This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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.

Anyway, what I did tonight, after you trust Christ as your Savior, there’s always that, well, that time in your life where you learn how to walk with the Lord. You don’t understand it at first. You could kinda like a little child, you stand up and fall down and stand up and fall and take a few steps and fall. It’d be so neat if we could just all just walk as a saint of 50 years, but we have to live and learn.

A little bit here and a little bit there. And a little trial here and a little testing here. here, just enough to keep us looking to the Lord. And so over the years I’ve managed to get together a few key verses that really means a lot to me. They’ve helped me and my walk with the Lord. And I guess I always figured that whatever helped me can help somebody else. So I just gave you a list of a lot of the verses that I think about a lot.

And as I preach sermons you’ll hear these verses all the time you quote them or turn into them and read them. And so I wanted to mention them to you. So you can always take these verses and go to your Bible and mark things in the Bible. But if we took too much time to do that, now I don’t think I would ever finish. So there’s certain words in these verses because these are verses to help you to walk with the Lord.

Now remember, nobody can walk with the Lord for you. Nobody can get saved for you. It’s a personal thing. Nobody can make it love the Lord, though I believe everybody should. God says in the first two commandments, in the first commandment, love the Lord with all thy heart, with all thy heart and mind, body, soul, and strength, have no idols and so forth, and love your neighbor. And the whole law is fulfilled in one word, love. But people don’t love.

We’re not safe because we love God, but after we see how much He loved us, we loved Him because He first loved us. And so as you begin to read and study the Bible, it kind of makes your heart warm towards the Lord. And that’s what happens when you read the book of Proverbs. It kind of makes you warm towards the Lord. And if you have trouble praying, just read one or two Psalms and next thing you know, you’ll find something to pray about, be thankful for.

You want some wisdom? Yeah, you can go to the book of Proverbs. One little action, go to the book of Acts. See God’s got certain verses in the Bible of books. They kind of helps you, but these are scattered everywhere. So whatever book you read, you can always find words of encouragement. But look at the first verse there we have, Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 23. Now I often quote this verse simply because the Bible says, is it’s not within man that walk of two direct steps.

In other words, we all like sheep of God Australia and we have a natural inclination to go our own way. We do our own thing because we don’t know how to trust God. Well, you can’t see God. And sometimes we don’t see anybody walking close enough to the Lord that we wanna take their advice. You know, it’s hard to take somebody’s advice when you don’t agree with what they’re saying or doing, you know how they’re living. But when you wanna really learn something, like for example, if I wanted to really learn how to putt like Jack Nicholas, if I could get my wish, what should I do?

Try to get Jack Nicholas to show me how to putt like he putst. Now if I wanted to play golf like Bob Brooks, then I just wanna learn from Bob Brooks and have Bob Brooks teach me how to play golf. But that’s the same way it is in anything in life. When the Bible teaches us certain things from certain books, there’s verses in them that will kind of hone in a little bit and make your thing differently. But notice what that verse says.

I know that the way of man is not in himself. God says, I already know that. And he tells us in his word. It’s not in man that walk to direct his steps. In other words, you really don’t know how to lead your life. You don’t know how to guide your life. Without the word of God, you really don’t know. You just do whatever you think is best. You can do what you think is right. And lo and behold, sometimes you might make some good decisions.

There’s a lot of lost people. They’re making good decisions. They make this as many good decisions. There’s a lot of lost people. They think as they do it for them and we do it for the Lord. God’s not going to reward them. God’s going to reward us. And so when we get to heaven, God’s going to reward us for the good that we’ve done, but they’re not going to get anything. This life is all that they’re ever going to get.

If a lost man takes some seeds and go out in the field and plant it, and a saved man goes out into a field and plant some seeds, which one comes up? If a lost man and a saved man both go out into the field and they sow seeds, which one’s going to have some fruit come up? Both of them. Because God has already blessed the efforts of work and the principle of work, and He blesses the seed because He made the seed.

So it doesn’t matter who does it. If it was raining outside and a lost man goes outside and the Christian goes outside who’s going to get wet? Both will get wet. So you may make a decision, I’m not going out during that rain, and somebody else might decide to go out in the rain. Now some Christians do foolish things, and in the process of life we have to suffer sometimes the consequences of our decision, which means the time we don’t like.

But look at the next verse, this is what Jesus said, I can of my own self do nothing. Jesus said that. As I hear I judge and my judgment is just why? Because now I seek not my own will. What does most people do in their life? Seek their own will. They want to do their own thing, go their own way. Lord, this is what I’m going to do, bless me. Lord, no, no, no. I want you to do this and I’ll bless you.

We thank God it’s just a good power that’s up there somewhere somewhere in the sky and we’re supposed to use them whenever we want to. Just be on standby God and be my escrow in the account. So if I need you, you’d be ready, okay? But I think I can handle this all by myself. Well, a lot of people live their life like that and you can if you want. Look at the next statement, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

this in presenting your body as a living sacrifice, would that be the will of God? Could that be the will of God? If this is what God’s word says, I want you to present your body as a living sacrifice. He didn’t ask us to die for him, he asked us to live for him because I assure you, if you’re not willing to live for the Lord, you’re not ready to die for him. Because if you can’t live for him, you’re not going to die for him.

Look at the next statement. not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect, a will of God. You see the word good, the G, the word acceptable, the A, and the word perfect, the P. Now in the book of Ezekiel it says, he look for a man to stand in the gap. But a lot of people don’t want to stand in the gap. See there’s God and there’s man.

And there’s one meteor which is Christ and he’s gone to heaven. So he’s told us to represent him on the earth. So we are ambassadors for Christ. But sometimes people don’t want to be the ones that fill that gap between God and the lost people. And God’s is like he’s looking for a man to fill that gap, the stand in the gap. When my fallen law first showed me that verse, It motivated me, it challenged me. And I thought, and he made the statement to me, he says, the world has never seen what God can do through one dedicated man.

The world’s never seen what God can do through one totally dedicated man. I thought, I want to be that man. I didn’t know what I didn’t tell. I didn’t know clue. Whatever it was, I want to be that man. I want God to use me to show the world what God can do through a man and feel led him. Well, I think I’ve had a little success in that, not maybe everything, but it was a lot better than it was whenever I started.

I can assure you that. Now get this, the word in blue there is will of God, the will of God, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How are you going to find it? Well, what does the verse say to do? It says, be not conformed to this world. It’s just like when you’re talking about salvation, you have to know what it is in order to know what it is not. The will of God has not been conformed to the world.

The will of God has been transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you know what it is. Do you know what it is? You know what it is not. If you live like the world, you’re not gonna be transformed because it’s a choice that we made. Look at the next statement. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh, my Father, if it be possible, Let this cup pass from me. Whatever that’s referring to, whether in the garden or right from to the cross, that’s really not as important as the point I want to make here tonight, is that it says, nevertheless, not as I will, but as I will.

In other words, I want your will for me, whatever you want me to do, that’s what I want to do. So if we really believe that, then that’s why many times we can accept whatever God allows to come into our life. But if we make poor decisions and bad decisions because we don’t believe what God’s Word says, there’s consequences. And we don’t like the consequences because consequences are the result sometimes of making good decisions and bad decisions. And as we go through life, we make both kinds.

And sometimes we like the decisions we made and sometimes we would have never made some of them. So he says there in the next verse, then said, I lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me, Psalms chapter 14 verse 7. He says, I delight to do thy will. Now there’s a reason why he delighted to do thy will because the next part says thy law is within my heart. I always work on the principle if I can just get people to listen to what God says.

If I can get a lost man to listen to what the gospel really is, I expect people to trust crisis savior. We had, like for example, a couple new people this morning and a couple indicated they would trust crisis savior. So whoever they are, I don’t know. Does God promise to save whosoever believe it? Well then I believe God’s Word will work. Make it simple and clear where people can understand it. If you want people to serve the Lord, well I believe if you teach them what the Word of God says, if God’s Word don’t work, I don’t want somebody serving God because of me.

I want him to serve God because of the Word. Because when I died and then what happens? I don’t want people doing whatever they do. But I just want to please the preacher. Well, he’s no better than you are. He’s just a man. He’s a sinner. Trust Christ is Savior and He’s just trying to teach you what the Word of God says. So you need to do what you do because of your love for the Lord. You see, that should not change.

People come and go. There’s people we know right now that I’ve already left our number. There’s relatives that I had or passed away. And it seemed like every week I’m finding not somebody else that I went to Bible college with has passed away. Because now we’re all getting up into the 70s and 80s. And one of these days it could be Bob Brooks or it could be me. I mean that’s the only two I see in here right now that’s from FBC.

You have a Tom back there. But he can’t see what I’m saying. But anyway, that day could come. But why? Because thy law is written in my heart. There’s a verse in the Bible 119 Psalms that says, wherewithal shall a young man cleans his way, by taking heed according to thy word? Thy word have I hid in my heart that am I not sin against thee? This is a lot of verses, and dithering, all these verses should mean a lot to us and help us to govern our lives.

Look at the next statement. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? Now this is talking about Paul in chapter 9 of the book of Acts. And we don’t know how long this all took on that road. and all the things that he said, but after he got knocked down by Christ himself, he saw the light. I guess you could say he sung that song, or maybe he wrote the song, I just saw the light.

I think somebody else wrote that song. But he did see the light. And the Lord tells us, why are you kicking against the pranks? Why don’t you listen to what I’m having? Don’t you think? And he was supposed to supposed to be so smart, but he found out he was so dumb. And yes, he even talked about how intelligent he was and just, you know, with a certain tribe and a Pharisee and keeping the law blameless Philippians chapter 3 and down to verse 7 and 8.

But he makes a statement, what would I have me to do? See, after you trust Christ as your Savior, see, we’re saved because what we believe. We serve, that’s what we do, full of Lord. And so he asked this question, what will thou have me to do? That was my heart’s desire. And one of the reasons why when I went down to the little bookstore there in Athens, George, the Athens bookstore. And Joel Cummins was the guy that ran the bookstore.

And just a little old dinky thing on the side of the road near Nathans. And I’d get my little sack lunch and I’d run down there because I was working at that time at the McGregor printing company. And I’d run in there and I’d get a missionary book off the shelf and I’d sit in the corner and I’d read and eat my sandwich. I only had a half an hour, not a lot of time. But I couldn’t afford to buy the book, so he would let me sit in the corner and read the books off the shelf.

And I’d sit there and next thing you know I’d be crying. I’d read about missionaries and where they went, what they did. talking about their love for the Lord and all that stuff. And I was thinking, man, I wish I could do something. I want to do something. But I just knew that God couldn’t use me. I already didn’t check me all. God can’t use me. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how to serve a Lord. I didn’t know what it involved.

I didn’t know what steps I had to take. I never heard of a Bible college. But I’d sit there and I’d try. And I mean with tears. And people would come in and they’d look over at me and go do what they were doing. Then after a while, you’ll come and say, Yengie, you would better get back to work. You’re out of time. And I still had to get down for the work. And then I’d run back to work.

And I did that day after day after day. I didn’t know that my doing that was preparing me for something down the road. And I would often wonder, man, I wish I had. And I would close my eyes and I would dream that I had thousands of people. and I’m preaching to all these people, and all these people are getting saved. Now I did not have the clergy of the gospel. I didn’t know anything about the Heaven tract, nothing about Florida Bible College, Ray Stanford, Hank Lindstrom.

I did nothing about the Wall of Illustration, nothing about Ranch, nothing about camps. Never been to a camp in my life. And here I am listening to these things dwelling in my mind and bouncing off the walls. And I think, man, I want to do something. And my heart desires, Lord, I want to do something. But I had no clue what it was. I came to Florida Bible College eventually, and then I had a couple weeks off, and I went up there to Athens, Georgia, and there’s my father-in-law.

He’s living up there in part of the apartments. And I would start complaining to him. I says, how come preachers are not clear on the gospel? They’re not clear. And I’d whine a little bit and he’d look at me and he says, why don’t you shut up? He said that to me quite a few times. Not in the nicest way either, because he got tired of me whining. He said, if you don’t like the way they’re doing it, do it yourself, okay?

And now you’re talking about I’m gonna do everything I possibly can. And I kept thinking about all those people and all those churches that were not clear on the gospel. How in the world am I gonna get to all those people and all those churches and talk to all those young teenager because I’d been down to camp. And I’d seen what happens when kids at camp. Little did I know that when I graduated, I’d go to Colorado, sort of a youth ministry.

And then here’s just one little kid. 11 years old, came out, wasn’t supposed to. But he trusted Christ of Savior, wound up dedicating his life to the Lord. And so, Greg Steer, he started the youth ministry. And here, I was going to the Derta Shear meetings in Atlanta, Georgia, civic auditorium, in Atlanta, and at about six, seven, 8,000 people. And all these youth directors, from all those churches, I used to whine about how I’m gonna reach them, because I reach one guy, here’s all these youth directors, bringing all these kids to this center, and Greg Steer is up there, and he’s presenting the gospel during the Waller illustration, just like I did it.

I can go through the same thing. And I thought to myself, self, God did use you. I didn’t have to go, but somebody I reached is doing that. And now he’s not only doing it in Georgia, he did in this state, that state, that state. Now he’s doing it in a number of states all across. So you can have a dream, but doesn’t mean the end of a dream because I’ve had so many, uh, depths of a vision, a, a vision where you wanted something done and then it all seemed like it all falls apart, that it’s not going to happen in your lifetime.

And so lo and behold, you just know that somewhere along the line, God may still give me the desires of my heart because I want to reach more people than I ever have. And now with the YouTube ministry, the internet thing that what we’re doing, I’m reaching more people now at this stage of my life than I ever have. And all of the other years all put together. And now I’m reaching people throughout the world. And it just, sometimes I just shouldn’t have described.

Remembering back 58 years ago when it was just a dream, just a little vision. And I didn’t see how God would open up doors. But be patient with God because the will of God is the, God doesn’t tell us everything that’s going to happen in all the steps in your life and all the, you know, the disappointments, sermon I preached on dead ends, dry holes, detours, because in our life there’s going to be a lot of detours. And there’s going to be some dead ends and there’s going to be some dry holes.

You try something and you pour everything you have into it and then it not work. And it can be so deflating, so discouraging. And then you’ve got to come back and encourage yourself and the Lord. But look at the next statement. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, that little part in the yellow, through the will of God. I am a pastor today, only by the will of God, only because of his will. I did not decide on my own.

I’m going to be a pastor. That was the last thing I wanted to do when I graduated from Florida Bible College. I just wanted to reach teenagers and play the guitar and do the wall of illustration and just lead people to Christ. But after I started leading so many people to Christ, they didn’t have a church to go to because no church is one of all these little kids. They didn’t want these kids. I wanted to start a bus ride at this one church.

And they said, we don’t want those kids. Those kids that come in here and they’ll mark up the song books, they’ll mess up the bathrooms. And we just, and a bunch of older saints, we just don’t want those kids around here. And that broke my heart. That’s where my heart was, and that’s the last thing they wanted. And so I left that church. And so a couple years later, I started a church because I didn’t have no place to send the kids.

And it was just what made it happen. Next thing you know, you got a church. And I still preferred the teenagers over the adults. Bob Brooks and the Mary, they were out there in that ministry. And they saw what we did. And I had a lot of people saying, Yankee, you need to reach the adults. They got the money because teenagers don’t have any money. But it didn’t matter. I was reaching adults. I was reaching the adults before they got to be one.

Because when their kids, it’s a lot easier to reach kids than it is adults. You can rest assured. And so now they have families. And I was watching on YouTube a message by Rick Long. And he graduated from our Bible college. And now he’s running, I don’t know, 3,000, 4,000 out there in Colorado. And he doesn’t do everything the way I would do it. But he’s not my servant. He belongs to the Lord. But he’s still simple and clear on the gospel.

There’s a lot of things I don’t agree with. I’ve had people say, I don’t agree with Yanki on everything. Not everybody agrees with me on everything. That’s okay. Anyway, look at the last verse. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to get this desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So what does God want for you and I?

He wants us to be filled with the knowledge of his will knowing the word of God. So you cannot know the will of God unless you know the word of God. Why do you think I wanted people to go to college? Why do you think I wanted people to come to the Sunday school and church and all that? To learn the will of God for their life. Because without the word, you can’t know. It is not within man that walk of two directest steps.

And the Holy Spirit leads you according to the word of God. It’s not like, okay, I’m saved. I don’t need that. I got the Holy Spirit. I’m just going to let the Holy Spirit lead and guide me. Have fun. but he leads you and teaches you the word of God. And without that, forget it. Turn your page. Top of the next page says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all please. In the word, able to please the Lord in every area of your life.

Being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. Learn to please the Lord in every area of your life. Leave the next statement. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. This is Psalms. The Psalms. The first Psalm. But the way of the ungodly shall perish. The way of the ungodly. So you can either live like a godly person or like an ungodly person. Godly and ungodly means to be like God. Ungodly means you’re not like God.

So as a child of God, God wants us to be like God, imitators of our heavenly Father. That’s in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5 and verse 1. So we can do that. Look up here just a moment. This hand represents you and and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God, He loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us. But because a wage is as sin is death, all of us are guilty and all of us are condemned.

Condemned to spend an eternity separated from God in a literal fire burning hell. And we wanna be saved from hell. And there’s only one way. So to go to heaven, you have to be perfect and none of us are perfect. And there’s no way for you and I to work our sins off. You know, if I keep working off my sins, you can’t work them off. You only have to commit one sin. How many sins do they commit in the garden?

They got kicked out? One. So you gotta be pretty good. Oh, you gotta be perfect. And none of us are perfect. So this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. And I hate what we do wrong, but He loves us. But our sin separates us from God. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. So he took all the sins of the whole world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead.

And God said, if we would believe he did it for us, he would put this payment to whosoever believes. Now, if you don’t believe it, you don’t get eternal life. You don’t get the righteousness of God. You don’t get to go to heaven. But whosoever will believe it. And that’s a choice that individuals have to make for themselves. Nobody can make it for you. So when you believe it, he gives you eternal life as a gift and you get to go to heaven what Christ did for you.

Let’s pray show him. With his Bobnights closed, no one looking around. If you’re watching by internet and you understand what I’ve said, right on the screen says, yes, I won’t trust Christ as my Savior. We’d love to know if you understood. And if you trust Christ right now, then He saves you right now, gives eternal life right now, and you can know that you’re going to heaven because He paid for all of your sins. You won’t have any sins to pay for.

He loved you that much, He did it for you. If you’re in the auditorium and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, why not right now? The quietness of this moment, just talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died for me, that He paid for my sin. And right now I will trust Him as my only hope of going to heaven. If you’ve never done it, would you do it right now?

And if you will, I’d like to have prayer for you. And I’d like to know what I said made sense to you. would you just slip in it very quickly but right back down? Not going to point you out, not going to shame you or embarrass you. Anyone at all before we close. Our Father, we do thank you so much for watching over us and meeting all of our needs. We thank for the privilege you given to us to know you as our Savior but also for that burning desire to want to serve you.

We ask your blessing upon each person here and everyone here is going through something. All struggling and that’s why you want us to seek your will by seeking your Word. So bless each one Christ and every great Amen. 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 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 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 in looking up.