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

Look at the next one there. 1 Corinthians 13-10 says, 1310 says, but when that which is perfect or complete is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. See they didn’t have the complete word of God. And so when the word of God was completed, well then you don’t need those sign gifts. The word of God is complete. You don’t need anymore. There’s not going to be any more scripture. This is all we need. And so we don’t believe an extra biblical source of authority.

Now there’s all the religions that got a lot of extra biblical sources of authority and we call those cults. Look at the next statement. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 9. I want you to look at this in your Bible because there’s a good statement here and I wrote it down but I want you to see it. And 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Corinthians chapter 12 and where he says in verse 9, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee.

Now you notice God did not remove the problem. You see as time goes on, some of us are going to have some difficulties. You can have financial difficulties and God not solve the problem. It doesn’t mean God’s going to always give you all the money you need to do everything you need. Doesn’t mean you’re always going to have good health. One of the days you might get an illness or a sickness and find out you’ve got cancer or you’ve got this or that, or you name it.

And God won’t heal you from it. And you may have to endure. But he says, my grace is sufficient to see you through it. Not always to deliver you from it. But sometimes God would just believe in God, we’ll walk you through it. You’re going to suffer in this lifetime. We’ve said this over and over again, but just to hit it one more time. Now notice the next part of the verse. He says, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

My strength is made perfect. Now I want you to look there in your notes that I wrote down. If your strength was equal to his strength, you would not recognize his. You see, if your strength was as strong as gods, you wouldn’t recognize his. You wouldn’t need His. You would be able to handle it all by yourself. The God says His strength is made complete by the weakness of your strength. Because you can see and recognize God had to do this.

Or I committed this to the Lord and you learned to trust the Lord. And He’ll give you the grace to keep walking through whatever the turmoil may be, whatever the heartache may be. And there’s gonna be a lot of pain in life. There is a lot of grief. I made the statement the other night, and I was talking to some of the missionaries, and I related to them. Even though I’ve been certain, Lord, for the 50 years, everything that I’ve done has always been under stress.

I’d like to say I had no stress whatsoever. You know, because the doctor or tell you, it’s stress isn’t good for you. But stress was always pressure upon me to get something done, to do something. And a lot of you don’t want that stress. I feel like God put a burden upon me, gave me a responsibility. And I felt stressed to fulfill that responsibility. And I’d love to be able to say, I had absolutely no problems. I walked through it as a man of courage.

I had faith that you wouldn’t believe. And it was so easy. No, I struggle through just about everything I’ve done in the Christian life. But the key thing was, I always knew the Lord would walk with me through it. And all the stress, see, you don’t need courage if there’s no stress and no fear. Courage is fear that says its prayers and goes ahead. I was talking to Berbeau-Bodram and he told me he says, he’s had nothing but stress since he’s been in the ministry.

You may think, I want to do something where there is no stress at all, no pressure upon me. No, we’re always under the gun. There’s always this burden. Paul talked about, I am always burdened down. And yet at the same time, he talks about rejoice in the Lord always, in the Lord. But there is the pressures of life. There was people trying to kill him. All the things that he went through, all the hardships. You read the chapter right before this chapter.

And you’ll see why Paul says his grace was sufficient because in spite of everything that people did, whatever they said, the cares of all the churches. He says his grace was sufficient. Grace to keep you going, so that you didn’t stop. God wants you to be complete. Complete means that I can rest in the Lord in spite of all the stress of the world. The fear of failure, the lack of participation from somebody else that could have maybe helped it make it a little bit easier.

You’ve got to do it anyway. So just keep doing what you’re supposed to do and God will bless you because of it. Look there in your notes there to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 13, the very next verse, “‘Til we all come into unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, a complete man, a man that’s no longer a child that’s tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. So you learn how to trust the Lord and grow up in the Lord and speak the truth and speak the truth in love and that you don’t walk the way you did when you were a lost man.

All these things are important. In Colossians chapter 1 verse 28 says, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man, and all wisdom that we may present every man perfect or complete mature in Christ Jesus. Does God want us to be mature? So that’s why we look at people and we think, how can I help that person if they know Christ? How can I help them to grow stronger in the Lord? When I look at the teenager, the college kids, I want them to grow stronger in the Lord.

I look at all the people in the church. I want you to grow strong and be strong in the Lord that regardless of what the devil does, regardless of how many pressures you have, regardless of your sickness, your finances, the social problems, I don’t care what the problem may be. You’ll still walk with the Lord and give Him credit and give Him praise and be complete as a man of God on the beat. Everything may not work out to your advantage.

But if it blesses God, you can bless God through anything. Does God know what we’re going to face before we face them? Yes. And He allows us to face them. He doesn’t always deliver us from all these things. Especially when you’re living in this old world. Let the problems of life have its perfect work. I want you to see this because I, well I got it down here, I’ll show you in just a minute. Look at the next statement, Colossians 4-12, Epathras, who is one of you a servant of Christ, so who did you?

Always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete. So I was thinking, here’s the word perfect and here’s the word complete. Why would he say complete, complete, or perfect, perfect? Because you look up the word perfect and then we say the word complete. You look up the word complete And it’s a little bit different of a word. And that’s because there’s something God wants us to know about this, accomplish the fulfillment of your maturity.

See, God wants us to be mature. Now, complete that which maturity demands. If you’re grown up in the Lord and you’re mature in the Lord, do you think you’re supposed to be mature in the Lord and then do nothing? Or is the purpose of maturity to complete the will of God for you? Is it just a matter of you knowing what the will of God is? Or is it doing the will of God? I think that you know. So God wants us to be perfect.

Complete in Him. So that we can do what God wants us to do. So it’s a matter of knowing and doing the will of God. Look at the next statement. Also I have here in the book of 1 Thessalonians 3 and verse 10 says, night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. complete that which is lacking in your faith. This is what helps us as children of God when we fellowship with one another and we share things with one another.

Sometimes you can find out where they need help. And some people need special prayer. I’ve had some of the missionaries that have gone and this morning we had Nadine, she left. But she came into the office before she was ready to leave and she was ready to walk out of the offices, I got to go and I just wanted to tell you goodbye and all that for. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let’s have a word of prayer.

So pray for her. I want her to have safety. I want to thank the Lord for her being able to come and for the thing that she’s been able to learn. And I remember when she first came to our camp and I’ve seen how the Word of God and a lot of people counseling who saw that she was lacking in a few things concerning her faith and have been able to stabilize her. Ain’t that true? Y’all have seen that.

And now her attitude, everything is totally different. But to watch them grow and mature in the Lord is such a blessing. It’s a wonderful thing. I looked the other night and lo and behold, sitting beside John, John was a young boy. And I didn’t recognize the boy. So I walked up and next thing I know, I says, Do you know where you’re going to go in your dias? Look to me and he says, yeah, you told me. Remember? It was one of the guys that worked on it.

I got it. And said, never said that. But John has him here in the service, and he’s listening and learning and growing. And then we had a lady sitting back there the other night, and I failed to give the gospel as clear as I ought to. But I always know, and I’m counting on you, recognizing And there is a person that I don’t know and somebody ought to make sure they talk to them before they get out of here, right?

One on one is still the best. But Peter got a hold of her, she trusted the Lord and then squalled out there in the parking lot. Just thrilled. And then Betty told me about a lady down the hall here and I went down there and talked to her and she started crying on me. You see some people, the gospel, it just does something to people. get to the place where you get, well, it’s old to you. You just take it for granted.

And it doesn’t work anymore. There’s nothing there. It’s like this man walking through a restaurant. And he says, is that seat saved? I says, no, but it’s under conviction. A lot of people need to get under conviction, where they realize they’re lost and they need to be saved. Everybody needs to be saved. I like that. I think that was pretty good. You get that right down there. You’re going to write that down. All right, look there in 2 Timothy 3 17, there in your notes, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works.

To be mature, that the scriptures, all scriptures given by inspiration of God, that God says that there’s enough scripture, all that you and I need to equip a man to do the work of God. And so he means to be thoroughly furnished, fully equipped and to do all good works. So you and I, the scriptures tells us that the Word of God is sufficient, it’s sufficient to do whatever we need to do. So we’re to read, study it, memorize it, and it’s what we need.

To be complete the way God wants us to be. Now I want you to take your Bible looking in James chapter one, the book of James in chapter one. James chapter 1 is right after Hebrews. James chapter 1, it makes this statement in verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. All the different testings and trials you can go through. Why? Because they’re going to do something for you. It proves to you what you don’t know.

There are testings that reveal to us. Problems reveal how strong you are in the Lord. Because how do you react? How do you respond when things don’t go your way? I’m still working on this very, very hard. I am just, I’m okay as long as everything goes my way. And right then, he goes your way, everything’s fine. But if it don’t go your way, oh, now you’ve got to attitude problems. You’ve got to figure out how to make this thing work.

I still remember one of the best sermons I think I’ve ever preached on marriage. It had to deal with and the war began. Y’all remember that sermon? And the war began. I got more compliments on that sermon than any sermon I ever did. And it was just a simple little message about, you know, the wife comes into the living room and their husband’s sitting there watching TV and she says, what’s on TV? He says, dust.

And the war begins. Something so simple, you know. But there’s a lot of things you’re going to go through in life. And isn’t it amazing that when the Bible talks about the suffering things, it talks about warning us about there is going to be this trial of your faith. Then he talks and gives us an example, chapter 2 about Christ is the example that we’re supposed to follow about this suffering business. You suffer now glory later. God is going to reward us when we get to heaven because of all the sufferings that we’ve gone through, but we honored Him in the midst of the suffering.

Then in Chapter 3 talks about marriage and if you want to know what is suffering like, we’ll get married, you’ll find out. But there’s a lot of adjustments that has to be made when a man and a woman get married and you’ve got to find out who’s in charge. Fifty percent of all the war they have. I’m in charge. No, you’re not. I’m in charge. No, you’re not in charge. And then there you know. And so there is to be the head and there’s supposed to be some wisdom and I had a woman tell him about you don’t expect me to obey that old man do you?

I said well you decided to marry him didn’t you? Why did you marry him? Well they think they could well I’ll change them after we get married and then they try and then it doesn’t work or you know all kinds of things. But it’s a time of suffering. additional problem. There is enough natural problems when a man is single. But when he gets married he has a few more. And if he has kids he gets some more. And if he gets some grandkids, everything is forgiven, everything is wonderful.

That’s all right. And you move that along. Then in the next chapter it also talks about government. How to deal with government because you’re gonna suffer with government. You’re gonna suffer at home. You’re gonna suffer all these things and you suffer as an individual in chapter 4 and then he talks about the devil in chapter 5 but learn to put your confidence in the Lord and trust him to walk you through all the problems. He’s not going to solve all your problems that’s why I don’t ask God to always heal everybody because I know he’s not going to.

Lord I want you to help this person to learn what they need to learn. I’ll pray that they’ll draw closer to you. I pray that you’ll give the straight, thringing the grace that they need. But it’s not always to remove the problem. So keep that in mind. There’s nothing wrong in asking them, you know, that they can get well and healed and have the money to meet and all those things like that. But God may have a higher purpose that we don’t know about.

And you might have to accept that. Now notice what he says in verse three, knowing this, that the trying of your faith work with patience, but patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing or lacking nothing. In other words, it makes you complete. In other words, let the perfect work produce the completeness that you need. So this is why you have to go through life and you’re going to be tried and let that trial accomplish what God wants it to accomplish.

Let me show you this one. The next one is 1 Peter chapter 5 and go to it again because that’s really where we are. In 1 Peter chapter 5 you know that the devil is alive and well on planet earth. You know he wants to ruin our lives, our testimonies. And so you’ve got all these things that naturally happened to you but always remember the devil is the one who offers the cheese. There’s something inside of us that likes cheese.

So the devil offers us the cheese. You know, where’s this whatever it is to lure us away, the little trinkets of life and so forth that get’s all he’s saying. Let me give you a good example. You take a man like Donald Trump. Have you ever noticed that sometimes he has such good substance and then it’s like he has a little piece of cheese that can lead and go astray and he’ll chase that little piece of cheese and he gets in trouble with it.

Instead of just staying with the bulk of the stuff, the real good meaty stuff, it chases a little piece of cheese. But… Here in 1 Peter, notice what he says in verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because you’re adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walk at the bout seeking whom he made devour. That’s one of the problems you’re going to have in life. There’s a devil on your trip, there’s a lion after you, a lion, a real lion chasing you down.

And that lion is the devil. You see, the problem is he can see you, but you can’t see him. Now the Lord tells you that he’s there and you’re to walk circumspectly. Always, look and expect in the devil to get you at any time. And he lays some traps for you, trying to deceive you, lying to you, get you off track, get you worried. He’s busy. He works. to devour you. In verse 9, whom resist, whom resist, get steadfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

They’re going through the same thing. Just about everybody faces sooner or later the same thing. Every one of us in this room, the older we get, we know that we’re running out of those good days in those good years. We’re getting closer and closer and closer and we just wonder, I wonder who’s next. I said something one day to my younger sister. I shouldn’t have said it.

But I did enjoy saying it, but I shouldn’t have said it. When my mama passed away and then my sister, Nat, she passed away and then Lizzie, she passed away. So that’s all three of the women gone. But I still got K and I got sibble and they’re both younger than me. So I told K, I said, see, God has taken the women first K. And you’re next. Because he hints a lot on what I say and did because she knows her big brother is the preacher.

And I said, I said, I said, oh, oh, oh, I felt so bad afterwards, but after I got through laughing, I realized that I shouldn’t have said that. Because I don’t know who’s gonna be next. I said, okay, just understand this. Even though she’s younger, I said, you’re not my oldest sister. I didn’t help either. That didn’t help a bit. But this verse, good verse to remember, verse 10, But the God of all grace who had called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while.

Remember, you can endure anything for a short period of time. One day at a time, just one day at a time, you can handle that. Now you may not be able to handle month and years at a time, but one day at a time, you can trust the Lord. And He’ll give you the grace you need for day and then when tomorrow comes he’ll give you the grace for that day and the next day of that day and just trust the Lord and keep walking with him and he says this after that you have suffered a while make you complete make you complete in other words that the troubles that you have builds you into the person God wants you to be so once again if you look at the first line there in your notes suffering is God’s way of revealing our spiritual condition

How are you responding to the hardships of life? The things that you get bad news. And all of us, one of the days, is going to get a phone call. And how are you going to respond to it? We may not know everything in advance, but we know that those days are coming. Build yourself strong in the Lord. And you just trust the Lord to walk you through it, whatever it might be. Remember, I heard a good statement. Don’t tell God how big your problems are.

You just tell your problems how big your God is. And a little faith will take your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to the soul. So once we trust Christ as our Savior, just putting your faith in what Christ did for us will take you to heaven. But learning how to trust the Lord and believe what God says will bring you peace, tranquility in your heart. And I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trusts us in the Lord.

So trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God loves us. Now He hates our sin, but He loves us. But for us to pay for the sins… And we should. We committed him as eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us who wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven you have to be perfect as righteous as the Lord.

And none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’ve all sinned. And because of sin we can’t get in. So God says you cannot save yourself. You don’t go to heaven by trying to get rid of your sins and trying to do better. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. came into the world because He loves us. H.R. sin because our sin separates us from Him. So what Christ did, for one person He had to do for everybody, Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, but He took all the sin of all the world and paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said, the only thing I want you to do is believe that I did that for you.

I am simply told to believe He paid for my sin. Now why don’t I have to pay for my sin? because He paid for my sins. Why am I not going to hell? Because I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for all my sins. That’s why I’m not going to hell. That’s how I know I’m going to heaven because I know I can’t go to hell. Christ died for me. It’s amazing how many people hear this, but they don’t get it.

Salvation is the gift of God. It’s not a works list. Any man should boast best news in the whole wide world. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads bowed nice, closed, and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior or if you’re watching by internet, I pray that what I’ve said helps you to understand that God does love you. And He did something about your sin that you couldn’t do. He paid for it, came back from the dead.

And He did that because He loved you. He didn’t want you to have to pay for them. He wants you to go to heaven. So He made it simple. He made it free. It doesn’t cost you anything. The only thing he wanted you to do was believe that he did it for you. And if you will believe he did it for you, he puts that payment to your account and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you.

I pray that you trust the Lord tonight if you’ve never done so. With his bow knives closed, no one looking around, if you have never trusted the Lord, would you do it right now? I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense and I like to have prayer for you. Is anyone at all before we close? If you’re watching my internet right on the screen and says yes I will trust Christ as my Savior.

If you’ve never done so, do it right now. Our Father we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. And Father, help us to understand that we’re to trust you even when we can’t see you and we don’t understand why and we’ll go through a lot of things in this life that you may not heal our bodies. You may not give us all the fineness as we want. We may suffer in this life.

We may have to do without. We may be defrauded by friends. We can be rejected and we can be hurt and people can treat us in a cruel way. But Father, you said first the suffering and then the glory and that the trial of our faith is more precious than gold and silver. So we ask now your blessings upon each one here. And especially those that may watching by internet that’s never understood, never trusted your Savior and I pray that they would.

So bless us, give us a good week in Christ and 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. Hada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.