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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.

Once you take your Bible in terms of the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs 25, and you have a copy of my notes for tonight. And it’s a little bit on the order of what we did last Wednesday night when I gave you about fifty little quotes. This is not as many tonight. This is really giving you a cheap version of some of them. I thought that there’s some mighty good things that I wanted to share with you.

So these are thoughts of wisdom collected over the years, and my wife got some of them too. And so I steal from her. I steal from everybody. If there’s nothing new under the sun, there’s no sense me wasting my life trying to be an original. So I just copy, copy, copy. But look at number one, if I am at war with myself, I can bring little peace to my fellow friend. You gotta have peace in order to sow peace.

You see, you have to have the seeds to sow and we’re supposed to sow. So the Bible tells us that we sow the seeds. So you’ve gotta have some seeds to sow. If you sow love, you’re supposed to reap love. So joy, you reap joy. Whatever you sow, you’re supposed to reap. Now there’s other people sow and other things too. So some, once in a while you’ll reap some anger. But at times you might sow a little anger and you can sow bitterness.

You can sow envy. You can sow jealousy. You see, you can sow the works of the flesh and you can sow the fruit of the Spirit. You can sow a lot of different kinds of things and there are seeds that grow. So if you want good things down the road, learn to sow good things today. But here in Proverbs and now you wanted to back it up not just from verse 28, but look at a couple verses before that.

But look in verse 19, Verse 19, confidence, confidence is an unfaithful man in an unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. Would you like to run a race with a foot out of joint? I don’t think you would. And have you ever had a toothache? You ever broke off a tooth? You ever had the nerve endings? drink a hot something hot or something cold and just send you up a wall?

Well depending on someone that’s not faithful is like that. That’s why the one of the greatest things you’ll ever learn is learning to be faithful, dependable. You give your word and you what do you do? You keep it. You give it and you keep it. This is what he’s talking about. So he says here in the other verse I want you look at, look down in verse 25, verse 25, as cold water, cold water to a thirsty soul. So is good news from a far country.

Do you know there’s a lot of people thirsty in this old world? So the Lord has given us some springs of living water. And so as we go throughout the world, we just got some nice fresh living water for everybody. And it’s like good news from a far country. And so that’s why the gospel is this good news and it came all the way from heaven. So God has a message He wants us to share. Now look in verse 26.

You see Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings. We’ve got a lot of wisdom in it. And we say the word Proverbs, pro and verbum. It means more than meets the eye. You can read it, but it has also another meaning that can be understood. So he says here, a righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring. A righteous man should always seek to do righteous. But if you go to the wrong spring and you get the wrong stuff, it’s going to take its effect upon you.

A righteous man should learn things from the Lord. Seek godly counseling, righteous men, hang around the right kind of people doing the right kind of things and it will make a difference in your life. Then he says in verse 27, it is not good to eat much honey. Now it’s good to eat honey. Honey is good for you, but have you ever had too much honey? Too much honey will make you nauseated. It’s just like in anything, in moderation some things are very good but you get too much of of it one time when I was going to Flubaba College.

Somehow or other, they must have just come out with this thing called onion rings. Anybody ever have an onion ring? Well, they just came out and started serving onion rings. This is way back a long time ago. Well, I got some onion rings, and boy, I liked them. I told Betty, I said, honey, you made me these things. So she made me some onion rings. Man, I loved them. I just eat them onion rings. And then I said, honey, make me something so I can go to work.

I can have them in a sack. And I just eat those things. God, I run the laminated machine. I’ll just eat those onion rings. They were so good. She had a nice and crusted so far. But you put them in a sack and so far after a while they get soggy. I don’t like soggy onion rings, but I’d eat them things. After a while I got to where I said, honey, don’t make me no more onion rings. I can’t stand onion rings.

And today I might eat one or two off of somebody else’s plate, but I never order any onion rings. One of the reasons, Betty won’t let me have them. And two, she gives me that look. Show me how you do your eyebrows, honey. Look at that show on your eyebrows. When she does that, that means you better not. So there’s a point where some things are good, but you can get too much of something. And then it can make you sick.

And so he says there in verse 27, so for men to search their own glory is not glory. So for men to search their own glory, in other words, if you seek your own glory after a while, you’re gonna get sick of it, and so will others. Do you ever get tired of listening to somebody bragging about how great they are? You’ve never heard anybody like that. But you can take a little bit of anything from anybody. Obviously you can endure anything for a short period of time, but sometimes enough is enough.

It’s like telling humor. People love humor, but you can get too much of it and then it turns you off. So just learn to be appropriate. But verse 28 is the verse I really want you to look at because it says, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. means you don’t have any defense. If you can’t control your own spirit, you can’t control your own attitude. This is why I’ve told the college kid, a person that’s governed by moods won’t be used and they can’t be faithful because you’re governed by the mood you’re in.

Instead of regardless of what mood you’re in, it should not affect your character or your behavior. You should always still do right. And some people are up here and they’re down here, up here. And if this is the, this is normal. When some things happen, some people go way up there. But when something bad happens, they go just as far below the line as they went above the line. So you learn how not to over respond to anything good or anything bad.

Learn to be content and just keep getting up. And so look at number one again, if I am at war with myself, I can bring a little peace to my fellow friend. Look at number two, doing nothing is the most tiresome job in the world because you can never quit and rest. Now don’t read the next one. Don’t sit there and read these in advance because that’s not where I’m at. You’re following me. I’m the teacher. You’re following me.

I’m giving you the points as I want you to see them. So I know that you’ll honor me on that. But I want you to take your Bible all the way back to Genesis in chapter three. Genesis in chapter three. Now we know that Adam and Eve had sinned against God. Of Of course, you know. Adam blamed God because he made that woman. I mean, it’s not Adam’s fault. He didn’t make the woman. God made that woman. And God made her so beautiful that whatever she did, well, he just followed, you know, like a little puppy.

And so, and so God cursed the woman. But when he did this, he cursed the ground, looking for 17. Verse 17 says, and unto Adam he said, be cause, because thou hast hearken unto the voice of thy wife, and hath eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, say, and thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground, and the next three words, Yod’an dalim, because for thy sake, for your benefit. He cursed the earth for the benefit of man.

Do you realize if man did not have to work for a living how bored he would be? So God has designed this old world not to produce like it did in the garden, he put a curse upon it and he put briars and thorns and thistles and so forth and then said that in verse 19 in the sweat of thy faith shall thou eat bread.” In other words, you’re going to have to work for a living. So ever since that day God has blessed man by forcing him to work and that’s a good thing.

And that’s why at number two they’re doing nothing is the most tiresome job in the world. The worst thing in the world is to live a life of boredom, not to have something to do, to learn to work and have that creativity and accomplish something, to sweat, to work. It’s a great thing. And that is not a curse. It’s really a blessing. But we have raised a generation of people that they don’t want to work. They want you to work and just make it easier for them.

Bernie Sanders is doing a good job harnessing all of this. Number Look in your notes there, rest not from labor, but rest in it. Then turn to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew in chapter 11. Sometimes we think the greatest thing is to have nothing to do. Well there’s time when we like to have nothing to do. But one of the things that I have really enjoyed at this stage of my life is having so much to do. I’m having as much fun as a I mean, I enjoy living by schedule.

And buddy, I do live by schedule. I’ve got just about every day of my life is scheduled, every hour just about. But I love it because I’ve got something to do. And having something to do is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Especially if you know that what you’re doing is a good thing. If it’s an honorable thing. it’s a godly thing. But notice what he says here in verse 28. He says of chapter 11, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly and hard and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is life. He didn’t say stop. He didn’t say don’t do something. He says, because my yoke is easy. My burden is life. Come into me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” In other words, without the Lord and without a purpose, you can work and labor and wear yourself out and not accomplish anything.

You can have activity and a little productivity. So you learn how to rest while you work. And resting while you work is when you begin to enjoy your work. When you enjoy doing what you’re doing. If you don’t enjoy doing what you’re doing, it becomes labor. And it’s very difficult sometimes. And then you don’t want to get up in the morning. There’s times when that clock goes off. And I want to take a sledgehammer to it or throw it across the room now.

But I’m a Christ, I can’t do that. I’ve already decided before it went off in the morning I got to get up. And one day the alarm goes off and I thought, oh no, I got to get up. And then he says, Yankee, you got to get up. I says, why? We got to go to Church. I said, honey, we went yesterday. It was yesterday. And you decided to give me the order of church again the next day. And so sometimes, you know, you’re so used to it, you just have it, have it, have it, you know.

But it’s interesting. Look at number four. In witnessing, don’t hurry, don’t worry. Do your best. A poor presentation of the gospel is better than no presentation of the gospel. And do your best and leave the rest to the Lord. Now look in 1 Corinthians in chapter 3. 1 Corinthians in chapter 3. This is a good verse. This is a good thing to know because you can become very weary in the work. In 1 Corinthians in chapter 3, look in verse 5.

He makes a statement here in verse 5, who then is Paul? Who is a Paulist? But ministers by whom ye believed, because they brought the gospel they heard they believe. Even as the Lord gave to every man, see God gave to every man the truth of God. Everybody say because somebody reached him. Now whether or not he’s really referring to them in reality or only using them as an example because over in chapter 4 he said that he did that and was referring to them in verse 6 of chapter 4 and these things brethren I have in a figure transferred to myself and to a policy for your sake that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written for that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

So that’s why he refers to them. Now whether it was really then that he’s talking about is another thing. But now notice what he says here in verse 6 of chapter 3, I have planted Apollo’s water, but God gave the increase. You and I can plant and water, but can you save us all? You can’t save anybody. I’ve had some kids get up and they get up and rain, so they’re like, oh well thank you for saving me. No, I didn’t save you.

We gave you the gospel. It’s the Lord. You trust the Lord is your Savior. So you understand that. But whenever you’re in a work together, we are laborers, C.D. verse nine, we are laborers together with who? You’re working with the Lord. And you’re carrying his joke. And if he has his head in that one and yours and another, you just let him do the polo and you just enjoy the ride. just faithfully do what God asked you to do.

And then he says here in verse seven, now he that planted and he that water or one and every man shall receive his own reward according to the dawn labor. So you are to labor for the Lord, but you’re supposed to enjoy doing what God wants you to do. Now, we don’t always walk around with a smiley face on our face. I know there’s time when it’s hard, difficult and there’s a lot of stress. And so those times will come.

Look at number five, number five. To carry worry to bed is to sleep where they pack on your back. I’ve used this illustration before. Here’s a person up, you know, they walk in here and they got a back pack. You all see some of these college kids. They walk around like, you know, their muslims were the explosives in the back. But if you came to church and you got all these birds, all these problems and you come down here and say, I’m gonna give the Lord all my problems.

And so you dump that backpack down there and it feels so much better. I just cast all my cares upon the Lord. Feel so much better. Then you get up and put the backpack on and walk back out with it. You ever heard that little song because take your burdens to the Lord? Do what? And leave it there. And some people don’t leave it there. person every one time says, I just don’t know if God will forgive me. I say, all you gotta do is just mention it to him.

He said, I done done it a thousand times. I said, that’s 999 times too many once. And so some people just don’t learn to leave it with the Lord. And so they worry, worry, worry. And like I said the last time, if God never slumbers and sleeps, there’s no sense both of us stand awake all night long and never think that your problems are too big, God can’t solve. or too little that you don’t embarrass him by giving him something so little to do.

I mean, God’s busy. God’s so busy. You don’t have time. You cast all your cares upon the Lord. But look at number six. Number six, this is maturity to be able to stick with a job until it is finished, to be able to hear an injustice without wanting to get even, and to do one’s duty without being supervised. Now in 2 Timothy and chapter 3 when he talks about that from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures, that are able to make thee wise in the salvation and that all scriptures give him by inspiration of God.

That the man of God can be thoroughly furnished under every good work. So God wants a child to become a man. That means you can handle spiritual responsibilities. So look at the statement again. To be able to stick with a job till it’s finished, finish what you start. You do something, commit yourself, get it done. To be able to bear an injustice without wanting to get even. Not everything is going to be fair in life. Unless you get all the Democrats to make everything equality and level that play and feel and everything is going to be fair.

Life is not fair and God doesn’t mean for it to be fair. God wants to give every man rewards according to his labor and God wants to bless a man here and he reached what he sows so it’s not fair compared to what somebody else has or don’t have. You just do what you can do with what you’re supposed to and let God take you the rest of it. But we’re always trying to make people, you know, bend to my will and take care of me.

No, it’s not what God’s worth talking about. We get number seven. How men treat us will make little difference when we know we have God’s approval. John chapter 8 and verse 29 where Jesus says, I do always those things that please my Father. I do always those things that please Him. So that’s what He was about. So men treat us with little difference when we know we have God’s approval or how men trigger. Is it more important in your life that you become a people pleaser or a God pleaser?

Isn’t there a verse somewhere in the Bible that talks about do we now seek to please God or men? Look at the verse because it’s so important. Looking Galatians in chapter 1, the book of Galatians in chapter 1, he’s already said there in verse six, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him, they called you unto the grace of Christ, which is not the gospel, but they want to change the gospel and they trouble you and they worry you and they pervert the gospel in verse seven.

Then he says down here in verse nine, as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel than you then that you have received, let him be a curse. In other words, there’s only one gospel on how How to get a man to heaven? All people have been saved by grace and grace alone. Nobody gets to heaven by their goodness. Nobody earns their way to heaven. It is the free gift. And so he says, as he talked to them, because now some legalistic Judaizers come down from Jerusalem and taken these people that Paul had led to the Lord and infiltrated and sort of trying to get them back under the law.

And he says, where’s this joy that you used to have? So he says in verse 10, do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. That’s a very important point. You eat half to make up your mind as a child of God, not to get to heaven. Either you are going to seek to please God or please man. If you seek to please man, then you will have your reward from man.

and they will give you the praise and the honor and the glory and it’s all temporary until you mess them up. But if you seek to please God, you’ll have to wait until you get there and God is going to reward you richly, greatly. So he says it’s important. I should not be the servant of Christ if I seek to be a pleaser of men. And Jesus says, I do always those things that please my Father. So it’s a good thing to keep in mind and try to do put the Lord first.

Look at number eight. Great victories come not through ease but by fighting valiantly and meeting hardships bravely. So turn to second Timothy. This is a good scripture to look at. Remember the other night I made a statement about is two ways to get to the top of an oak tree. One, you can set on an acorn. and two, you can climb the tree. Now one will take a little work, but the other one doesn’t take any work at all.

You all get you as a sinner on an acorn. Now which way do you think you’ll get to the top of an oak tree faster? And where in the Bible, or I should say, doesn’t in the Bible work? Come before success or success. Come before work. See, a lot of people, they want success, but they don’t do the work they get it. They want a six foot splash in a six end Mike Puddle. They want to wear the medals, but they don’t want the battles.

So you want the victories, then you’re gonna have to have a war. You’re gonna have to fight. But you notice in 2 Timothy and chapter 2, these two verses I want you to look at. When he says in verse 3, therefore endure hardness as what? As a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now God could take away the hardness and just let it be easy but that’s not what he said. Endure hardness as a good soldier. And verse 4, no man that warred and tangled himself with the affairs of this life.

The reason some people can’t serve God because they don’t have any time. They committed all their time to doing whatever they want to do. And when I get to heaven and stand before the Lord and God says, it’s time to give a count. Now why didn’t you serve me? Like, well Lord, I didn’t have any time. Do you realize how much I had to do? And it won’t matter what you say. God’s the one that knows how much time it gave you.

You made choices. And you’re the one that you can load your life down with things that won’t amount to a hill of beans, a hundred years from now. or you can put God first. So he says, no man that worth and tangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier. So God’s chosen us to be a soldier. And we is the one that decides whether or not we’re gonna endure hardness, or we’re gonna seek to please the Lord, or we’re gonna become entangled with this world that we can’t do God’s work.

This is what you have to do. Look at number nine, a smooth sea never made a skillful sailor. See, you wanna be skillful, or then you’re gonna have to have some storms of life. And so the scripture here is, well, tribulation work is what? Patience. Patience is a great quality that God wants us to have in our life. So God is able to use the tribulations of life to produce something in our life. So God is going to allow you, insist upon you to have tribulations.

And that’s why he says, count it all joy when you fall in the divers temptations. Somebody told me one day, says, what’s a divers temptation? I said, well, I could give you what I believe it is. And they said, you don’t know what it is? I said, yeah, I know what it is. It says it’s mermaids. I said, what? Divers temptations, it’s mermaids. Now I had never thought about that. All of a sudden that now whenever I read that scripture every time I say those words I think of that.

And you will too from now on for the rest of your natural life you’re gonna know that’s what it’s talking about but that’s not what it’s talking about. Different trials, different testing, different hardships is what God uses to build us strong and God wants you to be strong. 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 it or the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.