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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 want to have you turn in your Bible to the Book of Ephesians chapter 5. The book of Ephesians chapter 5. Now we’ve said this before and you know it’s true. You can have union and not have unity. You can join a man and a woman together in Holy Deadlock, a wedlock. Now you got union but that doesn’t mean you automatically have unity. You can take two cats, tie their tails together and thumb over a clothesline. Now you got union, but you don’t have unity.

So it’s some illustrations that have been given into Word of God, and I looked at them before and thought about them, but I guess the older I get, the more important I see that it is. That one of the greatest unions of all is the union that’s between you and your heavenly Father. Because once you’re born into God’s family, you are His child for eternity. It can never be severed. So there is a union there, but not necessarily unity because some of God’s children are not walking in harmony with their dad.

And how can two walk together unless they be agreed? And the Bible says that we sometimes walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit. So, we don’t always have this unity between us and the Lord. We have a lot of conflict in life. And so there’s a lot of problems that we have in go through. So look there in this verse here, look in verse 15 of chapter 5 of the book of Ephesians. Now we’ve talked about before the, you know, Christ is the master of the church and evangelism is the mission of the church.

And love is supposed to be the motive of the church. So we have an awful lot that’s revealed to us about the church in the book of Ephesians. And then he says here in verse 15, see then, see then that you walk circumspectly. often told that that’s like a long tail cat on a fence with barking dogs on both sides. You really got to just watch your step. And so we want to have the unity, the peace that we’re supposed to have between us and the Lord.

And if we take care of it this way between us and God, then it’s a lot easier to take care of it this way because the Lord will help you guide through it. Some people are just troublemakers always looking for trouble, trying to start trouble, trying to start a fire and sometimes they do it with the tongue and just cut and criticize them. And those things are not wise. But you’ll notice what he says here in verse 16, redeeming the time, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Now as a child of God we will get more out of our life if we stay in unity with the Lord. In other words, there ought not be things in our life that causes disunity where we grieve the Holy Spirit. And of course, it’s possible we can. And so when we do, then we quench the Holy Spirit because it means that we don’t get done what should be done. And so we quench him. He’s not able to flow through us the way he wants and get done what he wants.

See, this is all about what he wants done. just supposed to be a tool that he can use. And then he says here in verse 17, wherefore, be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. So the reason for knowing the will of God is because well we’re supposed to do it. So you study the Word in order to know the will so that you know you keep studying the Word and knowing the will and that in the Word and knowing the will and God keeps leaning and guide you as you go.

Then in verse 18, and be not drunk with wine because it doesn’t. Has an influence over you. It can influence you. And the best way never to get drunk is don’t take the drink. I’ve never worried about becoming a drunk. Because I have to take the first drink first. If I never take that first drink, I never have to worry about it. I’ve never seen anybody get drunk who didn’t drink. And I was also told that if you don’t hit the fifth on the fourth, you’ll be able to go fourth on the fifth.

But now look at the last part of verse 18. He says, but be filled with the spirit. It means you and I are supposed to let the Holy Spirit control our life. And as we’ve said before, you can be filled with hatred and hatred controls you. Malice, malice controls you. Envy and decontroes you. Everything you can mention, it controls you. But if you are filled with the Holy Spirit means that the Holy Spirit controls you. If you are controlled by love, that wouldn’t be a wonderful thing.

So you and I are to be filled by the Holy Spirit so that the fruits of the Spirit control us. So we have the patience and the maintenance and the kindness and all that’s that we’re supposed to have. But then he gets into explaining what he means by what he’s saying. So the Holy Spirit wants to control you and I in several areas of our life. So you see there in verse 19, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.

So does God want us to do that? Well, yes. So God must be concerned about the music we hear and listen to and so on. And verse 20, giving thanks, giving thanks once in a while for all things unto God, giving thanks always for all things. And the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that’s something God wants us to do. And see, the closer you are in obedience to the Holy Spirit and He controls your life, the easier it is to do all of these things.

But if you don’t stay right with the Lord strong in the Lord, then these things become a burden, a heavy burden because you don’t really want to do it and you don’t have the strength to do it because you’re not right with the Lord yourself. So it strips you of all your patience and your joy, your love and so forth. And it’s hard for you to be that shining Christian that you know you should be. Then he says there and it’s not a whole message on Mary, but they does make a few comments.

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God, submitting yourself. So, this is what really serving the Lord about, and we’re supposed to do this. And the wife submits to the man’s authority, and the man submits to the woman’s needs. See, the wisdom of the man is that he knows the needs of the wife, and he tries to meet those needs. And she has emotional needs and all that thing. So, you learn to be considered of each other.

Look in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 3, where it makes the statement here. Chapter 4 and verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in———————————————— the bond of peace. See this unity that God’s talking about is the Holy Spirit controlling your life. So then he makes the statement also there in verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect or a mature man into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So these are things that God wants us to do in our life. And so he says now, there’s things that the wife is supposed to do. There’s things that the husband’s supposed to do. And it says down here in verse 25, husbands love your wives as a continual act of kindness. Well, I was nice to her one time. Oh, that’s nice. But it’s a continual act of kindness, a continual act of love and consideration and all that. Even as Christ also loved the church, gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of what about the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

So what men to love their wives as their own bodies. Now, when He makes this statement here, when He comes to your body, isn’t it true that when He says in verse 29, you will nourish and take care of your body. It means when your body is hungry, do you like to feed it? And sometimes it’s hungrier than it needs to be, right? Sometimes you overfeed it sometimes,uilt Well, he talks about us meeting the needs of our mate. And he says his in verse 31, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one fled.

This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church because it’s a pipe of it. So we’re supposed to love one another, like the Lord loves us and so the man and is to love his wife and so on. And he’s the head of the home, and he’s supposed to be You Well, the one that pose to make the decisions and be the spiritual leader and the, you know, the, but a lot of men don’t. They don’t take up their role.

They don’t take it. And sometimes a woman will take it away from them. But it’s not set up sometimes away it’s supposed to be and it causes disunity. And there’s always the arguing because, you know, you don’t trust a person’s judgment. Well, you just don’t know what I’m married to. No, and I don’t want to know. And so there’s always this antagonism. In other words, it wouldn’t take much just to go, somebody’s got to adjust and all of a sudden, they can have peace and harmony that they want.

But it’s sometimes, you give in first, I will not you. No, no, no, you. And so they have the conflict of all their life instead of, it wouldn’t take much. And all of a sudden, everything fits and you’ll be surprised. Now, this is important. Take your Bible and turn there to the Gospel of John in chapter 10, the Gospel of John in chapter 10. In John chapter 10, there is this illustration that we’ve used before, but it’s because it’s right there in the Scriptures.

It’s about Jesus Christ being the good Shepherd. These illustrations are in the Word of God because it helps us to see what God meant by this unity because of the union. Now, you can have sheep and you can have a shepherd, but sometimes those sheep don’t belong to that shepherd. And he can call them and they won’t follow him because he doesn’t recognize their voice. And so it makes this statement that we have here in the Word of God, look there in verse 13, the Hireland and flieth because he is a harlin and careth not for the sheep.

In other words, there are pastors, there are a lot of preachers that don’t really care for the sheep. They don’t care whether you’re not, you grow spiritually or not, whether you have that peace and joy of knowing you have eternal life or not. See when you teach, for example, Calvinism and tell a person that you have to look at your life in order to prove whether or not you’re really saved, you call so much turmoil and so much pressure.

It’s undue. It’s not needed. And it causes people to worry about whether or not they’re really saved or not because they’re, well, I don’t really know if my good works are good enough because now you’ve got to look at the evidence to prove that you are genuine and start with. So you don’t need all that stuff. And then sometimes it’s preaching to who won’t warn the flock. See, we’re supposed to warn the flock when things are not right and teachers that are not right and people are already yo and things like that and some thing that goes on in the world because you can’t just feed the flock, although you just fatten them for the kill or if you just warn them and then you start them to death.

So there’s a thin line of trying to get that thing right. But notice what he says in verse 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known of mine. down there in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. See, there’s something between the shepherd and the sheep. Now, we have two natures and so we don’t always hear the shepherd and we don’t always follow the shepherd because we got two ears, one from God and one from the world and we have two sets of eyes and we see there but we also see here and we can sometimes love the wrong things, follow the wrong thing.

We hear the wrong things. And sometimes our whole lives get all messed up. And so, and we do have that, you know, union with the Lord, but we don’t have the unity that we ought to have because we don’t listen and we don’t follow. And so there’s conflict between us and the Lord. And the more you get out of shape between you and God, the more it’s going to happen with people. See, even though people don’t always do you right, God will never do you wrong.

So don’t take out your anger against God because of the way people are. And don’t treat God bad just because people treat you bad. And sometime whenever the Lord doesn’t seem to answer your prayers the way you think He should, don’t take it out on people. And you’ve known, you’ve seen people who somebody upset. I mean, next thing you know, they’re upset with everybody. And it don’t matter what you say or do, they just be main and ugly. And God doesn’t want that from his children.

He wants us to do what’s right. But I want you to look back here in the book of Ephesians in chapter one. Come back to Ephesians chapter one. And there’s two verses here that talks about the body of Christ, the body. Well, we are the body of Christ. We’re the church. Well, the body needs a head and you know that you have a body. And your head is connected. Have you ever heard somebody say, well, I’m glad that your head’s connected or you can figure where you placed it?

Well, I’m glad my head is connected to my body. But the body really doesn’t do much without the head. You’ve got to have a brain that tells you what to do and where to go and how to use all parts of your body. So we need the head, but the head needs the body. Otherwise the head can’t do anything. That’s why the Lord uses the illustration. What if you were nothing but a great big old eyeball? You were born, you were nothing but an eyeball.

But you could really see good. Boy, could you see? But you couldn’t eat. You couldn’t talk. Couldn’t smell. Couldn’t hear. But buddy, could you see? Well, God didn’t just make us a big old eyeball. He gave us a body with all kinds of parts to it, and every one of them is important. And they’re supposed to work together. Now, they have a union. They’re all joined together and there’s one body. But there’s supposed to be unity where the body works together as a unit the way God intended.

And sometimes you get a splinter in your foot and it can affect the whole body. you get an ulcer and somebody can really affect you, get a headache and see. I mean, the body doesn’t want to go. It’s just, you feel terrible. So there needs to be this. So look there in verse 22, and half put, all things, all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body.

So Christ is the head and we are the body. And the body is spiritually connected to the head. And so we need to be in union with them. So the body is not to go its own way and the head go another way. We will get more accomplished if we do what the head tells us to do. So the head gave us the word and the body is supposed to read, study the word, come together and function the way God wants is too.

So we have an authority. The church has an authority. It’s not the pastor, it’s Christ. He’s the head of the church. I’m just supposed to tell you what the head said by teaching the word of God says, and you have the Holy Spirit. So you’re supposed to study and verify whether or not, is that really what it says? I believe that God wants you to know the word of God just as well as I do. I’m just to lead you into things.

Bring things to you remembrance, but not always teach you some new thing because you’re supposed to be studying learning new things on your own. Do you ever read the Bible and find something on your own that nobody told you? It’s a wonderful feeling. You say, I’ve learned this all by myself. I’ve done that many a time. And then I’ll go off to some meeting and some preacher get up here and preach exactly what I said. And I can’t stand that.

No, not really. But I thought, I had it first and I hate somebody teaching some truth that I just found and nobody’s ever found this little nugget. And then somebody said, you know, I read that in the book of a hundred years ago or so. But you and I realized that we have someone that’s in charge of us. And so the head tells me what to do and the head tells you what to do. And if you listen to the head and I listen to the head, then shouldn’t the body be working together if we’re both filled, controlled by the Holy Spirit.

So if the Holy Spirit’s controlling you and you and you and you and you’re all being controlled by the Holy Spirit, shouldn’t there be unity and not just union. So we are supposed to unless not, is it possible for somebody to get bent out of shape? Does everybody in here have an old sin nature. Anybody have an old amalek? You don’t remember when I first came here, I used a little baby doll. Anybody remember that little baby doll? About three of you.

I’m gonna have to get out of Mike Tyson one more time. I, who remembers that? You couldn’t see that baby I did when I first came down here, I used that little baby doll. That was like our old sinful nature. This was Mike Tyson. He’s that one that wants to beat you up all the time, you know. He’s always after you. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of John chapter 15, the book of John in chapter 15.

Now you and I, we know that we’re supposed to bear fruit. But there’s a good question that somebody asked, and I’m going to tell you who asked the question. A lot of people ask the question, but he put it down in print. So, um… I’ll read it to you. In John chapter 15, let’s look there and look in verse 1, this is where you will find union but not so much as the unity where they work together. Look in verse 1, I am the true vine.

My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bear if not fruit, he take it the way in every branch that bear fruit, he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now, ye are clean to the word which I have spoken to you, abide in me, and I in you, and the branch, that the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except at a bident of mine. No more can ye except ye, bident me. I am the vine, and ye are the branches.

He that abideth in me, and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If If a man abide not in me, he is as cast forth as a branch and is withered. Men gather them and cast them into the fire and they’re burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Hearing is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples.

Now one thing to keep in mind. You can be saved and not be a disciple. And you can be a disciple and not be saved. You see, a disciple is a follower, a learner. And people who followed Christ in John chapter 6, and many who walked no more with him. But you can be saved and not follow him, not serving. And then there’s people who will follow and try to live by Christian principles and never trust them as their Savior.

But wouldn’t it be great if those who trust Him as Savior became good disciples? That’s what you want. Now here in John chapter 15 you have where he says, every branch in me, every branch in me. So we believe that the branch is the believer. Christ is the vine. And so the branch is in the vine. it’s in divine for a reason, because there’s certain natural juices to flows up and comes out to the vine and lo and behold, God wants us to have fruit.

So notice what it says there in verse two, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he’d take it away. So can there be a branch in the vine that does not have any fruit? You’ll see that causes a problem with those who believe that are Calvinists, believe in the perseverance of the faith, that there has to be fruit. There must be fruit because that’s the evidence that you’re in the vine. And if the branch doesn’t bear fruit, then that’s a sign you’re not really saved.

These are some very troublesome verses for some of them. Here’s what a person had asked this question. Name is Roger Frank Houser and he’s with the group that I had gone out and spoke a long time ago, pre-graced alliance. But this is one of the questions that was asked. such a person exist, one who claims faith in Jesus and produces no fruit. Is this person saved or lost? If he saved, no fruit. So what happens to those who don’t have any fruit?

You cut them down, throw them in the fire, they go to hell. They burn up. Look what he says in verse 6, if a man abiding out in me, he has cast forth his abrench and his withered, men gather them, cast them into the fire and their burns. See there? That’s what happens to all of those people who refuse to bring forth fruit. Now, wouldn’t it be nice if I interpreted the scriptures like that? I mean, it says this, but I mean, I put a little twist to it, that’s all.

So the question is, every branch in me that barreth not fruit can be there be a branch in Christ that does not bear fruit. Yes. And this is what He says. Even though He takes it away, whatever, but there was a branch that was in Him that did not bear fruit. He take it the way and every branch that bear fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now in this illustration, does it say that the one who brings forth fruit is really saved and the one who didn’t bring forth fruit isn’t really saved.

It’s not the evidences of salvation. This is talking about abiding in Him. It’s not how to be saved. It’s about God’s children following the Lord, obeying the Lord, serving the Lord. It’s talking about the unity that you have, not just the union that you have. So He tells us that this is what He wants us to do. Remember, the phrase, any branch in me, implies that this branch is a believer. Now I agree with that. Now the question, can I really know if a person has produced no fruit?

Because remember, many people who believe that you have to have evidences in your life to prove that you’re saved. Well then you automatically are becoming a fruit inspector because now you have to examine is there any fruit on that76561 branch? And if there’s no fruit on the branch you have to come to the conclusion that he’s not really saved. But let me ask you this way. How can I possibly know if indeed someone has no fruit in their lifetime?

Just because you have no fruit today and I don’t see any fruit today. Does that mean you will never have any fruit? Isn’t it possible that some people can be saved, maybe spend five, ten, fifteen years of their life and never win a soul to Christ? Is that possible? And then dedicate their lives to the Lord and then win thousands to the Lord. See, you were ready to put that guy into the hell and well he get some fruit later.

Are you and I truly qualify to decide and to prove accurate evidence that somebody has never brought forth any fruit? You and I would have to see every person, every day of their life, every moment of their life, to decide whether or not they have no fruit. You and I are not capable of doing that. So therefore, don’t go down that road. It’s a slippery slope. 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 friendsamdoules. 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 is 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend one day it will happen the trumpet will sound and we will be changed caught up to meet the Lord in the air so live today and every day believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up