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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.

If you feed the word and they take it in, growth will be automatic. You don’t have to get a little baby and say little baby grow, grow. And he just looked at goo-boo. Grow. No, you just feed the kid. Growth will take care of itself. You just feed that kid. But you have a new birth. Now as a new birth you’ve got to feed upon the Word of God so you can become strong. But then when you get old enough and a little bit more mature, you find out some of your responsibilities, some of your responsibilities as a Christian.

And there is a burden, a message that God wants you to share with others. So how you do that depends on how mature you are, how spiritually minded you are. So remember this, you can either be spiritually minded or fleshly minded because you’ve got two births. One of the flesh, one of the spirit. mind, it means you mind the flesh. Spiritually minded, you mind the Spirit. So your new birth is to mind the Spirit as he teaches you the Word of God.

Your flesh, it mind the things of the world. So you have two natures inside of you opposite of each other and that’s why you need to learn how to study from the Word of God so that you can carry this burden that you have. And if you will do what God says to you at the end of your life, because you have, well, you carried your cross. And then there’s a crown. So God is going to reward every one of his children, and it’s not based upon what somebody else does or doesn’t do.

It’s an individual thing. You’re the one that determines how much you serve the Lord. How dedicated you will be. nothing else will matter. See in the physical world I could say boy wouldn’t have been needed if I was born into a home where my mom and dad were millionaires. Boy, I wouldn’t have been nice. Born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Well I was listening the other day to a radio and this preacher was talking about I am so glad that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and I was getting ready to turned to John and said, what?

What? I thought I’d just listen just a little bit. And as I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, you know, my mom and dad, they did not have any money, but I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. And we didn’t have much clothes and we were poor and went on and just said, but I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. You see, my mom and dad taught me character and virtue, taught me how to work and taught me all the things that I needed in life.

Says I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and kept bragging about what his mom and dad had taught him and thought that was better than having all the other. See some people are born with a silver spoon in my mouth and they mean that I have lived high on the hog and had everything given to me and didn’t have to work for anything. As years of roll by, I can say, you know, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

And especially once I trusted Christ as my Savior. Because now I am a child of the King. That’s who I am, a child of the King. I’m royalty. And so if I realize that, I know that I’m somebody. If the world doesn’t know that I’m somebody, in God’s family, I am somebody. So I don’t walk around trying to put myself down, or any of the children of God, because There’s somebody in God’s eyes. And even all the lost people, God loves them.

But those who have trusted Christ of Savior, that’s why he says in the book of Galatians, he says, and especially they that are of the household of faith, especially them that are of the household of faith. Those who know Christ of Savior, so you have been given a responsibility, and if you will carry that cross, fulfill the will of God for your life, then there’s a day coming when you’re going to be exalted. Humble yourself now to the will of God, and then one day God is going to exalt you, and He’ll give you praise, honor, and glory that can never fade away.

All that comes from these verses right here. Now you’ll notice, and we’ve said this before, when you study the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you study just one book. You cannot get a good picture of what Christ is like, because Matthew pictured Jesus Christ as the king of Israel. But you see, he is more than a king. And the book of Matthew, he talks about, you know, Christ being the king, but there were four faces that were mentioned in the book of Revelation, also four that were mentioned in the book at annual.

And so you have these four faces. One is the face of a king, one is the face of an ox, one is the face of a man, And when is the face of an eagle? Four faces. So when you come to the New Testament, it’s just like trying to get a colored picture. You can have black and white, but when it’s in color, sure makes it look good. So Jesus Christ is the king, but he’s not just a king.

But when you study Matthew, it pictures Jesus Christ as the king, choosing his cabinet, who’s gonna roll in the kingdom and all those things. But he’s also in the book of Mark. He’s an ox, he’s a servant. And through the book of Mark, Almost every verse starts off with and immediately, straightway and and and, called the servant is always busy, always serving. And so throughout that entire book of Mark, you’ll find out almost every verse starts off with the word and or immediately straightway cause he’s the servant.

So he was the king, but he was the servant. He’s also in the book of Luke. This is where you find also as a human. It talks about his birth and about Mary and going all the way back to Adam. But when he was a king, it used the genealogy in Matthew, but he always goes back to David and Abraham, showing that he has the right to claim the throne of Israel. Luke, different, and talks about the virgin birth, showing him as a perfect man.

And then he looked at John, he’s not just a man, he’s God. So he’s a king, but he’s a servant. And he’s the perfect man, but he’s perfect God. And so in the book of John, you do not find any temptations in the Gospel of John. You find him in the others, but not in the Gospel of John, why because God can’t be tempted. So you need all four of those books to give you a picture of what Jesus Christ is really like.

So Jesus Christ came and did those things. And right here in these verses, when you see there in verse 6, who been in the form of God, thought it not Robert, to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, that’s the book of Mark, made in the lightness of men, that’s the book of Luke, been found in fashion and he was exalted and so forth. And there in verse nine, exalted, that’s the eagle, that’s the gospel of John.

So you have these same things mentioned, and he says, let this mind be in you. Here you are, you’re born in the God’s family now. You are a child of the king. But because you’re a child of the king, God said, I want you to humble yourself and be a servant. And even though you’re a perfect man, living in this world, I want you to do my will. Serve me and accomplish whatever I want you to do. He said, and when you do that, even under death, be found faithful.

And then when you get to heaven, God said, He will highly exalt you and you’re going to be crowned. You’re going to be rewarded for what you did for him. So have that mind that he had realized, yes, I’m a child of God. I’m a child of the king, but also I’m here to humble myself and be a servant. I’m a child of the king, but I’m a servant. And I want to live as a perfect man in this world as much as I can and do right because I know that my Heavenly Father is going to exalt me and reward me later for my obedience today.

So that’s a simple little story or a sermon outline on the crib and the cross and the crown. So you were born into God’s family, now you’re fulfilling His will for your life and one day God’s going to bless you because of it. Now look what He says in verse 9, down in verse 9, Wherefore God also had highly exalted Him, Dr. Macrize. This is the crown. Given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, that every tongue should confess, Jesus Christ is Lord.

To the glory of God the Father. The day will come, all those people that will not accept Christ are going to know and to believe that He was Christ. He was the Lord. I talked to a man not long ago, about two weeks ago, I guess it was. And he was about three, four, five years older than I am. And I thought, you know, he’s getting a little bit older. And so I asked him, I says, do you know where you’re gonna go when you die?

No, and I don’t care. And he says, I don’t believe in God or anything like that. When I die, I’m dead, and that’s it. And he didn’t want to even talk. He didn’t even listen. Didn’t even want to discuss it. And I thought, boy, are you in for an awakening? Too late though, but you’re going to find, you are really going to be surprised. The moment he dies, that moment he is going to know that everything he thought was wrong, and it’s going to be too late.

Now you can’t make anybody believe. You can’t make people listen. But woe to those who will not believe it. But he says every tongue, every knee, one day will. Now look what he says there in verse 12. He’s talking to you and to me about the kind of a mind that we ought to have. While we’re living in this world with all the problems that we have, he says in verse 12, wherefore it might be leavened? So he’s talking to the believers, talking to those that know Christ as their Savior.

So Philippians chapter 2 verse 12, wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So a lot of people think that you have to work out your salvation. And what do they mean by that? Well, you’ve got to work for your salvation. That’s not what he said. He’s talking about working out your salvation, not working for your salvation. In other words, when you trust the Christ as your Savior’s like God just gave you 10 acres of land.

That 10 acres of land, if you don’t do anything with it, that’s a natural thing. It’s going to grow briars and thorns and it’s just going to be a bunch of weeds. But since you have 10 acres of ground, you could plow that ground and plant some good seeds in there and have some good stuff grow. That’s your life. So he’s talking about, now that you’re saved, don’t do things just because I’m there and I’m with you, but even when I’m absent, because he’s now in prison, now he says, I want you to believe and understand this.

Work out your own, in other words, I’ve given you 10 acres of ground, work the ground and produce some fruit. So you and I, we are the ones that has to decide whether or not do. We want to brain for fruit from this piece of ground God gave to us. In this period of life that God’s given to us, we never know how much ground we’re going to have. So take whatever you do have and whatever you can do and plant some seeds.

Wonder what kind of seeds we ought to plant. Well, if you have the word of God, what do you think? These are the seeds. This is the good seed. So we are to go through life planting good seeds and like Ruth in the Old Testament handfuls on purpose. In other words, literally throw in seeds on purpose because you want something to grow. You’re doing what you’re supposed to do. But when he says you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, fear and trembling that you will miss the will of God for your life.

See, I’m not afraid of where I’m on the span of eternity. I already know I have eternal life. I’m going to heaven when I die. But I do have a fear, I guess you can say a holy respect for my heavenly Father because I don’t want Him to have to hook me. I don’t want God to have to chase in me. When I was being raised up, I had a dad for about the seven years of my life. That’s about the only time I’ve had a dad.

He beat the Torah to me every time I turned around and I was always innocent. Well, in my mind I watch him. So he would whoop me. But now, when you come to the Lord, I have this respect for the Lord that I know what he could do. I don’t know exactly what he won’t do, but I know he’ll chase in me, but I don’t know how he’s going to do it. I know that if I serve the Lord, he’ll bless me.

And I don’t know, well, always he’ll do that, but I know that he will. But I know that if I’m disobedient as his child. He’ll chase in me and I don’t know in what always, but if I’m free to choose to obey or disobey, he is free to bless or chase him according to his will. See, my will is I can obey or disobey and his will is he can bless or chase him or take me home before my time.

So I have this respect for God because I know the power that he has and he can do what he wants. And I want God’s blessings instead of God’s chastening. So I made it my mind. That’s what I want to do. So the fear that I have in my Christian life is that I’m going to miss the will of God for my life. So he says that one of the things that you ought to be able to know is knowing the will of God for your life.

as he says, redeeming the time, understanding what the will of the Lord is. And what so if you pray according to his will? So there is the will of God, and the word of God reveals the will of God. So as you read God’s will, like if somebody died and left me in their will, I’d want to read the will and see what did they leave me. And God has promised all kinds of wonderful to his children. And he’s also warned us about some of the chastisement that can come into our life.

And whether or not God can either let you stay or take you on out of here. See, God is free to do according to his will. You and I would be, well, it would be who of us to study the world of God so there will know, you know, I have limitations. God will let you go so far. Some people want to see how close they can go to the edge of the cliff without going over. How close they can go to the line of rebellion and disobedience and see what they can get away with.

I would rather see how far I can get away from that edge. I don’t want the possibilities of going over the edge and disobeying God and then having to have to deal with me. So there is this fear and trembling that you’ll miss the will of God for your life. Now another part of this can be looked at this way because in these verses it talks about us being the light of the Lord and holding forth. See that in verse 16, holding forth the word of life or eternal life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain but neither labored in vain.

So we have here about serving the Lord and about giving out the word of eternal life. Now hold your place right here and look over there in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter two, 1 Corinthians and chapter two. There’s an interesting verse here. 1 Corinthians and chapter two. And notice what he talks about here. And he uses the same words in verse two, for I determine not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. In other words, I’m sent to preach the gospel.

And I want to know, did you hear? did you understand? Did you believe? And he says, because this is so important. I don’t want to miss the most important thing you need to hear. Now, you can go and listen to some big name preachers and so forth. And it’s amazing how much truth they may have, but if you go there and you’re lost, chances are you’ll leave. still lost. Look what he says here. In the very next verse, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

My speech and my preaching was not within enticing words of man’s wisdom. And the reason is because I don’t want your faith to stand in my great oratorae, but in the power of what God’s truth actually has to say. So therefore he says in verse 6, However, we speak wisdom. In other words, it’s better to speak the truth than to try to excite and build people up on emotions that passes away, but the Word of God doesn’t pass away.

But He says, I was with you in fear and in trembling. Same thing He’s talking about over here in Book of Philippians and go back there to chapter 2. Work out your own salvation or your service to the Lord with fear and trims that you’ll miss the will of God. You don’t want to miss the will of God and you don’t want to give the people a false hope. You always want to give them the truth. That’s why in Philippians in chapter one he talks about how that there were people that were preaching the gospel because of him, but he says they’re doing it for the wrong reason.

They’re hoping to add some bonds to my life. They’re trying to cause me more heartache and more trouble. He says, but the gospel is preached. talking about the preaching of the gospel. And then in verse 27 of chapter 1, it talks about let your behavior, the manner of life, the way you live be as it becomes of the gospel of Christ. In other words, it’s like that’s the whole purpose of living. Sometimes people, they like some of the things that I may talk about, but if I always talk about the gospel and always talk about how to go to heaven, that’s all he knows.

That’s all he knows. Well, I might know a few other things, but I’m glad that is one thing that I do know. Because how to go to heaven. All right, I go back there to verse 12, verse 12, a Philippians chapter 2. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence, only but now much more in my after. In other words, there was certain alert when Paul was there, and there was certain alert when Paul isn’t there.

Have you ever heard of people called preacher lovers? Preacher lovers. In other words, as long as the preacher’s there, they come to church, but if the preacher’s not gonna be there that Sunday, they don’t go. They only just love the preacher whenever he’s there, they’ll go, and if he’s not there, they’re not going to church. I don’t think we have that problem here. I got people don’t come, whether it’s on Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday. But I would rather everybody just love me to death.

But everybody doesn’t love you to death. But don’t worry about it. You know who you are. God loves you. Doesn’t God love you? God loves you in regards to whether anybody else does or doesn’t. Now look what else he says here. In verse 13, It is God which worked it in you. Now this is to the believer. Both to will and to do of his good pleasure is God free to accomplish his will in your life. Or do you hinder the working of God?

Do you let him teach you? Do you let God raise you? Do you let God instruct you? Are you willing to do the will of God for your life? How important is God to you? says, verse 14, do all things without murmuring and disputing. In other words, a lot of things will happen to you in life. You can just murmur about it, not to complain to them. But in the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 10, he talks about the people in the Old Testament.

They murmured, consistently murmured, complaining. They didn’t like the food. They didn’t have the water. Sun’s too hot. It should have been a long time I heard in the desert. And they would complain and so God sent little snakes among them. And those little serpents bit the people. And they got poisoned and they died. So he told them, says, put you a brazen serpent upon a pole and lift you up and whosoever would look would live. He didn’t say, whosoever looked and keep looking.

You got to keep looking. You got to keep looking. Okay, we’re walking through the desert. Where’d that pole go in? No, look and live. Look and live. One time. you trusted Christ as Savior, you don’t trust Christ, and you trust Christ, and then trust Christ, and then trust Christ, and then keep trusting Christ. But if you stop trucking, no, no, no, no, no. One time. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us.

Now God says that He loves us, but He hates our sin. For us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves everyone. Once everyone to go to heaven but to go to heaven, you’ve got to be perfect. See, if we went to heaven the way we are right now. Well, we would do in heaven what we do here. What? We lie here. We cheat here. Adultery here. Murder here. We would do all of that up there.

God took all of us right now just the way we are. We would do up there what we do here. And God said, huh, you’re not coming up here unless you’re perfect. I got a perfect place and I’m not messing it up. You messed it up down there. You’re not messing it up up up here. You’ve got to be perfect to get there. You say, well, how’s that possible? that’s the problem. You have to be perfect, not good, perfect.

No sin can enter into heaven, so how are you going to get there? And all the religions of the world are trying to help you to be good enough that you’ll make it. And it’s impossible. You can’t change what you are. God said that He loves us, hates our sin. We’re guilty. Heaven is perfect. We’re Therefore we can’t get in. God says you cannot earn eternal life. Your good works will not make you any better. If you was a pile on a thousand good works it won’t take away one bad sin.

Even a little bitty one. Can’t wash it away. How can I be just with God? That’s a question that Job asked. How can a man be just with God just as if he had never sinned. Well, this is only one way. God sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world because we were in a predicament that we could not get out of. We had no hope. So he came into the world. He has no sin. He’d never done anything wrong.

So because he loved us, he was willing to take all of our sins and pay for them. And this payment that he made would be put to our account if we would believe that he died. What buried and rose again for us. When I was 18 years old, I heard this for the first time. I knew I was a sinner and I could not save myself, but I heard that Christ paid for my sins. He died for me so that I wouldn’t have to pay for my sins.

And all I had to do was believe He did it for me and He would put this payment to my account. I go to heaven because He just took all my sins and washed them all out. the way. I have been made pure and holy in the eyes of God, not because of anything that I’ve done, but because of what he did for me. He gave me His righteousness. He took my sins, and when I believe it, he gives me His righteousness.

Now if he gave me His righteousness, that would make me as righteous as God. So now God says, you’re good to go. So when I die here, my old sinful nature is in my flesh, in my body. So I’m going to leave it here and it goes back to dust. I get to go to be with the Lord in heaven. I have been made pure and holy, set apart, sanctified, fit for the master’s use. This is what God does for you.

This is why it’s so important for everyone to trust Christ as their Savior. Let’s pray, shall we? Head about nice clothes. No one looking around. If you’re here this morning and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this? Lord, I don’t understand at all. I got questions. I got doubts. But I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died for me. And right now, the best I know how I will trust Jesus Christ to take me to heaven whenever I die.

And friend, if you will do that, God said He would save save you right now, give you eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Would you do that? I’m gonna ask in just a moment you to raise your hand, but that’s just to let me know. I wanna have prayer for you. And if you’re watching on internet, there’s a little line there just says, yes, I will trust Christ as my savior. Why don’t you just click that on?

That just lets us know that you trust that Christ is your savior today. If you’ve already trust the Lord, you don’t need to do so. So with the Hiddabah nice close, is there anyone at all here to say, they preach to that made sense to me and I want to be certain of going to heaven when I die and I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior right now. Would you just clip you in it very quickly and rep it down?

Is anyone at all? Are you all right? Our Father, we do thank you so much for your blessings. Thank for the opportunity of giving us to study your Word. We pray that we’ll take heed to these things and realize that we’re living in a, yes, a world of crisis. It’s always that way. We may never be able to change that. But Father, we know that what’s coming down the road is something that all believers can look forward to and that’s the blessed hope.

You’re coming again for us. But if we should die in this whole world, we know that it would be absent from the bodies to be present with you. We don’t have to worry. We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to live in fear because we put our trust and our hope in you. Thank you so much for this church, the people that make it possible. For those that watch online, it was a prayer world to be done in person’s life.

And by his name you 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. 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.