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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.

We know how important it is to have our bodies examined examine once in a while to see whether or not are we dead or alive, or dying, or in the process of it, or quicks sometimes, all kinds of things going on. So I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans in chapter 12, the book of Romans, and chapter 12. We We know that salvation, going to heaven, is a gift. It’s totally free.

The only thing I have to do is believe that what Christ did on the cross, He did it for me, that He paid for all of my sins. When He pays for all of my sins, He gives me the free gift of everlasting life, gives me a new birth that separates me from my old man and my old sins. The old man has old sins. We have a new birth, born of God. And we’re His children forever. But God says now in this life, until we go home to be with the Lord, there’s things He wants us to do.

And so I want you to examine yourself because the Bible tells us that that is one thing we should do, to examine yourselves. To see how are you doing spiritually? It’s so easy to judge somebody else, but very difficult to judge ourselves because we don’t see things as bad as we should. Maybe we don’t see things that we’ve done that were right as well as we should. We know that eternity, God is the one who looks at everything through his eyes and determines whether or not the quality of our works, whether it was gold, silver, and precious stones or would, hey, and stubble.

But here in Romans in chapter 12, these two verses I want to share, first of all, is after you’re saved. See, there are some people who say you have to present your body to the Lord in service in order to be saved, which is a teaching of lordship salvation. You must make Christ the Lord and the Master of your life, so many people think they have to commit their life to Christ in order to be saved. And I promise that I will stop doing these bad things, and I’ll start doing these good things, and therefore God saves me upon that platform that is as mutual.

If I live a certain way, God promises to save me. God does not promise to save anybody according to the works. He says just the opposite, not of works, not of works. So here in Romans in chapter 12, this is a verse that tells us after we’re saying we are to present our body to the Lord as a living sacrifice. So we need to look at a few things to see whether or not have I really presented my body to the Lord as a living sacrifice.

In other words, he gets the use of my body while I’m here in this world. I am here is his representative. He wants to live his life through us. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, which means in view of what God has done for us. This verse I believe goes all the way back to chapter 8. Chapter 9, 10, and 11 is like a parenthetical expression. You can take and remove those because it talks about the past, the present in the future of the nation of Israel, and you can go from chapter 8 straight into chapter 12 and you’d be surprised how awesome it is because chapter 8 begins with there’s no condemnation and it ends with there is no separation.

And because there’s no separation, once you trust the Christ to save you are unified with the Lord. There is a union that can never be broken. Now because of that, in view of that, God says this is what I want you to do. And so He says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. God didn’t ask us to die for Him. He asked us to live for Him. and it’s easy to dedicate your life to the Lord that you do not have and difficult to dedicate the day that you do have.

All we have is this moment now. If I serve the Lord now and then when tomorrow comes and I dedicate that and I live that now for the Lord, then I’ll be able to say I have dedicated my life to the Lord. But not much is going to be accomplished on your promising to dedicate your life to the Lord as much as What will you do with a moment you have? It’s easy to give God something you don’t have What we do have is right now Does God have all of you right now?

Now he makes a statement Holy this is how he wants the body Keep your body holy keep it pure acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So whatever God asks us to do, it’s reasonable. He didn’t ask us to do anything impossible. He says you have the Holy Spirit living within you. You’ve got the Word of God. You’re to learn the truth and He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you’re able but will make your way of escape because God is faithful that you may be able to bear it.

So whatever happens in life and all the problem, all the things we talked about that last week, God will give you the strength and grace you need and He’ll walk you through it. But all you have to do is learn a few things that can help you and something to examine yourself. Would you say at this moment right now, your body belongs to God? Can you say that in your mind? My body belongs to God. Therefore, I must use this body for the Lord, to honor the Lord.

That’s my purpose in life. My body belongs to Him. Look at the next statement. I want you to look first of all there in your notes because the point number one is to present your body as a living sacrifice and it’s crucial to your spiritual growth. This is the reason some of God’s children never grow and mature in the Lord. You can learn things but never apply them. You can learn verses in the Bible and never apply them. You can hear a thousand sermons and never apply anything.

And just go in your merry way as a man who looks in the mirror and sees what he sees, but forgets what he looks like and just goes his way. Doesn’t come his hair, doesn’t brush his teeth, don’t shave, don’t do anything. But you’re supposed to look into the perfect law of liberty and see and examine yourself. Because you see, a spiritual, mature Christian should be able to examine himself to see whether or not. not. Not only are you sound in the faith, but are you sound mine and you believe the right things, go in the right direction, do the right things, is God able to get honor and glory and praise out of your life.

Now number two there in your notes, to present your minds to be renewed by the word of God is crucial to discerning God’s perfect will. God’s children need to understand God has a perfect will for you. It’s found in the Word of God. And the Word of God is the same for all of us. So when I know the will of God for me, then I know the will of God for you. Because see, there isn’t one Bible for yanking and one for Bob Brooks and one for you.

There’s one Bible and it is one Bible we find the will of God for all of God’s children. That’s why I know what God wants you to do with your life. I’m not making it up. It’s in the book. So if God wants me to be a soul winner, guess what? I know He wants you to be one too. He wants me to read and study the Word. I know He wants you to do it too. If He tells me He wants me to live a godly life, He wants you to do it too.

So it’s not that I’m trying to get you to live like me. I’m trying to get all of us to live like he wants, to live like him. Now in this verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, it is not the will of God for God’s children to be like the world. Would you say right now, are you any different than the world? Do you live any differently than what the world does? Do you have higher standards than the world?

What do you think about? Is that important or not important? You’re not going to make a difference in this world unless you’re different. And a man one time said things that are different are not the same. And for not supposed to be like the world we can’t be the same. We got to be different. And now notice this. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that means you have got to present your mind to God. And God is going to renew your mind.

How is he going to do that? Well, He sent us a text, and that’s the Word of God. And so as you re-insteady the Word of God, that’s the tool that He uses to renew your mind so that you’ll think the way God thinks. See man’s thoughts are not God’s thoughts. For his thoughts are higher than ours and his ways are better than ours. They’re not the same. So therefore, without knowing the Word of God, you cannot know the will of God.

So he says that renewing your mind that you may prove or discover what is that good and acceptable. And what’s the next word? Perfect will of God. You can only find the perfect will of God from the perfect word of God. It’s not what you want it to be. It’s not what other people say it is. It’s what does the perfect word of God have to say. And you’ll find that as a child of God, you can go to the word of God.

And if you read and study it, God will tell you what He wants you to do and what He doesn’t want you to do. You have to present your mind, Lord, my mind belongs to you. The only thing I have to govern the body is the mind. So actions are a byproduct of the way that we think. And if you want to raise a caliber of your life, you have to raise a caliber of your thoughts. Because all actions are born within the mind.

learn how to think the way God wants you to think. Look at number three, to present your will to the Lord you must learn to yield or surrender. If you don’t yield your will to the Lord you are going to have to fight against the Lord. And if you had to fight against God I got news for you. You’re gonna lose. You can’t win. Resist the devil, but don’t resist God. Now take your Bible and turn there to the book of Romans in chapter 6.

Romans in chapter 6 and beginning there in verse 11. The Bible tells us in the first part of chapter 6 that we have been crucified with Christ and buried with Christ and risen with Christ and therefore I am to consider myself a dead man. I died because I accepted Christ’s death as my death of my old man. Now because I have been saved, born again into God’s family, look what he says in verse 11, likewise, reckoning also yourselves to be what?

Dead. See, I didn’t make that up. Indeed unto what? Dead unto sin. In other words, like I’ve already died, come back from the dead. Now I’m opposed to live as though I do not have an old sin for nature. See my old sin for nature was wicked. It was terrible. It loves sin. Lost of the eyes, a lust of deflacement in the pride of life. I’m guilty. But I died and paid for all of my sins. See what Christ did, He did it for me, but He put it to my account.

It’s just like I did it, but I really didn’t do it. So now I’m supposed to believe that I should now live under God. Look what he says. But alive under God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let me ask you this. There’s the world and there’s God. Everything in this world is going to be lost. Are you dead to the world? You can’t be alive under the God until you’re dead to the world. And being dead to the world means that I’m not living for just the enjoyments of the world.

I’m looking beyond this life. I’m looking for where I’m going to be in eternity. And what God wants me to do is a total different perspective. Looking verse 12, let not sin that old sinful nature that we have, let not send therefore rain in your mortal body. These bodies we have are subject to death. That means it’s mortal. Imm mortal means it’s God and He only hath immortality and He will not die. So, for God to come into the world and he had to take on flesh and then he could die for the sins of the world.

But now, notice what he says. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither get this, ye or ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness, this body of ours. You know that body that says present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service? It is reasonable for those who God has saved to serve Him. We do not serve the Lord to be saved.

And if I choose not to serve the Lord, doesn’t annul my birth. I’m still saved, still have eternal life, still going to heaven, but I will be ashamed and disgrace to the cause of Christ. Because after all He’s done for me, I should allow the love of Christ which constrains with me. We should serve the Lord because of it. Because we thus judged that if one died for all, then all were dead and they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him who died for them and rose again.

So He says in verse 13, neither yield to your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourself under God. That is your will. Will you yield yourself to God? If you do not, you will find yourself resisting the will of God because you resist the word of God. You see, there’s an old man that lives inside of you and says, you don’t need to go to the sentence because you don’t need the church. You don’t need to study the Bible.

You don’t need to pray. You don’t need to be obedient to God. How are you doing? And you don’t need to give. But you’ll find out if you’ll yield to the Lord and not resist God, but yield and do what He wants you to do with your life. You’ll be surprised of all the blessings that God has for you. I believe God is a God of surprise. To me, a gift is a surprise. I didn’t expect to get it.

I never expected to go to heaven. I was hoping I’d go, but I didn’t really expect it because I didn’t know what it took to get there. But when he gave me the gospel, my father-in-law, and I trusted Christ as my Savior, I knew I had eternal life. That very moment knew I’d go to heaven whenever I died. Shocked, surprised. I didn’t know it was free because nobody had ever told me that before. I didn’t know it was a gift.

I thought it was something you had to deserve. And God says just the opposite. Look there in your Bible to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Corinthians in chapter 6. We won’t look at all of the verses that I have down for us today, but we will try to look at certain ones. I think might nail the point that I’m trying to make a little bit better. This body that you have, remember who it belongs to. So it’s my life.

It may not be your body. What would you rather have? Did you know if God takes the body where you’re gonna live? You have to move out. Surprise, surprise. Look in verse 19. Of chapter 6, 1 Corinthians, what? No ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is where? In you. glared of God lives in every one of his children, which you have of God. Now get this. get this, ye are not your own.”

You ought to underline that and you’re about, you don’t belong to you. Well, it’s my life. No, it isn’t. My body. No, it isn’t. And all those women that want to say, well, it’s my body and I can do whatever I want with it. Well, you should have made that decision before you jumped into the bed instead of getting pregnant and having a baby and then you want to kill the baby. It’s still murder. No, I will not soften it.

You’re not your own. Look in verse 20, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your what? In your body and in your spirit which are God’s. Who do you belong to? He bought and paid for you. Now he gave you eternal life as a gift, but he paid the debt. Didn’t he? He paid the debt. Now look there in your notes, my eye test. Now we can’t go through every part of the body but we just picked out a couple of little things that I thought would be good.

My eye test, how are my eyes? How you’re seeing things. You see, a lot of God’s children have bad eyesight that they can’t see very good. That’s why I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Peter. The book of 2nd Peter in chapter 1. 1. 2nd Peter and chapter 1. Since you have trusted Christ as Savior, you know you have eternal life, your God’s child, you’re going to heaven. That’s good. But after you trust Christ as Savior, the reason you want to renew your mind is because of all the added benefits it will give to you as a child of God.

You can grow toward maturity. So you have to add this and add this and add and add and add. Now look what he says here in verse five. And beside this, given all diligence, add to your faith. In other words, you trusted Christ, now add to that. You don’t add to salvation, but you’ve got some things concerning. You’re a child of God, now grow strong. And these are some things God wants to develop in your life. And to, as he says here, to virtue, faith, virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, temperance, temperance, patience, and patience, golliness, golliness, brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness, charity, love.

If these things, that doesn’t mean they are because some people will not yield their body, they will not yield their mind, they will not yield their will. But if you do, you got something, he promises. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. you’ll learn things you would have never learned no other way. God wants to teach you now things about him because he wants you to live in this life like him.

He wants you to be like him. And I don’t like it when I see people, especially teenagers and all, they wanna be like some Hollywood stars. They wanna be like these people in rock bands and metal rock, all that kind of crazy stuff. And a lot of parents let him put all these junk all over the wall, but it won’t hurt them. It ain’t good for them. You want to put a nice picture up on their wall, put mine up there.

Tell that boy, you be just like him. I want you to be just like him. Put your picture first. I want you to be just like your mother. I want your daddy to be your hero. You put your picture of your, this is what you’re going to be like. And take him, Hollywood stars and all that and rock junk out of there and throw him in the trash. But now look what he says, in verse nine, but he that lacks these things.

These things that you could have added that could have caused you to grow too much. Surety, he says, he’s blind. What can I say, do you have? You got good vision or are you blind? You’re a child of God, you’re going to heaven, but you can’t see straight. You can’t see what God is saying. You see, when you call about, I see means I understand, I understand. When God says, do you see what I’m saying? I understand, understand if thou this, that means you, I see it, I see it.

got it. And so there’s a lot of things people do not see because they are blind. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Now I’m not saying that this is the true meaning of this verse but I’m going to use it this way because I’m going to throw a little yank-yology in there so that you’ll know the difference. There’s nothing wrong with a little yank-yology once in a while. You say, what’s yank-yology? In my opinion, don’t you have opinions? You opinion once in a while.

Now look what he says here in verse one, we’re foreseeing we also are encompassed about what so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which just so easily be said is and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking verse two. Looking unto Jesus is that what you’re looking after? Can you see Him? Can you see Him and consider what He went through on the cross but He didn’t quit even unto death and God asked us to yield our bodies the living sacrifice?

Well does he had the use of your eyes? Do you see the things that God wants you to see? Do you always just focus on the negative in life or do you ever think about some of the positives in life? What God wants you to do? Are you a whiner? You want some crackers with that? In this verse when he makes the statement, wherefore sin we also accomplish the Bible so great a cloud of witnesses. Now we often say that that’s the chapter 11 with all those Old Testament saints and look what they did as examples of faith and we have all these testimonies.

But just to bring it back to a little yank-yology, I’ve often had people ask me, can people in heaven see what we’re doing down here? You say, well, if they saw what was going on down here, they’d be very sad and then cry and then weep because they see what we were doing. Oh wait a minute, does God see? If they can’t see, then how come God can see us? Doesn’t our sin bother him as much as our loved ones who are in heaven right now?

Shouldn’t it bother them too? Do you think does God’s… Maybe he doesn’t see us either. That’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got to do it at night because then God can’t see through the dark. But what if it’s got some truth that here we are running our race and there’s a great cloud of witnesses that have already run theirs? Could it be that they’re standing in the same place? stands and their cheerness on. Hang in there. Do it.

Of course you don’t hear them. But I sometimes wonder if my father was the man who led me to Christ and challenged me to serve the Lord. I’ve often wondered, can he see what those years that he put into my life that it was worth it? I don’t know. But when the Bible says when we leave somebody to the Lord, there’s joy in the presence of the angels. Not that the angels are rejoicing, But there’s somebody in the presence of the angels that could be rejoicing.

I just wonder, I wonder if they see. I often think about some of the people that have already gone on. I can’t say they’re not because I don’t have a scripture that says they do or they don’t. But there might be a little truth into this, but I don’t mind thinking that way. And no, I don’t want them to be ashamed of me. I know the Lord, but I’ve never seen God’s face, but I’ve seen these people. I’ve seen their face.

I’ve seen my mama. I’ve seen her face. I’ve seen my two sisters and led them all to the Lord. But they could be in that cloud of witnesses. And if they are, I want them to see that, Mom, so there’s my son. That’s my son, Diana. That’s my son. I want my sister. That’s my brother. That’s my big brother, Diana. I want them to be proud of me. But of course, there’s nothing that compares with. I want the Lord to say, well done, thou good in faith or servant.

You better do what you can, why you can, because we’re running out of time. Now I want you to look at the next statement. A letter B there, 1 Corinthians 2, 9, if God hasn’t told us everything, can’t you see that God likes surprises? Well he says, I have not seen, ear have not heard, neither has to enter to the heart of men the things which God has prepared for them that love him. God is going to surprise us with all kinds of stuff.

We haven’t got an idea what it’s really going to be like when we get to heaven. Yes, somebody wrote a song call I can only imagine. I can only imagine if I can only imagine. I can’t even imagine what it would be imagined. Second Corinthians 5, 7, right during the notes. Can you see that we walk by faith in what God says and not what we see? You see, we pose a see with the eye of faith. the eye of faith is taking God at His Word, believing in the thing that we cannot see.

When God made the world, He says the world is the evidence that there is a God behind it, because, see, faith is the substance, it’s the evidence, the things that we have, and we can see, is the proof of things that I cannot see. I believe there’s a heaven and now I believe there’s a hell, and though I’ve never seen But I believe there is real as this earth is real because the same one that made the world said in his word It’s real and he didn’t lie about the world.

I don’t believe he’s lied about his word. I believe it’s all true 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 Main. 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 Bibleline. 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 4081 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. Hada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep in looking up.