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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

In everything you have to have… You’ve got to have an umpire in your life. somebody to call balls and strikes. From our own perspective everything that I do is a strike and everything you do is a ball. In other words mind always try to cross the plate. My decisions are always right, yours or what? Always wrong. You didn’t know that. So we all need an umpire that calls it the way it really is. And so So even when we study the Scriptures, wouldn’t it be interesting if we all came down on the same Scripture the same way?

But that is if we had an umpire that calls it the way it really is, and then to be able to tell us as we walk our walk with the Lord, walking worthy of the vocation that God’s given to us so we make decisions. We should always check and see whether or not is it in or out. you play softball and you hit a ball, you have a referee or a non-part who says out and safe, you know home, everything’s good.

What is it? Always somebody needs to call it. Well, every sport that we have, we have somebody that does that because we can’t always trust our judgment or from our viewpoint. So when it comes to the Lord, every one of us has been given the the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit. And he calls the balls and strikes. He tells you, and if you become sensitive, he can let you know that that’s wrong. And when you’re sensitive, you become more keenly aware of error.

But whenever you don’t listen to the umpire and you get away from the truth of the word of God, you’re going to use your own judgment and then somebody else is doing the same thing and you’re going to have a lot of conflict. And there’s a lot of conflict in people’s lives, mainly sometimes between husband and wife, the demon, the kids and grandkids and people you work with and all that because you see, unless you stay strong in the Lord, you’re not going to see everything the way it really is.

You have a perspective, but it doesn’t always mean that it’s alright. Let me just mention this to you. You ever play checkers? Everybody here ever played checkers? I used to love to play Chinese checkers. I’ve got good at Chinese checkers. Then I love to play just regular checkers. I used to love to sit at a crack of barrel and it got and it’s hard when somebody is playing checkers to walk by without stopping and giving them my opinion. Because I can look at that and I can say, ooh they’re fixing to get trapped.

They get ready to make a move. I want to say something but you know you’re not supposed to, right? And when they get ready to make that move, you’re trying to give them a hand, I know. But it’s fun when you see something and you want to let the other person know and they don’t see it. Well, see, it’s that way spiritually in people’s lives, too. Trying to find the right way to tell somebody when they’re in air. Isn’t that a difficult thing to do sometimes?

Because you know that based upon how they are at the moment, how they’re doing emotionally, depends on how well they’re going to accept criticism, constructive criticism, or is it destructive criticism? So you’re trying to figure out a way. If you ever played chess Never played chess. Now that’s a little bit more intellectual. It’s not the same as checkers, but chess. Ah, now there’s a game. I remember when I used to play chess and I kind of prided myself in understanding the game fairly well.

I was always looking for a victim. And so the best one I could find was my 14-year-old son. And I knew he didn’t understand. it too well. And I’d be in there and I’d get everything set up and he wanted to go in there and watch TV. I wanted to play chess. And so I said, okay, I’m going first. I’ll move my move. I always go first. It was my game. I went first. Say Eddie, your turn. And Ron in there’s…

And he’ll run back in there. Twenty minutes. I’ve got to figure out why did he do that. And I was spending so much time trying to figure out how to move and all the options. And finally after about 20 minutes I’ll make my move. Eddie, and he’ll run in there. He’ll run back. And four moves he had me in checkmate. It’s not a lie. I didn’t know that the guy at school who was teaching the kids in the school how to play chess.

I forgot the guy’s name, but he was teaching how to play chess. I hated him. But a 14 year old kid should not be superior than daddy. So we had to stop playing that game. But sometimes the goal of chess is to get you in checkmate. Sometimes even when you’re witnessing to somebody, they ask this question, you answer it. They got this question, you answer it. Checkmate, when you’ve answered their questions and they don’t know which way to go, you’ve answered all of them.

You got them where they can’t move. Now I enjoy doing that when it comes to soul in him. But do you know there’s a God in heaven who’s looking down and he’s watching us? And we have a tendency without even being aware that we’re going astray and God blocks. Why did God close that door? Well, I had an open door and God closed that door. Did you know that God knows what’s on the other side of the door? That we’re sometimes not aware of and God may have blocked you.

Did you know that God sometimes maybe wants you to go this direction and you’re going that direction? Do you know that when God knows your heart and you really want to know and you’re not sure what decisions to make, sometimes you can make a decision and God can help you change that decision. And he’s going to get you where you’re in checkmate. You don’t know what to do. You’ve ever been where you don’t know what to do. You don’t know which way to go.

There’s an umpire that you’ve got that will always find a way for you to move forward or to accomplish whatever it is that God wants you to accomplish. I’ve done a lot of driving over the years. I used to hate driving a bus because it did not have, it didn’t have automatic control on it. You know, you couldn’t just set it and it would just drive. You had to always keep your foot on the pedal, all the time. You let your foot off of it, it slows down.

You’ve got to always keep the pressure on that pedal. Now, when we get cars today and you’re going down the highway and, you know, a fast song and you’re going 90, and all of a sudden it’s, you know, my God is real. You’re going 20 miles an hour down the expressway. And your wife tells you, she says, what are you doing? Where are you? What are you thinking? I realize that I’m in a dream world. She says, would you please set that control on that thing?

Instead of the same speed, so it’ll go the same speed. Yes, dear. So I have to set it. In your Christian life, you can learn how to depend upon the Lord to keep you moving and keep you even killed. Or you can wind up having yourself. You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re like a yo-yo. You’re sprintingiltration for the long haul and then you’re running out of it. Listen, learn how to trust the Lord in so many things. Now, when you get here to the book of Colossians, and I’ll get to it in a minute, but as you read some of these things, you’ll find out, and I’ve mentioned to you before that Christ is to have the preeminence in our life.

And this is what this whole book is about. Because, see, Ephesians is about the body, that’s us. Colossians is more about the head. And Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead. And He is superior, the preeminence, over all these other religions and beliefs. And it’s called New Age today, but it’s the same old age that they’ve always had. It’s just a lot more junk. And so you find out that some of these things that they talk about, we have a word from God on how to deal with all these problems that people have.

So there is a verse even in the book of Romans in chapter 15, it’s only three words long, but it just says competent to counsel, competent to counsel. It means simply that you’re able to take the word of God and tell people what God says. Meeting people’s needs with the Word of God. Now here in chapter 1 where he says Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ. Now you think just that one word apostle. We know he’s God sent. He’s a witness of the resurrection of Christ.

After Christ came back from the dead, personally sent by the Lord. So there’s no clue. Paul wasn’t a possible. I’d look it just a little bit different. It means Paul had the authority to speak on God’s behalf. That means that whatever he’s going to say, he has God’s mind upon whatever it is, he’s going to tell us. And because God knows everything to have his spokesman speak for God and tell us these things. Means he has the authority to rebuke, to refute any false teaching, any heir and any doctrine of any kind.

God has enabled him to do this. So Paul knew how to solve problems. So with these major teachings in these people there in Colossae, he was able to take the truth and give it to them. You see, just look there very quickly in verse 9 where it says in verse 9, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the, and this has to do with the the wisdom, the intellect, the knowledge.

You see that’s what some people are looking for and searching for, but it’s the angelic wisdom behind the scenes, the deeper things, you know, the deeper meaning, the spiritual depths that lies beyond our human understanding. And they seem like they know what they’re talking about. All wisdom, all knowledge, all true intellect that we should know is in Christ. And so he says the knowledge of his will and get this in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So this is what he wants the children at this church to understand what he wants them to know because when you know God’s wisdom you’re able to refute human philosophy.

Look what he says there in chapter 2 in verse 8. In chapter 2 verse 8 he says, be where lest any man spoil you through, here’s the word, philosophy and vain deceit. And see, when you talk about after the tradition of men, whether it’s the religion, the ceremonies, or rituals, or maybe it’s certain days that they worship on, a lot of this is explained in chapter 2 and verse 13 on down to the end of that chapter. But it’s talking about the things that God says, now this is what is wrong, this is what they believe, this is in air, and this is how you correct the error.

You see, if it wasn’t for problems in the early church, much of this knowledge that’s told to the church we wouldn’t need. It’s because they had these problems then, recurcurcurinthians, and see how many problems they had. Look how much truth we learned when you’re trying to solve a problem. It’s whenever you have difficulties in your life and you don’t know what to do cause you to seek truth. You’re seeking for understanding. And because we know that majority of people’s problems is a spiritual problem, we want to get them spiritually and try to help them spiritually.

This is what the Word of God says. And notice what he says now. In verse 9 of chapter 1, one is the wisdom. And then in verse 10, that you might walk worthy. So you’ve got wisdom, you’ve got walk. You’ve got to get the wisdom before you know how to walk. And you walk worthy of the wisdom that you have. And so that’s why you need to learn what the word of God says. Now look there in chapter two and verse nine.

And verse nine says, for in him, dwell of part, all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You have all that you need and notice this. In the very next verse there’s one word that’s very important. You see that word complete? You’re all complete. In Christ you are complete. That is your position that you have in the Lord. Now another thing is the reason for studying the book is because there is a purpose, a goal of what you’re trying to accomplish.

And He makes this statement very easily there in verse 28 or chapter 1. I love skipping around the scriptures. I don’t know why I do that all the time. But I might get back to verse 2. Oh, that’s right. We’ve never finished verse 1 yet. But anyway, in verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man and all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Where unto I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.

Now there’s several things in that verse that are, I believe very important because we’ve said this before, when you talk about the preeminence of Christ, means concerning our motive. He should be the main motive of why I do what I do. There’s got to be something behind all of this. What is this gas in my car that makes me go? And that’s why we study, find out in 2 Corinthians 5, 14, that the love of Christ constraineth us or motivates us.

So there’s a motivation. But it’s all about because we know the Lord. And He should be the main reason why we do what we should do. And as you read the Word of God, and if you’re going to walk and you’re going to talk, you’re going to say the things that God wants to say, Jesus Christ, the God will, should be our message. So that you have a motive and you have a message. I preached a sermon a long time ago on the motive, the message, the man, the means, method, it all had to have an M.

And it worked out good. It’s a great sermon, but that’s what I’m not talking about yet. But here we’re talking about you’ve got a message and we have a message. The wisdom of God and all that He is and what He can do for us is greater than all the wisdom of all the universities, all the colleges, in all the world, what God has for us. Now, another word that I like to add in here because it’s kind of mentioned over here and that’s the word measure.

Now the Lord says they measuring themselves by themselves are not what? You don’t measure yourself by yourself but if you’re going to measure yourself according to Ephesians in chapter 5 it talks about we are to measure ourselves according to the fullness of Christ. In other words going to compare yourself to somebody that’s you ought to compare yourself to and that’s the Lord. And so I can compare myself to you and say well I’m doing pretty good job. Well I’m doing more than he is.

I’m doing more than she is. Yeah but what does God want you to do? Find out what God wants you to do and just be satisfied with that. Because you’ll find out in the book of Colossians you’ll find the word mentioned, propitiation, and also the word talking about reconciliation. See, God has never reconciled. You know, here’s a man and here’s God. God’s not reconciled to us because he hasn’t done anything to change. He hasn’t done any sins to confess.

He’s made no errors in his life. We’re the one that’s the problem. So through Christ we can be reconciled to God. But see, God is not in a sense. You’ve got to get right with me. God, you’ve got to get right with me. No, I’ve got to get right with God. But he is propitgated in the sense that he is satisfied to get right, mean to get right with him because of Christ, because of what Christ has done. So God is satisfied.

We should be satisfied with that. We should be propitgated. Satisfied with who Christ is and what he’s done for us and then reconciled. And once you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you have been reconciled to God. But now all these errors in your life, you know, these things in the background, these things that you’ve known and done that still harbors in your mind, the intellect you have, the human reasoning, all that stuff, and the traditions that you have, the way you’ve lived, all the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and all that, that still has to be reconciled in your life.

So even though it’s been done judiciously and you’re okay with God, God wants you to get corrected in your life so that like Paul said, I can present you faultless before the Lord. If you will continue, see, I was reconciled to God 57 years ago, but in my life I’m still being reconciled in certain areas of my life because of maybe areas that have not been dealt with yet. And there’s all these things that we have to go through.

So you’ll get that in chapter 1 there. But what I want you to see is down here in verse 15 and 16 also. Verse 15 and 16 and 17, you’ll see that this is where Christ is the Lord, the Lord, the Master of the universe. And then they’re in chapter, same chapter, but verse 18 and 19 and 20, you’re talking about, he is the Lord of the church. And so if he has all this wisdom and there’s no one greater, no one better, then we have final authority.

And when Paul says an apostle, I’m speaking on behalf of the Lord of the universe, the Lord of the church. I have the authority to speak and what I say is the truth and we need to listen to what he has to say. Now, you look there in verse one, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ. So he knows all and I and his spokesman’s what he’s saying. He said, by the will of God and Timothy is our brother. So everybody needs an umpire in their life.

You can let the word of God call it for you because we know the Holy Spirit teaches us what the word of God says, and there’s always decisions we have to make in life. And we don’t always make the right one. Sometimes it’s good to listen to somebody else and they say, well, I’d believe this or believe that. And you want somebody who can take the Word of God and try to stay within boundaries, within guidelines. See, there’s a lot of freedom within the will of God.

And it’s not all cut and dry in the sense that I want you to move to Tampa, Florida. Well, that would have been easy if I’d have just read the scripture and it’s sitting there. I want you to go there and take that church. I battled with that for a year because I couldn’t find the verse that says what I’m supposed to do. Women, wouldn’t it be so much easier for God to say, I want you to meet this girl on this street at this time and that’s the one for you.

So what does she look like? Well, she’s bowlegged and pigeon-toed, not need and cross-sided and pigtails, red hair. Don’t forget the red hair. But wouldn’t it be easier if God would just tell us all these things, lead details. But God gives us the freedom to make decisions within the will of God. It’s like having the yard outside and the kids can go outside and play just don’t cross the street. There you go. But you give them room to play and God gives us room to make decisions and whatever one you make in that area can be acceptable with God.

It’s just whenever you walk out of bounds when you’re done gone too far, when you’re done cross the street. I’ll never forget my mama telling me now. I said, Mom, What can I do to play? She said, well go chase some hubcaps. She didn’t really say that. Y’all don’t know what I said anyway. That just went right over your head. You didn’t even catch it. No, y’all didn’t get it. You didn’t get it then. That was over your head.

That was over your head. Anyway, I’m tired. I’m going quick. Nothing like being honest. time. Right? See, I want to know some more about Colossians. Take it home and read it. Read it in Braille. And Tom will tell you what it says. Look up here. It is awesome that we have so many responses from people, either writing letters or, you know, on the phone or making comments on YouTube and all. And I thank the Lord for all of that.

And God has been good to us. He’s blessed us. And I’m thankful that we’ve got such a good group of people coming for our, what do we got coming this fall? Missionaries conference and all. And then we got camp coming up here. We got to get things ready for camp. Then we got a graduation coming up. John John, if he makes, is going to get graduated out of here. And we’re going to give him the royal treatment. What is the royal treatment?

I don’t even know what the royal treatment would be for John John. Oh, I gotta read, I’ll carve it out right here. But that’ll be, we’re gonna treat him like there’s a thousand graduating. I mean, he deserves the best. John, I am very proud of you. I really am. I’m so thankful you came down here and you have endured to the end. Almost, almost, you’re almost there. Look up here, this hand represents you in vain. The wallet represents sin, we all have sin on us.

Now God, he loves us. You know how many times I say that when I’m doing the wall of the Bible, I’m always saying, God loves you because you want people to know God loves you. Now, he hates your sin, but he does love us. And to pay for this sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us. He wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, you have to be perfect. Not good, you’ve got to be perfect.

And none of us are perfect. And because of sin, we can’t get in. Because of sin, we ought to pay for it. Because of sin, we’re going to be separated from God. This sin represents Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. Hate our sin because it separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead and said if we would believe He did it for us, He’d put this payment our account and we’d get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we ask Your blessings upon each one here. We ask Your blessings upon those that are watching by internet. knowing that the only thing they can do is to believe that what you did, you did it for them. And that by believing that you’re given eternal life as a gift. And Father, we just pray that you would use this for your honor and glory. And Father, there’s others that are healing from surgery.

Pray that everything can be discerned as far as where and when and who. and Father for safety. We want your blessings and everything that we do. We don’t have all that wisdom, but we know you do. Then we trust it. We want you to use this for your honor and glory. We pray Lord for a good ranch meeting tomorrow night. And also for those who go Friday night so when in. And for the church and for O’wanna. We just want to honor you.

This is your work. We’re just your servants were just passing through, help us to be found faithful. Let us each one here tonight in Christ’s name and reign. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader, then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa, with traditional and online classes taught by instructors with years of experience. Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life, whether taking individual classes are working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you.

To learn more, visit online at floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. That’s 8502275325. 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 believing that the Lord is coming soon.

Just keep looking up.