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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew, the book of Matthew in chapter 1. the first book in the Old Testament, now look at the first book in the New Testament. Matthew, chapter 1, first book in the New Testament says, and lo and behold, there’s a phrase that looks almost like what we just read. Look in verse 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, and it mentions the son of David and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, or Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, known down the line and all the way down through here, but there’s one thing that you don’t find mentioned here, there’s no deaths recorded.

This is, I believe, a spiritual line. This is a different line altogether. And when you’re born into God’s family, you see, He has a book, and that’s the book of life. And in the Old Testament, we have that book of the living, but you’re all going to die. And so that’s why still there’s still these two books, and you’re going to be judged out of the book of the living. And then that’s why in the book of Revelation whose names were not found in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

That’s the first but that’s those who had the first birth but not the second birth. The only way you get your name in the Lamb’s book of life is by believing and trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior. That’s the only you get the new birth. So now that you understand that and we’re moving right along looking Colossians in chapter 3, a book of Colossians chapter 3. And we’re gonna look at some of the flesh things. This is the description of what that old nature you have, what it’s like.

And so he makes a statement, and I want you to see this first of all, see there in chapter three, but look in verse one. Because see once you trust Christ as Savior, God gives you a new birth and the Holy Spirit indwells you. And now God says, because you have been crucified, means you died and paid for your sins. Christ did it for you, and he put it to your account. Just like you had done it. And you were buried with Christ, and you have been raised with Christ, and ascended with Christ.

You’re seated in the heavenlies in Christ, because God sees you now as his child and his son. When you were born into the world, God saw you in Adam. Now God sees you in Christ. So that’s why he makes the statement here in verse two. Now that you had been risen with Christ, verse one, two, set your affections or your desires on things that are above. So you have a flesh birth and you’re gonna desire the things of the world.

But now that you have a new birth, God says set your desires on things that are above. Or you can set it on things below. You’ve got a choice. So as you live your life, you’re always bathing between these two sets of desires. Now, we don’t say so much as you feed a nature, but each nature has desires. My old sinful nature desires the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. So if I satisfy those desires, they grow and the desires gets bigger and stronger.

And you take the desires that you have for the Lord, And if you start feeding those desires, then those desires will grow. Your whole Christian life depends upon which do you desire the most. You’re going to live your Christian life on which desire overrides the other one. And that’s why you’ve got to do things that makes the spiritual desires stronger than the flesh desires. Otherwise, you will never have Christian victory in your life. You’ll always be defeated. You may want it, but you don’t want it bad enough to do what it takes to be strong.

Why do you think I want people to come to church so they can feed those desires and become stronger? learn more of the word of God because you see the new birth feeds upon the word of God. The old man feeds upon the lust of the flesh. So some Christians try to satisfy both of them. So what you want to do is strengthen yourself. Now this is why when he says if you want to set your effect, these are choices.

See God doesn’t make you set your effects on things above. He doesn’t make you dedicate your life to the Lord. He says, I’m here and this is what I got for you and this is what I want to do and I want to use you and then he lets you make the choice. And so if you want the best, then verse 5 says mortified. Mortified. Now if you’ve been scared so much that you out, oh I was mortified. What you know, mortified is like a mortician and you see the, it comes from the same words and it’s also almost like death.

Well that’s what he’s talking about. In other words, kill these desires of the flesh. Mortify, therefore your members which are upon the earth, because you want to think about the things that are spiritual. And he says, these things, fornication, uncleanness, and ordinate affection, evil, can keep us within the covetousness, which is ideology, for which things say, the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. If you walk in the flesh, this is what he’s saying. This is what you’re going to have for your life.

Now is that what you want? And God, even your heavenly Father, is going to chase and disobedient children. So if you want God’s blessings, walk in the Spirit. So how do you walk in the Spirit? Well, you float through the air like a hand. No. Walking in the Spirit is as simple as just walk in obedience to the will of God and don’t have to get complicated. Just walk in obedience to the word of God and do it because you want to, because you want God’s blessing.

You say, well, I got to do it for the right motive. Well, the right motive could be that God says to and that’s why I’m going to do it. That’s a pretty good motive, isn’t it? And get some of the feelings out of it because sometimes you’ll feel like, I know I just don’t feel like walking with the Lord today. I just don’t feel up to it. Now, just go ahead and do what’s right. Always do right. And when you get down in discouraged, don’t do something stupid because you know you’re not going to stay there.

And then when you get out of it, you’ll wish you hadn’t done what you did. Always do right. Even when you don’t want to do right, do right. Always do right. It’s always right to do right. It’s always wrong to do wrong. Anyway, look what he says down here in verse eight. But now He also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. See, there’s things that God doesn’t want you to say. God wants you to guard your life.

You see, all those bad things and bad thoughts comes from that old sinful nature. God says, if you want to put on the new man, then you take off the old man. Especially speaking, it means to walk in the spirit instead of the flesh. Well, just look what it says in verse 10. and have put on the new man. Verse 9, lie not one to another, see you have put off the old man with his deeds. In other words, here you are, you’ve got these two natures.

You want to walk after the old man or the new man. It’s a choice. And God’s going to, he says, tell you, look, there’s consequences. You can dodge the responsibility, but you cannot dodge the consequences. So seek the Lord and do what God wants you to do. And as you go through here, you’ll notice what He says about the first 10 and have put on the new man, which is renewed. Get this in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

Now, the one who created this new birth, this spiritual birth, look what He says, renewed in knowledge. That comes from the knowledge of the Word of God. This is why you can never be a strong Christians outside of the Word of God. You have to study the word. You think come to Bible college will be stronger than those who do not come to Bible college because you’ll know more of the Word of God. You’ll know more about His will.

You’ll know why you do certain things. You’ll know where those desires come from and you know that you can have victory in your Christian life if you did thus and thus and you know you’re gonna mess up your life if you do thus and thus to feed the flesh. And this is why these things are so important. Now look What is it that somebody has up here in verse 12? Put on, therefore, as the elect are chosen, God has chosen all of His children to do this.

God has not left you out. Being chosen or elect means for service. It’s for service. So God wants all of His children to serve Him. He has chosen you to do this. And so He says here, Beloved, Bows and Mercies, Kindness, Humbleness of Mind, Meatness, Long term. Those are the fruits of the Spirit say. Now there’s another place that talks about the fruit of the Spirit and it works with the flesh. Where’s that found? Where? Galatians. Let’s take a look over there in the book of Galatians.

Just turn back to you left. a few pages. And you’ll notice there in the book of Galatians, a description of the flesh and understand this is written to the believer. This is not written to the lost man. This is written to the believer. So he says here in verse 16, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The way to keep from fulfilling the lust of the flesh is obey in the Lord. Oh, may God do what God says do, and I’ve taught to do it here.

Stay so busy doing what God wants you to do, and you won’t have time to get in trouble. You ever heard that an idle mind is, you know what? Devil’s workshop, buddy, it is. Always keep yourself. Look, I’m 75 years old, and I try to stay as busy as I can, because if I stay busy, I won’t have time to get in trouble. If I did, I’d have to schedule it. And I ain’t I’ve got much room on my schedule.

But now I know that. When He says walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the loves of the flesh, then you must still have the lust of the flesh, right? You must still have that all sinful nature. And when He says walk in the Spirit, it means that you must have a choice. It means you could or you might not. See, it’s not automatic. The Christian life is not automatic. Spiritual growth doesn’t just automatically happen. You’ve got to do the right things and stop doing the wrong things.

So yes, there’s some do’s and don’ts. Do the right thing. Now, when he says in verse 17, verse 17, they’re letting you know that if you walk in the flesh, fulfill the lust of the flesh, this is gonna be the results. You always wanna know what are the consequences for the flesh lust against the Spirit, Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one to the other. Now look up here. Here’s the Spirit, here’s the flesh, and they fight all the time.

Where do these two natures live? inside of my body. I’ve only got one body, but I got two births. And God says, now that I’m saved, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable in the Lord, which is your reasonable servant. In other words, give it to the new birth. Let your new birth have the control of this body. So if you don’t, then the flesh will have control of the body. Now, which one was here first.

This one’s here first. And he doesn’t want to give it up. He said, I will not. And you say, yes, you will. No, I will not. And you’re going to have a battle on your hand. I’m going to go to church. No, you’re not. You’re going to stay home and watch Batman. And I mean, you thought you was going to do all right. He jumped all over you. Scared you half to death. So what you need to do is you got to get him strong.

So, and so whenever this one says, I think I’ll have me accursed. No, you won’t because this one can control the lust of the flesh. It doesn’t mean these desires are gone away and don’t get too lifted up with pride because just as soon as you lift up yourself with pride boy, I can really, I can really, I got control of my flesh. Humility. What comes before a fall? Pride. Pride means I got the devil on the control. I got my old nature down to women.

You better be thankful to the Lord. Now, and I used this illustration one time. When I first came down here, I preached a sermon on this, and I had a little baby doll. And that little baby doll, I said, now this is your new birth. I said, this is Mike Tyson. I said, now Mike Tyson, you’ve ever heard of Mike Tyson. I mean, he just goes around biting people’s ears off. And I mean, he’s a bad dude. He’s a bad man.

And so here you are, and you trust in Christ as your Savior, lo and behold, here you are in the corner of the ring. Here’s a box in ring. Here you are in this corner. And who’s in the other corner? There’s Mike Tyson. And how is this little child? This little newborn babe going to be able to stand and have victory in his Christian life when in the other corner is Mike Tyson. And he says, this is my ring.

I own it and I own you. And you’re supposed to have victory. And the Lord says, don’t be afraid of that, Mike Tyson. Don’t let him push you around. Don’t let him boss you around. You just tell him where he belongs and I’m getting his own corner over there. And he’s coming across the ring. And he wants to whoop you up. He’s going to beat you up. How would you have victory? What would you do? Well, when the Lord gave you a new birth and put you into this flesh body.

And that is a boxing ring. It’s a wrestling match. It’s war. And there’s Mike Tyson, that old sinful nature that you had. And now you’ve got this little baby over here. God also gave you the Holy Spirit at the same time. And he is your manager. He’s the one that’s right there and he knows how to handle Mike Tyson. So it’s whenever you get to the place where you get too big for your bridges and you don’t want to listen to the man in your corner, you don’t want to listen to the Holy Spirit, they live in within you.

you. You don’t want to read his word and he’ll tell you how to handle that mike Tyson over there. It got to let him just beat the tar out of you. And a lot of Christians are beat up and that’s all they do. They just live their whole lives beat up. Time they get up to the time that they just beat up all the time. Never have any victory. No peace, no love, no joy, no happiness, no purpose. Why?

Because mike Tyson’s got them. They own them. Where is that wicked man? He lives inside of you. And so if you’ll listen to the Lord, he knows how to hand on Mac Tyson and he can give you the strength and the grace that you need. You don’t have to live a defeated Christian life. So you read the word of God and you can go stronger and stronger in your dependence. When you go in strong and the Lord means you’re growing stronger and your dependence upon the Lord.

You don’t go stronger and stronger separated from God. No, you’re always living and walking every day in dependence upon the Lord. That’s humility. Humility is not a position of the body, it’s a position of the mind. where you are dependent upon him. If you’ll be humble, then he will exalt you. And if you take an exalt yourself, he will humble you. And so this is why you have this down through here. And look at all these nasty things that are mentioned here in verse 18 of verse 19.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these and mentions all these things that are works of the flesh. Look at nine verse 21, in these murders, drunken, reveling such like in which I tell you before, as I told you in time passage, they would choose to think so not in here to kingdom of God. They are the works of the flesh. The flesh is not going to inherit the kingdom of God. So why should you live like the devil?

Look who he is and what he’s done for you. So you walk with the Lord and God will bless you because of now in verse 22 he says, but the fruit of the Spirit in your nose of fruit singular. It means when you get one you get all of these. When you get one you get them all because see that’s from a person. You got the person living inside of you and the Lord can give you love and joy and peace and all these things that you want in your life and the self-dissiphone.

All that comes is one nice wonderful package and if you walk in the Spirit this is what you can have. Now what would you do they have? The works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit. It’s your choice. So that’s why this is written to the believer. Can a believer produce all the works of the flesh? I would mention to say 95% of all preachers don’t understand this because it well if you’re walking in the flesh that’s a sign you’re not really saved.

No, what does it walk in the flesh? What’s I just sign of walking in the flesh? That’s all it’s assigned to. It doesn’t mean just because I walk in the flesh and fulfill the desires, this one doesn’t exist. And just because I walk in the Spirit doesn’t mean this one doesn’t exist. The one does not know the other. I’ve got two verse and they fight all the time. And that’s why sometimes you’ll have victory in the Lord. And then right after a victory, you’ll have a big leg down I didn’t, I thought I did a good job.

I said, I’m going to have to teach you all over again. When you fell in touch, you’re going to have to go through it again. Now look what he says in verse 1 of chapter 6. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, that means he was walking into flesh, the previous chapter. Ye which are spiritual, that’s those who are walking down in verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit. Ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meat.

the word you help to restore the person that’s walking in the flesh. So your golden life is not just to win somebody to Christ, which I think is the most important thing of all because without somebody winning some people’s Lord they’re not going to be any Christians to help. And so your ministry also is helping other Christians have victory in the Christian life. So when somebody stumbles and falls you said, I’m glad to have that. wrong, that way they felt.

No, part of your maturity is that you want to help them up and to help restore them to walk in the spirit. Considering thyself, lest thou also be, in other words, you take your eyes off the Lord and you get too big for your britches, God says, you’d be surprised what can happen to you and you can fall just as fast. Now look what he says. Down there in verse 7, be not deceived. Now we’re talking to the believer and he’s got the flesh, he’s got the spirit.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Now how do you mock God? By believing that you can walk into flesh and not have to suffer consequences. You can walk into flesh and get away with it. No you can’t. You cannot go against God and win. God is not mocked. You cannot make fun of God. You cannot just walk in sin and think it will not matter. It will matter. So he says, God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soeth.

Now, if you were just a lost man, you could not make a mistake. you’re just going to sow to the flesh. But if you’re a believer, so you can sow to the flesh and the Spirit. You can sow to both. And so you’re the one that decides whether or not do you want victory in your Christian life or do you want to have a defeated life? So he says, and whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow corn, what should you reap?

Corn. You sow cotton, what should you reap? What cotton? Well, when he talks about you sow to the flesh, see there in verse 8, for he that soweth to his flesh. That means that the Christian can sow to his flesh. Yes or no? This is to the believer. This is not to the lost man. So every Christian can walk according to the loss of the flesh. Every Christian can mess up his life. Every Christian can stumble and fall. But also there’s a verse that really helps us and that’s to realize in the first John 1-9.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just if we give us of our sending cleanser from all unrighteousness, and every Christian needs to understand that. Don’t wait until you go to bed at night. As I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep it. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take amen. John, binge, I’d have rueced to kill the henchick and die and rue to cry and eat your zettish fight.

Now that was the prayer that I used to learn. I didn’t know anything about the Lord, but I would say that just by every night. I can’t remember if I said about the chicken though. I don’t know if I was in there, but I did learn it. I did learn it. But you need to not wait until every night before you go to bed, when you do something wrong and the Holy Spirit convicts your mind and never talks to the Lord right then, the Lord, that was wrong.

So own up to it. Confessent means just name it for what it is. Lord, in case I sin today, and Lord says, you did, and you know what you did too. You better be honest with the Lord, because if you want God’s blessing, you gotta be honest with God. You can’t hide things from God. And you want God’s blessing and God sees and knows everything. You’ve got to be honest with God. It’s a good way to live. Don’t run afraid of God.

Realize he knows that we’re just, we’re flesh. And we got this old body and we’ve got problems. And so, but this is a very important verse to keep it in mind. And you also, you can add in here from the book of, let’s just look at, we’ve got a couple of minutes here. Look in the book of Romans in chapter seven. The book of Romans in chapter 7. Now in the book of Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul writes pretty much the same thing about us now as a child of God walking in obedience to the Lord.

And so if we were walking obedience to the Lord God said that he would watch over and hid bless us and all this and that’s why in chapter 6 he talks about us yielding ourselves. Just look at that real quick. In Romans in chapter 6, look down here in verse 16, where it says, no you’re not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey His servants, you ought to whom you obey whether sin and the death of obedience on the righteousness.

That means that you have a choice. You can yield yourself to the Lord and produce righteousness or you can produce sin. Those are choices that you and I have to make. Now when you get into chapter 7, look what he says in verse 15, You have this old flesh nature. In verse 15, for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not? But what I hate, that do I. Does that sound like you sometimes?

You don’t wanna do it, but you wind up doing it. You say things you didn’t wanna say. You thought things you didn’t wanna think. And you add actions that you really didn’t want. And you’d be surprised how your imagination can run wild. It’s hard to control everything. I told the kids, you can’t help them with that black bird, you know, flies over your head. But when that bird, he stops and he makes a nest and lays eggs, you could have stopped that.

And those eggs are hatched. Here come the dirty thought, and now let me think about that. Now, keep that bird going. Why, it’s a dirty bird. Now, he says in verse 16, if then I do that which I would not, I can send him to the law that it is good. Now then if I do, no more, I do it, but sin that dwelleth in me is that sinful nature that dwells inside of you. And then in verse 18, where he says, for I know that in me that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find out how do I perform?

I wanna do right, but I still do wrong. And so he says that there is a way for the good that I would I do not and but the evil which I would not that I do now if I do that what I would not is no more than I do but send that guelph in me so that means you’ve got an old sinful nature and you still mess up recognize it and you know it and just realize that you’re not going to live that perfect life that you want to you like to and you never want to fail lord I never want to mess up I’ve had people say Lord you know the future and if you know I’m going to mess up Lord take me home ahead of time.

Don’t let me live a life and mess it up.” I don’t pay that game. You watch your peace and cues all the rest of your life until death do us part or death do us together. But you’re going to have to discipline yourself. And I remember a man that was very close to me. He prayed that and God didn’t. And he made some bad decisions. Cost him heavily. But Notice what he says down here. It’s a war in the mind.

She died in verse 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. I got an old sinful nature and he wants to capture my mind. In the book of Corinthians in chapter 10, he talks about that every thought been brought into the captivity of Christ. So you’re gonna have your thoughts captured by Christ or captured by that old sinful nature.

And that’s why you have to learn how to discern your thoughts. And you discern them by the word of God. And if you don’t know the truth, you cannot discern error. So keep that in mind. So in verse 24, Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I think God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the love God, but with the flesh, the love sin, my flesh is gonna serve sin.

They can’t do no other. But me, I’m going to serve God. So you’ve got a choice. Make it be mine. Commit yourself to the Lord. And understand, if you want to stay strong in your Christian life, you’re going to have to keep in the book. Keep praying to the Lord. Witness like you should. Do all the right things you should. And feed those desires. What are you already doing? Just keep doing more of the same. Just keep doing more of the same.

I asked Ray one time. I said, what do you think I ought to do? He came out and watched our ministry we had in Colorado. He said, just more of the same. just keep doing what you’re doing. Just keep doing what you’re doing. When you’re doing right, what should you do? But just keep doing it. Don’t that make sense? Of course that makes sense. In other words, you will know Galatians 5 17 for your memory verse. So don’t forget new to the darlings and I’ll see y’all on Friday.

Let’s pray, shall we? Father, we are thankful so much for all that you’ve done for us for giving us the free gift of everlasting life. Realize we do have an old sinful nation. We cannot save ourselves. We can earn eternal life. believe in the cross can we have the free gift of everlasting life and following know that there may be some that are watching by internet and maybe some even here tonight Lord we know that the only way any of us can get the heavens by grace and grace alone and we pray Lord your will to be done thank you for this time together for the class and bless us in Christ are you a new listener to Bibleline do you enjoy the teachings of Dr.

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 Man.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.