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

You have your Bible turned to the book of 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and chapter 1. I just want to talk to you a little bit. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 1, now Paul’s done had, he’s had some hard times. He’s a prisoner, he’s in Rome, and the government isn’t being too kind to him, but it did put him in places where he got a chance to witness and leave people to the Lord. Have you ever felt if you’re not feeling good, you ought to be exempt from witnessing when you don’t feel good?

Just because you don’t feel good. Well, I went down to the downtown Bible study today and I really didn’t want to go. Just be honest with you, I really didn’t want to go. And I felt like just going home and getting in bed and just snoring away. But I went to the Bible study. And I walked in, nobody was there except some lady was sitting on the other end of, well, we usually have a divider across there and it wasn’t across and she was sitting there.

So I walked in, she looked at me and she smiled and she says, do you have a meeting in here? I said, yes ma’am. I said, we have a Bible study in this side of the room. She says, oh really? She says, well, I’ve got a meeting in here at 2 o’clock. I guess I know she was talking about maybe believing. I said, ma’am, you are invited. You can stay for our Bible study. I really didn’t want to talk to her.

I just wanted to do my thing. I got my mind on what I want to cover. So she says, well, if you don’t mind me staying, I’d like to stay for the Bible study. Yes, ma’am. So she came around and she sat down where warning them usually said. And here comes some of the people in the keyman. So I had introduced them to Jacqueline. That was her name, Jacqueline. And so everybody was in there not that. Anybody got a question?

Anybody got a question? Well, today, of all days, nobody had a question. They always have a question. But I usually start off with that so that they at least know they can ask a question. And if I, they don’t, I can get on something else. I got something. And so I said, well, let me ask you a question because I knew she was sitting there and I didn’t have a chance to talk to her before the wrists started coming in.

So I says, how many of you in here know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you died the day you’d go to heaven, raise your hand and everybody raised your hand except her. But I didn’t look straight at her. I looked at everybody else and all the hands were up and then I kind of move ahead and she didn’t have her hand up. So I thought, okay, now I know what I’ve got to do today. But when you give the gospel all the time, you say, okay, well here’s these other people.

They need to get a little meat and have your stuff, you know. But now I’ve got to hone in on that one woman. Now would you do that or would you just forget about it? Well, let Let me see you. Take your Bible and turn to, and this is what I told them. 1 John 5, 13. Now you wouldn’t know why I would tell them to do that. So they went to 1 John 5, 13, that says, these things have already done to you, that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may be, what?

Know that you have eternal life. I said, you know, the Bible says you can know you have eternal life. So now I’ve got to talk to them like, they’ve never heard this before. All of them there have been here in there for six years, except that one woman sitting over there. So I went through and explained the gospel and we looked at verses and so forth and so when I finally got through them. I said, it’s the most important thing in all the world.

And so she asked the question. She says, can I ask the question? I said, you sure may. So she says, if what you’re saying is true, what’s the incentive for people to do right? Because you understood, if you say, by grace, there’s no incentive to do right because you don’t have to stop anything and you don’t have to improve your life. You don’t have to do it? Well, what’s your incentive? So I talked to her and explained to her about having children and disobedience, chastening, obedience, blessings, and peace-joint happiness, if you do right.

And I said, does that help you? She said, yes, it does. So I said, now before we leave, I just kind of ask you a question. So I did it right where she was sitting there. I said, do you know you’re going to heaven now? She said, yes, I do. And I never gave the invitation. and didn’t have to. She was sitting there looking and smiling, and when she saw it, it’s like her eyes lit up. You know, that was almost as good as getting some cough syrup.

I mean, I coughed a little bit, and I sneezed a little bit, but by the time I got through, you know, I was feeling just a little bit better. But, you know, when you get out of there and you start driving from Del Mayberry all the way down, on the expressway, the traffic itself makes you stop feeling too good. So by the time I get in the parking lot and apart the car and I walk in here, I’m tired all over again.

I just want to get in the room, close the door. So as soon as I come in the hallway, there’s Betty standing there with this great big feller. So, Yankee, he wants to talk to you. I don’t want to talk to nobody. So he wants to talk to you. I said, about what? Charter schools. I could care less about charter schools. But Yankee, you need to talk to him. Yes, sir. Come on in, sir. So he came on in and he sat down there.

I thought, you know, I might as well just tell him what I think about the public school. I don’t know why. He’s working and is the chief man setting up the charter school for Hillsborough County and he thought he would just stop by and let me know so that I could let people know that they have a charter school they’re gonna start up and I says it’s still the public school isn’t he said oh yes yeah it’s still the public school I said well let me tell you what I think about the public schools so anyway by the time I got through he felt so bad he really did he wasn’t feeling too happy about his job, I don’t think.

So I said, sir, I hated to have wasted your time. I said, but let me ask you a question. I said, do you know where you’re going when you die? They said, well, I hope I’m going to heaven. Now you know what that means. Now when you don’t feel good, you ought to be exempt, right? You can just, you know, I can waive it for this moment because I I really didn’t care. But you’ve got a response. You know you got to.

And so I said, let me explain it to you. So I went through and explained the gospel to him. And when I got through, I said, that makes sense. He says, yes, it does. I said, if it makes sense right now, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, He said, yes, I will. And he said, I have never understood this before. He said, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Well, I don’t know what he’s going to do with his charter school.

I really don’t know, don’t care. But I said, I’ll see you up there. He said, all right. So anyway, he left, and I was feeling a little bit better. But then I started feeling worse again. You ever get like that? You’re feeling it? Because you’ve got your mind off yourself. You’re thinking about what you’re doing. And it really does bless your little pea-pig in the heart. Well, here in Second Timothy, in chapter 1, Look what he says in verse seven, where he says, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.

And I said this before, a sound mind comes because you’ve got sound words. See the in verse 13, where it says, whole fast, the form of sound words. So sound words make a sound mind. And so, if you wanna learn how to think, the Word of God into your mind.” And he makes his statement in verse 8, he says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. So Paul had gone through some hard times.

He’s had people that have left him. When you read the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 1, it almost breaks your heart of the things that they went through through and how he said he even disbeared life. I mean, things are pretty bad when you got the top dog despairing life itself. And when he had so much trouble and sorrow, he says, I think the Father of all comfort. And so the Lord comforts you in your tribulation so that you can comfort others when they have theirs.

So we’re always having something going on in our life to sometimes get our minds off of ourselves. Think about what God wants to do in the lives of other people. And so he makes a statement here, be not now therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. Now, you know, it also says someplace else, somewhere around Romans chapter one, maybe verse 16, we say it every Sunday. I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

I’m not ashamed of the gospel. And as Paul says there in 14 to 15 before that, I am ready to preach the gospel. I’m ready to preach. So he was ready to preach it, and he was not ashamed of it. And so as we go through life, don’t be afraid of the gospel and given the gospel. And it doesn’t sometimes matter how you feel. The power still in the gospel and gospel still works. Just give it to people, tell them.

But he also makes a statement in the last part of that verse. He said, but be thou partaker of the afflictions and notices of the gospel. In the book of Val, Galatians, chapter five, it says, then is the offense of the gospel ceased. In other words, if you teach that a man is saved by works, you won’t have any problems because everybody teaches that you got to be good. but strip away the works and say it’s only by grace and you’re gonna have opposition.

You’re gonna have trouble. You got a lot of problem. That is the message that people attack. They attack the gospel of grace. So the gospel of grace offends people and most religions are offended by a pure gospel message. So But then he says in verse 9, who have saved us because the gospel is the power of God who have saved us. And he says, and called us with a holy colon, not according to our works, not according to our works.

I like that. But according to his own purpose and grace, you see, we would not be honoring the Lord and given praise to the Lord if we had a part in the salvation, we’d probably say, look who I am. Look what I’ve done. But we can’t say anything like that. Because if it wasn’t for pure grace, there could be no salvation. And the only way you can mutilate the gospel or pervert the gospel and you’d have to change it.

Well, the only thing you can do to change the gospel of grace is you’ve got to add works to it. That’s the only thing you can do to gospel of grace that ruins it is add works. Well, if it’s not God, there’s got to be man’s works. So when you add man’s works to the gospel, it ruins the gospel. It changes it into something other than what it really is. And there’s several words that are used there, but we won’t get in that right now.

But I wanted you to see this. In verse 9 where he says, But according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. See God talks about in his word, how that he has chosen the word sometimes you’ll find uses elect, but it simply means chosen, chosen to save anyone who believes. So God has chosen all believers to be perfect in Christ, chosen us in Him. So it’s those that are in Christ.

And so that’s why it’s so important. But look in verse 10, look what the gospel does and why we should be so thankful for it. They called it brings to light something that is awesome and without it you can’t and he says, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who had get this abolished death and brought life and get this immortality to light through what? Through the Gospel. can not abolish death. And he cannot be brought into immortality where he’ll never be subject to dying, except to the gospel.

That’s why the devil will fight any place that seeks to be faithful to give the gospel. And the gospel is so important, so powerful. And that’s why he says in verse 11, I was appointed a preacher and apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles to do what? Well, the Lord says, I’m going to show this young man, but great things he’s going to suffer for my sins. name, say, now he was making other people suffer. Now I’m going to show him just how much he’s going to suffer.

But he’s going to be suffering for the cause of Christ. And that’s why he makes the statement. I was appointed a preacher. I was appointed an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles. And verse 12, now get this, for the witch calls, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. I’m not ashamed of all the things that I have to suffer to get the gospel to people. Now, it also makes a statement in First Thessalonians chapter 2 where it talks about the things that have happened and to me have happened rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.

What happened to me is for the furtherance of the gospel. And so if you’re not ashamed of the gospel, there’s a price to pay to get it out. And so there would be times when you’re just tired and weary and worn. You take what was so neat. This lady, Mary, and I think it was the first time she’s ever been to a camp. And she was giving it all she got. But she was also being worn out. And to see some of the other people that, you know, they go and go and go.

And I’d ask and I said, how are you doing? They go, fine, fine. And you don’t get a lot of sleep. Some of the counselors in the rooms with these kids, and some of those kids, they’ve always got something wrong. They got to go see the nurse at 11, 30, 12, 31 o’clock in the morning. And God bless that little nurse that we had that came because we didn’t pay her anything. You can’t pay everybody that does everything that goes to camp.

I appreciate her coming and being there and in the watch Keaton and his wife and They were so busy and trying to do a good job with all the kids and I walked around this Food ball human football thing they had there and down on the right hand side. I didn’t know it was there They had all these girls doing things on like an optical course and I look down there and there’s some of these girls even and some of these other girls, they were on their belly, moving like a reptile underneath these ropes, trying to go through these things.

And then when they got through, they had to come up against a great big old wall and they had to help each other over a wall. You thought they had gone to military boot camps. I mean, just to see what they did, we got some great pictures. He got some great pictures of us. I think we’re going to try to show some of those on Sunday night. But there’s a price to pay and doing all those things. And you can get tired and weary and warm, but it’s such a blessing to see these kids have a ball.

And I watched them out there. That’s all I do now is watch. There used to be a time when I’d get involved, you know, but now I just, I get a kick out of watching them have fun. But Lord has been good to us. But He says here in verse 12, He says, For the which cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that, which I’ve committed to him against that day, to know that he is able to keep that.

Now to me, I committed to keeping of my soul to Jesus Christ. He’s to save me and give me to heaven. Now, Him getting me there, that’s His job, not mine. But I’m not ashamed of the gospel. I’m not ashamed of that day when I was 18 years old in that little, low living room, and I trusted Christ as my Savior. I’ve been telling that story for, seemed like forever, for 55 years. And it doesn’t get old to me.

it camped. I told a few jokes and somebody told me it says, that was a new one. I told us I don’t need new jokes. I just need new people. And you know, it’s hard to learn a joke. You know, you ever try to be funny? You know, and you want the kids to laugh, have a good time, and here’s this stuff shirt preacher up there. You know, it’s an old phone. You talk into these little kids, but you’ve got to have them laugh about something so sometimes you tell a few stories on yourself and I’ve always enjoyed doing that.

You realize how many times people have heard my stories? Well, think how many times I’ve had to tell them. So there. So, um, and then word in verse 13 says, whole fast, whole fast, the form of sound words, which now have heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. So Paul taught and he says, now, and you’ve heard me now whole fast of that. Don’t let it slip. Just look there in chapter. 2 and verse 1, where he says, Thou therefore my son.

Now Paul knows that his days are limited. He says, my time of my departure is at hand. So he’s talking to a young man that maybe God will give him years to serve the Lord. And that’s one of the things about serving the Lord is, serving the Lord is always trying to teach and train somebody else to do what you do. You see, in the world, there are some people that get a little power and they don’t want nobody know how they do what they do because that makes my job more secure.

In the Lord’s work, it’s not the way it is. You want to teach everybody how to do what you’re doing because nobody here’s, you know, we’re not forever not to hear in this life, but for the cause of Christ, we want the work to go on, right? So we want somebody to be able to take our place. So I think we’ve got enough people run here now, they can just, if I dropped dead tonight, I wouldn’t care. This thing will keep on a move and going right along.

And you won’t even miss a beat now. I’m not leaving right now. I’ll be, not until I get finished. I’m not finished yet. But anyway, now, notice what he says here in verse 2. And the things, just like he said here in chapter 1, and the things that thou have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.” So what I taught you is sound words, and that’s what gives you a sound mind.

And you got to know how to think. So see, when you get to chapter 3, it makes statement, perilous times shall come. And when these perilous times shall come and you read the third chapter and you think you’re reading today’s newspaper of how bad it is, and it is bad. So how is a Christian supposed to think when it seemed like everything’s turning sour and it’s getting worse and worse and worse. They even Paul didn’t say, hey, we’re out here to build a utopia.

No. He says it’s going to get worse. And those who live godly going to suffer persecution, it’s all in chapter three. So what does he tell you to do? Well, by the time you get to chapter four, he says, preach the word. Things are getting worse and bad and start thinking about all the things going on, just continue in what you’re doing. Keep doing what’s his right. He makes a statement up there in chapter 2, look in verse 14.

Of these things, he says, put them in remembrance. Sometimes you have to tell people what you already done told them. Tell them again, then tell them what you told them again. He says, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Our purpose for preaching the word is to get those that listen to the word that they believe it, because we have a reason for doing what we do.

So in chapter 4, he talked to him about, I charge you, preach the word, put your confidence in what God says. This is why it’s so important to study and to believe what the word of God says, now look back there in chapter one and look in verse 14. He says, that good thing, which was committed unto the keep by the Holy Ghost, which dwelt in us. That thing that was committed to him. Now whether or not they had an ordination service and they got together and they laid hands on young Timothy and committed him to the ministry.

I don’t know. He also who says, lay thy hands suddenly upon no man. In other words, be slow and careful and not unnavous, but to know what you’re doing. Because now things are coming down to the plate. Paul, I’m gonna be off the scene. You better be listening to me. And he says this, he says in verse 15, this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. Now how would you like to have that said?

Well, Paul must have done something wrong. You know if he would… Read that book by Dale Carnegie. He wouldn’t have been so bad. He just didn’t know how to win friends and influence people. But chances are, Paul was probably a hard person. He was probably a very dogmatic type of person. He was probably looked upon as a dictatorial, dominating, egotistical type of an individual. He probably didn’t have a real sweet kind side to all those Pharisees and so forth.

He probably was a straight shooter just right between the eyes. And sometimes you’ve got to be like that. But he says that I’ve gone through a lot. I’ve had people leave me in the ministry. He also makes that same statement there in chapter 4, looking in chapter 4 and verse 10. He says, for demons have forsaken me, having loved this present world. How would you like to have the great apostle Paul say that about you and put it in the Holy Scripture?

And for all eternity, your name made the book. Yes, for look what he said about you. You think, well, I would rather be known by something better than that I first took a great man of God. Do you know if it wasn’t for those who come alongside to help, you would get a lot done. I mean, could you see me trying to run camp all by myself? How do you think that would work? So you can’t do it unless you have people that are willing to work and labor like that, you can’t have.

But we want to have a good vacation Bible school. So we’ll just snap our finger and it’ll be done. are going to take some planning and work, organization, participation, sacrifice, give up on a week to do something like that. But you know what, it would be a lot easier if we don’t do it. Wouldn’t it, wouldn’t it be easier if we just don’t do anything? We might feel better, but we could have felt better if we didn’t have done camp.

But if If you just seen the kids on the last night, you think this is worth it. What if we didn’t do what we do? And yet you can’t do it by yourself. Now look where he says in verse 16 of chapter 1, The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onissa for us, for he off-refresh me and was not ashamed of my chains. Here’s a man who’s got chains. But somebody came and sought him out. Didn’t know where he was, but he came looking and found him.

And he says, he refreshed me. You’d be surprised how those who work with the Lord in the ministry need to have other people refresh them. Have you ever done a refresh on a computer? It kind of resets things, don’t it? And if there’s anything to update it updates it or something. 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 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 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. Taught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day.

Believe it that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.