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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 air. 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.

Your power in life is your ability to persuade by your influence on the life of somebody else, because that’s what life is about, your power of influence in someone else’s life. Some people have no power in anybody’s life because they can’t persuade anybody to their views. It is because of their attitude or their way of life. Maybe nobody wants it. But if you study the truth, it ought to make you stand out like a sore thumb because there’s something to this art of persuasion.

I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke 16. Luke in chapter 16. Luke, chapter 16. Now understand, we are to persuade. If whatever will be will be. If God has already determined all the decisions of man, then we don’t have the ability to persuade anybody of anything. But it is possible that you and I, by reasoning, by the motive, by the way we live, everything about us, can persuade somebody else to make a decision.

One of the most powerful things that we have going for us is if we know the truth, the truth. This is why if you don’t study the Bible, you think you know truth. You hope you know truth. But if you don’t live for the Lord after you trust it, Christ is a Savior, you believe a lie. That’s why you live a lie. Only a person who believes truth, knows truth, understands truth, can live truth. The live the way God wants you to live, to believe the way God wants you to believe.

Now, here in the book of Luke in chapter 16, there’s a little story. You may have heard this story before, but I want you to see the importance of persuasion. You’ll notice in verse 19, there was a certain rich man with her clothing, purple, and fine linen, fairs sumptuously every day. There came a beggar named Yankee, our Lazarus, which was laid in this gate full of sores, desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.

Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores, came to pass the beggar died, was carried by the angels in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, bent in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and lasseth in his bosom. Two men, one rich, one poor. Is it because the rich man was rich? That’s why he went to hell. And the poor man was poor, and that’s why he went to heaven.

No, that’s not the reason. How much they had in this life is not the reason that determined their destination. But he says the rich man died and in hell he lifted up his eyes, been in torment and see if Abraham far off and Lazarus finished bosom. He cried out to Father Abraham and said, Lazarus, that he may come and dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said in verse 25, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, likewise land of evil things, but now he is comforted in thou art toward many.

In other words, in this life, if you know Jesus Christ is your Savior, this is the worst it’ll ever get for you because after this is heaven. A man who doesn’t trust Christ as Savior may have everything in the world and is comforted and has everything he needs. All the comforts of home. But when he dies, it’s hell for eternity. So who wins? Who loses? The man who trusts Christ’s Savior always wins. The man who rejects Christ loses. But whatever will be, well wait a minute, does God give us a free will, the ability to choose?

When Christ is going to all the world and priests, the gospel is because there within that message is the art of persuasion, the power to be able to convince a person to change their mind and trust Christ as their Savior. Repent means change your mind. Reconsider, think differently. If you’re an unbeliever, we’re supposed to take that which can help an unbeliever, change his mind to repent, and to reconsider and accept Christ, that is a persuasion. The art of persuading.

I’ve had people say, well, I never try to persuade anybody against their beliefs. I do. If what they believe is not true, I want them to know the truth and believe the truth because the truth is what’s important. And when a man dies where he spends eternity is because did he or did he not hear the truth and believe the truth? If a man believes that he can save himself by his good works, is that truth or is that a lie?

That’s a lie. The teller lost man, he has to go to church, he go to heaven. That’s a lie. The teller lost man that he has to change the way he’s living in any way, that’s a lie. They’re telling me he has to give money to go to heaven. That’s a lie. You see, no, that’s the truth. Is it what it is, the truth? It’s free. Christ paid your price so that you can have eternal life and you can go to heaven whenever you die.

Most important thing in all the world. Know the truth. Now look what else he says here. And verse 26, and beside all this between us and you, there is a great golf thing. Everything that Jesus says right here, this is not a parable. What he’s saying is, this is the truth. The Lazarus, well, he died. The rich man, well, he died.

Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom, a place of paradise, but the rich man was in hell. Oh, this is the truth. This is life after death. This is the truth. I asked the man one time, I said, where are you gonna go to die? He says, Tennessee. I said, did you understand my question? He said, I understood. He said, I believe that when you die, you just go to the grave and that’s it. I said, do you know that that’s the truth?

How do you know that’s true? Have you died before? They said, of course not. I said, then you don’t know that’s the truth, do you? Are we really interested in truth? Do you really wanna know the truth? Look at this. He says, we cannot go from one to the other. In verse 27, then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would have sent him to my father’s house. So here’s a man in hell, wanting to neighbor him to send Lazarus to his father’s house.

How did he even know anything about how you could maybe keep from coming to this place? He must have known that Lazarus knew something about how to keep from coming to this place. Is it possible that as last of laid there at the gate of the rich man’s palace that he might have occasionally talked to this rich man and the rich man refused to hear, refused to listen, but he knew that he knew something that he doesn’t know. He believed something he doesn’t believe.

This man is in a place that he’s not, he’s in another place in a place of turn. That’s the truth. Now a person can try to dismiss all of this. I don’t believe in this thing of heaven and hell. Well, I might believe in heaven, but I don’t believe in hell. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. The one who told about heaven, the same one told about hell. Jesus, Jesus, sweet little baby Jesus, everybody worshiped a little sweet little baby. He’s the one who told the story.

It’s not a parable. It means it’s the truth. And if it wasn’t parable, a parable of what? Then reality’s even worse. But he makes this statement. He said, I want to, you send him to my father’s house. Now why does he want this guy to go to his father? Because he wants him to have it. Here’s something. He says in verse 28, for I have five brothers that he may testify unto them lest they come into this place of Turin.

So he knew that Lazarus knew something that could keep his five brothers from coming to this place. Because the man that’s in hell don’t want his family there. I’ve had people say, well, if my dad went to hell and I want to go down there and be with him, oh, that’s great. Your dad really wants you there with him. And what do you think he’s going to do? Comfort him while he’s down there? Well, we’ll get together near condition to place.

Did you know the Bible says they’re like wandering stars in the midst of blackness forever? You don’t see each other in hell. There’s no light there. No light. It’s darkness. And he says this, lest they come to this state of mind, no place of torment, it’s a place of torment. Why would Jesus say that unless it’s the truth? Do people really want to know the truth? Now, when I read this years ago, I just happened to believe that he told the truth.

So I didn’t want my momma to go to hell. And I didn’t want my stepdad to go to hell. And I didn’t want my brother to go to hell. And I didn’t want my sister to go. I didn’t want none of my relatives to go to hell. But as far as I knew, none of them had ever been witnessed to before. As I know, I was the only one, the first one of all of our relatives that ever heard about this, of how to have eternal life.

And I had determined I’m going to witness you as many as I can. And I want as many as I possibly can to Christ. As I know if they all trusted the Lord. My relatives too. But it only took about 40 years. But as far as I know they’re all getting in. Now they’ve gotten some of these we’ve gotten kids and got grandkids. But unless they come, now get this. I need somebody to go and to testify. Look what he says in verse 20, and Abraham said unto him, they have Moses and the prophets.

So we know that this is referring back to that period of time, because generally you have the law, the Psalms, and the prophets, and those three kinds. This could have been way before of whenever this took place. But there must be something in the scriptures, in the law, and in the prophets of what Moses said, of how they can have and understand how to keep from going to this place. whatever it was, there has to be something that they would say that others would hear and be persuaded, the art of persuasion.

You cannot make people want to know truth. Some people don’t care what the truth is. Leave me alone. If I go to hell, it’s up to me. Don’t preach to me. If I want to hear a preacher, I go to church. I heard every bit of this. a lot of people I had to just leave alone. But it would hurt inside because you just didn’t want people to reject Christ as their Savior. Now note what he says in verse 30, he said, nay Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

That means they will change their mind. They can be persuaded because they’ll be persuaded if a person comes from the dead. And Jesus says they will not be persuaded, though a person came from the dead. See what he says there in verse 31. He said to them, if they hear not Moses and the prophet, if you don’t believe the truth of what the word of God says, you’re not going to be persuaded if you saw America. I’ve heard people say, well, if God’s real, I want to show me America.

That’ll really convince them, no, it won’t. If truth won’t convince nothing will convince you. Because how do you know that that miracle wasn’t something done by the devil and deceived you? I’ve had people and I’m visiting hospitals and I’ve had the little lady laying there in the bed. She hasn’t got much time to live and I’ll go in here to see her to have prayer with her and she says, I saw Jesus last night. He appeared to me to foot in my bed right where you’re standing.

Now I could either say, lady, you’re out of your helmet. You had too many on your hamburger last night. But I do not believe them. I do not believe. You say, well, I don’t because I don’t believe Jesus does that. And when he comes back, he says the light was shining as far as the east is from the west. And you’ll know, he says, many shall come in my name and say blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I do not trust the imagination of people.

I don’t care how innocent and sincere you may be. I’ve read about and I’ve heard about little stories where all this kid was, well, he died and he went to heaven and came back and he saw He did not and he didn’t go. Stop believing all of that stuff. They make movies on all that stuff. They write books on all that stuff. Here’s the truth. Know the truth. Truth will set you free from believing all the philosophies of man.

But if you don’t know the truth you cannot discern the air. And so many God’s people today do not read and study the Word of God. Listen to me, if I was you, if I was you. And I wanted to know the truth. Boy, if preacher Arnold had a Sunday school class on Sunday morning, do you know what I’d do? Man, I’d be there. Because he knows the Bible and I want to learn the Bible. Boy, if I could come and study on a Sunday night or a Wednesday night, man, if preach Arnold’s preaching the Bible, I know he knows the Bible and I want to learn the truth, but I’ll be there.

Majority of Christians don’t want to know truth. They want to live their life, let me alone, let me do whatever I want to do, and therefore if I don’t know my responsibilities, ignorance is bliss and I can’t feel guilty if I can’t do anything, don’t know anything. And therefore I can just by, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yeah, go do life that way. And live your whole life as a lie. And one day when you get to heaven, God’s going to reward you according to what you did concerning truth, not a lie.

Well matter what your intentions were, your motives were, and all the rest of it, did you or did you not know the truth? Did you live for the truth? This is why some of God’s people, listen to me, I know I’m raking you over the cold, But that’s okay, you need it once in a while. Every once in a while. Once a year I do this.

If I die and you look in my shirt, you’re gonna find tracks. If you don’t find any tracks, it must be another guy, it probably not me. Because I don’t feel like I’m prepared unless I’ve got some tracks on me. And I like to leave seeds and plant seeds. It’s called I wanna persuade people. Now, I wrote a little thing down here because I believe that I am in the persuading business. I like to persuade people.

Persuading people, I wanna persuade the lost man to trust the Lord. Persuade the lost man to trust the Lord. Now is that a good thing or a bad thing? That’s a good thing. And I wanna do a good thing. So if I wanna persuade a lost man to trust the Lord, then I’ve got to give them the truth. And the truth is, does he have to turn from all of his sins to be saved? No, so I leave that out, because that’s not part of the gospel.

I don’t tell him that he has to make Christ to learn the Master of his life and promise to serve God because that’s a lie. That’s not the truth. After you trust Christ’s Savior, yes, as a child of God, yet I should take and live a clean life and I should dedicate my life to the Lord serve the Lord with all my heart. I should do all that, but I don’t do that to go to heaven. I don’t do that to get saved.

I don’t make promises to God that I cannot keep. Salvation is receiving. That’s the truth. He doesn’t believe it to me. Half, president, half, right now. Half everlasting life. If you believe it, you have everlasting life. What about those who trust in Christ’s Savior? Well, I want to try to convince a person who trusts the Lord that they ought to get baptized and Father Lord in baptism. Not to be saved but because of God’s child. That’s a step of obedience.

I want him to obey God. And that’s the truth. I want believers to be witnesses. I want you to learn how to tell people how to have eternal life. I want to teach you. This is why when you see me do that little wallet thing, that little wallet trick, I don’t know why it’s a trick. Nothing happens. But when I show you that, I try to do it exactly the same way every time that way you learn it. Have you noticed that I do it the same way every time, over and over and over again, and you will think in your mind the devil comes, that’s all he knows.

That’s all he knows, that’s all he knows, that little wallet trick. So therefore, I know that, well, that’s the most important thing he ever says. And I wanna know that so I don’t need to come here anything else. And the devil works in your hand, and persuades you not to witness. They don’t want to hear it anyway. They’ve already heard it a thousand times. They ain’t gonna like you, they gonna lose your job. All kinds of things. Next thing you know, they persuade you.

On your job, you have a job of persuading. It’s the same thing and everything that we do. It’s just like we want people and we try to persuade people, persuade. Because see, a person can be of this frame of mind. Well, we want them to have this frame of mind. We want you to believe the truth. So we want you to believe that the ministries we have here, Calvary Community Church, are worthy of your financial support. Do you believe that?

Do you believe the ministries of this church are worthy of financial support? If we want to persuade you that it is, that we want you to do it, support it. How many of y’all enjoy our choir? Let me see here. Don’t dare not raise your hand. I mean, because we got a camera up here. It’s already been zoomed all over.

But let me ask you this. What if God in heaven blessed you with a great voice? And then you won’t help. Peter needs some help in the choir. And you could do it. Should we have to, like, pull in teeth? Big plead? Wine? My daughter, one day, I was whining about something. She says, you want crackers with that. And so we want people to do it. Wouldn’t it be better if you did because you wanted to? Well, I have to.

Peter just wore me down or do it because you love the Lord. We want to persuade you. That is a worthy cause. It’s a blessing to people. It’s people that watch on the internet and around the world that are blessed because of our choir. And I’m thankful for it. We want to persuade you to believe, hey, this is worthy. to help with the youth or to help in Sunday school, to help in everything that we do. Everything is important, but we’re always in the art of persuading individuals.

We want to help you in another area. You know when we have communion service, we’re trying to persuade a person to examine their life because the Bible says in the book of Corinthians in chapter 11 about examining yourselves and the things that you do. Have you been persuaded to serve the Lord and that this helps you to remember why you serve the Lord and you know and understand that Jesus Christ died on that cross and paid for your sins because He took our sins upon his own body on the tree, and he died for us.

And the Bible says that the lust of the das should say the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul in the Vatican 1711. And the blood is shed because he gave his life. Do you remember why he did all of that? He says so that you will not forget and you’ll look forward to His coming so that it might help you to live for Him in the meantime.

Remember where you came from. Remember where you going. You’re a child of God, you’re going to heaven. If God came into this room, what could He say that would motivate you, persuade you to love Him with all your heart? What do you love more than God? Who do you serve more than God? What do you serve more than God? You see, unless you’ve been persuaded by something that isn’t true. Otherwise, why wouldn’t we all believe the truth? We all would want to want the same thing for each other.

Because see, you want to persuade other believers to love the Lord. Best way to do that is you love the Lord. And to convince other people they ought to give, They ought to give. Have you ever noticed when we take up the offering? Everything the guys come down here on Sunday morning before they leave, the first thing that I do is I do what? I pull up my offering and I put it in. I want you to know I give faithfully every week.

I give faithfully. I have always given more than a tithe. People always have trouble with a tithe. I never have trouble with a tithe. I’m not in the law. I just believe it’s a good way to give. So I’ve always wanted to give more in the grace and I’d give unto law. And so I always give more, like an offering on top of it. I’ve done it all my life, my Christian life, for 57 years because I believe it’s right.

I believe it’s the truth, the truth. Otherwise, there’s a quarter of Lord. Hope you can get something with that. I wouldn’t dare live in a nice house and drive a nice car and rob God. Now some people are not persuaded that that’s important. It is important. Everything that’s truth is important. And that’s why I want to encourage you, persuade you. If you’re here and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to persuade you. I want you to trust the Lord because see, if you don’t trust Christ as Savior, I believe the truth is you’re going to die.

And the truth is you’re going to spend an eternity separated from God and hell is hot and eternity is long. Wouldn’t it be a shame? To be wrong, so long, and you could have known the truth. But see, God doesn’t force anybody to believe. That’s the choice He gave to us. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. This wall represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. Now He hates our sin, but He loves us.

So because of the payment Christ made, yeah, we can go to heaven. But the payment we make can never pay for sin. Because see, the payment for sin is death. And to go to heaven, we have to be without sin. So how are we going to… this is impossible. So God says, you cannot save yourself. Means you can’t pay your debt. Your good works won’t pay the debt. So he says, Jesus Christ, he was God in the flesh. This hand represented Jesus Christ came into the world because he loves us, and pates our sin, because he separates us from him.

So Christ took all the sin of all the world, the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. He said, the only thing we have to do is believe He did this for us and He would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Christ did for us. That’s the best news in all the world. And this is the truth. Eternal life, going to heaven is free. Christ paid for it, gives it to you.

All you had to do is accept it, believe it, and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. It’s the only way you can know you’re going to heaven when you’re dying. If it depended upon how good you lived, forget it. You haven’t got a chance. But when I trusted Christ as my Savior, God gave to me the free gift. And He said, He never cast me out and never lose me. That was the best news I ever heard.

Let’s pray show Him. With His bow nice clothes, no one looking around. I’m not God. I can’t save anybody. This church can’t save you. But right where you’re sitting, I’m going to ask in just a moment. Hopefully, if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, hopefully I persuaded you to trust Him. So I don’t know if you did or not.

So I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer with an upraised hand. I’m like an embarrassment. I’m going to have you forward. But right where you’re sitting, You say, preacher, I will right now accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. And if you will do that, would you let me know by just slipping you hand up very quickly and then it right back down? Is there anyone at all? Now what at all? If you have trusted Christ as Savior, yes, you’re God’s child.

You’re going to heaven. And because you’re going to heaven, you’re a child. And in this world, in this light, there’s things that God wants us to do. He wants us to honor him. He wants us to partake of the Lord’s Supper, is for every one of God’s children. But he also wants you to examine yourself, are there things in your life that you need to correct? Things you need to talk to the Lord about. Confess things to him. Keep a coming slate between you and your heavenly Father.

He loves you. And he says, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just, if a give us into cleanses from all unrighteousness. We don’t do it to go to heaven, heaven but because we want to enjoy the fellowship with the Lord. This time of peace and happiness and purpose. Let God persuade you with truth. Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. Men, reserve the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpen’s Iron, Men’s Bible study in breakfast at Calvary Community Church.

Join us at 730 for a home cooked breakfast. Then, at 8am, the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style, men’s Bible study, in a relaxed atmosphere where questions in 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 Bible I. 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. Cut 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.