This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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.

But here in the book of John in chapter 14, look what he says here. In verse 27, peace, I leave with you my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, that you would rejoice because I said I go unto my father and my father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before he comes to pass it, when it comes to pass, you might believe. here after I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and have nothing in me. But the world may know that I love the Father even as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Horizon, let us go in. That verse, 31, I fell in love with that verse. He says that the world may know know that I love the Father.

And I thought, that’s exactly what I want. I want the world to know that I love God. Now, I knew I didn’t have to do that. I knew I was going to heaven, but I wanted the world to know that I love God. And I wanted to take a stand for whatever is right, whatever it might be. I wanted to go wherever God wanted me to go. I didn’t care where it was. I just didn’t know what to do or not to do.

I had no talent, no abilities. that verse just burned into my mind. That the world may know that I love my Father. And that’s why I begin to find how can I manifest my love for the Lord. Look there in John chapter 13, John chapter 13, John chapter 13. And notice there’s a couple verses mentioned here that Jesus said to his disciples. He makes a statement here in verse 34, A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another. And I know that there’s several verses in the Bible that talks about us, just loving one another, but also there was a verse that talks about loving the lost man. And I don’t find too many verses talks about me loving the but I said that God loved the lost man. He came to seeking to say that which was lost. And so he said, going, oh, we’re on priestly gospel, every creature, why?

Because when you share the gospel, you’re telling them, God loves you. You know, as soon as we had gotten to our hotel up there and the Grace Conference in Chicago, we went in there and there’s a lady behind the counter. She didn’t know me, I didn’t know her. I said, you don’t know me, do you? She says, no. I said, can’t let me give you my picture. my picture. So I pull out my little track with my picture on it.

It says, this is when I was 17 had hair. And they laugh a little bit, not much, but to just a little bit. And I says, you don’t know me, do you? No. I says, since we don’t know each other, we must be friends, because we can’t be enemy, because we don’t know each other. I says, no, a friend wants another friend to know something that’s good. I says, no, this is good. I said, if you could know you could have eternal life, wouldn’t you like to know?

Oh yeah. So it didn’t take long. I explained to her, God loves you. I just want to let you know that God loves you and he loved you so much he’d rather die than live without you. And he wants you to go to heaven to be with him and I said since I’m going I want you to go too. And so I went and explained it to her. But see the gospel is explaining how God Loves. And a lot of people live their whole lives and they don’t know if anybody loves them or not.

Well, one of the most important people in all the world is the Lord and He loves you. So I think it’s the greatest news that you can never share with somebody. Look, let me tell you how much He loves you. You can go right into the Gospel. But now, here in John chapter 13, He makes the statement, Even in verse 15, by this shall all men know that you are my disciple. See, the way we prove that we love God is loving them the way that we should, because that’s what God wants us to do is a way of manifesting the love of God.

The Holy Spirit that lives within us is to shed abroad His love to the world, and that’s what we do. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. thessalonians chapter 2. They’re diverse here, chapter 2 verse 13, and it talks here about the Word of God itself. First thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13. For this cause also we thank God without ceasing because when you receive the Word of God, which he heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth.

The word of God, which officially worketh also in you, that believe. We want people to know what God has done for them. And you use the word of God as they look. God said, God said, and when we say God said, we better be right that God did say that, and that that is the most important thing. in your Bible to the book of John chapter 17, Gospel of John in chapter 17. Now when you read the whole 17, I believe this is perhaps really the Lord’s Prayer.

The one found in Matthew chapter 6, he says, teach us how to pray. And so there’s an order that’s given. But I don’t think God wants us to quote that prayer all the time, for he says vain reputation, repeating something over and over and over again without it having meaning to us. But you read this 17th chapter and it’s kind of let you say that God is talking to His heavenly Father about the things that are important in what’s on His mind.

And so there in John chapter 17, look where He says in verse 18. Verse 18, this is also a a very interesting verse. He says in verse 18, as thou have sent me into the world. Now, why did Christ come into the world? Because God has manifested his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That was the manifestation of God’s love. He did something for us that he didn’t want us to do.

He paid for my sins because He didn’t want me to pay for them. And so He says here in the last part of verse 18, even so have I also sent them into the world. So if God has sent us into the world, evidently we’re supposed to let people know that God loves them. The reason we wanna have camp is because we don’t have anything else to do. And because all it is is fun, we’re just soaking in the sun on the beach.

But we have camped because we want kids to know as early as possible. God loves you. God really does love you. But for us to tell them this and to put it into their minds, we’ve got to spend time with them. So we’re going to have to sacrifice something that we would maybe rather do. But for the gospel’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for the lost man’s sake, we go ahead and pay the price. And we go without sleep, we work from morning to night, we wear ourselves out, the counselors are just dead, dog tired, and they give everything that they have because they want these kids to know, look, God loves you, and the only way I can prove that to you is I’ve got to do this for you.

I’m doing this for you because this is my way of letting you know I love you and we’re gonna have devotions tonight Me having devotions and teaching you about the Lord and what verses to learn is my way of saying I love you Because God loved me first and I want you to know what he means to me So you see all these things that we have the reason end of an inner church that we work together We sing in the choir and we do all the things that we do is because see we’re supposed to manifest to others that we love the Lord and by us manifesting that love to each other you’re letting God love them through you.

And sometimes people are not channels of the blessings of God, of sharing joy and sharing love and sharing… Because see, whatever God does for us, that’s what we’re supposed to do for someone else. And so, here in this verse I think it’s a very wonderful verse, but I want you to see another verse here. verse 19, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, not just for those who already know the Lord, those apostles that he’s talking about here, that he hadn’t lost any of them.

But look at the next part of this verse, but for them also which shall believe, that means are lost at this time, isn’t that this time, isn’t that right? Right? You would say they’re lost now, but they shall believe through their word. That’s one of the greatest verses I think in the whole Bible explains what missions is about because there’s people that will believe and we’re supposed to understand that, believe that. But somebody has to pay a price to go and to do that.

As I look back over my years, I realized that 1968 I graduated. And now it’s been 50 years that I became a graduate of Florida Bible College, 50 years ago. And I’ve wanted to go as many places as I can, pay whatever price is necessary, so I can tell people, look, I want God, you’d know God loves you and He made a payment for your sins and He loved you so much He’d rather die than live without you. He wants you to have eternal life and that’s why yes for the ready you of the internet and all that.

And we still are getting five, six, more sometimes of people trusting Christ every day from somebody somewhere in the world because of the YouTube ministry and the internet it’s just it’s an awesome tool that we’ve been blessed to be able to use. And so God has been good, but look at that verse one more time. When he says in verse 20, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall be leave on me through their word.

Does it look like Jesus is praying for people that are lost? He’s praying for those that shall believe. They don’t yet. That’s why I believe that He was praying for me. somebody would come and bring the gospel to me. And I mentioned this before, you know, I’m 76 now. I’m close to the 80th, I’m the 7th, that scares me to death. But in all those years, only one man, one man has ever witnessed to me. What if that man had missed me so far?

Nobody’s ever witnessed to me. Nobody’s ever given me a track to explain the gospel how to go to heaven. All the churches I’ve been to and the meetings and all that. nobody. Now don’t come up to me after the church says, do you know where you’re going to die? I preached that one day and somebody came out and said, that don’t count. I don’t count. Anyway, I think it’s what God wants us to know, what God wants us to do.

Now I want you to look at a verse with me. It’s a little maybe misapplied, but look there in Matthew 24, the book of Matthew in chapter 24, because we’re supposed to love the Lord. And if we don’t love the Lord like we should, there’s got to be a reason. So in chapter 24, I want you to look there in this verse, looking verse 12, and because iniquity, shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. You ever heard of Christians who used to be on fire for the Lord?

Oh, they used to be on fire for the Lord. And then it seemed like they began to drift and get further and further away from the Lord, then they have become cold to the things of God. They no longer have the spiritual discernment that they used to have. But why do they become cold? And it says here, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. I believe a lot of God’s children in their Christian life, they’re walking in the flesh and send us abound and moves you further and further and further away from the Lord.

And because you become cold, you see people that are cold, they don’t love the Lord like they use to. They They don’t want to get involved like they used to. They want to quit things like they used to. They used to be doing so much and so many ways. And then little by little, you begin to drift. And sometimes it can happen and you don’t even know it. That’s one of the reasons I have enjoyed over the years of teaching personal evangelism, the book of Galatians and so forth, and teaching kids out of here the Wall of the Illustration because you’ve got to teach it clearly according to how you learned it.

And so for 50 years I’ve been doing that and so it kind of helps me to stay on course. But you can still do the same things the right way. You can still go to church, sing the choir, take up the offer and be involved to all things. And as he says to the church there in Ephesus, I know thy work and thy labor of love. He says, but you’ve left your first love. In the words he says, you don’t love me like you used to.

You’re involved, you can do things. Can people go to camp and help and camp and still not love the Lord and not love the kids? You see, those kids can pick up whenever you really care about them and you don’t really care. Whether you’re just doing a job and you’re just playing games and you’re just passing the time, just getting the job done so you can talk about all the sacrifices that you’ve made. But without the love that makes a big emptiness in the hearts of those people that we witness to or try to influence in their lives.

I believe love is the most motivating power in our lives that can affect people’s lives. And we only get one life chance to do this. It’s not going to be long before some of us are going to be getting on the other side. Now Phil’s going to go before me because he’s a lot older than I am. And so God is going to take this one and he’s going to take that one. And he just, you know, he’s getting a bouquet and he’s picking some of the most beautiful flowers and he takes them all up to heaven.

I’m a ragweed. You know, I used to think that Georgia, I thought their state flower was the dandelion. He was in a dandelion. It’s a dandelion. But anyway, do things as unto the Lord. And watch that you don’t let your love wax cold. And the only way to do that is continually keep demonstrating the love that God has. Now I want you to look at this verse and we’ll close over here with this, but look in the book of Titus, the book of Titus in chapter 2.

chapter 2 is the verse that tells us about God’s love for us because he talks about how his grace hath appeared to all men. Grace is because of the cross and the cross is because of the death of Christ. Christ died for our sins. That’s why if he died for my sins I don’t have to pay for them because it’s by grace. I’m not trying to earn my way to heaven because Christ died for my sins. And I know I can’t lose my salvation because Christ died for my sins and sins, mine, whichever one’s mine, they’re paid.

He died for mine, all my sins. What do I sin tomorrow? Well, that’s mine. Yeah, that’s mine. That’s paid. Well, but well, sin right before you die. Well, is that mine? Well, if it’s mine, it’s paid. How many of my sins did he die for? They’re all covered. So here in the book of Titus, it makes a statement. He says in verse 11, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness, worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously in Godly in this present world.

So in this world in which we live, what God did for us is the lesson on how to live by grace. In other words, did God save us because we deserved it. No. So we don’t love people because they deserve to be loved. And so we pick and choose who we’ll love and we hate everybody else. No. God so loved the world so we are supposed to love the world. And not because they deserved it or earned it. And that’s why he goes through and he says all these things.

Now look in chapter 3 very quickly. Look what he says in verse 2, as he describes us before he ever saved us. To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showin’ all meat and sundial men. For we ourselves also were, sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, lust, and pleasures, livin’ in malice, and envy, hateful, and hated one another. How long who he’s talking about there. You. He’s talking about me. He’s talking about us and that’s the way we were.

Now if we want to love people, then it has absolutely nothing to do with how they live. It has nothing to do with their lifestyle. We’re to love them all. And we We love everybody equally. God so loved the world. Except those that were really bad. And then notice what he says here. That’s the way we were, but now look what he says in verse four. But now here’s the contrast. But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared.

That’s the way we were. And then we heard about God loves us. And because God loves us, he says, not of works of righteousness which we have done. But according to His mercy, He saved us. Can He save all those kind of people, do all those bad things? That’s what demonstrated and manifested the love of God. Regardless of how bad people are, when God did this for us, it had nothing to do with us loving God. So when you manifest the love of God, it has absolutely nothing to do with people loving you.

They may despise you, hate you, it doesn’t matter. God wants them to know that He loves them in spite of the way they are. But isn’t it so much nicer if we just speak to people who are nice? Talk to people who are kind, talk to people who are really sweet. Have you ever tried to tangle with somebody that’s a little mean feisty stick of dynamite? You see some great big old dude muscled hanging all over the place, tattoo, and all that.

So, and I’m scared to talk to him. And you start talking to him and he just melts like a little child. You talk to some little old bitty woman, no bigger than K Myers. And all of a sudden you can have a tiger by the tail, climbing like a squirrel climbing a tree. And I’m talking about the conscious, don’t look at their faces, don’t worry about that. You’d be surprised. We like to pick and choose who we do. They deserve to hear the gospel.

Whosoever means, whosoever. And it has nothing to do with the way people treated you because it had nothing to do with the way we treated God. So from God’s example of what grace means, that’s why we’re supposed to learn the same lessons. wants to bestow grace upon them through us. God wants to use us. But sometimes see we become so selfish we just think about our own little life and I don’t want to be involved. I don’t want to be involved.

I mean I’m satisfied it’s my life. But what I’m so thankful for is that God blessed me with a woman for 58 years that was willing to follow her husband and all those crazy, dangerous places that I drug her. And we’ve sacrificed 58 years for the cause of Christ. Therefore I know there is laid up for me in heaven a crown of righteousness. But not just to me, but for all of them who wants to make sure love what is appearing.

Because you live in such a way you’re always looking for the Lord to come back. And it’s worth every sacrifice you may because one of these days we’re not gonna have any more opportunities. Darkness coming when no man shall work. We gotta do the work while we can. And so that’s why you’ll see Wally still trying to go and do what he does. I admire that guy. He fires me up. Now, he doesn’t walk around like a stick of dynamite and always fun.

But he’s steady as he goes. reminds me of Hank Lance, I’m just steady as he goes. Now, I’m all over the lake, you know, storms and all that. That’s okay. God uses everybody differently. And so you want God to use you, then this is what you have to do. Does the verse in the book of James chapter 2 verse 18 where he says, show me thy faith. Show me thy faith without works. I’ll say it this way, show me thy love without works.

Show me your love without works. You can’t do it. So we’re talking like, show me thy faith. Show me your love. If you love the Lord, it shall be known of you. But if you don’t love the Lord, it’ll be known also. Because see, there is a hypocritical type love that we kind of put on our smiley face, our fake Christian response, you know, how you doing? Fine! And nothing’s fine. And you convince people that everything is wonderful and you’re a super-duper, and inside you’re just like eating up with cancer, because something’s ugly in your life, because you’re tolerant and sin in your life.

Things are not right, you’re not close to the Lord, you’re not walking with the Lord. And you can fool people for a while, but sooner or later, gonna totally destroy you or bring you down. Love when it waxes cold, hardens a person’s heart. And a lot of people cannot do the thing that God wants them to do because they’re hard-hearted. Love the Lord and God will bless you and God will use you. Do you know that God wants to use you more than your desire to be used?

It’s not that so much it’s your ability. It’s your availability. I admire talent over character any day. You can have all the talent in the world, but do you have character? This hand represents you and me. All I represent sin, we all have sin on us. Now God says He loves us. Now He hates our sin, but He loves us. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from the Lord in hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven.

They go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s glory, short of God’s perfection. And God says you cannot save yourself. And while we were all these bad things that he listed, but God sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world to demonstrate, to manifest to the world, they God loves them in spite of all that they’ve done, in spite of all their sins.

So he Christ came into the world, he took all of the sins, paid for the one the cross and came back from the dead. And God says the only thing he wanted you to do believe he did that for you. So when you believe he did this for you, he gives you eternal life as a gift and you get to go to heaven on what Christ has done. So those who trust Christ as Savior, because God loved you that much, God says, now, will you manifest that love to others?

Tell them what I did for you. Tell them what I did for them and God will bless you for doing so. Let’s pray show him. In just a moment if you’re here and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior. What should you do about it? If you haven’t trusted Christ and it’s the most important decision you can ever make, what should you do? Trust Christ as your Savior. Well, when do you have to do that? Well, I would definitely do it before you die because once you die, it’s too late.

If you’re watching by internet, right on the screen says, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my I don’t know who you are, but we’ll know that somebody trusts a Christ of Savior, and I pray that you will. But if you’re in here and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, and you can trust the Lord right where you are, while you’re looking at me, eyeball to eyeball, in your own little mind, you can say, that made sense to me. And I’m going to trust Christ right now as my Savior, because God says, who’s whoever, believe it, and you can believe.

And if you’ll believe it, God said, it would save you, give you eternal life, and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Follow we are thankful so much for your blessings. Thank for the opportunity given to us to come together as a body of believers. And Lord, may we truly learn to love you and demonstrate that love by the way we live, the way we treat each other, praying for each other, encouraging one another, not putting the stumbling block in the way of anyone.

For everyone who made the sacrifice, in the Christ name we pray. Men reserved the last Saturday of the month for the Iron Sharpen’s Iron Men’s Bible Study and Breakfast at Calvary Community Church. Join us at 730 for a home-cooked breakfast. Then, at 8am, the featured speaker of the month will present a one-hour classroom style men’s Bible Study in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and dialogue are welcomed. The scripture tells us that Iron sharpens iron, and this men’s Bible study is open to those of all levels, whether new believers or mature Christians.

The Iron sharpens iron men’s Bible study and breakfast. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity for fellowship and the study of God’s Word. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 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.