Audio Archives – Pastor Yankee Arnold

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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 regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bible line to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

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. Take your Bible and turn it with me to the book of Romans, the book of Romans. I wrote down two statements, two statements. Now you know and I know that the devil is after you. Did you know that? Did you know that the devil is after you? Now you know that because it says in the book of Peter that the devil as a roaring lion seeketh whom he may devour.

So you know that the devil is seeking whom he made a vow, and he’s looking for people that he can devour. Now you know he devours you in different ways, but if the devil was coming after you, well, how would the devil get to you? How would the devil get to you? Now you know that the devil wants to keep you or the lost blinded, but he wants to keep the Christian from serving the Lord. So the devil in order to get to you, to devour you, what would he have to do to get you?

Do you think the devil might have an idea of your weaknesses? You think he might know your strengths, your assets and your liabilities. Now we don’t believe that the devil can read your mind, but you think he could read facial expressions, maybe listening to the tone of your voice or some things or attitudes. You know, how would the devil get to you? But then on the other hand, there’s somebody else’s after you and that’s the Lord. You believe that, don’t you?

You want, you believe that the Lord wants to use you, right? So you have the Lord and He’s after you and you got the devil and He’s after you. Isn’t it wonderful to be so wanted. Don’t you just feel wonderful about this? To know that two of the greatest powers are after you? Well anyway, Romans 8. We’ve come through seven chapters where it seems like all is hopeless. There’s just no way we can do what God wants us to do.

The Christian life is just so hard and it boils us down and it’s almost impossible. Well, if we understand a few things it can help us. So when you get to the eighth chapter of the book of Romans it talks about the Holy Spirit mentioned over and over and over again. In other words, as though He is the power to help us do the things were supposed to do. And so he makes a statement up here in verse 2, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Now keep us in mind, when you’re born into an old sinful body with a sinful nature, you’re trapped and you’d love to be free. The law that God gave condemns everybody that sins, and we’d like to be free from the law that condemns me because of my sin. But there’s nothing wrong with the law, the problem is with us. We have the desire to sin. We are naturally rebellious. And so therefore we one our own way and therefore we transgress the law.

So we’d love to be free from that because to see they fact be free from the law of sin then I could be free from the law of death. Those are laws and those laws can’t be changed. So what God has to do to maintain have his justice. Yes, he sent Christ into the world and he died on the cross and paid for us. And so the Holy Spirit, when you’reXXX born by the Spirit, is the spirit of life.

And the spirit of life means that you’re now FREE to live. And you see, when you’re not saved, you’re FREE to die. You’re FREE to sin. That’s what you do. That’s what we do. So how can I be free from the law of sin and death? And that is by trusting Christ as our Savior. So once you trust Christ as your Savior, the righteousness that could not be fulfilled by the flesh, the first birth, can be fulfilled by the second birth.

And therefore, His righteousness is to be fulfilled in us, not necessarily by us, but in us. So we look there in verse three, for what the law could not do, what could not the law do? It could not make you produce the fruits of righteousness. The law cannot make you live wholly. The law could not make you live godly. The law could not make you perfect, but there’s something else that did. So he says here in verse three, in that it was weak through the flesh.

the first birth. It couldn’t fulfill, couldn’t produce. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now, it didn’t come in sinful flesh. It was in the likeness of sinful flesh. In the words, he came into this world in the likeness of man, as said in Philippians 2. So, Jesus Christ came into the world, in a body, in order to do something, to set us free from the law that condemned us because of sin and the consequences that resulted in death, eternal separation from the Lord.

So he makes this statement here in verse 4, that the righteousness get this, the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. See the Holy Spirit now living within you and to walk with the Lord, the new birth can only perform fruits of righteousness. But here in the book of Romans in chapter 8, there’s something that God wants to produce in our life. Does God want you and I to serve him and live right?

Yes, he does. And that’s why he says here, to those that are in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living within you. And now look in verse 5, look in verse 5, it gives you the contrast, you know, the differences in what different ones produce, and that if you as a child of God, you know, you have the flesh birth and you have the spiritual birth, the new birth, for they that are after the flesh. Now see, when it refers to sometimes, you’ll see the words in the flesh, in the flesh.

But the lost man is in the flesh. The saved man walks after the flesh because God doesn’t see him in the flesh. God sees him in the spirit. So you are spiritually born of God. So God sees you in your position, you’re in the spirit. It doesn’t mean you’re spiritual. It just means that’s your position in Christ. So he says, they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, for to be carnally minded is death.

So this is talking I believe to the Christian who can be carnally minded. Of course the lost man is. And so if you walk into flesh you know what it’s going to produce. You’re going to waste your life and your heavenly Father will have to chase in you. And if you walk in the flesh, which means after the ways of your own will, then you’re not going to produce the fruits of righteousness that he wants. So he says, if you are spiritually minded, you mind the Spirit.

So, have you ever had children and you say, you know, they just don’t mind me. What do you mean they don’t mind you? It means they don’t do what I tell them to do. You mean that they’re disobedient. So you can be spiritually minded, which means you mind the spirit, or you can be fleshly minded, means you mind the flesh. Because you’ve got these two births and you’ve got two sets of desires. So which one controls your life? Which one do you yield to?

Which do you desire? So he says here in verse 7, because the carnal mind is emmity against God or the first birth, the flesh birth. And he says, Therefore it is not subject to the law of God. Neither can be. It cannot obey the flesh. It cannot obey. The law of God. Regrets of how hard you cannot produce the fruits of righteousness. That’s why you needed a new birth. So then he says in verse eight, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you’re not in theue flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if anyone have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. But the spirit is life. Because of sin. of righteousness. So you have now the freedom to live the way God wants you to. You have the power to perform. But like he says there in Romans in chapter 7 verse 18 he says, I know that in me that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform?

That which is good I find none. Well now chapter 8 is telling them how to perform and what God has done for us. So you have within you the power that God has used to raise up Jesus from the dead and that’s why he says in verse 11 for the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelling you and if it had the power to raise Him from the dead and and give him life, then that’s what he’s also done for us.

So we have new life given to us. So if the devil wanted to get to me, how would he get to me? Well, he can’t get to me through my spirit. He has to come through the flesh. Now, we know that our body is what makes us world conscious. We’re conscious of the world, why? because the body is our connection to the world. Without my body, I have no connections here. It means that I have to move out. That this is my house, this is where I live in this body.

And so if you go away with my body, I can’t stay here. I have to go somewhere else. And it’s either heaven or, you know. So I have a body and this body sees the world, except for Tom like that, you can’t see it. And you can hear and you can feel. And so there’s things that are in the world that you may desire, because of what you see and what you hear, what you touch. But your connection to God is through your spirit.

That’s what makes you spiritual or spiritually minded. But the Bible says we were spiritually dead. That means we were severed from the Lord. So the Bible tells us in the book of Corinthians in chapter, I have not seen the body. Eer have not heard the body. The things which God has prepared for them that love them. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. So there’s things that God has revealed to us that are spiritually discerned. Now, if the lost man who is spiritually dead, he cannot understand those spiritual things because they’re foolishness unto him, because they are spiritually discerned, and he doesn’t have that.

So the natural man receive, if not the things, of the spirit of God. So, when you and I trust Christ as our Savior, if you look up here in verse 14, for as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. And many believe that this means that those that are being led by the Spirit of God, these are becoming the mature sons of God. So you can’t mature in the Lord as a cell of God without the Holy Spirit within you.

And so he’s talking about walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh. There’s therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ, those who walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. So we are to understand that if you look there in verse 16, the spirit itself, bearish witness with our flesh. No, bearish witness with our what spirit that we are the children of God. That’s a spiritual birth. And our spirit is renewed in the sense the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us, that is our communication to God.

So God has to come to me through my spiritual understanding. So he has given us a spiritual book, even though I can see it and all this, this is a spiritual revelation, comes from God, didn’t come from the world. So God is after me. God wants me. So he has given to me his spirit after I trust him and my Savior to indwell me. And because I have his spirit living within me, his spirit is to teach me and to lead me, to guide me.

That’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is to magnify Christ. The Holy Spirit’s not here to magnify himself. So those that are always talking about the Spirit know, the Holy Spirit magnifies Christ. But anyway, you are now connected to God and you can be spiritually minded means that you let his mind dwell in your mind You learn to think the way God wants you to think and as you study the world of God You’ll find out what God feels about everything how he thinks about things.

What he thinks is right and wrong So you’re discerning to your spirit. You cannot discern those things through the body Now here I am, and I’ve mentioned this before, that when you have the body, God wants this body of ours to stay healthy. Because see, this belongs to the Lord now. My body, where I live, belongs to Him. So He has authority over my body. And if I violate this body and don’t take care of this body, then I can’t stay here as long as maybe I like to.

So how you and I take care of the body is going to depend upon how much God is able to use us. Because when the body doesn’t go, there’s a lot of limitations upon you. So that’s the reason I am to take care of this body that I have. Some people, they don’t care about the body. They’ll eat anything that they want. They get on drugs and they do alcohol. You name it and they do it. All right, then they ruin this body.

And then there’s things they can’t do because, well, my health won’t allow me. But make sure that your bad health isn’t because you had bad habits that produced the bad help. So honor the body because God wants you to, because this is what you have to use in order to serve the Lord here on planet Earth. Now, if the devil wanted to get at me and we know that he does, then how is the devil going to get? The devil doesn’t come at me through the Word of God.

Now, he can misquote it, but if you know the truth, you can defend. So the devil has to go with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the body, the pride of life. And you want fame, honor, and glory. And those things can so drive you that you become carnally minded. It means fleshly minded. It’s not what God wants, it’s what you want. And so there’s a conflict. So if you use the body and what you see to to guide you, then you don’t have adequate leadership.

It’s the Holy Spirit that lives within you. He wants to lead you. He wants to guide you according to God’s word. Otherwise, how does the devil get to you by the things that you see? Things that you hear. And the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. You wanna be something, be somebody because you want people to know who you are recognize you and blah blah blah blah blah and if you live for that you’ll chase those things But it may not be what God wants you to have You’ll always be wiser if you will just do what God wants you to do and let God take care of all this other stuff But you do have a body and the devil is going to use the things of the body to get to you that’s why you have to be careful what you see and what you

here. And believe it or not, it might even be important to watch what you eat or put into the body. Do you think all that can be important? Those are areas of your life where you have to discern. My body belongs to the Lord. My spirit belongs to the Lord. Now where does it say in the Bible, no you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you’re not your own. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods.

Where? Yes. So you need to know who do you belong to? If you know who you belong to then you know who has the authority over you. You are not the authority. I am not the authority. I believe that the Lord, well I I guess you could call him a dictator, but he tells us what he wants us to do, but he gives us a lot of freedom within Boundaries and so if we will do what God wants us to do then God can bless our lives and so on And if not, you know that the Lord is after you and he uses the Word of God and other believers that are doing what’s right to tell us and so forth to help us.

And then the devil has also got his own messengers. We often think about, you know, in Matthew chapter 7 and false prophets, you know, are like their wolves in sheep’s clothing. And you should know them by their fruit. We often talk about them as though those are the preachers of the false churches. But did you know it could be your neighbor? It could be somebody that sits in church with us every Sunday. Somebody that tells you what the devil told them, maybe through somebody else.

Did you know that it’s possible for God’s children if they don’t guard themselves and watch what they think, can be carnally minded and teach the very things that the devil wants and to teach. And instead of edifying and building up, they destroy. Christians in the flesh are wonderful tools for the devil to use. and children of God in the Spirit are wonderful tools for the Lord to use. You and I are the one that determine whether or not are we in the Spirit or walking after the flesh.

So whichever one we do we have consequences. And so therefore I know that if I would serve the Lord I know my have only Father is going to bless me here and reward me there, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to have sorrow in this life, troubles in this life. So look there because the devil will use the opposite to try to discourage you. So look what he says there in verse 18. Verse 18 says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, now that’s the time in which we live in the body are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In other words, there’s nothing that you and I are going to go through in this life, in this present time, that’s worthy to be compared with what God has for you. Now you can’t see what God has for you. Did you know that whenever I was young and just 22 years old, wife and two kids, make it up my mind to go to Bible college, I had no clue how it was going to make my life better. I had no clue.

I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just, I’m going to Bible college. But after I finished Bible college, I was so glad I did. And now that it’s been 40 something years later, I’m really glad I did. But I could not see down the road to know what’s going to be the value. What has happened since it can’t be compared to the sleepless nights, the financial difficulties, all the problems that I went through, all the heartaches.

can’t compare with the enjoyment of victory after victory after victory in serving the Lord. And that’s just here. It hasn’t anything to do with when I get to heaven. So we know that when we get there that the sufferings of this present time, all added together, is nothing compared to what God has for us. That’s why we should keep serving the Lord. If we know we don’t see how it’s going to work out, but we just know that it will.

And we have God’s Word on it. That’s why he says in Romans 8, 28, looking Romans 8, 28. This is a verse that many people use as, well, this is my favorite verse, really. And then you hear him wine and pine and moan and groan about everything that goes wrong in life. But look what he says, for we know that all things, all things work together for good, not to the person that’s walking into flesh, but to the person that’s walking in the Spirit, because Because it says to them that love God, loving God, he says, if you love me, serve me.

Do you think he’s talking about you being carnally minded or spiritually minded? To be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be carnally minded is just the opposite. So we know that all things work together for good. To them, what he says, to them that love God. To them who are the called according to those two words, his purpose. So we’re talking about the person that walks in the spirit according to his purpose. All things work together for his good.

Now when you rebel against the Lord and you don’t walk with God as you ought to and you’re carnally minded, fleshly minded, materialistically minded, no, you’re not going to agree with Romans 828. Unless you decide that being chasing of the Lord could be a good thing for you because rest assured he is going to beat the tar out of you. We cannot live as we please and get away with it, but we do have the choice of either walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh.

But if we do, whichever one, there is consequences to them. I’ve watched people who walk into flesh and I think I don’t think I like that and I’ve seen those that serve the Lord. I said, I’d rather have that. And we don’t know how much time we have to live. But whatever time God gives to us, we ought to use it for His honor and for His glory. And to realize that God through His Spirit is to shape me and transform me from the inside that I might use this body to serve Him.

So that I look at the world through spiritualize. My daughter wrote a song, if I could see this world the way He sees, then I just know. I would be more faithful and serve him as he goes more faithfully. So yes, we have the body. There’s nothing wrong with the body that it just has a sinful nature. But the body is a house. It’s a tool that we can use on planet Earth. So therefore, yes, we are to use this body for his honor and for his glory.

And when you misuse the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, he says, him shall God destroy. So God may take you home before you get time. I would serve the Lord with all your heart and keep getting up. Let’s pray, shall we? Father, we thank you so much for your word that you’ve given us. And help us to dwell at times on some of these thoughts, to know what we need to keep in mind and apply.

Thank you for the opportunity we have to come before you. We ask your blessings upon those that watch by internet. We also pray, Lord, your blessings upon the service to follow in Christ’s name we pray. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Each Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free, 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. 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 are 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 broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline 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, and just keep looking up.