This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. We just 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.

Now don’t you want to finish your course with joy. Don’t you want to finish well? There’s little things, little things that can hinder you in running your race. That’s what he says here in verse 7. Yee did run well. You did, but you’re not running well anymore. You did, but not now. Look what he says. Who did, and you ought to on the line of, hinder you. Who hindered you? And sometimes you’re running along and you’re running your race.

your race, your serve in the Lord, you’re giving it all to God. And then you just get tired and weary and well doing and I quit. Now, it doesn’t affect your salvation. You’re still going to heaven because you don’t have to run the race to go to heaven. You’re going to heaven because of what Christ did for you. But now as a Christian, God wants us to grow in the Lord, become strong and run the race. But He says, somebody did something to you.

Look what he says here. Who did hinder you that you should not, and here’s a problem, obey the truth. Did you know that every child of God would serve the Lord if they would obey the truth? The only reason you don’t serve the Lord with all your heart is because you’re not obeying the truth. You’re believing a lie. So he says, where did this persuasion come from. Who persuaded you? So wrong persuasion can hinder your walk with the Lord.

Somebody persuading you, convincing you of something that’s not true. And so that’s why he says here in verse 8, this persuasion come if not of him that called you. That didn’t come from God because God is not going to do anything in your life to keep you from growing strong in the Lord, walking with Him, serving Him. So anything that hinders your growth in the Lord didn’t come from God. Wouldn’t you agree with that? Why would God hinder you from growing?

He ain’t. And so he makes a statement here in verse 9, a little leaven, a little persuasion, a little sin, little things, leaventh the whole lump. In other words, a little sin tolerated in your life can ruin your whole life, totally ruin it. And you can be a child of God, you’re going to heaven when you die, but you’re never going to grow and become spiritually strong. And that’s why you have to be very, very careful. Now I want you to see this.

Look there in the book of I Corinthians in chapter 5. First Corinthians in chapter 5, chapter 5 talks about a person that was in the church that wasn’t doing right. They were living in sin, committing adultery. It was wrong. And the people should have been shameful of it. It’s like having the day, you know, everybody’s supposed to accept the homosexual lifestyle because that’s not wrong anymore. And to say something about that means that you need to go to sensitivity training.

Means that you’re the one with the problem because it’s acceptable now. Well, it’s not acceptable with God. It’s still sin and it’s still wrong. You can’t make it right. So he says here in verse six, “‘Your glory is not good. “‘No ye not that a little leaven, “‘leaven of the whole love.'” That’s the same thing we just read over there. It’s going to hinder you. It’ll hinder the church. They can hinder it ruin a lot. So he makes a statement here in verse 7, purge out there for the O-11 that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened.

God sees you as a piece of unleavened bread. It means no yeast, no sin. See, your new birth doesn’t have any sin. So God wants you to keep the feast oferennial bread. In other words, for the rest of your life, you’re supposed to live as though it’s a continual Passover. My life is got continual sacrifice unto the Lord. And there’s no sin in my offering. My body belongs to the Lord. I need to keep it pure, keep it clean and dedicated to the Lord.

And so he says there in verse eight. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old 11, neither would the 11 of malice and wickedness. That’s the very same thing you find over there in the book of 1 Peter in chapter 2 where it says cast out 11, cast out the malice and desire to sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by. It means don’t let that first birth, that old sinful nature control your life, don’t let a little 11 ruin the whole lump, ruin your whole life.

Be careful. And so he says in in the last part of verse 8. But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, serve the Lord in sincerity. Serve the Lord in truth. And you’ll be surprised how much better your whole life is going to be. Now look there in your notes. In your notes there in Matthew under number 5, a little faith. Now there’s times when we often say it’s not the size of your faith, it’s the object of your faith.

You see, you can put a lot of faith in that church pew to take you to heaven. Oh, I know I’m going to heaven because this church pew, I’m trusting this church pew to take me to heaven. Well, one, you’re nuts. That church pew can’t save itself. How’s he going to save you? But if you put a little faith in the Lord, you can go to heaven. But great faith in the Lord can bring heaven to the soul. Little faith takes the soul to heaven.

Great faith can bring heaven to the soul. So the Bible talks about this little faith and great faith. One time he talked about this Romans in Syria, he says, such great faith I have not found in Israel. Somebody who believed the Lord and his authority, you don’t have to come into my roof. I’m a man under authority. I say to these servants do this and they do it. He said, just speak the word. And he knew all Jesus just speak the word and it’ll be done.

And Jesus marveled over his great faith. But then there was a time when one of his own apostles saw Jesus walking on the water. And he says, can I walk on the water? He wanted a guy out of the boat and walk on the water. You ever want to do that? Did you know that I can literally walk on water? I told the people up there in Minnesota. I’ll be back in the dead of winter time and I’ll walk on water.

Those lakes up there, they freeze solid. And I’m going to walk on the water cause I didn’t. Well anyway, I wouldn’t try that in the middle of the summertime. But I would love to be able to walk on water. But Peter gets out of the boat and he walks on the water. And then he took his eyes off the Lord and he saw the waves and how boister they were and he got scared and what happened when he took his eyes off the Lord?

Started sinking. Well see that’s the way the Christian life is. God wants you to learn how to walk on the water. I’ll talk to the college kids in class this morning. How that when you walk on the water it’s trackless and it’s traceless because you can’t see somebody else’s footprints. You’ve got to learn how to walk with the Lord on the see and trust the Lord to hold you up. Live in my faith. Your confidence is in the Lord.

It’s not upon your sight upon what you see, but you got confidence in what God says and you can trust Him and He will come through. And it’s great when you learn to live like that. But it says there in Matthew 1431, immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith. Wherefore, this thou doubt? What is doubt? What is doubt? Little faith. The absence of faith. And so if you’ll feed your faith, your doubts will start to death.

But if you feed your doubts, your faith will start to death. So feed your faith. Study the word of God. And become stronger so that you’ll be able to discern that’s leaven that’s not good for me and you’ll be able to cast that out and cast that out. Things that can hurt and ruin and destroy your life. You’re willing to get rid of. Look at number six. James chapter three and verse five talks about a little member talks about a great big o ship and yet it has a little oleus rudder that can steer that great big o ship.

Then he uses the illustration to talk about, look how big your body is. You got a big old six foot body and yet look at that tongue. It’s not even close to being as big as your leg. It’s not as big as your arm. But you’d be surprised how much damage that little member can do, right? This little tongue of yours can set things on fire. You can cause people to love you or hate you. You can build people up and edify them or you can destroy them with that little tongue and How I know where can you control the tongue?

Because the tongue speaks what’s on the mind Unless you can control the mind you can’t control the tongue So how can you control the mind? By studying and putting God’s word in your mind and you’ll have control of the tongue so be wise Look at number seven, little love, little love. Wherefore I say unto you, her sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little. You know, sometimes when you realize, if you don’t think God has done much for you, He hasn’t done very much for me, you’re not going to love Him very much.

But when you see how great God is and how much He’s done for you, How greatly he loves you. Did you know the more you know he loves you, the more you want to love him back? And people have a love problem. Little love. The Bible says a little love, love covers a multitude of, what is that word? A multitude of sins. But when you don’t love the person, you want to expose the person, shame the person, humiliate a person, bring the person down, rub their nose in it and then walk on their back.

And God says, love covers a multitude of sins. So look down there at your notes. Where I have Proverbs 10, 12 says, hatred, stir it up strife, but love covers all sins. Does God love you? He didn’t only just cover it, he took it away and will remember it no more. You see, if we really love people, We don’t carry grudges against them because you forgive them. What it means is if you wrong me, you just gave me a hand grenade.

I can throw this back at you and explode you. So whenever somebody wrongs me, I just remember all these times they wrong me and I keep gathering all these hand grenades. Now, why am I saving these hand grenades? Because down the road, we’re going to have a war and I need to remember what you did to me. And whenever you say anything, I say, yeah, but do you remember, and I got these hand grenades because I’m planning for a war.

And that’s where most marriages are. But honey, that was five years ago. Yes, but you remember 10 years before that? And buddy, so forgiving somebody is giving him the hand grenades back. Why? I don’t need these. You wrong me I forgive you and have it back You have it back you have it back. Why because I’m not planning on the war You see the Christian life is not about how are you you know? You’re gonna respond and retaliate against all those people who wrong you You can’t be responsible for what people do but you can’t be responsible for what you do and the biggest thing you’ll find in the word is love one another provoke one another under anger or provoke one another under love.

So we’re told to challenge and motivate people to do what is right. Look at the next statement. Let it be there. First Peter of Force 8 and above all things have fervent charity or love among yourselves for love shall cover the multitude of sins. You see, when it’s not love and it turns to hate, envy and bitterness and jealousy, and then you want to try to destroy somebody because you hurt me. What if God had done that to you and me because we wronged him?

We forgive others. Why? Because God hath for Christ’s sake forgiven us. Look at the next statement. You therefore beloved, seen you know these things before. Beware lest you also… So then let away with the air of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. Now if you keep falling, you’re not going to grow too strong. You’re not going to stay too long because you keep falling, because you keep going in air in believing the wrong thing, having attitude problems, always having a bad attitude, bad attitude.

You like to be around people who always complain in bad attitudes. So you don’t want to be one of those kind of people. Always trying to find out ways how you can encourage people to do what’s the right thing to do. Now look at the last line here, the last line, growing grace. And in the knowledge, so you grow in grace and you grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. him be glory both now and forever, amen and amen and amen.

I shared just the other night, but I don’t mind telling you again because it was such a wonderful little story. I walked out here in the parking lot and I thought I would just take a survey of everything that I own and I realized, you know, just how rich I am. You know, people are talking about the lottery and getting that one and a half billion dollars and all that. And what they would do to it, and I’m listening to the radio and they’re talking about what they’re going to do with it when they win it.

And I thought, think of how they’re building their hopes upon something like that. Somebody asked me, says, have you ever played a lot of lottery yet? Did you get your tickets? No, I’ve never bought the first one. Don’t plan on it. Well don’t you care, don’t you want to, just think of all that money what you can do with Oh, yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But I don’t want to play the get rich, quick scheme. I’ve learned to, after all these years, just trust the Lord and do what I can with what I have and be content.

So I walked outside and I looked up in the sky and I thought, you know, that’s mine. That’s my sky. Vlogs to me. And all those homes over there? Those are all my homes. They all belong to me. See, me and my dad, we own all of them. And when you stop and think about it, when you go out at night and you look up in the sky and you see all those stars, those are mine. I know you didn’t know that, but they belong to me, those are mine.

Think for a moment if there was no person in all the world, no other person in all the world but me. I don’t everything, wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t everything be, I’ll be mine. And God made the world, but remember, when He made the world, It wasn’t made for him to see. He didn’t need to see anything. Everything that can be seen with a natural eye was created with me in mind, because he wanted me to see it. He didn’t need to see it.

Angels don’t need to see stuff. They’re spearbeins. But he made it and says, I’m free to enjoy it. So this whole world, if there’s not another person on the face of the earth, he made it for me. Now, if you want to look at it, I don’t care. It’s OK. And if you want to live in some of those homes, that’s fine. I got more than I need. And so I’ve let people say in a lot of my houses, and that’s fine.

I’ll look at some of those cars riding up down the highway, you know, those nice big old fancy cars and some of those sports cars and all that. And those are all mine. All of them are mine. They all belong to me. But I don’t mind that people driving because I can only drive one. I got one. So they can have those. because she between me and the Lord, they’re ours. Now, if you think the same way, it’s just that I don’t mind sharing with a seven billion more people, that’s all right.

I figured there’s enough to go around. And since God made the world, and He made it for me, didn’t He make the world and the garden of it? Didn’t He make that for Adam and Eve? Didn’t He make it for them? Didn’t He? He made it for them? Got everything prepared? So he made it for them. But they’re not here now, I am. So I took over. Everything belongs to me. Anyway, I walked down here to the, well I didn’t walk in the road, down to Village Inn.

I go in there and I sit down, got me a little bowl of soup, a cup of coffee. And the waitress, I don’t know if she was. I don’t think I’ve seen her before. She walked in, she sat down at my table. She looked at me and she put her hands on the table like this. She looked at me and she says, would you pray for me? I says, what do you want me to pray for? She says, I need a house for me and my son.

I had just left the parking lot looking at all these homes, and I’m sitting there at the village, and I looked at all these businesses, all these things. It’s all mine. All that’s mine. She walks in and she says, I need a house. I said, this is your lucky day. Me and my daddy, we got more homes than we know what to do with. I said, you’re going to take care of a few customers and come back and sit down and we’ll talk.

So she came back and I asked her, I says, do you know where you’re going and you’re dying? And she says, oh, you’re going to die. Yes. She said, I’m going to heaven. I said, really? She said, yes. I said, is there anything you could do between now and the time you died that could keep you from going to heaven? She said, oh, yes. I said, you don’t know where you’re going when you die because you think you can do something and not make it.

And you’re not God. So you don’t know what you’re going to do. So you really don’t know where you’re going when you die. She conceded. So I told her, says, isn’t the tree of her all your life take priced out on the cross and pay for all the sins of the world? She’s the other. I said, why did he do that? I said, because he didn’t want you to do it. He paid for all of your sins because he didn’t want you to pay for them.

I said, all he wants you to do is believe he did it for you. I said, can you handle that? She smiled and she said, I said, right now, will you trust Christ? She said, yes, I will. So she trusts the Lord. I told her, I said, did you know that by trusting Christ, you just became God’s child. And by the way, it’s my dad that owns all these homes around here. And then she started smiling. She finally caught what I was talking about.

And I said, he’s now your daddy. And I said not because he’s your dad. You’re his child. Did you know you can ask your daddy for anything you want? And if you’ll do right, your daddy will bless you and he’ll give you what you need. And she asked me about where the church was. She said, I’ll see you Sunday morning. I hope she shows up anymore. If she does, I’m going to point right to you. You be extra nice to her.

And she’s a little black-headed girl. But when you stop and think about everything that’s in this world that’s visible, remember he made this statement, faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things. Not seen. So everything you can see is the evidence of something that you can’t see. And when he says in Psalms 19, the glory of the Lord, I declare unto you, declare it to who? The angels? No. People, me. This world that he made, he says, it declared the handiwork of God and show it.

Shows what to who? Us. So when you walk out of here, you can look at everything. So it’s all mine. But I’m just letting everybody else use it. And you surrendered your rights and be content with what you have. And it’ll keep you from being envious and greedy for everything everybody else has. Because you see that person that has that great big old yacht out there? That’s my yacht and I’ll let them use it. I don’t have to have a horse.

All this need a friend that’s got a horse. That’s my horse. And I’ll let them use it. taken care of my horse for me. I know it’s a crazy way to think. But I’m just talking about it in your mind when you realize that God has freely given to us all things to enjoy. Well then, it must be for me. If there was not another person in this whole world, would it be mine if I was the only man in the world?

He owns a cattle on the thousand hills. He says the silver and the gold are mine. Well, are they or are they not? Am I not a child of God, heir of God, join heirs with Christ? You realize how rich you are in Christ. In Christ not only this world that He made for me, you ought to see my next home. You ought to see my retirement plan. I’ll listen to the radio and everybody on there is trying to figure out some way to get money from you to tell you how to save and spend your money for your retirement.

It just blows my mind. Everybody on is trying to find a way to get you to come see them so they can tell you how to save your money Now why are they doing that because they want your money? They’ve got to make money And so they got to convince you that I can help you But it’s going to cost you because they got to get some money out of that I thought wouldn’t it be needed for people to learn how to be content be content and let God bless you as he blesses you Just enjoy life because if you’re always living with that hope and expectations of something that’s gonna You know, meet all of my needs.

I’ve got the one that can meet all of my needs. It’s the Lord. I’ve got the Lord. And that’s the greatest thing in all the world. And when my health fails, I still got the Lord. Your wealth goes, you still got the Lord. He said he’ll never leave me and never forsake me. Didn’t he say that? I don’t know if he means it though. I would rather have the Lord than anything else in the world because everything else you can lose.

But anyway, look up here. The sin represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God, He loves us, but He hates our sin. And for us, to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. See, we’re all in the same boat. Everybody’s a sinner. Nobody’s perfect. So God says to go to heaven, you have to be perfect, no sin. But how do we get rid of it? Well, you have to pay for it.

Well, how do you pay for it? You’ve got to go to hell. That’s not good news. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God and the flesh. Came in this world, never committed a sin. So he wasn’t guilty of anything. He didn’t have to die. But because he loved us, he took our sins, paid for him on the cross, came back from the dead. Instead, if we would believe he did it for us, he would put the payment to our account.

We’d go to heaven on what Christ did for us. No tricks to it, no gimmicks. Best news in all the world. Can you believe that? Can you believe that if you trust Christ as your Savior, He’ll give you eternal life? Can you believe that? That’s the best news in the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior right now in the quietness of this moment, I’m not gonna have you stand there for come forward.

But I would like to know what I said made sense to you and say, you know that made sense to me. And I wanna know that I’m going to heaven when I die. And so tonight, I am going to trust Jesus Christ Him alone is my only hope of going to heaven. And the friend God said, if you trust Him, He would save you, give you eternal life, and you go to heaven. Not on what you do, but on what He did for you.

He loves you that much. Would you believe it? If you will, trust Christ is your Savior right now. I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand does not save you. I’m not getting embarrassed. I’m not going to have you stand there for coming forward, but right where you’re sitting. So that made sense to me and yes, I will trust Christ right now as my Savior and preach our light for you to pray for me Would you just slip in it very quickly and put it right back down?

Is anyone at all? Yeah, what at all? If you’ve already trusted the Lord you’d never have to do it again, but if you haven’t You need to trust Him. I’m not talking about trusting the church or some preacher. Just trust the Lord How can you go wrong by trusting the only true and living God there is? Anyone at all If you’re watching by internet Right there on the screen says, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. If you will, I pray that you would.

Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you do for us. Thanks for meeting our needs and providing for us the free gift of everlasting life. And Father, we do pray for some of our number that are not feeling well. And we just thank you so much for all you do for us and each person here. And everyone here has some problems. They got care, pressures, and we just pray Lord to grant us the wisdom we need to make right decisions.

It would learn discernment from your word. So bless our time together in Christ’s name we pray. Amen. 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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.