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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 BibleInemistries.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.

This is part two on my Sunday school lesson from this morning. I hope that this will help you to understand a little bit better. You’ve heard me teach on these things many times, but you’re always praying for clarity of mind that while you’re talking, you say the things that need to be said so that you dwell on the right things and pass over the things that are not as important. Did you know that knowing what not to say takes as much of the grace of God as knowing what to say?

and when to dwell and when to move on, it’s a very interesting thing. But if you look at this, the conflict. In our Christian life, we have conflict. People conflict with other people all the time. You have conflict in the home, you have conflict at work, you have conflict in school, you have conflict in college, university, you have conflict everywhere you turn. And even in church, you can have conflict. In other words, people grinding against one another, irritating each other.

Now yesterday morning we had our Bible study for iron sharpened with iron. And we looked at a verse in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verse 10, and talking about how that iron can be blunt. In other words, if you’ve got a blunt knife, it doesn’t cut. It’s easy. So you have to work harder at it. Your Christian life is pretty much the same way. Whatever the word of God is, it can make you. If the word of God is sharp, it can make you sharp.

Powerful, it can make you powerful. Sharp of the two-edged sword, so that the things you think and the things that you say is easy for you to do. And so that’s why when it says, study the show thyself approved under God a workman. That doesn’t mean a hacknet to death. It means with one clean swift stroke you can rightly divide the word of God. It’s easier when you know right from wrong. All your decisions are easy when you have settled the most basic thing of all.

You see, years ago, about 50 I recall, I made up my mind. I am going to serve the Lord regardless. Now, since that decision has been made, all the other decisions in my life are in relation to that decision. But see, if you haven’t made up your mind on that decision, it’s kind of like this. I joined the Navy. I go to boot camp and the guy says, you’ve got to cut your hair. I say, what? I’m not cutting my hair.

That’s one of the things you got it. I’m not cutting my, you’re not gonna make me cut my hair. You realize how long it took me to grow this? So I can battle with that, but I already know I’m gonna lose because they’re the final word. This is okay Arnold, this is your uniform. You wanna hear and you pick up the shirt, you pick up your pants, you pick up your shoes, you pick up your socks, you pick up your underwear, all these things, go through that line, you’ll be like, well I’m not wearing that.

And I can fight with them on that. And say, we’re now we’re going to chow. I’m going to bed. I can fight with them on that. You hear Rively in the morning. Rively, Rively, Rively, Rively. He might have thrice up full up for time by five minutes on the double and let’s go. Let’s move him over, move him over. I ain’t going nowhere. I haven’t got my beauty sleep in yet. I can fight with him on that.

When should I have made up my mind that I was going to obey instead of having to fight all these little decisions before I ever went in. Before I signed on that dotted line and took that oath of office, I should have made up my mind. I will do whatever you want me to do. And then see, it doesn’t matter what they tell me, I’ve already done made the decision the rest of it’s easy. But if you don’t make that decision to do whatever they tell you to do, you’re gonna fight on everything that goes on in your life.

And that’s what goes on in Christian’s life. That’s what happens in marriages sometimes. When should a man and a woman decide they’re gonna, I’m gonna love my wife and provide and protect and love all this wonderful stuff. And she’s gonna, yes, I’m gonna yell sweetie pie and just yell, you’re gonna be mad, just like, sweetie sweetie sweetie. Honey honey honey honey honey, just drool all over the place. When should she make up her mind and be serious about it?

After they get married, then she fights over everything and he does the same thing. They’re supposed to have made the decision before they got married. But you have a con, con and another con, and so two cons, can’t do anything for the rest of the life. So they’re all these battling, they make up your mind. I’ve made up my mind years ago, I am gonna serve the Lord. So in the midst of that, now when all these other things come up, Lord, just whatever you want, or whatever you want.

Lord, you ain’t got, we ain’t nor again at all, we’re not fighting at all, cause we’re gonna make up my mind. I’m gonna do whatever he says to do. I’ll go wherever he says to go. I’ll be whatever he wants me to be. So I don’t have to fight it no more. So now life becomes easy, because that decision’s been made. But if you don’t make the decision, you wanna take away every one of those little decisions, well then I don’t know if I wanna do that or not.

I don’t know, I don’t know. That’s right, you don’t know nothing. If God is God, certain. If he’s the Lord and he claims, certain. So you’re gonna battle in your Christian life. Look up here, part two, we’ll explain the conflict in the victory of Romans 7, and Galatians 5, by the stories of Mr. Law, Mr. Love, and Amalek of old. You say, we’re gonna cover all that today? Lord willing. All the lost are under the law. Who’s the lost?

That’s all the people who have not trusted Christ as their Savior. So in Romans 3 19 it says, now we know that what things so ever the lost say it. it’s safe to them who are under the law. That means everybody born into the world is under God’s law. God’s the one that says what’s right. God says what’s wrong. And he says that his law is right and perfect and there’s nothing wrong with the law. The problem is we don’t keep it.

Most people don’t even know what it is. No, thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not play marbles. So, said, no marble not. So you have all these laws and most people have no clue what in the world all these laws are But you and I need to understand the law was not made for a righteous man So why did God give the law there wasn’t a righteous man? The law was made for the unrighteous man to let us see how unrighteous we are So that nobody will trust in their good these to get into heaven so you know you need a Savior look at the next verse Romans 7, 15 through 22 says, now Paul admitted failure after about 25 years.

It says, this is what I’ve learned, what he’s gone through, what he’s experienced. He says, and I added the bowl on this, for we know that the law is spiritual. The law is perfect, nothing’s wrong with it. But I am carnal, fleshly minded, soul under sin. sin. See once you trust Christ as your Savior, the Bible says that God has removed you from the condemnation of the law and from the condemnation of sin. And so therefore you’re free. He paid for your sin, you paid your sin debt.

So you see now as a child of God, you and I are not supposed to sell ourselves back into sin because He has made me free from it. So as a Christian, when you choose to sin, it means you yielded to those desires and you sold yourself back under slavery. You put yourself back as a slave, a servant of sin and you did it all voluntarily. So as a Christian, God says He doesn’t want us to do that. He wants us to yield ourselves to Him.

And you could yield yourself to the old sinful nature that you have. So understand there’s consequences. And because of these consequences, you may not like the results. For 52 years, I have liked the results of yielding to the Lord. I don’t fight with God anymore. I don’t have to argue with God, I don’t have to battle with God. I just, whatever God wants me to do, whatever he wants to bring into my life, that’s fine, that’s fine. If he wants to bring some mean, ugly people into my life and hollering yell and scream at me and all that, that’s fine.

Why should I care? All I gotta do is just, I can handle this. Me and the Lord, we can handle this. I don’t care how mean and ugly you are to me. Me and God can handle this. All I gotta do is just yield to him. I don’t have to battle back. I don’t get mean and ugly back. I don’t have to have revenge back. When you see it and then you understand it, it will help you in your Christian life because you’re gonna have conflict.

You have your will and there’s the will of God. Well, lo and behold, Well, somebody else has the will too. They have a will to do it their way. You want to do it your way and God wants to do it his way. Wouldn’t it be needed if everybody just did it God’s way? I was thinking about the other day yesterday when, talking about I asked Peter, I says, you know, how do you sharpen a knife? You can get a steal, you can actually use another knife, believe it or not.

Did you know that if I had a knife in my hand and he had a knife in his hand, a great big old butcher knife, and we’re going to sharpen these knives. And you know, I got to go against his knife and he goes against my knife and now we can do it that way. But you know, that’s difficult. I’m just lobbing to cut his wrist and he just lobbing to want to jump over there and cut my arm off.

You know, I don’t like the idea of that knife being in his hand. And we’re too close to each other. So you know, there’s a better way to do it. You see, if I had both knives in my hands and a steely, I can sharpen that knife so quick and so easy, so the whole one’s still, and I hit the other one against it, you know. Did you know that if I am in God’s hands, and Peter is in God’s hands, and God takes both of us, and we’re both in God’s hands, did you know that God can use one to sharpen the other?

God can use him to sharpen me. He can use me to sharpen somebody else. Did you know God might use somebody else to sharpen you? You see, sharpening something means put a nice edge on it. So it’s real sharp. You can cut a tomato. You can cut that cabbage or cut some bread or when it’s got a shark. It’s not hard. It’s when it’s dull. You ever try to slice it to real ripe tomato with a dull knife. That’s what happens to most Christians.

You just score everywhere. Wouldn’t it be neat? If you allowed the Lord to use somebody else to help sharpen you? Well, see, God knows that that means he’s gonna have to bring some friction in your life, things that goes against the grain. Sounds good already, doesn’t it? So the Lord will allow people to come into your life and you will not always see eye to eye. But can God use both of you? He can sharpen both of you. So let the Lord do what he does best.

He wants to sharpen the tools that He wants to use. And He knows that there might be somebody that’s really, you know, real core sandpaper. And He may want them to come into your life because they can knock it off quicker. Now, He may have somebody else’s really fine sandpaper. Put a polish and touch upon you. You know the finesse work. So God does all these things. All these things that we go through in life are lessons for us to learn how God deals.

Look what he says here. In the bold, the old nature was born in sin, lives under the dominance of sin, dies in sin. Here’s what I’ve done. But that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. You ever feel like, I didn’t want to do it, but I did it. And I want to do something else, and I want to do it in the other. And I get mad, and I don’t want to get mad.

I got angry. I didn’t want to get angry. What’s wrong with me? You’re normal. You are as normal as can be. The great Apostle Paul, one of the greatest saints of all time, had that same problem. Just like you. And he had confrontations with people that didn’t always see things out of the eye. But should any of us get to the place where, you know, if life is just so hard, there’s just so many conflicts, I’m just going to stop serving the Lord.

You see, God hasn’t done anything wrong to us. Never turn on God, because God doesn’t do wrong. He allows things to happen in our life to sharpen us, to learn something, to sharpen our wits, to learn how to discern right from wrong better. to say things not to say. All this is so important. Let me show you very quickly. It’ll just help you in your understanding of this. This is when we’re born into the world. Oh, sinful nature. I was born with a sinful nature.

It’s why I am. A dog was born with a dog nature. You don’t have to teach a dog how to park. It just comes natural. You don’t even have to teach a dog how to wag its tail. They just seem to know what to do. I don’t know if they just seem to know. You don’t see a cat doing like that. A cat, totally different. Cat acts like you owe him. You owe me and I’m the king. By all to me, that cat, it’s just like you’re not there.

And there, there, and the world revolves around them. Now a dog, pretend like the world revolves around you. One likes to give, one likes to take. And, but that’s the way they are. Now, as far as I’m concerned, you can keep both of them. I got enough things to do just word about me without, weren’t about the natures of a dog and a cat. But whenever you trust Christ as your savior, the Lord gives you a new birth. You’re born now into God’s family.

This one is born of God. So you were born into the world. You don’t mind if I use an example, do you? All right, here’s Rosie. Okay, she’s 19 years old, right? She’s 19 years old. Okay, she has a flesh birth. When you look at her, you can see her flesh birth. Or today she trusts Christ’s Savior. God gave her a new birth. This one is born of God. She’s been born twice. But this one’s only 24 hours old.

Not even that. So she didn’t get rid of the old nature. God just gave her a new birth. This one is born of God. And so she has within her these two births. And this one has been using this body for 19 years. And God says, now I want this one to use the body. And this one over here says, no, you ain’t. And this one says, well, God told me to take and have dominion over the flesh, the body here.

Well, I’ve been here longer than you have and I’m in charge and you do what I say do. And so is she gonna have a battle? She’s gonna have a fight on her hands. And this one says, I’m gonna go to church tonight. This one says, I don’t want to go to church. You’re going to say home, watch back man. So she has this fight that she’s got to go through. And she came very close to doing that tonight.

So you have these two births and there is going to be this battle. Now look down there at the next scripture, Galatians chapter five or 16 through 21, God has not removed the old nature or improved it. Nor has God taken away anybody’s sinful desires. So you still have the old sinful nature that you were born with. And so now you’ve got to learn how to deal with that. So these scriptures right here are very important to remember. So let’s look at this.

This I say then, walk in the spirit and he shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This shows that the believer must walk in the spirit or he will walk or fulfill the works of the flesh. So you have these two verses. This one was born of God. This one, see, doesn’t have a sinful nature because God doesn’t have a sinful nature. You became God’s child. In this one, you have an old sinful nature. Got it from your mom and dad, and they got it from theirs, and all the way back to Adam and Eve.

So you got this word, this conflict that goes on. So he says, walk in the Spirit. That means let the new birth be controlled the Holy Spirit. Now you don’t see the Holy Spirit. You don’t really even feel the Holy Spirit. We often say, no, I can feel it in my soul, but you won’t feel it in the body. But it’s truth that you know. So as a child of God, God wants me to read His Word. So the Bible is God’s Word, His mind on paper.

The Bible is a love letter to God’s children. So God says that if I will read His love letter that He wrote to me, I’ll find in God’s word what he wants me to do. This is the word of God. So in the word of God, you find the will of God. So if you want to do the will of God, what is your will? What do you want me to do Lord? And God says, this is what I want you to do.

This is how I want you to think. This is what I want you to say. This is how I want you to live. So if you will let that control your life, then he won’t control your life. So if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. You still have all those sinful desires you’ve always had. He got it and changed this one. He just gave you a new one. Look what else he says here.

For the flesh, lust against the spirit, spirit against the flesh, these are contrary to the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the spirit, you’re not under the law. The flesh is under the law and the spirit is under grace. And these are positional truths. And I’ll show you this in a minute. Now the works of the flesh manifest. Which are these? Adultery, for inication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, barriers, simulations, wrath, strife, sedition, dehaerisees.

In these murders, drunkenness, reveling in such light. This is a list of all the things that a believer can commit if he walks in the flesh. All right, look up here. You have a new burr. You have an old burr. God says, if you submit yourself to the will of the flesh, the desires of the flesh, and walk after the flesh, This is what a Christian can produce in his life. Can a Christian commit adultery? Evidently, yes. Can he commit murder?

Yes. You mean a Christian can do all those bad things? Yes. Before you ever get saved, isn’t it true that you could do anything you wanted to do? Live any way you want. Well, of course. But if you trust Christ to save you, you still get to go to heaven, right? Of course. That’s why we tell people, God can forgive you of all your sins. We ought to go to hell and we ought to pay for him, but He paid for all of them.

So the payment He made was for all of our sins and He gives us eternal life. Let’s say for example, here’s a baby about to be born. But before that baby is born, the mother says, now little Johnny, before I let you be born. Now you know I want you to do right. And the little baby says, Mom, I wanna be born, I wanna live, but I’m gonna do and live any way I want. Now, can a baby be born and then decide to live any way he wants to live?

Didn’t you? Didn’t most people born into this world? You do whatever you want to do. Live however you want to live. Think however you want to think. But if you told that child, You have to promise to be good before I let you be born. Now he has a sinful nature. But if he could talk and reason, and he would say, Oh, Mommy, you know I’m not going to do anything wrong. I’ll be a perfect little boy. You all know he’s lying.

He’s lying. Because he has a sinful nature. He was conceived in sin. It means with a sinful nature. He’s born that way. So now when you trust Christ to save it, you have a new birth born of God. And so he says, all these things can be in a person’s life. If the Christian walks after the flesh, you can bring forth the deeds of the flesh. And so God says that he is going to chase in you. Now most parents, if they’re good parents and they love their little darlings, when those little darlings act like a brat.

Mom and daddy may have to do something about that. They may have to discipline, correct them by whatever means, but because they’re love for them, they discipline them. Well, we can see that in the parental realm. Well, what about in the spiritual realm? You trust it, Christ is your savior, and yet you may choose to rebel against the Lord. And if you do, God is still going to chase in you and discipline you. But he can never cast you out.

He cannot unborn you. So once you are his child, you are God’s child forever. And God may want you to be an obedient child, but you may choose to be a disobedient child. But there’s consequences to your decision. So can you live as he plays? Yes. Can you live as you please and get away with it? No. because God loves you and He’s going to chase in you. So understand that. Now, if you serve the Lord, God is going to reach the blessed.

Go to page two. That’s Paul Harvey would say, page two. All the saved are under grace because you were born in the God’s family by grace. And to live in this world after you have been saved is grace. You did not do one thing to deserve the right to live in this world after you’ve been saved. That is an opportunity, the mercy of God, that God allowed you and me to live here after we were saved. Now, Paul made the statement, I don’t want God’s grace to be bestowed upon me in vain.

This privilege to live for the Lord after I was saved. Because see, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, God could have just took you on whom. But He didn’t. So He left you here because He wants you to serve Him. He wants to use you. It has nothing to do with your salvation. That’s already been settled. That’s a done deal. to heaven when you die. But see, God left us here because God wants us to do some things for him.

See, people have never seen God, but you see, they might see God through us. That’s why see God is good. God is wonderful. God is kind. God is loving. He’s forgiving. He has grace and mercy. Well, if God wants to reveal himself through you to somebody else, they must see the love of God through you, the forgiveness of God through you, the grace of God through you. Because see, whatever you do with individuals, it should be like, that’s what God would do.

Because you’re letting what God is manifest Himself in your body through you. When you see that, it’s like a light comes on. But if you don’t, it’s just words, it’s just empty words. So we often say, every man should be a channel through which God can work. So somebody wrongs you. Okay, you wrong God. What did God do for you? Alright, now you do that for others. I know you want to slap their jaws. You want to give them a how I am punch.

But God says I want you to love them. Oh boy. So up there, look at Romans 614, for sin shall not have dominion over you, unless you yield to it. But it’s not supposed to, and won’t unless you yield to your old man, the old sinful nature that you have. And those desires are strong. So sometimes you wind up doing what you have the desire to do. But God said, I want you to desire to please me. And if doing the wrong doesn’t please God, then love God more so that you have the strength not to do that, which displeases him.

Love is a very powerful thing. Get to the next verse. He says, what then shall we sin because we’re not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Under the law is a positional truth for the flesh. Under grace is a positional truth for the believer. You see, when you were lost, you were under the law. That was your position in the flesh. The old man was under the law, condemned under the curse. You trusted Christ as your savior.

Now you’re under grace. And because you’re under grace, you can never be condemned because grace can’t condemn. Grace shows kindness and mercy and goodness. So God says, you’re no longer under the law, and if you’re not under the law, then it can’t condemn you. If it can’t condemn you, you can never go to hell in the future. And so you’re under grace. That is a positional truth that can never be changed. None of your actions from this day forward ever change that position that you have in Christ.

Men, reserve the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpens Iron, men’s Bible study and breakfast at Calvary Community Church. Join us at 730 for a home-cooked breakfast. Then, at 8 a.m., the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style, men’s Bible study, in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and dialogue are welcomed. The scripture tells us that iron sharpens iron, and this men’s Bible study is open to those of all levels, whether new believers or mature Christians.

The iron sharpens iron men’s Bible study and breakfast. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. 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. leaving that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.