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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 Bibleignmenistries.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.

I wanted to share a few things with you. First of all, take your Bible and turn to the Book of Ephesians. the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, now everybody has heard, or at least God’s children, that Satan has put out a contract on your life. He probably got little demons working on you, and if you’re doing anything for the Lord, he’s going to do everything he can to stop you. I have lived with that knowledge because I learned a lot time ago.

And I can’t recall a day. He’s let me alone. He’s always been after me. And trying to get you discouraged, filled with despair, no hopelessness, trying to do everything he can to turn you against God, against doing what he wants. And sometimes you see some of the sacrifices you’re making and you see what other people are doing, you think, man, I like to do that. I like to do that. I like to do that. And then he kind of keeps holding you back to do.

This is what God wants you to do that. And you know you made the right decision. He know it was a wise decision. But sometimes you want to see results from your good decisions right away. And it’s not always there. But I want you to remember this now. In the book of Ephesians in chapter 2, there’s a verse down here that says in verse 4, but God, but God. But before you get to that verse, but God, look how important those words are that are above it.

When He says here, and you have to be quickened or made alive, who were dead and trespasses and sin. I mean, you broke the law, you overstepped the boundary, you were guilty. Wherein in time past, you walked, according to the course of this world. Now you may not have known it. According to the prince of the power of the air, you may not have known it. The spirit that now worketh than the children of disobedience. You might not have been aware of it, among whom also we all had our manner of life.

In time passed, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we’re by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. But you might not have known just how wicked you were, how far away from God you were. You didn’t know how lost you were. You didn’t know how bad you were. You didn’t know how wicked you really were in God’s eyes because we compare ourselves with other people and I’m not that bad, but when you compare ourselves with God who is perfect, we were in a heap of trouble.

And then those two words, but God. But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved it in spite of the way we were, and the way we lived, the way we talked, Everything about us. God still loved us. And so because of that, he says in verse five, even when we were dead or separated from God because of our sins, hath quickened or made us alive together with Christ by grace, you’re saved. So you can see the way you were, and it wasn’t because of anything that you have done that saved you, but God’s mercy, but God’s grace.

Now the devil is real and he’s alive. Now look there in chapter six. I would recommend, especially some of you college kids, having always come with a piece of paper so you can take down notes and you ought to write down every verse I turn to, even if you don’t understand it, even if you do, write it down so you got yourself a little message that someday down the road, when you get busy, you may fall back on one of these old loaves of bread and just put it in the oven, warm it up a little bit and you can serve it.

Ephesians in chapter 6, look what he says in verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Then in the power of his mind. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. See the devil is going to do everything he can to deceive us, to trick us, to lead us astray. He’s going to lie to us. Now remember this, since you haven’t met him probably face to face, you’ve met some of his workers, you’ve met some of his ministers, and it’s not always the preacher in the pulpit, it can sometimes be the person sitting in the pew.

If God can use all of us, the devil can use all of us, and sometimes you’d be surprised that probably some of God’s children are used more by the devil than by the Lord. So this is why you need to know what the word of God says, because as he says in verse 12, for we wrestle not, in other words, there is a battle on. You’re in a wrestling match. This wrestling takes place in your mind. And all of your success and your failures begins right up there in the mind.

So your actions are a byproduct of the way that you think. And if you wanna raise the level of your life and caliber of your life, raise the caliber of your thoughts. That’s why I don’t think on man’s level, think on God’s level. And then he makes this statement, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. More going on than you and I know, more than you and I realize.

But there is a real live devil, he has an army. He’s got a lot of people working for him. And he has, I guess you could say, a message for you to hear. So Satan is doing everything he can to make sure you hear his message, and the lost to hear his message, just like God’s got a message for them to hear. So he uses us to tell the lost the message, and there’s the devil who’s got a message that he wants the people to hear.

So he wants to lead people away from God, and God wants to use our message to bring people to God. So understand the difference. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Second Corinthians in chapter 11. Second Corinthians in chapter 11. There’s a couple verses here that let’s you see how concerned the apostle Paul was over God’s children. Because you want the best for God’s children. You want them to mature. You want to present them to the Lord as godly individuals.

But he says, I want you to bear with me for a moment. He said I’m going to do a little bragging, but I want you to listen to what I have to say. And that’s in verse one. Verse two, for I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy. Jealousy we say is the fear of being replaced. Paul didn’t want to be replaced in their eyes because he knew he had the truth. He did not want them listening to these false teachers that come to spew their legalism.

So he says, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chase, verz, and decries. but I fear,” see this word? But I fear. Because there’s always that possibility of God’s children going astray, be leaving the wrong thing. There’s always that possibility the devil can get into your mind and destroy you. It can take you years to build a person up and they can be totally destroyed and nothing flat. You can ruin your whole testimony.

Look what he says, “‘But I fear less by any means as the servant beguiled eud by any means. See, you don’t know every way in which the devil is going to try to do things, but he’s been in business for over 6,000 years.posted, so he knows a few little tricks of the trade. He knows all about the human nature because our human sinful nature is just like his. Remember in the book of John in chapter 8 verse 44 when Jesus says ye are of your father the devil.

He was a liar. He’s a murderer from the beginning and you’re just like your daddy. That’s the devil. Get what he says here. He says, be gowed Eve through his subtlety. So you’re, get this and you ought to underline this word. If you don’t have it on your minds, should be corrupted. Satan wants to corrupt your mind so that you can’t think straight. You don’t reason right and you’ll believe a lie, you’ll be the seed and you won’t even know it.

But he’s busy. He works on your mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. This is why sometimes I enjoy taking so-called difficult scriptures and with the simplicity of the gospel explaining them. Because there really is it to understand if you use the gospel, the clarity of the gospel, as the key to unlock all those complicated verses. Because when you understand what the gospel is and what it is not, that’s the biggest key to understanding the Scriptures. Then you go back and read anything that you want to read.

And you can use that key to unlock some of those difficult, seemingly contradictory passages. But he says in verse four, if he that cometh preacheth, another Jesus whom you have not preached, we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which we have not received, or another gospel. See, these are the things that the devil will use to confuse, to get you away from the simplicity that’s in Christ. And then down in verse 13, looking verse 13, 14, and 15, where he makes the statement, for such are false apostles.

False apostles that we talked about this morning have a false message. And the false message causes people not to believe the truth. And there’s many that follow their pernicious ways. And it says there in verse 13, for such are false apostles, but the seedful worker transforming themselves to the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into to an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing. If his ministers, he has ministers. Also he transformed as a minister’s of righteousness whose in shall be according to their works.

So Satan has false teachers that teach works for salvation and they teach man’s righteousness. And so the devil has his leaders and they can confuse and destroy you and you need to be aware of that. Now, take your Bible and look at their book of 1 Thessalonians in chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians in chapter 2, understanding that the devil is real, that he is alive, he is working, he’s busy, but notice what he says here. In verse 16 makes his statement, says, for bidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always.

For the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost, but we brethren, been taken from you brillant from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoring the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore we would have come unto you. Even I, Paul, once and again. And then you need to end the line in these words. Satan hindered us. Now if Satan can hinder the great apostle Paul, do you believe he can hinder you?

Can he affect you? Just because you can’t see him doesn’t mean he’s not working or his little devils and demons that he’s got. How many are there? I don’t know. How many he’s got after you? I I don’t know, but from the Word of God, I believe that Satan will do everything he can to stop us from being effective and try to ruin and destroy our testimony. Now, one more script I wanna show you right now is 2nd Corinthians and chapter two, 2nd Corinthians and chapter two.

Just so that you know the words that are found in here about our enemy that we cannot see. And you’ll notice there in verse 11, less Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now this is why it’s talking about in the book of Ephesians in chapter 6 about the wiles of the devil and how we’re supposed to put on the armor that God has provided for us, so that when we are attacked we can stand, And having done all the stand, God does not desire us to stumble and fall, but just take a stand to know and to be able to discern the tricks of the devil.

So this is why in Hebrews in chapter 4 and verse 12, he talks about, for the word of God is sharp and powerful. And it’s a two-edged sword, Pearson even to the divided asunder, Solace Spirit in the also talks about the joint and the moral and the thoughts and the intents of the heart. this that God has given to us so that you learn discernment. Without the truth of the world of God you cannot discern the devil’s tricks. You won’t see it, he’ll deceive you.

When you know truth you can detect the error. Now I got a nice little letter a couple days ago. I thought I would just read a little bit of a portion of how somebody sees easy believe in them. He says as with building a pyramid, bringing eternal life to the human soul is never an instantaneous event. As soon as I read that I thought, I don’t know if I agree with this guy. That line, all of a sudden, just made me think, what’s he talking about?

All people who are get saved. Boom. It’s in a moment. Because the moment you believe and you trust Him, you have it. Boom, that quick. But it says it’s kind of like building the pyramid. He says it took years to build a pyramid. And you don’t build a pyramid overnight. And so people are trying to get people saved in a flash. So it can’t be done. So he says, as building a pyramid, bringing eternal life to the human soul is never an instantaneous event.

The words quick and conversion are mutually exclusive. The battle for the heart wouldn’t stand for a one-round knock-out. In fact, the phrase, quickie conversions is code for, don’t you believe it? What appears to be instant Believism is most often a product of misunderstandings, deceptions, or both. When I witness, do you know I actually expect if I make it clear and they’re reasonable, I just believe I’m going to win them to the Lord. I just assume that if I made it clear, it should be easy for them to trust Christ as Savior.

I do believe that I lead them to the Lord that quick. If they hear it, they understand, not make take me several minutes to explain it to them. But here’s what he said. The act of redeeming a human soul is built upon God’s design, magnified by his son’s death, faithfully proclaimed until the human hearts it comes to God’s incomparable gift. In other words, it takes time. You gotta learn a little bit. It takes time. He said, how many questions had Nicodemus asked himself before he brought his list to Jesus?

I mean, I don’t know about a list that he brought to Jesus. He might have had a question or a doubt, but he did come to see Jesus at night. But I would believe that by the time he left that night, I believe he probably trusts the Lord, but he didn’t bring that on. He said, how much heartbreak had the Samaritan woman felt before she gave her heart to the Savior. I don’t know if she was broken hearted or not.

She’d only been married five times and was living with another man. She might have been having some lark. I don’t know. You know, the scripture didn’t say. And if she’d have lost that one, she could have got two or three more. Who knows? I don’t know. But I don’t believe that Jesus took all that time to try to convince her how bad she was. And she had to promise to get rid of that man she was living with and confess all of her sins.

You probably can’t remember them. And it takes time. So he had to go back and see her four or five times, right? She heard it that one day and she was in the city telling everybody about it. They came out and heard him and believed immediately they believed. Now that contradicts what this fellow was saying. But this fellow here writes a lot of good articles at times and they publish them. He’s a well-known individual. I’m not going to tell you who he is though.

Maybe later. He says this. He says, how many Christian testimonies had Paul’s silence before he yielded to their message? How much bondage had the Philippian-Jaylor experience before he asked what must I do to be saved? Well, as far as I know, he might never even heard it until Paul and Silas were singing amazing grace that night in jail cell. And it doesn’t say that’s reading into something that is not there. But it’s also letting you know that you don’t just go out of here and win people the Lord.

It’s a long drawn out process. Here a little and there a little. So he says, a soul’s conversion is a journey from one to a hundred. step is linked to the next. No motion is wasted. It goes something like this. I am so glad he explained it. But I do see a little deviousness in this, deception in here. Somebody has influenced the man’s thinking and I know it wasn’t God and it wasn’t the Word of God. He says, a man invited to church.

Here’s the gospel for the first time. That’s steps one to six. He hears a friend’s testimonium at steps 11 to 14. Curiosity causes him to read from God’s word. That’s 19 to 27. A co-worker shares the love of Christ, 30 to 36. A Christian concert takes him from 41 to 45. He tunes into here teaching on Christian radio 47 to 54. He’s back in church with an open mind, 58 to 70. He asked a friend about your message, 70 to 74.

More Christian radio on a sleepless night, 77-81. Someone walks him through the plan of salvation, 84 to 90. He observes Christ’s lightness in a friend, 93 to 98. He prays a prayer of faith in repentance, 99 to 100. Finally got in there. See, it wasn’t all at once. It’s a process, evidently, when somebody explained the gospel to the friend so when he walks him to the plan of salvation, he’s showing he gets saved two more times later. I think you can eliminate all of that, just witness to people.

And if it makes sense and they believe it, they can trust Christ as their Savior. I guess some people just want to make it hard. I’ve had people say to you, you just make it too easy. Well, what right do I have to make it hard? That’s a good word. That says, what’s that? It’s that a pin. No, no, no, that was too easy. Believe hard. How do you believe hard? Well, this is not a pin. This is a baby grand piano.

Now would that be hard to believe? See how hard that would be to believe? You see, are we supposed to go all the world and make the gospel hard to believe or easy to believe? If you just tell them the truth. The truth ought to be something that when you hear it and you believe it, you could have eternal life. So I don’t agree with most of these preachers. And he writes articles for all the preachers and sends it out.

And he sends it out through Faith Talk Radio, which comes out of a national thing. They got over 100 stations. And this goes to all the preachers throughout the country. telling them this is how you do it. No, it’s not how you do it. So therefore I think we would have a little of a problem. Alright, I want you to write a couple things down. You need to write this down. When we take the Bible for example, there are two books in the Bible that Satan really hates.

One is the book of Genesis. The other one is the book of Revelation. The book of Genesis because his doom is prophesied. Genesis predicts the doom of the devil. Revelation is his execution. Satan does not like either one of those books. And you’ll also notice that in the book of Genesis, the devil is not mentioned in the first two chapters and in the book of Revelation he’s not mentioned in the last two chapters, but as the devil mentioned in all those other places in between all over and you read that and see that.

Liberal theologians, and a lot of them. Say that the book of Genesis, well that’s a myth. The book of Revelation, well that’s a mystery. So both of them you can’t believe because one’s a myth and one’s a mystery and you can’t understand it anyway. You know the book of Revelation is too hard and complex. You can’t understand that. Satan will fight those two books because it’s the beginning and it’s the ending. When Jesus comes along and he says, I am Alpha and Omega, means I am the beginning and I am the first and I am the last.

We talk about Satan in the book of Genesis, you see his deceit, how deceitful he is. And in the book of Revelation, we also see the defeat of the devil. So the devil is going to be defeated. He’s already been defeated at the cross. It’s just like a flower plant and you cut that flower, it is cut from the source of life. When it’s separated, it’s dead. But it still looks alive, but it’s dead. Because it’s cut from the source of life and you and I.

We are spiritually dead. We are cut off from the source of life. We have a physical body that’s going to die. So I wrote three little things down. I wanted you to put down. Satan wants to separate you from your body. That would be physical death. He wants you dead. He wants you dead. you ought to be so thankful to the Lord for every day you live, every breath you breathe, because we live only by the grace of God.

When we were born into this world, we were spiritually dead, and the devil wants to keep you spiritually dead. It means you’re spiritually, you’re separated from God. So the devil wants you to stay separated from God, that the spiritual death that we have. And he wants you to be physically dead. And you also know that there’s a what we call being separated from God for all eternity. Satan wants you to be separated from God for all eternity. The devil is busy.

When you know understand his plan and what he does, what he likes, doesn’t like and it’s not you and me that he likes. You see he hates God and God loves us. So in order to hurt God the devil wants to get you to turn against God and when you get mad and bitter and hateful to others or toward God the devil is using you and he is succeeding Because you’re turning against the very one who loves you more than anything else in the world.

Don’t listen to the devil. Remember, he cannot read your mind, but he can interject thoughts into your mind. All this is so important. So Satan has a contract out on your life. Write this little statement down. Satan is the world’s best liar. He’s a world’s best liar. And look in Revelation chapter 12, Revelation and chapter 12. He is the world’s best liar. And notice what he says here in verse 9, verse 9 and verse 10. Look at the power that the devil has.

Verse 9 says, and the old great dragon was cast out that old serpent. He’s not new, he’s an old serpent. Call the devil and Satan. Now the other part of this verse, you need to underline these words because you need to know what description God gives of this bird, which deceiveth the whole world. He must be a pretty good liar. Now here’s a lot of people I’ve been in life and some of them are some mighty good liars, but the greatest liar is the devil himself.

He is called the lie. He is the liar and he lies. Now the Lord is the truth. Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the life. He says, sanctify them through thy word, thy word is truth. So in life, it’s not so much trying to decide between what’s right and wrong or good and bad. It’s truth and lie. You see, if people knew the truth, And knowing the truth, you can discern anything you don’t come up to it if you know the truth.

This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically.

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 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.