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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

How would you take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Matthew? A book of Matthew. Matthew in chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9 is an interesting statement. But many people will read that and then they forget all about it for some reason. But look in chapter 9 and verse 35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

I often thought, well, if I could do that, I could draw a crowd too. Couldn’t you? You could do that. You’d draw a crowd. If I could walk on water, I’d draw a crowd. If I could feed 5,000, I really could draw a crowd. We can’t do none of those things. God didn’t say do that. So He gave us something and He didn’t say we had to draw a crowd. Preach the gospel to every creature. One by one, if that’s sowing to it.

One by one, one by one. Do what you can. You’ll notice right here when He makes the statement. And when He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. You see that word compassion? When you read the Bible and you study it, faith causes you to have compassion. Faith not only gets me salvation because I trusted Christ as my Savior because I saw He had compassion for me.

Now in serving the Lord, God wants us to have compassion, but faith is what gives you this compassion. When you believe what God says about heaven, when you believe what He says about hell, and you know where people are going, and as He says here, they were like sheep, having no shepherd. Nobody to lead them. Nobody to guide them. Well, then do what you can. That’s serving the Lord. Doing what you can with what you have, where you are.

And leave with the results to the Lord. And so chapter 10 after he says, pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send for the labors into the vineyard. And so then he says in chapter 10, when he had called them unto him, you see, you have to believe that you had been called by God to do something special. The apostle Paul says that I saw this light on the Damascus road and the Lord spoke to me and he showed me what great things I was going to be able to do for his name and how much I was going to have to suffer.”

And he said, the King of Gribb, he said, I have not been disobedient to this heavenly vision. In the book of Philippians, he talks about this high calling, a calling from on high. God has a reason for me to live. God had a reason for me to be here. He has something He wants me to do. And I heard it with the year of faith. I read the word of God and I saw the need and I’ve told the kids in college class.

I says, when you really understand it and you hear that God wants me to do this. And then you know that there’s people in hell that wants me to do this. And there’s lost people out there that wants me to do this. And there’s the Holy Spirit that lives inside of me that wants me to do this. How can I do something else? But you have to hear the call of God and believe. This is the will of God for me.

And if you can do that and see that and sense that, believe it, you’d be surprised what your faith will do for you. It gives you the compassion. And then you want to meet that compassion because God is calling you. Then you look there in verse five where he says it. Then the 12. He says, they were sent forth and see that word commanded, they were commanded. There was compassion, a calling, a commande. He told them what to do.

He told them where to go. And as he gets into the later part of the chapter, he talks about whatever house you go into, whatever city you go into. See, it didn’t matter where you went as long as you went. Going to all the cities. Cover every city. house, reach anybody, everybody. Can I witness to the wrong person? How is that possible?

It’s not possible to witness to the wrong person. So it is worth it. And so it doesn’t matter who they are. We had a guy that came here the other day, might have been yesterday, and Betty had him come down the aisle and she opened the door and says, janky, he’s got do some work. She looked at him and she says, go over there and sit down. He wants to talk to you. So he came in and smiled at me and sat down.

Just a few minutes he trusts the Lord. Okay, go to work. But there’s something you’ve got to hear. You know what’s a blessing to me is having a wife who is concerned, who thinks of that. She’s as good as any preacher will ever be. And that woman, she will witness and she passes out tracks. She prays for people. She will go to the hospital, goes to the nursing home. She’ll go into the home that she’ll do anything. She’ll pick them up and she’ll take them.

She’ll do anything she can for anybody. It doesn’t matter. And I think she’s going to run herself down. But if she’s going to die doing this, she couldn’t be any happier. And I think when the Lord’s through with us and faith wants you to hear that word well done well done. I would rather hear where herself out for the Lord and his work than for anything else we could ever think of. Look at another one I want you to see this in verse 14 and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet.

But see, there is concern because he says here in verse 15, Verily I send you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. You see, there’s a comparison here, but there’s also concern here. Do you know why the Lord says, going to all the world and preach to God for the every creature because God is concerned for every person? If he’s concerned, should we be concerned? We should be concerned.

I’m thrilled that we’re getting more done with the the radio and the internet the YouTube stuff But you know everything that we do it cost cost cost there is a price to pay And we’re just our nose is just above the water line so we can’t our feet don’t drown But you know everyone’s no I look feel like my my feet are getting soggy, but the Lord just keeps us going and we’re just going till we can’t do anymore.

But just go until you can’t do anymore. So you just trust the Lord that He’ll supply and so forth and sometime I get totally amazed at how God does all that He does. Look in verse 23, if you and I do what we’re supposed to do, we live with that hope, we live with that comfort, the comfort of knowing. But when they persecute you in this city flee you into another. For verily I send to you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man become.

The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. If they will crucify him, what in the world do you think they’re going to do to God’s people? And those that will live godly will suffer persecution in this world. And it means that not because you can see certain things happening, but you can sense that the devil is working in the details. The devil is always working and he is always bringing something. There’s always battles that you have to face all the time.

But there’s comfort in knowing this that while we do what God wants to do, we live with the hope Jesus is coming. We work while it is day. The night is coming when no man can work. Jesus is coming. Do you understand? We keep talking about Jesus is coming. Jesus comes. Hank always lived it. You know, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Rapture anytime But we may make it to the rapture and we may not That’s not my goal.

I Don’t know what that’s gonna be But if I do believe he’s coming soon Should I just sit down and wait? Or should I work? When he talks about weight upon the Lord and he shall mount up with wings of eagles as eagles. It means to as a waiter who waits on people and waits on table, you serve while you’re looking. We’re looking. Occupy, till he comes. Serve until he gets here. He’s not here and we don’t know how much time we’re going to have, but we just keep on working.

keep on working. As you go down through here, he tries to give them great comfort because whenever you have a compassion and you want to do something, there’s going to be a price that you have to pay and the devil’s going to work hard to try to stop you. So he says, fear not, fear not, fear not. Three times in this chapter, he says this, fear not. See the verse 26? Fear not them, Therefore, there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed in head that shall be not be known.

So you’re not to be afraid of what somebody may say. And then you look down there in verse 28, fear not them which killed the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body and hell. Fear not, fear not. What’s one of the biggest things that keeps the Christian from serving God? trusting God is fear. Fear is a success crusher. It will destroy you, been afraid, living in fear.

You know one of the things that Job said, the things which I have feared has come upon me. Do you believe that God knew what he was afraid of? Now I I could build a sermon on that, but I’m not going to. I’ll have to admit, there’s things that I have a fear of, that I don’t want to happen, and everything that we do, I want it to succeed. Don’t you? Every ministry you have, you want ranch to succeed.

You want a one or two to succeed. You want argue to succeed. You want Sunday school to church, the ready-goes, Bible classes, everything that we do. everything to succeed and sometimes we’re afraid it’s going to fail and sometimes because of that fear God will allow you to suffer the consequences because fear means you’re not trusting. Perfect love cast out cast out the fear. Fear bring a torment. If you get to the place where you’re not afraid of losing anything, you can enjoy life.

But if you always live in fear of losing something, it makes you afraid and it robs you of your moment of peace and joy. So he says down here in verse 31, fear ye not, therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows. And then he says in verse 32, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before me. And so this verse here, see, is not not talking about salvation, not talking about you having to confess Christ before a man to be saved.

Now there’s a lot of preachers that take these verses but they take it out of context. This is talking to disciples about service, not talking about how to get to heaven. But whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. You see, what is He going to deny me? He can’t deny salvation.

Once you trust the Christ as Savior, He can never deny you salvation, but what can He deny you? So if you look there very quickly, you’ll notice He’s talking here about this. See there in verse 41, He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet. What’s the next word? A reward. He did receive what they write just men, the name of the righteous men shall receive a righteous man’s reward. In verse 42, and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall know why he’s losing his reward.

So we’re talking about service, and if you will confess Christ before man, God is going to, he’s going to confess you before the Father and talk about you are going to get these rewards. You earned them. You did it. Maybe you even did it with fear and tremblingness. Paul says, but there’s rewards for those who will do this. And he says, if you deny me before men, he will deny you. Deny you what? Rewards. You see, always use clear verses on salvation to understand other verses that seems to say something else.

If you keep clear on salvation and on what service is… Then you’ll have no trouble. You can go through the Scriptures and rightly divide it. Now one thing I want you to see is this. Look here in verse 37. Because the motive of why we do what we do is so important. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. It means that you are not going to be able to wholeheartedly, well all your heart, serve God if you love something or someone more than God, because they may not want you to or because of them you may not.

Therefore God wants you to love me with all your heart and then see it won’t matter of anything else in this world. No people, nothing can rob you of this commitment that you have between you and Christ, because nobody can do this for you. But notice what he says. He says, you’re not worthy of him. It means that you’re not ready to serve him. I’ve talked to certain people that I thought would make a good deacon or a good elder in times past, you know, and they would have a problem with this or a problem with that.

And I say, you know, maybe you’re not ready yet. You’re just not ready yet. When you’re ready, let me know. But in everything, realize where to serve God. And he makes his statement and everybody’s heard this statement that Jamel get made down with the Alka Indians. It was written in a book, everybody that BC heard about it, and it was simply that a man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, they gain what he cannot lose. Somebody says it sacrifice in this life, the sacrifice means giving up something here for something better there.

Isn’t that good? Giving up something here. Oh, that’s a sacrifice, isn’t it? Because you can’t give up anything here for God that He doesn’t give you back better there. But you see, this hope is what gives us something to live for because we believe it. Our faith is strong in the Lord. And we know what the Word of God says and we build on that. And as we live every day, get stronger and stronger and stronger in our faith.

Though the outward man perish, it used to be 50 years old. Then it was 70 years old. But this body is going to go. But the inward man can be renewed in strength every day. You can get spiritually stronger because you feed your faith. They say if you feed your faith your doubts will starve to death. But if you feed your doubts your faith will starve to death. Which one are you feeding? And you’ll be surprised how that will be revealed by lack of peace, enjoy and happiness that you have from day to day because you’re not really trusting the Lord because of a lack of faith, lack of confidence.

So he makes a statement here in verse 39, he that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loses his life geteth for my sake shall find him. In other words God is is kind of giving us this little impression, that there is no other purpose for life than to serve Him. If you don’t do what God wants you to do, you blew it. You only get one trip through life. No reruns, no instant replays, one trip through.

And if we mess up this life, there isn’t another chance. We’re only gonna get this life right here. So how much of it do we wanna waste before we get serious. Whatever time we have from this moment on, make sure the Lord gets every bit of it as much as possible. Let him get all of it. Another thing here. Now you notice why in verse 41, it’s talking to believers serving God. These disciples, they’re being disciplined. They’ve been told what to do, how to do it, where to go and why.

This is one of the things that we try to do in a ministry. It’s trying to convey this very same thing to God’s people. But there’s a reason. You see, we looked at all these things down through here, the compassion, the call, the command, the concern, the comfort, and then in verse 41. The crown. You know, when they prophesied in the Old Testament, they saw the two comings of Christ, but they couldn’t discern when it would happen. How was to be done?

So it says the Old Testament prophets, even though they wrote it, but would diligently study what they wrote, trying to discern the difference between the sufferings of Christ, and the and the glory that should follow. It was the two comings of Christ. The first time He came, the sufferings. The next time He comes, the glory. That is a pattern. First Peter talks about the sufferings and the example of what Christ has done. So we will suffer than the glory.

And the Bible says in the book of Romans in chapter 8, he makes his statement, for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be. Every hardship we have here, every trial, every eight pain, Discipline that we have to go through is not worthy to be compared with the glory that’s going to be Now because of our confidence in the Lord it brings us through all of these heartaches and problems trials and tribulations because we have something we can’t see it yet Because once you see it you don’t hope for it anymore more.

But God just kind of keeps it out there and keep pushing. One day it’s going to all be over. Either by way of the grave or the rapture, but we know what’s going to take place. And we will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and God is going to reward us for what we’ve done. And that’s when He says, every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. And this is what he’s talking about here in verse 41.

He that receivers a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward and he that receiveth the righteous men to the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward and whosoever shall give to drink under one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, I said to you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. I was standing one day and I was teaching Sunday school at Northside Baptist Church of Anatoms.

And Ray Stanford was there and he was going to be speaking in the main service. So he was sitting here in Sunday school. And I was just teaching a few little bits and pieces of stuff. And I covered this one verse. And I says when it says, you shall and no wise lose his reward. I says, you can lose what you did not earn, but the reason God says to lay up treasure in heaven is so that you can’t lose it.

Rewards once earned laid up can’t be lost. I don’t believe it. I believe once they’re laid up, they are laid up and there’s treasure in heaven. I can lose what I could have had and it’s the will of God for me to receive a full reward. And when I got through it, I said, no wise loses reward. It’s exactly the same phrase that’s worded over there in John chapter 6 and verse 37 and 39. He’ll never catch you out, never lose you.

Never catch you out, and never lose you. Shall in no wise catch you out, and no wise lose your reward. I believe this is true. Anyway, I finished Sunday school class and I was getting ready and Ray came up and he says, I want to shake your hand. And he had tears in his eye. He says, all these years, he said, I’ve never heard that before. He stood there and he sobbed. I know what he was thinking.

I believe if God says in his word, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. What you have done, if God doesn’t reward you for what you have done, then all of the labors is ridiculous. I believe that what you do for the Lord, you’ve done it and you’ve laid up treasure. I’m going to close with this, but look there in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, look in verse 19, laid not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where mop and rust up corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.

I take that, you can lose it. Verse 20, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rut of corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor steal. I take that, you can’t lose it. I may be wrong, but I believe I’m right. I believe that God would be unrighteous not to reward a person for the work that they did do. But I do believe they can suffer the consequences of what they could have done and did not do.

Therefore, I want to serve the Lord with all my heart, all the days of my life. And you do you know what? Every day we live is one day less. I’ve got to serve God. Today, He’s going to be over soon, and that’s one day less because I know this day is coming. One day less, one day less, one day less. How many days have I got left? Well, it may be here, and I just don’t know it. He may give me a lot of time.

I don’t know. That’s where we have to trust the Lord. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bound, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re here in the auditorium or if you’re watching by internet, understand this. We have been talking mainly to those who know the Lord, but why we should have compassion, realize God has called us through His Word by hearing the plea, to go into all the world, and to be concerned and yes to do all these things that God wants us to do because we care.

One day there will be a crown for everyone who has done what God wanted them to do, but I’m so glad salvation going to heaven is free. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I already trust Him right now. To his bow and eye, close, and no one looking around. You may have heard of a thousand times, but if you’ve never trusted Christ, you don’t get to go to heaven. Heaven is free. It’s simple. All you need to do, it’s the only thing you can do, is to believe on Him, trust Him as your Savior.

will save you and give you eternal life as a free gift. I pray that you will. If you’re watching by internet right there on the screen, say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. I pray that you will. Follow me. Thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for this time together. Buzz each one for being here. And Lord, we all need help. We need encouragement. And follow. We know what your word says. But follow. We also want to feel some time with questions and doubts so much that we don’t understand.

Sometimes our vision gets impaired and we get a little cloudy and things are not as sharp. Help us to stay focused on who we are and what we’re doing. Thank you for the ministry you’re giving us. Bless each one here in Christ’s name. 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. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.