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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.

So if you will, take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews in chapter 2. The Book of Hebrews in chapter 2, the song, I’ll be true. When you think about just those first three words, how powerful they are. And if you look in your notes there, very first paragraph, in my freshman year, we did it for several years, but beginning in my freshman year when things were a little hard and I’m telling you trying to work full-time job and go to school wife and two kids and it seemed like everything falls apart.

At the end of the services on Sunday night the kids would get together to students and we’d go down to Covena Grove Park. Sit down there had a little shed down there and picnic tables looking out over the bay and we would would play guitars and sing and give testimonies. And there’s several songs that they would sing that really kind of uplifting. Because it was more like not just the words in a song, but they said something. Just like whenever you got married and two people are joined together in Holy Deadlock.

Wedlock. You know that whenever they look at each other and I love you, do you love me and I’ll let you know. What you wanna know is, will you be true? And you say those words, I’ll be true, I’ll be true. Do you promise to bla bla bla bla bla, I do, I do, I do. And sometimes it don’t always work out. Sometimes people are not always as true as they ought to be. But when it comes to the things of the Lord, Do you realize if you were to say these words to the Lord Lord, I’ll be true.

What are you actually saying? Are you going to be found faithful? Lord I’ll be true. It means if I’m going to be true, it means I’ve got to love my wife right. If I’m going to be true, I’ve got to be right by my kids. If I’m going to be true. It means I’ve got to be found faithful in reading my Bible and studying and witnessing And everything that I’m supposed to do, Lord, I want to be found being true to my commitment to you.

So look there at this little statement where I have, I’ll be true is such a bold statement, a total commitment, an awesome agenda for young students who had no clue what the future hell, but had a reckless abandonment of faith to the one who held the future. We knew that it would be worth it all. You ever heard that song? It would be worth it all. It’s another good song we’d always sing. But without the Lord, we could do nothing.

You ever heard that song? Without Him? Without Him? I could do nothing. It’s a good song. And before the days over we just love them seeing it too. Who knows? I don’t know. But I want you to look here in the book of Hebrews in chapter 2. Look in verse 9 and it says in verse 9, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

So we believe that Jesus Christ. He was made lower than the angels because angels don’t die, but he was made lower than the angels for the purpose that he might die for everybody. And then he says, for it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. for both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

He’s not ashamed to call us his brethren. But you see, the word cause in that verse, well, it’s because we have been made pure and holy. We are to be justified with God. Now here’s God. He’s perfect. And here we are. We’re not. We have come short of the glory of God, short of God’s perfection. But the Bible says that because of what Christ did for us, we have to be made pure and holy as righteous as God. So God can justify us as though we’ve never sinned.

So to be justified means that God will find no fault in us and there’s no guilt. And if there’s no guilt, there is no shame. And this is why salvation is such a wonderful, wonderful thing. I’m so glad God invented it. Wouldn’t it be terrible to go to hell for all eternity? But God made a way for sinful people to be holy before God, so that God is not ashamed to call me, I’m His child. Now there’s things that God says that we do in our life after we trust the Lord and you’ll find the word a shame mentioned many, many times, many, many times.

And so I want you to take your Bible now and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 1. The book of Romans chapter 1, and you’ll notice there in verse 14, Romans chapter 1 and verse 14. Apostle Paul considered himself separated under the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, he had separated himself from every other purpose there is to live in life for this one main goal. And so he was separated under the gospel. You see that in verse 1 where he says, separated under the gospel of God.

So he had one main goal for living. And I can say that pretty much over my few years that I’ve lived. My one main goal is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I just want people to go to heaven because I’m going and I don’t want to go alone. I want to get as many people to go to heaven as I possibly can. But it says in verse 14 Paul says, I am deader. Both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and the unwise.

So as much as in me is, I am ready to to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. The Greeks, the barbarians, the Jews, he’s ready to go because he had a way to pay his debt. God had given him something by which he can pay a debt. He owes the gospel and by giving the gospel you’re paying your debt. I paid my debt to this one. I paid my debt to this one. I paid my debt to this one.

And a lot of us might find ourselves when we get before the Lord, realizing that we never paid the debt. We never paid the debt that we owed. We owe the lost the gospel, the truth of how to have the free gift of everlasting life. And that’s why he says in verse 16, looking verse 16, for I am, see those words, not ashamed. I’m not ashamed of the gospel because the gospel works. I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it will do what it claims to do.

It has the power to save anybody. So I don’t have to worry about, can I witness to somebody that God can’t save? God can save anybody who’s so ever believe it. It’s the most powerful message in all the world. And many people are not enjoying, watching the power of the gospel work. It’s such a wonderful thing. I was talking to a guy just a couple days ago. And his dad was a president of some company. And he talked to me and he was kind of going back and forth, talking about a few things.

And. . . . . . . . . . And I said, can I ask you a question? He said, sure. I says, where are you going when you die? Now, you may not have thought I would ever ask a question like that. But I have been known to do it before. And he says, well, I’m pretty religious. And he says, I used to be in the Pentecostal religion. I said, okay, well. I says, but you’re not sure. No.

I said, can I show you something? So I explained the gospel to him so he could have the free gift of everlasting life. He says, I’ve never understood that. And he was a grown man, been raised in religion all his life, but he never understood the gospel. Isn’t it wonderful when you talk to somebody and they ask him, where are you going to die? I don’t know. And then you explain to them now they know. I say, how do you know you’re going to have a nice, Christ died for my sins?

Because most people don’t really understand how simple the gospel is. and yet it’s the most powerful thing in all the world. I want you to look there in your notes. We’re gonna go by the notes pretty much right now because I got a lot of verses here and I don’t think we’ll have time to turn to all of them. But you have a copy of them. And what’s written down here is also written right in your Bible. And when you get home, you can check and verify that it’s there.

I have a question there in bold. What a shame it would be if we were not true to Christ. They see the only thing to go to heaven is to trust him and he will be true to you. He made a promise that he would save who’s to ever believe it. So if I believe that he saved me, gave me eternal life because he promised, you can take him at his word, money in the bank and God does not lie.

He cannot lie. Can I go back upon his word? He said, he’ll never cast me out and never lose me. I know I have eternal life. The next statement, the Lord warns us many times in many ways about being ashamed. Now look there at this statement. It means to be embarrassed or guilty because of one’s actions, characteristics, or associations. There’s times in all of our life we’ve said or done things that we’re ashamed of. You say, me, and I’ve never been ashamed of anything.

Well, to be ashamed means because you’ve been guilty and you’re guilty because you are wrong. And you’ve never been wrong? You’ve never done anything wrong? wrong. Everybody knows that everybody sins, but you just can’t remember anything, ain’t that right? I just can’t remember ever doing anything wrong. Some of us are just so holy, aren’t we? You know what pride is? Oh, look at the next statement. Shame may cause one to be sorry, contrived, remorseful or humiliated, because we don’t like to be humiliated.

We don’t I like to be ashamed of something that we come short of, and that’s why the next statement, because feeling inferior, inadequate, or embarrassed may cause or produce shame. I could ask some of you to come up here and preach for me because I don’t feel too good, and I’m gonna sit down, I want you to finish preaching for me. And you say, well, I’m inadequate. I’m ashamed to come up here because I don’t know the Bible, I don’t know what to do, I wouldn’t know what to say.

So because of a feeling of inferior, you’re not qualified, so therefore you might be ashamed. You could be asked to do something, and because you can’t do it well, you may be ashamed of your product. Somebody ask you to, would you paint my picture? Really? I’ll say, hey, that doesn’t do me justice. Well, you don’t need justice, you need mercy. Look at the next thing, shame is almost exclusively moral, meaning knowing right and wrong in significance through consciousness of guilt or of exposure.

You see, if you don’t know right from wrong, there’s a law of saying it will not bother you and there’s no guilt. And if there’s no guilt, there’s no shame. You could go over to certain countries where they run around naked and they got places where they run around naked and they don’t have any guilt and they’re not a shame because they don’t know if it’s right or wrong because that’s the way they’ve been. way they’re raised. Now you might say, oh, and so there’s things that you might be ashamed of.

You can be ashamed of your children. If your kids ever done anything you’re ashamed of, don’t answer it, I don’t want to do it. But sometimes you might be ashamed of your parents. Things that they say or do, they’re guilty of and you’re ashamed of it. It happens all the time because we are sinful people. Sinful people do sinful things. And because of that it produces guilt. I did something wrong. And because of the guilt we have the shame.

Now the key is to remove the guilt. Look at the next statement. Adam and Eve were both naked. And not ashamed. That’s in Genesis chapter 2. They were created innocent and therefore without guilt, therefore no shame. Naked, not ashamed. They hadn’t done anything wrong. They hadn’t sinned against God. They were totally innocent. When little children are born, they’re innocent. They can’t think between right and wrong until you teach them. And you spend the first time in the church. three years teaching them how to walk and talk and then the rest of their lives set on and shut up.

So you’re always, you know, trying to reverse. I got a sermon among periods coming up called repeal and replace. Have you ever heard of that? Not today though. Look at the next statement. Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. We are in Christ therefore there is no guilt in our position so there’s no shame. So He’s not ashamed of us. And a lot of times when you see the Scriptures talk and I hate to believe within me shall not be ashamed.

The reason you won’t be ashamed because one day we’re going to see God. Faced if I’m going to see God. And because of all those sins God has forgiven and if God has forgiven He’s removed the guilt and because there’s no guilt there’ll be no shame. I don’t have to be ashamed because of what Christ did on the cross for me. He paid my sin debt so I could stand there unashamed. Now look at the next statement I have.

The capacity for shame may be lost through the long continued deadening power of immorality, as found in 1st Timothy 4.2. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. When there’s no conscience of wrong, there’s no guilt, no guilt, there would be no shame. The other day I made a mistake. I was watching Fox News. And unkindest guy, Waters, Waters World. And he was having on there about the spring break. And the next thing to know, I thought it was pornography on TV.

Showing all the girls, they didn’t have enough material to make leggings for a hummingbird. You could say it was what they called the atomic dress, 50% fallout. And I’m talking about, they were like, no shame. Guys drinking stuff and trying to see how much they can hold on against. No shame. I’ve never had a drink of strong drink in my life. I don’t need that. There’s no shame with people. Or with a lot of people today, even a lot of women are having children and no husband.

One time remember, it used to be a shame to get pregnant and not be married. anybody remember those days? Is that true today? Very little. Or people shacking up with each other. What because we know everybody does it. So what’s it’s everybody does it then what you’re doing isn’t wrong and if it’s not wrong you’re not guilty. And if you’re not guilty there’s no shame until you start looking in the Bible and you look at things from the eyes of the Lord and realize, boy, have I been wrong?

And all of a sudden a weight of guilt can come upon a person and how I have been so wrong. And there’s ways of taking care of all of the guilt. And I’m so thankful for what we call the gospel of grace, where God forgives you. And you can accept the forgiveness of the Lord and what you’ve done is though it never happened in God’s eyes.

Wow. And God can forgive and remove. And when you accept God’s forgiveness, a lot of people accept God’s forgiveness, but then they don’t forgive themselves. You have to forgive yourself because that’s what God did. And then that removes the guilt and removes the shame. And you can lift your head high and you can walk because I am a forgiven man. I was guilty and I’ve been forgiven. God has been good to me. Now look at the next statement.

In the next statement I have right there in the bold, the grace of Christ delivers us from the shame of guilt. Forgiveness is to remove the guilt. The removal of guilt is to remove the shame. Are y’all following what I’m saying this morning? Are you there this way? Goes that means yes. This means no. Are you following what I’m saying? Am I getting through? You said, well I don’t need this right now. Okay, you probably need it tomorrow. Now you’ll notice the very next words by Romans 1 16, but we already looked at that, but I want you to look at the next one, Romans 5 and verse 5.

And hope, make it not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. Hope, a joyful anticipation of what God has for us and that blessed hope that we are looking for the Lord to come back at any time. Did you know that is a purify and hope in your life, that you keep your eyes focused upon the Lord and the day will come. Now down here, sometimes maybe you feel like I’ve sacrificed too much.

There’s so many other things I could have done, but knowing the scriptures, it has restrained me, kept me from doing things that maybe I would have done. I told Beddy the other day I said, honey, I wonder what I would have done with my life If your dad had never led me to Christ, she said, but he did.

I thought, what would I’ve done with my life? If her dad had never witnessed to me and want me to Christ, how lost I would be, how terrible it would be my life to realize how bad things could be. And then you realize, look how gracious God has been to you. God is a good God. Look at Romans 933 where he says, as it is written, behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. And whosoever, believe it on him, shall not be ashamed.

Means he will not have any more guilt. He won’t be guilty, therefore there won’t be any shame. It’s the only way it will work. Because if you do not accept the payment Christ made on the cross for you, You’ll be eternally separated from the Lord in a literal fire burning hell. And for all eternity because of the guilt, you’ll be so ashamed that you did not accept the payment Christ. But if you trust the Lord, you won’t be ashamed.

You’re going to be in heaven, a new body, pleasures forevermore, and you’ll be so glad you trust. And not only that, as a child of God, Should you or I be ashamed of what Christ did for us? Are you ashamed to witness for the Lord? A shame to tell people the good news of how to have eternal life? Are you ashamed? What somebody are you ashamed to talk to somebody about football? You’re ashamed to talk to somebody about what was on the news.

But are you ashamed to talk about how much you love the Lord? Think about it. Now, the next verse down at the bottom of the page, Romans 10 verse 11, 4, scripture said, whosoever, believe it on him shall not be ashamed. You’re not going to be confused, confounded, you’ll never regret that you trusted Christ as your Savior. Now in this world there may be times when like Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel because of what it is and I am ready to preach it because I am a debtor and if you don’t do what you should do then there’s a sense of guilt I failed.

When you just think about those words, I’ll be true, precious Jesus, I’ll be true. Could you just say those words right now in your mind? Just say it in your own mind. Don’t say that out loud, just I’ll be true, precious Jesus, I’ll be true. What do you think it means, Zom? Would you be afraid to say that? Because it’s like it’s a commitment. You see, to go to heaven, committed himself to do what he said he’d do and I’m just letting him.

I’m trusting him to save me because I believe he’ll keep his word. But whenever I decided I want to serve the Lord, I made up my mind and I didn’t want to just play games with the Lord, I want to be true. I want to be a true witness for the Lord, a true servant of the Lord, a real genuine disciple for the Lord. Not because, well, I have to, I want to. And I’ll be true. It means I’ve got to watch every area of my life, not just some, but every area.

Look at the top of the page on the backside. Philippians chapter 1 verse 20, what a verse. Look at this. He He says, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that, and I just felt like I needed to make it a little bigger because he uses the word magnify. So I wanted to magnify that in nothing I shall be ashamed. But that will all boldness as always. So now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

See, here you are, your God’s child. God wants to get glory from your life. But if you won’t give glory through your life, he can take it through your death. Did you know you might have more people come than know Christ is your Savior? Is there a Savior? Because you died, then because you lived. Because it’s your funeral, somebody like preach the gospel and might be more people trust Christ as Savior. Wouldn’t it be better if you would do it while you’re alive and bring people to the Lord?

The other day I was talking to an individual who is a missionary and I told him I said I just want to know I met him at a restaurant told him I’d like to buy him something to eat and talk to him, find out where he’s coming from. And I asked him I said well what I need to know is this. I said, are you personally, are you a soul winner? He says, oh, what? I said, so winner. He says, I don’t know what you mean.

I said, somebody who talks to somebody that doesn’t know where they’re going with the dying and persuade them to trust the Lord to take him to heaven. He says, I’m not sure I follow you. Now, this is a missionary. This is a missionary. Now you think I would want to try to help support him? No. If you’re not a missionary here, you won’t be a missionary if you went 3,000 miles away. And for somebody who doesn’t even know how to win somebody to Christ.

And I tried every which way I could explain what I was talking about. He said, well, we just try to, you know, teach. I said biblical principles and things like that. Oh yeah. I was sick. They’re representing Christ. No. But whether you live or whether you die, Paul says, I want to use my life. And as he says, just in all of Christ may be magnified. In other words, you ever seen a magnifying glass? You ever make something bigger, right?

Or you want to make Christ bigger. You want to make the gospel bigger and powerful. Now if you’ve taken a magnifying glass and let the sun come through and piece a piece of paper and get it out there just right and set it on fire but unless some things get just right it won’t do it. You can just lay it down there it won’t do it but you got to get it just right and the power those rays come to there and pinpoint it again.

Man you can start a fire with that stuff. I used to do this as a kid. I used to take and put it on somebody else’s leg and just sit and wait and tell. You ain’t never done that. You ought to do that. Be ready to run. I mean have some fun. Look at the next scripture. Second Timothy 1, 8 in your notes there, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me is prisoner.

I told people the other day I says, one of these days you watch. Somebody’s just liable to throw the old preacher here in jail. And I thought, you know what some people are gonna say? Well, I knew it was about time. But I’m always one of the jail ministry, so maybe I’ll get one who knows yet. But be not ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. Are you ashamed to testify for the Lord? Assamed to let people know who you are, what you really believe.

Assamed on the job, shamed with your neighbors, ashamed. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel. Don’t be ashamed of the Lord. Don’t be ashamed of your own testimony. Men reserved the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpen’s Iron Men’s Bible Study and Breakfast at Calvary Community Church. Join us at 730 for a home-cooked breakfast. Then at 8 AM, the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style Men’s Bible Study in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and dialogue are welcomed.

The Scripture tells us that Iron sharpens iron, and this men’s Bible study is open to those of all levels, whether new believers or mature Christians. The Iron sharpens iron men’s Bible study and breakfast. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 3-4. 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.