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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.

Look there in your Bible, the Bible book of Philippians, the book of Philippians and chapter one chapter one. Everybody has problems. Did you ever think of all the people in this world that are a problem to you? Of how many people that you are a problem to? Are you a problem? Are you hard to live with? Would you want to live with somebody just like you? Don’t answer that. Don’t answer that. But everybody’s got an old sinful nature, and because we all have an old sinful nature, we’re a problem.

And we get just as mean and ugly and cantankerous as everybody else does. Can it happen to a Christian? No, we’re Christians. We don’t do that. But men, we can lose it just like quid. But look what he says here in verse 28. Verse 28 of chapter 1 says, and in nothing terrified by your adversary. Now isn’t it the biggest thing is we are afraid? We are afraid and we try to figure out a way to, you know, solve that fear.

Now somewhere in the Bible it says that perfect love casts us out fear. And so if you learn to really love the Lord, can you really trust the Lord? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could go back, well, I don’t know if it would be good or not, to a time when you never had to worry about having insurance. Remember, whenever people walked, they didn’t have a car. They’d have to have insurance. There are houses. There were no insurance companies.

There was no insurance on anything. There was no health insurance. Can you see yourself in a covered wagon going across this country and applying for food stamps? No. There were no hospitals. Nothing was free. And a lot of people died. It was a rare occasion. People lived in 50 or more. But we have really gotten to the place where we are, you know, we don’t mind that insurance, because it gives us such a piece of mind. Well, I don’t believe the apostle Paul had any kind of medical insurance.

He had to have 10 insurance because he lived in a tent sometimes. We’ve had a little 10 insurance. But he says, and nothing been a 10. of you had a little 10 in church. But he says, and nothing been afraid of your adversaries. Now, this adversary is no doubt talking about the devil himself. You have people that are against you, things are against you. And so he says, which is to them an evident token of predation, step toward destruction.

But to you of salvation and that of God. In other words, learning how to go through life, trust the Lord, and see him God can deliver you from a devastating dilemma. And verse 29, for unto us, it is given in the behalf of Christ, and you ought to underline this part in your Bible. This is a good statement to underline. Not only to be leave on him, that’s wonderful. But that’s not the only thing that Lord wants us to do.

After you trusted Christ as you say, he didn’t just take you home. That would have been nice, but he didn’t. And so he says here, not only to believe on him, but also in your underlyingness, because this is the part we don’t like. The first part we like, the last part we don’t like, but also to suffer for his sake. So you’re left in this world after you trusted Christ as Savior to suffer for the Lord. Because long as you’re in this life, you’re gonna suffer.

You’re gonna suffer with health problems, financial problems, relationship problems. Just think, if you weren’t here, When you were in heaven, would you have any problems? How many problems would you have? Okay, we’re all in heaven. List your problems. What would your problem be? You can name one problem you’ll have while you’re in heaven. No, you’re in heaven. No problem. While you’re here, you have problems. Yeah, you don’t see, I’m living with my mistakes. Or mistakes. You are living in a world that is filled with problems, a wicked world, a sinful world, sinful people.

part of that problem is your own sinful nature. Did you know that you are your own biggest problem? You’re the biggest problem you have. How you read things, discern things, what you’ve got to put up with, the attitude that you have and how you accept and perceive things. You’d be surprised that most things you make up in your own mind. You misread people. You don’t really express a lot the way you should. You’d be surprised how we fail in our Christian life to say and do the thing that we’re supposed to do.

And have you ever heard the statement iron sharpness iron? Well I guess iron is supposed to be sharpened. So it means you’ve got to have some friction, something to rub against it to kind of knock off the rough edges. So a lot of times God will let you have somebody that’s just as rough as you are come your way and you sharpen each other’s Acts, iron, sharpness, iron. People is sharpening each other’s countenance. And like my brother-in-law, you say, let the rough edge drag and it’ll soon wear smooth.

Sometimes if you just let things go and just keep on going, keep doing what’s right and it’ll start running smooth. But it’s whenever you’re rubbing against each other and you have friction because we just go against the grange. Like a friend of the person says, Do I rubbed you the wrong way? That’s what they’re talking about, friction. So if it’s true, just like a cat, you can go one way, it’s just as nice and smooth as that cat, I just think his head up here, just like that.

Go the other way. Rub that cat the wrong way. Have you ever tried to take the stomach of a cat? Don’t. Don’t. A dog can get away with it. Cat, don’t do it. They got clause and all four clause comes at you at one time and they’ll just call you to death. But anyway, some of the problems we create ourselves. And so yes, we’d love to be delivered out of this world. But look what we have in verse 29.

When he says, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, in verse 30, having the same conflict, which you saw in me and now here to be in me. In other words, the troubles I used to have, I still got them. That you used to hear that I hadn’t, they’re still there. You are probably suffering consequences and problems just like you’ve always done all your life. And have you yet seen and lived long enough that God brought you through them and you didn’t die after all?

And now you still got some problems. You had problems last year. You’re gonna have problems this year. You got news for you. Tomorrow’s coming. You’re gonna have some more. You’re gonna have problems all the days of your life. As long as you’re in this world, in this body, you are going to have problems. Now, so in chapter two, he wants to give him a nice word of comfort. After all of that he says. In other words, like, look, you’re gonna have problems, get a grip.

I had a radio broadcast up in Georgia, an hour every Sunday morning on the Bulldog Station. And of course, Vince Dually was the, he was the coach for the Bulldog’s. And so his wife, well, she was Catholic, but she always listened to my radio broadcast. And she called up the station, she did her best to get me kicked off the radio station because I was a call-in. And people were calling and says, what do you think about Catholicism? Well, I got a, I got a, this is where you call in, you get a Bible answer.

And what do you think about the Pope? What do you think about Mary? And I’ll answer the question. Oh, she was just steamed. So anyway, they contacted me from the radio station. They didn’t kick me off, but I knew that Vince Duhli’s wife wasn’t in favor of me. But anyway, you never know how many people do listen to what you had to say. So anyway, in verse one of chapter two, if there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ. In other words, because of your adversaries, what you’re going through, all the suffering that you have, you’re gonna have to learn how to think.

because most of your stability, that keeps you from having runaway emotions is gonna come because of the stability of your own mind. What do you really believe? What do you believe about the devil? What do you believe about really what you’re doing? What the cause of your life? And are you doing what God wants you to do? You’ve got to find a place where you can draw your strength from, something to rest in. That’s why we say the scriptures are like little stones here and here crossing a river.

And so you can rest on this verse. You rest on this verse. And so he’s going to give him some more verses to rest on it because, you know, if this being true, you need to have some consolation. You need to learn how to think. And you stand upon them because you can’t change the circumstances. Most time in life, you can’t change all of it. You’re going to go from one crisis to another to another. And some of them you can avoid, and some of them you can’t.

But look in verse one, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, in other words, you’re in and most beings, you’re tender compassion that you have. These are ways to think, if, if, if, you see that word, if they’re mentioned anywhere? He says in verse two, fulfill you my joy. have joy like I’ve got. Well, change the circumstances. He says, no, I’ve got the same problems you’ve got.

I’m in prison. He says, I’m in prison. But he says, in verse 2, that you be, and you are online this one of the words, like minded, a mind like this, learning how to think. Just like, you know, you can have problems with your kids, your grandkids, you have problems with your husband, when you have problem problems with your wife, you got problems with the pastor, you got problems all the time. All right, now, so that you don’t make wrong decisions, you gotta think right.

Some people just work on emotions instead of slow down, what’s the facts? And learning how to think, now do the right thing, instead of just running off, you know, and you don’t know really what you’re doing. That’s like this one person, always arguing, I’m arguing, just blast. So, we just don’t talk to him and say, you know, you shouldn’t be doing that. He says, oh, I know, it’s just like a shotgun. He says, I just like to shoot it off and I get it off my chest and then I feel better.

He says, well, you might feel better, but all those people you just shot don’t feel better. And so, sometimes, you know, you use a rifle and it’s pinpointed, boom, to a particular person. And sometimes you can use a scatter shot. You can use a shotgun. Because you can’t usually hit a rabbit, but one little pellet. So you use a shell that’s got a whole bunch of them in there. And you blast them all at one time and get a big pattern so that you got a better chance of hitting that rabbit.

I am an expert rabbit hunter. I’ve killed a lot of rabbit. Need a lot of rabbit. We’ve had rabbit boxes, but I’ve shot a lot of rabbit. You say you shouldn’t shoot at helplessly rabbit. Well, it sure tasted good. I love rabbits too. Call me Omar Fudd if you want to, but I love. You know, he’d been trying to catch that bug’s bunny all these years and still think of him. But learning how to think, how to enjoy life, learning how to smile a little bit because of what’s good not going on.

Legan verse two, like minded, having the same love, been of one accord and one of my, you know all these things that he tells you here has nothing to do with solving the problems. Nothing that he’s telling you solves those problems out there. It’s just a way of solving your internal problem. Remember, when we started off with lecture one, it had to do with we’re living in a big old sinful world that hates God’s children and you are told to live righteous, godly life.

And so you’ve got to have greater strength on the inside of you than all the problems on the outside of you. So I can’t change that but I can sure change me. I can be stronger. I can learn to think better and make the right decision. So this is what he’s talking about. All these are things that are on the inside of you that nobody else can control and that you can’t just, you know, Some people call it joy by osmosis.

In the words, if you just lean up against somebody that has joy, by osmosis it will come right through their shoulder and lean right in and come all over you. No, it won’t work out of way. In the words, get your own. Don’t steal none of mine, you go get your own. Get your own peace, because I can’t give you, I can try to say do nice things, but you’ve got to get your own peace from the Lord. Your own joy from the Lord.

Your love. You got to get that. Now, we’re supposed to share that, but you can’t make a person accept it. You can love your husband or love your wife or love your kid, but you can’t make him accept that love. God so loved the world, but he doesn’t make the world accept that love. Your love can be rejected. Your love, your joy, your peace, everything that you have, your happiness. Somebody else can’t stand it when you’re happy because they’re envious and jealous.

They want you to be miserable like them. You know anybody like that? It’s not you though, right? And some people like I told you, I led that one related to the Lord right in the office in there. And I said, now we need to get your husband. She said, no, no, no, no, no. I want him to go to hell. She says, no, I want him to go to hell. And I couldn’t believe what I heard. So anyway, you got to work with things like that.

Look down now in verse 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. Because see, when you do things just to receive glory, well that means you’re receiving it from somebody else who loves and appreciates you, or acknowledges what you do. And if they don’t come through, you feel like, oh, I’ll never help them again. I’m not gonna be nice to them anymore. If that’s the way they’re gonna treat me, that’s a reaction because of your expectation. You expected them to heat all that praise upon you and then they didn’t do it.

Well, if they don’t like me, I don’t like them either. Isn’t it wonderful that we go through life? We just like the ones that like us. We just love those that love us. We’re nice to those who are nice to us. Is that the Bible way or is that the selfish way when it’s all about you? So these verses are to try to help us know how to think. Because if you don’t, you won’t stand strong. You won’t be able to make it.

Because the weight of the world is so strong and you’ll be conformed to like, and then you’ll wind up being like the very people you despise. It’s like sometimes kids, I hate my dad. I hate my dad. That last thing I want to do is be like my dad. Guess who they become like? Whatever you think about. And they think about it all the time and then hate beables up inside of me and tell where the way you are inside and you keep thinking that way and hating that way, you become just like the person you hate.

That you don’t want to be like, is that’s what you’re doing? You reap what you sow. And so if you think about the Lord, you always bought the Lord on your mind. You know after a while you begin to think like the Lord and act like the Lord. you can tell where a lot of people are spiritually by how they’re acting. Their attitude, whether they’re really close to the Lord by, what does it take to cause them to lose it?

You know, that anger, the next explosion. How long does it take? Oh, about that long. You know where they are spiritually. So revealing. You said next Sunday, I’m not coming to the Sunday school. Look what he says here. In verse three, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves, which is better than you esteem in yourself better than everybody else. Because then you think I’m the king and everybody bow to me. Everybody take care of me.

You know, it’s all about me. No, try to find out. See, sir, in the Lord is trying to find out ways to help people. This is why I want people to teach Sunday School class because that’s the way of you serve it, helping people. Come to range, go to a one, get involved. Why? of helping somebody else. It gets your mind off of you because you’ve got to prepare to help somebody else. You’ve got to teach somebody else. But if you don’t do anything, then it’s all about you.

And you’ll never be satisfied. You’ll never really like all the sermons that the preacher preaches, even though they’re excellent. You’re not going to like all the sons of good class or what? Because you don’t need it. Why? Because you’re not going to use it. You don’t need it. You’re not going to use it. But like I tell the college kids, I says, now, write this down. Now write this down. Now look at this note here. And here’s why I do this.

Now the reason I’m telling you this is because you’re going to use this. You need everything I’m teaching you. But if they’re not going to use it, then why am I teaching it? Where are they needed for it? They don’t need it. You assume you’re learning because you want to do. You want to apply it to your life. And so many Christians can come to church all the days of their life, hear all the things that are said and done, and they never mature.

One iota, They never grow, never mature. Stay the same. You’re supposed to constantly keep growing in the knowledge. Remember that’s mentioned right here in the book of Philippians in chapter 1 and where it says they’re in verse 3 where it says, and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more. Remember that little song? Let’s talk about Jesus, the King of King Decee, the Lord of Lord Supreme, throughout eternity. The great I am, the way, the truth, the light, the door.

Let’s talk about Jesus more and more and more and more. There’s no end to the song. So somewhere along you just have to, but it’s a It’s a great little tomb. Now look what he says here. In verse four, look not every man on his own things. But every man also on the things of others. In other words, not just your burden, but trying to figure how to help other people carry their burden. Hold your place right here. And I want you to see this.

Look there in the book of, let’s see, the book of Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six, I believe. That is the verse. Look in Galatians chapter six and verse one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, now overtaken in the fault is the ones that are walking in the flesh according to the previous chapter. They’re walking in the flesh. Restore, he says, ye which are spiritual, or you’re the one that’s walking in the spirit. Restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest I also be tempted.

In other words, don’t be too hard and judgmental because you’d be surprised how quickly you can fall to and you have to eat your own words. I would never do that. Oops. And then you did it. Look what else he says. In verse 2, bear you one another’s burdens. Now he talks about bearing your own burdens and then helping another person bear their burdens. Everybody’s got burdens. And some of these burdens are responsibilities. So as an individual, I am supposed to fulfill my responsibilities.

That’s my burden. And another person’s, well they’ve got their responsibilities. But those that are weak may not fulfill all of their responsibilities. So those that are strong and fulfilling your responsibility, part of the ministry is is to help the person that’s weaker fulfill his. So you are to walk with the Lord and get the strength and so forth to help somebody else. That’s why if you’re never helping anybody causes people to wonder, are you strong at all? Or don’t you care about anybody?

You can’t get close to the Lord without loving that which God loves and God so loved the world. And you don’t care about anybody but yourself, you don’t love. You don’t really love the Lord. You know about Him, you wanna be close and things like that. But I’m talking about, you don’t really love Him. Because He says, if you love me, keep my commandment. Serve me, do what I ask you to do. And if you won’t do that, why not?

Oh, cause you don’t love Him. But if you do love Him, do it. And so there’s a lot of people that don’t know what you know. You know what lifting weights does, you know, a person wants to get strong, they try to live weights. go to the gym room, work out. It’s because you’re looking for the resistance. It’s something that pulls against you. It’s heavy, it’s hard. And so you’re trying to lift something that’s hard and it builds up the muscles on your own body, right?

The barbell doesn’t get any stronger. Those weights stay the same. But you’re using them to build you up. So whenever you serve the Lord, you’ll get stronger. You’ll get stronger by doing what God wants you to do. But look up here, I want to show you this. This hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. See, all of us do wrong. All of us have done bad and we’ve got to pay for it.

The payment is death and hell. God won’t be satisfied by nothing else except taking your life. The wages of sin, death. You did it, you owe it. So that’s why God wants us to go to heaven because He loves us, but He hates our sin. and we can’t go to heaven with our sin. So how is God going to get me in and keep this out? You and I couldn’t find a way because we are sinners and we can’t separate ourselves from it.

So what Christ did, there’s a way. Christ came into the world. The Lord God Himself, perfect. No sin. We have sin, but not Him. He’s righteous. He’s perfect. He didn’t know wrong. So he didn’t have to die. But because he loved us, he said he’d take our place. So he died in our place. He took all the sin of all the world, that debt that we had, that debt we had, he paid for it. He paid my sin debt, came back from the dead.

And he said that if I would believe that he did it for me, he would put the payment he made to my account. I go to heaven what he did. I didn’t earn it. I don’t deserve it. I’m a sinner. So are you. Thank you. We’re all sinners. Everybody in the whole world. When he paid for our sins, he did it for everybody in the world and offers it to everybody who soever it would believe you would not perish.

I mean, go to hell, but have eternal life. So that’s why I can’t go to hell because he says, if I believe it, I shall not perish. I mean, I can’t go to hell. Why can’t I go to hell? Because he says, I can’t go to hell. Why? Because I believe it. Either you believe it or you don’t believe it. I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for my sins. That’s why the most five powerful words in the whole world of God is Christ died for my sins.

Why am I going to heaven? Christ died for my sins. That’s why I’m going to heaven. It’s not because I have been good. Very good. I have been very good. Yeah, see that’s why I work. Now, nothing comes up close to those five words. Christ died for my sins. That’s why I’m going to heaven. And that’s the only reason anybody goes to heaven. You’re not going to heaven because you go of church, you don’t go to heaven because you’ve been good, so you haven’t been.

You break your heart. You have not been good enough. No one has ever lived good enough to go to heaven by their good deeds. It’s the gift of God. Best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head, bond, every eye, close, and no one looking around. If you hear this morning and have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him? Would you believe that when He died, He died for you. Don’t you want to go to heaven?

You know, if you don’t trust the Lord, you’ll spend eternity separated from God in hell. And if you’re watching by internet, right there on the screen, it says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. If you’ve never done so, would you do it right now? Would you just click and say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. We don’t know who you are. It just lets us know that you watch, you listen, and you said you would trust Christ as your Savior.

But if If you’re in the auditorium and if you’ve never trusted the Lord, would you right now in the quietness of this moment, just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord I know I’m a sinner. And I believe that when Christ died, He died for me. And right now I will trust Him as my Savior, as my only hope of one to heaven. Would you do that? Would you trust Him? And if you will, I’m going to ask you to raise your hand in just a moment.

Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. I’d like to pray for you and I’d like to know. So is there anyone at all before we close? Just slip you in a very quick and put it, yes, I trust Christ is my Savior today and put it right back down just as quick as you can. Yes, God bless you, buddy. Anyone else? Just slip it up real quick and put it right back down.

All the brothers, hard to see everybody at all at one time. Especially when they don’t have glasses on and don’t see it, you can do it out there. Anyone else before we close? Our Father, we do thank you so much for your goodness to us. For giving us these things written in your word. We also pray, especially Lord, for the one that indicated they would trust your Savior. Because when they do, that you promise them eternal life as a gift, that you’re never cast them out, never lose them.

We ask your blessings upon each one here as they think about the things that we’ve discussed. You’re coming back soon. We’re going to stand at the Jevons of the Christ. And they come to the time when nobody can do anymore. our opportunities here, and this life will all be over. But Father, we know that we’ll be with you for all eternity. So bless each one, in Christ’s name we pray. 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. Trump it 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.