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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to share a verse with you. You know, it’s off and on, but it’s from time we cover a few little things in the book of James. And so I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of James. Now we know we’re saved by grace. And we know that grace is something that we don’t deserve. And it’s God given us the desire and power that we were not able to manufacture. We just didn’t have the power to save ourselves.

And never sometimes I guess you could say we didn’t have the desire even to be saved. He came looking for us because he had the power and he had the desire. So grace came from God. Now there’s many verses in the Old Testament like when it talks about and so and so found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And they found grace. found grace. And it’s mentioned over and over again. It seems like must be a hundred times that they found grace.

They found grace. As though it was lost and they were trying to find it, they found grace. And yet grace wasn’t lost. Grace was in the Lord. And on most of the verses that you will read that has to deal in the Old Testament with grace, it would always have these words there, found grace, found grace, but it also says afterwards in his eyes, in his eyes or in his sight, in his sight, over and over again. So you find grace in the eyes of the Lord, no a found grace where?

In the eyes of the Lord. And so when you want grace, it’s in the eyes of the Lord because the eyes of the Lord sees everything. And so once we have trusted Christ as Savior, that got me eternal life and that caused me to be a child of God. And I know I’m going to heaven when I die. But there’s also something else, and I want you to look at this verse with me. See there in chapter four of the book of James?

And if you look at this verse, it says in verse six, but he give it and you ought to unwind these two words. They are very, very important for the Christian life. He giveth more grace. In other words, I had some to meet that need that I have. I was insufficient to save myself. And so, grace is the sufficiency of God for you and I. Now after we’ve trusted Christ as our Savior, you studied the book of James and it’s talking about rejoice when you have all these troubles and trials and tribulations, all these testing and then getting rewards and so forth and not being a double minded man and you’d be surprised all the things that he says.

And when you think that as you face trials and tribulations, there’s things that’ll come up you need a little bit more grace. Things that’ll come up and you just don’t know how you’re going to handle it. How are you going to get through with it? I made this statement before and I will make it again. My biggest problems in life have never been from the lost man. My biggest problems has always been with Christians. I’ve had people that I led to the Lord and teach them the Bible.

It seems like you’ve got to teach them enough where they know that they can challenge your authority then. In other words, when they begin to say, well, I don’t think he’s right on that. I don’t think so. Of course, I’ve got to have it and know it and study it for 50 years, but they just trusted the Lord two weeks ago, but now they’re theologians. And they will tell me what. The book really says, and sometimes I just want to just politely and scripturally and honestly slap their jaws in Christian love, of course.

Because I know they’re just like some little kid that thinks he knows more than mom and dad and he kind of looks at you and goes stick their tongue out at you. Now, y’all never had anybody do that to y’all, right? But sometimes you have your biggest problem with so-called kids that are still on the bottle, acting like spiritual giants. They know it all. And so it’s something can cause you a lot of pain. But whenever that happens, so you just need a little bit more grace, because you’ve got to be able to get a little bit more grace from the Lord so that you can be gracious.

You see, if you want to be gracious, you’ve got to get grace to show graciousness. And so you and I are supposed to be gracious to the world and there’s a few things that God’s grace will teach us. So if you want to have this grace toward others, and we read this verse just about every Sunday, but take your Bible and look there in the book of Titus in chapter 2. The book of Titus, chapter 2 and look in verse 11.

Now we’ll be going back to James chapter 4 in just a moment but a couple of little thoughts I want to throw you away. In verse 11 it makes a statement for the grace of God that bring its salvation. See works do not bring salvation. The church does not bring salvation. Your good works money, nothing brings salvation except the grace of God. The grace of God is like, you know, that’s the water pipe and it brings the water. So without the water pipe you don’t get the water and without grace you don’t get salvation because grace brings salvation.

It doesn’t come no other way. So when He says here for the grace of God, that bring of salvation, have to appear to all men because that the grace of God is for all men so that everybody can have it. So when Christ went to the cross and paid for our sins, He did something for us that nobody else could ever do. He made it possible for us to go to heaven. Now that’s because of the grace of God, so God has been gracious to us.

He gave us something we don’t deserve, but grace was found in the eyes of God. Man, we often say, we found the grace of God. I thought I was saved by my works, and somebody gave me the gospel, and I found out that it was by grace and not by works. That is, it’s a free gift, And so that makes a different. Now, this same grace God says is to teach us.

How can the grace that brings salvation teach us how to live? Well, pretty simple really. And so as you read some of these things in the word of God, look there now in chapter three, because we’re gonna go back to the first part of this year in chapter two there. verse one, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates to be ready to every good work. So is it the will of God for God’s children to bring forth good works?

Yes. Can we deny bringing forth good works? Yes. Can we renege upon what God wants to do? Can we defy God? Can we resist the will of God. Well of course if you can’t then you’re not really facing the truth of what God’s word has to say. Because there are people who say well no you can’t resist it. So you have to serve the Lord and if you don’t then that’s a sign you’re not really saved. That’s an heir too.

So you look at this verse. Now in verse 2, to speak evil of no man, to be brought no brawlers but gentle, show an all-meetness unto all men. Now this is what grace is supposed to teach us to do for everybody. So then He makes the statement in verse 3, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Now God says this is the way we This is the way we were.

Now did God say you have to quit all those things before God can save you? If he did, then he can’t save you by grace. You’d have to earn his favor. You’d have to earn grace. So he says, this is the way you were. You did all of this. You were pretty bad. And that’s talking about the human race. That’s all of us. And so God says, this is the way you were. And then he says this in verse four.

But after the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man did what? Appeared. So all this badness that we had, this evilness, this wickedness that we had, God says, that’s the way we were. And then lo and behold, the goodness and the kindness of God appeared. So now, does that teach us anything? Well, I would think it teaches us quite a bit. Why did God save us? Because we deserve to be saved. No. We didn’t deserve it. We were angry.

We were wicked. We were sinful. We filled with envy and bitterness and malice and you named the sin. And we were guilty. And then God did something. And then God showed His grace toward us. He showed His mercy toward us. And we didn’t do anything to deserve it. And He wanted us to know how good He was, how gracious He was. So instead of us having to earn our salvation, Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, not saints.

He paid for our sins. So then He says this in verse five, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. See, mercy means that I don’t have to pay for what I’ve done wrong. Grace, I’m gonna get something on top of it that I didn’t deserve. I get to go to heaven, that’s grace. I don’t get to go to hell, that’s mercy. Did I deserve to go to hell? Or I’m not going there, so that’s mercy.

Look how much more, I’m not only gonna not go to get what I do deserve, I’m gonna get something that I don’t deserve. I deserve nothing except hell. And so when he makes this statement here, he’s telling you, this is what he did for us when we were that away. So when we live by grace, it means we don’t put a price tag on it. Grace is free, right? We didn’t have to earn it, deserve it. So that means when people do us wrong, Well, if they ever do, if anybody ever does, you’re wrong.

That is your opportunity to be gracious to them and show them grace and mercy and kindness, because remember how you and I were before God and then what God did for us. So the grace that brings salvation, if you’re looking up here now in verse 12 of chapter teaching us that denying ungodliness. Can we be ungodly? Yes. And worldly lust. Do we have worldly lust? Yes. We should live soberly. That means of a sound mind righteously and godly when we get to heaven.

What does it say? In this present time in this present life, this present world, means now, because we’re not there. While we’re here, what people do to you are how they treat you, has nothing to do with them and everything to do with you. How you deal with it is what’s important. If people are unkind or mean and so forth to you, you’re supposed to show the grace of God toward them. how that the grace that brought salvation teaches us to deny.

Not to do evil for evil, but to treat people right the way God intended, because you are to be stole upon them the same grace that God bestowed upon you. And because you have received grace, you give grace. Because you have received love, you give love. And because you have received kindness, you give kindness. And because you have been forgiven, you forgive. And because you receive mercy, you give mercy. Wouldn’t it be neat if everybody lived by grace? Now you’ll hear people talk about why you opposed it, just live by grace.

We’re not under the law, we’re under grace. And then they’re just as mean and owners of snake. They don’t have a first clue what the world they’re talking about. Living by grace means living according to what God did for me. I do for somebody else because now I’m representing God. I’m His child in this world. So this is what He said. Now, looking verse 13 of chapter two, looking for that blessed hope. So why we’re here in this present world?

I’m supposed to live with my eyes looking for the blessed hope, not the blessed tribulation, the blessed hope. That’s Christ coming back. And He says this, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. in verse 11, he’s talking about grace and then here in this verse, he’s talking about good works. So the grace of God is to produce in us good works.

Did not the grace of God produce in God and in his Son the good work that was needed to save our soul. So we’re saved by works, but not ours. We’re saved by work, but we’re saved by His work, not ours. Please understand that. Somebody can go out here and say, Jake, you say you’re saved by works. Not ours, the work of Christ. And so therefore, He says, this is what He wants us to do. Now, take your Bible and turn very quickly over to the book of Romans and chapter 4.

Romans and chapter 4. In Romans in chapter 4, you’ll notice that it makes this same statement here that I mentioned earlier about Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And a lot of the people in the Old Testament found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In other words, they needed it and God saw it. God saw that you needed His grace. That means God saw that you needed to be gracious to you and give you some extra power, extra love, and a little extra of this, or whatever it is you need, whatever grace can do, he’s going to give you a little bit extra because of what you’re going through.

And because you’re looking to him, and it’s amazing how many times in the Old Testament, you’ll find the word somewhere mingled in there, the word humility or humble. because when you’re humble, that means you’re dependent upon God to do. But when you feel with pride, it means that you’re going to do it and it has nothing to do with God. And so God hates the proud. He says, to resist the devil and he will flee from you. There are some people who do not resist the devil and that’s why he has victory.

But the devil doesn’t have to have victory. He says, resist the devil. Don’t wait, you can resist the devil. As God says, you might need a little bit more grace, little more grace, because you’re gonna face different things every day. And so as you live your life live by grace, then you’re dependent upon the Lord to help you through this day. And there’s some Christians who, well, they don’t depend upon the Lord for anything. their Phil would pride, I can handle it myself, and they have no idea how far they have drifted from the Lord.

You see, living by grace is what keeps you close to the Lord. He says, if you will draw nigh unto me, I will draw nigh unto you. And I’ll show you that in just a minute. But here in verse one of chapter four, what shall we say then that Abraham, our Father, as pertaining to the flesh, and see those two words, hath found? He found something. I lived for 18 years, and I finally found the truth. My father-in-law explained the gospel to me and that I could be saved by faith in Christ alone.

That’s grace. God would be gracious to me. He went to the cross, paid for my sins, and somebody told me the good news. Now, I could either accept God’s grace, or I can reject God’s grace. But when you accept God’s grace, you’re accepting God’s love. When you reject God’s grace, you’re rejecting God’s love. I wanted God’s love. That’s why you’re finding the lack in the book of 1 John in chapter two, three. He says, be loved, now are we the sons of God, be loved.

How do you become a be leaven? Let God love you. Let God love you. And then after you trust in Christ’s Savior, Let God keep loving you. And you let Him keep loving you by cause your heavenly Father knows that you’re His child, knows you have need, and He delights. And meeting our need. And so he allows things to come into our lives that kind of make you come a little closer. So you have all these problems in life, all the heartaches, these testins and trials and people turning against you and all the things that can happen.

All of us just to push you a little closer to the Lord so that you’ll humble yourself to the Lord for a little more grace. Now notice what he says he found. For if Abraham were justified by works, he asked where your object Lord, but not before God. For what’s if the scripture Abraham believed God, it was counted him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. He found grace. Abraham found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now take your Bible and go back there to the book of James, the book of James. Now, you know that we’ve studied before in chapter 1 and 2, and then chapter 3 talks about the tongue. In other words, sometimes somebody will come along. I remember I used to have to, and I don’t know why it always happened anyway, but when I was in school, it was always if a guy was walking down with two or three his buddies and I’m walking down the hallway this way, if you get too close, if your your eyes make contact.

You got to fight. There’s gonna be a fight. Now, it didn’t happen to everybody, but with me, it was always, I got to fight. So I know when or how, but I know that sooner or later, we’re gonna have it out. And it did, it did. I never started a fight. I don’t never call, ever startin’ a fight, but I had to have fight all the time. This one, I never got, you know, I come close, but I’ve only tried to kill a couple of kids, and that’s just the truth.

But it was me or them. And so somebody would finally break up, and I had one guy he had my head underneath the water, and he was trying his best to drown me. I’ve already been fought six. They would take turns. And I had fought six, and now I was dead tired, I couldn’t move. And he had me. And it hadn’t been for a black boy named Melvin. He had to kill me. But later on the same kid, well, he wound up falling off a tractor and the tractor ran over his head and killed him.

I still believe even back then God protected me. He had to because there was no reason for me to live in times that I’ve come so close to the death. And it’s just a miracle that I’m alive and so I thank the Lord for that. But here in the book of James, he’s talking about the things that can go on in your life. And it’s amazing how much of this deals between a Christian and another Christian. Look what he says in verse one, from whence come wars and fighting among you.

Come they not hence, even of your lust that war in your members. Now, I want you to see a verse and then maybe you can connect it too because the very next book tells you, I think, a little bit about what we’re headed and explains a little bit better. 1 Peter chapter 2 and look there in verse 11. First Peter chapter 2 and verse 11. And it says, “‘Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lost which and see that war against the soul.

There’s things, the fluffs of the flesh, you can fulfill the lust of the flesh but they war against your soul. They will inflict you. It’s like choosing to accept a virus that so corrupts your mind and it affects you and it can ruin your testimony. So you want to be careful of what you do. And I’ll go back there to chapter four. Because he makes his statement there in verse one, from whence come wars and fighting among you. This is among God’s people.

It’s not talking about you and the lost people. Because most of your problems and your disagreement, because we live most of our time in our life in the world of Christ, the church and the people that we know and meet. And so he says, come they not hence, even of your lust that war in your members, the lust, that means you still have the so sinful nature dwelling within you. God never changed that. In verse two, ye lust and have not.

You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and you’re war, yet you have not because you asked not. You ask and receive not because you ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lust. In other words, you’ll see that there’s some verses here that looks like we’re talking about, maybe along the lines of spiritual adultery. In other words, the nation of Israel committed adultery in the sense that they took on other gods as their God instead of the true and living God.

God is a jealous God. He doesn’t like to take second place. He doesn’t want to be forsaken by his kids. He didn’t want to be forsaken by the nation of Israel. And he always warned them not to accept the gods that were already in the land and that’s That’s why when they got into the land that flowed with milk and honey, they were supposed to get all those people out of there, plus their gods. Israel didn’t fully obey. It caused them problems down the road.

It’s like giving the devil a little piece of territory. He said, this house is mine, but the devil, you can have only the closet. You think he’s going to be satisfied with just staying in the closet? No. is how to open the door and he gonna try to come out. And the next thing you know, he wants to live in room. Then he wants to kitchen and he gonna try to take every area of your life. That’s why you can’t give him any ground.

No place to live. Now here in Booker James, he makes his statement here. And verse four, ye adulterers and adultresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is emmity with God. In other words, it’s like, here’s God, and he loves you so much. And when you worship other gods, or you put something between you and God, as though it’s more important to you than God himself, it’s like the Holy Spirit lusteth to envy. In other words, he loves you so much, he desire to the point of envying, because he wants us so bad.

And then the sea, his love for us, and all that’s been done for us. And then we just so blindly just walk away from the Lord and fall in love with the world. See the one thing that God wants more than anything else in the world is he wants our love. And he has every right to expect us to love him because look what he has done for us. The love of Christ constrain us to us because we thus judge that if one died for all, that all were dead and that they which lived should not henceforth live into themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again.

There’s a reason why we should love the Lord, and if we love the Lord, then we shouldn’t love the world. But he says, here’s the world, and you have become friends with the world, spiritual adultery. So if this is how God sees it, we don’t necessarily see it that bad. But look what he says here. He says, is do you think that the scriptures say it in vain, the spirit that dwelt in us lust to envy, the Holy Spirit that lives within us, lust to envy, he’s envious of our love and our devotion.

And when we fall in love with the things of this world, how it must hurt the Lord. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon.

Sundays at Calvary Community Church, where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. 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.