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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 got some little thoughts. You know, I’d add this thing from everywhere. I’m not an original. I just copy, copy, copy. I’m the biggest copycat in the world. The Bible says there’s nothing new under the sun. Well, why waste my time trying to be an original? I listen to people and I learn things and I gather things together. But this is some good thoughts on witnessing. The reward of witnessing a well worth the risk, the rewards are well worth the risk because there’s risk involved in witnessing.

You know, to talk to somebody about the Lord, It’s a scary thing. I mean, you look at somebody’s face and scare your death. You already decided who’s going to beat you up. And somebody’s going to kill you. Some little woman named no bigger than a quarter. She’d jump on you like a squirrel climbing a tree. And some great big old dude, you know, he would just melt and be just as nice and sweet. You can’t figure him out ahead of time.

So it’s better not to try to do it. Those on the road to heaven must not be content to go alone. Now think about that. Those on the road to heaven should not be content to go alone. We should want to try to get somebody to go with us. Right? We should want that. The only way to preach the gospel to every creature is to go to every creature. That makes sense. Hospitality is evangelism’s greatest tool. You know, being nice to people, doing things for people, opens up many doors, just being kind.

You know, everybody is struggling. having a hard time. Be nice to everybody. Don’t need to be rude and mean and ugly. The last thing you want to do is grow up to be a mean old man. Well not y’all. A mean old woman. Be a mean old woman. Now here we are with Hortense. Hortense, how old are you now? How old are you Hortense? 84. That’s a long time to live. You know that. But when you’re 76, it’s not that old.

I’m just a baby, just a child. And, but now, as long as I’ve known her for eight years here, she hasn’t grown up being a mean old woman. She’s just a sweet little old lady. You know what somebody, after I preached that sermon this morning, I was walking down the hall and this one guy comes to me and says, you’re just a sweetie pie. I thought, well, you could have said something else, a little bit better. I guess I’ll take squidipy if that’s what he wants to say.

Another one says, the church must go to the world because the world will not come to the church. You cannot witness to the wrong person about Christ. How can you witness to the wrong person? Oh, I witnessed you the wrong person. I got the wrong person saved. Can you get the wrong person saved. Talk to the Lord about sinners, then talk to sinners about the Lord. That makes sense, don’t it? You want to have a burden for souls? The key to a burden for soul is accepting the responsibility that God’s given to you to reach them.

So if we accept that responsibility, then you’ve got a burden. It’s just like if I was to say, you know, Dr. Poland, how come you didn’t mop this floor today and vacuum this rug? He’d say, not my job, not my job. Well, whose job is it? Oh, it was Peter’s job. Okay. Then Peter, why didn’t you get it done? Peter said, I’m on vacation. Okay, Jesse, why didn’t you get it done? I don’t know. Where were you? I was at home in bed sleeping.

But unless you have a responsibility, it’s not your job. But God has told us in His Word, He says, we have been put in trust with the gospel, therefore we speak not as pleasing men, but God which tried the heart. So we have been put in trust, so therefore God is going to hold us accountable. So he does expect us to get something accomplished in our life. Another one is, every Christian occupies some kind of a pulpit and preaches a kind of sermon every day.

In other words, you know this on Sunday morning, this is my pulpit, this is where I preach. You just do yours out there, you know where you work, a home, neighbors, wherever you go. go. You’re preaching to sermon just as well, but maybe you just don’t have a pulpit. But can’t you still visit and can’t you still talk to somebody in a nursing home or in a hospital or the next door neighbor or somebody? Leave a track here. Leave a track there.

You still got a platform. Every man has a platform. Every woman has a platform from which to do the job. Another one was, light houses don’t make noise, they just shine. The tack needed for evangelism is contact. That’s good. The contact, the tack needed for it because you always said no, you got to have the right tack. Well, the tack is contact. And all Christians cannot witness the same way, but all Christians can witness some way. Isn’t that true?

We may not all do it the same way, but we all I find a way. The pastor’s job is to fill the pulpit, the members job is to fill the church. Do I hear amen? Some people say, that’s what we hired the preacher for. No, you didn’t. He didn’t harden me to fill this church. You hired me to preach and to teach you how to do it. I need to do a better job. All right. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1, in this idea about a burden for souls. A burden for souls is to accept the responsibility to reach them. And if you do, then all of a sudden you got a burden. You got to figure out a way. Now how can I fulfill my responsibility? I was talking to a young kid today. He was only 17 years old. I talked to him by he ought to come to Bible college for one year. He says, why? I says to study the He said, why?

I wanted to slap his jaws. So you can learn how to fulfill your responsibility. But see, if you’re not interested in fulfilling your responsibility, you don’t need to study the Bible. You don’t need to go to church. You don’t need to read Bible. You don’t need to do anything. Why? Because I’m not going to do anything anyway. But when you want to do something, then you want to learn what to do and how to do it. And that’s what’s taught in the Bible.

Now turning your Bible there to the book of Romans in chapter 1. And look there in verse 14, I am deader both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. You know that just about covers everybody in the world, doesn’t it? Wise and unwise? So as much as in me is, I am ready. I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God into salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Now that verse we cook that just about every Sunday, where it says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. Do you really believe that? Everyone that will believe it can have eternal life and go to heaven and won’t go to hell. And isn’t that message worthy to tell somebody about. Think of how many people has never heard it before. I was just thrilled whenever I got that one comment all the way from South Korea.

South Korea. How long did it take me to go to South Korea and witness to somebody and then go to Pakistan and then go to Saudi Arabia and then go to Germany and then go to the United Kingdom them, because that’s where we’ve had people respond and trust the Lord, Canada and all over the United States. It would take me a while and cost a lot of money and yet for just a few pennies that we are able to do such a wonderful thing.

But now notice when he talks about the gospel, notice what the gospel includes in verse 17, for therein in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. So if we’re going to give a gospel, then the gospel has to say something about the righteousness of God. How does a man get to heaven? Well, then God will give you his righteousness. He gives you his perfection. He pays for your sin, gives you his perfection. You go to heaven on what Christ did for you.

All that means the same thing. It’s just a different way of saying it. But the gospel, and there’s a lot of people just talking about, let’s just get people saved and we’re talking about eternal security later. You can’t because eternal security is the gospel. That’s what being saved means. I’m going to heaven And I can’t go to hell because you can’t know you’re going there until you know you can’t go there. But if you can always go there, how do you know you’re going there?

Y’all can get that, can’t you? Y’all can understand this. Then notice what else he says, look in verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed. In other words, when we do the wallet illustration, we’re explaining the gospel to good news. And in that good news, it talks about the righteousness of God. And we talk about the wrath of God. And that’s why he says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all in godliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness.

So we say, all have sin and all are condemned. Nobody is good enough to go to heaven. And that’s what makes the gospel of Aaron verse 16 so good. It’s such a wonderful thing to know. So it talks about, yes, the sinfulness of man talks about the wrath of God, talks about the righteousness of God. Now just very quickly give you this, look in chapter three, in spite of how bad mankind is. And the Bible says he’s pretty bad.

Look what he says in verse 10, as it is written, there’s none righteous, how many? No, not one. There is none that understand none that seeketh after God, all gone out of the way. There’s none that doeth good, not one. You know something, God says, Don’t stop all this bickering back and forth about how good you are. Because there’s not one of you, not a one, not a one. And so he makes a statement there in verse 19, for we know that what thing so ever the law said, sifted them that are under the law.

Get this every mouth, maybe what? Stopped all the world became guilty before God. So how many people have sinned everybody? How many people are guilty? Everybody. I mean, you’re condemned. everybody. And so nobody can save themselves. In spite of how bad we are, so God even refers to the law there in verse 20. Therefore by the law or by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge that’s in.

That’s how you know you’re sinner. Right. Well look at the law. Now shall not lie. You won’t believe his head a little born office today and I says, have you ever told a lie? Nope. Okay, this is going to be interesting. But he was just maybe I think a little confused. And later on he says, since he’s trusted the Lord, he doesn’t want to see any more. He doesn’t want to lie anymore. Okay, I’ll accept that. But he’s only five years old.

Now look what he says in verse 21, but now, but now the righteousness of God. Now does man have any righteousness to save himself? No. All condemned, none good, none righteous. And then in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law, without doing any good, his manifest been witnessed by the law and the Prophet. Get this in verse 20, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto how many? All those people that are no good, all those people that are liars, all those people that have done all these bad things, all of them that condemned.

He says, the righteousness of God is unto all and upon all them that do what? I believe. There’s no difference. If God saves any person, he has to save everybody the same way for the same reason. There can be different ways of salvation. God is not a respecter of persons. So if God saved me, he had to save He made me the same way he saved you, or somebody else, or the apostles. Everybody has to get saved the same way.

That’s by trusting Christ. Believing that what he did, he did it for them. So the gospel does that for it. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn to Matthew 28. Matthew and chapter 28. This is what we usually call the Great Commission, the Great Command, and in chapter 28. talking about right before Christ ascended and went back to heaven. He says here in chapter 28 and verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

In other words, all authority. So if Christ commands us to go in all the world, do we have the authority to go? Yes. Are there people though are going to start or stop you from going? Yes. What about people in North Korea? What about communist China or Russia? What about all these countries? What about all the Arab countries that they will kill you? You go there preaching Christ. Do we still have a responsibility to reach them? Lord, I regret that I’ve only got one life to send to the ministry.

No, I don’t think that’s how it goes. Lord, I’m willing to go, but I know you want me to stay here and pray for others to do it. Lord, send Jesse. I was actually over there in Egypt, and I was on the verge of getting up, and, because we were just sitting around for a little bit in our room. And I said, I think I’ve got downstairs and just get on the street corner and just start preaching Christ. And it jumped up.

He says, whatever you do, don’t do that. I thought, why not? He says, you won’t last five minutes. He said, they’ll kill you. So we did get a chance to go into all the, and I thought, would Paul do this? I don’t think Paul would be afraid. But then Paul was able to do miracles, and people would be blind, they wouldn’t see him, and he could just, and I haven’t tried walking on water yet, I don’t think it’ll work.

And I can’t wave my hand, and people go blind, and the Paul could do, come on. He got, and that’d give you a little confidence and courage. And so we went to some of these churches and we had a lot of people trust Christ as Savior because they had not seen some of us of Yankee people from America come over and preach the gospel. And so they came out and they had a lot of them trust the Lord. But I was talking to Ray Stanford later and he says some of the same churches we had been in.

Later on, some Muslims came into the churches and gunned them down. in one church over 100 people they gunned down. In Brace’s study, he just cried. He says, because it was the very same church we had been in, and it had done us in several churches when it was having all this uprising over there in Egypt. And you just don’t never know how many people you witnessed too, and I got some neat stories about them. But this year, in chapter 28, is go you into all the world and teach every nation, baptizing them, the name of the Father, Son, Does God want us to affect every nation?

Every nation, every nation. Didn’t say what kind, just every nation. And to teach them to observe everything I told you. So whatever Christ told the apostles, then the apostles told them, and then they were supposed to tell them, and they tell them. And so lo and behold, it’s been 2,000 years. So that command that He gave, it’s just passed on down. Every one of us, we read the Bible, and we’re still commanded. I have commanded you.” See there in that verse 20, I have commanded you.

So witnessing is not an option. It’s a command. And if you don’t do it, you’re just disobedient. There’s no two ways to cut it. Christ says, follow me and I will make you fissures of men. So if you’re following your fishing, if you’re not fishing, you’re not following. We can be doing a lot of other things, but he’s the one that wrote it. And I think he means what he says. He’s serious about this thing. Now, a couple that I wanted you to know.

And I wrote just down in my notes here. Did Christ only have a number in mind? I’ve had people say, you know, there’s only so many people God wants to save. You know, in the church age, we’ve got this body and there’s so many sales in the body. And so when we reach a certain number, then that’s the number and then the raptor takes place. Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not. I mean, it could sound good.

I just can’t prove it. But I thought, if God’s only interested in getting a number, then why not just pick a place like Cairo, Egypt? There’s about 18 million there. And then just choose to save that number and all of the apostles just go to that one big old city and get all the 18 million instead of wasting your time going to all of those other places, if it’s just a number he wants. But I think it’s not a number.

He wants everybody. He wants all, preaching to God for everyone. And so I believe all excludes none and exempts nobody. Everybody’s included and God so loved the world. Now, let me just mention this to you. In the book of Acts, chapter two, don’t turn there, but it talks about in chapter two, verse 41, 3,000 people trust the Lord that one sermon by the apostle Peter. Chapter four, and verse four talks about some more people to trust the Lord. Chapter five, verse 14 talks about another number of people.

And then it says they were commanded and it multiplied and so forth. So if anybody is interested in numbers, I guess God is interested in numbers, but the numbers exclude everybody. He wants everybody to trust the Lord. Now under the law, when God gave the law, 3000 people were killed. When the Holy Spirit came, the law is death, the spirit is life, and on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, 3000 were saved. It’s a lot of interesting things about this.

Now I want you to take your Bible turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew and chapter 9. Jesus had and told them that There was a problem. And in verse 36, of chapter 9, imagine chapter 9, and verse 36, he said, but when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them because they feinted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. Sheep without a shepherd. He is the good shepherd. He is the great shepherd. He is the chief shepherd.

the shepherd that gives his life for the sheep and he says they’re like sheep and all we like sheep have gone astray. Everybody wants to go their own way, do their own thing. So he says in verse 37, then he says to his disciples, the harvest REFUTER is plentyous but the labors are few. You agree with that? Look at the job and think of all the people in all the world. You think, how come God hasn’t called somebody to go to those people?

He has. Well, what’s the problem? They won’t go. They won’t go. That young boy I talked to today saved, but he won’t go. He’s not interested in going to Bible college, learning to work God. Even the apostles had to spend three and a half years in Bible college with Jesus Christ as their teacher. And then when he gave them their final exam, they all failed. They all failed their final exam. And yet that was all he had to work with, some ignorant fishermen.

And think of all the things that could be done if people would just obey the Lord but see people don’t want to. Go, I will not. And people don’t want to go. That’s why I push for kids to come the Bible college. Why? Because if you don’t train, then they’re not going to go. Why do you think John John is maybe going to take you and wind up in the full-time Christian work? Well, why did Jesse been in full-time Christian work?

Well, what about, you know, Tyler not working with camp? He wants to be in full-time, why? Because he came to Bible college. If he didn’t, they wouldn’t know anything. You just don’t take a guy off the street and put him in the pulpit and say, how about being our preacher? Wait a minute. Who are you? Where are you from? Where’d you go to school? Where do you believe? What have you done? Who holds out for you? You see, you have to build a testimony of faithfulness.

You have to complete a system of study. You’ve got to know what do you believe and why you believe it. This is what’s wrong with a lot of churches today. They don’t care about what the person believes. just want somebody to play the game and play the part and they just play religion. When I came down here, you know, they grill me on what I believed. When we have missionaries and we’re going to support them, we grill them. You ought to see what they ought to fill out.

Man, I wouldn’t want to fill it out. But it’s huge because you just can’t support everybody. One thing I want to know is, where’d you go to school? Where they went to school? Tell me what they’ve been taught And what church recommends you, that’s why you want to have somebody that’s John John can say look I was ordained at Calvary Community Church. Oh we’ve heard of that church. Isn’t that where Yankee Arms the pastor at? Yeah that great church sent in with the college and all that.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Okay we will have to speak. But he has to have some credentials. Something do you know then when Paul trusted the Lord. He had a testimony. He hated Christians. He was just getting permission to put them in jail. He trusts the Lord and lo and behold, he’s going to go and try to talk with some of those believers. And they said, do you know who he is? Do you know what he’d done? And Barnabas had to come alongside of him and try to introduce him and work him in him He tried to tell them what happened.

So they accepted him because of Barnabas, even the Apostle Paul. And so that’s the way it is. But here he makes the statement. Even though there’s a need for labors, in verse 38, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labors into his harvest. And then what’s the first thing you find in chapter 10? He’s sending forth his disciples. See there in verse one, when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits and blah, blah, blah, all the way down through there.

He does all of this. And verse five, these 12, Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not unto the way of the Gentiles, because right now he’s king of Israel and he’s then going to the house of Israel. And so we go ahead and preach to the lost sheep in verse six of the house of Israel. And then he told them something and that you need to get this done. Look in verse 7 where He told them what to do.

In verse 7, see these three words in verse 7, as ye go. As you go, this is what I want you to do. Now everybody may not go the same way, thereby not may not go the same time, but it is assumed because of a command, everybody’s going to go. And as you go, this is what he told them that he wanted them to do. Look there in verse 11. into whatsoever city or town you shall enter and choir who it is worthy and they’re abide till you go hence.

So how do you determine who’s worthy and who’s not worthy? Those who receive the message and those who reject the message because that’s mentioned a little bit further down in verse 14 when he says and and whosoever shall not receive you or hear your words. So there’s those who will receive you, hear your words, he says, and they are worthy. In other words, God will save every person who will hear and believe the message. But what I want you to see up there in verse 10 into what to ever city or town you shall enter.

So it didn’t matter what city, it didn’t matter what town. When I graduated from Florida Bible College, all I knew is I’m going to Indian camps and I am the camp speaker, evangelist Yankee Arnold, camp speaker going to the Indian camps. Now at one time that sounded a little glorious. You know out there was the Indians and you think of Daniel Boom and David Crockett and all these guys that fought these Indians and my two little kids, they were all excited.

We’re going out there in the Indians, you know, they live in TPs and they ride horseback and they shoot bows and arrows. And my kids were all excited about going to the Indian camps. And we got to the camp there in Oklahoma. Well, they were dressed the way we were dressed. They lived in houses. and that we had a building and nobody lived in tents and there was nobody riding in all horseback. Well, they were a little discouraged, but to be honest, I was too.

I wanted to see some real Indians, you know, with the feather and all that. And so I was talking to these Indians, and we had about 27 different Indian tribes represented there and a lot of Indians. And so I got up there and I gave him my usual story, my little pitch, you know, and I was going along and trying to make sure the gospel was simple, that it was clear, and anybody could understand it. And I says, and when God gives you something, He will not take it away.

He gives you the free gift of eternal life. I says, He’s not an Indian giver. And then I realized that didn’t go over very well. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader, then look no further than Florida Bible College of Tampa? With traditional and online classes taught by instructors, with years of experience, Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life.

Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you. To learn more, visit online at florida-biblecollege.us or call the Register of Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. That’s 8502275325. 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. For end to one day it will happen, the trumpet will BaseType and we will be changed.

Cut 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.