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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

When we talk about serving the Lord, and we do talk about serving the Lord, We don’t just talk about how to get saved. We have a lot of things to say about the Christian life. That’s why Wednesday night, I spoke quite a bit on the storms of life. But if you don’t have any storms in your life, you’re not going to grow very strong. You have to have something that challenges your faith. And iron sharpness, iron, somebody rubs against you the wrong way.

I’ve been going through this for 52 years. I’ve said this over and over again. Most of my problems in the servant Lord is not with the lost people. They pretty much leave me alone. It’s always Christians. And most of your problems, if you live in church, well most of your problems are going to be with Christians because you’re going to say things and do things and we offend one another. I don’t know about you, but have you heard that there’s something going on that’s called the Olympics?

you heard about the Olympics, anything about the Olympics? Did you know that the Apostle Paul knew all about the Olympics, the games, the crowns, and that believe it or not that’s written in Scripture and it compares to the Christian life? You know I was thinking yesterday, I am in the Olympics. I am in the Olympics. I’m in something better than the Olympics. I am really running a race, but I’m running a real race. I do have a course that’s laid out.

I do have obstacles that I’ve got to jump. I’ve got hurdles. I’ve got all of that. The wrestling, the boxing, you name it, the accuracy. I’ve got everything that’s in the Olympics. I’ve got to do it too. But I’ve got to do it every day. I’m fighting real battles, and so are you. One of these days when we leave this old world, the Bible says that the trial of your faith in much more precious than gold and silver, they’ll be tried with fire.

She’ll be under praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So we have an award ceremony coming, and there’s gonna be something that’s gonna get the gold, And some going to get the silver and some going to get the bronze. But everybody is going to be rewarded according to what you did. But what I like about the race that God has called us to run is it’s not against people. It’s not against somebody else. I’m not trying to keep you from winning.

You see, the more people I can challenge and motivate the serve of the Lord, the better my chances are for the gold. Because our serving God is trying to motivate other people to do right. Did you know one of the biggest problems that every one of us have? It is called PRIDE. Things that challenge our pride. Most of our problems are not problems that are real problems. They’re just internal problems that deals with our pride. We don’t want somebody saying what I can and cannot do.

I’m a pastor. I like to do things my way. You want to do things your way. The biggest fight you’ll have in your home between husband and wife is you want to do it your way and she wants to do it her way. And believe it or not, the kids want to do it their way. Am I telling the truth or lying to you? It’s because of a thing. That’s why God’s Word says that’s one thing he hates. He hates it because he keeps us from accomplishing what we could accomplish.

But now I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of John chapter 5, John chapter 5 and verse 24. John chapter 5 and verse 24. You see, the judgment seat of Christ is the rewarding stand. Now salvation we know that’s simple, that’s free, that’s what we trust Christ as our Savior. He gives us eternal life and our sins will never be judged again. So he says in verse 24 of John chapter 5, it makes the statement, very, very I say unto you, he that hereth my word and believe it on him that sent me, hat, hat, hat.

half, right now half everlasting life, and shall not, that means in the future shall not come into condemnation. So that can never be done again. You can never be condemned. So you never have to worry about your eternal destination. Because that which affected your eternal destination was the payment for your sin. That’s been done. That’s the deal. It’s over. Never have to look back. Never have to worry about it again. I have eternal life. But does that mean that Christians will not be judged.

You are going to be judged. Does God know your attitude right now? Does God know my attitude right now? The other thing I want you to see is there is a judgment upon discipleship. You see there is no visible evidence of a person’s spiritual salvation because it’s a spiritual birth. But after you trust Christ as your Savior, God does want us as His children to follow Him, to be discipled by Him, disciplined. So the Lord wants to discipline us.

You say, I want to be a disciple of Christ. To be a disciple means you have to be disciplined. That means that you have to let Him tell you know or rebuke you or tell you yes or or lead you or stop you. And he’s free to do whatever he wants to do in your life. Do you believe that? Can you accept that? What if God uses other people in your life or circumstances in your life? Open doors for you or closed doors for you.

Or do you get mad at God? Because you’re not, I don’t get mad at God. Do you get mad at people? So the Bible tells us there’s some things that we need to know. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 14. Romans and chapter 14. In Romans chapter 14, look there in verse 10. In verse 10, that I want you to see just a couple verses here, verse 10, 11 and 12. Verse 10 says, but why does thou judge thy brother?

Or why doth thou set at not thy brother? In other words, we let people get under our skin. We judge whether or not they’re right or they’re wrong. And sometimes we have discernment and we can look at the facts and we come to a decision. But you see, we should never judge in the sense that we’re trying to destroy someone else and their character. That’s what we have to be careful of. And then the Bible says in this verse 10, or why does God said it not thy brother, though he doesn’t count?

He doesn’t matter. Everybody counts. Everybody matters. Did you know this? Look at me. I want you to believe something. Everybody’s having a rough time. All of God’s children struggle. Not every one of God’s children are going to please you. But I got news for you. You aren’t either. They’re not perfect. Neither are you. Neither am I. As time goes on I am going to offend you. I’m going to say or do something that will hurt you. But always remember, God didn’t.

God may use people but called sometimes you see God is perfect. Did you ever think about this? There may be a time when you need to be hurt. You need to be rebuked. You need to be told no. You can’t have your own way. Did you realize that There’s a God in heaven that knows what you need. And we don’t like to be disciplined, but that’s what the word means. To be disciplined, somebody that corrects us. So sometimes we don’t like to be correct.

I don’t like being corrected. That’s just the truth. I still have an old sinful nature. So I didn’t know that. I’m being honest with you. I do, I got one. And he’s bad. He’s always been bad. And he’s very rebellious. And God says that all of ours are looking at verse 11. As it is written for is it written, as I live, sayeth the Lord. Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us, get that, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.

That is a powerful, powerful birth. We’re in the Olympics. We have someone that’s watching for every file, every air, everything that we say and do. Because see, there is the judge that is the judge over all of us. And he is righteous in his decrees. There is nothing that you’re going to do in your race that your heavenly Father doesn’t see. He knows every trial you go through, he knows every heartache, He knows every obstacle. He knows every person.

He knows every item of everything that happens in your life. Yes or no? Is that God a good God, a righteous God, a fair God? Then why should we get down for any reason on anything? But because we have an old sinful nature, you’d be surprised how quickly we can be discouraged to get down. Do you think that the preacher ever has a down moment, ever get discouraged? Oh boy, I could write another book.

But anyway, take your Bible and look there in 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. These are freshening your mind again, though there are many of these things that you already know. But do you know the devil is real and he tries to get us to forget these things? Did you know most of the things that we worry about to get concerned about, to get all out of shape about? Or nothing. Most of it don’t mount to a hill of beans.

What’s the difference between a mold hill and a mountain? Just more dirt. And I had a person tell me one time says, don’t tell me worry and doesn’t help. 90% of what I worry about don’t happen. You know, it depends, I guess, on perspective. So you can print this in chapter five. I want you to look at this verse. Look at in verse nine, wherefore we labor that where is present or absent, that means in the body or out of the body.

We may be accepted of him. It means to well pleasing, pleasing God in all things. Like Paul says, whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord’s. And for me to die is gained. For Christ to live is gained. One day we’re going to stand before the Lord. And just like everybody watches it, see that one person from all over the world get all the praise, the honor, and the glory because they want something. But you know, sometimes those people, they work for years for something that might last 30 seconds and then they could lose it all.

The Bible says in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 9, they labor for a corruptible crown, even the gold, the silver, isn’t it? It don’t last forever. There’s something that God says, we’ll last forever. And that’s going to be that incorruptible crown. You and I are in the real world, the real race. Got a real course. You’re in the Olympics. You’re in the race. So you might as well run and give it all you got and believing that the Lord is watching everything that you say and do it and whatever anybody else out there in this world does to you is how you respond to it.

What happens to you and I are not important is how do we respond there in lies the pressure? Can you accept what God has for you? So he makes this statement here in 2 Corinthians. And verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. This is a rewarding stance called the Beem a Seat. It’s a rewarding stand where God is going to reward you and me for what has transpired in our life. And God knows it all.

Take your Bible look there in the book of 1 Corinthians 3. Corinthians chapter 3. I can’t stop your pressure. I can’t stop and solve your problem. I am not God. Most of your problems will be in one place. Look up here, right there. Most of your problems are right there. Most of my problems right here. It’s not out there. So it doesn’t matter what happens out there. It’s what happens in here. Is my trust in the Lord? Who am I allowing to steal my joy or my happiness or my peace of mind?

Only you can do that. Nobody can take it from you without your permission. You can be as happy as you choose to be, as submissive you want to be, or rebellious as you want to be, or filled with the peace and the joy of the Lord that you want. So what do you want? Be it unto you according to your faith.” Now, having said that, here in 1 Corinthians in chapter 3, he says there in verse 11, there is no foundation that can be laid, except that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.

He’s the foundation of all week you and I are resting. We are trusting. But he says, let every man take heed how he build it upon the foundation. See, that’s in the last part of verse 10. He said, I’m a wise master builder. See, the one of the greatest things you will ever build is your own life. That’s why he says, building up yourselves in your most holy faith. Can you allow the Lord to build you? And he may use a lot of different items, pressures, the trials and tribulation, the temptations of life.

He uses everything to build you because he only knows what he’s trying to make out of you, and you’re to trust him. But you take your life and you look at it as though a person is making a cake. How would you like a big old mouthful of baking soda? What about a mouthful of lard? Mouthful of salt, mouthful of flour. And yet the lork can take the right ingredient, the right amount of each ingredient that happens in our life, put them together and can make you strong, the way he wants.

But those individual things by themselves are yuck. And so sometimes as you look at your life, God may have just given you a mouthful of bacon soda or a mouthful of salt. And you don’t like the individual thing. Does that make God bad? Does God know what you need? Does God know what he’s working on in your life? Don’t you want God to reveal areas in your life your weekend and need to be stronger? That’s what God does. So God is working on you.

You’ve heard that little song the kid saying, he’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It’s a cute little course, but he ain’t finished with me yet. He ain’t finished with you yet. See, what I have to realize that God may use you to help build me stronger. Now, I may not like that, But he might do that. He might use me to help you to get a little bit stronger. I, at times, may be that mouthful of Lord that you can’t stand.

That is something very good, isn’t it? And maybe you want to spit that experience out of your life, but God knows what he’s trying to make. God knows what he’s trying to do. So he says in verse 12, if any man’s built upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, head, stubble, what do you want? Every man’s work shall be made manifest, shall be revealed. For the day, the day of Christ, shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire as the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

So God says, He’s going to do that. I believe He’s talking about the judgment from the eyes of God as He sees things. See you and I may think, boy, I’ve got a lot of gold, silver and precious stones. And when we get to heaven, we have a big old bonfire. You may want to bring some hot dogs. We may have a cookout. But anyway, if you look what he says here in verse 15, If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer lost.

But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Know you not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you, your God’s child. God is going to allow you to be tested. We are in the Olympics. We’re running a race. Our race isn’t over yet. So God knows what you’re facing. God knows what you’re going through. Put a smile on your face and be encouraged. Be strong, and as the Bible says in the book of Joshua, and very courageous, because you know as you meditate upon the Word of God, there’s nothing in this world that can steal from you, that which God has for you, except you.

And you are the one that determines that. I have so many things that happens in my life that I want the best. And I’ve often wondered, Lord, what could have been done if everybody would just do everything I should. But you know everybody else is saying the same thing. And it’s amazing that God ever gets anything done. You know our work is built generally upon the temporary dedication of God’s people. Wouldn’t we need if we could all stay fully focused, fully on top, all the time, fully charged.

But our batteries are on low. And sometimes we’re not like that energizer bunny that just keeps going and going and going. You ever think of quitting to stop it? I mean, you’d have had enough. Just stop serving Lord. Who do you think would be glad? The Lord or the devil? Think it through. The Lord or the devil would be so thankful for your stop serving him. Remember, he has never failed you. He’s never done you wrong, and you never have to worry about that.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews in chapter two, the book of Hebrews in chapter 2. I want to show you a verse that I really love it. Because it’s so simple. Yet it says so much. It says so much. Hebrews chapter 2, look in verse 9. Verse 9. But we see Jesus. We see Jesus. Last week I mentioned to you about the people there in John chapter 12, sir, we would see Jesus.

We would see Jesus. Do you know who the author and the finisher of our faith is? Where in Hebrews chapter 12 he talks about looking unto him, consider him, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. But he stayed focused. He came for a reason. There was a purpose. He had a race to run and he says it is finished. He finished his race. Paul made the statement, I want to finish my race and run my court with joy.

Whatever it is God has for you to run, run it with joy. Look what he says here in Hebrews chapter 2. In verse 9, but we see Jesus who has made a little lower than the angels. I wonder why God made him lower than the angels. He came into the world. Why didn’t he just come down as an angel? Well, he said it was made lower than the angels. Well, why was he made lower than the angels? For the suffering of death.

He had to humm- Look how God allowed his son to be treated. Do you expect to be treated better? Did you know he said when he was here, if they do this to me, what do you expect? Everybody to love you, worship you, praise you. That ain’t gonna happen, Captain. Not in the real world. You’re gonna be misunderstood, and you’re gonna misunderstand. Because nobody here has a perfect mind, perfect recall, perfect love, perfect obedience. We fail so much in so many ways.

But he says, for the suffering of death, get this. If you just read it this way, but we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. He came into the world to taste death for every man because God wants every man to have eternal life. Even the people that did him wrong, he did him right. You know, Christ never did anything wrong to anybody. Do you know when He took the cord and He beat the people out of the chain of money changes, out of the temple, you know, He was still doing right?

Now, was it wrong? When God gets angry at you, did you know He’s still right? You’re still wrong. There’s God and there’s you. You without God or nothing. God without you, still God. Look at the next verse. Look at verse 14. Verse 14 says, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. He also himself likewise took part of the same that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death. That is the devil.

Did you know the one thing God doesn’t want is for the devil to have power in your life? How does the devil have power in your life in my life? And not just in death. Because he can use your old sinful nature. Don’t let the devil use your own sinful nature. nature to destroy your testimony. When you take your eyes off the Lord, you’re capable of anything. That’s why I need you to pray for me and that’s why I need to pray for you and that’s why you ought to make sure that pride is not governing your life.

Did you know it can make you angry and bitter and filled with hatred? It does so much to you. That oh sinful nature, that’s the devil using your Oh, sinful name. God says, I died so that he doesn’t have power in your life. God gave to us the Holy Spirit, the power that raised up Jesus from the dead is the very same power that lives in our life. And you have all the power you need to serve the Lord and to honor God if you let him, if you’re yield to him.

But the only thing that keeps you from yielding to the Lord and being what you ought to be is PRIDE. True? Don’t you think there’s all those people out there that need this sermon? No, we need to understand and remember because it’s so important. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and you know where we’re headed. Communion. I want you to examine your own… No, don’t worry about examining anybody else.

Just yourself. If there’s things in your life that are not right, what should you do? Get mad. Blame somebody. Talk to the Lord. The Lord, my attitude’s not right. I’m your child. I’m running a race. I haven’t been doing too good. I think I might have had my eyes off of you and not focused as I ought to. Then a few obstacles in my way, and I’ve kind of stumbled a little bit. Did you know if you admit that to God, that’s humbling yourself?

Most of the time, to humble yourself. Humble yourself. It’s like, Lord, I was wrong. Or I was wrong. Do you know God says in his word that he is faithful and just to forgive? And then you can go ahead and serve the Lord. Keep on running. Keep on running. There ain’t no one yet. And one day when we stand before the Lord, it’s going to be a wonderful time. You might just be standing up there and getting a gold medal from the Lord for some trophy, crown.

That day is coming. It is real. It’s an incorruptible crown. And there’s somebody who’s watching our race. 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 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. But the trumpet will sound and we will be changed. God 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.