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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 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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to talk to you about something found in the book of John, the gospel of John. So you’ve got a Bible and if you’ll take the Bible and turn to the Gospel of John. And while you’re there, go to chapter 11. That sounds like a good chapter. Don’t it sound like a good chapter to go to? It starts off with the resurrection of Lazarus. It’d been sick, but then he died. And he was raised from the dead. The Israel as a nation had, well I guess spiritually they were dead, and the Son of God came to his own but his own received them not, but they wouldn’t come back from the dead.

They didn’t want nothing to do with him, the leaders, the rulers, scribes, fair season on. But I want you to look there in verse 45 because I believe that as we head into the next chapters You’ll see that there’s a story that’s we through here that I think is very, very good. And verse 45, he says, then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on him. But some of them went their way to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done.

And when they heard it, they were just so excited and so glad. And they were willing to accept Jesus with open arms. Now he came to his own, but his own did not receive him, he was rejected. See, he came to the nation of Israel, made a legitimate offer as the king of Israel, and the people did not accept him, he was rejected. So you have many of the things that Christ said and did that were about the kingdom upon the earth.

So when you read the book of Matthew, you’re studying a book about the king and his kingdom constitution. How he’s going to set up his kingdom? That’s mainly what the Olivet Discourse is about. You see him picking his cabinet and laying down things that he’s going to do in his kingdom and told them that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of Pharisees you shall in no wise enter to the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven was the kingdom that was God was going to set up upon the earth.

And so in Matthew you have it where they came and wanted to know where is he that is born king of the Jews. So you look and mark the Bible talks about Mark, picture in Jesus Christ as a great servant. And so he was the king but yet he was a servant. And when you study the book of Mark, almost every verse starts off with immediately or straight away, he was always going, going, going, going. And when you come to the book of Luke, it pictures Jesus Christ as the perfect man, as the ox, as the perfect man.

Mark pictured him as the servant, Luke as the man, and talks a lot about his birth and so forth, and his genealogy and why he was able to claim the throne of Israel. Even though Matthew pictures Jesus Christ and gives a genealogy that he also through that line could claim the throne but because of a curse put upon the line he wasn’t able to but through Mary and through Nathan he was able to claim the throne. And then you have the gospel of John that pictures Jesus Christ as God himself.

So though he was king, he was a servant, and though he was a man, he was God. So Jesus Christ was the perfect God man. And so here in the gospel of John, he came and he made a legitimate offer for the kingdom. And whenever they rejected him as been their king, then you’ll see a shift in the direction of what Jesus begins to talk about. There’s that shift here in chapter 11 of the book of John. So there in verse 47, he says, then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees at council and said, said, what do we for this man do it many miracles?

If we let him alone, all men will believe on him. Wouldn’t that have been a shame? We let him alone. Everybody’s going to believe on him and then get the rest of it. And the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation. And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year said unto them, You know nothing at all. Nor consider that it is expedient for us that get this. Now, there’s a couple of good statements he makes here.

I don’t really know if he understood the depth of what he was saying and whether he was just referring to, you know, Barabbas. But he says in verse 50, Nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not. Now there’s more here than I’m going to get into tonight. Verse 5 to 1, and this spake he not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation and get the rest part of it, and not for that nation only.

Now the Calvinists would have problem even with this. But he says, and that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth, they took counsel together, put him to death. And in verse 54, Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews. Things begin to change. He began to spend more time with his disciples and teaching and preparing them because the kingdom was going to be postponed. He said the hour has come, he’s going to the cross.

So everything begins to change a little bit. So in John chapter 12, in verse 1, then six days before the Passover, he came to Bethany. Then down in verse 7, talks about, let her alone, she’s prepared me for the burial. So now we’re getting into the preparation for Jesus going to be crucified, preparation for His death, for His burial. And so He goes into here and He says some mighty wonderful things about being lifted upon the cross. And if you look there in chapter 12, you’ll notice what He says here in verse 31, now is the judgment of this world.

Now shall the prince of this world be cast down. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men on the mean. This, he said, signifying what death he should die, that he’s going to die by being lifted up, he’ll be placed on the cross, and that death was going to be the good news for every man for whom he died. So this was good news to all the world. Remember whenever he was born into the world and this is the Savior and joy to the whole world because he died for everyone in the world.

So talks about he was the light of the world and when you and I trust him as our Savior we become the lights in the world. And he was taken from this world and left some lights here. So you and I are supposed to have this message about what Christ has done for us to share with everyone. But look there in verse 46, I am come a light into the world. The whosoever, that’s an open invitation to anyone, whosoever, believe it on me, should not abide in darkness.

It means you won’t abide in a lost world, in a lost state. You’ll have the free gift of everlasting life and know that you’re going to heaven. But he talks about those who reject Him. You see what he says in verse 47, and if any man hear my words and believe not, so a man can hear the word and believe not. Well, there are some people who say, well, you couldn’t have believed anyway because God didn’t give you the faith.

Now that is Aaronius teaching. He says, you can hear his word, I judge him not for I come not to judge the word but to save the world. He that rejected me and received, if not my words, although he doesn’t have a choice. No, it means he can hear the word and believe and hear the word and not believe. And so the Lord has laid it out for us real nice and pretty. He’s coming into the world to down the cross, pay for the sins of the world.

And those who believe would be children of light, have eternal life and go to heaven when they die. John chapter 13, John chapter 13 begins the upper room discourse. This is where he has his disciples and begins to teach and to train them from chapter 13 to chapter 17 about, I believe, what’s going to take place and their ministry during the church age. because this will start on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit, He promised, would come. He promised that in chapter 14.

Talking about the Holy Spirit will come and it’s not because anyone prayed except the Lord. He says, and I will send him and he will be a comforter and he shall be with you and shall be in you for a reason. So for the last 2000 years, there’s some lessons in between chapter 13 and chapter 17 that helps us to understand what the Christian life is really about. So in John chapter 13, he even talks about the one that’s going to betray him, but he knows those who do believe on him.

You see, God knows every one of his children. He knows every person that’s in the church. He knows those who have believed and those who have not truly truly trusted him. So he knows the real genuine Christian. And who is a genuine Christian? It’s one who has trusted Jesus Christ as the Savior to take him to heaven whenever they die. Someone that’s not trusting in their works but only in what Christ did on the cross for them. You’ve been born into God’s family.

You have the free gift of everlasting life. So when you go through do here, you find some things that are mentioned, that after you trust the Lord, you know you have eternal life. God wants us to serve Him. And He even made the statement in chapter 12, that if any man will serve me, Him will my Father honor. So now He’s talking to them about how they are to serve. And so He gives them a great illustration about washing the feet.

So he gets down there and he actually, and he washes their feet because they were always concerned about who’s going to be the greatest in the kingdom. And some people were a little upset because of that. And even mama got involved and she came and says, I want one of my sons to sit on this side and one of my sons to sit on this side. And Jesus says, that’s not mine to give. And so the day will come when everything will work out the way it should.

But if you want to be greatly used by God and you want a position in the kingdom of some prominence, God says, serve me now. Serve me now. And you can’t serve God without serving people. Most people think that Christian life is trying to get people to serve them. Make me happy. Please me. do whatever I want.” And it’s just the opposite. He said, he came not to be ministered unto but to minister, to give his life a ransom for all.

He says, serving is what I want you to do, learning how to give your life up for somebody else. And giving someone your life is giving somebody your time. You may have your own purpose and plans and goals in life, but you give up that in order to do what God wants you to do. And you give up your time and time is very precious. And the older you get the more precious it is, but it seemed like the more precious it is, the more people who want some of the time.

It’s like a man who is very rich and people want to get more of his money. And a person who has knowledge and wisdom from the Word of God, people want more and more of his time. But you’re running out of time. So as you grow in the Lord you’re growing in value and wisdom, things that God can use because you have more knowledge and experience that God can use. The last thing you want to do is grow old and not be used.

Someone that God just takes and puts on his shelf. You want the Lord to be able to use you all the days of your life. So he says, now I’m washing your feet and what I’m doing right now you don’t really understand. Now if If it was just washing feet, they saw that. They saw he’s washing feet. They knew what he was doing. But there was more to it than that, that he wanted them to understand. And about giving your time and giving your life for the value of someone else.

That you are seeking the profit of someone else. You want them to profit. You want them to gain. And so he says here in verse 17, looking verse 17 of chapter 13, if you know these things. Happy your ye if you know them. Is that what it said? Happy your ye if you what? If you do them. You see, you may know the will of God. That doesn’t mean a cotton picking thing if you won’t do it. I know the Bible.

I know the Bible. Yeah, but if you don’t live the Bible, you don’t know the Bible. You don’t know the Bible until the Bible controls your life. And the Bible doesn’t control your life. You don’t know the book. And the joy, as he says, John makes a statement in one of his little books that he wrote and said out there, John, he said, I have no greater joy than they see that my children walk in truth. But if you don’t have any children that you’ve led to Christ and you never trained anybody to walk in truth, you can’t know that joy.

I have no greater joy than this than the the people I’ve won the Christ serving God. So that means that if you don’t do that, then there’s a joy you have never had and you will not have it. So you’ve eliminated something because you didn’t give the time to it. Maybe you didn’t take the time to learn. And if you didn’t know it, you didn’t take the time to share it. So there’s things that we can think about. But he says, I’m telling you these things in advance so that when it happens, you’ll know that I told you so.

Now you get to chapter 14 and as we live our Christian life, since I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior 55 years ago, my Father-in-law passed on another truth to me and that truth was Jesus is coming soon and that was 55 years ago and he’s coming any day now and I have lived every day in 55 years looking for Jesus to come again and what does he do here in John chapter 14? He says, let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God? Believe also in me. He says, in my father’s house or many mansions and if it was not true I would told you so. He says, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. But he didn’t tell him when he’s coming. I could say this is talking about at the end of the tribulation period, but I believe it’s probably talking about the church when he’s coming back for his children.

He said, I’m going to prepare a place for you on my comeback and get you and take you there. Now, at the the end of the tribulation period, he doesn’t take them there because he’s coming down here and his feet touches upon the Mount of Olives and he sets up his kingdom upon the year. But when he comes for the church, he’s coming back and will be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And he says, I am the way. I’m the truth in the life. And this is the knowledge that we’re supposed to take in the meantime, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Abide in him, abide in him. So when you get to chapter 15 and he keeps talking about abide, abide, abide. But then you go all the way over there to the book of 1 John that he also wrote and he says abide in him little children that when he shall appear we may have commonness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

So we’re to live our life in this last 2000 years looking for Jesus to come back at any time. He says, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also. And this is every one of God’s children. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, we don’t look for the undertaker. We’re looking for the upper taker. We believe that the Lord is coming back and going to take us out of this world.

Now, you also noticed there in John chapter 14, he says, I’m going to in verse 16, I’m going to ask the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. This is two believers. You see, these verses that we’re talking about, this is to the believers. It hasn’t happened yet because Christ has not yet been crucified, Christ has not yet come back from the dead, He has not yet ascended to the Father. The Holy Spirit has not yet come, but the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost.

Fifty days from the resurrection of Christ came right on schedule. And so we find here in John chapter 14, He says, I am going to give you another comforter. That he may abide with you forever. Wouldn’t it be nice if I had trusted Christ as my Savior and Jesus appeared right there beside me? He says, now Yankee, I am going to walk with you everywhere you go. I’m going to be right here with you. So wherever you go, I’m right here with you.

And I’ll never leave you and never forsake you. Now I wouldn’t know if that would be good news or bad news. So then I’d really have to watch everything that I said and did and wherever I went, right? Because he’s right there with me. I mean flesh and blood, he’s staying right there with me. So that would be scary enough. But then lo and behold Peter over here trusts Christ as a Savior, but Jesus can’t go with him because he, I’ve already got him.

I got him. Peter didn’t get him because he’s limited to a body. Then the next day he knew you’d want him. Traces would know he’s got to go with me. No, no, no, no, no. He promised me first. So there’d be bloodshed among the brethren. Well, Jesus says, I’m gonna send you someone just like me. And He will dwell within you, and He’ll never leave you, never forsake you. You’ll be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now, Jesus says, I’m gonna ask the Father, and He is going to send to you the Holy Spirit.

So you and I received the Holy Spirit when we trust Christ as our Savior. Isn’t that wonderful? Now hold your place right here and just look there in John chapter seven. John chapter seven and look in verse 39. I think in verse 37, we’ll start in verse 37. We’re in verse 37, it says, in that last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried. So in if any man thirst let it come into me and drink and as the scripture have set out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive.” Now look at the next part of that verse. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified. He has not yet died and come back from the dead. He says, when I leave you, I’m going to send him. So he left here after his resurrection And then the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, right on schedule. And so we know that He came, and that’s when the church age began.

So we know these scriptures here must be, and have to be talking to the church age people. Because as far as the nation of Israel, as a nation, they had washed their hands of it. Wanting nothing to do with it. So now it’s individuals. So he was commanding the Christians. They go into all the world and preach the gospel to every one of us. And then he tells it that this is how I want you to tell him. So when he says and teach them all things which I have commanded you, well these are those commands that he gave.

He didn’t give them on that day when he gave the great commission or the great compassion but he did give them in John chapter 13 through 17. 17. And because this is why he says here. Now look up there in verse 15 where he says, if he loved me, keep my commandment. This is not talking about the 10 commandments. This is a command where Jesus says, I love you and I want you to love others. And so if you’ll just hold your place there in chapter 14, look in chapter 15 and notice what he says in verse 10, If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.

That’s how you abide in his love by loving others the way God wants us to. Even as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. So you have been placed into the love of God. When you accepted Christ as your Savior, you are receiving God’s love. There are people who reject God’s love. Jesus Christ died on the cross with God’s God’s way of saying, I love you. Christ paying for all of my sins is God’s way of sin.

I love you. Him not sending me to hell when I deserve to go to hell is God’s way of sin. I love you. So he loved me and he says, now, if I believe that he loved me, then he gives me eternal life as a gift and I become his child. Now as a child of God, God wants me to love because I have been loved. He wants me to forgive because I have been forgiven. So we have a choice.

And some of God’s children will and some of God’s children will not. So He makes a statement there in verse 11, these things I have spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be formed. This is my commandment that you love one another. So it’s not talking about the 10 commandments of the law. This is talking about I want you if you love me. I’m telling you, love others, love one another. And by this shall all men know you are my disciples because love one another.

Wouldn’t it be great if everybody just loved everybody? If you loved everybody, you see you don’t steal from them, you don’t lie about them, you don’t cheat them, you don’t harm them. You don’t have to. If love rules, you don’t need laws. Our Congress doesn’t understand. Our legislators don’t know. understand. It’s see they cannot legislate total morality from the people who have a sinful nature. They’re trying to strap them down because it’s sinful nature so they can’t move and do anything wrong.

And you have to take away all their rights. Why don’t you give them something that helps to control and restrain the old sinful nature that lives inside of them? And you say well what’s that? Christ. That’s why every kid in public school, every person in any institution of learning, everybody in government, everybody needs Christ. There is no control of the Old Sin Phonation outside of the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s not there. Can’t be done. That’s why even with a wonderful nation like America in capitalism, even those people who promised that kind of work and they work hard and they make money, they’re stealing most people blind.

People in stocks and bonds, it’s always about how to get rich quick and get something. And you’ve got to take it from somebody before they take it from you. Do unto others and then split. Do unto others before they do unto you. I don’t think they get it quite right. But in John chapter 14 he says I’m gonna send the Holy Spirit. See they’re in verse 26, but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, which is the Father whom the Father was sent in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to you remember and swatcha wherever I have said unto you.

Now of course he’s talking about these things that he’s told his disciples once the Holy Spirit and while they can recall all the details and all the information that they needed in order that they might write what God wanted in the right and they wrote what God told them the right. They didn’t make it up. No, the Holy Spirit can reveal. And you and I are supposed to believe that once we’ve trusted Christ as our Savior and we’ve studied the Word of God, we can trust and depend upon the Holy Spirit of God to bring things to our remembrance, to help us to make wise decision.

And when sinners entice the consent thou not, I die words in my heart that I might not sin against God. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The entrance of thy word given land. We’re supposed to know those things and remember them. 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 4081 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.