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

Take your Bible and turn to 1 Samuel in chapter 17. 1 Samuel. in chapter 17. This is part two on the subject, faith without works is dead. A lot of times we are able to defend ourselves from those who always want to refer to James chapter two that we have to do good works in order to be saved because it says you’re justified by works, which we covered in the previous message. But in doing that, we sometimes missed the point of what it really is saying because we’re trying to defend salvation is not by your works, which is true.

But we forget the point of James chapter 2, which is faith without works, is dead. And That is true. It is a true statement. It deals with service. And so therefore you and I should understand the seriousness of what James is talking about. Here in the book of 1 Samuel and chapter 17, there’s a brief little story that everyone learns when they go to Sunday school. The story of David and Goliath. David and Goliath. It would have been something if David said, I’m just gonna live by faith, and then sit down and do nothing.

I’m just gonna let God do it all. I wonder how much would have gotten accomplished. You see, faith without works is dead. If you really trust the Lord and you really believe what God said, then it motivates you to do something, to become a man of action. It challenges you, motivates. Faith is a wonderful thing. It’s the evidence of things that you don’t see, but you believe it, and therefore when you believe what God says and what God says is the truth, and if you believe the truth, that’s the facts, and so it’s not blind faith.

It’s faith in the facts. God said so. And that is truth. So here in 1 Samuel in chapter 17, verse 31, says, And when the words were heard, which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul. And he sent for him. David said to Saul, let no man’s heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Now you say now, that is one cocky individual. You talking about being filled with pride and headed and high-minded, but that’s David.

But was it really in his talent and his ability? But he also believed that the Lord can do this for me. He had such strong confidence and faith in the Lord that God would work through him. And then he used a few illustrations from before. And as he says here in verse 33, soul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth. He is a man of war from his youth.

Do you see the seriousness of this situation? This is impossible for you. You can’t beat that man of war. You’re just a child. You’re a youth. But, you know, that didn’t seem to play into the situation in David’s mind. David just could not stand the idea of this uncircumcised Philistine challenging the armies of God which challenged the God of Israel. So he says in verse 34, David said in the Saul, vice servant kept his father sheep and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock.

And I said, I’m just going to live by faith. And so I prayed about the situation, and I was going to let God handle it. Now that’s a wonderful spiritual thing to do. But there comes a time where you to understand that faith without works is dead. And you can hide behind, well, I’m just trusting the Lord. Well, maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. It’s kind of like a thief who can’t find a policeman. policeman. You’re not sure is he really looking for the policeman?

You see, trusting the Lord means that I trust him and I do what he tells me to do. Now going to heaven I have to obey the gospel which is believe on the gospel and I would have eternal life. Believe that when Christ died he paid for all of my sins I trust him I go to heaven when I die. So I get the results of trusting. God wants to reward us. So he makes a statement here in verse 35.

He said, I went out after him, smote him, delivered it out of his mouth, and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. That’s living by faith. He did what he believed that he should do. He was a shepherd. He was protected in his sheep. That was his responsibility. You see, a lot of times God’s people want to give their responsibilities back to God and says, God, you do it. I remember one time whenever I was in Colorado and I had, I made a statement that I had led some people to the Lord.

And this year, a woman came up to me real prissy like, really sanctimonious. You’ve seen them. There are halos just a little tight. It’s slipped. You know, there’s a, about nine inches between a halo and a noose. And she was about ready to hang herself. Nor I was going to hang her with her little halo. She says, Pastor, you ought not say, I led them to the Lord. You should say, the Lord did it. Now to be honest with you, I wanted to slap her jaws.

She He sounds so spherous. He says, man, are you a soul winner? I pray. I’m a prayer warrior. I says, man, I says, you can be a prayer warrior and all that. I says, but you just talked to me. Surely you can talk to the lost. And she went on and said some other things, and I made a statement. I guess I could let the Holy Spirit drive the buses this week. But no, I’m going to let the Holy Spirit teach the Sunday school classes this week, and so I won’t have to worry about it.

And I’m gonna let the Holy Spirit, well, I’ll let him speak and ranch this week. We don’t need to show up. We’re gonna let the Lord do it. And so we’re gonna let the Lord take up the offer, and so us just don’t need to do it. And we don’t need to choir because we’re gonna let the Lord do it.

And I’ve often had people tell me, says, I can’t be there tonight, but I’ll be there in spirit. So for those that are here in spirit, hello, good to have you With us, he made this statement here. In verse 36, the servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them since he has defied the armies of the living God. So he says, David said, more over. He wasn’t through you. The Lord has delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

But he has to get him into those situations to see God deliver him. So he was going on past experience, successful past experience. So this is just another challenge to him. But see, living by faith means you have to be justified by your works. So just saying how much you love the Lord and then not serving him, that it doesn’t go together. Christ says, if you love me, serve me. Keep my word. Obeyed my commandment. There’s a lot of things God says that we should do and to say, well, I’ve just got faith.

I’ve just got faith. Well, if you go to bed and you worry all night, are you really trusting the Lord? I got a wonderful little letter just a moment ago from Kristi up there in Day Spring. And she’d let me know that. Pretty cool came up there and had a week of meetings with them. I’ve been trying for several years to get them to have pretty cool come up there because I thought pretty is good and the kids will love him.

I say he’s on their level and he is excited and he’s dynamic. That’s why I haven’t for our camps and that’s why we’ve had him in our church and he’s filling in the church up there now. And I said, you’ll love the guy. So they had him. And they did. They love them. She says, I am excited because now some of the girls want to go so winning. That opens up the door for me to go more so when she says, because I can’t just always go to guys.

And so some of the girls have been challenged, don’t want to be so winners. And I thought, that is so wonderful. And Chris is all excited about serving the Lord. And she’s learning a lot, and she’s doing a lot. So, y’all keep her in your prayers and pray for her. She’s a great individual. But see, she’s living by faith. I’m going to Bible school. In my mind, I’m gone. No, she actually had to get on a plane and fly there and go there and go to the classes and take the classes and study and all that stuff.

You have to do it. You know, if you see somebody doing something, you just lie with the belief. You know, they mean what they say. The Lord does mean something to somebody. And so this is what he’s talking about down through here. And David applied himself. He applied himself. Now in your notes there, we won’t take the time to turn to the scripture. Matthew chapter 6 verse 19 and 20 says, Lay not up for yourselves, treasures upon earth, were moth and rough, doth corrupt, and were at these breakthrough and steel.

But lay up for yourselves, treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rough doth corrupt, where at these do not break through nor steal. Only a believer can use his time, his life here on earth to lay up treasures in heaven. He does that by serving the Lord, and the more you yield to the Lord, the more the Lord rewards you and will receive, reward you will receive. He will tell you everything to do to the study of biblical principles.

So there’s not a lot of things that didn’t say, you know, get to the right turn to the right and get out to the third light turn to the left. He don’t guide you that away. But there’s principles in the word of God that when you learn them, you learn what to look for. You know how you’re supposed to be. And you know how you’re supposed to live. And if you get married, you know what kind of a person you’re supposed to choose.

And if you have children, you know how you’re supposed to raise them. If you If you get a wife or a husband, you know what kind of a person you’re supposed to be. And if you’re an employer, what you’re supposed to do, and if you’re an employee, what you’re supposed to do, all these things are found in the Word of God, but they’re principles to live by. There’s a lot of freedom within the guidelines of those principles. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews, to the book of Hebrews.

So in the book of Hebrews and chapter 10, chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews. Now we talk about living by faith, and faith without works is dead. It would be good if God would give us examples of what He means by that. So He says they’re in chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews in verse 35, looking verse 35. Verse 35 says, cast not a way therefore your confidence, which is your faith, which which hath great recompense of rewards.

In other words, great faith will get you great rewards. In other words, recompensement, you’ll get something for it. And this is when he explains to you what he means by living by faith. And you’ll notice what he says here in verse 35, cast not a way there for your confidence which hath great recompense of reward, Or you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God after, you might receive the promise. So you know that God has promised something if you do thus and thus.

Faith is believing the promise that God made. And if you believe His promise that He made, you’ll go ahead and do the work and you’ll have patience and you’ll wait for it. And you don’t expect it in this life. Because you believe what God says. There’s another life, there’s another world. And it will be worth it all. And so because of that, you do what you’re supposed to do and you do it now. Now look what he says in verse 38.

Now the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. Look at what do you mean? Faith, well that works is dead. So if he explains what he means by the just, those who are justified, those who have been made here in Holy declared righteous by the payment Christ made for us. We shall live. Okay, that’s the book of Galatians, the just, that’s the book of Romans. By faith, that’s the book of Hebrews, and that one phrase is found in Habakkah 2.4.

The just shall live by faith. Just takes three new testament books to explain that one little phrase in the Old Testament. Now we’re talking about what it means to live by faith with your confidence in the Lord. This is what he talks about not casting away your confidence because it means that God says do this and if you do it, there’s blessings. He promised Israel that we’re going to go into the promised land. And I’m going to give you this and give you that and blah, blah, blah protect you and protect you.

And all these things God’s going to do, and all they had to do is trust Him. So there was a great price to pay, and they were chasing out of the land. They lost so much of God’s blessings upon the earth. It didn’t have to be that way, but they became rebellious. It means they didn’t trust the Lord. They didn’t believe what He said. So in verse 38, now the just shall live by faith. in chapter 11 that we’ve covered before, which we call the great faith chapter, the Hall of Faith, it demonstrates to us what does it mean?

What does it mean to live by faith? Just to say, by faith able did this and by faith, Enoch did this and by faith, Noah did this and by faith Abraham did this and blah blah blah and by faith by art. But there’s something I want you to see according to this, that their faith was not dead. Their faith in what God said and what their responsibilities were here upon the earth was carried out by them. So you see there in verse 4 when it says, by faith, able, but we’re not talking about salvation in these verses about how to go to heaven.

We’re talking about what they did in their life that God rewards them for. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. He did something. Abel did what God said to do. That’s faith. Living by faith is not sitting around on your hands doing nothing. It’s not just dreaming about something. You do it. You attempt. Just like we want to have sometimes a family vacation Bible school. It’s work, it’s planning. You commit yourself, we commit ourselves to camp, we have to put up a deposit.

We have to believe that it’s going to be worth it. And sometimes we don’t even know who all of our workers are going to be. Sometimes people that did it last year are not going to be able to do it the coming year. So then you think, okay, well who is going to do it? And you say, I don’t know. And you want to, okay, well who’s going to be the special music, or who’s going to be the speaker, or who’s going to do this?

Sometimes you haven’t got a clue. But what do you want to do? Hide? Do nothing? Because you’re afraid something’s going to be a failure? I’d rather attempt and fail than not to attempt at all. I’d rather aim at something and miss than to aim at nothing and hit it. So here in Hebrews, he says, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. Well, why did he do that? Because God told him to. Living by faith is doing what God says to do.

That’s what he did. We’re looking verse five. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had a testimonial. What was his testimony? He pleased God. He pleased God. You see, just saying, well, I got faith. No, no, no, he pleased God. So you have to ask yourself, it’s what you’re doing and how you’re living. It’s how you think and things that you say and do and where you go.

Is that pleasing to God? That’s why you have to study the Word of God to know what pleases God. God. And when you know what pleases God, then you have an idea of your own responsibility. So then you seek to please the Lord. See, living your life is not trying to find out how to please yourself. It’s what pleases God. That’s what strips away your pride. Because man, I tell you, every one of us have an area of pride in our life.

Everybody. And it’s a difficult thing to deal with. Sometimes I want to hug God is ever gonna use me because sometimes I get so prideful. And then I realize I can’t think that away. It’s the wrong way to think. I gotta keep my mind focused upon what the Lord wants and what God wants to do and realize how easy it is for God to take you away. You realize how easy it is for God just to take you out of this world.

Sometimes I get real sick, you know, I’ve been there before. I think, man, how close I could have come. I think about certain incidences in my life. Me and Peter was talking about it in the office the other day. Some of the just, you know, incidences that can get scary. And how we live only by the grace of God. And we get to have them find out how many things that could have happened that we weren’t even aware of.

But living by faith means you got to do something. Look what he says here. He had a testimony, he pleased God. And him pleasing God, this is what he did. It wasn’t, I just got faith. Now he did something. He lived a certain way. Look what he says there in verse seven. By faith, Noah. Okay. Living by faith produces works. What does it mean when he says, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, he moved with fear, prepared, and art to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is of faith.

He did something. God told him to build an ark. I’m gonna let the Lord do it. When God tells us that he wants us to witness, I’m just going to let the Holy Spirit do it. I don’t want flesh to get in the way. And if my motive isn’t totally pure, I’d be better off if I didn’t do it. When I told my kids to wash the dishes, I don’t even care what their motive is. And I don’t care what mood you’re in, or your attitude, you better get it done.

You work on the attitude, because I’m going to work on you if you don’t do what I told you to do. There’s a God in heaven, yes, he knows our attitudes of why we do it. Did you know that God will still use you Palesto, even with a bad attitude. With a bad attitude God can still use you. He can use you any way you are. You will enjoy it better if you have a good attitude. But do you know I can come in here on the Sunday mornings and I can be in a rotten mood.

Bad attitude, but if I make the gospel clear, people can still get saved from it. They most certainly can. And if I teach the Bible, somebody might learn something from it and it can change their life. You see God uses people, but he don’t have perfect people to use But you will enjoy the Lord and his work When your attitude is right when you do it because you want to do it and you love the Lord. I Have enjoyed serving the Lord That’s why I want to challenge and motivate other people to do it because I hate for them to live their whole life And they don’t get that enjoyment out of their life But what I want you to see is this in verse 8 By faith Abraham he did something When it says, by faith, it means that he heard what God said and he did something.

He did what it was that God wanted him to do. When he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, what’s that word? Obade. Up there would, able, by faith, able, obeyed. In verse 5, by faith, in the obade. In verse 7, by faith, Noah obeyed. 8 8 Abraham obeyed, they obeyed the Lord. Living by faith is obeying God. Faith without the works is dead. You didn’t obey Him. You heard Him.

You know the will of God, but you don’t obey. So God says in verse 9, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise. As in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacle, there are tents with Isaac and Jacob. the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. That means he looked beyond this life or something else. But you see, he did what God says do. He went where God said go, and he lived in tents like God told him to.

And he went a long way from home. And the Bible says if he knew how to get back, he would have went back. So God took him in such a way he couldn’t find his way back if he wanted to. And so he says, verse 11, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was passage because she judged him faithful who had promised. You see, God promised them a child.

They believe God. They got a child. Can you believe a 90 year old woman having a baby? Isn’t that not to scare you to death? And verse 12, therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead. So many of the stars of the sky and multitude as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith. I mean, they died in obedience. They died serving God. You see, that’s what I want to do.

I want to live for the Lord, but when I die, I want to die in faith. I want to die in obedience to God. Wherever it is, and however it may be, you see, you don’t want to just be like a shooting star. It’s bright for a little while and fades away. You want to continue serving the Lord. You want to maintain good works because these are good and profitable under man. So you want God to use you not just for a little while, but all the days of your life.

And then as you get older and older and older, you look back over your life and you can see how God has opened doors for you and did things that you didn’t plan. And you could have never planned it, but you can see how God has worked. And it convinces you that it’s true, that there is a God in heaven and that God does open up doors and that God does close doors. is looking for people of faith. And when he talks about, moreover, it is required in a steward that a man be found faithful.

Faithful. That means to do what you believe God wants you to do. The only thing I ever want anybody to do is do what you believe God wants you to do. You know, one of the things that I’ve seen is, was when you take a drive or initiative, that you want to live by faith and do something, it’s amazing how God opens doors for you. I noticed since I’ve been here, Peter showed some desire to want to be used.

So I find out a few little ways of how I could use him. And I find out he could do a little of this and a little of that. And God has opened up doors and I believe he has greatly matured because he has been obedient and he’s been pleasing to the Lord, and God has opened up more doors of opportunities. Haven’t you noticed that Jesse over here, Jesse determined that he wants to serve a Lord? Isn’t it amazing how somebody who wants to serve a Lord God begins to open up doors?

Do you know it wasn’t long ago? Jesse couldn’t play the guitar. Jesse couldn’t sing, I don’t guess. His wife says he couldn’t. Now he can stand up here, play the guitar, sing, and he’s doing a good job with the kids in ranch. It’s starting to pick up and getting a few more here and a few more there. And it would be great if everybody could show up at the same time, you know, like when it starts. But not everybody does.

They don’t even do it for church on Sunday mornings. You know, it’s about halfway through. Usually we find out that the majority of them get here right after we take the offer. And have you noticed that? We’re gonna trick them. This coming Sunday, we’re gonna take the offer up when I get rid of the preach. That’ll get them. No, I’m just joking. But anyway, we have, you know, the opportunity to serve the Lord. And when you want to do something, it’s like God opened up opportunities for you.

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. 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. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.