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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.

Every once in a while I say a lot of things that I’ve already said. The Bible talks about stirring up their remembrance. You can’t stir up somebody’s remembrance if it isn’t already there to stir up. So it’s not always that you need to learn new things that’s sometimes be reminded of old things, things you’ve already known about. I want to talk to those who have already trusted Christ to save you today. In other words, you have eternal life. You know your God’s check.

You know you’re going to heaven when you die. And I think that’s the greatest thing in all the world to know. See, I I know right now, I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die. If it’s 10 years from now or 100 years from now, I’m going to heaven. And it’s not because of any good thing that I’ve done. It’s because of some good thing Christ did for me. He paid for my sins and said, if I would believe it, he’d give me eternal life.

And if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. And if it lasts forever and I trust him as my savior and all my sins are paid, then I know that I’m going to heaven when I die because, well, I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for all my sins. And right off the bat, most people say, well, you don’t deserve that. That’s what grace means. Grace means you don’t deserve it. I do not deserve to go to heaven.

I have not done any good thing to deserve going to heaven. But I’m going to heaven because Christ died for my sins. And I believe it. And he said, he didn’t believe it for me, hath, president and hath everlasting life. We see a lot of people can trust Christ as their Savior, have eternal life and don’t go to heaven because of what Christ did for them. God did not ask us to pay him back. He didn’t ask us that we gotta do good works to make sure we really make it.

No, you don’t have to do anything, but we should do it because we want to. You see, I decided years ago, since I don’t have to serve a Lord, I wanna serve a Lord, because I don’t have to. I do it because I want to. Well, there’s a lot of times people do not understand the characteristics of a carnal, Corinthian Christian. So in the book of Corinthians, it tells us an awful lot about a Christian who is carnally minded.

It means that they’ve trusted Christ as Savior, they’re going to heaven, but they’re not serving the Lord, according to what God wants. And so they are lifted up with pride, and we wanna look at that this morning. So I want you to take your Bible in turn with me 2 Corinthians in chapter 10, 2 Corinthians and chapter 10. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, and look in verse 12. Many times Christians compare themselves among themselves. In other words, I must be doing a pretty good job.

I’m just as good as so and so, and I’m doing just as much as what’s his name. I’m not that bad because he’s doing a lot worse than I am. And so the Bible says here in verse 12, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are what? Are not wise. Some Christians think, well, I’m doing as much as everybody else.

It has nothing to do with what everybody else is doing. You’re supposed to live the way God wants you to live, not to compare yourself with what somebody else is or is not doing. You see, once you trusted Christ to save, yes, your God’s child, you’re going to heaven whenever you die, but you’re not dead yet. You still may live another 20, 30, 40, 50 years. Since I trusted Christ as my savior in 1960, I have lived 58 years since then.

A little bit more. So I’ve lived here 58 years after I crossed the Lord. So I knew I was going to go to heaven for 58 years. And if I live another 58 years, I’m still going to heaven. That cannot be changed. God’s not going to alter that. God cannot take away my free gift of everlasting life. He cannot unpaid for my sins. He paid for my sins. All of them. He can’t unpaid. And I’m so glad of that.

But now what I want you to see also is looking chapter 11. In chapter 11, the apostle Paul talks about several things that he was afraid of, afraid of for those that had trusted Christ as Savior. Because see, unless you get the Bible and get grounded in the Bible where you really know what you believe and why you believe it and become a strong Christian, then you’re going to be a weak Christian. And if you’re a weak Christian, you’re going to listen to things you shouldn’t listen to.

You’re going to bear with things you shouldn’t bear.” So he makes a statement here in verse one, would to God, you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy. For I have exposged you to one husband that I may present you as a chase virgin to Christ, but I fear, but I fear. List by any means as the servant begowed Eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Now he’s talking to believers. He’s talking to Christians about having their minds corrupted from the simplicity that’s in Christ. In other words, you begin to listen to vain philosophy. You begin to use your own reasoning, your power of thought, the way you look at the world, the way you see things. And God says it is destructive. And that’s why the Bible talks about, you know, either you can edify or destroy. And so He makes a statement here from the simplicity that’s in Christ.

Then He says in verse 4, for if He that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached it, you’ll bear with Him. If you receive another Spirit which we have not received, you’ll bear with that. You’ll listen to that too. Or somebody comes the long and preach another gospel. Well, you’ll listen to that too. And so he says, you might want to listen to him and they’re going to influence you. So God wants us to be strong Christian so that we’re not tossed to and for by every wind of doctrine that comes along.

Now look in chapter 12. In chapter 12, he makes his statement and if you’ll look there in verse 15, he says, but I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more abundantly, I love you the less I am loved. Here’s the apostle Paul. He had trusted Christ as a Savior. He was going to the various places and winning people of Christ. And then they had some legalistic Judaizers who come along behind him and tell the people, Paul’s not an apostle.

You don’t need to listen to him. He probably didn’t tell you that you had to be circumcised to be saved. He probably left that eye. He probably didn’t tell you he had to to keep the law to be saved. It’s like people are there, yeah. You mean that yank? He tells you, all God do is just trust Christ to save. He can go to heaven. He probably didn’t tell you you had to go to church. He probably didn’t tell you that you had to repent of your sins and make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life.

He didn’t tell you that. See, he doesn’t know everything. He don’t know what he’s talking about. You’d be surprised at some of the emails that I get. Well, I want you to notice that in chapter 11, he makes this statement. In verse 11, chapter 11, verse 11, look what he says. Wherefore because I love you not God knoweth. Why did he say these things that would hurt these people because he loved them? Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

That’s found in the book of Galatians in chapter four. Do I become an enemy because I tell you the truth? Sometimes if you ever told your children the truth and it hurts them for a while, and they think you don’t love them because you didn’t let me do what I wanted, go where I wanted, be what I wanted. and you had to tell them no, or maybe you never told your child no before. And see, they look at it from one point of view.

God knows the truth. And sometimes when people are not strong in the Lord, they take everything just the opposite way. And instead of understanding, my mom and dad really loves me. They hate me. They want me to do what I want. Any parent that loves their children wouldn’t want them to do whatever they wanted to do. You have to teach them right and wrong. Now, chapter 12, I also want you to look there in verse 20. In verse 20.

Paul says it again, for I fear. I fear less. When I come, I shall not find you such as I would like. In other words, because he led him to the Lord. And now they were believing something. They’re becoming carnally minded. They were not spiritually minded. And so they were turning against Paul and they were not getting along with each other. And this church in Corinth had 14 major problems. A lot of problems. Most carnally minded church you’ll ever read about.

No Bible. And then he says here, for I fear less when I come, I shall not find you as such that I would like. He said, and that I shall be found unto you, such as you would not. In other words, when I come and see you, he says, I’m gonna have to be a little stern. I may have to rebuke you. In person, he says, and you’re not gonna like it. And I won’t be the way you think I should be.

And I’m gonna come and see you, and you’re not gonna be the way I think you ought to be. Paul had led him to the Lord. Paul loved them and Paul was concerned about them. But see, not all of God’s children make the right decision. Not all of God’s children decide to serve the Lord. Some of God’s children decide to be carnally minded. It means living in the flesh. It means living for the things of the world. Forgetting all about what God wants.

Take the Bible, put it aside, pay no attention to it and do whatever you wanna do. And then everything becomes right in your own eyes. So he says here in the last part of verse 20. He says, lest there be debates, envying, rafts, drive back, biting, whispering, swelling, tumult, all these are things that are the works of the flesh. So he’s talking to his people that he had led to cry. He says, you’re walking in the flesh. It means you’re walking like a lost man.

You’re not letting the teachings of the word of God control your life. So he says in verse one, unless when I come, again, my God will humble me among you and that I shall be well many which have sinned already.” I’ve had people say, well, when you trust Christ to save you, you’re not gonna wanna go out here and do these bad things. They ought to read the book of Corinthians. They did everything in the book. If you know Christ as your savior and you know you have it and you’re going to heaven when you die, you’re still capable of committing every sin in a book.

You can do it all. Is it the will of God? No, it’s not. Can God’s children be obedient? Yes, can they be disobedient? Yes. because you say you can still decide to serve a Lord or not to serve a Lord. My eternal destination has nothing to do with the way I live. I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. What I have when I get to heaven in the blessings of life depend on what I do because of what He’s done for me.

So I’m going to heaven because He loves me. I’m gonna have rewards in heaven because I love Him. And look what He says here. have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. Believers committing these sins.” He said, and you haven’t changed your mind. You haven’t corrected the problem. So he says in chapter 13, he says, now this is the third time I’m coming to you. He says, and when I come, he says, I may have to lower the boom.

It’s not what Paul wants. But you see, some of God’s children, they didn’t don’t wake up until you hit him over to here with a two before. That’s just to get their attention. Some crisis sometimes has to take place in your life. So he says here in verse two, I told you before and foretell you as if I were present. The second time and be an absent, now I write to them which here the four have sinned and to all others that if I come again I will not spare.

I’m not going to hold back. I’m not going to show mercy. I’m going I’ll tell you what’s right, eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, face to face, I’m gonna let you have it because I love you. And he says, the more I love you, the less I’m loved because that’s the way it is with carnal Christians. You see, carnal Christians walk around with their chips on their shoulders and they just double-dolled dear somebody to hurt my feelings because they are easily offended.

It doesn’t matter what happens. See, being offended is a choice. It doesn’t matter what happens. You’re the one that decides whether to offend it or not. I can’t offend you without your permission. You’re the one that determines whether I offend you or not. And I’ve had some people there listen to a beautiful sermon that I’ll preach, but if I say one thing out of context or do something, well, I don’t like that. I’ll never come back to that church.

Well, God bless you. You hypocrite. Is that how you treat everybody else? If you ever gone to a grocery store and been treated rudely or unkind or whatever. But you go back and get groceries because you need groceries. You still go back and get gas. Well, they offended me. You’re gonna go back if you need gas. You need the spiritual teachings of the Word of God. And carnal Christians are fleshly minded and they always looking for a way to get out of responsibility and always to make sure they blame somebody for their lack of spirituality.

But pride takes effect. Done look what he says. In verse 3, since she seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you, because that’s how they see things. You see, they see just the opposite. The weak Christian, the carnal Christian, condemns those people who are doing what’s right, because they are an automatic rebuke to anyone who doesn’t do like they do and accept them the way they are. Well, you’re just not open-minded.

You’re just being critical. You’re a legalistic because you don’t live like me. You don’t think like me. You’re not worthy like me. Oh goody-goody-two shoes, huh? Born with a silver spoon in your mouth everything given you on a silver platter and You’d be surprised that the damage that is done all because of that tongue So he says but though he was crucified through weakness yet. He lived by the power of God So he says in verse 5 examine yourself examine yourself.

He says you’re examining me to see whether or not am I actually teaching the things that I should and living the way that I should and I didn’t take offerings from you and so forth like that. He says examine yourself whether you are living in the faith. He wasn’t questioning their salvation. He was questioning their spirituality because they were comparing themselves among others and you don’t need to do that. They were sitting in judgment on the Apostle Paul becoming critical and better toward everybody else it didn’t do or live the way they wanted to.

And so he says, examine yourself whether you are in the faith, are you living according to the faith that’s found in the Word of God? Are you living like a Christian should live? And they were not. And so they were becoming ashamed to the ministry. So in the book of Corinthians in chapter 6, He talks about do not be a blame to the ministry, ashamed to the cause of Christ. But many of God’s kids, you see, when they walk in the flesh, they don’t see it.

They don’t understand. They’re not spiritually minded and they are not aware. So He makes a statement here. And I want you to see this. Look there in the verse 10 where He says, therefore I write unto these things, though I’m absent, lest be in prison, I should use sharpness according to the power which the Lord had given me to these two things, edification, destruction. So in other words, whether or not do I wanna try to build you up strong in the Lord, or do I want God to take you home to destroy your life?

Now that’s found in the book of Corinthians in chapter five, praying for the destruction of an individual because of what he was doing in the church. And it wasn’t right. Now take your Bible and look at your notes. those were just introductory comments. And you’ll notice there at the natural man, the natural man is the lost man. Without the Holy Spirit cannot discern, I mean you cannot understand, judge spiritual things or truth. But the natural man, and this is the scripture, 214, but the natural man receive if not the things of the Spirit of God.

For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The things of God and spiritual things can only be discerned by the Holy Spirit that lives within you. Well, the law span doesn’t have the Holy Spirit, so he cannot say he does not understand. I have no problem with that lawspeople not getting the spiritual teachings of the Word of God because they cannot understand it, and they’re not going to. Now, the spiritual man, that’s the man who not only knows the Lord but studies the Word of God and is an obedient to the Word of God and is growing into the Lord, that man can discern.

In other words, he’s learning the difference between right and wrong based upon what God says. You see, otherwise you’re just limited to what man thinks and you can only be as smart as any man can ever be. But the wisdom of God is greater than any wisdom of man. So I don’t know how wise any man is, if you don’t know the wisdom of God, you don’t know. And you do not see. You do not understand any person who knows Christ is Savior knows you’re going to heaven when they die.

If you do not serval or with all your heart, you are blind. You don’t see you do not understand. Otherwise you would. The carnal Christian. The carnal Christian is a believer in Christ, but he’s still a babe, a lover of the world, or walking after the loss of the flesh. His discernment is a mixture of flesh and spirit, where he kind of tries to put the two together and makes up his own mind. He’s not settled. He’s double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways.

And so a man who walks in the flesh, a carnal-minded Christian, It’s not stable. In other words, you can’t always depend upon Him. They’re here and then they’re there. Yes and in it’s no. I Have tried to set a standard of what faithfulness is. I’ve tried my best for 58 years to teach people what faithfulness is. I Have tried to guard my life my testimony and when it comes to church. I’m always there comes the giving I always give, comes to pray and I always pray.

I don’t say or do those things so that people will be impressed with it but to try to as an pastor I’m supposed to be an example of the believer and I should be able to say follow my example follow me as I follow Christ but some people cannot discern who you’re following. They can’t discern the right from the wrong and they use their own mind to discernment whether they will do this or will not do that. So what does God say?

Well, it says that’s what I do. There’s no debate, no philosophizing just what does God say and then do what God says do. Moreover, is required in a steward that a man be found faithful, not popular, not rich, not famous, just faithful. Something that every child of God can do, just be found I’m faithful to do what you can with what you have, where you are. Now do you have to do that to go to heaven? No. Going to heaven is the free gift of God.

I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. But I’m not in heaven yet. Now how should I live? How then shall I live? Now look at the next statement here. Number one, they were not growing in grace as they should. But they become critical, bitter. And that is one of the words for the signs of the flesh, that a person is not walking with the Lord as they ought to. Let me just give you a suggestion.

Before you criticize the pastor, pray for me. Can you do that? Can you handle that? And when you pray for me, what do you pray for? Lord, take him home, take him home. Get him out of here. Lord, I go to church today, but please help that preacher not to be so hard. He hurts my feelings, he stomps my toes. They’re bloody from last week. Number two, they were living according to the flesh or the old nature. Now, just very quickly, because that’s what the Bible says they were doing.

Now, very quickly look in Galatians and chapter five. Galatians and chapter five. And look in verse 16, Galatians chapter five and verse 16. You’ll notice now this is what the Bible says because you have a choice. He says in verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Well, how do you walk in the spirit? Float through the air like I hate? No. Walking in the spirit means walking and obedient to the word of God.

See, the Bible is God’s love letter to us. And so when you trust in Christ to save you, the Holy Spirit of God lives within you. And the Holy Spirit of God can teach you the word of God because now you have the author of the book living inside of you to teach you what he says. And so walking in the spirit means walk according to what the spirit teaches you. So simple, but people are making some spiritual, you know, some fancy out there somewhere you don’t really know what he’s talking about.

He says, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Why? Because you still have the lust of the flesh. You see, when you trusted Christ as Savior, God didn’t take you with your sinful desires. I’ve had people say, well, when I got saved, not to go in my own my sinful desires. Liar, he did not. What did you give him back to you later? He didn’t take away your desire. Well, I used to have the desire to smoke and I trusted the Lord and God took away my desire for smoke, he did not.

He took away my desire for drink. No, he did not. He didn’t take away about any sensible natures or any of those, no, all you did, he gave you something better to live for. And you made a better choice. You found a better reason for living. And you can choose to go right back to smoking, go right back to drinking, and go right back to the women or the men, or you can do anything that you wanna do. But God took away your sinful desires.

Why don’t we just go ahead and do it for all of us? I’ve been struggling with sinful desires for the last 58 years. And if I live another 50 years, I’m still going to have to fight. There’s always the flesh and the lust. See what he says here, looking verse 17, for the flesh lusses against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one to the other, so they cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, you’re not under the law, the flesh is but not the Spirit.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Now get this, this is so important. Works of the flesh are manifest. Which of these adultery, fornication, and cleannessness? He says, la semisthas, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, various emulations, craft, strife, sedition, heresies, murders, and envion, drunkenness, and reveling, such like, all these things, these I’ve told you in time past that they would use such things and not inherit the kingdom of God. Isn’t that clear? Now look over here. When you were born in the world, you have a flesh birth.

You trust Christ to say, but He gave you a new birth. This is the flesh, this is the spirit. This one can’t do anything right. This one can’t do anything wrong. And you’ve got two births. So when I was born to the world, God gave me this one. I trusted Christ, God gave me this one. I got two of them. So God said, if you walk in the spirit, won’t fulfill a lust in the flesh. So it’s just because I walk in the spirit doesn’t mean this one don’t exist.

And just because I walk in the flesh doesn’t mean this one don’t exist. It’s that I’m letting this one control my life. And that’s why even Christians He could still have the works of the flesh. And that’s why he says, you got a choice to make in life. And if I walk in the flesh, this is what’s gonna happen. Now what were these Corinthian Christians doing? Walking in the flesh. And that’s why they were doing the sins that they were doing.

If you understand it, it can discern that then you’re moving on up. That’s what discernment, maturing in the Lord is grain and discernment. You’re honing in more about what God says unless about what man says. When you’re only in the flesh, you just know what man says and don’t know what God says. So do you want the will of God? Then you have to study the word of God and replace this thinking of the flesh with the thinking from the word of God.

Is God’s love to his children? This is what God wants us to do. Now look at number three. They were sitting in judgment of those that were more spiritual than they were. See there, look there in the Bible to the first Corinthians. in chapter four. First Corinthians in chapter four, and you’ll notice that they were doing some more of this comparing business in your Bible. First Corinthians chapter four and verse six where it says, and these things brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollo’s for your sakes that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

Puffed up means you’re gonna try to exalt yourself over somebody else and you don’t need to do that, not to be compared. And that’s the very next thing that I have done here. Number four, they were proud, proud and cause of pride. And the statement that I wrote here, I thought it was pretty good, so I put it in here for you. Pride puffeth up. 11, pompheth up dough and pride pumps up the flesh, leaving no room for grace, humility or spiritual discernment.

Pride is always right in your own eyes. And that’s why you know a person’s field with pride, is when what they want to say, do or go, is contrary to what the word of God says. So they lift themselves up. Their knowledge is greater than the word of God. And therefore in their own eyes, they’re right. But if this happens to disagree with what God says, then that means that they’re lifted up with pride. And pride is from the flesh.

It’s not from because of a humble spirit or whatever God’s word has to say. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon.

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

Just keep looking up.