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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.

I, um, wanted to give you something a few things I’ve covered before. before. But the truth of tonight’s message is based upon one phrase, the word sufficient grace. Now we know that salvation is by grace and it’s sufficient to cover and to pay for all of our sins and to give us eternal life and it’s totally free. So being saved by grace is sufficient. If a man is saved by his works, it’s not sufficient. It’s not good enough. So we’re thankful for the doctrine of grace, the theology that’s wrapped up in that word, and how wonderful it is to know that we are not in debt to God by our works to earn salvation, and then God is not in debt to us to give us salvation because while we deserve it.

We’re saved by grace and I’m so thankful and salvation by grace is sufficient to save a man and to get us to heaven. But I want you to take your Bible look in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, 2 Corinthians in chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, makes your statement in verse 5, After you’ve trusted Christ as Savior, God wants us to know something else that for the Christian life, there’s a lot of trials and tribulations that we’re going to have in life.

And remember the devil is always working upon our minds to disappoint us, cause us to feel in the rejection and all the things that brings you to the point of despair. And so he says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5, not that we are, and And those words are very important, sufficient of ourselves. Now I know it says to think anything as of ourselves, but we are not sufficient to live the Christian life, to withstand the onslaught of the devil, and all the things and the trials and tribulations that we have and go through in life of ourselves, we’re not sufficient.

But look at the last part of this verse, and you ought to underline this in your Bible, where he says, but our sufficiency is of God. Now God says he is not only saved us by grace, but we can go to the throne of grace. Now is the grace of God that teaches us about salvation, and then why we should serve the Lord and live a godly life. Looking for the Lord to come back, is his grace sufficient for the Christian life?

In your own mind, how would you answer that question? Is his grace sufficient? Regardless of how hard it might get, regardless of the trials is his grace sufficient. Regardless of the temptations that you have is his grace sufficient. Now I believe that it is. After fifty-some years I can testify his grace is sufficient. In other words, it’s enough that you need to stay faithful to the Lord. God can give to you the desire and the power of serving God if it’s really His will that you want.

When you begin to drift from the Lord and your desire is not wholeheartedly to the Lord it will be easy for you to be led astray. But it’s not easy for you to be led astray. If your face is set like a flint, your mind is made up and you’re determined I want the will of God for my life more than anything else in the world. His grace is sufficient. And on the days that you get down and discouraged and in despair.

He even has a throne of grace in case you’ll need a little bit more. Is there days when you feel like I need a little extra today? Are there days in your life when you have some money but you could use a little bit more? Yes. Yes. I know what you mean. Now take your Bible looking 2 Corinthians in chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Now you know what the Apostle Paul had gone through. room. This man had been stoned, you talked about rejected, left or dead, and some believe that he actually died, and there’s a good possibility he did.

He said, I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, said I cannot tell. But such a one was caught up in the third heaven, and he says, whether in the body or out of the body, he says, I don’t know. But he saw things that were unspeakable, things he couldn’t talk about because these visions and revelations that God had allowed him to have to experience, lest he be lifted up with pride and be exalted above measure.

God had to keep him humble. So he allowed him to have a messenger to go around and buffet him. How would you like to walk around and he just let somebody just beat up on you all the time? And all the things that happened to Paul, lest he would get exalted above measure. You know, get to think and he’s a big shot. So God had to keep him humbled. So he had to keep depending upon the Lord. And the Bible says, and I want you to hold your place right here, but I want you very quickly to look in 2 Corinthians in chapter one, 2 Corinthians chapter one.

And you’ll notice there in chapter one, something that he says to let you know what he was going through and why God was teaching him some valuable lessons. You see there in verse 3, he said, blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Now he may be that but you won’t know that unless he’s allowed to comfort you. So you can know that he is the Savior but if you never trust him you don’t know what that would be lying.

So says here in verse four, who comforteth us in almost all of our tribulations, all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them, which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we, our cells are comforted of God. So this is one of the ways in which God teaches us and leads us and guides us and prepares us for the things that are coming down the road because there’s people that are going to need your help. Remember Paul says, I have a desire to depart and be with the Lord, but it’s more needful for you that I remain here.

The reason you’re here is not for you. It’s for those that need you. You should always believe God needs me and there’s people that need me. You are important. And then he makes his statement in verse 8, but we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble. You ever have trouble and just wish somebody else knew a little bit about it. So sometimes there’s nothing wrong in sharing with somebody. Hey, I got a problem. But he says this, I don’t want you to be ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia.

Oh, wait a minute, if you’re serving the Lord and you’re doing right, you ought not have all those troubles. That’s a sign you’re not in the will of God. There’s people who teach that. And so he says that we were out of measure, above strength, in so much that we despaired even of life. Now that’s having it pretty bad, wouldn’t you say? I mean that was something that must have they been going through that really brought them down pretty low.

But he says, and you all see those two words, yada and dalainim, above strength. In other words, the problems were greater than the strength that I had. And if it wasn’t for the Lord, giving me sufficient grace, I would not have made it. And so as you live your Christian life, always remember of sufficient grace, grace that is sufficient for the day. And then when the moral comes, God will give you the sufficient grace for that day. And then he says here in verse 10, the past, the present, the future.

And verse 10, who delivered us, that’s past, from so great a death, death, deliver present, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver that future. It’s the provision of the Lord and the grace that He has brought you to this day. He will bring you through the next day. Until the Lord is through with you, you just stay faithful and just keep serving the Lord and you’ll be surprised what God will do for your life. But it’s not the subtraction of problems in life.

It’s the addition of the grace that you need, the addition of strength from the Lord that you need. And if you always pray that God will remove your problems, well problems are nothing more than opportunities. You don’t want God to take away your opportunities. That’s where you get to demonstrate your faith and your confidence in the Lord. So it’s always challenging. So go back there to 2 Corinthians in chapter 12. 2 Corinthians 12. So notice what he says in verse 7.

There’s a reason, a reason why God did the palm, what he did. Now he may not always tell you why he allows some people to suffer in certain ways. But if he didn’t suffer that way, he could have you suffer another way. We don’t get to choose that at times, but get this in verse 7, unless I should be exalted above measure. Evidently, God does not want a person getting too big for his breeches. through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.”

Now, on the line this in your Bible because it’s so important, unless I should be exalted above measure, mentions that twice. So do you think God knows how to keep you humble, to keep you close to Him so that you’ll walk with Him a little closer. Then look what He says. In verse 8, He said, I asked the Lord three times to remove it. And in verse 9, and He said unto me, my grace is, and here’s that word, sufficient.

Sufficient grace. You need something that you can always depend upon, knowing that regardless of what a day may bring forth, God’s grace is sufficient for whatever you have to bear. It doesn’t matter what it is. It is sufficient to give you all the strength that you need to bear whatever problem it is on any given day. get down and so forth because we forget about it sometimes. God’s grace is sufficient. Say that with me. God’s grace is sufficient. Say it again.

God’s grace is sufficient. Now do you believe that? And you know there’s a verse in the book of Hebrews in chapter 4 where it says that when you need some help, you can go to the throne of grace. That you may find that that what you need and a time of need. And there’s always sometimes you say I need a little bit more and that’s why you need to pray. So the title of this is prayer for the journey gets sufficient grace.

If you don’t pray and go to the throne of grace, you’re not going to find that it’s sufficient for you because without going to the Lord and getting this strength that you need and your dependence upon the Lord and your confidence in what he says and what he will do, then you’re going to trust in what you can do and you can’t do it. You’re not sufficient in yourself.” And that’s what he’s talking about. So that’s why he says, my grace is sufficient for my strength.

Why does God give you the grace? because grace is the strength of the Lord that you need, and it’s sufficient. So there’s no reason, no excuse to say, well, God just didn’t give me, wait a minute. So you look there in your notes, and we won’t look at these verses because of time. But James chapter 1, 2, and a prayer in faith believing, God allows things, counted all joy when you fall in a diverse temptation because God uses problems to reveal to us weak areas in our life.

And then in chapter 4 and verse 1-2-3, don’t have because you don’t ask. Why don’t you have because you didn’t ask? And then you don’t have because you ask a mess. In other words, it’s not for the Lord. In this because you’re wishy washes, you’re a double-minded individual and he says, think not that that man shall receive anything of the Lord. So that man can go through life and think, God let me down, God failed me, God didn’t give me, God didn’t.

No, no, no, no. You didn’t go to the throne of grace and you didn’t get the strength that you needed and you were double-minded men. You can’t blame ever, blame anything on God for reasons for you to fail in the Christian life. There are no excuses. Am I lying to you or am I telling you the truth? Is it possible though for you as a child of God to fail in the Christian life? Yes it is. And anybody can fail when you take your eyes off the Lord and you lose sight of why God left you here.

You’d be surprised how easy it is to drift on these things. Now I have two things down here. One, there are prayers that involve the purpose of life. In other words, you ask the Lord Lord, what is the purpose of my life? life. And then as you live your life, knowing what your purpose is, now you can ask the Lord concerning the details of your life because there’s points in time that you need a little extra and you’re talking to the Lord.

And so God will use things to drive you to Him. And when you start going in the wrong direction, God may bring some alongside in order to nudge you back to the path. Sometimes you use people, sometimes you’ll use a problem. Sometimes you may have to use a two before. Has God ever had to use a two before on you? Have you felt like you’ve been taken to the woodshed? Just hang in there and wait a while you will.

Now in the little box I wrote this because years and years ago I taught this probably 40 years ago and I love it. So I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus. We’re going to look at a couple verses real quick. Exodus in chapter 13, Exodus 13. Remember I said, when God leads you, when He’s guiding you, sometimes there’s going to be detours and sometimes there’s going to be dead ends and Sometimes there’s gonna be dry holes.

All within the will of God. The will of God doesn’t always lead you to a utopia, the mountain peak. Sometimes you have to go down into the valley. And sometimes you go through a desert. It can be very dry and very lonely and you’d be surprised at the things that you’re gonna have to go through. So here in the book of Exodus in chapter 13, Went to look here in verse 17. Verse 17 says, now this is when the Lord is going to lead his children out of Egypt.

He’s got a man named Moses and he’s leading these people out and so in verse 17 and it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines. Although that was near, for God says, let’s per adventure the people repent, change their mind when they see war and they return to Egypt. God led them the long way for a reason. Lest they would become discouraged and want to head back to Egypt because God knows, hey, there’s some hard times coming down the road.

And you remember when they didn’t get any water and so forth, they begin to complain to God and says, we remember the onions and the leeks and the garlic and if that excites you, it doesn’t excite me one iota. But they said, what did he do? Bring us out here in the wilderness to die? And Moses says, Lord, they’re ready to stone me. Now Moses didn’t ask for the job. He didn’t ask for it. He declined. But God wouldn’t let him off the hook.

God says, you’re the man. You’re the man. Moses, I don’t want to be the man. No, God says, you’re the man. And sometimes you’re going to be called upon to do some things maybe you don’t want to do. And you’re going to have to put up with people that you don’t want to put up with. You’re going to have to put up with some aching and groaning and moaning that you don’t want to do. But serving the Lord is not always doing what we want to do, it’s doing what has to be done.

And God says, this has to be done, and you’re the man for the job. And so the Lord is leading Moses, and Moses is guiding the people guiding the people and he’s leading them up and they come up harnessed out of Egypt. But you’ll notice now, look in chapter 14, chapter 14, and the Lord spake in the Moses and said, speak unto the children of Israel. And he says, this is what I want you to do. Now, look in verse three, for a favor will say of the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land.

the wilderness had shut them in. It means they are shut it, they are trapped because they’ve got a big river in front of them and they’ve got mountains on the side and Pharaoh’s army behind them. The Lord led them right into a trap, right into a boxed in canyon like they can’t get out because how are they gonna get out of this jam? And here comes the army behind them. Now Moses did not know how God was going to meet the need.

Until it was time. Sometimes God will lead you and you’ll be right dead in the middle of the center of the will of God, trusting God and walking with God and you’ll have some things that are going to be a dead end. And you don’t know how to go forward. Do you know what in the world you’re going to do? You’re going to be boxed in. And then what did the Lord have to tell them to do? And so they complained, wined and panned.

And it says there in verse 12 is not this the word that we did tell the in Egypt. and let us alone that we may serve the Egyptian, that’s not what they said when they was crying out to God because of the past masters. And God says, I heard their groanings down in Egypt, but how quickly people forget. He says that we may serve the Egyptian, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.

almost like, look what God has done to us. We left Egypt just like He said, now look what He’s done to us. Have you ever dedicated your life to the Lord and it seemed like nothing but one problem, one heartache after the other? And you think, well, when is it ever going to let up? When is the sky going to break through with that blackness and see some sunshine? And you’d be surprised how God can lead and guide you and it seems so dark.

Remember, the The devil is going to do everything possible to disappoint you because you’re going to have expectations and God won’t meet your expectations on your timetable. But he’s going to teach you some things that you need to learn. So he says down here in verse 13, Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you this day for the Egyptians whom ye seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.

The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There’s water there, Lord. And it’s like, would y’all just shut up complaining? Would you look at this? They’re totally boxed in. And what does the Lord tell them to do? I want you to go straight ahead. I want you to go forward.

Sometimes we want to go up over our problems, around our problems. Sometimes you got to go right through the middle of it. So he says here in verse 15, and the Lord cried unto him, say you go forward, verse 16, but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, indeed, divided, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground. It’s not mud, they’re tranq them through, dry ground through the mist of the sea.

So he says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You know, if they had not got into that situation, that day at end, they would have never seen the miracle of the Red Sea. If God is not permitted in your life to bring you to the point of detours and dead ends and dry holds, you’ll never see how great God is for you. This is how God peaches you. This is why he trains you. He wants you to learn how to live by faith, walk by faith when you can’t see how he’s going to do it.

And he hadn’t told Moses in advance how he was going to do it. Moses just had to follow the Lord. And sometimes those things are very difficult. Look in chapter 15. Chapter 15, very quick, look in verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of sure. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. No, this was really an accident because God didn’t know where the water was.

He got to know where the water was because everybody was looking for it and they couldn’t find it. Do you think God knew where the water was? Do you think God knew they were thirsty? Couldn’t they be honest and say, Lord, hey, if you don’t give us water, we’re gonna die. But in verse 24, and the people murmured against Moses and what shall we drink? And Moses says, anybody want Gatorade? You want ice with that? You want fries with that?

So God did something and it was for a reason. See the last three or four words of verse 25, there he what? He proved them. Your faith is on trial. Every day of your life you are on trial. Your faith is being tested. God allows a lot of things to come into your life. And you may not know how he’s going to do it, but we know that in verse 27, lo and behold, they found some water. There. Okay.

Did what he said he would do. He didn’t tell him where it was at first. Let him go three days and there’s a lot of things that happened over those 40 years where God miraculously did things. But you can’t see them sometime at the moment because of all the wine and then pine and then we go through the same thing in our own Christian life. Now look back in your notes very quickly. Number one I have down here is the purpose of life to be used by God is the satisfaction received because you wanted.

to do something for God. Isn’t it your desire? You wanna do something for the Lord. I wanna do something for the Lord, but I’d like to do something, not just him using me, but I wanna do something for him that he doesn’t ask me to do. This is where you get the opportunity in life. The maybe go beyond the call of duty, to give them a little bit more. And when the Bible says in the book of Luke, when you’ve done all that you’re supposed to do, you’ve only done that, which was your duty to do.

But don’t you feel like you just don’t want to just do what God wants, you want to do more? I don’t want to hold back. I don’t want to get to heaven and find out, well I could have given some more. So give them all you got, why you can. So letter A, I’ve told you about the, or is the missionary stories in Athens, Georgia, and how reading some of those missionary stories, and I was set there and I would cry.

I mean, I’m a 22-year-old kid, 21-year-old, and I’m sitting there on the floor reading missionary books. Here, and you come to college, you have to read them for classes. Nobody told me to read them. Nobody made me read them. I wanted to read them. But I also knew God would never be able to use me because I had no education. I couldn’t do anything. And I was a total zero. But I would always sit there, and I would hope, and I would dream.

And I was sitting in the corner, and I closed my eyes, I would see me preaching to thousands and thousands of preachers and people, I mean, people all over the world, but I knew that it’ll never be a real thing. I didn’t know the future. I didn’t know that I believe God was giving me desires that would help and challenge and motivate me. Land on the ground in St. Port, Louisiana, the Indian camps, going to Egypt in Israel, Alaska and Mexico.

And I thank the Lord for the places God has allowed me to go, and yet I just can only say His grace has been sufficient. 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 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. Trump it 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.