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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 your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Anyway, take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts. The book of Acts. Chapter 26, here in the book of Acts. Verse 18, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light. Now I have thought a lot about that, darkness to light. Now you’ve heard me teach on the two natures, right? If I know the two natures, you all know about the, you know, then came Amalek. Remember it then came in my leg. How many of y’all remember in my leg?

All right, most of you in here remember in my leg. But the flesh is that old sinful nature that you have, your first birth. And the Bible says that that’s darkness. It’s in darkness. Men without God is in darkness. So in John chapter 1, the light came into the world and the world comprehended it not. darkness, men are in darkness. They don’t know. They can’t find their way. They grow in like blind people. And so that’s the way the flesh is.

That’s where God says we are before we trust the Lord as our Savior. So He gave Paul a job of, you know, from darkness to light. So we were in darkness flesh and then God says when we trust him we have a new birth. The new birth is born of God. If it’s born of God, then it’s in the light because God is light. Jesus was the light of the world. And so we are like little lights. We’re lights in the Lord means we know the truth.

We are of the truth. And we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So it is important to remember what God said was the purpose. So he took Paul who was in darkness and put him in the light by him believing. And then the Lord says, now I want you to go into all the world and take those and turn them from darkness to light. And what is that one tool and it’s the only tool that can help people turn from darkness to light.

That’s the gospel. The light of the gospel, and God has seen fit to give us this wonderful, wonderful message. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans. Just Romans, just a couple pages over to you right. Romans chapter two, and there’s a verse that refers to the Jewish people because they boasted and bragged themselves about how they were such guides of the blind.

So he says in verse 17, “‘Thou art called a Jew and rested in the law, make us thy boast of God. Boy, if there’s one thing we know, it’s the word of God. It’s the law. If there’s anything we do, is that we live according to the law. Oh, yes. They were perfect examples. And he says in verse 8, and knowest his will and approve us the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

Thou therefore which teaches another, teach us thou not thyself. Thou that preaches a man should not steal, does thou steal? Thou that saith a man should not commit adultery, does thou commit adultery? Thou that a horse idles, does thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makeest I boast of the law through breaking the law dishonors thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. So they thought, we’re it. We’re somebody. But you see, they weren’t really guides of the blind.

No, they should have been. And they should have gotten people to turn from darkness to light, but they themselves were still in darkness. Walked in darkness, spread darkness, and kept people from coming to the truth. So the Bible says that even when Christ was here, He kind of slapped them around a little bit. And He faced them with their hypocrisy. That’s what the word reproved means to shame them or blame them, to reprove them means to rebuke them, to stand up to them.

And so this is what he did. This is what Paul is talking about here also. But notice that statement up here in verse 19, A light of them which are in darkness. You and I are to be in reality a light to those that are in darkness. Romans chapter 13. Romans in chapter 13. Now we know according to the Lord of God that all the law is fulfilled in one word. Anybody know what that word is? Love. In other words, if you love God and you love man in real love, well you wouldn’t want to do anything wrong to God or to man.

You always want to do right. You realize if everybody really loved, we wouldn’t have to have all these laws The laws are made for disobedient people. The law wasn’t made for a righteous person. This is why we don’t like it. When somebody does something wrong, they penalize all of us to make laws by which it takes away some of our freedom. And we didn’t do anything wrong yet. But anyway. So here in the book of Romans in verse 8 says, Oh no man anything but to love one another.

Or he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Well I thought we didn’t have to fulfill the law. Well we don’t. But according to Romans in chapter 8, remember that the righteousness of God can be fulfilled in us but not by us. It’s that new birth that can perfectly fulfill the law and that operates on love. The flesh does not. It works on fear, fear of God, fear of the law, fear of the consequences, but love challenges and motivates, causes you to be more aware and sensitive and teachable, applying the hands of God.

So he makes a statement down here in verse 10, love work no ill to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So whenever you and I, as a child of God, when we love like we should, we are fulfilling the commands of the law. Though we’re not under the law, we now perform the righteousness that was in the law. suppose the love of the Lord thy God, all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. We’re not to make idols, not to blaspheme his name and all those things.

Just because you’re saved doesn’t mean that we can just totally break the law and it doesn’t matter. It does matter. Now it won’t affect your salvation, praise the Lord, but for your Christian life, do you think that once God has moved you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light? Now which one do you think God wants you to walk in, the kingdom of light or the kingdom of darkness. One way it’s simple to put it is, do you think God wants you to walk into spirit or the flesh in light, darkness or truth?

Why? As a child of God, where do you think God wants us to walk? Well, of course, over here in the spirit and you will not fulfill the loss to the flesh or bring forth the works of darkness. So that’s what he’s talking about. Now look what he says here. In verse 11, and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation near than when we believe. In other words, we’re all running out of time.

The day will come when God is now only going to, you know, he saved us and he is saving us from the power of sin in our life now. But one day he’s going to literally deliver us from this old present evil. He world and we’re going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and caught up and meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. And so God tells us this and He says that day is getting closer and closer but it doesn’t happen yet.

So as long as you can draw a breath and you got a pulse. Wake up. Wake up and walk in the light according to truth. So you need it. You learn it. So then he makes a statement here in verse 12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the, and here’s those little words, works of darkness. That’s the same as lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is the works of darkness.

It’s the, it’s probably you find in the book of Galatians in chapter 5 when he talks about bringing forth the works of the flesh and it lists the works of the flesh. And those are not the things that God wants us to bring forth. See up here in verse 9, see it in verse 9 where he says, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not, all this is the works of the flesh. This is the works of darkness.

This is the person who walks in the dark, not in the light, not according to truth, not according to a child that’s been born into God’s family. This is not how God wants us to walk. So back down there in verse 12, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. There’s a little song they sing at camp. It says something about the armor of light, doesn’t it? You remember that Don’t be overcome by what?

Evil. But overcome that evil with good. Well, I don’t really sing it. I just let these guys sing it. That’s their favorite song. And it talks about the armor of light. Armor of light. So there’s protection according to light and truth. and truth. And of course, when you read Ephesians chapter 6, you’ll find that there’s put on the breastplate and the armor. All of these things that God says take off, put on. God does not want us as his children living like lost people.

He doesn’t want the works of the flesh or the, you know, the darkness to permeate our lives. And notice what he says. In verse 13, let us walk honestly and in the day, because that’s what’s up there, he’s talking about, wake out of sleep. In the day to walk, like you can see. Now we understand that Tom here has a problem, right? What is Tom’s problem? He can’t see. But yet he probably sees better than most of us in this room.

He can see things we can’t see. He has spiritual insight. I’ve been in a lot of the Bible studies and sometimes even in church. And I’ll ask the question and the first one with the hand up will be Tom or answer it right out in the middle of the service and disrupt everything. Because Tom knows, he knows the answer. He’s got a lot of scriptures memorized. But in a way, he can see. And there’s other people that can’t see.

Now, if Tom gets up here and we could put a bunch of things in front of him and he would just stumble all over them. But see, he will probably stumble over certain things because he can’t see it all. But you and I are supposed not to go through life stumbling because in your stumble the chances are you’re gonna fall. So you should be able to see where you’re going and what you’re doing. And the works of the flesh has a funny way of tripping you up.

You all have an old sinful nature. You realize how quickly it can happen, that you can be mad and angry and that quick. I usually don’t have that problem, unless I’m behind the wheel. Well, it’s not because of the way that I drive, it’s all those other lunatics on the road. Look at verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lustor of. Don’t make opportunities for yourself to get in trouble and that’s what I do.

And I’m just so thankful so far I haven’t you know I haven’t had a wreck or something like that. But every once in a while you know I’ll have a cop pull me over. But I haven’t got to take it in a long year. Years. Years. You watch I’ll get one tomorrow. Something will happen I’ll get one tomorrow. But I hope not anyway. Take your Bible I’ll look into book of 1 Corinthians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, and look in verse 5, where he says, therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who both will will bring to light the hidden things of darkness.

In other words, I believe these hidden things of darkness could be some things that you and I think about or do, but not with evil intent or malice in your heart, but you’re not aware of the quality of the thought or the quality of the work. A lot of time we say and we do things and we don’t know how well defined that was or how pure that was. And we get mixed emotions at times, but the Lord is going to sort all of that stuff out.

And there’s times where just like back there in Second Chapter, but they thought they were the epitome of the art of leading the blind. And it says you don’t obey what you tell them to do. And they’re blind, you can see, or supposed to be able to see. And so there’s things that we know that we’re supposed to do, but we don’t always do like we’re supposed to do. I’m glad that God is the one who keeps the books.

And when we get to heaven, God’s gonna reward us. I’ve often thought this. And others have said the same thing. Some of these things that we do that man, boy, I’m really gonna get a big reward for this. And when we get to heaven, and God says, oh, that goes in the ash heap. And there’s probably some things that we have done that we felt like total failures. We did it, but we were just total failure. Or sometime we preach a son school lesson or a church service or a, you know, a radio broadcast and you say, you do something and think, man, that was pitiful.

Boy, I did a terrible job. That when you get to heaven, God might say, that was spot on. Some of the things that we’re not that good in judging. That’s why he says, just nothing. See that word, in verse four, I know nothing by myself. Verse five, therefore judge nothing. We’re not good judges of our own lives. Just seek the Lord and seek the place of them, and then God will take care of that. You see, what we do sometime is we can’t do it accurately for our own selves.

Do you think you’re accurate and judging other people? Can it be possible that you can judge somebody else wrong? Well, I thought that’s what you said. I thought that’s what you meant. Well, I know, but then maybe they did. And we are not always the best judges of these things. Also take your Bible looking. Second Corinthians in chapter four. Second Corinthians chapter four. And look in verse five. Look in verse five. For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord.

And ourselves, your servants for Jesus say. Now the Lord is not all about ourselves. It’s preaching about us, me, how great I am. is trying to magnify the Lord. As Paul put it, he says that, the Lord Jesus Christ might be magnified in my body. Whether by life or by death, the Lord is magnified. We’re just to be like a magnifying glass and we magnify in that which we focus upon. And we focus upon the Lord. And I believe that it’s a good thing.

Look in verse six, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, have shine in our heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Shine out of darkness. You see Christ came into this world and then he left this world. And you and I that are in the world, but trust me Christ is our Savior, we’re lights in the world. It’s like at night when you go out there and you see all those lights, the stars and the heavens.

And the blacker it is, the easier it is to see the light. And you and I ought to be able to really shine what the world is getting as dark as it is getting. We ought to shine even brighter because it means greater opportunities for us. We ought to be different than what the world is. And I think there is things that are going to be coming in persecution upon those that no Christ is Savior, that it is going to really tell the tale.

A lot of suffering that could come very, very easy. in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5. Just turn to your right Ephesians in chapter 5. And look at verse 8. Chapter 5 and verse 8. He makes this statement here, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Now, Looked there in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2. He’s talking to these Gentiles, and this is what he tells them. In verse 2 he says, we’re in in time patch, ye walked.

You walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation or manner of life, behavior in time pass in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now that’s the way we were. So when he says here that we were sometimes darknessed.

this is the way we were. So when he talks about walking in darkness, he means walking like you did before you knew the light, before you knew the truth. So now we know the truth and we should walk accordingly. And so he says here in verse eight, walk as children of light, not walking in the flesh, but walking in the light. And in verse nine, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. So if you walk in the Spirit, according to the truth, it means all goodness.

Remember when Jesus went around, the Bible says in the book of Acts, that everywhere he went, Jesus went about doing good. Whatever it is, you don’t go around doing evil. Christian should live good. We should do right by people. You should be as honest as you can be and watching the the things you say, we shouldn’t go around cursing people and badmouthing God. We’re supposed to be a little different. Well, maybe it’s a lot of difference. And then he makes a statement here in verse 10, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

So that’s what you look for. What does God accept? It doesn’t matter what is acceptable in the eyes of the world or the lines of government, just because they take opinion polls and the majority says, well, that doesn’t mean that it’s approved by God. You always go, well, what does God approve? And now they’re trying to get, say, homosexual is an acceptable lifestyle because it’s been voted on improved. So gay marriage and all that. Does the vote of man change the vote of God.

No, it says, what is acceptable unto the Lord. I’m sorry, it’s still wrong. Abortion, I believe it’s still wrong. I believe it’s murder. And in verse 11, he says, and have no fellowship with the unproofable works of darkness, but rather reprove them. That word reprove means the blame to charge them. And it’s sent sometimes to refute or to disprove the works of the flesh, not to let it go, truth. And that’s what we need is more people who know the truth to stand up and say, well, this is what it is, and stand there and so on.

Look there in Ephesians chapter six and verse 12. Just turn right over there, another chapter. And verse 12 says, “…for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. You and I have an Old Central nature. That is the connection to the evil spirits in the spirit world. You see, they come into because of our flesh. We have an Old Central nature and they can lure us through the lust of the flesh and certain things that they put on for advertisement or put in books and TV and the movies and all those things to capture you and drag you even Christians into the world of darkness to drag you into the lust of the flesh and so that that you will not be different like God wants you to be,

you’ll be walking according to the flesh and not to the spirit that God intended. Let me give you one more before we equate here. Look there in the book of 1 John chapter 1, 1 John and chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1, I don’t believe, can truly be understood without understanding the two natures. when you trusted Christ to save you were born in the God’s family, you are a child of God. So as a child of God, you are now the children of light.

Therefore, as a child of God, God wants you to walk in the light. Can you walk in the darkness? Yes, you can, but it’s not the will of God. So sometimes we think, well, we’re doing all right and I’m having fellowship with God, but in your life you have all the works of the flesh somebody probably would question that you’re right with God. So he makes a statement here in verse 6 in verse chapter 1 verse 6 I want to see this verse.

If we say that we have fellowship with him in walk in darkness In other words, you say you have fellowship with a little, but you’re walking in the flesh. You’re producing the works of the flesh. Then he says, you do what? You lie and you’re not telling the truth. And therefore he says, if you say you have not sinned and you have sinned, he said, then you’re lying. So he says in verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of his son keeps us clean continually. And so, as an example, he says, you have to be a little bit more than you are. child of God, God wants us to walk in the light. But sometimes people say, well, I’m, everything’s right between me and God. But then you look at their life and nothing is right between them and God because you see all you see is the works of the flesh. It can tell whether or not a person is walking in the flesh.

Now a lost man can walk in the flesh and bring forth the same thing so it doesn’t prove that a man is saved or lost. It just shows that he has a sinful nature and they just walk in the flesh, why it proves. So chapter 2, it’s a little bit of the same thing. Let’s see there in verse 9, he that saith, he is in the light, hated his brother, is in darkness even until now, it means that you are walking after the flesh.

You’re saying one thing, but you hate your brother, you’re walking in darkness. Now look at it said in verse 10, he that love of his brother abided in light, and and there’s no occasion of stumbling in Him. So when you hate, it means you’re walking in the darkness, you’re walking according to the flesh, and there’s gonna be occasion of you, you’re stumbling, you’re going to fall. But if you walk in the light, then there’s no occasion of stumbling in Him.

So very quickly, first John chapter three, and look at verse 15, who so hated his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer had the eternal life abiding in him. So how do you explain that? Well, very simple. Look up here. This is my first birth, the lust of the flesh, my second birth, born of God, Holy Spirit lives in me. This one can’t sin. This one can’t do right. This one brings forth the works of the flesh, the works of darkness.

If I say as a Christian, I’m walking with the Lord, but I’m bringing forth the works of the flesh. He says, you’re lying. You’re deceiving yourself. And it helps us to know how we can discern things that are in our life. So he says here in verse 15, who’s whoever hated his brother? Now, which one would hate? This is hate over here. This is the one that hates. This one doesn’t hate. This one hates. Peter is a work of the flesh and you know that he doesn’t have eternal life abiding him.

Eternal life abides in this one, not this one. So understand as a cell of God it is the will of God that we walk in the Lord. Let’s pray, shall we? Father, we thank you so much for this time together, for this study of you. We are blessed in Christ’s name and prayer. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa of Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message.

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The address for Calvary Community Church is 40-8-11 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. 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, and just keep looking up.