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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 homepage 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.

We are looking in the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians. Philippians is a good book to look at when you’re having a rough time, when you’re just having a rough life. You know, things are not always working out for your advantage, you think. But there’s some wonderful things that are mentioned in the book of Philippians that kind of helps us in our Christian life. You know that little daily walk we have to have with the Lord. and things that are happening, good, bad, or indifferent, we still gotta live life.

We can’t get exempt. I know some people say, Lord, would you just stop the earth, let me off, I’m ready to get off. Like going down the expressway, and you just wanna get off the expressway, but there’s no off-ramp. Don’t you just hate that? Or you’re driving down expressway and you’re hungry and you can’t find a restaurant. Or you’re looking for the rest here and you can’t find that, that’s even worse. But you’re always looking for something And as you travel down the road of life, and so sometimes there’s little detours that we make, little errors in our judgment, sometimes good decisions we make too.

But I thought the other day it was interesting to listen to, what’s the name of President’s name Trump? There’s still some people, question whether or not he’s the President or not. But he is the President, he wasn’t elected. And I listened to his speech that he had on United Notions, and I really enjoyed his speech. I thought what he said. He was saying what I’d want to say if I was going to, you know, I could just say it and there’d be no consequences.

He’ll say it regardless of the consequences. And I couldn’t believe it just the other day. I made a statement. I don’t know if it was Sunday night or Sunday night. I might have been somewhere, but I forgot where I made it. Whenever these people are refusing to, you know, to stand and, you know, to honor our flag and our country and so forth, I said that if I was a coach, they’d be able to just fire them. Well, I thought it.

Trump said it, and he says it on nationwide television. Now he’s got the NFL mad at him, the NBA’s mad at him. Most of the football players are mad at him. But he says what he, you wish you had the courage to say if you didn’t have to fall out from it. Well, there’s fall out from it. And I think it’s at the place where he really doesn’t care whether you like it or you don’t like it. He really is not trying to win the popularity contest.

Because he wanted the presidency without the popularity contest. So he’s not trying to do that. I saw this book that, what’s her name, I didn’t see it, I heard about it. Hillary Clinton wrote a book and I thought to myself, after all this time, what difference does it make? What difference does it make? I heard that from somebody, you know, one time somebody said that. anyway. This isn’t Lord good. Don’t you love a little humor along the way? Well, that’s what the Lord’s talking about.

Enjoying life as you go because you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna get everybody on your side. Not everybody loves you. You ought to see all some of the things that people have said just about the message that I was talking about the other night and it was put up on YouTube and had 2500 hits. And there’s a whole bunch of people that totally disagree with my theological position. And some of them use some file language. And so I just, I reported them.

I said, this is, you know, it’s not only just spam. I said, this is terrible. To go on my website and, you know, talking about the things of the Lord and somebody wants to use it a lot of profanity. I don’t care for profanity. I don’t use it, never have, and I don’t care for it. And if anybody just, that’s a Fensma. And since we’re against everybody who offends them, I’m already offended by 99% of the world. And I think they ought to change just for me.

Wouldn’t that be good? I’m going to start a protest somehow. But I don’t know how to start a protest. I wouldn’t know who to protest to. You? Yeah, well. Philippians, I want you to look this. Look down in verse 5, chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1 verse 5. Now that’s what we covered a lot of things about the book of Philippians and what it was and was not and how that there’s the world outside and it’s a wicked world but there’s the peace of you on the inside.

So regardless of what happens in the world we’re supposed to be at peace with the Lord. We may not be at peace with the world because the world hates the Lord the world’s gonna hate you. And if it hated Christ, it’s gonna hate you. But we want everybody to like us. That’s why we don’t make a big mark because we are so afraid of offending somebody. So we don’t say a lot of things. And I kind of get a kick out of somebody.

I don’t even know if the guy knows the Lord. But he just, boom, just blast him anyway. And you know what, he doesn’t need their money. He doesn’t need their money. And he’s already been as far as popular as you can be. just about everybody in the whole world knows who he is. Now they know who that little chubby guy is too over there. The rocket man. Boy he’s gotten in trouble with that. Just calling him the rocket man.

He’d come up with some name that really stick you know and now the rocket man has done come back against him in blasting Donald Trump. So he’s insane. So we’ve got two people calling the other one insane. But the thing is oh and it was in the paper today. They said we are going to annihilate America. We’re going to get you. Well then, should we wait till they do it to see if they really do? I don’t know. I think they’re pushing this envelope thing to the edge.

So one of these days we could wake up and there’s a mushroom cloud somewhere in the world. But look at there in verse 5, for you’re a fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. your fellowship in the gospel. You see it’s easy if everybody believes the same thing about the gospel. That’s why you can work together if people believe the same thing. This is what makes teaching in our Bible college a little easier for the students because they don’t have five teachers teaching five different things.

You can go to some colleges and they do. I went up here I took some kids one time to Bob Jones University. Bob Jones University and I went and talked to this one man and set in his office. And he says, yes, you have to make Christ the Lord and Master of your life. And you have to turn from your sins. And if you’re really saved, you’re a live it. That’s everything I teach against. But that’s what he was teaching.

And I went to another teacher and I was going to ask him, I’ll call he was teaching personal evangelism and didn’t have that same name, but that’s what it boiled down to. And he says, oh no, no, no, no, no. He says, that’s works for salvation. He says, you’re just saved by grace, just by trusting Christ is Savior, He’ll never cast you out. And that you don’t have to serve the Lord to go to heaven once you’re Savior’s always saved.

Totally, I’ll have two different teachers. One’s the lead exactly like I do, and one’s the lead exactly the opposite. Tish the same school. But then they’ll have a whole bunch of people. Some that’ll be believed in predestination, some that won’t. Some of the Calvinists and some are, I don’t know if any of them were Armenian, but it’s ridiculous. You don’t do that. the Lord talks about being of the same mind. Mark then which caused divisions contrary to the doctrines which you ever received and avoid them.

You don’t put them on the staff. Though the doctrine’s wrong, you don’t do that. That’s why you gotta have a good strong doctrine statement so everybody knows what you believe. And this is what we’ve done here. So anyway, your fellowship in the gospel, number six, verse six, being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now, there’s two ways of looking at this verse.

One is the work that God did in you when He saved you and He’s gonna perform a good work in you through you for the rest of your life, which would be like a guarantee. But that’s not what I believe that Paul was talking about. There’s these people here in the church at Philippi that had supported the apostle Paul and his ministry. and were now, well, for a while they were not able to for whatever the reasons. And now once again, the good work that they were doing, which was in supporting the missions, they’re down doing it again.

Just to kind of give you that, oot they’re in Philippians in chapter 4. Philippians 4 and look there in verse 10. And I believe this is a reference to that verse that we read over there. In verse 10 of chapter 4 he says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me has flourished again. So they did, they didn’t and now they’re doing it again. And so that good work that they were doing, because giving is a good thing.

And so he’s talking about, you know, there’s things that happens in life and he’s been to a lawful lot and he’s been in prison, he’s in prison again. But he says, you have once again, you know, flourished in the sense that you’re doing this for missions again. Look there in Philippians in chapter one. So he says, I believe that you will continue this and do what you’re supposed to do until the day of Christ, until we get home to be with the Lord.

So as long as we’re in this life, serving God is what God wants us to do. So he says, we all believe the same thing, therefore that’s why we give and sacrifice for the cause of Christ. Now look there in verse seven. Even as it is meat for me or fit for me to think this of you all, you all, that’s the southern term, because I have you in my heart. Inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all partakers of my grace.”

In other words when Paul says God’s grace was not bestowed upon him in vain, but he also says I labored more abundantly than they all. Through God given Paul the grace to live for the Lord with the desire and the power to do the will of God, his labor was not in vain. There were people who had trust the Lord. He says, and you are the result of this, what he calls here, my grace. In other words, I didn’t charge you.

I did it willingly. You don’t owe me, but I did it. And he says, for the gospel’s sake. So Paul did what he did and he suffered because of his defense of the gospel. See if you just kind of present it and let it go nobody cares anything about that. But I go to a lot of meetings where they don’t present the gospel. And so some people say well are they clear? I couldn’t tell you. They never gave it.

I went to a meeting just recently. Well on Thursday. And there were hundreds of preachers in there. I thought I’d let Jesse go with me because I wanted him to see what I’m doing and some of these things. So he enjoyed going. This one little fella came up to me with his wife and said, Mr. Arnoy, he said it real funny, a little accent on it. He says, I’m a pastor over in Brandon of the Filipino Baptist Church. And I said, well, good.

I’m glad to meet you. He said, I listen to you on the radio every day, every day I listen to you on the radio, every day. He says, and I like what you say. He says, I agree with you. And I don’t know what I’ve been listening to, but I think to me, he says, can I have a picture with you? And I said, sure. So anyway, he stood on this side and his wife’s, she stood on that side.

I was going to put him on the other side and he didn’t know. Did you want to get on this side? So anyway, I had my arm on my shoulder. I said, are y’all standing up? I said, you all standing up and then, yeah, I guess you are. Anyway, I had a little fun with them. But you’re always trying to influence people, but they had a speaker, but he never gave the gospel. I guess you just assumed that everybody knows the Lord.

And the pastor’s name was Al Moller. He is the president of the Southern Baptist Deological Seminary and known all over America. I mean, taught much individual, but they didn’t make the gospel clear. So I don’t know what he said or how he really believes. He got an idea, but I didn’t. I couldn’t make it to see. But what he said was good. It’s just that sometimes they leave out, to me, the most important thing of all. And me, I just don’t like to take it for granted that well, everybody’s saved.

I’d rather believe everybody’s lost. And that way, I don’t take it for granted. Every time I speak in the meetings or places, everybody’s lost. I’m the only one saved and I want to make the gospel clear. I’d rather go that way than as well everybody saved. But what if they’re not? And I get to heaven and God says, I gave you an opportunity to preach the gospel and you blew it and God’s slap your face. And you should have done it.

But now notice it. Those are the little words right there in defense, defense, and the confirmation of the gospel. So it’s not just a matter of you preaching the gospel, but you’ve got to defend that message. Hold your place right here and look there. Just go back to your left. To Galatians, I want you to see this verse. Galatians in chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5, look what we have. He says in verse nine, this is Galatians chapter five, verse nine, a little leaven, leaventh the whole lump.

Now what is leaven? What do you think, what are you talking about? It’s yeast, it’s what you put into dough to make it do what? To make it rise. Well, the Bible uses leaven as though it was sin. And a little sin in your life can permeate your whole life. Little sins you tolerate in your life can totally control your whole life. In other words, if you had a hundred cattle inside of a fence and you left one gate open, that one gate can cause you to lose the whole heart.

Well, I locked those other four, but you left off one gate. One area in your life, unguarded, can destroy your whole testimony, so you have to watch that. So he says, there are those who will add works to the gospel. When you add works to the gospel, you permeate the whole gospel. You’re ruining the whole message. And so that’s why he says, I marvel that you’re so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel, which is not another, but there’d be some that were, you know, twist, turn and pervert the gospel of Christ into another message.

and he says, a little 11, 11th of the whole lump. So he is set for the defense of the guy, he got to defend that true message. So here he says in verse 10, I have confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubling you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be. In other words, there’s those who are teaching these legalistic Judaizers coming down from Jerusalem and giving them a message of you’ve got to keep law also, well, they were totally misleading the people and causing them to believe something that wasn’t true.

So this is what he said in verse 11. And I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision or the law, if you have to be circumcised because it’s under the law, if I preach that that’s what you’ve got to do to be saved, why do I yet suffer persecution? Why am I being persecuted for something that they say you’ve got to do. He’s because I don’t teach that. He said I do not teach that. That is wrong. So he says why do I yet suffer persecution and then you are along the line this part in your Bible.

This is Galatians chapter 5 and verse 11. Then is the offense of the cross ceased. The reason we get criticized and suffer persecution is because you teach salvation by grace alone. When you add works to the message, well that’s the way the world believes in. That’s what most religions believe in. You’ve got to, yes, believe, but you also got to do these other things too and you’ve got to do these good deeds. Well then you don’t persecuted person. But what you do get persecuted for is when you believe that salvation is by grace and grace alone.

First thing that somebody says whenever they think they really understand what you’re saying. You mean to tell me. I can trust Christ as my Savior and go out here and live anywhere. Fence people. So we can’t tell them that so we got to change the gospel. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to whosoever changes his life and goes to church and pays 50% and turns from His sins and make Christ the Lord and Master of his life, well, that makes sense.

But when you say it’s by grace and grace alone, now that offends people, you can’t tell me I can just trust you. That’s all I gotta do. There’s gotta be more to it than that. No, there is nothing else. God loves you that much. You see, salvation is based upon this principle. God wants you to know how much he loves you. Not how much you love God. You do not go to heaven because you love God. You go to heaven because God loves you.

Now as you begin to grow in the Lord, you learn more and more. Your love for the Lord can begin to grow. Next thing you know, you want to serve the Lord because you love Him. It doesn’t have better to do it because you want to than because you have to. Wife, you have to love your husband. Well, don’t you just want to love Him because you love Him. I love you. Rule number one, number two, number three. Thou shalt wash my dishes, thou shalt make the bed, thou shalt cut the grass, thou shalt all overhaul the motor.

And lay down all these laws. Now if they do love each other, you don’t have to have all these rules and regulations, because you love. And love has its own set of rules. So if I love my wife, then I want to be faithful to my wife. I want to provide, I want to care, and I want to do all the things I’m supposed to do. because love. Love is a powerful motivation and it’s more powerful than fear. The Bible says that perfect love casts us out fear.

Fear torments and so when you don’t truly trust the Lord you’re afraid. So people who not really trust in the Lord are afraid of losing their salvation because it depends on them. So they have to do something to try to help God save them. No, he is the Savior. There is no other Savior. But he says here, then is the offense of the cross cease. It ceased. If I teach works for salvation, then I won’t be offended. But he did not teach the law to be saved.

He taught grace and grace alone. And so therefore he was, he was placed in jail. People wanted to kill him because why would Jews want to kill Paul if Paul was teaching what they are doing. Well, he wasn’t. But those same teachers who wanted to kill Paul came down here and was teaching the people in Galatia and Antioch, the people he led to the Lord and trying to put them under the law. Paul said, well, if that’s what I was teaching, then why are they trying to kill me?

So I’ll go back to the book of Philippians in chapter one, Philippians chapter one. So Paul in prison has some things to say that really help people to serve the Lord with joyfulness and rejoice always, as he says in chapter four. But notice what he says in verse eight, “‘For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” In other words, according to the tender mercies of God. In other words, Paul says, I love you like the Lord loves you.

I want the Lord to love you through me. And this is what he’s talking about in chapter two. See, we don’t have to love God and we don’t have to love people. But he says in the book of Christ, I Corinthians said in chapter five verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth us or motivates us because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead and that they which live should not, should not, henceforth not one live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again.

So should I love the Lord? Yes. Do I have to love the Lord? No. Your children, do they have to love you or should they love you? You want them to? You say, you love me or I’ll… You want your children to love you because they love you and you want to love them because what? because you love them because of this, this, and this, and you love them. You pose a love with an everlasting love, a love that not based upon their how they live.

If the children do wrong, well, I don’t love you anymore. No, you pose a love and regress how they live. God loves me regardless of whether I serve them or I don’t serve them. And it’s that love for me that causes me one to serve it. Anyway, he says here in verse 9. And this I pray that, and you other line these two words, your love. You see in chapter one and verse five, we talked about your fellowship. Your fellowship in the gospel, because without the fellowship in the gospel, there’s, you don’t know how to love.

Did you know so many telling people how to have eternal life, how to go to heaven is the greatest show of compassion and love you can show. Now people may have a lot of problems in life and you can take them to the hospital, you can pay their bills, you can give them money, as you can do all kind of good deeds. You can help people a lot of ways. But the greatest show of compassion is that you talked to them about the Lord, how to have eternal life.

Because Because after you do these other things, are they still going to die? And when they die, where are they gone? If you haven’t trusted the Lord, it’s still going to help. We don’t want to pay the road for them to go to hell on. They were on their way to hell, but I made it comfortable for them. I really helped them on the road to hell. No. Use their problems. To get him to the Lord. It’s not that you don’t try to help people, it’s that you want to help people to the Lord.

And using people’s problems as opportunities to explain the gospel, let me share something with you. Like Peter and John said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Power to raise them up, but they didn’t have any money. Which one would you rather have? money. No, they had power that God gave to them, but silver and gold have I none. And so one thing that we all have is that treasure in earth and vessel, the knowledge of how to go to heaven.

That’s the most important thing you can ever know. So it must be the most important thing you can ever share. So whenever you witness to somebody, we’re trying to teach these teenagers and college kids that come to college to go out Friday night, so in them. And the reason is because that’s a way of showing compassion. It’s a way of showing love because they’re doing something for somebody with nothing coming back to them from those individuals. They don’t charge them.

So okay I’ll let you to Lord that’s five dollars. No you don’t do that. And if you can teach the kids to do that, well they care about other people’s destiny more than they can themselves about themselves then you be surprised what kind of individuals that will make down the road when they see the needs of other people and the greatest need of yes is no in the Lord but you also get a chance to help them out of the areas of their life which is ought to be done but look what he says in this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in the words more and more more in what knowledge get this and in all judgment.

In other words, the more you love people, the more you want what’s best for them. I want people to go to heaven. But they’re not in heaven yet. Many of trust the Christ is Savior. I want the best Father here. So the best thing I can do to help them while they’re here is to give them more knowledge. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is power. And so you want power? No knowledge. Know the knowledge of the Word of God, not just the wisdom of the world but the wisdom of God.

And when you get the wisdom of God, then you can make better decisions. Your judgment depends upon your knowledge. And if you don’t know a lot, you can’t make wise decisions. So you’ve got to know and discern. So the Bible talks about the Word of God that we made discern right from Rome. That’s in the book of Hebrews in chapter 5. So God wants us to be able to decide between right and wrong by the mental actions, decisions that you make.

And so your wisdom is revealed by the decisions that you make. If you’re a smart person, it will be revealed by the decisions you make. What are you living for? How do you live? Not only the money you make, the money the money you spend, the money you keep. All those things reveal something about you. But he says here in verse 10, this verse you ought to underline it in your Bible. That, ye may approve things. In other words, you grow in the knowledge of the Word of God because you love the Lord and your knowledge will increase, your judgment will increase, you’ll become wiser, you’ll be able to discern between bad better, that’s a good better best, never let it rest, till your good is better and your better is best.

That makes sense, Donut. You got that. Don’t ask me to be seated. 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. Leaving that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.