospel and doing the little wall of the illustration because you want them to hear too.

Spiritual people do. Carl Christians don’t. Am I making myself clear? I hope so. But now I know what he says here. In verse 34, so Jesus had what did he have on them? So you have compassion on them. Touch their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him. Take your Bible and just turn over there to hold your place here. But look in chapter 23, Matthew chapter 23, and just look at a couple verses. Don’t have to read all the verses, but just so that you kind of see this.

In verse 16, he says, Whoa unto you, ye blind guides, blind. Look at Number 17 E-Fools and Blind. Look in verse 19, ye fools and blind. Did you know that if you’re a fool it’s because you’re blind? You notice what he says there in verse 25. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within there are full of extortion and excessive. says, the blind Pharisees clean first at which is within the cup and the platter that the outside of them may be clean also.

Then he also goes over down to here. You’re blind, blind, blind, blind. You’ve heard of that statement of the blind lead the blind and they both fall into the ditch. Did you know if you don’t have spiritual eyesight you’re blind? Did you know that it says in the book of Peter that you are blind because you cannot see a far off. You’re blind when you can’t see a far, when you have no vision, you can’t see. Christians, it’s talking about Christian believers who are blind.

Do you know the scripture talks about people that are asleep, awake, out of sleep. The Bible talks about that. Now go back there to the book of Matthew, chapter 21. There’s a little bit of something else here just to see very quickly. And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, remember this is where they were headed, and were come to bephage unto the Mount of Olives. Then sent Jesus, how many? How many didn’t mama come to see him about two?

And then we had two blind people. You know, there might be a lesson and then all these twos. He had a job that needed to be done. I believe he’s still given a lesson in humility. Send them to them. Go into the village over against you and straight way ye shall find an ass tied in a cold weather. Loose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say, out unto you ye shall say, the Lord hath need of them and straight way he will send them.

Then all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. Now, this is mentioned in the book of Zachariah chapter 9 and verse 9. Somebody, somebody has to go get the donkey. Somebody has to get the donkey. Now, there were 12 disciples. Who do you think those two disciples probably were that had to go get the donkeys? Now, it does doesn’t say here, but there’s a little, you know, yank-yology, dannology, that you might imagine, I wonder who had to go get the donkey.

That you might think, you know, Jesus, you want me to do what? Go get a dirty, stinking donkey? You know how stubborn those things are? You know how smelly they are? You want me to do that? Hey, I’m the one that’s supposed to sit on the right hand and the left hand. Remember? I want you to go get me a donkey. Do you know there’s a lot of Christians that are too proud to go get the donkey? But you want a lesson in humility.

Sometimes you’ll find it by the people who are willing to do. Sometimes the lowest jobs. Don’t think it’s too good and too big. You know who I am. I don’t have to do something like that. When I finished Bible College in 1968, I was out there in Colorado and we had developed this nasty habit of eating and we needed a job. I needed some money. You know what I had to do? I had to get me a job pounding pallets in King Super’s warehouse.

in the middle of the night. Oak, nail, hammer. Boink! You ever tried to drive a nail through, Oak, all night long. And I had to do this job. And you’d be surprised. Did you always hit the nail? Yeah? Yeah, I hit it all right. And I would think to myself, self, you went four years to Bible college to do this in the middle of the night. But I didn’t make enough money so I had to start a paper route.

I worked throwing newspapers at 3.30 in the morning. And many times Betty would go with me. And she was going to have a young man and that’s a wild story. I need to have her come up here one of the time and tell you some stories. And she’s throwing newspapers out of the car. I was so good I could drive that Volkswagen had the back seat rolled up with all those newspapers in it and I could reach over and get a newspaper and I drive down the street and I was good I could I could ring the doorbell.

I did. And sometimes I threw it under the car. the roof. But man left hand I got good. But I had to do whatever it takes. And then we even got to where I had to have a little bit more money. So Don Jackson who had a turkey farm. Me and Betty would go and work at the turkey farm. And Betty would reach in there and pull out all those guts out of those turkeys. I was out there in the back putting them on this little hook and I had an electric knife and I would take their head and they’d look at you.

And I would touch the back of their head and once you did they would freeze. But in fact the electric knife ever slipped off. That thing was jumping and kicking and it was going to nail you. And so I had to slide around there just right, put a little pressure on his head, back into the middle of the neck, cut it. And I would kill thousands upon thousands. When I was at Florida Bible College, I had a job as a hired killer.

And when I went to Colorado, I was still a hired killer. But I would think and that blood would splash all over me and that sometimes that thing would kick me upside the head and the rings, I mean, I mean beat me and I couldn’t breathe the dust in that thing and I had to say to do that all day. You know what I thought about God? Do you know who I am? Don’t you realize I got a four-year college degree?

You know what I noticed the other night. Well it was really more than just one night but watching some of these people in vacation Bible school and here’s Tracy over here and they made a waterfall I I mean, they did all this stuff because they wanted to make an impact. And they had kids working, and Jesse had some of these teenagers over here working, had about, I don’t know, 10, 12, 15 of them. They came out every night and they worked in help.

Did all these little bitty menial jobs and so forth. I’d go in there to the nursery they had over there and Tracy had a bunch of these ladies that ran in there doing these craft things. I thought, who in the world wants to do that? It was for those little kids, but they would do whatever little job that had to be done. And then I went back to the back and I saw, there’s Peter back here cooking. Hey, Peter, why?

He’s the dean of a Bible college. Peter O’Mottle, why he’s the choir director. Why Peter O’Mottle, he sings on radio and internet. Do you know who he is? He was back there cooking so those little kids could have something to eat. He made hot dogs and pork and beans like you never tasted in your life. But he takes pride in his work. And I looked over there and I thought, Ryan, what in the world are you doing? Ryan is in here cooking.

Ryan, that great man up there in the upper room doing this videoing for us is over there Cooking! My wife has never yet seen me cook. I can’t even boil water.” And I thought that stuff he’s putting on. I says, what is that paint? He says, it’s icing. Oh. And he was putting this blue stuff all over these cakes that he had made. He made little cupcakes and all that stuff with the little kids. And they was over here the next day cleaning up, all this dirty work that has to be done.

And no, nobody gets a kick out of pushing a broom, cleaning the floors, cleaning the table, washing the dishes. You think of all those little things that somebody has to do that. Does somebody has to go get the donkey? Somebody has to get the donkey. Why was getting the donkey so important? Because in the Old Testament, Zachariah chapter nine, verse nine says, when Jesus comes in Jerusalem, he’s going to be riding upon a what? a donkey. Did Jesus need the donkey?

He needed that little job. Does somebody have to go get the donkey? There’s some people that I’m above that. I came in here the other day. And I looked down to there and he didn’t see me, but I looked down to there and Peter is in here vacuuming in this whole church. He’s in here vacuuming the church. Why is he doing that? Because it’s a job that needs to be done. It’s a job that needs to be done. Because if there’s not enough people to help do something, it just means more for somebody else to do, but it still has to be done, doesn’t it?

You know, there’s some people are waiting, well, when God calls me to do something really important, I’m ready. Buddy, whenever he calls me to do something really big, you might as well forget it, because he that is faithful in that which is little will be faithful in that which is much. And if you can’t do the lowest job, God doesn’t need you to do the highest job, and it won’t work. It won’t happen. If you humble yourself to do what God wants you to do, you’d be surprised.

And here’s all these ladies who was back there helping and teaching and doing what they could do. And don’t you know they did a lot of work, a lot of work, a lot of planning, had a lot of vision and then it rained, and then it rained, and rained, and rained. It hurt the visitation, but they still went and did it. And it hurt on that Sunday afternoon because of all the rain that there’s been, but we still had it.

The next night, Monday night was rained out. Couldn’t even have it. All that work that they’ve been. Now listen, does that mean that they worked and labored in vain? No, because you’re rewarded by God because of your faithfulness to the Lord. Because when you submit yourself, you’re not responsible for the results of however somebody was you can’t be in control. We’re not in control of the weather. God is and God knew that but God is blessed and He is pleased.

I believe God is pleased when we do that which pleases Him and people have done a lot of little things that pleases the Lord and I believe that’s a sign of greatness. A sign of greatness is a person who’s humble to do whatever it is they can do for the Lord. And so you may not get to do this job, but look, what about this job? Did you know that those guys that stand back there and they kind of work a little bit and stand back there in a garden protecting and so and watch the parking lot and so forth.

Do you think that’s an important thing? Do you think that one little job that he sets up there and goes to sleep, he eats his pizza up there while we’re down here? Do you think that’s still an important job? That’s an important job. He’s the only person who can sneak and get away with all that and we don’t even know it. But those are important. What about those guys that came here for an hour or so early, stayed later, and they was out here directing the traffic and trying to let people know and trying to keep things down so people know it’s safe.

But look, those guys where they needed is an important. Somebody has to go and bring the donkeys. Somebody has to do that little bit of job that maybe we don’t do, but hey, you want to rule with the Lord that day’s coming. Where if you’ll do what you can, where you are, with what you have, you’d be surprised how pleased God will be. And isn’t that really what it’s about pleasing the Lord? And if you please Him, you ought to be satisfied.

And when you get to heaven, God’s going to say, well done, God, God in faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord. And God pictures that as an eternal pleasure, according to Psalm 16, eternal pleasure where we’re going to be. We’re not there yet, but we should serve the Lord because we believe. We got confidence. Now what God’s word says that it is true. Who are those two disciples? It could have been Louis and Al Marshall working back there with those kids while everybody else enjoys this.

You know that’s work. That’s sacrifice. Think about this. Have you ever sacrificed for the Lord? Really sacrifice. Give up something that cost you for the Lord. You do it for Him. Look up here. If you’re watching by internet tonight, maybe you have never heard the gospel before. I want you to listen for the next two minutes. Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God says that He loves us.

He hates our sin, but He loves us. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. But God loves us. Doesn’t want us to be separated from Him. God wants us to go to heaven, and to go to heaven you have to be perfect as righteous as God. None of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. But God says you can’t save yourself. Letting this hand represent 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. And the Bible says that it pleased God to lay all these sins up on His Son. He was pleased to bruise him, because he knew the results would be that you and I would have an opportunity to accept this payment, to go to heaven. That’s why it was so important and so pleasing to the Lord. And whenever Jesus made that statement in John 1431, that the world may know that I love the Father.

That’s why I do what I do. And I do always those things that please Him. And it pleased the Father for the Son to die. And you, by accepting this, are satisfied. That’s why we don’t try to earn our way to heaven because we’re satisfied with what Christ did. I don’t have to add to it. It is finished. And all I had to do was believe that He did it for me and He would give me eternal life and I’d go to heaven on what Christ did for me.

Let’s pray, shall we? With his bow knife closed and no one looked around. Thank for a moment. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust him right now? Would you just say something simple like this, just between you and the Lord? Lord I know I’m a sinner and I believe when you died you died for me. And tonight I trust you as my Savior. And if you will trust him, he will save you and give eternal life.

that are watching by internet right there on the screen. You can click it and let us know. Yes, I believe that. I will trust Christ tonight as my Savior. If you’ve already trusted Lord, you don’t have to do it. But it just lets us know that somebody trusts the Lord. For you that are here in the auditorium, you’ve already trusted the Lord. Do you always seek to do those things that plays the Lord. Seek to please Him. You can’t do it like Jesus, but we ought to seek to please Him.

Humble yourself to do whatever God wants. Don’t be so prideful. Submit yourself to Him. You be surprised the doors that God may open up when you’re willing to do the littlest of jobs. Somebody has to get the donkey. Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. Thank you for the message of the night to help us understand that even though we may be very desirous of great honor and prestige, Father, we know that the way up is down to submit ourselves here in this lifetime to your will and trust you in Christ’s name we pray.

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 Manual. 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.