This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn in your Bible through the book of John 14. The gospel of John 14. Have you ever wondered with all the things that were facing the Lord, you know, he knew the cross was right ahead of him. He had said many times, my hour is not yet come. My hour is not yet come. Then he made the statement, the hour has come. And he’m talking to his disciples and knowing what was coming down the road, and he’s trying to comfort them.

Can you believe that? He’s trying to comfort them. And he was concerned about them being afraid, of them not having joy, them having sorrow and a little grief. And here’s the Lord trying to cheer them up. And he knows what they’re fixing to do to him. Isn’t that awesome? That is awesome. So here in the Gospel of John in chapter 14, look in verse one, because of Christ coming into the world, We know that He came for a reason, and that was to get us to be with Him.

And so whatever it took, He was willing to do. And so the only way we can get to be with the Lord is that we’d have to be as righteous, as perfect, as holy as God Himself. Because see, God is, well, He’s not going to let any sin into heaven. He doesn’t have it in His presence. So we have a serious problem, and He took care of that. So look there in verse 1 of chapter 14, let not your heart be troubled.

Evidently it was. He’s talking to his disciples and they were very concerned because he’d made some statements that would shake most people. And I guess some of the things they didn’t really understand, they kind of whirl around some of these things that he had said in their minds and they just didn’t get all of it, but they knew something was up, something’s wrong, and they were sorrowful about it. So he says, you believe in God, believe also in me.

In other words, trust me, trust me, trust me. Just trust me. Well, that was kind of rough for some of these fellows because they were still having questions and doubts about a lot of things. I would like to walk into presence of the Lord, and then you’re still not sure about some things. And someone, they questioned about who he really was. Well, show us the Father and that’ll suffice us. We’ll be satisfied. He says, have you been so long time with me?

And yet you don’t know who I am. He says, he that have seen me have seen the Father. So he says up here in verse two, in my Father’s house or many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, will come again. I had a preach. I was listening to one time and some kind of a meeting that was for preachers, you know.

This preacher got up there and he made this statement. And right off the bat I didn’t agree with him, but I got to think about it later, say, you know, there might be more truth to that than I think. And he says, in my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a way for you. In other words, he says, there’s already in my father’s house are many mansions.

I’m going to prepare a way for you to get there. Then a little bit later down to verse 6, I am the way, the truth and the life. Now, so is he talking about I’m going to the cross in order to prepare a way for you to get there? I can’t prove that, but I thought, you know, it does sound pretty good. He did go to the cross to prepare a way for us. And I do believe that there is a place for us and it’s not a state of mind.

So he says in verse three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. And whether I go, you know in the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we know not whether that go us. And how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Now I want you to take and look there in chapter 14 and verse 25. Chapter 14 and verse 25. He says a lot of things to them, but they’re just choice verses that I like to bring out just for the night. Because he was present with them at the time. And he said things to them. But he also knew what was going to happen to him and he knew how they were going to feel and what they were going to do.

And so he says here in verse 25, these things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you, but the time was short and he knew he wouldn’t be with them very long. You think, well, what do you tell somebody in light of all of this that’s going to take place, how they’re going to be able to bear it. Would you just give them special grace and not let them think the wrong thing and do the wrong thing and doubt the wrong thing.

He would just override their will and their emotions and their fears and no he didn’t. They didn’t do any of that. He let them suffer. He let them have the sorrow. He let them have the fears. He told them not to fear but he let him fear. Didn’t they make a statement somewhere along the line? We’ll never leave you and we’ll never forsake you and they all left him for succum. Did he let him do it? He allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do.

Wouldn’t that break your heart when you think can’t you just bear with me for a little while? Can’t you just pray a little while? I mean just I just asked for an You can’t even do that. Well, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And that’s about where we are. Now look at verse 26. But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance.

What’s why I have said unto you? He told us at this point in their life they didn’t remember everything. They didn’t even get everything Jesus said. They could not fathom all that Christ was talking about. Even when he told them about him going to be crucified and buried and resurrected, some of them didn’t get it. They didn’t get that. Because the Bible says they didn’t get it. Some of them didn’t believe it. They didn’t even believe it. What he said.

And then after it happened and they were told, they still didn’t believe it. He was some hard-headed people. I’d like to build a church on people like that. Verse 27, now understand this, I’m not saying this all so easily understood but when you and I have this old sinful nature you go to the book of Galatians in chapter 5 and it talks about all the works of the flesh. Now do you have to really work hard just where you out trying to produce the works of the flesh Or is it kind of like natural?

You have to work against doing it, don’t you? Because if you don’t try to contain the desires of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, it’s just like automatic. You’ll have all those, the envy, the jealousy, the bitterness, and the hatred, and all those things that the Bible talks about. You’d be surprised how you could run wild if you didn’t contain it. But the fruit of the spirit, the Bible says, when you trust in Christ’s Savior, the Holy Spirit now dwells within you and you have the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

And what I noticed, and many people brought this out, that it’s not the fruits of the Holy Spirit, it’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it’s like if you get one, you should get them all. And that the Holy Spirit and all already within you, and those are the things that comes from the Holy Spirit. Now, if I have an old sinful nature, these things just naturally come up. Well, if I’ve got the Holy Spirit living with me, well, then these should be the natural things that come up unless they’re restrained.

Did you know that most of us would probably exemplify the fruit of the Holy Spirit if we didn’t hold it back? it back. There’s something within you that would love for you to love everybody, be filled with joy and peace and long suffering. All the things that you really wished you, did you know we probably suppressed those because of the desires of our flesh, were filled with ego. And filled with this pride and the envy and the bitterness of the jealousy, all the things that choke out the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

And yet, if it was released and not contained, it probably would be manifest in all of our lives so naturally, that you don’t have to work and manufacture and try to produce something. It just let it happen. I think there’s more to that than meets the eye. But anyway, look there in verse 27. You’ll notice there are several things here that are true to the Holy Spirit. See there in verse one, peace. Peace, isn’t that one of the food of the Spirit?

I think it is, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Some of you all don’t know anything. Have you all been listening to me at all for five years? years. Peace, I leave with you my peace I give unto you, not as the world give it. Give I unto you.” Now he didn’t say he’s going to eliminate all of their problems, but he’s going to give them something that they can have. And it wouldn’t cost him anything. He said, I give it to you.

You’ve got it. Because you see the comforter is mentioned in verse 20, he said, when you have the Holy Spirit, that’s the fruit of the Spirit and God’s already given it to you. It’s just that you’re not letting it manifest itself. You’re letting the cares of the world choke out this most wonderful blessed divine fruit that you can’t manufacture. You can’t produce it. It just comes because it’s from the Holy Spirit that lives within you. But anyway, he says here in this verse, my peace I given the to you not as the world give it, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Now he’s going to tell him some things that would cause him to be afraid. And enough things are scary. You have to death. But he makes a statement in verse 28, you have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If you love me, you would what does it say? You’d rejoice but they’re not rejoicing. If you loved me you would rejoice because I said I go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I in the words the Father in heaven is greater than the Son upon the earth but is talking about because of the position that they have as a role.

Didn’t He He makes the statement in verse 29. And now I have told you before it came to pass, before it come to pass, when it is come to pass, you might believe. Because He’s going to tell them some things that’s going to be earthshaken to them. You see, He’s going to the cross. He knows where He’s going. He knows the outcome. He knows what He’s going to go through. And He knows what’s going to happen to them. He knows how they’re going to be afraid and even maybe run and hide for their lives, even after stating how boldly we’ll never forsake you, we’ll never, well, well, well, well, well, talk as cheap, isn’t it?

And so he says here in verse 30, here after I will not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh and have nothing in me. That last part of that verse you ought to underline have nothing in me. See in us we have an old sinful nature and there’s something that the devil can use and work on but with Christ, see Christ had no sinful nature. He has no control over Jesus. He can’t lure him into sin but you and I are a little bit different.

So I I want you to maybe mark that verse but hold your place right here and look with me very quickly to verse 33 of chapter 16. Look in verse 33 of chapter 16. These things I have spoken unto you that in me, see those two words? You circle those two words. In me, you might have peace. In the world, you shall have, what? Tribulation. Now, in this world, we are going to have tribulation. In Christ, you can have peace.

So now, where are you living? We’re supposed to abide where we have been placed. We have been placed in Christ, therefore live in Christ and have the fruit of the Spirit. But that’s because, you see, not because the things in the world have lessened, they can get worse. A lot of tribulations, a lot of grief in this old world. A lot of things to rob you out of all of your peace and joy and happiness. And we go through that every day.

But in spite of all the things that happens, you can still have the peace and the joy that comes from the Lord. I go back there to John chapter 14 and look in verse 31, as you’ve heard me say many times that this was one of my favorite verses in the Bible, but that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do. Now that the world may know that I love the Father, How do you think he is going to show the world that he loves the Father?

Got any clues? Any hints whatsoever? Because he wants the world to know that he loves his Father. Now, do you think God wants you to show to the world that you love the Father? What do you think? Now, do you think you could show the world that you love the Father more by Him removing all of your problems and all of the tribulations and the heartache and the grief that you go through? Or could you demonstrate more of the love, the joy and the peace of the Lord in spite of the tribulations?

You know the answer, don’t you? And you probably have said somewhere along the line, I’m going to dedicate my life to the Lord. Lord I want you to use me any way you want.” And the Lord says, good. I’m for that. Can God put you anywhere He wants without back talk from you? Haven’t you despised it when your kids were back talking? I said, yeah. Pish. Have you ever been a little upset when you get in public and they would mess up and you knew it reflected back on you, and you wish they wouldn’t do it.

Have you ever seen the kids do anything and you were ashamed of it the way they were or behaved? I used to watch some of the young folks that hadn’t got married yet, or when I get married, my kids will never act like that. And then guess what? They get married and they have ten of them just like them. Well, God does not remove all of the things that makes it hard on us because God wants you to shine up.

The light shines brightest when it’s lighter or darker. Now, this is the difficult question. I know it’s very hard to understand this. So God is going to maybe have a few lights turned out so that you’ll shine a little bit brighter. And so if you want to have and demonstrate to others the peace of God, the joy of the Lord, then it’s going to have to be in the midst of tribulations. Isn’t patient one of the fruit of the Spirit?

And what work of patience? Where does it say that? Where does it say that in the Bible that tribulation work of patience? Is it in there anywhere? The book of Romans chapter 5, verse what? Well you know what’s in there, right? Tribulation works with patient. In other words, it demonstrates the patience. You could have tribulation and it not produce patience in your life. But you could have tribulation and it can manifest the patience that you do have. And that is what you want.

So he says in verse 31, that the world may know that I love the Father. even so I do. Now in chapter 15, I want you to look in verse 11. In verse 11, because he’s writing some things to him, he’s saying some things to them. There’s a lot of things in between that could, then you can spend days here. But in verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you that you may be miserable, that my joy might remain in you.

See, the joy is there and once you trust Christ as your Savior the Holy Spirit indwells you and the Holy Spirit has the love, the joy, the everything you need to manifest. The Christian life you already have. It’s already within you. Now you just have to let it manifest itself. And this is why you’re learning how to get yourself out of the way. Have you ever tried to get some place and somebody’s in your way? You know, like driving down the highway.

And have you ever been in a hurry and it seems like every slow person in the world just pulled in front of you? I hate to be going along 70 miles an hour thinking about how long it’s going to take me to get there. And then somebody pulled right in front of me and they’re going about 30 miles an hour, I think. If you don’t have any place to go, get off the road. And then have you ever get into fast lane, you know, you get into left-hand lane because the left-hand lane is supposed to be the fastest lane.

If you’re going to go slow, what lane you’re supposed to get in in the right lane. Some people never learned how to drive. Everybody doesn’t know that. I wished everybody didn’t know that. So you have all these things that are going on. You don’t think clearly sometimes. And you have the Lord allowing you and I to have all of these problems and troubles, things that frustrate us. and he says, I want you to love one another.

Now I want you to see something here that I think is very important. In verse 11 he says that your joy may, might remain in you and your joy might be full. In other words, complete, full joy. You see some people, well I’m gonna trust the Lord a little bit, a little bit. What if you could totally trust the Lord and not really worry at all? But don’t we still worry in spite of all that you know, all the Bible you know, all the churches you’ve been to, all the services you’ve ever, you’re still worry.

Just a little bit. And that worrying is what robs you of that joy God’s already placed within you. See the fruit of the spirit is inside of you. The works of the flesh, the seeds of all these things it comes out evil, the old sinful nature, it’s within us. That’s what pollutes the man. It’s already inside of you. And it doesn’t take much for it to come out. All you got to do is just let it come out, no sinful nature, and then it can run wild.

So we have to realize this. But now look what he says in verse 12. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Now how much did he love How much did he love us? How much did he love us? God, this is a difficult question. He died for us, so he was willing to give his life for us, and then he makes this strange statement in verse 13, greater love hath no man than this that a man laid down his life for his friends.

Now this isn’t here talking about land on our lives for the enemy. This is talking about one another. Am I willing to spend my life and lay down my life for other believers? And when I read that, and I thought about that for a little bit, and I thought, you know, we want to reach the lost, but living for the Lord is living and trying to keep God’s people challenged and motivated, encouraged. This is why we don’t want to be a stumbling walk in the lives of other Christians because see we need them and they need us.

We got to challenge and motivate each other. You see if I love you, if I love you, then I want the best for you. I would want you to serve the Lord and the last thing I’d ever want to do is to say or do something that would keep you from serving the Lord because I want you when you get to heaven I want the Lord to say well done, thou good and faithful servant. I want you to get every reward that was possible for you to get.

Because that’s what love does. Love wants the other person to win. Don’t you want your husband to get all the rewards he could get? Don’t you want your wife to get all the rewards that she could get? Don’t you want your kids to do? See, you love one another because you want the best for them. When you say, I don’t care. You know what? There’s a lot of people just had that I I don’t care attitude. I had it for about 60 years, I guess.

No, no, I don’t. But I just have it, I don’t care attitude. But I had to rethink some things and think, well, I do care. I really do care. I used to think, I don’t care what people think about me. Yes, I do. Yeah, I don’t like me. Don’t you want people to like me? You really do. You want people to like you. Well, I don’t care what anybody else is. Yes, you do. You do. That’s a front that you put up.

Everybody wants to be loved. Everyone likes to be respected. Everyone wants to know that somebody cares about them. So laying down your life for your friends is giving them your time that helps them to be successful. So by us coming together, we’re giving each other some of our time. When you work together in the choir, aren’t you giving each other some of your time? Whether it’s in a ranch or a wana, everything that we do, we’re giving one another some of our time.

We’re giving them part of our life. We’re laying down our lives for each other because we want the best. We’re trying to encourage one another. And I believe there’s more to it than just mates the eye. Yes, Christ died on the cross and He laid out His life for us and He even told us disciples, He says, You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you because I want you now to lay down your life for me and I want you to lay down your life for others.

So evidently we’re not here just for ourselves. So He says they’re in verse 14, You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants. Will the servant know of not what his Lord do it, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father made known unto you. So this is why whatever you have learned from the Lord, we’re trying to help and encourage other people in exactly the same way, teaching them what we have learned.

Now look there in John chapter 16 and verse one, John chapter 16 verse one, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. Now he’s not trying to offend them. Now there were some people in chapter 6 he knew he was going to offend them but he already knew that they were getting hard-hearted and they didn’t really care about what he would have and to say they were there because of what they could get from him like those free fish sandwiches So he says in verse 2, they shall put you out of the synagogues.

Yea, the time cometh that whosoever blesses you, whosoever what? Tilleth you will think that he doeth God’s service. There’s people that are going to kill you and they’ll believe that they’re doing God a service. Isn’t it true that perhaps some of those people that cried out crucify him thought they were doing the will of God? They were upholding the law and describes the Pharisees and all of them. They were honoring God because they were defending against blasphemy and he’s going to destroy the temple and they thought they were doing God a favor.

totally ignorant of the truth. Jesus is, I am the way the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except through me. He was the only way anybody could ever get to heaven. 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. 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. Cara can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.