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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.

Turn in your Bible to the book of 1 Peter and chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5. five. And you’ll notice in verse one where he says, the elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, when he came the first time on the cross. And also he says here, and also a part of the glory that shall be revealed. See, one day Christ is going to come back, reveal, revelation, power, great glory.

And if you have suffered with Christ, you’re going to rule with Christ. He is going to honor you. If any man served me, him will my Father honor. You just haven’t been there yet. You haven’t seen it yet. But if he came the first time, just like he said, do you believe he’s going to lie to us about the second time, you are going to be so glad that you took God at His word and believed Him, and you served the Lord.

Now look in verse 4, and when the chief shepherd, you ought to underline those two little words in your Bible, shall appear, shall appear. But also look what He says here in chapter four and verse 13. We were in chapter five, just a minute ago. And in chapter four, he makes a statement. In verse 13, he says, but rejoice in as much as he are partakers of Christ’s sufferings that when his glory shall be what? Reveal, ye may be glad also with what come joy.

So if you suffer for the Lord here, You say, I got dreams and plans and so forth of what I want to do with my life and what I want to be. God says, would you give all that up for me? He says, if you’ll give all that up for me and what I want you to do with your life, he says, you’re going to have exceeding joy. You’re going to be so glad you did with your life what I wanted.

So he says that you may be glad also with exceeding joy. You will be so glad you did it. So what you need to do is transport yourself into the future and realize what you would want. Now go back to earth and get it. If you don’t learn to think this way, you can’t think correctly. And if you don’t think correctly, you can’t live correctly. Well, you can stay out of trouble, pay your bills, all that. God’s not going to reward you because you paid your bills.

What did you do for him? A lost man pays his bills. Well, some of them. Well, there’s some Christians don’t pay theirs either. God’s going to reward you what you did for Him. Do you live for Him for His glory? Now there’s nothing wrong in people bragging on you because of how great you are and you know you know how great you are. And if people can brag on you that’s fine but you always make sure you give the honor and the glory to the Lord.

You brag upon the one who gave it to you. You accomplish anything in life. Thank you Lord. Bragging on God and giving God God glory is always thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Because you realize He gave me life, He gave me opportunities. He gave me a wife, He gave me kids, gave me grandkids, gave me health, He gave me this, He gave me that. Learn to thank you Lord, thank you Lord. You’d be surprised how wonderful it will be.

Because God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want anybody stealing honor from Him. And glory from Him that belongs to Him. You gotta remember. Without the Lord, we are nothing. Without Christ, ye can do nothing. But with the Lord, I can do all things to Christ which strengthens me. This is what he’s talking about. Look what he says down here in verse 10. In verse 10 of chapter 5, he says, but the God of all grace who had called us into his what?

Eternal glory. That means in the future. be in a glorified body to receive the glory of the Lord, that’s going to be awesome. That’s what God has for us. But not only that, look there in chapter 1 of the book of 1 Peter. And look in verse 7. Now you and I, while we’re here, look up here, while we’re still living here, we’re going to have a lot of heartache and trouble. As long as you’re in this physical body, you’ve got problems.

And remember, when you married somebody, you also married their problems. Everybody’s a problem. Have kids, you got problems. Grandkids, a few more problems, but they’re not as bad. Because you can see those problems and love those problems and leave those problems, then anyway. Everybody has problems. But God says this, as He says, in verse seven, that the trial of your faith, your faith is on trial. Now you may have trusted Christ as a Savior. is child you’re going to heaven when you die.

You’re not there yet. But God is putting your faith on trial. Is there going to be enough evidence to convict you? If you had to go to court and they had to put you on a witness stand, is there enough evidence that would be able to convict you of, well, he said he was a Christian, but you know he never lived like it, didn’t talk like it, didn’t act like it. So I don’t, I just don’t believe he is.

In the eyes of people, that’s how judge. God sees your faith. He knows whether you trust Him and save you or not. But the other people don’t. They go about what they see. You and I are being read. People read us. But notice what He says here in verse 7. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than a goal that parishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found on the praise and honor and glory at the peering of Jesus Christ.

Look up here. Down here, everybody wants praise, honor, glory. When you hear about their football team, say the Tampa Buccaneers. Praise, honor, and glory is short lived, isn’t it? Very short. Because see, it’s coming from people and people always are changing. They will give you praise as long as they think you’re worthy of it, but nobody can maintain it forever. So they take it away. Quarterback made three touchdowns. Yay! Great quarterback. He just threw three interceptions. Kill the quarterback.

Wouldn’t it be great when you get to heaven and you did what you did for the Lord? So now when you get to heaven, God’s going to give you praise and honor and glory that will last for all eternity. Can you handle that? So you have a choice. You’re either going to do what you do for the Lord’s glory or for man’s. You’re going to do what you do for man’s praise or God’s. God says you can’t have both.

You’ll either serve God or man. You can’t serve both. That’s why Christ says, you must decide. Do you love me more than anything else in the world? If you don’t, you cannot be my disciple. Because if you’re something that you love more than the Lord, it’ll keep you from giving you all to the Lord. God wants all of us. He wants your body’s soul and spirit. He wants you to love them with all your heart. Now look what he says.

The last part of verse seven, he says, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So there’s a time coming. This is talking about when he comes again at the appearing of Jesus Christ. He’s coming back again. Now do you believe it? I believe it. Now take your Bible and turn over there with me to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews in chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Now some people have a difficult time believing the promise of God. But he does say this and he states it pretty emphatically.

He says here in chapter 10 of Hebrews, look there in verse 37, verse 37, for yet a little while. And he that shall come, you ought to underline those two words. What does it say? He says, you will come. You believe it. Yet a little while. It’s only a little while. He will come. Now you may not know this, but whenever you as a child of God, when you die, Lord could say, I’m coming to get you. And it’s not the rapture.

He’s just coming to get you. Not all of us, you just come in to get you. And what’s interesting is years roll by more and more of these people that I’ve known, these saints have gotten slipped out of this world and gone to heaven to be with the Lord. Now one of these days he’s gonna come back and take a whole bunch of us. Right now he’s just picking certain flowers. After a while he’s gonna come and get the whole flower bed and we’re gonna be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So shall we ever be with the Lord. So he says a little while and he that shall come will come. Look what also he says here. Look there in chapter 10 of Hebrews and look in verse 25, verse 25. The Bible is telling us once again, hey, I’m coming. So what am I supposed to do about that? Well, I want you to look forward to my coming. And so he says this in verse 25, not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.

And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, you can see the day approaching. You can tell we’re getting closer and closer. See, we Christians that believe the Bible believe also the tribulation period. You see, a lot of people think that we’re going to go from here straight to here and that this period of time will never happen, but it will happen. We won’t be here, we will be up in heaven, and then we’ll come back with Christ.

But this is coming right ahead of us. And when you understand what’s going to happen in this tribulation period, you should let us know that this day is fast approaching because the Bible describes about Russia going to come against Israel from the North. They’re moving into Syria. The Bible talks about some of the nations that are aligned themselves with Russia. The Bible talks about a one-world government, a one-world religion, about a kingdom that’s going to come on the world scene and chop off a lot of people’s heads.

Read chapter 20 of the book of Revelation. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded. So this is going to happen during this period of time. And the Bible says it will wax worse and worse and worse. Does America get more godly or more worldly? We’re losing it. And we’re the last stronghold on the face of this earth and preserving any amount of freedom anywhere in the world. And what if America goes down? So you can see why God says, as you see the day of Prossian, don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

I’ve had people say, well, I’ll go to church whenever I want. That’s okay, good. You probably will go whenever you want. Some people won’t come unless six people bring them. Right down the middle of the aisle and now I have the casket laying right here. And that’s when some of the people will come. But see, why do you go to church? Why do you gather together and believe it? Because God said to do it. Why do I lay on the first day of the week, according to what I’m supposed to give?

Because God said do it. Why do I witness because God said do it? Why do I pray? Because God says do it. Why do I read my Bible? God says do it. Now if you don’t get what God says, it doesn’t matter what you do. live any way you please do whatever you want to do. But if God makes a difference in your life, then it should change everything in your life. It’ll affect your life. But nobody can make God real to you.

He’s more real to me than the clothes I’ve got on my back. Now here in Hebrews, he’s talking about this time that he’s going to come. Now, turn into chapter 9 of Hebrews. And you’ll notice this is there’s three times in chapter 9 that he talks about appearing. One past, one present, and one future. You see up there in verse 24, for Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the truth, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God.

See the next two words? For us. You see, when He came to the earth here, died on the cross, He emptied himself, he poured out his blood and took it to heaven and placed it upon the mercy seat in heaven. Now why did he do that for us? He had incorruptible blood. You see, he died and paid for all the sins of all the world and he went to appear in heaven for you and me. The payment has been made, the Father has been satisfied, and God wants you to accept the payment God’s pleased with.

If you try to offer God your good life, your good works, you know, I went to church, I sung the choir, I was a deacon, I was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, God says, that’s no good. The only thing He wants is that incorruptible blood sacrifice. So when you accept Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins, then he appeared and done that for you and for me. See everybody gets to heaven the same way. There’s no two ways of salvation.

God says, for by grace are you saved. Grace means unmerited. Grace means no works. It’s the gift of God not off works. The only way you can change grace into something else, you have to add something to it. The only thing you can add to grace is works. And grace and works don’t work. So look what he says here. You’ll also notice down here in verse 26, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world, half he appeared, past tense, appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, not yours.

You didn’t sacrifice anything to get to heaven. You didn’t do anything to get to go to heaven. He did. He paid for my sins so that I wouldn’t have to pay for them. Now all I had to do was believe it. I told the men yesterday, I says, do you understand what I’m saying? He said, yes, I said, can you handle it? And he’s, I can handle it. I said, if you trust Christ right now, God gives you right now what?

Eternal life. If it’s eternal life, how long would it last? Forever. It lasts forever. And all you send are paid. Wherever did you go when you die? He said, go to heaven. The best news of the world. Now look down to verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the centimane, and unto them that, get this, look for Him. Look for Him. Shall He appear the second time without sin on the salvation? He’s coming back again. The Bible promises that.

I believe it, and therefore I want to live in such a way that I will not be ashamed before Him at His coming. Now look there in the book of Titus. The book of Titus, just turn back to your left. book of Titus in chapter 2. Titus in chapter 2. You’ll notice there in verse 11 where it makes the statement for the grace of God that bring of salvation. Now what brings salvation? Grace or works. Salvation comes by grace.

Salvation does not come by works. No man has ever been saved because of how good he lives. God never saved a man because he went to church, he read his Bible, he sung in the choir, he done, no man’s ever been saved by his good deeds. God can only save a man by grace. That’s why I say for by grace, or you say it means it’s unmerit, it means it’s undeserved, you don’t deserve it. I’m going to heaven, not because I deserve it, But because I don’t deserve it.

And yet you ask most people, you know, good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. Because good people deserve to go to heaven and bad people, you know deserve to go to hell. But the only problem is there are no good people. All have sinned. We’re all sinners. He died to pay for our sins. And so he says this, after you trust Christ as your Savior, in verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness worldly lust, we should, should.

You don’t have to, but you should. Should a Christian live, Godly? Yes. Soberly? Oh, yes. Righteously? Oh, yes. When? In this present world. See, we’re right here. This is our present world. This is the one that you should have to come. how we live here. Your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. What rewards you’re going to have for all eternity in the position of serving the Lord is being determined by your obedience to God today.

So does that mean that today must be important? And most Christians are going to throw it all away, because they won’t believe it. Some people have trusted Christ to save it, they’ll never witness. They won’t pray for anybody. They don’t give to keep the radio on the air or the the internet working or for college kids or anything else. It’s just me and that’s all my life revolves on is me. And in some people, they’ll sacrifice everything. Now, when they get to heaven, do you think that who won and who lost?

Who are you hurting when you’re stingy and selfish? Who you hurting? You’re hurting yourself, but not just for a moment, for eternity. So you go to heaven because that’s grace. But rewards, those are earned, but he says, why are you looking for him to come? This is how I want you to live. Look what he says here in verse 13. Looking, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ. Does the Bible say just about every book we look at?

Jesus is coming, hey, Jesus is coming. You believe this? Jesus is coming. I believe He’s coming. And so because I believe He’s coming, I want to be like Paul. I want to fight a good fight. I want to keep the faith. So look there in this closing portion of Scripture, 2 Timothy and chapter 4. Chapter 4, you’ll notice in verse 1 where it says, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, the living and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom.

Do you believe he’s going to appear? He says he is. What about the kingdom? It’s coming. Everything he promises is going to happen just like he said. We should believe it. So he makes a statement down in verse seven, I have fought a good fight, finished my course. I have kept the faith. In other words, just teaching on the Jesus coming again really motivated the Apostle Paul. And because of that, he says in verse 8, I’m going to get something, but not only me.

Henceforth, there’s laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, not to me only, but unto all then that love his appearing. See, not everybody loves the Lord. So you’re not going to heaven because you love God. You go to heaven because God loves you. Then whenever you start reading a little bit and studying a little bit and you find out how good God is, how gracious God is.

And what does my Heavenly Father want His child to do with His life? There’s a possibility that the more you know about Him, you’ll fall in love with Him. Your love will grow and it’ll bound. And you want to please your heavenly Father. The longer I live, I’ve got a lot of good people on the other side. I’ve got a lot of treasure up there. I’ve got a few people down here. I’ve got some up there. So I have a desire to go and I’ve got a desire to stay.

Like Paul says, it’s more needful for you than I stay here for you. So that’s what I keep telling myself. I’m here for you. But God knows my heart and I’m afraid to say it. I’m afraid to say it. But as he says here in his word, those that love his appearing. So if you’re looking for him, like I can’t wait for the Lord to come back, God’s gonna give you something. Because you see, every man that has this hope in him purifies his life.

Now nobody can make you do that. Nobody can make you live godly. But if you’re a child of God, don’t you think you ought to act like it? Talk like it, talk like it, live like it. Like you really believe it, that it’s real. Did you know that that will help you more than anything else in this world? Let me show you a illustration. Just thought of this. Letting this hand represent you and me. The wall it represents sin.

We all have sin on us. God loves us. Now he hates our sin, but he loves us. But for us to pay for sin and the wages of sin is death, We all are condemned. We’re all guilty. We’re all gonna die. But the Bible says that if we wanna go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. But none of us are perfect. None of us are good enough. There’s only one that’s good and that’s God.

So God says you cannot save yourself. That’s why no man can save himself. It’s not by works of righteousness that we do. So this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So what Christ did for one person, He did for the whole world. He took all the sin and paid for it on the cross. Came back from the dead and said that if we would believe it, if you’ll believe that He did it for you, He puts that payment on the cross.

He puts that payment to your account. You go to heaven. Oh, what he did. You don’t go to heaven on what you do. You don’t go to heaven because you promise God how you’re going to live. Because how you live has nothing to do with going to heaven. It’s the gift of God not of works. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast.

Salvation going to heaven is free. And if you trust Christ as your Savior today, then God would give you eternal life today. And that payment he made is put to your account, you have no sins to pay for. They’re all paid. You say, what about what I do tomorrow? Paid. What about next week? Paid. What you don’t deserve that. That’s what we’re talking about. You don’t deserve it. Never have, never will. You didn’t deserve it before. Your good works back there don’t matter, and the sins afterwards don’t matter concerning your destination.

But as a child of God you have a choice. You’ve been obedient child of God, disobedient child of God, but you’re still his child. If you’re an obedient child and you’re looking for the Lord and you’re one of the bless your life here and reward you when you get to heaven, then God says if you’ll serve him, go bless you. He says Because if you’re a disobedient child, rebayous, you don’t live your own life, go your own way, do your own thing, you’re still this child.

But he’s going to chase it and discipline you. And God always chases and disciplines, not out of anger, not out of punishment, not out of wrath, but out of love, because you’re his child. And God wants you to love him, not because you have to, but because you want to. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around If you hear this morning and you never trusted Christ as your Savior Would you just talk to the Lord and say Lord?

I know I’m a sinner. I Know I’ve done things wrong. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. I realize that now and I believe that when you died you died for me and Today right now I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior friend if you’ve never done that would you trust him right now? Don’t you want to go to heaven when you die One day Jesus is coming just like he said. So we hit bow nice clothes. I’m not going to have you forward, not getting embarrassed, but right where you are.

So yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior and preach. I love you to pray for me. We just let be in it very quickly, but right back down. I’m not going to have you forward, not going to embarrass you. You don’t want it all to slip it up, but right back down. That means yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior right now. You’re watching my internet right there on the screen. you’re on the screen. You can say, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior, and I pray that you will.

Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for this day. We’re thankful, Lord, that you came the first time. We also know that you’ll come back again the second time. We’re asking your blessings upon us. Help us to do the things that you want us to do. Not because we have to, but because we want to. Thank you so much for your word 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 Main.

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.