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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.

There’s something that I do want to talk to you about because we often make the statement or I do anyway. ################################ that you’re not going to heaven because you love God. We’re going to heaven because God loved us. And I don’t want to give people the impression that you don’t have to love God. It doesn’t make any difference. When you come to your salvation, no, it doesn’t. But there’s a lot more than just our salvation. God has given me 57 years to live since the day I trusted Christ as my Savior.

And so I’ve had to make many decisions and choices throughout the years. And I want to talk to you something about that inward desire, that inward motivation that kind of holds you on track and helps you to frame yourself from going astray. Because when you want to finish well, you’ve got to really watch every area of your life. That’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. you can be tricked by the devil in so many ways, we can get so tired and weary, we can become so disappointed because of things and people.

We can become so easily discouraged that we don’t want to keep treading along. And so hopefully this will help you a little bit. I want you to take your Bible in turn with me to the gospel of John in chapter 7. What I wanted to talk to you about is the filling of the Holy Spirit, but kind of look at it a little bit differently so that you and I know that yes, the Bible does tell us to be filled with the Spirit and it is a command.

But here in the book of John in chapter 7, look in verse 37, verse 37. There’s only a couple of little things that I want to reflect on in these verses. It says, now this is the feast of tabernacles and he had made the statement here in the last day, that great day of the feast. Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come into me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture have said, that out of his belly of shell flow rivers of living water.

But this spakey of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. Well, the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, according to that verse, the Holy Spirit was gonna come on those that believe that they should receive the Holy Spirit. And so that was a promise. Now in this promise that we have, there’s a couple of other things that God kind of put in here. And I want you to take a look in chapters 14, John chapter 14, just turn over there with me.

There’s things he says about, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I believe to learn too. Let’s just know that there’s a God and know there’s Jesus Christ, learning how to walk with him, how to trust him. He says, my father’s house are many mansions and we’re not so I would have told you. He says, I go to a place for you that when I come I’ll receive you unto myself, there where I am, there you may be also.

And so he tells us that he’s going to be leaving, he’s going to go away, but he would just one body and he can’t go with everybody and maintain in that one body. He says, I’m going to go, but I’m going to ask the Father. That means He’s going to pray to the Lord. He’s going to ask His Father to send a comforter. And He would be not only with you, but in you forever. So look there in verse 16.

I will pray the Father I will. He shall give you another comforter. That’s a promise. I will ask you shall receive another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it’s not neither know of him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Old Testament with you, but New Testament in you. I will not leave you, comfortless I will come to you. Now one of the greatest things I think a Christian should learn is that the Holy Spirit is going to come to those who have trusted Christ as Savior.

So the day you trusted the Lord, you received the Holy Spirit. You were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You were sealed by the Holy Spirit. You were baptized by the Holy Spirit, all on the day that you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. And what he says here is he called the comforter. And I believe that when the Lord is not here with us walking alongside of us, which would be great, you would be afraid of all of anything if you could just see him and walk with him.

And knowing that there’s nothing that can happen to you because Jesus is right here. You can’t touch me, do anything to me because Jesus is standing right here, and everywhere I go, Jesus is right there with me. But he says, I’m gonna send the Holy Spirit, he’s gonna be on the inside of you. You’re not gonna see him, but he’s gonna be there. Well, you used to sing the song called, Every Time I Feel the Spirit. Well, but we also mentioned that he is real in my soul, and I can feel the Spirit moving in my soul in all.

But I don’t know if I’ve ever felt the Holy Spirit. I can’t see the Holy Spirit, but there’s things that He’s taught me from the Word of God that can bring me joy, that can overflow. But that overflow of joy and peace and love and all that is like, that’s the result of what He’s taught you. That regardless of what’s going on in the world, He’s to bring you comfort. And this is why when we read the scriptures, and like in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 down to verse 18, when he said, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren concerning them which are asleep.

So he goes to an explain a few things, and he’s going to come back, and then in that verse 18 he says, we’re for comfort when another with these words. The comfort you and I are to enjoy doing this life is not because the world is at peace. It’s not because your life doesn’t have turmoil in it and all those things that happens with the trials and tribulations and the emotional upheavals that we go through, but they can be comfort in the midst of it when you know what he wants you to know.

So the Holy Spirit dwells within us in order to teach us. So he makes a statement here in verse 26, but the Confident, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things that you remember and what so ever I’ve said unto you. I often wondered how those apostles could remember everything when they wrote the Holy Spirit can bring everything to their remembrance. I believe He’s mainly here primarily talking to them about what He’s taught them.

But there’s a lot more that He was going to teach them and He mentions that later on. But you and I, we also know that if the Holy Spirit has taught us the Word of God and we’ve studied it and put it in our minds, the Holy Spirit can bring things to our remembrance. And sometimes He brings things to your remembrance that you didn’t even know you remembered. And all of a sudden you’ll think of something and God can quicken your mind.

I have experienced that over the years and I’ve said this and I know that people don’t really get it. It made me think that I’m just being a little on the, you know, holy, holy side. But the Lord is more real to me than you are. And I mean that. He’s more real to me than you are. I know the Lord. I’ve been walking with Him for a number of years. And there’s comfort and peace and joy that He’s brought to me that I don’t want to keep just to myself.

I want others to experience what God has done or taught because I don’t want you to go through life thinking that loving God is not important. There’s a lot of things God has told us that if you love me, if you love me. Now you don’t have to love him, but if you do, there’s some things he promised. Look what he says down here in verse 21, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him. It means you will be loved in a special way. There’s things that God is going to teach you, a way that He will lead and guide you, a way that He will bless you because He knows you love Him. God won’t make you love Him, but if you do choose to love Him, God has something special for you, I believe. There’s things He wants to teach you.

And He says, I will love Him and then get this last part. Will manifest myself to Him. Now this is by the Holy Spirit that will indwell you and God says if you will love Him the Holy Spirit that lives within you are going to teach you about Him. Now a lot of people they trust Christ is Savior they have eternal life they’re going to heaven when they die and they can even get into that daily routine of just habitually doing the right things you know coming to church maybe teaching a class, singing in the choir.

You can do all those things and yet at the same time not really love the Lord. You’re doing it because you know it’s well that’s what I’m supposed to do. And we ought to do those things. But God knows whether or not, we do because we really love Him. And I think that’s a very important thing to remember. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 8. The book of Romans in chapter 8, there’s a verse here that let’s us know a little bit about the Holy Spirit living within us.

And this is Romans chapter 8 and look there in verse 9, chapter 8 and verse 9. But you’re not in the flesh, but in the spirit. In other words, God said, this is your position. God has taken you from that position of the flesh and put you in to Christ. So you are in the spirit because of your new birth. That is your position that cannot be changed. Then notice the rest of it. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he’s none of his. because He promised that the Holy Spirit would indwell every believer. If you have believed on Jesus Christ and trusted Him, you have the Holy Spirit living within you. And because of that, God wants us to learn to let the Holy Spirit guide us. Now we often say, I want the Lord to lead God in direct. Well the Holy Spirit can never lead you down the wrong path.

Holy Spirit can’t lead you to do anything you shouldn’t do. Anything that would dishonor the Father, He can’t teach that. And He’ll never lead you into trouble that He can’t get you out of. You see, just like it was the Lord that led Moses and the children of Israel into a dead end. But He didn’t lead Him into a dead end and then leave them there. He brought them through. If you’ll always remember that, you know that the will of God cannot lead you or grace of God cannot keep you.

And so he says up there in verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit, these become the maturing sons of God. So you’re a child of God but you’re not maturing unless the Holy Spirit can lead you. Some people resist the Holy Spirit teaching them the Word of God. So the Holy Spirit teaches you the Word of God. And so being filled with the Spirit means you’re walking in obedience to the Word of God. So you need to know what the Word of God has to say.

That’s how He leads you. That’s how He guides you through the teaching of God’s Word. And that’s a little bit more than that, but I’m trying to keep it this as clear and simple as I possibly can. So we know that the Holy Spirit lives with and the Holy Spirit wants to lead us. The Holy Spirit wants to bring us comfort. But now notice something else in Romans in chapter eight, look in verse 28. We often say this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because we know that a lot of things have us to it’s in life and we can always explain it.

But we just say praise the Lord anyway, for all things work together for good to them who love the Lord. Those who are called according to His purpose. And I don’t know the purpose that I don’t have to know, but I know that God’s working all things out for my benefit. But there’s a couple things that you might need to see. A couple words that you might have overlooked. Now, we know that according to the Word of God, that there’s things that God has determined that would happen to those who have trusted Christ as Savior.

So He makes a statement in verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good, the them that, and see those two words? You see, that’s a choice. That’s not something you have to do. So what he’s going to say must be in relationship to those two words that love God, because not all of God’s children love God. We can fall in love with the world. And if you love the world, all things are not working out for your good because they can be the chasing hand of God.

Now that could be good. I remember about the, you know, that’s good. Don’t look good. No, no, no, that’s bad. The guy fell out of the airplane, oh that’s bad. Oh no, no, no, that was good. He went in like, hey, oh, that was good. No, no, that was bad. There was a pitchfork in it. Oh, that was bad. No, he missed a pitchfork. Oh, that’s good. No, that was, and there’s no end of that. You can just keep on going in order now.

So he says, to them who are called according to his purpose. Now, God has already guaranteed that you and I have been been because of the foreknowledge of God. God has determined that those who trust Christ as their Savior are going to be made pure and holy and set apart, we’re going to be with the Lord in heaven and those who have trusted Christ as Savior, God says you’ve been justified, you have been glorified, not yet, but you’re going to be.

Now God’s, I just as good as done. All those things are going to be happening so that one day when we finally get to heaven we are going to be in the image of his son. We’re going to be just like Christ in a sense that we will have his character. We will be forever in a glorified body and all of those things that’s a guarantee. But before we get there, there’s things that happens to you in life. And God says, you don’t have to wait till you get to heaven.

In other words, if you will love the Lord, if you love the Lord and if you let the Holy Spirit teach you. If you let the Holy Spirit guide you, you can develop a Christ-like attitude and be now conformed to the image of his son. So you don’t have to wait till you get to heaven. As you begin to grow in the Lord, you can begin to be just like his son. Another thing to think about is this and we see in the scriptures, there are several places that talked about the adoption, the adoption into his family.

Well generally an adoption, if people make an adoption, is somebody who was in another family being adopted into their family. You know that used to be somebody else’s child but they adopted him down there in this family. But when we trust Christ the Savior, we’re born into God’s family. So I do believe that there might be the possibility that the one thing that we do have in this This is first family when I was born into the world, I had a flesh birth.

And every day I get up, I look in the mirror and I see that it’s slowly changed and little by little. And it doesn’t look like it does when I look at that picture 30 or 40 years ago. But this body that I have, the Bible says God’s going to change this old body of mine. It’s the only thing from my first birth that God’s going to change and put it into my new family. It’s an adoption, but look what he says there in Romans in chapter 8 and looking verse 21 He makes a statement because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God For we know that the whole creation growneth and travaileth and pain together unto now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the

Spirit. Even we, ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. Now, you’re taking over there to the book of Ephesians in chapter 1. Most of you knew it. I knew he was going to go there because you know what certain verses kind of go together and they do but in the book of Ephesians in chapter 1 look there in verse 12 in verse 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

First of all, you trusted in Christ. So when he goes at the beginning of this chapter from about verse 4 on, when he talks about we were chosen before the foundation of the world and blah blah blah and goes all the way down through. And we have been predestinated and all these things. Yeah, but first of all, you trusted Christ is Savior. Those are all the things that God has done. guaranteed to those who trusted the Lord. So first of all, you have to trust Christ to save you.

That’s what puts you into Christ. And all those that are in Christ, God has promised a lot of things for it. And we’re going to get it because we are in Him. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t work for it. We don’t deserve it. It’s a gift. It’s what God has done. We have inherited all of that. He says this in verse 13, in whom, come my Christ, you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel, the good news of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

So you received the Holy Spirit when you trusted Christ as Savior and you were sealed, you were sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit. So you’ve got to have a lot of power to break that seal. And I don’t think anybody in this world has the power to do that. That’s why once you trust Christ the Savior and you are sealed forever. And then He makes this statement in verse 14, which is the earnest of the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession until the praise of His glory.

Until this body that we have has been changed. We’re going to get our glorified body. Now look in Ephesians in chapter 4 and look in verse 30 to 32. And verse 30 says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed until the day of redemption. You say, well, I thought it was already redeemed, well, you are, but the body has not been changed. Your soul has been saved, but the body, one of these days, we’re going to get rid of this old sinful body.

And God’s going to take this body and adopt it, but it’s going to be like his glorious body. Now, where does it say that in the book of Philippians in chapter 3? We’re just looking at it. You’re not just a couple of pages away, but look in Philippians in chapter 3 and look down there in verse 21. Well, verse 20 would be good. For our conversation or our manner of life, but here he’s talking about our citizenship, You see, you were born in heaven.

That’s your citizenship. But you’re here as an ambassador. He says, for our citizenship is in heaven from winds. Also, we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, verse 21, who shall change our vile body that he may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. And I believe this is probably a good reference to the adoption. The body is from the first birth, but it’s going to be changed and glorified and put into the new family. When Jesus Christ was here, the body He had, the body that was on the cross, the body that was buried, the body that came back from the dead was the same body.

Was it the same body He had when He was walking around? I believe he had the scars in his hands, the hole in his side. He had a glorified body. You and I are gonna get a new body, but it’s gonna be something similar, I guess, to what we have. When Jesus was here, he had two legs, he had two arms, he had a mouth, he could speak, he could eat, and that part I liked. So we’re gonna get a new body.

Now, these things are important to remember. turn in your Bible now to first Corinthians in chapter two. We have looked at this a number of times, but one more time is not gonna hurt. First Corinthians in chapter two. And understand that there is something that God seems to delight in. And that is, he loves all of his children, but not all of his children love him. But we should love him because he first loved us. And if you read the book of 1 John, you’ll find out we ought to love the Lord.

Love, love, love, love. It’s scattered throughout the whole book. But in 1 Corinthians in chapter 2, he makes a statement in verse 9. He says, but as it is written, I have not seen, ear have not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that was those two words. That love him. That love him. You see, it’s not just everybody, there’s a lot of us, but what God has done for those who love him.

But I believe these are things that God can reveal to us in this lifetime that God’s given to us. because he says that in the very next verse, but God has revealed him unto us by his spirit, but not everybody lets the Holy Spirit teach them the things that God has for us in this life. You see, I don’t have to wait till I get to heaven to have the peace of God or the love of God or the joy or the patience.

God says, you can have that now. You can have it all right now. And there’s things that God says I can do for you and through you with you if you love me. Because if God has a work that He wants done. And that’s why in John chapter 14 He says, And greater works than these shall ye do. But He’s talking about those who know Christ is Savior and those that love Him. Because see, when you love the Lord, then you want to walk with Him.

You want to clean up your life. You want to guard your attitude. You want to guard your testimony at all times. You know that you want His will for your life more than anything else in the world. And God said, if you love me, if you love me. Look what He says. But God has to reveal them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, the deep things of God. You see, when you want to go a little deeper, a little deeper.

Or you can live a shallow life. This morning in Sunday school class, I gave them a little illustration that I’ve given to college kids. And that is every person I look at them when they come to college as a dry well. They’re just a dry well. And so we want to take the springs of living water, and we want to put some water in their wells. You see, the Holy Spirit already lives within you, and that’s why on that great day of the feast Jesus sitting Christ and if any man thirst, let him come in to me and drink.

And as the scripture have set out of his belly, she’ll flow rivers of living water. So we want the Holy Spirit to take the water and place it in these wells and then down the road. You’ve got water to share with people because you see, you can’t bring out what you didn’t put in. And some Christians live a very shallow life. There’s no debt to them. They don’t have much to give, much to share. And because of their lack of love for the Lord, there is a lack of use.

They’re put on a shelf. And God will take that one little hungry heart, somebody who just comes along and trusts the Lord. And God says, there’s a man that loves me, a man after my own heart. And God says, I’ll raise that person up, and I’m gonna bless that individual because he loves me. And he says, if you will do the will of God, God says he will reveal the will. If you will do it. See what we wanna do is God to reveal and then see whether or not I like it or not.

It doesn’t work that way. That’s why he says, if you love me. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader? Then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa. With traditional and online classes taught by instructors with years of experience, Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you.

To learn more, visit online at floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. That’s 850-227-5325. 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. to live today and every day.

Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.