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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 Bibleignmenistries.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.

Once you take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 23 and verse 15, this is a terrible text, not because it’s the Bible, but it’s a compliment and a detriment at the same time. Because Jesus is telling what those who believe a false message is and what they were willing to do, to get somebody to believe them. And so he says here in Matthew in chapter 23, look in verse 15, whoa unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you compass, see and land to make one proselyte, when he is made you made him twofold more the child of hell than yourself.

Because now the one you reached is going to reach others with the same message you are reached with. So you not only blinded him to the truth, he’s going to blind others to the truth. And look at the consequences of those that believe wrong, but look at the zeal, the zest, the fervor that they have to travel the world to make one proselyte of their religious belief. Over the years I’ve had an opportunity to deal with people of various religions.

There are those that are Jehovah’s Witnesses. They’re not really Jehovah’s Witnesses. They’re Witnesses but not Jehovah’s. They get it out of Isaiah 43 where they say that we are His Witnesses but He’s talking to the nation of Israel, not talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses today. And they also have a fervor about carrying out what they really believe. And as you travel across this country you’ll see a little building called Kingdom Hall. Have you ever seen one? Have you ever met Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Have they ever come to your door? You ever see them walking down the street? And they use sometimes a little line simply like, would you like to have a Bible study in your home? Or do you have children? Oh yes. Man, would you take your children and throw them into a fire? No. And neither would God. So there is no hell. Oh, that makes them feel better already. So next thing you know, they’re in the house and they’re teaching all kinds of things.

And it’s not true. What they teach is not true. But they have permeated the world with what they believe, the passion that they have. Then you have the Mormons. You say, well, Mormons are Christians. No, they’re a cult. They’re not what we would consider believers in Jesus Christ who trust Jesus Christ as their Savior, that do not have an extra-biblical source of authority. You see, Jesus is God. He is not the brother of Satan or anything else as they make him out to be.

We don’t believe that the Book of Mormons are a pearl of great price and the Book of Covenants is equal or on par or above the Word of God. But look how they have permeated the world with what they believe. They’ve spread across the world and when they’re about 19 years old, all the men have to be able to go into all the world and pay for two years of their own money, pay their way to go somewhere in the world for two years to be a missionary because of what they believe.

You ever see them traveling together, bicycles, riding around, hither and dither, dressed nice clean cut and there’s things they don’t do. They have a strict code and they have good character. And some of these will put to shame God’s people that know the truth. True? They’ll have more zeal. They’ll dedicate more time, more money to do what they do. And some of God’s people will. Now what about the religion of Islam? You know that peaceful religion? That if you don’t believe, like they believe, they’ll make you pay.

It’s not a peaceful religion. But look how many people you pay. believe what the Quran says and because they believe that Quran they’re willing to fight and die if you say anything against Muhammad or against that book. They’re fervent about that. They’ll kill because you offended their religion and buddy they’ll take and go into all the countries and they’ll have some strict rules about what they will and will not do, the way they live. And then we have Christians.

Didn’t God tell us the believers to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Did God tell us that? But now we got to find out. Who does he mean? Who does he mean? If it’s not us, who? Who’s supposed to go. Well, there was a time when some of us sat down and we read the Bible and we believed it. For God makes the statement, every man shall give an account of himself to God. So is there coming a time when God is going to have every person give an account of themselves to God?

Is there anywhere in the Bible that says, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Even so we speak not as pleased in men but God which tryeth our heart. Is there a verse like that anywhere in the Bible where we have been entrusted with something? Is it in the Bible? Anybody know where it’s found? First the Solonius chapter 2 and verse 4. Oh, let’s go for reference Bible. Left hand pays, left hand calm and up toward the top.

So who is responsible to reach the world with the gospel? Is it the Jehovah’s Witnesses supposed to do it for us? Is the Mormons supposed to do it for us? Is the Muslim going to do it for us? Who’s supposed to do it for us? Or are we responsible? We are responsible. So if that is the truth, and I believe that it is, one day we’ll give an account to God for being entrusted with the gospel. But there’s three things that happens in a Christian’s life that they don’t like to hear.

Most Christians, and I’ve been preaching for a little over 50 years now, but there’s these three main things that I see always seems to be a problem with Christians. I wrote them down for you. I even gave you a copy of them so that you’ll remember them long after I have preached them. You see what the first one is? Soul winning. You see, what is soul winning? It’s the art of persuasion. It’s a soul winner is a specialist in the art of making the gospel clear to the lost man.

In other words, you’re talking to a lost man with the gospel and seeking to persuade him to trust the Lord. Now, some people will tell you that’s not your job. Holy Spirit will do that. Well, who’s gonna get the rewards when we get to heaven? You are the Holy Spirit. If there’s jobs God’s given to us, don’t give it back to God what God gave to you. That’s a good way to run from responsibilities. I’m just gonna let God do it all.

So this way we’re gonna let God run the bus for a ranch. See how that works. And Jesse, he’s not gonna speak in ranch, he’s gonna let God do it. God wants him to do it. So these three things are important. People are commanded by God. and this was what causes some Christians to cringe. Sometimes Christians don’t mind that if it’s just coming to church and sits so can sour, that’s okay. But this talking to somebody about the Lord scares me to death.

How many of you really, you get a little scared talking to somebody about the Lord? I do. I’ve got times when I am scared to death to talk to somebody. not as much as I used to, but now we had some of the kids go sobering on Friday night. How many did you have, trust the Lord? 61. Well they would have been saved anyway. Chapter and verse. You don’t have a chapter and verse. What if they did not do that?

There would be 61 people that probably would not hurt the gospel, never understood, not go to heaven, but they trust the Lord simply because, see, they did it because, well, they’re supposed to. But boy, am I glad the rest of us didn’t have to. Who is supposed to be the soul winners? Everybody is to be a soul winner. Now, you know when Jesus was here. The Bible says they wished not who it was. They didn’t understand who he was.

He was the Lord, he was the one that was prophesied. And he came right on schedule. But they didn’t take advantage of this opportunity. He offered legitimately the kingdom to Israel. And they rejected him. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Not because Jesus didn’t want him to, but they wouldn’t. And he says in chapter 5 of the book of John in verse 40, he says, You will not come into me that you might have life.

You could have had it, but you wouldn’t come. You wouldn’t accept it. Sometimes we have opportunities that comes our way. Opportunities are like unwields, and they roll away. They come, and they leave. And some people take advantage of opportunities. And then there are other people who never take advantage of the opportunities. Until it’s passed and they realize, oh, I blew it. Boy, I wish I’d have bought that piece of land five years ago. You see what it’s worth today?

Or I wish I’d have bought that gold when it was about, you know, $30 an ounce. Or if silver, when it was $5 an ounce. Whoo! But you didn’t have foresight. You didn’t see it as that valuable. Now it’s pretty valuable. One day when we get to heaven, we will realize how valuable some of the opportunities that were afforded to us were passed by. And we didn’t see it as that. We have these classes we got coming up. A Tuesday night.

Why are we doing it on a Tuesday night? Because we didn’t have anything else to do. It was to give people an opportunity that maybe can’t do it during the day. We have classes during the day because we want to make it available to give people an opportunity to study the Word of God so that they can do the things that God wants them to do because someday they’re going to have to give an account to God. And you would be surprised how much of an opportunity you could take advantage job, but it’s on wheels.

And one of these days you’re going to find out, you know, we had a Bible college and I could have went and I never did. I could have learned something but I didn’t go. I could have dedicated my life and maybe been a missionary. I could have been a pastor. I could have been in evangelist, but I passed it up. And you’ll always wonder what could I have done if I’d have only, if I’d have took advantage of what God put right in front of me, but I didn’t do it.

Because you see, if I don’t do it, somebody else will. God will get somebody else, and you have no chapter and verse for that. In Ezekiel he says, I sought for a man that would stand between him and make up the hedge for the people.” And he says, and I found not a man. You’d be surprised. God will give you opportunities, but God won’t make you take advantage of opportunities. I believe that if God has led the leadership here, and these men to come to be able to teach the word of God that’s got 40 and 50 years of experience behind them, when you got somebody like Bob Brooks and Bob Gilbert and Phil Myers, listen, you have these people who come here because they wanna make it possible for people to get a Bible education.

Well, they know what the word of God says. Wouldn’t it be a shame when you have to give an account to God and God says, why didn’t you do with your life, what I wanted you to do? Why didn’t you take advantage of what I put right in front of you? But maybe there’s a reason. But I want you to think these things through because they’re all important. So I wrote this down. So winning is something that sometimes people just cringe.

They’ll do anything but don’t, I don’t wanna talk to nobody. I just can’t do that. They go into cardiac arrest. The other one is the involvement in ministry. Some people just don’t wanna, I don’t wanna get involved. I just don’t wanna get involved. They’re just, I’m not a people person. going all over them, preach the gospel to everybody, unless you are not a people person. But if you’re afraid, you don’t have to do it. See fear is a good reason not to do it, so God will accept that.

Oh, really? Remember, it’s not the preacher you’re going to have to answer to. It won’t matter about me. I’m just the one trying to get you to think about something that’s going to take place. And it’s real and it’s genuine. If this book is true, what I’m telling you is true. True? Now, if I’m making up something, that’s a different story, and you have the right to face me on that. But if what I’m telling you is what the Bible says, it’s between you and him, not between you and me.

Because I’m not God. I’m not going to call you to give an account. I’m not the one. I didn’t die on the cross for you. I probably wouldn’t have if I could have. I wouldn’t even die for a man. Number three, giving or hearing messages on financial giving. That would be the Sunday you’d want to stay home. True, I mean, if the preacher preaches anything, so when, ooh, involvement in the ministry, I can’t do that. Giving, I hate that word.

And yet you know, does the Bible have anything to say about that? So I wrote this little statement down, and this is a Yankee Arnold specialty. A burden for souls is what gives you a burden for ministry. A burden for ministry is what gives you a burden to give. You see, there’s people who have a burden for souls. How do you get a burden for souls by accepting the responsibility to reach them? Did God make us responsible to reach people?

Then if we accept that responsibility, you have a burden. You don’t come down to the front of the church here and pray at the altar, Lord, give me a burden for souls. Well I asked him and he didn’t give it to me. So it’s not my fault that I don’t have a burden for souls. You accept the responsibility. And that responsibility God gave to all of us. Let me tell you this. I’m 18 years old, I trust Christ as my Savior.

Went to school Bible, college when I was 22. Why was I at 22 more responsible to win people to the Lord than somebody else? What had God done for me? He didn’t do for all of the others that he saved. Let me ask you a question. How many of you in here trust the Lord by somebody witnessing to you? That was a female. All right, somebody. How many of you trust the Lord because somebody was a male? How many of you trust the Lord because it was a church?

Fewer church. How many trust the Lord because you were on the job? A few. How many because of radio? Few of you on radio? Television. How many trusts of the Lord when you were under 18 years of age? Look at that. How many trusts of the Lord after you were 18? Of course, I’d have to be everybody else with him. And some of you didn’t even raise your hand. So you see, you can reach anybody and some of them trust the Lord because of a female, some because of a male, some when you were under 18 and some when you’re over.

So you see, you can’t witness to the wrong person. Well, I don’t want to witness to the wrong person. And who is that? Look at the next statement. George Whitfield made this statement. He says, oh, for a thousand lives to be spent in the service of Christ. You ever heard that sound song, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. Anybody heard that song? And then they won’t use the one they got. Look at the next statement. Now some of these guys may not be as good, but there was something that got a hold of them, that gripped them, that caused them to want to do something for the Lord.

Oswald J. Smith, great man that wanted to had a great missions program, he says, why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once? Is that a good statement? CT Stud, missionary, he says, some wish to live within the sound of the chapel bell. I want to have a rescue shop within a yard of hell, right at the end. I want to have a mission shop. I want something that’s gonna, listen, we ought to have a ministry to every kind of people there are.

They’re death, we ought to have a death ministry. Spanish, we ought to have a Spanish ministry. Nursing home, we ought to have a ministry. Rescue mission, we ought to have a ministry, we ought to have a ministry to everything, everybody, where we can get there are nothing more than fishing holes, right? But it takes people. People so well and the reason most people don’t get involved because I don’t know what to do. You think I got a solution? Why do you think we’re doing what we’re doing?

Because we’re trying to help you prepare to meet thy God. Are you prepared to meet Him? Oh, you may be saved. Have you turned light? You’re going to heaven and you die, but are you prepared to meet Him? To give an account of your stewardship? What has God blessed you with? Another statement, David Brains, that I love to live on the brink of eternity. That’s what you think about. You never think about it. Now you think about eternity. I will lay my bones by the Ganges River that India might know there is one who cares.

Somebody was willing to give their life. The next one, the objective of world missions is to establish a helping, reproducing, independent Bible believing church in every locale in the world. See, we don’t need more preachers. We just need more preachers with a clear gospel. I think we ought to change it. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. No. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. Because we’ve already got them all over the world.

They just don’t know the gospel clear. And they don’t present it. Look at the next statement. Why doesn’t your God speak my language? This was a question by an Indian in Guatemala to the founder of Wycliffe Bible translators. Why doesn’t your God speak my language? So that’s why there’s some people who’ve dedicated their lives and they go to these countries where they don’t have a language Written down so they can’t translate the Bible into their language So what do they do?

They got to have somebody that will go and spend time and learn their language then figure out how to put it into words and then then translate the Bible into those words and That takes years and years and years I I marvel at the people who have the patience to do something like that. That is willing to go. Sacrifice, give up their life, give up this good old blessed America, to go to some little place and teach some people so they can hear the gospel.

Now those ones that they reach, aren’t they going to be glad of whatever sacrifice was made? Have you ever wondered in your mind, I wonder what it is that God wants me to do with my life. is what you’re doing, something that God truly approves. Or is there a possibility? Is there something God wants you to do that’s different than what you’re doing? Are you open to it? Would you even talk to the Lord and pray to the Lord?

I remember a guy that was running around in the motorhome and he was having a good time. Then had the pressures of a ministry and all that. And this important man, this godly man, Well, he died. He passed away. And so they were looking for a preacher and he would come and fill in for him and they kept asking him and he kept telling them, no, no, no. Nine months he told him no. He wasn’t coming. But in somebody messed up, they said, well, would you pray about it?

I was fine until then. It was right about in there and some lady stopped me after the service was over with, standing right in there. And she says, well, how do you know God doesn’t want you to? Listen, sometimes we see down the road and we’re glad we made decisions that we make. The next statement, when he landed in 1848, there were no Christians here. When he left 1872, there were no heathen. This was said of John Giddy, missionary to the new hybrids in mid-1800s.

I have a friend I should say had, but I still have him because he’s still my friend. He’s just in heaven. I’m here now. Dr. Curtis Hudson, this is what he said about people that made statements that motivated him. You see, we have to be challenged and motivated to do the things that we’re supposed to do. All I’m trying to do is help you to think because one day along with me, we’re going to have to stand before God and He’s going to reward us for what we did.

And every man has a stewardship. He’s to be a good steward of whatever God’s given to him. Jesus Christ, there was never such a compassionate winner of men. He saw people as sheep having no shepherd and had compassion on them. He wept over Jerusalem. He sought the fallen woman to forgive her and the public to make him an example of the grace of God. God only had one son and he was a missionary for God. Only one. When Jesus was here, what was he about?

Was it about what his father wanted him to do? Well, you and I, what are we supposed to be about? What is really the substance of our life? Life does not consist of the abundance of the things that a man possesses. See, there’s something more. There’s something else to life. Number two, the Apostle Paul. He’s so long for the salvation of his country, that he said I could waste that myself or a curse from Christ for my brother and my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

A stoning, a shipwreck, a Philippian jail at midnight could not quench Paul’s tears for lost men. There’s a reason. You see, they had a burden for souls. When they had a burden for soul, then they try to find out what is my life. burden of a ministry. I got to have a ministry to help me reach those people so I need to be involved in a ministry. But if you don’t have a burden for souls, you don’t want a ministry.

You don’t need a ministry. The ministries are to reach people. Well, I don’t want to reach people, then you don’t need a ministry. Therefore, I don’t have to be involved because I’m not for the purpose or the goal of it. If I have that settled in my mind and I’ll have a burden for souls, If I realized does God have a burden for souls? A burden for souls is the closest thing to the heart of God. And if he has a burden for souls, what does he want me to do?

He wants me to accept that burden to reach people. Therefore that gives purpose to my life. And that’s why we may have the internet. It is to win souls. We do the thing on the YouTube, because we want to win souls. I preached a sermon last Sunday on repentance. And we’ve had several people that trust the Christ of Savior since it’s been put upon the YouTube from listening to that one sermon. Is it worth it? Ranch is about winning souls.

Friday night’s soul is about winning souls. You see, we don’t do things just to have good fellowship and fellowship is good, but there’s got to be something behind it. That’s what’s so important. Look at number three. It is said of D’Wadioh Moody that he had over one million souls in a forty-year period. public and in private, in sermon and in songs, in lip and in life, Moody sought to have people trust the Lord, save souls, who determined that daily he would personally witness to at least one individual about his soul, and he did.

John R. Rice, who started the sword of the Lord. There were sermons that I’ve seen by John R. Rice that I totally disagree with. But before I ever went to Florida Bible College, I had a burden for souls. I didn’t want people to go to hell. But I I wasn’t clear. I did the best I could. I still love the Lord. And I wanted people to go to heaven. Even though I was unclear. So I know there’s a lot of preachers out there that may be unclear, but they still have a passion for so.

They don’t want them to go to hell. But their message isn’t clear. But they’re doing what they’re doing because they really believe that what they’re telling them is the truth. I would rather people give a muddy message than no message at all. in hopes that somebody will understand apart at least what they’re saying and trust Christ of their Savior. 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. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day. Leaving that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.