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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Back there in 1 Corinthians. Look at this. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 12. He makes a statement in verse 28. And God has set some in the church for apostles, prophets, teachers, those at miracles, gifts of healing, helps government, diversities of tongues. Now look in verse 29. So what God has done for all but not all have the same ministry and he’s explaining what he means. Is everybody in an apostle? What’s the answer? No. Or all prophets. No. Or all teachers, no, all workers of miracles, no, have all the gifts of healing, no, don’t speak with tongue, no, do all the terms, no.

So not everybody has the same ministry but we all have a ministry and the Holy Spirit works in every last one of us. So that why you don’t have to be envious of what somebody else does because you’re just gonna be thinking I’m glad I can do what God wants me to do. I just want to please God in whatever God has for me and to be content with that and just do the best you can with what you got.

Some people always will. If I had his talent, I could do that too. If I could sing like so and so, or if I could play the piano like Jan, or if I could just play the piano like Jan, would not be somebody? Well, Jan can play the piano and she doesn’t think she’s somebody, but she’s good. What are we doing out of her? So you have people that’s got certain talents and ability, but don’t, like somebody sees somebody and they say, oh, if I could just do that.

Yeah, but maybe God didn’t want you to do that. God wants you to do something else. You just knew what God wants you to do. Now take your Bible and go back there to chapter nine, chapter nine. And you’ll notice that the apostle Paul had a vision. He had a reason to do what he did. He says, I am free from all men. You say, does he really say that? Well, he kind of says that he was free from all men.

He said, where does he say that? I knew you and asked it, but look in verse 19, for though I be, well, there it is right there, free from all men, yet have I made my servant unto what? All. In other words, though I’m free, I made myself a servant. You see, God will not make you serve him. God doesn’t make you trust him, and God won’t make you serve him. I decided after I heard the gospel, that makes sense to me.

I’d be a fool to turn that down, so I trust the Christ as my Savior. He gives me eternal life. I’m going to heaven when I die. Then the Bible says that if I would serve Him, God would bless me. Well, I won’t God to bless me. He will reward me when I get to heaven. Well, I want that. Whatever it is, I want it. I don’t know what they are. I don’t really care. But if God says it’s worth it, it’s going to be worth it.

And I want everything I can get that God can give for me. Did you know that it delights God? it pleases God to give us things. You have kids. Weren’t you excited about maybe even on Christmas you gave them something special? You enjoyed giving. Wait until the grandkids come along and they’ll milk you for everything you got. They’ll play up to you. They’ll just love you and you’re the greatest in the world. Great grandpa, great grandma, and they just know Christmas is coming.

Of course, they won’t do it for that reason. But don’t you love giving? Don’t you love expressing and giving to somebody? The Lord says it’s more blessed to give than to receive. You might as well like it because very few going to give to you, you might go learn to give. So you learn to, it’s more blessed to give than to receive because there’s joy in there and giving. Now here you are, you’ve got an opportunity. You’re free, free to choose.

You’re free to choose to serve the Lord and you’re free. Not to serve the Lord. But there’s consequences to your choice. If I choose to serve theLt. God promised to bless me and reward me. If I choose not to serve the Lord, then God can chase in me, maybe take me home before my time. So I’m free to choose and God is going to do whatever according to my decision. So since I know that, it makes my decision very important, doesn’t it?

I mean, what I decide is very critical. It can make a lot of difference in my life. So once you understand it, it will be a blessing to you. So Paul goes down through here and he says, I am going to run a race. Look down in verse 24. No, not that they which run in a race run, and here’s the word, all. one receive of the prize. So run that you may obtain. So here in competition we often go to you know places where we watch kids run and compete and they run and somebody went.

Now they didn’t got it today where everybody gets a reward. I don’t like that at all. That’s just new stuff that it ain’t worth the quarter. Well we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. No, if you lost you lost deal with it grow up and if you win learn how to deal with that but you win or you lose they said if you’re gonna run in a race run to win and that’s why he says so run now what are we running after we’re running after souls I have become a servant to all that I might gain so he’s running to win running to win souls.

So therefore in verse 26 he says, I therefore so run, Paul said, I run. And the reason he’s running because he wants to run and play according to the rules. In every sport there’s rules. There’s an out of bounds. You’ve got to touch the base after you hit the ball. And then you’ve got to run. And somebody throws the ball and they get there before you get to the first base, you’re out. But if you get there first, you’re safe.

So you learn that there are rules and regulations and everything that you do. And with the Lord, God’s Word has a lot of do’s and don’ts. If you want God to bless you, He says, now don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this. And He said, I want you to do this, and then do this, and do this. So there’s things to do, there’s things not to do. But this isn’t to get to heaven. Going to heaven is what He did for us.

Now He said, I want to bless your life and I want to use you and I want you to be fit for the ministry. God said, I gave you a ministry and He wants us to discipline ourselves so that they might be able to use us for His honor and glory. Now, here in the book of 1 Corinthians, you’ll notice when it gets down to chapter 10, Here we see this same principle all over again. All, all, all, all.

See, look in verse 1. So there are five privileges that are mentioned here, and there’s also five sins that are mentioned here. And he’s letting to know that what God did for the children of Israel, when he brought them out of Egypt, he brought them all out of Egypt. They all crossed the Red Sea. They all went into the wilderness. They all had that pillar of fire and that cloud by it. They all had it. They all got the drink of that spiritual rock when they was thirsty and Moses smoked the rock and the water came out.

They all got the some of that manner that came down from heaven. They all got some of the same benefits. Well, that’s the same as us. All. We all got saved the same way by faith alone and Christ alone. Now I know what it says. In verse 1, more over brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant of how that our fathers, all our fathers, were under the cloud. They all had the exact same protection. And all past through the sea, they all had the same guidance and were all baptized unto Moses.

They all had the same counseling. And were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And then you’ll notice… And did all ate the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink. Well, they drank of that spiritual rock that followed in that rock was Christ. So they all had the same presence of the Lord even back there in the wilderness. So look at all the things that God did for all of them. They all had the same.

So you see, what God did for you, He did for me. When He died on the cross, would He pay for your sins just like He paid for my sins? When he saved me by faith alone, and he saved you by faith alone, how much more do I owe him than you? Or do you owe him more than I do? We don’t owe him anything, but we can as a child of God volunteer to serve the Lord. And do you know what God wants more than anything else in the world?

As He wants us to love Him. So that’s one of the things I believe that when God was in heaven and He had made all creation. Could it be possible that God was lonely? I don’t know. Remember he made a man and a woman and God walked in the garden and talked to them because God was lonely? God wanted somebody to talk to. God wanted somebody to love him. And so God wanted us to love him by choice. So in order to have us choose to love him, you have to be able to choose not to love him.

Otherwise we’re nothing more than robots and programmed to all perfectly obey without a will. So God gave us a free will, set us free to choose because God wants you and God wants me to love him because he’s God, love him because of what he’s done for us. And if you’re not going to love God for that, you probably never love anything for real. And there’s nothing in this world worth love them because everything is you’re going to have is you’re going to lose.

So therefore God wants something from you. God wants you to love Him more than the things that He’s made, more than the world itself. And that love for the Lord is what will help you restrain your life from doing those things that offend God. That is wrong. It’s so it helps you to guard yourself because you don’t want to do something that brings shame upon God because you’re his child. And you should not, as a child of God, bring shame upon your dad.

But now notice what he says here. Look now in verse 6. Now these things were our examples to the intent. So is it the will of God for us to study the Old Testament in order to know what we can learn from it? You see in the book of Romans in chapter 15 in verse one down to verse three, it talks about that things in the Old Testament were written beforehand for our learning that we might learn to put our confidence, our trust, our hope in the Lord.

And we do that by saying, what did God do for them? Well, look what God did for these children of Israel. But what he did, he didn’t show favorites. He did the same for all of them. But then they all respond the same way. When they had 12 spies go into the land, they all came back, did they all have the same report?

Did the 10 who had a bad report affect anybody? the whole nation of Israel, it affected them. Joshua and Caleb says, we can do this. We can take this land. We got God’s word on it. Yes, but we’re at grasshoppers in their sight. They’re giants, the children of the vein that we can’t go in there. Oh, everything to God promise was just like he said, land of Milkenhane. And it was only 11 days journey from Chaege’s Barnia into the Holy Land.

And so because of their unbelief, they wandered around in the wilderness by 40 years. 40 years going in an 11 days journey, all because of not believing what God says. And some of God’s children are still running around in the wilderness, and 40 years later they’re still running around in the wilderness. around in the wilderness. They never got to the milk and the honey. They never matured in the Christian life because they didn’t learn from examples. To notice what he says.

He made this statement in verse 6. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. In other words, so that you don’t do what they did. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Is it possible that you can learn from what somebody else goes through and some of the faults that they have and the consequences of their life? Wouldn’t it be better to learn from what you see? That happened to experience it yourself.

I mean, if there’s a big old hole down here and it’s got a right of snakes in here and I just saw it low and behold. Dan Hall just walked over there and jumped down in that pit and see how bad it was. And it’s loaded with right of snakes. And I can hear Dan Hall and they’re biting me. It hurts. Get me out of here. So I walk over there and jump in with him. Now does that help him?

No. You see, you can learn from what somebody else does, it’s wrong. And so you can learn, you know what, I’ll be foolish to do that same thing. I’m not going to jump in there. And so there’s some Christians that just go blindly and just follow whatever somebody else does. Wait a minute, follow the Word of God. How shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to thy word, thy word is a lamp unto my feet?

It’s a light by which we are guided. So you use the Word of God, know the Word of God, stay within the boundaries of the Word of God, and God will bless you. But now notice, in verse seven, neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. Now see not all of them did it. Not all of them committed the same sins, but they did all sin.

Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, the people sit down to eat and drink and rose up to play. He said, all the lack of kindergarten on this food playground. No, that’s not what he’s talking about. Their plan was a wicked sin. And they were, this is when Moses came down from the Mount and he had the 10 commandments. Who’s the first person that ever broke all 10 commandments? Moses. He broke them. And what did God make him do?

You had to go back up and get another set. So there’s consequences, but they were worshiping some idol. golden calf. Well, Aaron, what happened? What the people made me do it. Line is done. But blame, blame, blame. And so he says in verse 8, neither let us commit fornication. In chapter 5 had somebody already done this. Anybody already guilty? Look what he said. Neither let us commit fornication. sex outside of marriage is wrong. And some of them committed and fell in one day three and 20,000.

That’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of people. We get upset because 3,000 people died when 9 11 with the towers. Three and 20,000 died because somebody was committing for an occasion. But not everybody did the same sin. You You see in verse nine, neither let us tempt God. That means to daring to disobey. It’s tempting God. Daring to disobey is tempting God because you’re trying to say, how much can I do before God zaps me or slaps me or spanks me, corrects me.

And everyone wants to see just how far can I go on my own, do whatever I want, my own direction before God gets upset. So some people will occasionally go to church just to keep God from whipping them, or occasionally give some money to the church so that maybe that’ll keep God off my back. And so they just play this little game. And when you don’t fully give your heart to the Lord and serve God the way God wants, you never know when your heavenly Father is going to chase in you.

And you don’t know exactly how He’s going to chase in you. It’s going to happen. The when, how severe. And remember, different individuals, you are free to choose whatever sin you want to commit. And your heavenly Father is free to choose how he wants to punish you. Isn’t that fair? Now some people he may put in a hospital. Some he might put you in a wheelchair. And some he says are weak, some are sick, some are dead. You see, God doesn’t play games.

You can’t go against God and win. There’s consequences to our decisions. So he makes a statement up here, do not tempt Christ. What was the devil trying to tempt Christ to do? He says, jump off this little pentacle up here and the angels are going to let you touch the stone. It’s going to hurt your little foot. Are you hungry? Well he hasn’t eaten forty days. If you’re who you claim to eat, why don’t you take some of these stones and turn them into bread?

Could he have done that? He could have! But he answered every problem that Satan gave to him, and every challenge with the Scriptures. And that’s the way you learn how to defeat the devil and you resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now get this. God sent serpents among the people. Remember because of their murmuring and complaining and the serpents came among the people and they bit the people and they were dying. And so, says, put up a brazen serpent upon a pole and tell the people if they would look, they would live.

And that’s all they had to do was look and they would live. Then you have to do anything, just look, see that serpent and they would live. The Bible says that Jesus uses same illustration in winning Nicodemus to himself. So he tells him there in John chapter 3 verse 14, 15, before you ever get this great verse 16, he says, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.

And if all they had to do with the serpent was look and live, when it comes to Christ, all you have to do is look and live. And when you see Jesus Christ dying, paying for your sins, and he was buried and came back from the dead, he did it for you. You don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you don’t deserve it, it’s the gift of God. Now, look at the last thing here. In verse 10, neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.

Did you know it’s a great sin to murmur, to complain? Wine? I didn’t say God says it. He says, because of that, they’re not satisfied. They weren’t satisfied with the manner from heaven. They weren’t satisfied that they’re closed never wore out for 40 years. I like to find out where that story is that they bought all those things. You know, the shoes never wore out for 40 years. And I thought, how many pairs of shoes have I had to buy?

And how many clothes have worn out? But think about how God protected them. For 40 years to shoot. Who watch this? Honey, when are you gonna buy me a new dress? Well, as soon as that one wears out. Well, honey, I’ve had it 38 years. It’s good for two more. And then he says this. In verse 11, now, all these things happen under them four examples. And they are written for our admonition of what on the ends of the world are come.

ages. Wherefore let him that think of his stand, that take he lest he fall. This is chapter 8 and verse 2. Knowledge puffs up. And so therefore they’re on the verge of falling because they’re exalting themselves against God. And so there’s warnings that God puts into his word. All this is warning given to minestrations. See Paul tried, well I should say try to the Holy Spirit, God told Paul what to do. This is divine scripture. And so the Holy Spirit tells Paul, this is what you do.

You correct air by truth. Give him the truth of the doctrine. And so you study doctrine. Now, notice what he says there in verse 13. There have no temptation taken you, which is what happened to those people in Israel. And all the temptations they had are the same problems we have. We’re were tempted the same identical way. But such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer or permit you to be tempted above that you’re able, but will with the temptation, get this, also make a way to escape.

So with every problem, every temptation, there’s a way to escape. If a person wants to escape, you can escape. If you don’t want to escape, you can’t find a way. No, my fault. I couldn’t help myself. Yes, he could. And then he says this, that you may be able to bear it. You may not enjoy the trials and the tribulations. You’re going to have them. They’re going to come. That’s why he says, wherefore might be, love it brethren, flee from my adultery?

I speak as to wise men. Judge you what I say. Can you discern what I’m telling you? Well, remember this goes all the way back to chapter two and talks about that they were not able to discern. I want you to discern I could not speak on you as a spiritual, but as a carne law. Can you understand it? Can you get this? And so he laid it out for them and it’s so important for them to get. So God saved all of us, gave us all the Holy Spirit, gave us some time to live, and we’re going to have to answer to the Lord for the time that God’s given us.

So we’re the one to decide how we’re going to use this time. As I look back over the years, I’m… I’m glad that I went ahead and decided to, you know, I’ve enjoyed seeing the fruits of obedience. I’ve also watched people who were disobedient. I saw how God has delved in their life. And so I don’t have any regrets of doing it. I believe that if I didn’t, I would have regretted it very severely. I just got a nice letter, a picture of a young couple that just got married.

and they told me that they are from my legacy. And I know what they meant, because the young boy that just got married, well, I led his mother to the Lord. And the girl that got married to the boy, well, I led her dad to the Lord. So since I had a part in their parents’ salvation, because I explained the gospel and stuff. And one is Jim and Ann Bollinger. You remember Jim Bollinger? I led Jim to the Lord.

And then Nancy Patterson was Nancy Jackson. I led her to the Lord. And so they both had a child, and now those kids grew up and they married each other. They are two beautiful children. And I just thank the Lord for them. So they sent me a national card with a picture on it and all. So it was great. And I thought, some more of my grandkids. These are grandkids. So if you do not know for certain where you’re gonna go and you die, there’s only one way to get to heaven.

It’s not by your works. You can’t earn it, you can’t work for it. cannot buy it. This hand represents you and me, their wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us, but He hates our sin. For us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven, and to go to heaven you have to be perfect. As righteous as God, no one’s perfect. We have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection.

So God says we cannot save ourselves. This hand represents Jesus Christ. Jesus the Lord, God in the flesh, He came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates from the Lord. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. So He took all the sins of the whole world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

Let’s pray, shall we? We had bow nice clothes and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, right now is a good time to do it. We’re not going to have you forward and I’m going to embarrass you. Nothing to fill out. And there’s nothing for you to give. Salvation is free. Would you trust Christ as your Savior? If you trust Christ right now as your Savior, God saves you right now and gives you eternal life.

If you’re watching by internet, right on the screen says, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. And if you’ll just click that on, it lets us know that somebody heard and understood and trusted the Lord. And that is such a blessing for us. Not to be saved, but because you have trusted Christ as your Savior. I pray that you will. Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for loving us, for giving us eternal life. And Father, there’s things you’ve done for every individual, all the same.

And there’s certain things Lord that you ask us to do and some of those things are different. There’s a different ministry that we may have. But Father, we’re to be found faithful. I ask your presence upon each one here. Use them for your honor and glory, Christ and your prayer. 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. book The Gospel Driven Man covers all those topics and we want all new listeners of Bible line 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 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, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.