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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I’m so glad that one day, one day in my life, a man came into my life and explained gospel to me. And since that time nobody has ever tried to win me to Christ. Ain’t that something? Not one person has ever approached me to try to win me to Christ. What if that man had missed me? I’m so glad he talked to me about my soul and that I heard the gospel and he explained it to me and I trust the Christ as my Savior.

And I know I have eternal life. Because I have eternal life and I’m God’s child, I’m going to heaven whenever I die. This week I was talking to a man and I I asked him, I said, sir, I said, where are you going to go and you die? And he looked at me and he says, nobody knows that. And I looked at him and I said, I do. And he looked at me and says, you do? I said, yes, I do.

And I said, when you get a couple of minutes, I like to explain it to you. So a couple of minutes, I got a chance to explain it to him. And when I got through and I got ready to leave, you know what he says? I know I’m going to heaven when I die. I know. And in just a short period of time, a person’s destiny can be changed. Serving the Lord to me isn’t just coming to church. A lot of people do that.

Me, serving the Lord, is not just reading my Bible, and it’s not just praying, though I do all of that. It’s not just giving money, because I do that. Give the mission, I do that. Serving the Lord is more than that to me. You see, to me serving the Lord means that I’m trying to, in my goal of my life, I want to win people to Christ. I want there to be people who, when I get to heaven, that are there because they heard the gospel from my lips.

I want them to know it because they heard me say it. I want there to be some fruit. Even though on the radio broadcast sometimes, you think, man, I wish it would be where I could see the people and see if anybody’s trusting the Lord, and you don’t always see, and you can’t hear, you can’t know. But you’re always, you do these things, and you spend all that money because you believe that somehow that you’re so inseeds and somebody may hear and trust Christ as Savior and a person going to heaven is the most wonderful thing in all the world.

You stop and think there’s nothing better than knowing you have eternal life, knowing that you’re going to heaven when you die. But nobody can make you trust Christ as your Savior. Nobody can make you serve the Lord. And I always keep those two things separate. So you can be saved and never serve God, but you’re still saved. Because you’re born into God’s family. You’re saved because you believe he did it for you, and you trusted him as your savior.

You become a child of God. He gives you eternal life. You’re saved by grace, nothing that you did. Service is me serving God because of him saving me. But if I don’t serve him, I’m still saved. That’s grace, that’s grace. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. But now that I have eternal life and I am going to heaven, I had to make a very important decision. Who am I going to serve? What am I going to do with my life?

And some verses that were found in the Old Testament really burdened me because of the way they’re worded. And I want you to see this in the book of Joshua in chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. And I want you to look there in verse 14. verse 14. Now this is Joshua speaking to the children of Israel. He doesn’t have long to live. This is at the close of his life and he has made up his mind what he’s going to do and what he has done and now the people need to decide.

And this is his last charge to the nation of Israel. Verse 14, now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. Serve ye the Lord. This isn’t just any God because there’s a lot of false gods, a lot of false religions. And so think of how many millions and millions of people believe in a God that don’t even exist.

It’s only an imagination. There’s only one true and living God. All the other ones are false gods. They’re make believe. They’re figments of somebody’s imagination. They make up their own gods. And then they worship that God. And that God is not real. Now some people say, well, don’t you know you’re off when you say stuff like that? So be it. I’m not gonna… Honor somebody’s lies or deception or vain imaginations But I want you to see this and look in verse 15 and if it seemed evil under you to serve or another word He says I want you to serve God But if it seems to you an evil thing for you to serve God You know why many people won’t serve or because they deem it an evil thing You know why people are not faithful to God’s church to go to church because that’s evil.

They think it’s better not to They think it’s a waste of their time. It’s emptiness, it’s vanity. Why study the Bible? Not going to do anything anyway. Why pray? It’s not going to change anything. See, the then they despise the thing that God says to do. But he says, if it seems so wrong for you to serve God, then why don’t you make up your mind which God you’re going to serve? Whether the gods on the other side of the flood or on this side of the flood, whether it’s Baal, but now you got to make up another decision.

In other words, if you are not really going to serve the truly living God, are they make up your mind? Which false God are you going to serve? You’re going to serve God of money? You’re going to make up some religion? But make up your mind? Whatever you’re going to do, and do it. If you’re not going to serve God and you’re going to serve some, but do it. Whatever you do, but do it without your heart. If you’re going to live like the devil, really do the job.

But if you’re going to serve God, serve him. So he puts it to him. says in verse 15 the last part of it, but as for me and my house, we’ll serve the Lord. And that capital L-O-R-D means Jehovah, the God of Israel, the true and living God. So he says here in verse 16, and the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God, He is. It is He that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and which did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way where in we went and among all the people through whom we passed and the Lord drove out from before us all the people even the Amorite which dwelt in the land therefore will we also serve

the Lord for he is our God. Everybody has to have a God even the nathias has a God he exalts himself above everything that is called God and he becomes his own God and he makes up his own rules and his own regulations about how he’s going to live. And he doesn’t believe that there is a God, and he doesn’t believe there’s a heaven or a hell. He doesn’t believe he’s going anywhere. He just believes he’s going to the grave.

Where did he get all those beliefs? He made them up. Go see those things aren’t true. There is a heaven and a hell. There was a beginning. There is a true and living God. There is going to be a judgment afterwards, but cause a true and living God sits. So you see, everybody has a God. Even the agnostic says, well, I don’t believe anything. I don’t know what to believe. That means that they’re ignorant, means without knowledge. But here he makes this statement.

In verse 19, Joshua said unto the people, ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God, for he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. How you like that? Isn’t that point blank? He says, you can’t serve God because God is a holy God. God is a righteous God. What’s it with the high and you can go to serve God? Well, you have to turn the page and look at the next word.

He says, in verse 19, you cannot serve God because he’s holy, and if you don’t become holy, you can’t serve him. If you don’t live a holy life, you can’t serve God. Now you may have trusted Christ as your savior. God has made you pure and holy in your new birth, and it’s perfect, it’s righteous, it’s just you. You don’t have to worry about that. But in your life, do you seek to live a holy life? If your life isn’t holy, you don’t serve God.

You may say the words, I love the Lord. But if you don’t live like you love the Lord, you don’t love God. You don’t love them unless you serve them. And if you don’t serve them, you don’t love them. Period, that’s what God says. God says, don’t you deceive yourself. If you’re not faithful, you’re not right. If you’re not faithful to God, you’re not right with God. You’re deceiving yourself when you think so. Put God first in your life.

But if you’re not gonna serve God, And now you got a side, which God are you going to serve? Are you going to be your own God? Is it going to be God of maybe some rock star, some movie star, some money? Is it fame? Is it possession? What is your God? Go ahead and serve it. Because that’s all you’re going to get in this life. Because there is no true God except the one in true and living God.

And God says you serve Him. If you’re not going to serve Him then choose among these other gods that you want. Now take your Bible and look there in the next verse, verse 20. He says, God will not forgive you if you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods. Then He will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that He hath done you good. Can God be good to you? to you, merciful to you, show grace upon you, bless you, and give you wonderful things in this light.

Yes, he can. And can you turn your back upon the true in living God and not really serving with all your heart? Yes, you can. And the same God that wanted to do you good can make everything turn against you. And you’ll find yourself resisting the God of heaven and God is going to chase in you and discipline you and maybe take you home before your time. So you can rebel against God and you can live in sin all you want to.

But your heavenly Father who knows you and loves you gave you eternal life and saved your hell deserving soul is going to chase and beat the Torah out of you. You understand what he’s saying? So in verse 21 and the people said unto Joshua, no no no no we’ll serve the Lord and Joshua said unto the people, your witnesses against yourselves that you We have chosen you, the Lord, to serve Him, and they said we are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said He, the strange God, which are among you, and incline your hearts unto the Lord God of Israel.

And the people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God, will we serve, and His voice, will we obey.” You see, that’s what God wanted for His people. Now the choice is yours. Here we are. Now it’s our turn. Do you really believe that there is a true and living God? Do you believe that there’s a God in heaven that can work things out in your life and can bless you or chasten you, shower upon you all kinds of wonderful blessings or withhold things from you because of His will or chasten you because of your rebellion?

You really believe that? Prove it by your life. You really love God? Now see, you don’t get to heaven because you love God. going to heaven because God loves you and He made a payment for your sins and you understood that and you believe that and you accepted Him as your Savior. God gave you eternal life. Now you’re His child. He didn’t just take you out of this world and take you to heaven. He left you here. Left me here because He wants us to serve Him.

Why does He want us to serve Him? Because God says if you’ll serve me, I’ll honor you. I’ll honor you. Now it doesn’t say in what all ways that honor will come. But you’re to believe that God will be stole upon you. Praise, honor and glory. The Lord says when he returns and if you believe it you can wait and be patient and it doesn’t matter what you have to go through down here always seek be faithful put God first and serve the Lord take your Bible and turn to the book of first Kings the book of first Kings and chapter 18 first Kings and chapter 18 we have a story here about a man named Ahab he was one foolish man.

You see, Ahab, he messed up and married a woman. Well, of course, most people do marry a woman, but this woman was a wicked woman. Her name was Jezebel. Have you ever seen anybody named their little darling, little girl Jezebel? How many women named their kids Jezebel? I don’t know if anybody named Jezebel. Why? Because Jezebel doesn’t have a good name. She kind of ruined that name. Nobody wants to be called a Jezebel. You old painted Jezebel? Well, because she was a wicked woman and she led her husband who was the king of Israel in descend.

There was a man named Nabeth and he had a vineyard. And it was right next to King Ahab. King Ahab says, I want that piece of property. So he went over there and offered them some money for it. He says, it’s not for sale. He said, well, I’ll give you this and this. And he said, he did anything he could. And he said, no, I can’t sell the inheritance that the Lord has given to me. wanted it. So he went in the house and he was pouting.

And his wife looked at him and says, what’s the matter, folks? He says he won’t let me have his property. She said, well, you’re the king. You’re the king. Let’s like saying, hey, you the man. And if you want it, you can get it. All you got to do is leave it to me. So all she did was got a couple of people to lie about him and said that he blasphemed God and blasphemed the king. And so they stoned him to death, killed an honest man, killed a righteous man.

Who did that? Jezebel. And so whenever he was dead, oh, ahab goes over there to get his property. And lo and behold, a prophet shows up and that prophet was Elijah. And he shows up and he says, you know, dogs are going to eat you up. You’re going to lick your blood. And it says concerning your wife Jezebel. She’s going to be thrown over the wall and the blood is going to get all over the rocks. and the dog’s gonna eat everything on her.

Nothing was left to Jezebel but her hands and her feet. Dog lead all the rest of it. That’s what happened to Jezebel. But you see, she was a wicked woman. But you see, there were 450 prophets of Beyom. Ahab had done sinned against the Lord and he chose to do all that which was evil. He led the nation of Israel in the wrong direction and God’s going to have to chase him. And God told Elijah, there’s going to be three years of drought.

They’re not going to be no rain. And so, uh, He was mad and it says, Elijah, you’re the one that brought all this trouble upon Egypt. I mean upon Israel. It’s your fault. You did all of this to us. And he said, I didn’t do it. You did it. You’re the one that’s guilty. You see, somebody’s always willing to blame somebody else for the sorry lot in life. See if you choose not to serve God and you rebel against the Lord and you won’t do right.

And doing everything goes wrong and bitter and sour and you have to eat those sour grapes. You’re gonna get mad and blame God, righteous people, the preacher, the church, you’ll blame everybody but look in the mirror. Thou art the man. You’re the one. You see, because if you serve the Lord, God promised He’d take care of you and bless you. Stop blaming people on why you don’t stay faithful to God. It’s not the preacher. It’s nobody else. It’s not the church.

It’s you. inside of you. Do right. Put God first and serve him.” So he says here in verse 17, and it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, are thou he that trouble with Israel? All here’s that troublemaker. He answered, I have not trouble Israel, but thou and thy father’s house, and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. And now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450 and the prophets of the grows 400 which eat at Jezebel’s table.

So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together to Mount Carmel. And the Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long haute ye between two opinions? If the Lord, if the Lord, L-O-R-D, the God of Israel, if God is God, follow Him. But if Baal, If he’s God, then follow him. But why alter you between two opinions? Because they tried to mix Judaism and this hellish doctrine of following Baal together and talking about how they loved God and worship God, at the same time they worshiped Baal.

In other words, they were fit straddlers. They couldn’t make up their mind. It’s just like Christians today. They are fence straddlers. They’re never committed to the Lord, but they don’t want to really commit to the world So they try to ride defense. They want enough of doing right to get God’s blessings and enough wrong to have some fun and do their own thing. And God says, it ain’t gonna work that way. God says, you make me sick. That’s what he says about his children.

He says, you make me wanna vomit because you won’t commit yourself. If God is God, why should the true and living God Have to beg and plead his children to serve him. Can you understand that? I cannot understand that. It doesn’t make any sense to me why some person can trust Christ as their Savior, have eternal life. They know they’re going to heaven when they die and they can’t find it within them to serve God. After all that God has done for us, you stop and thank for a moment.

God has given you right to live, gives you air to breathe. Saved your hell, deserving soul, give you eternal life, made you his child. going to heaven whenever you die and they’ll never cast you out and never lose you. And that’s where you’re going to end up. You’re going to be in heaven. And then he only asked you, would you just serve me for the time that you’re down here? And if you will, I’ll bless you while you’re here.

And when you get to heaven, I’m going to reward you. And he says, in the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which I’ll be here after. He says, you have no idea what you’re going to get by serving me. Now why can’t we believe that? Why can’t I trust God. He asked for a showdown and there was a showdown and God spoke by fire and burned up the offering, the sacrifice that was made.

And he told him and says, you better get to run in because I hear the sound of abundance of rain hadn’t rained in three years. And he says it’s going to be some rain, but before they did that, he killed 450 of the prophets of Baal. That’s what they did with these false religious leaders. Now we live in good old America so we don’t take those who teach false doctrine out and kill them. But you know there was a time not long ago when people who taught witchcraft were burned at the stakes.

It wasn’t too many years ago whenever you, if you believed in Protestantism, Catholics would take you and crucify you and burn you, boil you in oil. That’s not a joke. That’s not a lie. That you taught me just a couple hundred years ago. You ought to get a book called the Fox’s Book of Martyrs and what was done to people who believed the truth. That day of persecution isn’t far away. If you don’t believe that what happened with the Jewish people was bad, you ought to see that.

what’s coming not only with the Jewish people, but this time it’s not going to be just Jewish people, it’s going to be Christians. Persecution of Christians is right around the corner, not far away. I believe that. Take your Bible and turn to the book of John chapter 12, the Gospel of John in chapter 12. When the Lord made the statement, he says, I’m going to die. This is the hour in which was determined by God the Father for me.

He says, should I ask God to deliver me from this hour? No. He said, that’s why I came. And he says, if the Colonel Corn falls into the ground and it died, he says then when it comes forth, look how many kernels you got of corn. How many ears of corn are one stock? All from one little Colonel Corn had died. You see that was Jesus. And look how many have trust the Christ is Savior and been born again because of that one seed.

Now here he makes the statement in verse 24, very, very or truthfully, truthfully I say unto you, except the corner we fall into the ground and die at a bind at the loan, but if it died bring forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that hated his life in this world shall keep it in the life eternal. In other words, for example, that’s what Christ did for us. But here you are, if you take your life and you want to live your life for yourself when you die that’s all there is.

But if you take your life and die for the Lord God says then your life will bear fruit. I enjoy life just like anybody else. I like to do things just like anybody else. But there’s been one main thrust in my life and that is that I want people to trust the Lord and I want people to serve the Lord. So I have a reason for me serve the Lord. I was like that before I became a preacher. I don’t want people to go to hell.

I would rather die for this reason and think of the multitude of people that are trusted Christ of Savior over the years that will be in heaven because of it. See God wants you and I to have a reason for living. The Apostle Paul says I die daily. Every day you die to his will that that’s all that you want. That you don’t want to. say die to self, any way you want to put it in the spiritual terms, that it means will you serve God over yourself, will you make up your mind?

Choose you this day whom you will serve. And it says, in Joshua, I’m recording this day against you. You’re a witness against yourself. That’s why we generally sometimes have people dedicate their lives to the Lord. And sometimes doing services, the preacher will say, how many of you never dedicated your life to the Lord? You’ve never determine I’m going to serve a Lord. If you have, serve Him. If you haven’t made up your mind, would you make up your mind today?

Right now, will you as a child of God, will you determine? Be a witness that I gave testimony to the fact before God and witnesses, I’m going to serve God. You see some people they always say, well I don’t like the promise. I don’t want to promise because they want to be so in field with integrity that they wouldn’t dare break their promise if they ever made one. Yet they go down here and they’ll sign a note for five years for a new vehicle and a new house for 30 years and they’ll promise some man or some woman, I’ll be faithful to you.

What are you doing promising? Well, I never made promises you liar. Make God one and then keep your word. Well, if I don’t make a promise, I don’t have to do it. I don’t have to keep my promise. Make up your mind. Choose you this day. Are you going to serve God? If you’re not going going to serve the twin living God. What God are you going to serve? You’re going to serve somebody. Something is going to be your God in your life.

And I pray that it’s the Lord. Look in verse 26, if any man served me. Now we’re not talking about how to get into heaven. What in the heaven is free? I’m talking about you that no Christ is your Savior, your God’s child. Now what? Now what? If any man served me, let him follow me. And where I am there, shall my servant be also. Now let me just show you a brief illustration. If I’m the Lord and you’re standing right here behind me and I say follow me.

If I go over here where would you go? Where you come over here where I am in. If I go over here, where would you go? Well, if you follow me, you’re going to follow me. And if I move, you move. If I stop, you stop. Wherever I go, you go. You just follow me. So simple. See, that’s all it is. Servant Lord is simply following the Lord. Now, some people say, well, I want to serve the Lord. And as they follow me and all of a sudden, this guy, he looks over there and say, oh, look at that.

Good looking woman over there. And I say, follow me. And he goes over there. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m over here. Follow me. Now if you stop following me for woman, money, fame, popularity, then they have become your God and it’s going to lead you astray. That’s how come God says that we’re sheep, sheep who won’t follow with the shepherd. We go astray and the Lord says that if you will follow me, if you’ll serve me, him will my Father honor.

Now the day is coming where we’re going to stand before the Lord and God is going to bless us. Reward us for everything that you’ve ever done. So God says, if you’ll follow Him, if you’ll serve Him, you do what He says, do it, you obey Him. And that’s why you have to know the Word of God so that you can do that. But it’s not just going to church. It’s not just reading your Bible, it’s not just praying.

He’s a person. And if you fall in love with Him, all those things and more will you do. But you see, if you’re not really in love with the Lord, then all that becomes a drudgery. You do them not because you really want to. It’s just a duty to you. It’s a chore, a job. But you see, when it gets inside of you that it burns within you, then you do it because of what God means to you. And I want the Lord to mean as much to you as possible, that you love Him and you love Him with all your heart.

If any man served me Him with my Father honored, do you believe that? Now, as a child of God, He could have took me home that very day that I trust Him as Savior. But God in His wisdom chose to leave me here and give me a life full of opportunities. Opportunities. He says, some of these opportunities, He says, they’re going to work for you. He says, I want to send you problems and trials and tribulation, but if you’ll be faithful in serving me and do right, God says, I’ll deliver you from everything.

I’ll bless you while you’re here. You can have that inward peace and joy in happening. And when you get to heaven, I’m going to reward you. But I want you to serve me, but I want it to be your choice. I want you to do it because you love me. And if you love me, then serve me. But if you don’t, all these things that happens to you is going to work against you. And the very thing that I meant to do you good or do you harm.

And the God that wanted to bless will turn against you and resist you and rob you of all things you could have, but really is God, is God to be blamed? Because God is righteous? No. It’s because you chose the wrong path. You chose not to serve Him with all your heart. So I urge you, if you know Christ is your Savior, realize that if you’ll serve Him, He’ll bless you and He’ll honor you. Let’s pray, Shout out.

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.

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 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. Hada! Can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon? Just keep looking up.