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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.

Now, there’s a lot of people that can watch what somebody says, and then they have to have their experts, their commentators tell you what they really meant to say because you weren’t able to discern what they really meant. I think that I said that right. And so you have people who are trying to represent and hitting it from a different view, but And it all depends on whether or not what he said, really what you thought he meant. And so they’re trying to explain to us.

And they have all these experts. You ever wonder whether those experts on all these panels come from? They’re everywhere. And so far not a person has called me up and asked me my opinion. As smart as I am, I ought to be invited on every talk show. But so far nothing. Therefore, I must not know anything because I’m not an expert on anything. But I believe I’m an expert in the art of so winning. That was the name of my first book that I ever wrote called The Art of So winning.

And that was the name of it. Now I call it the Gospel-driven man book. But it was the book that I taught it for the Bible, the art of so winning. I think that it’s an art. It’s something learning how to win persuade someone to put their trust in Jesus Christ. How to open up the conversation and how to bring them to a close. How to get them to sign on the dotted line. And how to do all of that is an art.

Now some people say you’ve got the gift. No, it’s an art you can develop. And if you’ll understand that when it comes to salvation, there’s a lot of people who are trying to speak for God. God God said in his word, by grace are you saved through faith, but we’ve got a lot of those expert commentators that try to tell us what God really meant to say. Where God says it is the gift of God, no, no, no, well, well, well, he really meant to say you have to earn it.

When God said it’s not of your self, well, this is what he meant. And then they try to make a deal with the people that are listening to him. But if you want to go to heaven when you die, this is what you have to do. And what they tell you to do is that you’ve got to be good enough and earn it. And so there’s a lot of people that are making that deal. So they go to church because they’re under the impression, if I do this, I’ll get this.

But see, that’s not the deal God made. So they’re wasting their life trying to fulfill this dream of this deal that they haven’t got. And if I give money and if I go to church, if I live a good life, don’t beat my wife more than once a week, they think that all these good things that they’re doing, they made a wrong deal with the wrong person because that’s not what God said. Some Christ came into the world, died on the cross, paid for all the sins of the world, and all that you and I have to do is believe He did it for us.

He said that if you’ll believe it, this is the deal. If you’ll believe that I did that for you, I’ll put that payment to your account and give eternal life as a free gift and you don’t have to earn it. And I can close on it today. You won’t want to get something you want to close today. That was the best deal I’ve ever heard. It’s a deal that wouldn’t cost me anything. And all I had to do was believe on Jesus Christ and look what I would get.

And all the people that are chasing a dream that can never be fulfilled. They made the wrong deal with the wrong person. The devil himself and they’re trying to get something to God says can never happen. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. But we have experts, preachers all across the country trying to tell you, well, that’s not really what he meant.

He meant you got to stop being bad and you got to start being good. And both of those are works for salvation. It is the gift of God. And when it comes to the Christian life, there’s people who don’t understand how serious God is about this. He wants us to dedicate our life to Him and to serve Him with all our heart. And God said, if you’ll do what I actually do, He said, I’m going to do some things for you.

Take your Bible, turn to 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, and chapter 16. My father-in-law showed me this verse. I didn’t know this verse was in the Bible. I had no clue what the book was talking about. I didn’t even know what the chapter was talking about, but I saw a part of a verse and it burned into my mind and I want you to see this verse. Second Chronicles chapter 16 and verse 9. See we all have a reason why we do what we do, but in verse 9 it says, for the eyes of Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong into behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

And my father-in-law told me, he says, the world has never seen what God can do with one man that’s totally yielded to him. And I said to your thinking, I want to be that man. The world has never seen I want to be that man. Now, you may not think, well, you’ll never be that man. You ought to see what God had when started with me. I mean, when you understand it and realize my testimony and where I came from and what I’ve been through, my testimony today is a living miracle that this book is true.

I have tried to apply the principle that are found in this book and I’ve lived long enough to see that what God says, it is true. I’ve watched people deny its truth, go against God, resist the Lord, and I’ve watched God whoop them and whoop them and whoop them. And I’ve also seen people that have put God to the test and they’ve trusted him and they followed him faithfully and I’ve watched and seen the results down the road of how God is blessed.

It’s, you can almost live by sight instead of just by faith because you can see what God is doing. But God’s word is true and I love that part of the verse. I don’t care about the verse before, I don’t care about the verse afterwards. I don’t even go about where it’s found it, but I marked it in my Bible because that meant a lot to me. The eyes of a Lord are running two-inch rotator. The whole are looking for Yankee.

Want to know what he served me? And I said, I’ll make a God a deal. Lord, I’ll serve you. I don’t care what happens. I don’t care how bad things are. I don’t care what you have to take out of my life. I says, don’t hold back anything. You are free to do anything in my life you want to do. Good battery, it doesn’t matter. Take everything I’ve got away from me. They sung that song last night, Jesse did, for whatever it takes from my will to break.

I mean, that’s an awesome song. He ought to come up here and sing it again. But that is an awesome song. God has been so good. Now take your Bible and turn to another verse with me. Look in Psalms Psalms 37, Psalms 37, Psalms 37. And look there in verse four, verse four and verse five. When I saw those verses years ago, I thought, this is awesome. I’m sitting here thinking and I forget all about, you know what anybody else is saying?

And I’ll think about a phrase. You notice in verse four, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. That seems like God wants to make a deal. God says, hey, I’ll make you a deal. You delight in doing whatever I want, and you shall have the desires of your heart. In other words, if what you want is to serve the Lord, God’s all for that. And if you’ll take and dedicate your life to the Lord, it’s amazing how that the Lord Himself can give you desires that could be fulfilled because He’s the one who gave you the desire.

The light thyself and the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart. Well, if I saw that verse 50 years ago, and at 50 years later, I should be able to look back over my life and say, did he keep his word? Did he do what he promised? So I can say 50 years later, God kept his word. I delighted to do whatever God wanted me to do. And I have lived long enough to see. I’ve gotten the desires of my heart.

God has blessed my life. And I may die tomorrow, but I have enjoyed my life with the Lord. You don’t know how long you’ve got, but I can tell you this, I believe that God’s word is true and God means what He says. And the art of the deal, when it comes to salvation, it’s totally free. Requires nothing of you except your faith, where you believe He did it for you. When he comes to the Christian life, God says, I want you to give me your all.

Serve me with all your heart. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. Not to get to heaven, but because I want whatever it is God wants me. I want to accomplish whatever God wants me to come. I want to do with my life what God wants. Is it worth it? He made a deal. Every child of God, he says, if you’ll serve me, him will my Father honor. God wants us to be found faithful.

And if you will, God says, he’ll bless your life here. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. And when you get to heaven, God’s gonna reward every man according to his own labor, but God doesn’t make you labor. God doesn’t make you serve him, but it’s the art of the deal. Really understanding the deal. I can’t see why anybody would pass up such a deal as this. Dr. Stanford used to always make a statement.

He says, when that man explained the gospel to me, clip, never follow her. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Think of the word, an offer I couldn’t refuse. In other words, it was such a great bargain, such a great deal. I can’t turn it down. What? It’s free. So he accepted Christ as his Savior. Do you know there’s an awful lot of people in this world and they’re going to be in heaven because they’re so glad that Dr.

Stanford didn’t turn down that deal. And to make up your mind, I’m gonna serve the Lord. You realize you’re serving the Lord is revealed by the art of the deal. Do you really understand that there’s nothing that the devil can offer you? There’s nothing that the world can offer you that is better, superior in any way over what God says if you’ll serve me. You may lose a lot in this life, But you’re gonna, you ought to see your retirement plan.

You ought to see what I’m not waiting for you. And if you believe it, it’s amazing what God will do. Now, very quickly as we’re moving along here, I don’t know if I’ll finish all of this, but I’m gonna do my dead level best. Turn your Bible to First Thessalonians in chapter two. First Thessalonians in chapter two. And look in verse four. You don’t have verse four and your Bible underlined you. you probably not saved. No, but you ought to underline it.

Aren’t you glad you’re saved by grace? Now look at verse 4, this is on page 12, 68, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which try to do you think it pleases God for you and I to preach the gospel that he has entrusted to us. You think so? Then that’s one of the reasons. You say, well, you’re supposed to because you’re the preacher.

No, I’m preaching because I believe that and because I did that. You see, what this verse is talking about, this is something every child of God ought to do. God’s children, all of God’s children, you’ve been put and trust with the gospel. So you speak, not as pleasing men, but God. It pleases God that you will be found faithful to do what God wants you to do. Now take your Bible and look in 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. 2 Corinthians in chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and look in verse 11, a verse 11.

The verse right before it tells us that we know we’re all going to stand before the the judgment seat of Christ. Every one of us, all of God’s children, it means we’re going to have to give an account someday. So then he says in verse 11, knowing therefore the tear of the Lord, we go to on the line, those three words. What do we do? We persuade men. So winning is persuading people to put their trust in Jesus Christ.

Even Felix said to Paul, he said, almost thou persuaded me. Almost you persuaded me. You ever heard that song almost persuaded, almost persuaded. You could be almost persuaded, but eternally lost. And some people are planning on doing it down the road, trusting the Lord. Do it now. It’s so important. Also look at it in verse 14. Verse 14 says, for the love of Christ constraineth. In other words, this is your move. Constrange you, motivate you because we thus judge.

In other words, because this is how you think it. You’re supposed to judge this in your mind. This is so that you understand the deal. You can’t judge something because if you don’t understand the art of the deal, what God promised, what God wants. So he says, because we thus, we judge that if one died for all, then we’re all dead. And that he died for all, that get this, they which live. He died on the cross, paid through the sins of everybody, but they which live, those who do trust them, those who have eternal life, is what he says, should not henceforth.

That means from now on, live unto what? From now on, you’re not to live for yourself. You may, your salvation isn’t dependent upon who you live for. But the love of God can strain at us. In other words, I should learn to love the Lord because I know that God loves me and love should respond to love. It’s the love of God that helps to restrain your life to keep she from doing things because that hurts my father. That hurts my father.

I can’t do that because that hurts my father. I don’t want to do anything that changed my father or hurt my father. I just don’t want to do that. So it’s a restraining force in your life. If you don’t love the Lord, then you don’t care if you hurt Him. You don’t care if you violate His principles. You don’t care if you waste your life. But loving the Lord is the only thing that holds you on course. Betty and I have been married 56 and a half years.

June will be 57 years. Now that’s a long time, but one of the things that constrains me to do right be a good husband, a good father, is because I love my wife. But if you take away the love, there’s nothing to hold you on course. Truth is supposed to constrain us, to do the things that are right. So notice what he says. He says in verse, last part of verse 15, unto him which died for them and rose again.

You should live for the one who died for you. Who died for you? Well the Lord. So why should I serve him? Look God will make a deal with you. You put him first. You serve the Lord and you’ll be surprised at all the good things that God can do in your life and how he can blessed, watch over you and how he can move you here and move you there and all things that happens to you. But he’ll do it because of his honor and his glory because God wants to be able to use you freely.

God doesn’t want to chase on us, he wants to bless us. But if we refuse to obey the Lord our heavenly Father because he loves us won’t let us go. He’s got to chase him and discipline. That’s why I said that there’s no problem that any teenager has that 30 or 40 years can’t correct. And he’ll bring all these angel men. Take your Bible down, turn up to the book of John, the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John, and look in chapter 12, John chapter 12.

Remember the scripture, tell us in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 and verse 2, he says, Moreover, is required in a steward that a man be found hateful. If you’re faithful, you are successful, because God will reward you for your faithfulness, not the results of your faithfulness. Be found faithful and God will use you. God will bless you. Now, notice what he says in John chapter 12 and notice he’s talking here in verse 25, what he says, he that loveth his life shall what?

lose it. If you’ll give up your life for the Lord, you’ll save it. Majority of Christ said, I don’t think really understand the depth of this truth. Get what else he says. He that hated his life in this world shall keep it under life eternal. Understand him that your love for the Lord should be so strong that your love for everything else seemed like hate. And then notice what he verse 26, you ought to lie in verse 26, if any man served me, now this is not for salvation, salvation is always free, but if you will serve me, look at the deal he makes.

If any man served me, let him follow me and where I am, there shall also my servant be, if any man served me, him will my father what? There’s a deal. I want the Lord to honor man. I want to honor him. I want God to praise Me. Therefore I have to praise Him. You see, you reap what you sow. You want love so love. You want joy so joy. You’d be surprised the difference it can make in your life of what God says in His Word.

You shall reap what you sow. You sow to the Spirit. You shall love the Spirit reap the things of the Spirit of God. You’ll have such wonderful life and joy and peace that God has promised to those who put him first. It’s right there in the book. If any man will serve me. I want to close with this thought. Years and years ago, after I had trusted Christ as my Savior, I came to understand a little bit better of the value of a decision that I made.

You see, sometimes we make decisions and we don’t know how valuable it is or how terrible it is. Have you ever bought something at a flea market and you got home and it didn’t work? But you thought it worked, but it didn’t work. I’m going to tell you it back. They’re gone. And you’ve lost money. You ever bought something, even a piece of land. And then because, well, it got a lot of time. So you sold it. And later on, that same piece of property is worth thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars today.

You thought, if I’d have only hell on to it. But I didn’t know. You realize how valuable some of those silver quarters would be worth. If you’d have got all that paper money that we had back then, it was backed by silver certificate and you just got that silver or got that gold, how much gold valuable it is today. But sometimes we don’t know but we made deals. Have you ever gotten married and thought this was the best deal I’ve ever made?

And then, and then the war began and you have you ever questioned whether or not, boy if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t make that mistake again. So some of us, I shouldn’t say us, it’s not me. Some have to live with your mistakes. And you realize it? Man, I should have thought this thing through a little bit more. I’ll be honest. I did not take seriously marriage. I didn’t understand the value of what I was getting.

I didn’t understand it at all. I was a dumb, stupid teenager. Didn’t think about anybody except myself. and whatever I wanted. When I saw Betty, that’s the one I wanted. And so I went after Betty. I met with her boyfriend that she had and I took care of that. You said, what did you do? I threatened his life. That’s all. Nothing serious. Because I knew he would be between back to us. And anyway, I went after Betty. Not even asked her dad, Can I marry her?”

And he said, no. I says, why? He says, because you don’t have a job, you don’t have any money, you don’t have a place to live. And her mother says, and you’re a hudlem. And everything they said was the truth. But I didn’t care. I’m going to get to that girl. And now I didn’t understand that what I had was so valuable. She was just another teenager, but there was something about her. And after she married me and her dad lay me to the Lord, I began to slowly realize, I got myself a jewel.

I don’t deserve this. And to realize that 56 years later, I’ve never met a woman that I thought was better than what my wife is. What a deal. And the thing is, I didn’t pay anything to get her. She bought me for five bucks. And I thought, I just, you call it grace, it is grace. I don’t deserve such a wonderful, but that’s the grace of God has been good and has blessed. And I thank the Lord for my children, my grandkids.

I thank the Lord for this ministry. I don’t see how God has so blessed, I think it’s all because God knows in my heart, I love him, I love him. And the Bible says, is God is seeking those will love him and I love the Lord and I love the Lord more than anything else in this whole world and I want to please him. So I’ll try to be a good dad, I’ll try to be a good husband, I’ll try to be a good preacher.

But your secondary, I love him more. Now if I ever stop loving the Lord I lose everything. I want to gain I want to win this art of the, I want to make the best deal I possibly can. You hear Trump talking about, he wants to renew these deals and so forth like that. I’ve made the best deal in the world. And I don’t have any regrets that I trust in Christ as my Savior. And I don’t have any regrets about serving the Lord.

I’m just thankful that somebody explained some things to me and that explained a few verses to me and I saw those verses and I will think about that. Man, I don’t want to blow this. I’ve only got one last. life to live. I never thought I’d live this long and that’s the truth. I thought somebody would have done me in by now. Look up here very quickly. This is you and me. This is sin. Everybody has sinned. God loves all of us.

He hates our sin, but He loves us. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in a place called hell. But God wants us to go to heaven and because heaven is a perfect place, we’re not. Because of sin we can’t get So God says you have to be perfect and none of us are perfect. God says you cannot earn eternal life, you can’t work your way to heaven. It’s by grace, it’s not by your works.

So no man can earn eternal life. This hand represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He came into this world because, well, He loves us, but He hates our sin, because our sin separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, but because He loved us, He took all of the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. He said, if we believe that he did it for us, he’d put this payment to our account.

Remember this, it’s so simple. Why did Christ die for us? He died to pay for our sins. Why? So that we wouldn’t have to. And then he came back from the dead and says, the only thing you have to do is believe I did that for you. That’s doable. You can do that, is where you believe that. And so when you believe it, he puts this payment to your account. You go to heaven on what he did. Why? Because he, this payment was for all of your sins.

The reason you can’t know you’re going to heaven till you know you can’t go to hell. And I can’t go to hell. Why? Because I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for how many of my sins? Christ died for my sins. And I’m going to heaven because he wants me to do just believe me to. Why should I pass that up? There’s no trace to it, no gimmicks. A man has to be a fool to turn down a free gift like that.

Wouldn’t you say? Let’s pray, show him. Every head bowed and every eye closed. No one looking around. If you hear this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. Would you trust Him right now? Just say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner and I believe Christ died, that He paid for my sins. And I’m gonna trust Him right now as my Savior. Bring God’s that if you’ll trust Him right now, He’ll save you right now and give you eternal life right now.

And when you get up to lead, you can say, I know I’m going to heaven because Christ died for me. He paid for my sins. Would you do that? I’m not gonna have you forward. But right where you’re sitting, He said preach that that made sense to me. And I wanna know that I’m going to heaven. And I’ll life you to pray for more. Just slip your hand very quickly, They’re right back down. Anyone at all, they have one at all.

If you’ve already trusted Christ as Savior, you that are watching by internet, right on the screen says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. If you will do so, we’d love to hear from you. Just let us know that someone trusts the Lord. Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. Thank you for this time together, for all the goodness you’ve done for us, and help each one to understand my heart where I’m coming from and why I want the best for them in Christ’s name and pray.

Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing 813-884-4328. That’s 813-884-4328. To listen to today’s message again, or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10.30, and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. 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.

live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.