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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Second Corinthians. You know we may have come into this world wrong, but we don’t have to leave it wrong. You came into the world, you stop and think for a moment, just where were you born? Was it as glorious as where Jesus was born? Did you actually have a better care than what Jesus had when he was born? You know, look where he was at.

And everybody loved baby Jesus, right? Well, not everybody. And look at you. me, how blessed we are. You know, just to be born in America is a blessing. And I had somebody tell me the other day, I said, man, I wouldn’t have a kid at this time because of the way the economy is and everything so bad I wouldn’t have any kids at this time. This is a bad time I have kids. I said, yeah, it was pretty bad when Moses was born too.

And it was pretty bad when Jesus was born to. So when is it really a good time? You have the kids and trust the Lord to walk you through it just like you do everything else. But in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 5, what kind of an instance do you have? Well, we know that it’s pretty much the same for everybody. Well, we’re just born into the world. We had a mom and a dad. We lived and there’s certain things that parents considered to be, Well, we got to raise our kids.

We got to raise our kids. And there’s people who have a difference of opinion on how you raise kids. I remember I had people that would tell me how I’m supposed to raise my kids. And they had all the answers. They were the experts on rearing children. Of course, they weren’t married yet. But if you ever had somebody that’s an expert, they just don’t have any kids yet. Telling you how you ought to do it and what you should do.

Boy, if I was married and had kids, They wouldn’t do like that. You know how to silence your critics. One is outlive them. But two is just wait and give them time till they do get married and they do have their children. And when they finally get their children, lo and behold, it’s not as easy as they thought. They will learn some of the same lessons that you had to learn. And so kids are wonderful, grandkids are wonderful, but we often have doubts about how they’re supposed to be raised.

But here we are. Now that we’re born into the world and once we have been born in the God’s family, how do you think that we should be raised? You know, you have kids and they have to be raised, so somebody’s got to feed them and burp them and clean them up and grow them and educate them. You know, that’s a long time process. And then when you finally get through and they’re able to make some money, they usually leave home and keep all the money.

Have you noticed that when your kids finally get to where they can produce, you know, years ago a farmer, if he had, you know, 10, 12 kids, oh, he was, he was a happy man. He had 10 or 12 farm hands to work the farm. But people don’t do that today. So when they finally get to where they’re finally valuable, they can bring home some money, they usually get married and go start your own family. Oh well, then you start all over again.

But when it comes to this, I want you to look there in chapter 5 and verse 1, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now, we know that we were We’re born into this world, we’re born with a physical body and we have to grow this body, we have to be raised. So there’s certain things that we do that makes everything right.

It’s all we have to be fed and clothed and all those things. And we have to drink water and go to school. Sometimes we’re raised by good parents and sometimes you may not be raised by good parents. Sometimes you’re raised by in-laws and outlaws. But you’re learning and growing and watching and… But now you trust the Lord. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, well, wouldn’t it be neat if every one of God’s children were raised correctly. Do you think that your heavenly Father wants to raise you right?

But do you know that He has given to us, people over us, a good godly mother and father, that know the Lord, love the Lord, walk with the Lord? So how are God’s children supposed to be raised? What do they need? Well, there’s things that they need. And so as you begin to read, God, yes, He’s given us His Word, so we’re supposed to live there and feed from it. And He gives us a church so that we can meet with other Christians.

So there’s certain things that God has for us and wants for us. They help grow us. But one of these days we’re going to leave this world. Now you might not have come into this world right, but you can sure leave it right. And you can, while you’re here, you can live right. And you can die right. And you can get to heaven and everything be right. But sees not all of God’s children all do exactly the same thing that they should do.

They don’t all please the Lord. But look what he says down here in verse 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Now the first birth when we were born to the world, we walk mainly by sight. What we see and hear, touch. And it’s all about this world. But when you trust Christ to say, well then you begin to see a little bit differently. You think maybe about the other world. You don’t have to, but we should.

So look up there in 2 Corinthians 4, and look what he says there in verse 16. For in verse 16 he says, for which cause we faint none. And why don’t we faint? It means we don’t quit because we have a ministry that was given to us by God that’s so important. And I made this statement not long ago. bad is it for the lost man to hear the gospel? How bad is it? Well, however bad it is for him to hear the gospel is how bad it is for us to tell it.

And if we don’t think it’s bad for them to hear it, then we don’t think it’s bad for us to tell it. If you think it’s serious for him to hear it, then you might think that it’s serious enough for you and I to tell it. And so as you go through here and you read some of this in verse 16, but though our outward man perish in this old body that we have, that we’ve been blessed with to live on planet earth, is going to die one day.

It’s going to perish. And that’s why he says in verse one of the next chapter, and if this tabernacle word dissolved, we got another body. We’re going to live with the Lord in heaven forever. But temporarily while we’re here in this world, in this body, well, Well, look what he says, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. So there’s another man. There’s another person living inside of this body. And this is the new birth, the new man, the man that God gave birth to this creature that was created by God.

And it’s the second birth and where his children and things are different now. It’s different in the sense that it was born of God and it’s going to be eternal and There’s a lot of things that God wants us to change in our life Now remember this the first birth. Yeah of the flesh The second birth is of God. It’s totally separate from the first one. So that’s why he says Day that are in Christ They are a new creature, new creation.

Old things are passed away. That means the first birth. As far as God is concerned, God no longer sees you in the first birth. He sees you in the second birth. And so all these things here about the new birth, this is all new. The old man, he’s still the same. God didn’t change the flesh. He didn’t change the old man. He changed you from one to the other. Now you’re no longer as God sees you in the flesh, but you’re in the Spirit.

It doesn’t mean you’re spiritual, it just means that you’re positioned in Christ. And so a Christian who is in the Spirit. Can walk after the flesh and live like the lost man, which is not with God’s approval. But now I do want to jump over here and let you see this for looking verse 17. This verse has caused a lot of trouble with people who don’t understand the two natures, these two births. The one in which we live here in this world is physical body and the new birth that we have that is of God that lasts forever.

This one is going to die. And so he says in verse 17, this verse is going to die. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. And that’s why you’ll find in the book of Ephesians where he talks about he has created us in Christ, a new creature created in righteousness and true holiness. The new birth see is born of God. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you gave you a new birth, it’s a new creation, totally separate from the first one.

a lot of people say, okay, here I am and I’ve done this and I did this and that and the other. But when I got saved, everything changed. I don’t have those sinful desires anymore. Well, that’s not true. You still have the same old sinful desires. You may have some stronger desires because of the new birth to do what God wants and you made a choice. But I’ve had people say, well, when I got saved, God took away my desire for smoking.

He took away my desire for alcohol. He took away my desire. Well, evidently, he gave it back to some people because he didn’t take away from everybody. Well, if he took away from one body, he’d take away from everybody. Well, see, he didn’t. He just simply gave you some new desires and you made a choice. You fulfill new desire. They grew stronger and your desire to do what God wants was stronger than the desire to do the other. That’s all.

And so you make choices. And you can go right back. And this is why some people think, well, I really changed. and because now there’s been this change in my life, I know I’m saved. But when they go back to doing those same old sinful habits, then they say, well, I must not have been saved. I really didn’t mean business. So next time I’m going to really mean business means I’m really going to quit and maintain it longer period of time.

And so they just hope that they die when they’re committed and not die when they’re not committed, which is a heretical teaching. We don’t teach that. But it says, as behold, all things are becoming new. The new birth, everything is new. But he’s talking to Christians here about living in our body that’s going to die. And we are supposed to have a different view. But he says, they that walk, as he says in verse seven of chapter five, therefore we187 by faith, not by sight.

We walk by faith, not by sight. See, that’s the new birth. We’re supposed to walk by believing what God said, not just by what you see. See, whenever you just look at the things of the world and you see nothing but the problems and heartaches and all those things, it’s enough to discourage you, to totally depress you. Does that describe you? Wait a minute. Do you realize who you are? You’re a child of God, right? And where you going when you die?

You’re going to heaven when you die. And you know that you’ll never go to hell, right? You know that. And you know that God’s gonna reward you you get to have a new believer that, right? Then tell me, why aren’t you happy? Well, we’ve called it this and everything that you’ll refer to will be temporary things, right? They’re all the things that will pass away that we allow to rob us of our eternal joy. And so a lot of Christians, they concentrate upon the here and now and all the problems that they have that they can’t even wear a smile.

And you will notice there’s some Some people are always down in the mouth. When you get down in the mouth, what should you do? Think of Jonah, he came out all right. Wasn’t he down in the mouth? I asked a person with a nine, he says, you know where the long range of took is garbage? I don’t know. Toodedum, toodedum, toodedum, toodedum, toodedum, toodedum, toodedum. So the garbage should have done, but you don’t have to stay there. I like that, that’s pretty good, I don’t think I said that.

But, look what it says now in verse 17 of chapter four, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeded and eternal weight of glory. You may not be happy for the light affliction, but it worked for us a far more exceeded and eternal weight of glory. I can be excited about that, though, can I? I mean, if God is gonna reward me for all of the tests and trials that I go through, well, I may not enjoy that, But I can enjoy it.

The idea, hey, it’s going to be worth it. Let me show you an awesome verse. You want to see this? This will knock your socks off. Look there in Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews, chapter 12. And you’ll notice there in verse two. Verse two says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Get this, who for the, see that, joy that was set before Him endured the cross. That doesn’t say the cross was joyful, but that was going to produce something that would bring great joy.

for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, the spies in the shame is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. See, the joy came later. But you and I, if we believe this, and so we’re running our race, and there’s so many things that seems to happen to just strip us and make us walk around with a long face because of all the bad things that happens. And we would like just the Lord just to remove the bad things.

No, joy is something that God can give you that the world can’t give you and it has nothing to do with what you’re going through. This is why I just lost my job. Smile. Now you get a chance to see what God’s going to do. Well I lost some help. You don’t have to love the individual thing that happened but you look beyond that. You just know that when you get to heaven whatever you went through and you maintain a good testimony And you didn’t do what the devil was trying to get Job to do, where he would curse God, but he maintained his integrity.

And he believed that if the Lord gave, then the Lord has the right to take away. The Lord give it, the Lord take it the way, blessed be the name of the Lord. And all of this, it says, Job, send not, not charge God foolishly. He maintained his integrity. All God wants you to do, and all the problems, wherever it goes on, maintain your integrity so that when never, it’s all over with the testing. God can be able to bless you and reward you.

It will be worth it. There’s no problem that you face today or tomorrow that will not be worth you maintaining your integrity. Because when it’s all over with you should have the joy I’m gonna win. This is going to be worth it. And you may not love the things that you go through. It says to endure temptation. Endure hardness. Endure as a good soldier. Indoor! Didn’t say enjoy it, but you endure it. Don’t throw it. But anyway, here in the book of Corinthians, I want you to notice this, since you have trusted Christ as your Savior, could you say that your destiny has changed?

Where were you going before? Where were you going before? You were going to hell. Are you going there now? Now, aren’t you glad? Isn’t it better to know that and to have that security than having a million dollars? It is. Because if you were to die and you had a million dollars, you’re gonna leave the million dollars but where are you gonna still go? What the hell? So it’s better to know the Lord and you know the Lord. That’s why he says, and Paul wrote this from prison, rejoice in the Lord always, always rejoice.

Rejoice. So sometimes it doesn’t seem like anything worthy of rejoicing. But maybe the things that you have aren’t, but you’re not looking in the present. You’re looking beyond. You’re looking down the road because of your faith. We walk by faith. Not by sight, what’s going on. We’re looking on down the road further. We can see the end result. You can see yourself standing there at the jagpens of Christ and God rewarding you for your faithfulness to Him. Can you see it?

That’s how you want it, right? And so because of all of that, it can make a difference. Now go back here to 2nd Corinthians. And look what he says here in verse 18, where he says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. He said, these things here are these new things that that is talking about over there in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17, where it talks about these new things, old things, pathway, new things.

It says, behold, all they are becoming new. It’s just something new. You see, I’ve got a new destination. I’m going to get a new body. I’m going to get rewards when I get to heaven. I’m going to have eternal joy. I have the chance in this lifetime to do something that would please God that created the heavens and the earth. Aren’t we blessed? Now should you and I, with all of this that we really believe, should we walk around like God is dead?

It’s hopeless. There’s no way out. Poor, poor me. Would you pity me? Would you pity me? Don’t you feel sorry for me? Everybody please feel sorry for me. Look I have been on my deathbed a number of times. I’ve had all kinds of things. I’ve had things. I’ve lost things. I’ve gone up and I’ve been down. But me and the Lord, we just stayed the same. When you have it, when you don’t, and all kinds of things can happen to you.

But you and I are supposed to walk by faith, live by faith. Looking beyond this, this is why he says in verse 18 up there, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So there’s things that God wants us to look at. So, a question is, has your disposition changed since you’ve known the Lord?

Were you happier before why you were lost? I know people said I was a lot better off before I ever got saved. I had less trouble, less problems, and the devil let me alone, now that I dedicated my life to the Lord, everything seemed to fall apart. Well, why should the devil bother you before? You were already his. You weren’t accomplishing anything for God anyway. Now that you are a child of God and you want to serve the Lord, now you are worthy for the devil to attack.

Would you like to have lived your whole life and not be worthy of persecution when it makes the statement, they that are godly shall suffer? Don’t you want to live godly enough to suffer? Something? But see, if you think about it, there is no problem in this world. None of you have any problems or will have any problems greater than the joy you’re going to have. And that’s why he makes this statement that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the what, the glory that you’re going to have.

In other words, it will be worth it all. And now what we say? Now, as you go down through here, one of the greatest things you’ll see is up there in verse 10. Look in verse 10 of chapter five. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and God’s gonna make everything right. If you talk about anybody being fair, God is fair, but it ain’t fair here. He makes it fair there. Always believe this little statement.

payday, someday. Payday, someday. Payday’s coming. I preached a whole sermon at one time, payday’s coming. And how that God in the Old Testament told them certain things were going to happen and payday came. You know, payday can come if you’re rebellious or if you’re obedient, but payday’s coming. If you trust in Christ as your Savior and you’re rebellious, Payday’s coming. But if you’re obedient, payday’s coming. And God is just and He’s fair and He does right. That’s why we leave things into His hands because He will be judging correctly.

He can’t do anything wrong. So if you can be lead that, see, it can help you to have a proper disposition while you’re here. Another little statement. This is why if you believe it’s true, develop your talents and your abilities. I’ve told people this before, but I don’t know if people really get it. When you were born into the world, you had certain talents and abilities physically. Some people are more athletic than others. Some people have more mental skills than somebody else.

Some people can remember things, other people can’t. So everybody’s a little bit different. But when you’re trusting Christ as your Savior, don’t limit yourself to what you have seen. You perform or not perform, as though that is your limit. And since I can’t do anything, and I don’t, women, when you trust a crisis, your Savior, you don’t know the limits yet, because now the Holy Spirit indwells you. And He can give you talent and abilities that you can develop you never knew you had.

And you didn’t get before it, you have them with the new birth. God gave to you your new birth talents and abilities, but you have to find out what they are. That’s why you search and read the word of God and you apply yourself and you’ll find out you can do things you never thought possibly before. And God can give you mental abilities you needn’t have before. He can help you to remember things you never remember before. Remember when he told you the disciples, he says, when the comforter has come, he shall bring to your mind, to your remembrance, the things which I’ve said, bring them to your remembrance.

You see, I don’t have to be so smart. I have someone who lives inside of me that is smarter than anybody in the world, the Holy Spirit. And he can bring things to your remembrance. He can help you to see things, to accomplish things, do things that you never thought possible. But you and I are supposed to believe that. And that affects our whole life. So whenever you read down through here and he says, we’re going to have to give an account someday to the Lord.

You say, well, I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t have any talent. I didn’t have any ability. You believe that at one time I used to be scared to death to get up in front of NRSD. Some people say, I’d never believed that. That’s because you didn’t know me then. I used to be terrified, scared to death. But I have to be honest, now it doesn’t really bother me too much now. Because I know who I’m doing what I’m doing for, and it has helped me.

And I would believe that you take Jesse back there. I was told that he did a good job the other night because he called me up and told me so. No, but the more he obeys God and studies the word and applies his abilities will develop. His character, his temperament, his disposition, everything about him, if let God raise him and God will raise him and next thing he know, you’ll have a good strong Godly man. God can do this for you.

And so does that mean that God is finally through with us? No, he ain’t through with us. He’s always working on us. And so little by little. And see there in verse 11 where he says, therefore knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. That’s why we try to win people of Christ. And we know that you can’t win them to the Lord without the gospel. So you have to tell them gospel. I don’t believe in lifestyle evangelism to do that.

But when it comes to believers, did you know that there is a certain amount of truth to lifestyle, evangelism, in a sense, if we’re trying to get Christians, Christians are challenged and motivated by watching other Christians do what they’re supposed to do? We’re supposed to challenge and motivate each other by the things that we say and the things that we do. Now, I can do that without, you know, always preaching the gospel, but we do affect each other by the things that we do.

and serving God should be our lifestyle. It should be a bubbly approach, therefore. All these things have become new. It’s a new life. Remember when we made the statement in the book of Romans in chapter 6 that as we were crucified with Christ or dead with Christ and we were buried with Christ, raised to walk in newness of of what? What? New life. Live like you have new life. And God bless. Let’s pray, Shavya. Father, we thank you so much for this time together.

Bless each one. We just pray, Lord, that we can encourage and pray for each other. And maybe even occasion, we have to maybe rebuke one another, but help us to do so in love because we care about each person. Every person here is important. And we know that you love each and every one of us. And Father, we know that as we look upon the things that happens to us in our lives that sometimes it doesn’t seem like there’s too much to smile about but help us to look beyond this, to look on down the road and for the joy that was set before Christ he endured the cross, the shame, the spitting, all the things that he went through but he knew it was worth it.

Help us to believe the same Christ name we pray. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, Go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link.

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. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, 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, and just keep looking up.