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

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. I’ll just talk to you about something that’s really on my mind to do right. So in the book of Luke in chapter 19, look there in verse 9, in verse 9, where it says, and Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. Salvation, and then in verse 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

We talk about the gospel, we talk about grace. I was listening to a couple of people this week on the radio and they were talking about how that we need to have a great personal relationship with God. And then I went on to this independent fundamental Bible-immissionary reminded Baptist website of a huge church, and he’s a very good, straight fundamental, and the question he has is, would you like to have a relationship with God? And I thought, well, what if I don’t?

No big deal. I’ve already lived say 50 years of my life and I’ve never had it, so why should I want it now? Well, wouldn’t you like to be closer to God? Well, maybe not. I mean, he’s got his life to live. I got mind, let’s just go out separate ways and we’ll just meet at the end, you know, whatever. But there’s no urgency there. There’s no seriousness there. And so I think there’s something that people need to keep in mind when we talk about, are you saved?

Am I saved so that I can have all this wonderful, whatever it is, walk with God? And that’s nothing wrong with that. And so to be close to God. But I think there’s something that’s more important then concentrate upon that. Now let’s just pretend for a moment. I got a guy standing right here. This man is as lost as the hound dog on the end of a soup bone. He has no clue where he’s going to go when he dies.

He doesn’t know God doesn’t know on the internal life and he doesn’t really care. There’s a man standing right there. Now if the Bible is true and when this man dies, when he dies, where does he go? Hell. But now which one sounds more, well, sweeter, softer, non-offensive? Would you like to escape hell or would you like to have a closer walk with God? Now, one sounds so much easier to say because it takes way that sting, that condemnation, that destiny of where I’m going to go if I don’t trust the Lord.

So instead of saying all that native bad stuff, we’ll just talk about the good stuff. Wouldn’t you like to go to heaven when you die? I use that all the time. Would you like to have eternal life? Has anyone ever taken the Bible and showed you how to be saved? So we talk about being saved. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16. And look there in verse 30. And this is on page 1172.

Acts chapter 16, verse 30 says, and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, do you think he’s talking here about really just how to go to heaven? Or has he heard something that he wants to be saved from? Usually we talk about you need to be saved, I’m going to be saved from, not just saved too. Now I often say that whenever we trust Christ to save you, we’re saved from hell to an inheritance is incorruptible and the fate of another way reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith and desalvation.

So we’re saved from something, yes to something, but I want to be saved from something more than I want to be saved to something. There is a hell. I want to be saved from hell. I don’t want to go to this place. So in verse 31 what did he tell them? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall have a greater fellowship with God. You shall have a relationship with the Lord. Now all that can be true.

You can have that but that’s not the reason that will challenge and motivate you. You’re not going to take and go into all the world and pay the price of dedication for year after year after year. Just so you can tell somebody would you like to have a relationship with God? Or would you do it because you know that if you don’t reach them, they’re going to a literal fire burning hell. But that’s a fence people. So let’s take away anything that would offend people, and let’s just make everything nice and smooth and easy for people.

So we can talk about the other, but what about the consequences? We never tell them about the consequences of not having a relationship with the Lord. But is there a consequence of not being saved? Think about it. Let’s say, for example, here’s my mother, and I battled this in my mind. Mom, Mom died when she was 79 years old. That’s just three years away from where I am. She was 79 years old when she passed away. My momma right now is having all the fellowship in the world and Jesus close to God as she’ll ever get to be.

But it was only because she had a son that didn’t want her to go to hell. That’s what motivated me. I didn’t want my mom to go to hell. And the only way to keep them going to hell is to get them to trust Jesus Christ their Savior. So there was a motivation there. And it kind of motivated me to want to go to Bible college so I could tell people better on how to be saved. I won’t learn how to give the gospel.

Why? Because I didn’t want people to go to hell. I remember listening to Ray Stanford and often say, I just didn’t want people to go to hell. I just didn’t want people to go to hell. Because that’s a stronger motivation to do the things we’re supposed to be doing. Because if we just want people to have a good relationship God or just solve your problems in your life and go through all of this stuff. But where’s the urgency in that?

If they don’t do it, so what? But if you don’t get saved from hell, you realize where your mother is going to spend eternity or your children are going to spend your grandchildren are going to spend eternity in a literal fire burning hell. Now we’d like to not talk about that because let’s just talk about the love of Jesus. Well the love of Jesus is revealed old and saving us from hell. And that’s why I believe it so important.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Titus chapter 3 verse 5, we look at these verses an awful lot, but I want you to look what he says in verse 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us. Now I can be saved and never have a close walk with God. True? So which is the most important?

You can’t have a relationship with God unless you are saved. But you can be saved and not have that. So which is the most important to have? Save from hell? I think so. But you see, if we don’t keep that in our mind, it’s so easy for us to cool down. It’s the teaching of hell that keeps God’s children fired up. Otherwise you ever heard people call a bit burnout? Well, I’m 76 and I’m not even close to burnout because I don’t have a reason to burn out.

But anyway, that you might be saved. You’re saved. That’s more important. The rest of the script, a lot of the script talks about us getting close to the Lord, draw nigh in the God and He’ll draw nigh in to you. A lot of the script you might know in the Lord and walk in with the Lord and all those wonderful things, but you see, you can’t do any of that until you get saved. You must have that and have that first because that’s the most important thing.

Now take your Bible and turn to the Gospel of John chapter 3. The Gospel of John And chapter 3 in verse 14. I want you to see this because I believe it’s so important. Here in the book of John in chapter 3, look there in verse 14. Verse 14 says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, must. You’re unlike. You must be born again. It must be the Son of God who dies on that cross and pays for ourselves.

and he says, the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believe it in him should not perish. Now that word perish, it doesn’t mean that you just go to sleep and you are no more. That word perish explained by Jesus himself of what he’s talking about. Apollumite, he’s talking about not just you’re going to, you know, a ruined life, but you You can have a ruined life. But this is talking about an eternal separation from God in a literal place called hell.

Now when it says should not perish, I want you to hold your place right here because we’re going to come back to it. But look there in the book of Matthew in chapter 5, the book of Matthew in chapter 5. You see, the Gospel of John and those things that happened there also happened at the same time as the book of Matthew and the book of Mark and the book of Luke. Because Jesus, when he lived his life, yes, there’s the book of Matthew that picked out things that Jesus said and there’s also the book of Mark and the book of Luke and the book of John.

And so John 3 16 was right along there when he was teaching in the book of Matthew. all happened at the same time, the first three and a half years. The very first wedding that he did was right there in John chapter two at the beginning of his ministry. Talked about John the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God that taken away the sin of the world, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. So these are not things that were written way, way, way later, and it’s a different message altogether.

No, it’s not that. So I want you to look there in chapter five. And notice what Jesus said. He says here in verse 22, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Now the danger of the judgment is not a judgment that takes place in this life. It takes place in the next life. He also mentions it right in the verse before that where he makes a statement here in verse 21, you have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

He’s referring to things that were mentioned in the old time, the Old Testament, and they knew about a place called hell. Jesus is the one who is talking here about hell. You know that sweet little baby, Jesus, that was born into this world, that he’s the one that’s talking all about stuff about the place called hell. If I could live my whole life and never mentioned hell, I wouldn’t mind that. But what does people think they need to be saved from?

Because most people today don’t talk about the subject because they don’t want to offend anybody. It’s okay to say, do you know the Lord? And I use that to open up a conversation, but I want to know. The consequences of your rejecting Christ, you’re going to hell. Every person in this room, you might might as well know it and understand it. Clear as a bell. Nobody can force you to trust Christ as Savior. But if you don’t, you need to know the consequences.

You can rebel, you can deny, you can say no, but if you don’t trust Christ as Savior, you will burn in hell. Do you understand that? It might be unclear because that’s the truth. And so if it is true, doesn’t a person see the urgency of reaching people with the gospel and why you need to talk to your family. You know what amazes me week after week after week is how many don’t come to church. There’s no urgency, there’s no real need.

We ought to be packed to the walls with people bringing lost people because I need them to hear the gospel and I know that Pastor Arnold will make the gospel clear and simple. If you really have a burden for souls, we sing that song, burden for souls, but do we really have a burden for souls. Well we’re so busy living our life and becoming tangled with the affairs of this life that we cannot please Him who has called us to be a soldier.

So notice what he says in verse 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a call shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother, Rocker shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say thou full shall be in danger of what? Who said that? Jesus did. God. God said this. There are consequences. He said this was taught in the Old Testament, so it’s not a new doctrine.

It’s always been here and it’s in the word of God. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew in chapter 18. Matthew in chapter 18. He’s talking here about the subject of little children because some of the disciples they come to Jesus and they said, who’s going to be the greatest? You know we want to be the greatest and there’s always people who want the position of honor. So look what he says in verse 1, Matthew chapter 18 And at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus in.

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now that’s that period of time that Christ is gonna come in rule upon the earth, the thousand year reign. So he called unto him a little child, a little child. And he said, I mean, the mist of them, and he said some things. You’ve got to become like a little child to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It means that you have to have that little childlike faith you trust Christ as your Savior, you get to go into the kingdom.

But if you want to be great in the kingdom, it’s not just a matter of being saved, it’s a matter of you as a child of God serving the Lord and God will open up other avenues or opportunities for you. So he says here in verse 6, but who so shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in me. God says it’s a serious thing to offend little children. We are abusing our kids today. The public schools and parents are abusing this.

They’re supposed to teach them about the Lord. God gave us His Word and says, this is what you teach the children. It’s not just educating them so they can learn how to make a living, but they know how to live. And so He gave us His Word. And so we are offending them by holding truth that they need. Now kids can go to school, but you can’t read the Bible in school and you can’t pray in school. We are offending these little kids.

And it’s a shame and a disgrace upon the adults who let it happen. Because it doesn’t matter if we just want to have a peaceful life. Where are they going when they die? I believe that little children, when they reach an age of accountability, If they don’t trust Christ as their Savior, they’re gonna burn in hell, just like the adults will. And if you don’t see the seerstance of it, or the truth of it, you’re just playing religion. Christianity doesn’t mean anything to you.

You’re becoming a hypocrite. If this isn’t real, what I’m talking about right now, this is a game, and I don’t like playing the game. I want people to understand the seerstance of it and why we need to reach people. But look what else he says here. He says, whoa, in verse seven, unto the world because of offenses, but it must need be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense is coming. When you as an adult stand in the way by a bad example of not being the kind of a Christian you ought to be and you offend other people who look to you and walk in a way that they see how you’re living and they copy your life and they don’t have a seriousness about it.

And God doesn’t mean that much to him, and you play little games, there’s a price to pay. But look what he says in the last part of verse eight. He says, rather than having two hands or two feet to be, get this, Jesus said, cast alive into the lake of fire or the everlasting fire. In verse nine, and if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell, fire.

Take heed that he despised not one of these little ones. And one of the ways that we can despise these little ones is not telling them the truth about where you’re gonna go into dying. Otherwise, there’s no reason for playing missionary games in this. Why even go to church? Why even claim we believe the Bible? Because we need to be saved. People need to be saved from hell. That’s why we do it. If you never have a closer walk with God, I don’t care.

But you ought to and you can, but I don’t want you to go to hell. And if you will walk with the Lord closer and accept that vision, that high colon, then you can be used by God to reach somebody else. I was thinking the other day because now at this stage of my life I get comments from people from all over America, of people that I led to the Lord years again years ago. And they’re so thankful that I told them, I’m not sure.

how to go to heaven. I thought, well, what if I never had? Just what if I never did? I’ll have to answer to the Lord for the ones that I could have reached and I didn’t reach. For not being totally dedicated as I ought to be. I was thinking about camp. I have had over 50 camps that I’ve directed, probably more close to the 70, but I know I’ve done over 50 in 12 different states. And these kids, you break everything you can do and sometimes your health, you get tired, you get weak, you drive bus, you’re set for hours, and you do whatever it takes to get kids to go to camp.

And I’ve watched my wife feed 200 kids and her and a couple others just working in that hot kitchen three meals a day just so I can have the kids go to camp and they would do what they do. And even when we still do it now, we still going and she’s 75 years old, still running in a kitchen, doing all the work that she can possibly do. And hopefully she’ll get well enough that she won’t have to do too much this time.

But we don’t stop. Why? Because we believe there’s a hell. We believe people are going to hell. And there has to be labors. And the only way you’re going to get labors is you’ve got to have kids go to camp and hear the Word of God. And let it burn into their souls and told that there’s an amber of fire that burns inside of their soul. So they want to make a difference. And then you get kids to dedicate their life to the Lord and then you get them home and then next two weeks they don’t fizzle out.

And you wonder whether it’s at all worth it. And some of them might take 20 years, 30 years, and sometimes they’ll go back around and they’ll, you know, I need to do something with my life. I’ve really wasted my life. And I’ve had people write me little letters and they say, Yankee, I’m so sorry that I never listened to you. That I didn’t dedicate my life and keep it that way. But I remember in camp and I remember what you said.

And those things come back and haunt some time the years later. But then you have kids and you think of college kids, how few that you can have. They can have a burden where they say, you know, I wanna do this for the rest of my life. We’re always hurting from labor. The labors are few. You know what the Bible says? You know who said that? Jesus said that. The labors are few. Why are they few? How can you have a church and have people that don’t wanna do something for God?

I’m being able to figure it out. I just know that the pastor that was here before me about 10 years ago, he’s passed away. And I’m not looking too good. I’m getting older and I know that one of these days I’m gonna croak. I had to say that a way. You didn’t know that time’s coming. One of these days I’m gonna probably lose it all. Won’t remember anything. Then we’ll be new friends every time we meet. But that last part of that verse nine, it talks about this healing.

And it’s right there in the Bible. Take your Bible and turn to Matthew 23, the book of Matthew in chapter 23. And this is Jesus speaking. He spoke more on hell than he spoke on heaven. That’s why he came into the world and died on the cross to pay for our sins so that we don’t have to pay for our sins in hell. But when a person rejects what Christ did for them, they’re lost. The Son of Man has come to seek and to say that which was lost.

So whenever he says, I send you, as the Father hath sent me, even so sin die you, we’re going into the world to seek the lost. You know, in just this last week or so, I’ve gotten comments from people in England, talked to that one on the phone, Canada and South Korea in a few other places. Countries where people are hearing the gospel and are trusting Christ their Savior through our message. We’re able to reach people around the world and it just blows my mind.

I think it’s wonderful. But here in the book of Matthew in chapter 23, look what he says here in verse 16, woe unto you ye blind guides which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, it is a a dip. You fold and blind for weather it’s greater. The gold or the temple that sanctified the gold, you notice what he calls these people, these religious leaders of his day.

You blind guides, you fools, you blind. And he goes down to and says down in verse 19, he fools and blind says us over and over again. But now the part I want you to see is last part of verse 14. Woe unto you scribed and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows, houses, and for a pretense, make long prayers, therefore ye shall receive the greater damn nation.” There’s going to be judgment. Now look there, if you’ve got no skill field, the next page.

And notice what he says there in verse 33. He serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damn nation of hell? Who said that? Jesus did. He says, there is the damn nation of hell. Somebody’s going to hell. And there’s people and He tells them here, you’re not going, and the ones that you talk to aren’t going. He says, you make them two full of children of hell. And their proselyte going to all the world. It wasn’t a race.

It wasn’t competition. He says, we didn’t want people to go to hell and we knew we had a message that could do it. And so we won a lot of people to Christ and we got them to go to camp and we would have 1500 kids in camp down at Florida Bible College. They had a huge building, right on the beach, perfect center. Ranch directors from all over the country were coming and bringing kids. And so many of these kids dedicated their lives to the Lord and to see what God has been able to do and they’ve been spread out all across this country, but now years and years later, years that are passed.

Somebody have lost their vision, the importance. Now the alumni of us want to get together so they can have a party, a barbecue, a walk, go fishing together. What do they think we are? Are we just members of the nursing home? I know we need to be careful with our kids. They might determine what nursing home we go to. But if we’re not there yet, then we ought to still do what we can do. With all the compassion that we’ve ever had.

So here in the book of Matthew, he says this in verse 33, how can you escape? That’s what we need to be focusing upon. Otherwise, it’s so easy to lose our burden when we lose our vision. when we no longer see it as a serious thing, there’s no dynamics in just going to church and you’re reading your Bible, trying to pay your debt and your whole life is about you and you being happy, you would have everything that you want and join our prosperity in America.

But there’s something else more important than all of that. You know, whenever we started the Florida Bible College here, I actually believed that when I first came here, I asked the congregation, how many of y’all would be interested in going to Bible college if we started one? And you ought to see the hands that went up. Hallelujah, those people came to Bible college once we started it. Because you know, you’re so busy now. You’re buried into whatever you’re doing.

You got indebtedness now. You don’t have time now, you’re too old now. I don’t get what the reason is, There’s always a reason. Where are the labors going to come from? If not from us. Where do we get these students from? Lot of teenagers coming out of school and the college age kids, they don’t have the seriousness to buckle down and mean serious business with the Lord. So this is what means more than anything else in the world. Can you pay the price?

Can you cut it? Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy.

There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bible Eye. 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. Believe it that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.