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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. 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.

When it comes to these physical bodies of ours, do we really understand that these bodies belong to the Lord and that we are not free to just do anything we want with it, take it anywhere we want or use it any way we want to. Now there’s a lot of things we can do in life, a lot of things we can be, probably a lot of talents and abilities we may have, but whatever it is, this body is not supposed to be a tool for the devil to use.

This body belongs to the Lord and it should be used for the Lord. So do you believe that all of God’s children really understand this? And because they understand it, they would not dare misuse this body. Do they take it to the right places? Do the right things with that really take care of the body the way we should. Now I want to give you a couple verses to look at looking first Corinthians in chapter 6. First Corinthians in chapter 6.

Just to give you a few things to think about concerning this. You’ll notice it says in verse 13, verse 13 says, meets for the belly and the for meats. They kind of made for each other. If I need a tummy, my tummy needs to have something put into it. So God has made things for my tummy. And my tummy was made to have something put into it. It’s kind of like they were made for each other. But now, notice, but God shall destroy both it and them.

Now the body is not for fornication. Now this body. You think we’re talking about the body of Christ, we’re talking about the body of the church, or we may be talking about our own body. You think you’re talking about our own body. Alright, look what He says. Now the body is not for fornication. What in the world is that? What is that? Well whatever it is, you know it don’t sound good does it? It doesn’t look good. It looks like it could be something pretty bad.

So some people say, well, adultries for adults and fornication for those that are not adults. But it can be adults that can commit fornication, even upon people that they’re not married to and sex outside of marriage and it would be right or wrong. It’d be wrong. So should you take the body that belongs to the Lord? Does your body belong to the Lord? So if my body belongs to the Lord. Does God want me to take and have my body joined together with a harlot?

No, they weren’t made for each other. Your body belongs to the Lord and your body should be used for the Lord. It’s not to be misused and some people they sin against their body because however a person satisfy the lust of the flesh it creates a stronger desire. That’s why it says sin against the body because the desire to get stronger. It becomes a bigger monster and if you couldn’t control it when it was a small desire, what are you gonna do and it becomes a greater desire.

So it’s harder down the road to conquer The lust of the flesh when you start giving into the lust of the flesh, and it’s a sin against your body. Because your body now craze and wants to be satisfied the way it was satisfied before. It’s like a person who gets on drugs. They try some, you know, little stuff that may be not too bad. But then when that satisfaction wears off, they got to have something stronger and then something stronger and something stronger.

It’s the beginning of the destruction of the body and your body belongs to the Lord. Look what he says here in verse 15, No, you not that your bodies are the members of Christ, your bodies are the members of Christ. They belong to the Lord and the Lord lives within you and you are the temple of God. Then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot. What’s the next two words say? God forbid. So it’s not the will of God for people to take their bodies if you are a Christian, you are a believer, you are to honor the Lord with that physical body of yours.

And he says in verse 16, what no you not, that he which is joined to a harlot is one body. For two sayeth he shall be one flesh. God made that when two people married come together as a man and a woman to become one and they have One flesh, two, come one, but God has designed it this way. But he didn’t say take this body that you have and join it to a heartlet. You see, that’s illegal, that’s wrong, it’s immoral, and you don’t have the right to do it.

You say, well, well, we love each other. Love has nothing to do with this. Truth does. You don’t go by feeling. The way we just, you don’t know how we feel about each other. I don’t care. A man with a man is wrong and it’s wicked. A man with a woman, it is wicked when it’s outside of marriage. And I don’t believe you should have two living. But anyway, we’ll move right along. Look at the next verse, verse 17, for he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.

You’ve already been joined to the Lord in one spirit. So your spirit and your body belongs to the Lord. And he says that down here in verse 20. It belongs to the Lord. So you’re not to take this and join it to anything else. Be not conformed to this world. And the world does not set the standard for God’s children. He says in verse 18. See those two words? What does it say about this? Flee, fornication. Flee. It doesn’t say experiment, try it out, See if you like it.

No, flee. Away from it. That means you have to have to think what you see. Who you’re around. All these things, these are all important things. Isn’t it amazing that as we watch some of the news, which I’m not too proud of all the revelations that are going on right now, but it seemed like some of the things have come home to roost. And people are finding out that, you know, nobody’ll ever”.[no.] Oh no, it’s on Facebook. It’s in the newspapers.

And they’ve always got people who are trying to dig up dirt on somebody. And so God says, keep your life pure. Just keep doing right. And it’s amazing how that some people are doing what I can get sidetracked here so easy, but I’m going to do my dead level best to stay into this. Now, What did it say in verse 19? What, no ye not, don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God and you are not your own.

You do not belong to you. You have been bought and paid for it, you belong to the Lord. And God’s only allowing you the use of that body if you’ll use it for his glory. When you stop using that body for his glory, then God can just take you out of that body or set you on the side and you become a shame to the cause of Christ. And a lot of this has been done and is being done.

Now, he says you’re not your own. And verse 24, you are bought with the price, therefore glorify God, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which belong to the Lord. So if you understand this, this is what God’s word has to say, and I think we ought to go by this. Look in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 27. First Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 27. Paul says about… The body. Do you discern the purpose of the body, the use of the body?

Do you understand that this body has sinful desires within because it has a sinful nature and it’s in our members, it’s in our flesh. And you can’t trust the flesh. So he says here in verse 27, but I keep under my body, mean I keep my body in subjection. lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway or disapproved or rejected. In other words, I’m striving for the mastery. In other words, if I’m gonna run, I wanna win.

And he says up there about, I want to obtain an incorruptible crown. But if I can’t control my body, I can’t win the race, If I don’t control my body, I will not gain the crown. And the body that you and I live in is our home on planet earth. It’s our little space suit. And if we don’t take this little space suit, we’re gonna have to get another space to live. Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Now, is that word body? Is that the church to be absent from the church is to be present with the Lord? You can very easily misread things. And some people do when they really want to do whatever they want to do with their life. You can always find verses to justify whatever a person wants to do. Now, 1 Corinthians in chapter 11, looking in verse 24, verse 24. And notice this verse here. Which body do you think he’s talking about?

And when he had given thanks, he’d break it and says, take, this is my body which is broken for you, this due in remembrance of me. I think we won’t have too much of a problem to understand it, that this bread or the cup that we take is not the real body of Christ, but it represents his body. And we are supposed to do this and remember some of what the Lord has done for us. Now in 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, look in verse 14.

Verse 14, for the body is not one member but many members. This body that’s mentioned here, is this the body, the literal body of Christ? Is it your literal body or is it something else? What does this word body here referred to? You see, you’re supposed discern the bodies, discerning the body that you live in, unless you misuse it, discerning the body of Christ and what He did with the shedding of His blood and the taking upon Himself the sins of the world upon that body.

Body has stopped prepared me. And to realize the church body, you see there’s things that we do that can either edify the body of Christ, the church, or there’s things we can do that can destroy our local assembly. And in the book of Revelation in chapter 2 and chapter 3, when he talks to the churches he says, I want you to do this, you’re doing a good job here, but you need to do this, lest I come and remove thy candlestick means I’m going to close your doors and you will not be a light because of rebellion or disobedience and this is important.

Now when you go down through here you’re looking verse 15. Verse 15, if the foot shall say because I am not the hand, I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body? So what body we talking about here. The human body, this is a representation of the human body. But as we look at this human body, it also represents another body. What body is that? The church. So you have a physical body and my finger is at my whole body.

And I got a thumb, but it’s not my whole body. I got an arm, it’s not my whole body. But what if my whole body was an eye? That’s all I had was one big eye, I’ll end right here and before it. Big old eyeball. If my whole body was nothing but an eye, I might be able to see good, but only in one direction unless somebody moves me. But if I was just one big old eye, now everybody knows that in every body, there’s always a couple of heels.

Now, In this one body, if it was all just a nose, my luck did be a running nose. You know, I did break my nose when I was young. Now it runs with a limp. Thank you, I appreciate that, Bob. But if I was just a nose, where would the rest of the body be? Everybody’s not the same. And in the body of Christ, he lets us know that we’re all different, but we’re all part of the body, and that everything and everyone in the body of Christ is important.

And he says, you are members in particular, and there’s some people in the body, we may not think that highly of because, you know, well, they can’t do this. and they can’t do that. And they’re not as important. God says they’re all important. Every individual is important. Now, take your Bible and look there in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse three. He’s talking about body here again. But now notice, in verse three, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love or charity, it profiteth me nothing.

What body do you think we’re talking about here? What body? If I give my body to be burned, well that’s your body, because I wouldn’t do that. We gotta be talking about yours. Because I’m not planning on doing anything like that with my body. Now, so you have a body and you can give that body to be burned and have not love. A lot of people are willing to sacrifice an awful lot, but they don’t love. They don’t love one another.

And they think because they give a lot of money, that’s a substitute for my service, and I don’t have to love people and treat people right. I just look who I am, I’m giving a lot of money. Or somebody else does something else. And some people come to church just so maybe they can just do a particular thing. And they get honor and glory, and that’s why they do it. But God knows whether or not, do you do what you do because you really want to benefit the people that are there and be a blessing to people.

You want to edify, not edify, but edify. Second Corinthians in chapter four. Second Corinthians chapter four, look at that one very quickly. Chapter four and look in verse 10. Second Corinthians chapter four verse 10 says, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Now, bodies mentioned here twice. But sometimes I understand you’ve got to figure out what body are we talking about? Which one refers to what?

But whatever it is, we are supposed to magnify Christ in our body. Our bodies belong to the Lord. So we have a body that belongs to Him and should honor Him. That’s why you should be careful. There should be no filthy communication come out of your mouth. No filthy communication out of your mouth. That’s a no-no. And gossip, that’s not good. And to be in mean and unkind and hateful thing like that, that’s not how God wants his body to be used.

Whatever it is, and whatever you say, whatever you do, wherever you go, it should represent the Lord. The way God is, and try to use that body order to honor the Lord. And 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and look in verse 6. Verse 6, therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. What body do you think He’s talking about? That’s this body that you and I live in.

And He also says down here in verse 8 we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the church and be present with the Lord. You see if that body refers to the church we got a problem. It’s absent from this body and then you’ll be with the Lord. Just a couple more that I want to mention to you. Now 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 most of you know that we shall all appear before the judgments of Christ that we may receive the things done in the body and the body and the body.

What body? You think that’s talking about everything we’ve done in the church. Everything we’ve done in this physical body we’re going to get an account to the Lord for and I believe it’s important. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians and chapter one the book of Philippians and chapter one and look in verse 20 because we’re talking about the body that you and I have. Can we mistreat the body of Christ? The church. Can we mistreat the individuals in that body?

Can we use this body that we have in the wrong manner? If this body belongs to the Lord and I’m responsible and God’s going to hold me accountable for what I did with this body of mind, then it becomes a serious thing. And this is why he says, some… Do not discern the Lord’s body. Well, I don’t want to just limit that to the communion table. I Want to also make sure that I don’t mess up by not discerning this body that belongs to the Lord and I don’t want to take and Make the mistake of not discerning the importance of the local church the body of Christ because that is important Ever since Betty’s dad led me to Christ One thing that I did not do is I did not go to church.

I had, I’ve been a couple times different ones but I don’t remember anything. But whenever her dad led me to the Lord on a Friday night, Sunday morning he had me at church and I have been going ever since. He got me going to church. Well, with some of the kids We used to play football in the afternoons or softball. He says, you don’t do that on Sunday. You don’t do that on the Lord’s Day. Well, I didn’t know that.

OK, so I don’t do that. I think one day we were going to go watch the car. You aren’t going to do that on Sunday, are you? Well, I would have gone too. Next thing you know, I didn’t know there were so many things I couldn’t do. You say, oh, those are all right. Well, I don’t know, but it sure disempled to me. They got me to think about everything I was doing. He challenged me on everything. He didn’t want me to do anything that was wrong.

He wanted me to do right. And he, not on me. The next thing you know, I’m reading the Bible, praying and going to church. And I didn’t know any different afterwards. And I would take and go to church, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. And I worked at a place called Benson Bakery, running a bread machine. And loads of bread would be put in that bread machine, And they would be up that thing and they would slice them, and then they would put them in the paper and wrap them up and then come out the other end of it.

And so I put in a loaf here and they would go in and cut it. And I ran them and I had grease all over me. I mean I was dirty. But on Wednesday night, I didn’t have time to go home and get cleaned up. I’d go to church and I’d walk in with those boots that I had on. White suit would grease all over me, but I came to church. kids when they were small, they sit right in church with us.

They never went to Sunday school. They said in church with their mom and dad. They sit right there and they were taught how to sit steel for an hour and a half. And we never took them out. They sit right there in church and they learn how to behave. You say the kids can’t do that. Yes, they can do that. But maybe we don’t have parents today will discipline their kids. We’d tell them you’re not doing and you’re not doing that and you go here and you go, we told them what to do and expected them to do it.

Well, I blistered their little bottom. Oh, yes, I did. And if I had to do it all over again, I’d probably do a little bit more, but maybe not as hard. I didn’t got soft in my old age. But I’m not saying I was the best daddy, but I tried. But if it hadn’t have been for church, I’d have never matured in the Lord. I would have never gone, I’d have never listened, I’d have never studied, I’d have never disciplined my life.

I would have not known the disciplines of the body or the importance of the church itself. And so by studying God’s word, yes, I learned. And I found out that it hasn’t hurt me at all. And that I’m still alive and God has been good to me. But I don’t try to tell other people, you gotta do exactly like I did. No, you wanna wash your car and you wash your car. I don’t give you wash your car. It don’t bother me when I owe to.

If you wanna play ball on Sunday, I don’t give you a play ball. Just don’t miss church. I don’t like missing church. I don’t like to do anything that takes me out of church if it misses church. Now, let me be occasions whenever I’m going to trip or something like that there and you might not be able to, but I’m talking as a habit in my life, I always go. Just always do it. My kids have known that. Daddy goes to church.

Daddy always go to church. Daddy always gives. Daddy always gives. Because that’s what I was taught to do. Betty’s dad taught me to do this, do this, do this. That’s what I did. I thought for a while that it was just because I was married to his daughter, but I think he actually cared about me a little bit too. I’m not sure about Betty’s mom, but I know that he did. And he taught me an awful lot. And God has been good and God has blessed.

It’s a church important. The church is important. And if people don’t think it’s important, sooner or later, other people, okay, it’s not important. You’re not here, I’m not gonna come. next thing you know, people just start glenling. Next thing you know, you won’t have church on Wednesday night, then you won’t have Sunday school, then you won’t have church on Sunday night. And you might as well start closing the doors. And that’s happening all over because people are not taking their church.

Very importantly, and I think it’s important. It’s important to me, and I think it ought to be that all of God’s children, I’ll think these things through and realize I have a responsibility, and I want my presence to encourage people. I want to be an asset to the church. I want to be a blessing, and I hope that’s what you want also. Look up here. You know, it’s amazing that we’ve had a lot of people that have trusted Christ a Savior lady on the Internet.

I mean, the YouTube thing, it’s just, it’s really awesome. And we’re not even getting the same thing up there all the time with, you know, click. Most of it’s from sermons that have been up there for, you know, a year or two. But anyway, this is you and me, and this is saying we all have sin on us. God loves us, but He hates our sin. And for you and I to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in a literal fire burning hell.

But God doesn’t want us to go to hell. He wants us to have eternal life. He wants to be with Him in heaven. But you see, the wages of sin is death. And so because we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven. They go to heaven and we have to be perfect, no sin. But we have all sinned. And we cannot save ourselves. The payment is death, so there’s no other payment that will do.

This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loved us, hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead, said if we would believe he did it for us, he would put this payment to our account and we’d get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

Now that’s a gift. That’s free. God loves us that much. And I want everybody to hear this message and and I want everybody to trust Christ as their Savior. I believe that’s very important. I believe that if the Lord has the use of my body, I want to make sure I tell the gospel the way He gave it. I want to make sure that the lost man that he died for, hears what he did and how to go to heaven when he dies.

And therefore I want to dedicate myself to the Lord, to the clearness of the gospel, because I believe that he has a right to demand that of me. And each one of us, there’s responsibilities. That means there’s gonna be accountability. Let’s pray, shall we? With his bow and eyes closed, no one looking around, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, I pray that you would just understand that when Christ died, he died for you. And if you trust him, he gives you as a free gift ever lasting life.

And if you’re watching by internet, right where you are, you can accept Christ as your Savior. Believe that He died, He paid for your sins. And if you accept that payment, then you have a payment for your sins. That means that you don’t have to pay for your sins. That means you don’t have to go to hell. And you can know that you’re going to heaven because salvation is free. It’s the gift of God. God loves you that much.

And I pray that you’ll trust Christ as your Savior. Father, we are thankful so much for all that you’ve done for us. Thank you for this time together. the preaching of your word, in Christ’s name we pray, Amen. 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.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, And we want all new listeners of Bibleline 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 Main. 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 in looking up.