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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. 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 prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us at 813-884-4328 or you can donate on the home page at BibleLineMinistries.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Anyway we’re gonna look at something this morning to be interesting, at least I hope so. So take your Bible, look in the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians. Now this is whenever the fossil Paul went to the Philippine Islands. You don’t believe that do you? These were Filipinos here. That’s not right. But anyway, the book of Philippians is an interesting book because that talks about some of the things that are going on in the world and it describes the world outside.

But then the Apostle Paul shows what the believer is to be like on the inside. So sometimes the outside you know, control that. You can only control what’s on the inside. You may have all kind of storm problems all things like that in life. Trials and tribulations and they come. But what’s important is how are you on the inside? Are you just as much a storm on the inside as the storm on the outside? And you’d be surprised how many people are just, they’re facing storms when it’s peaceful outside and they’re still nothing but a bad case of nerves and falling apart.

The whole world is shot because of the way they are. See, you’ve got to be built strong. That’s why Bible talks about building up yourself strong in your most holy faith so that you have faith in the Lord regardless of what comes you just going to trust the Lord and sometimes the Lord allows things to happen see whether or not are you really trusting him well we just had a interesting experience the last couple of weeks haven’t we but I want you to look at this in the book of Philippians now if you have an Old Schofield reference Bible Old Schofield reference Bible look there on page 1257, first chapter, first page.

There’s a few statements that are mentioned here that I think are good for us to take a look at. So that you understand where the Apostle Paul is coming from as he explained these things to the Philippian Church. You’ll notice up there where it has the word date, top of the page. Now if you don’t have an old school reference Bible that’s okay. There’s one in the church pew right in front of you. So you all get to pull it out and look at it and it’ll be exactly the same.

But where has the word date? The date of Philippians cannot be positively fixed. It is one of the prison epistles. Well, the Paul was twice in prison, and if so, whether Philippians was written during the 1st or 2nd in prison, affects in no way the message of the epistle. 8064 is the commonly received date. The immediate occasion of the epistle is disclosed in Philippians 4 verse 10 to 18, because this is why Paul wrote the book and he tells that at the end of the book.

So there’s a lot of things before you get there, but when you understand those last few verses, then you can go back and look at the first part of it and, ah, this is what he’s saying. This is why he’s saying this. This is why he’s doing this. And we’ll do that a little bit later. But what else I wanted you to see was this. When you look at the word theme, theme, the theme of Philippians is Christian experience.

what you’re going through in life. In other words, living out your Christianity. So he says, soundness of doctrine is assumed because there’s not a lot of Bible doctrine taught in it except just applying the teachings of scripture, living out your faith. And you’ll notice there’s several things I want you to just look at real quick. Look in verse four of chapter one. Where he says, always in every prayer of mine for you all, that means he was from a southern Judea.

For you all, making requests with joy in verse 5 says, and you ought to underline these two words, for your fellowship, your fellowship, because it’s going to be Paul writing to them about, hey, how are you doing? You all just had a hurricane. How are you doing? How you’re doing? And so we lost everything, but how are you doing? Well, I’m doing fine. And if nothing happened, well, how are you doing? I’m doing fine. Now, which one should praise the Lord?

The one who lost everything or the one who didn’t lose anything? Which one should praise the Lord? Both. You both praise the Lord. Because what happens to things is not is important is what’s happening to you. How do you handle all these things? The song that I was just murdering, I mean singing over here, though I should, you know, you lose the whole world, you still got the Lord. And my thanks to him for all that he hath done.

And we’ll look at that a little bit more during the church service of course, but look in verse 9, I want you to see this also. And this I pray that your love, see it’s your fellowship because of the gospel, because you see you have to know the Lord in order to love correctly. So when you accept Christ as your Savior, what you’re actually doing is letting God love you. You are then a beloved. God loves you, let him love you by giving you this free gift of everlasting life.

See when you reject the free gift of everlasting life, you are rejecting the love of God because Christ is the love of God. Restart upon mankind. And so therefore you accept Him as your Savior. And then those people who accept God’s love, He says, now let your love be manifested to other people. So that’s why He talks about there in verse 9. And this I pray that your love may abound because His love abounded to us us, our love is to bound to others.

So it’s a personal thing. It’s how you are on the inside. And so your fellowship and our fellowship is with those who believe the same things we believe, believe that salvation is by grace. If a person came in here and believed that you had to be baptized in water and keep the 10 commandments to go to heaven and you can lose your salvation, we can’t have fellowship together. I mean, I can be a nice to him, I can be kind, I can be friendly for a little while.

But I cannot have close fellowship with a person, don’t believe like I believe. So over the last 57 years or so, I have tried to best surround myself with people who believe like I believe. And I think there’s safety in doing so. Turn your page and you’ll look also down here in verse 25. And notice in verse 25 where he and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for, get to your furtherance and joy of faith.

See, whenever you’re spiritually minded, you want other people to be spiritually minded. And the joy that you have in the Lord, you want others to have in the Lord. So you want it to further that joy, where regardless of what’s going on in the world, all the heart, taking the misery that can you can have in face. Some people just need to know that somebody cares about them, somebody loves them and try to spread a little joy. Look what else he says here in verse 27, because with life itself, there’s a lot of bad things in life, but it’s not so much as what’s going on in the world, as what’s going on inside of you.

What do you have in you that you have to offer to the world? You see, silver and gold have I none. But I know the gospel, I can tell you about that. I can tell you how to walk with the Lord. Let your manner of life, your conversation, your behavior, the way you are, let it say something, let it be something that’s genuine, that’s real. And so he says in verse 27, only let your behavior or your manner of life be as it becomeeth the gospel of Christ.

So that there’s something about your life and the gospel that’s similar. God so loved the world that He gave. We so loved the world that we give. So we give them a good testimony. We give them the good words of the gospel. We are supposed to be the examples of what God wants us to be. When we do that, He also says, now not just what you’re doing with the others, but also about what you can do with those who are believers in the Lord.

Look at these next two words and underline those. your affairs. See that in verse 27. When I hear of your affairs, what you’re doing, how are you doing? Because how you’re doing, a lot depends upon how you are inside of you. And you can tell whether or not you can completely fall apart. Now we just had some, well we had a little rain didn’t we? We had a storm come through. And so the way I have to look at it is this, and I told him this Wednesday night.

I, as the pastor, when the governor says, to evacuate, I evacuate. I do what they say, do. When I can obey the law, I obey the law. When I want to defy the law, I better have a good reason. They could be serious consequences. And the other reason is because I wanted to make sure that I also have a responsibility to protect my wife, right? And I look at both sides, whether or not do I stay or do I go?

Well, they already said that we were supposed to evacuate. I left and take my little darling. Now the other side is if we’d stay, maybe not a thing happened, but we left and what if it had flooded the whole area and you had six, seven, eight feet of water in your house and there’s no power and no electricity, there’s nothing going on. And next thing you know, people are dying and drunk. The last thing the church needed was a pastor who disobeyed the law and then somebody died because of it.

That’s why we had a board meeting and we discussed it and said, now this is what we believe we ought to do. And we’re gonna call in five or six days in advance, we closed down the church so that people had chance to leave. So the college kids had a chance to get out of town if they needed to. Now, everybody’s on their own to make up their own decisions, which I’m glad that people did some things, I had to stay some side to go.

But whatever it is, remember that all things can happen to us and be a blessing. So if you stay, you can be a blessing. You go, you can be a blessing. And so God can work in your life, but you’re a fair. What you’re going through, how are you handling difficulties? And it was interesting, we was up there in America’s Georgia. So it came through Tampa, but it sized up Tampa and went right through the eye, went right through America’s Georgia.

That’s where we were. But it already didn’t weaken down enough, it was just a lot of wind. The power did go off, but it was off for just a little while. and then it came back on. So, when it got dark, I didn’t know dark, it was so dark. I mean, it was dark, dark. I could put my hand right there, and you could not see anything, it was dark, dark, because the sky is the nighttime, and where’s the flashlight?

We did not totally prepare for everything, because we didn’t think, well, nothing’s gonna happen here. And it did. Some things you can prepare for, some things you cannot prepare for. And so look at the next statement in verse 28, when you want to serve the Lord, remember the Lord is with you, but when you want to serve the Lord the devil is also with you. Look at it says in verse 28, he says, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries.

So your affairs, your adversaries, your love, your fellowship, all these things that God’s is concerned about in our life. Now go back there to the introductory of remarks under the word theme. And you’ll notice that there’s soundness of doctrine is assumed. There’s nothing in church ordered to set right. Philippi is a normal New Testament assembly. Saints in Christ Jesus with the Bishop or elders and deacons. The circumstances of the apostle are in striking contrast with his Christian experience. In other words, what he’s going through, he’s in prison.

But how he is, he’s on top of everything. In other words, he is solid, he is stable, he has peace of mind, he rejoicing in the Lord, and yet he’s in prison. So some people will fall apart if the things they’re looking to and love and trust in falls apart. And so is it possible that God can send things and allow things to happen outside of us to test us to whether do we really love the Lord, trust the Lord, or we’re in love with things and we don’t want to lose things or do we get to where we think about eternal things.

So God knows how each one of us and God can use everything that happens to help us to be wiser, to examine our lives and so on. Look at the next statement. Just see that. As to the former, he was Nero’s prisoner. As to the latter, there was the shout of victory. Joy, I mean, he was talking like he was a victorious man in his, he’s in prison, veh this next statement, even though it’s not scripture, this is not divine, but it’s a good statement, and I underline it, even in my Bible, on Schofield note.

I don’t agree with everything Schofield writes. I agree with the Bible, and if he makes a good statement, I like to refer to it. Christian experience, he would teach us, is not something which is going on around the believer, but something which is going on within him, within the believer. So there should be a difference. You don’t want to be like the world and you don’t want to be conformed to the world. Now if you want to know what the world is like outside, well just trying to take a peek here and look there in Philippians in chapter 2 and verse 14 and 15 especially looking verse 15 and 16 these two verses because here we are we’re in this world we’re not out of the world but we’re in the world that ye may be blameless and harmless that’s the way you’re to be the

sons of God without rebuke. This is the way you are to be. Doesn’t matter what’s going on. This is how God wants you to be. In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, in other words, the world is crooked, the world is perverse, and we’re living in it, but we’re to be different than what the world is. Now get this, among whom, and you are on the line is ye shine as lights in the world. You ever hear that little song this little light of mine?

I’m gonna let it shine, but don’t really mean that. What do you mean by? I’m gonna let my little light shine. He shines the brightest when it’s the darkest. And none of us want to face any darkness. We don’t want problems. We just hope we can just live a nice long quiet peaceful life and no darkness whatsoever. Keep the storms away, but God’s going to send storms and you might just understand we live in a wicked world and there’s wicked people that’ll do wicked things and everything’s not going to go according to the way we want it to go.

There’s problems all the time. Now, he says in verse 16, how do you shine in this world as lights in the world? Now, the world is wicked, God says that. That’s the recognized, that’s accepted. But how you’re supposed to be in this Magicka, is blameless, harmless, and without rebuke. Then he says in verse 16, holding forth the word of life. That’s the word of eternal life, holding that forth. That’s the light by which the lost man can see. That’s why we keep doing that.

You know, they went so in Friday night and I think they said they had about 38 or so, something like like I trust the Lord. Isn’t that awesome? The eternity kids went so with it. Now, that’s a scary thing walking up and just talking to somebody cold turkey like that. It petrified with adults, even in regards how strong we are in the faith, wouldn’t that scare you just a little bit? Or sometimes it scares people just to give out a track.

But I’ve had some interesting emails come this week. Two letters I’m gonna share with you and church service. I think they’re awesome. Just great. But notice what he says in verse 16, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. In other words, your labor in the Lord is never in vain, but your labor with people can be in vain. In other words, they may not accept what you say.

In other words, if I witnesses this person, God’s gonna reward me for my faithfulness. Not whether or not he believes it or not. But I don’t want to have labored in vain. I want them to trust the Lord. God’s gonna reward me for what I did, but I want them to trust the Lord. And if they don’t, then it’s like I labored with them in vain. They didn’t get it. They didn’t trust the Lord. They didn’t accomplish what I wanted it to.

But yes, down the road they may trust the Lord. So he says, you’re in this world, and the world is wicked, the world is dark. And you’re the shine for this lights. do it because I am laboring trying to help you to be strong so that you’ll give out the word of eternal life. That’s what you’re supposed to do. And if you don’t do that, it’s like I’m encouraging and then I’m not getting anywhere. There’s a lot of preachers who have left churches because they couldn’t get the people to do anything.

You think that’s possible? A person who preaches what the people should do, how they ought to be, and it’s just like, hello, wall. And nobody listens. Nobody tells, listens what the preacher said. No, it didn’t. No lives are changed. Nobody listens. Nobody changes anything. Does anything. It’s just the same old routine. You need some work done. Nobody volunteers. You need this done. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Because you don’t. They’re setting the ways. Not going to move. Not going to change.

not going to change. And do you think I can discourage a preacher? So the preacher can think, well, if this is hard ground and solid rock, I need to move where there’s some soft, you know, fertile ground and sow some seed to see something happen. Because everybody wants to see something happen. You don’t want to labor in vain. You know what I do when I was up there? They took me fishing. He had a big old pond on his own property there.

So training wanted me to go fishing. All right, I go fishing. I said, no, I don’t catch fish. And I can go down there. I feed fish. I fed those fish. I had a night crawl of that big. And that thing was a wiggle in all over the place. And I finally stuck in about three different places. And I put it in there. I said, now if I was a catfish, I’d just go all over that thing. And I put it in there.

And then a little bitty fish came up there and just deep-billy thing all. And I pulled it up. There’s nothing there. And I put another one on there. thought out there. And finally got one and he grabbed a whole of that thing and he went around and said, oh, I got one, I got one, I got one, I got one, and then right before I got rid of it, it went off the line. Now, that was frustrated. I felt like I’m laboring in vain.

Now somebody, you say, you got to have patience. I’ve had enough patience. My patience is gone. Now, if I don’t case something there, you know what I did? I moved to another spot. I tried there for a while. But there was the man who ran the place. I mean, he owned the house. It was his property. He went and he sat down and he just sat in one spot. And he just sat there and he just cast down. And he kept pulling them in.

And I’m pulling. Well, they, he ought to catch him. He knows all the fish. They know him. They’re friends, they’re buddies. And he kept pulling them in and putting them in there. I don’t know how many he had. We had fish that night. Guess how many Yankee caught? None. I could not contribute when I owed him. And so when I didn’t get a nibble or a bite, I moved over here, then I moved over here, and then I moved over here.

And he sat there in that same spot, just kept pulling them in. And so it wasn’t like me for all I was down there next to where he was. They knew it. That word somehow gets out with these fish that Yankee’s fishing don’t bite. Just take the bait off but don’t take that hook. So anyway, I’m just going to stick to trying to preach the gospel. I have not entered into any vast tournaments or anything like that lately. Well, I never have.

But you want to catch fish. Now, that’s the way the world is. But what’s the way you and I should be? Well, look there in chapter two. Just look at the guy. I like jumping around all of the scriptures. I’m here and I’m there and I’m over there. I’m there. But I think you get my drift though, don’t you? Aren’t you following me? There ought to be a little continuity to this. Here in Philippians in chapter 2, because of how bad it is out there, the way you’re supposed to be inside.

So he says, if there be any consolation, look in verse 1, chapter 2, there be therefore any consolation, any Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship, now we talked about the love we talked about the fellowship, we talked about the how you are on the inside of your tender bowels and mercies and so forth. And that’s the tender love and kindness that you show toward other people, you know. So he says in verse 2, fulfill ye my joy that you be, and here’s a word that you need to unline, like minded.

In other words, if a person is is fleshly minded or spiritually minded, what does it mean to be fleshly minded? It means you mind the flesh. Spiritually minded means you mind the spirit. So God said, I want you to have a mind like the Lord, like minded, a mind like his, so that you don’t see the world the way the world sees the world. You see the world the way God sees the world. and you see you the way God sees you, not the way other people see you.

And so there’s always this divine perspective. And I human perspective. And so it all depends on just how are you looking at this? Now look what he says. Having the same love been of one accord, one mind. Nothing be done through strife or vain glory. But in the lowliness of mind that each esteem other better than themselves. The esteem in others better than you is a a way for you to keep from exalting yourself over them and misusing people or just using people to get ahead and walking on people.

God says, no, no, you don’t do that. In the words, you always want the best for the other person. Serving the Lord is trying to figure out how can I help somebody else be stronger than the Lord. Do you want other people to be stronger than the Lord? Then they need a good strong testimony. They need to see a good example of the believer. You agree to that? Everybody goes like this means yes. This means no. And you understand this.

Then look what he says. In verse 4, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. In other words, how can I help? What is their state? And see when he talks about state, that means that’s the how you’re doing right now. Your position in Christ is you’re standing. You’re standing before God is you are in Christ and that can never change. You are as righteous as God. That’s your position because you’re in Christ.

Now in this world as you are living in spite of all the experiences of life, he says this, look in verse 19. He’s in verse 19, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send to Mothias shortly under you that I also may be of good comfort when I know of and those two words. Your state how you’re doing. In other words you want to bring me comfort you do right because when you don’t do right it doesn’t bring me comfort because you see when you’re concerned about other people and when they don’t do right it hurts you right you ever had kids that don’t do right.

Does it hurt? Got grandkids that don’t do right. Does it hurt a little bit? You ever have a wife that don’t do right? Don’t go there. What about a husband? Oh my husband, he’s perfect. Oh my wife, she’s perfect. But says here, no of your estate. For in verse 20 says, for I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 20 but ye know the proof of him that as a son with the Father he have served with me in the gospel.

So you’re talking about how a person is doing, how they’re living. If I walked up to Warren’s, it wasn’t how you’re doing spiritually. I, you know, or if I walked up to you and I asked you, what has the Lord been teaching you lately? Well, haven’t you learned anything? What have you learned from the scriptures lately? Where have you been studying? What’s the last verse you memorized? How are you doing spiritually? Can you still wear a smile? Are you done with the dogs?

Nobody loves you. Have them for the party. 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. book The Gospel Driven Man covers all those topics and we want all new listeners of Bible line to receive a free copy.

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