This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now take your Bible and turn there to the sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter six. And you’ll notice here that it says the word if in verse six. If they shall fall away to renew them again into repentance, man alive, ha, I’ve heard this twisted every kind of way you can think of. But I get this in verse one, he says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on. So we’re talking about leaving someplace and going to someplace else.

You’re already a child of God. Now he wants to bring you into maturity and says, let’s leave the foundation alone. That’s settled. See, once you trusted Christ as your Savior, you can’t get saved again. So I never try to get another person who’s already been saved to get saved again. Because you can’t get saved again unless you can get lost. And that’s impossible. So you try to take a person from where they are and try to give them some truth to help them to grow and to become strong.

And he says, and this we will do. Yeah, God permits. But God doesn’t permit it if you don’t believe his word. You see, God can’t build a Christian strong in the Lord if you doubt the word of God. If you can’t believe what God says is true, it’s over. You can’t go nowhere as a Christian. You can’t do something that God wants you to do. You have to believe the word. If you’re not gonna believe what he says, You’re gonna have trouble and problems and worries all your life.

And you’re never gonna accomplish what God wanted you to accomplish. So look what he says, not laying again. In verse one, not laying again the foundation. Because you see, you don’t have to lay the foundation again. Even if you don’t serve a Lord, you don’t go forward. Why? Because the foundation is Christ and it’s laid and you’re on it. That’s done. And he says, you can’t get lost after you’re saved. He says, that’s what it says. This is what it’s talking about.

You see, it’s impossible for a person to get saved and then lose a salvation and then get saved again. Because the only way that he got saved was because Christ paid for his sins. True? Well, the only way you can get lost is to commit to sin Christ didn’t pay for it. Well, then if he could get lost, Well, then he can’t get saved again unless Christ pays for that sin that wasn’t paid for the first time.

That’s why it’s impossible for man to get lost and get saved again. So he says, we don’t have to lay that foundation and get what he says of repentance from dead works. Did you know what repent is talking about in the dead work? A man can’t save himself by his work. Why? Because they come from a dead man. He separated from God. So a man’s works can’t save him, so repent means to stop trying to save yourself. Change your mind.

You can’t save yourself and trust Christ as your Savior. Am I getting my point across? Aren’t good. That’s good enough for me. But repentance from dead works, you can’t save yourself by your works. So you trust Christ as your Savior. You don’t have to lay that again. You don’t have to get saved again, because you can’t get lost. And so he says in verse three, and this what we do, if God permits, if God permits, why wouldn’t God permit it?

If you don’t believe his word, you can’t grow. You can’t produce. It all boys found is as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in. How did you receive them? By faith. Why do you live? By faith. You got to keep taking them at his word. Keep learning scripture so that you can believe it. So you know bad. Don’t it make sense? When you heard John 3 16 about how to get saved, you believed it. What did it get you?

Got your salvation. And when we get to heaven, we’re going to find out what we could have had. And we didn’t get because we didn’t believe him. What God wanted to do with you, he probably could have used you to shake the world, but you wouldn’t believe him. You wouldn’t trust him. You wouldn’t walk with him. And you’re worried about everything under the sun. Because of a lack of of faith. Christ over and over again talked to me and decided that he said, oh ye of little faith, little faith.

Anyway, it’s we’re moving right along here. Look what he says in verse 6 now. He says, if they shall follow, if you could, if you could, follow off that foundation, if you could lose your salvation to renew them again to repent, it is impossible. It’s impossible for a man to be saved, get lost, and get saved again. I’ve had people tell me to get lost, but I can’t get lost. I was saved almost 50 years ago. I have eternal life.

I’m God’s child. And as a child of God hits his will for me to grow. And I pray that I will. And I’ve got to keep growing and keep maturing in the Lord. But you get to the place where you can learn how to take God at his word and trust him. And you don’t have to try to make things happen. He just let it happen. God will bless you and he’ll take care of you. But I want you to see this.

In the last part of verse 6, he says, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, put him to an open chain. In other words, if Christ could pay for your sins and you trust him as your Savior, then you commit a sin that he hadn’t paid for. So now you’ve got to get saved again. It’s like Christ being crucified over again for your sin. He only came into the world one time. You read the chapter nine and chapter 10.

Once you pay for sin. Once, why? Because it’s a point of every man wants to die and after this, the judgment. So when Christ died for me, He only had to do it one time. You don’t have to do it twice. There is no more sacrifice for sins because the payment He made once and for all was sufficient. Now use the illustration to help you understand. in. Look in verse 7, for the earth which drinketh in the rain that comes off the fawnate, bringeth forth herbs, fruit, meat for them or fit for them, by whom it is dressed, receive a blessing from God.

So here’s the ground, drinks in the water and produces fruit. Oh what a blessing. But look in verse 8, for the earth, same But that refers back to earth, which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh undercursion whose end is to be burned. So you have a piece of ground and it can produce fruit or it can produce briars and thorns. Here you are, you’re a child of God. You’re like a piece of ground. God has an investment in you.

He wants you to drink in the rusher and bring forth the fruit that he wants in your life so you can be blessed. But if you don’t do that and you don’t, get the right, you’re going to produce briars and thorns in your life. And you know these briars and thorns, they all have these little things on them.

They stick you. I’m a blackberry picker. Man, for about four or five years of my life, Everything I wanted I got through picking blackberries. I could pick blackberries with the best. But man, I get stickers all in my hands and then my fingers and they would be so best. But buddy, I could reach in there and I’d come out scratched all over from them, Breyer, but I got those blackberries. I put them in that jar and I go down the street and sell them for 20 cents and I go to the movie.

20 cents to get into the movie theater. And I could do that with one little jar of blackberries. But there was a price to pay for those blackberries. And a lot of Christians, they are surrounding their whole life with nothing more than briars. And they are pricking themselves and hurting themselves. And they’ve made decisions for their life that is a destruction from the inside. God had to do anything. Your bad decisions is going to take its toll upon you.

And you’ll think, well, look what God did to me. Look what God did to me. You did it. God didn’t do it. You only get mad at somebody because you didn’t grow up and live right and walk right. You didn’t obey the scriptures like you should have. And you wouldn’t be, no man would be bitter at God if he understood God. The only reason that people are worried and sick about a lot of things and Paul on the part because they don’t know the Lord, the way they should know Him.

Oh, you may know Christ is your Savior, you’re going to heaven when you die, but you’re not strong. And in your life, you’re complaining about all these briars and bones that you got. Blame it it on God. You drink in the rain and bring forth the blessings. And you serve God. I should find new that if I served God, God would have to bless my life. And God has. If I had a few thorns and briars along the way, yeah, boy.

And I’ll look back over my life. Yeah, there’s been a trail of tears, but there’s also been a lot of blessings because I’ve gained a lot. God’s Word is true. So anyway, as you go down through here, he says in verse 9, look, he’s talking to the Christian, not talking to the lost man on how to get to heaven, he’s talking to the believer. But, beloved, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, better things than what? Breyers and Thorns.

So he says that a company salvation, that word, those two words go together on the line. These are things that accompany salvation. And so that’s what he’s talking about. The Christian, Yeah, you’re saved. But now that you’re saved, are you growing like you should? Do you come to study the Word of God? Some of you probably could be in Sunday’s school on Sunday morning and you’ll learn a lot more. Some of you could be here on Sunday night. I’m going through trying to teach a person how to win people to Christ.

I will think man to play so I’ll be packed with people wanting to low that. And you say, well, I don’t know how to witness. Yeah, but you didn’t avail yourself. the preacher did. Preachers will entertain you. Are you willing to learn? Well it might take you away from the TV. Oh I’m so sorry. What a price to pay. I feel so sorry for you. I mean you do have to have your priorities right. Well Wednesday night well I just can’t come on Wednesday.

You’d beissance what you can do. If you like the briars and the thorns we’ll keep them. But I’ll understand this. I’m thankful you come on Sunday morning. But I just want you to have more. I don’t want you to get to heaven and find out what you could have had and what you could have known in what you could have done And then you’ll have rewards that you could have had and you’ll forfeit them and they’ll be tears and what I’m telling you is the truth I Just want to serve the Lord and do whatever God wants me to do I want to be a blessing to you.

I want to help you to be strong in the Lord Take your Bible look here in chapter 10 the book of Hebrews in chapter 10 Look here in verse 26 where it has this word for if you’re on the line or circle that word if, but remember these ifs is because we’re talking about the Christian, the believer. We’re not talking about how to get to heaven, we’re talking about the Christian and his life with the Lord. What did you know the truth and you purposely rebel against the truth?

Well that’s why he says here, for if we sin willfully after that we have received, we’ve already receive the truth. We know the truth, but you still sin against God. You know right and you won’t do it to him that knoweth to do good and do it that not to him it is what it said. You know what to do. Well, I know what I should do, but I just don’t do it and laugh at all. Well, there’s a day coming.

You’re gonna come. You laugh now. Do whatever you want, but there’s a price to pay. You’re going to be producing some briars and some thorns and they’re going to be pricking you in life and it could have have been avoided. So he says, if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remain if no more sacrifice for sin. Christ’s not coming back to pay for the sins you commit after we trusted him. He said, I get to get away with it?

Oh, sure. For about the time it takes the Lord to zap you one, there’s a price to pay. Child of God can’t live as he please. So there is going to be a looking for a fiery judgment from the Lord. they’re in verse 27. This is not talking about the lost man. This is to the Christian. This is a warning, but a certain fearful looking for the judgment and the fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary. God can even take your life.

God can bring all kind of things into your life. Now I don’t know what God’s going to do. You say, well, I don’t want to serve the Lord because of fear. All right, then serve Him because you love Him. But if If you don’t do it because you love him, you’re going to find out. God is a holy God. And he’s going to teach you to respect him one way or the other. And he’s going to get glory out of your life.

Whether it’s life or death. You can’t thumb your nose at your heavenly Father. There’s judgment. See what he says here in verse 30? For we know him, that have said, vengeance belong unto me. I will recompense the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge the lost people. people. We’re talking about God dealing with His children. It’s not a game. You can make a game out of it, but it’s not a game. This is your life. And look what He says.

In verse 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Well, you just trust Christ’s Savior, you have placed yourself into the hands of God. So I didn’t know that. Well, you know it now. We are children of God, and it’s the will of our Father that we walk with our Father. And if you don’t, even when we’re slapping you upside the head and may take you home before your time, but you’re not going to live like you please and get away with it, you can try.

You say, can a man live as his places? Of course he can. Didn’t you get away with it? No. Now, what you tell your children? Now, he goes down through here and he talks about the consequences. But look down in verse 38. Now, the just, those who trust you Christ is Savior, are supposed to live by faith. By faith. So he says, but if any man draw back, that means a child of God doesn’t serve the Lord. He says, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

You see, I believe that I’m supposed to live the pleased alert. So it’s not about whether or not I’m pleased, it’s whether or not it’s he pleased. If God doesn’t want me to do this or God doesn’t want me to do that, whatever pleases God, that makes him happy, that makes me happy. I’m pleased that he’s pleased. And so remember when the Father looked over the banister of heaven and says, this is my beloved son in who I am well, I’m well pleased.

Do you want to please the Lord? That’s what he’s talking about. But see, if you don’t serve Him, then you don’t please Him. But look what He said in verse 13, but we are not of them that draw back unto perdition or been lost, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. You’re still saved. But God’s going to have to chase you. So He breaks it down in two chapters, chapter 11, to let us know what living by faith means.

So He gives you all these illustrations of these Old Testament saints and how that God told them what to do and they did it and what God did. But when you get to chapter 12, it talks about some of those that didn’t do what God says to do and what God did. You can’t wait till you get there, huh? Come on, let’s go look. Hebrews chapter 12 very quickly. Look in verse 7. If, if He endured chasing you. God deal with you as with what?

Son, so does that mean that a child of God can get away from the chasing? Oh, just obey him. But if you rebel against the Lord, then your heavenly Father is going to chase in you. So in chapter 12, you have where God is going to do that. Well, he can’t, he don’t chase in you in heaven. There’s consequences up there. Yes, concern the rewards of it. But I’m not, you know, I can’t wait to get to heaven and get beat up.

That’s a rewarding stand. And you’re going to wish you had done more. But look what he says. For what son is he whom the Father chasteeth not? Now, what I want you to see in the last part, or the middle part of verse 5, where it says these words, My son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. So we’re talking about a child of God because he’s not growing in the Lord, that not learning to trust the Lord and take him at his word, not living by faith.

Now, you can’t lose your salvation, but it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God in. God and your heavenly Father can chase in you. And you don’t know when and you don’t know how. And you’re going to have by your own decisions produced briars and thorns. How would you like it if somebody would take you down to where there’s a big old briar patch? Now I know Bre Rabbit kept telling, you know, don’t throw me into the briar patch.

Well, that’s where he was raised. But you and I don’t like the briar patch. Would you like to be thrown into the briar patch And that’s how you lived all your life is in a Breyer patch. And every time you turn around you hurt yourself Well, that’s what people are doing with their bad decisions But they don’t know that that’s what they’ve done to themselves. They don’t see it. They don’t understand Look what he says my son despised not doubt the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou aren’t rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth He chastens and discourages every son whom he received so you can’t live as you please and get away with it Now I want you to see this.

Look there in the same chapter, but verse 25. Verse 25. In verse 25 it says, see that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape. And here’s that word you ought to underline it. If we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven. You see, in the Old Testament whenever God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, There was lightning and thunder and maybe some little radiation if he got too close and touched the mountain and said, little darks are fire, though, yeah.

So the people were scared to death and they said, look, God talked to Moses and let Moses talk to us, but they didn’t want to hear God talk to them directly. They were afraid. But now he said, look, God speaks from heaven, gave us his word. And this is what he says. For if they escaped, not who refused him. So you can see this is talking to the Christian about not refusing to do the will of God. Don’t refuse to believe what God’s word says.

Don’t refuse to grow in the Lord and become a strong Christian. Because it’s going to cost you’re not going to learn how to rest in the Lord. You’re not going to believe His promises. And the devil is going to have a victory in your life and it’s going to cause you a lot of aches and pains. And because that is not understood and not believed, it’ll take its toll in your family. It’ll take its toll to kids. It’ll take its toll between you and your wife and your husband.

It takes its toll in a church. It takes its toll in our country because people just don’t believe what God’s Word says. Now, look at this in verse 27. He says in verse 20, for this word, yet once more signifying the removing of those things which are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, wherefore we receive in the kingdom, which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Now this is the conclusion of the whole matter. As a child of God, I should desire the grace that I need. Like you said here, that we may serve God. So we’re not talking about how to get to heaven, we’re talking about serving the Lord. So all these ifs do here, yeah, if you had them. And one of the days is going to be, if I’d have just trust the Lord more. If I’d have walked with Him, if I’d have read His Word, if I’d have come to church, if If I’d have a witness, if I’d have some of us going to be a member of the if I’d have only club, if I’d have only, if I’d have only, and there’s a price to pay.

Isn’t it good that you can take one book like the book of Hebrews and get all this understanding of one book? And it’s all laid out there. I mean, as simple as it can be. It’s just, look at, look at that. It’s clear as a bell. And you don’t have to twist. You don’t have to make it up. And yet there’s people who want to take everything and twist and put a spin on it. You don’t have to put spins on the Word of God.

Let us say what He says. And there’s no man in his right mind can take those verses and put them to salvation unless they’re a naive. Oh, of course they’re naive. Look up here. This hand representing you and me. God says that He loves us. But we’re born into this world with an old sinful nature, means we send naturally. You don’t have to be taught how to sin. Well, I did. None of that. Everybody sins. This wall represents sin.

We have all sinned. And because we’ve sinned, the wages of sin is death, so we have a debt to pay. But God loves us, but He doesn’t want us to pay for this sin because that’s eternal separation from Him. So the Bible says to go to heaven, we have to be perfect. It is righteous as God. None of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’re all sinners. And God says, you cannot save yourself by what you do.

We need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in the place. He came into the world because he loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from him. So what Christ did for one person, he did for the whole world, took all the sin of all the world, made one payment, came back from the dead, never has to do it again. They’re all paid. And God says, when I believe that He did it for me, He puts this payment to my account.

I’m forgiven of all my sins. It’s just like I died and I paid for all of my sins. My debt is paid. So I don’t have to go to hell and pay for sin because He paid for my sins. And once you accept that payment, it’s a done deal, paid in full. That’s why I can’t go to hell. I can’t go to hell today. I can’t go tomorrow. I can’t go in 10 years. I can never go to hell.

He died for my sins. Oh, that’s good news. Now, if you’ll believe he did it for you, guess what he’ll do? He’ll save you just like he did me. Everybody gets to heaven the same way. You accept Christ as your Savior or you don’t go. Isn’t that fair? Oh, you have to believe it. Well, you believe that he did this for you. Now, you’re here this morning and I don’t know if you trust Christ as Savior and I want you to.

I want you to go to heaven. I don’t want you to be deceived. I don’t want you to think, well, I’m going to do the best I can. Then you don’t get it. The best you can do is not good enough. You need a payment for your saying Christ did that. Will you trust Him as your Savior? Let’s pray, shall we? Every headbound, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him?

All I want you to do is right where you’re setting, I want you to talk to the Lord. You see, you don’t make a mistake this way. Only the Lord knows your thoughts. He can read your mind, but just tell him something simple like this, Lord, I’m a sinner. I don’t understand at all. But I believe Jesus Christ died on that cross and paid from my sins today, right now, this moment. I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior.

And, friend, God said, if you would do just that much, it’s all you have to do. That He would save you from hell. give you eternal life and you get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for you. Would you trust Him? I’m gonna ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you and I like to know. So it hit by a nice close.

Is there anyone at all? This morning say yes I will trust Christ as my Savior and preach I like you to pray for me. Would you slip it up a little quickly put it right back down. If If you’ve already trust the Lord, you don’t have to do it again. But if you’ve never done it before, say right now, I will trust the Lord. We just slip it up very quickly, bur up it down in with all. Yes, God bless you, man.

I appreciate that. The Son of good judgment. Anyone else, you can put it down. Remember by trusting Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life, and He’ll never cast you out and never lose you. You that know Christ as your Savior, has He been talking to you this morning? Are you walking with Him? I want you to serve Him. Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us, especially for the individual that indicated by an uplift at hand that they would trust You as Savior.

By doing so, they become Your child, Your child forever. You’ll never cast them out, never lose them. We ask Your blessings on each person here to help them to understand the value of walking with You, growing up that in Christ, build them into a strong house. We thank you for in Christ’s name. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church, Calvary of Tampa dot O-R-G Cloak. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-800-800-800. 776-3771. One-line donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org.

We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family. Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews. And I want And I want us to look at several difficult passages in the book of Hebrews. As you read the Scriptures, you’re going to come across several Scriptures that does present a problem that might be hard to explain to someone.

And I want to be able to cover some of them and at the same time teach you some things that are in its context that are very, very helpful. So here in Hebrews in chapter 3, we have a lot of people who take verses that seems to say something and you build doctrine off of them. It doesn’t say that if it seems to say something. Remember the key to understanding the Scriptures is the gospel. The light of the gospel is the key to unlock the Scriptures.

So one, when we understand that salvation is truly a gift of God and that it is by grace and not by man’s works, by anything that he does, that’s one of the biggest keys to understanding much of the Scriptures. So for example, look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 3, and I want you to notice there’s a word called if, if, if. He says here in verse 6, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm until the end.

So a person reads that verse and says, see there, you’ve got to live right firm until the end, my friend in order to get in. Now it seems that you could take that verse and make it say that, or look down here in another verse that I want you to see in verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until the end. So you notice that it He keeps talking about until the end.

So it’s natural to assume time at the end of your life. Well, maybe it means that, maybe it doesn’t. And maybe it’s talking about how to get to heaven and maybe it’s not. Now we know that the Bible cannot contradict itself. It can’t say for by grace are you saved in one place and then say you’re saved by your works in another place and both be referring to salvation. We know that one has to be referring to salvation and something has to be referring to something else.

So whenever we find this word if in here, we know that we cannot be talking about how to be saved. It has to be talking about how we live. But now what I want you to see there in chapter 3, he goes back and talks about Yes, Christ, but also about Moses and how hateful they were. You see what he says here in verse 2, who was faithful. Talk about it, Christ. Who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all of his health.

So you’re talking about a Christian being faithful. So we’re not talking about how to be saved. We’re talking about how a Christian is supposed to live. So we talk about how a person is to live when you trusted Christ as your Savior. See, you were placed on the foundation which is Christ. Christ is the rock. That’s the foundation. Then no other foundation that can be laid is that Jesus Christ. And on this foundation, we’re to be built. We are placed upon this foundation and so God wants to build us.

But you’ll notice what he said. In verse 4, for every house is built by Son man, but he that built all things as God. And Moses, barely or truthfully, was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after him. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we? So we’re talking about God is going to build a house. A house is where you and I live.

That’s what we usually consider a house to be, for a purpose of it. So God wants to take you as a child of God that’s on the foundation and build you strong. Now it says in the 20th verse of the book of Jude, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, building yourself strong. So as we read the book of Hebrews, we’re talking about how God wants to take a believer and make them strong and build them into a strong house.

Now in this house is where I’m going to live. Now I could relate to this and approximately 50 years of my life. We’ve been building on this house. God’s been building me. But after a while you get to where you can live in this house. And it provides for you with shelter and with light, with comfort, with food. It’s a spiritual home where you live. Now, see, I have a physical body and I have a place that I live in and I have a bed that I sleep in and we have food that I eat, but I’m talking about a spiritual house.

So God says, I can build you if you will submit yourself to him, he can build you strong in the Lord. Now, there’s a lot of God’s children that will not allow the Lord to build them. They trust Christ as their Savior and they never dedicate themselves to the Lord. So they never get strong in the Lord. And so they don’t have this house, a protection, a place where they can live. And it takes care of you all the days of your life.

So I’m glad that years ago, I learned enough scriptures to allow the Lord to help build me stronger in the Lord so that I can enjoy a good walk, a good spiritual life. Now in the book of Ephesians, it talks about how that we’re built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and how that the building, fitly framed together, builds into a spiritual habitation of God, which God lives in. So he says, my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but it’s more than just the body that God wants.

God wants your soul and your spirit, and He wants to build you strong into a house. And this foundation is His word. You see, when He makes the statement in the book of Matthew in chapter seven, He says, “‘Ye are to build yourself upon His sayings.'” He says, “‘If a man will obey my sayings, he shall be like a wise man that builds his house upon thee.'” rock. Now some Christians see are building their house upon the sand, but the Lord wants to build a house for you to live in, a spiritual home.

That’s why He wants you to learn the Word of God and the Word of God and the truth. It says about in the book of Galatians in chapter two when He talks about some of Peter and James and them, He says, they were like pillars in the church. You and I need to have some pillars. You know, some things that we believe in and that nothing can move us or shake us. Now, the world can fall apart and you can have health problems, you can have finance problems, social problems, but spiritually you can be a solid rock that doesn’t have to move and shake to all the problems of life.

They don’t have to be that way. So he’s talking to the children of God about how to grow from childhood to maturity, how to become strong in the Lord. Look there in chapter 5, won’t you see his very quickly. He says in verse 12 in chapter 5, for then for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and it becomes such as have need of milk, not of strong meat.

In other words, you didn’t grow up. You never became mature in the Lord. You’re a child, a child that never matured, a child that never grew, a child that never learned how to rest in the Lord, never learned how to take God in His Word and trust His promises. To see the light, I guess you could say, in the night. And then He says here in verse 13, for everyone that uses milk is unskilledful in the Word. Of righteousness for he is a what?

A babe. He says in verse 14, but strong meat belong to them that are a full age. So we’re going somewhere. You’re going from a child of God and to be a man of God. And the thing that makes the difference is the word of God. That’s why he says in chapter four, look in chapter four in verse 12. He says, for the word of God is quick and sharper and powerful that any two-edged sword, Pearson even to the divided of sons, and the verse 14, but strong meat belong to them that are a full age.

So we’re going somewhere. You’re going from a child of God and to be a man of God. And the thing that makes the difference is the word of God. That’s why he says in chapter four, look in chapter four and verse 12. He says, for the word of God is quick and sharper and powerful than any two-edged sword, Pearson even to the dividing of Sanders. soul and spirit and of the joint and the moral, the sinner of the thoughts and the intense of the heart.

So the word of God is given to us to take us from something to something. You were lost, you came, and you heard the word, you believed it, you trusted Christ as your Savior. Now you’ve been placed on a foundation. Now God wants to build you strong. And He can build you if you’re whole fast to the truths that are found in the Word of God. Now if you don’t, nobody can make you do it. Nobody can make you.

Nobody can cause you to walk with God and make you do it. It’s a personal thing. Do you want to be a strong Christian or do you want to be a weak Christian? Strong in your faith? Your choice. So now if you’ll notice there in Hebrews in chapter two, so he says in verse six, if we hold fast the confidence, the confidence. I can hold your place right here, but I want you to see this verse over there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 10.

Hebrews in chapter 10. And look there in verse 35. So he’s talking to Christians. And he says this in verse 35, cast not away, therefore you are what? You’re confidence. In other words, don’t let the devil cause you to doubt the word of God or doubt the promises of God, to doubt the will of God. The devil wants to just shake your life up and ruin you and keep you from walking with the Lord, to keep you from being strong in the Lord.”

So he says here in verse 35, “…cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of salvation or reward. Reward. The rewards is what God gives to you because of your confidence in him.” You see when you have confidence in the Lord, you’ll serve him. And when you serve him, God’s going to reward you for it. So you don’t want to cast your confidence away. You want to hang on to your confidence in what God says. And believe what God says, and you can grow strong in the Lord.

Now look there in chapter three and look down now in verse 11. He says, so I swear in my wrath, as he’s talking about the children of Israel, as they go on through the wilderness, he says, he was taking them from Egypt. They had crossed over and now he wants to take him into the Promised Land. Now the Promised Land is not generally considered to be a type of heaven. It’s a type of the Christian life because you see in the Christian life you’re either wandering in the wilderness or you can go to the Promised Land.

One is for the babe, you’ve got to be taken care of on everything. you can go into the land and there’s battles there and there’s giants there, but that’s what the milk and the honey is. That’s what is the victory for the Christian, to claim that which God has for you. But because of their unbelief, yes many of them crossed over the river, but they didn’t get into the promised land. It was why because of their unbelief. It wasn’t because they couldn’t, it’s that they wouldn’t.

They could have all, in 11 days journey, been there, but because of the hardness of their heart. They never got what God wanted them to have. Now there’s Christians living today. They’ve trusted Christ as their Savior, but most are living in the wilderness. And they’ve never grown up, never matured. Now you can be involved in a church all your life and never mature and never grow up. You can play the game. You can do all kind of things for God, but you never let God do a work in you that makes you spiritually strong and godly.

So he says down here in verse 11, so I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest or into that land. Now there’s a lot more to this, but I ain’t got time for all of that in the spiritual aspects of it. Trump take heed brethren. So we’re talking to brethren, the believers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. So that means you already know the Lord.

But a Christian can have an evil heart, an evil mind of not believing what God says concerning his life. And you live your life like a lost man. I’ve always looked at it this way. Let a a lust man do what a lust man can do and let me as a child of God do only what a child of God can do. That helped narrow it down by what I wanted to do with my life. That anyway says here, but in verse 13, but exhort one another daily while it is called today.

Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Now, if I was to take off my shoes and my socks, say, where’s he going? And there was some gravel out there. When I was a go out there and try to walk on that gravel, I am now a tenderfoot. I would be walking across like it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you would too.

If you’re used to wearing shoes, and I have been for a while. When I was living in Georgia, way back in the woods, when my daddy was a bootlegger, And it was shoes. The bottom of my feet were like a piece of leather. I could walk and run through a briar patch. Wouldn’t bother me none. Because my feet were tough. I had a thick calisole in my foot. And we moved to Pennsylvania. And I got up there with those sissies.

I could run all over that gravel and stuff like that. wouldn’t phase me when I older, but they couldn’t do it. Now, some Christians have done the same thing spiritually. They are no longer sensitive to things that are wrong. They are calloused. They don’t have any feelings. They’re not spiritually sensitive to the will of God or to the Holy Spirit’s leading for his correction. And see, after a while, see, you get so hardened that you don’t, that’s what he’s talking about.

He says in verse 14, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, it deceives you. It’s not that bad, it’s not that wrong. And you don’t see it the way God sees it. And that’s why he says in verse 14, for we are made part takers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Till you get to where God wants to take you. So as you study Hebrews, you find out, where is he wants to take me?

He wants to take me to maturity. Where I can learn how to rest in the Lord. You see, you and I can understand Ephesians 2, 8, 9 and John 3, 16, and you trust Christ as your Savior. You don’t spend the rest of your life trying to save yourself. Why? Because you’re resting in that truth. But many Christians don’t learn how to do the same thing for their life, how to take God at His Word and trust Him. And they never mature.

And they miss out on the joy of the Lord. And they worry about everything. I’d venture to say that majority of what you said in this room, right now, you’re worried about something. You’re worried. You’re scared. in fear. It’s a sign of an undisciplined mind that you can’t put a smile on your face. It says, I don’t know how it’s going to come out. I don’t care how it comes out. I’m trusting God and leaving it in his hands and enjoy your life.

Now take your Bible and turn there to the sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter six. And you’ll notice here that it says the word if in verse six. If they shall fall away to renew them again into repentance, man alive, hi, I’ve heard this twisted every kind of way you can think of, but I get this. In verse one, he says, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on. So we’re talking about leaving someplace and going to someplace else.

You’re already a child of God. Now he wants to bring you into maturity and says, Let’s leave the foundation alone. That’s settled. See, once you trusted Christ as your Savior, you can’t get saved again. So I never try to get another person who’s already been saved to get saved again. Because you can’t get saved again unless you can get lost. And that’s impossible. So you try to take a person from where they are and try to give them some truth to help them to grow and to become strong.

And he says, and this we will do. Yeah, God permits. But God doesn’t permit it if you don’t believe His Word. You see, God can’t build a Christian strong in the Lord if you doubt the Word of God. If you can’t believe what God says is true, it’s over. You can’t go nowhere as a Christian. You can’t do something that God wants you to do. You have to believe the Word. If you’re not going to believe what he says, you’re going to have trouble and problems and worries all your life and you’re never going to accomplish what God wanted you to accomplish.

So look what he says, not laying again. In verse 1, not laying again the foundation. Because you see, you don’t have to lay the foundation again. Even if you don’t serve the Lord, you don’t go forth. Why? Because the foundation is Christ and it’s laid and you’re on it. That’s done. And he says, you can’t get lost after you’re saved. He says, that’s what it says. This is what it’s talking about. You see, it’s impossible for a person to get saved and then lose a salvation and then get saved again.

Because the only way that he got saved was because Christ paid for his sins. True? Well, the only way you can get lost is because the sin Christ didn’t pay for. Well, then if he could get lost, well, then he can’t get saved again unless Christ pays for that sin. wasn’t paid for the first time. That’s why it’s impossible for man to get lost and get saved again. So he says, we don’t have to lay that foundation and get what he says of repentance from dead works.

Did you know what repent is talking about in the dead work? A man can’t save himself by his work. Why? Because they come from a dead man. He’s separated from God. So a man’s works can’t save him, so repent means to stop trying to save yourself, change your mind, you can’t save yourself and trust Christ as your Savior. Am I getting my point across? Aren’t good, that’s good enough for me. But repentance from dead works, you can’t save yourself by your works.

So you trust Christ as you save you. You don’t have to lay that again, you don’t have to get saved again, why? Because you can’t get lost. And so he says in verse three, and this what we do. You If God permits, if God permits, why wouldn’t God permit it? If you don’t believe his word, you can’t grow. You can’t produce. It all boys found is as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in Him. How did you receive Him?

By faith, well, how do you live? By faith, you gotta keep taking the men as word. So you gotta keep learning scripture so that you can believe it, so you know that. Don’t it make sense? When you heard John 3 16 about how to get saved, you believed it. What did he get you? Got your salvation. And when we get to heaven, we’re going to find out what we could have had. And we didn’t get because we didn’t believe him.

What God wanted to do with you, he probably could have used you to shape the world, but you wouldn’t believe him. You wouldn’t trust him. You wouldn’t walk with him and you worried about everything under the sun. Because of a lack of faith. Christ over and over again talked to him to decide, but he said, Oh, ye of little faith, little faith.

Anyway, it’s we’re moving right along here. Look what he says in verse six now. He says, if they shall follow, if you could, if you could, follow off that foundation, if you couldn’t lose your salvation to renew them again, to repent, it is impossible. It’s impossible for a man to be saved, Get lost and get saved again. I’ve had people tell me to get lost, but I can’t get lost. I was saved almost 50 years ago. I have eternal life.

I’m God’s child. And as a child of God hits his will for me to grow. And I pray that I will and I’ve got to keep growing and keep maturing in the Lord. But you get to the place where you can learn how to take God at his word and trust him. You don’t have to try to make things happen. You just let it happen. God will bless you. He’ll take care of you. But I want you to see this.

In the last part of verse 6, he says, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh. Put him to an open chain. In the Word, if Christ could pay for your sins and you trust him as your Savior, then you commit a sin that he hadn’t paid for. So now you’ve got to get saved again. It’s like Christ being crucified over again for your sin. Says he only came into the world one time. You read the chapter nine and chapter 10.

Once, you pay for sin, once, why? Because it’s a point of every man wants to die and after this, the judgment. So when Christ died for me, he only had to do it one time. He went through it twice. There is no more sacrifice for sins because the payment he made once and for all was sufficient. Now use the illustration to help you to understand. Looking for seven. For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that comes off the poment, Bring the fourth herbs fruit, meet for them or fit for them, by whom it is dressed, receive a blessing from God.

So here’s the ground, drinks in the water and produces fruit. Oh, what a blessing. But looking verse 8 for the earth, same thing. But that refers back to earth, which buried thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh undercursion whose end is to be burned. So you have a piece of ground and it can produce fruit or it can produce briars and thorns. Here you are, you’re a child of God. You’re like a piece of ground. God has an investment in you.

He wants you to drink in the Word of God and brain-forth the fruit that He wants in your life so you can be blessed. But if you don’t do that and you don’t get the rain, you’re gonna produce briars and thorns in your life. And you know these briars and thorns, they all have these little things on them. They stick you. I’m a blackberry picker. Man, for about four or five years of my life, everything I wanted, I got through picking blackberries.

I could pick blackberries with the best. But man, I’d get stickers all in my hands and then my fingers and they would be so best. But buddy, I could reach in there and I’d come out, scratch all over from them, briars, but I got those blackberries. I put them in that jar and I go down to the street and sell them for 20 cents to get into the movie theater. And I could do that with one little jar of blackberries.

But there was a price to pay for those blackberries. And a lot of Christians, they are surrounding their whole life with nothing more than briars. And they are pricking themselves and hurting themselves. They’ve made decisions for their life that it’s a destruction from the inside. It’s not that God had to do anything. Your bad decisions is going to take its toll upon you. And you’ll think, well, look what God did to me. Look what God did to me. You did it.

God didn’t do it. You only get mad at somebody because you didn’t grow up and live right and walk right. You didn’t obey the scriptures like you should have. And you wouldn’t be. No man would be better at God. If you understood God, the only reason that people are worried and sick about a lot of things and falling apart because they don’t know the Lord, the way they should know Him. Oh, you may know Christ as your Savior, you’re going to heaven when you die, but you’re not strong and in your life you’re complaining about all these briars and bones that you got.

Blame it on God. You drink in the rain and bring forth the blessings. And you serve God. I swear I knew that if I served God, God would have to bless my life. And God has. If I had a few thorns and briars along the way, yeah, boy. And I look back over my life, yeah, there’s been a trail of tears. But there’s also been a lot of blessings because I’ve gained a lot. God’s Word is true. We’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. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, 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 going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Vital Line and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the year. can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

I always remember, you know, God not only wants to be bold, but at the same time be humble. to learn to wait on God. To see what God will do. Knowing you got to depend on him. Like this little boy, he went with his mom to the grocery store. And she was at the counter and the little boy was just staring at that great big old bowl of cherries. All those cherries look so good. And he kind of licked his lips, looking at the bowl of cherries.

Finally the manager, the grocer said, son, why don’t you just go ahead and help your friend. just go ahead and help yourself to a handful. The boy just kind of held his hand down, head down and he wouldn’t do anything. He says, go ahead son, just reach in there and get your hand full of him. Just head down and just put the pattern in the cheapest way. So finally the guy he just got a little sack and he reached in there and got a handful and put him in a sack.

And on the way out the mom says Sun what why didn’t why didn’t we go ahead and get you some? Was his hands a lot bigger than mine? Studying the word of God can make you sharp. It can make you smart can make you wise make better decisions So you and I need to understand it his hand bigger than mine You can’t out give God Some Christians become so stingy and selfish, they’re afraid to give, they’re afraid God ain’t gonna bless them down the road.

Or if they give $100, they run to the mailbox and say, God, send them to. You say, well, what the, I thought if I gave this year money and I gave that, that God would bless me. No, but He blessed the church. The church was blessed, and the church won’t be blessed if you become stingy. Because then there will be no support of God’s work and there won’t be no missionaries and won’t be no radio broadcasts. Thank the Lord for those who do believe that their Support of God’s work is worth it whether God sends them at checking the mail or he doesn’t I don’t believe in this the gospel of health and wealth philosophy I Believe that you can support God’s work and give and sacrifice and lose everything you have I I don’t promise anybody, God’s going to take care of this and take care of that.

I just believe that if you do what you’re supposed to do, there’s a day coming when God will make it worthwhile. I can’t promise you anything here. You can suffer here and you can lose a lot of things. You can lose your job and lose your health. You can lose your property. You lose everything in this life. Nothing down here is secure. That’s why you do what you can, why you can with what you have or you are. And God will bless.

Look here in the 103rd Psalm, the 103rd Psalm. He says, Blessed the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. You know, as we get older and sometimes we get any church policies, we know what the benefits are, who’s a beneficiary. Or when you get old enough to become a, you know, on social security, what your benefits are, or Medicaid, or Medicare, or Medicare, you just try to study to find out what do you have, what’s your benefits?

Well, if it gets too tight, they’ll cut them out. Oh, they don’t know. They don’t lower your own payments. They just cut out the benefits. But God says, you and I ought to be thankful to the Lord for all his benefits. You realize that serving God, there are so many benefits that you can’t name them all. One day when we get to heaven and we see how God has so blessed us, been so good to us, just the ability to live this side of eternity.

And for God to use us to give us ministry whereby we can do what we can for the Lord. And the people that you lead to the Lord to see the results down the road. It will be worth it all because God word says, so look what He says here in verse 3, who forgive us all by an iniquity. That’s a big benefit. You realize that in the Old Testament it says forgive us all by an iniquity or forgive us all by sin, that’s He turn up security.

See if God forgives you of all of your sins, that’s eternal security. All my sins forgiven. That’s taught in the Old Testament just like it is in the New Testament. He told the disciples, when all were on priest the forgiveness of sins, or forgiveness of sins is salvation. In other words, you’re not going to go to hell and pay for any sin because they’ve forgiven. You say, I don’t have to pay for my sins. Why? Because they’ve been forgiven.

I don’t have to pay for them. Oh, that’s good news. What a benefit. You know, I don’t have to live the rest of my life with guilt on my shoulders and in my mind and weighing me down because God forgave me. I don’t know what you’ve done. I don’t care what you’ve done, but I don’t want to know. But God says, if you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are accepting forgiveness of your sins because he was the payment for them.

What a benefit and for God to make me his child. What a benefit. For God do all these wonderful things for me, give me the free gift of eternal life. I’m going to have them when I die. Those are benefits and then to be able to serve. What a benefit. But he says here and he left all by these. He says, one of these days. I’m going to get a new body. That new body will not be susceptible to any of the diseases of this world.

I’m going to be totally cured. I won’t get old anymore either. You know, inside of this body, there’s a 17 year old teenager struggling to get out. I look into the mirror and I expect to see this 17 year old teenager. There’s this old man looking at me. Now I finally figured out why that one lady came.ModLoader came into the office that day and she looked at my picture on that little book. She says, who’s that? I said, that’s me.

She says, no way. And then the (); began. Look what he says here in verse 4, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crown a thee with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfy a thine mouth with good things. Look how good God has been. Gave me a new song, gave me a new birth, gave me a new life. God did all of these wonderful things. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget in all his benefits. Look what he says in verse eight, and this is why we should be humble and dependent on Lord, because God has been so good to us.

us. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plantheous in mercy. He will not always chide. Neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins. Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, called if he had would he gone to hell. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that hear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from a like as a father, pityeth or has compassion upon his children.

So the Lord pityeth them that fear him, has compassion upon him. He knows in verse 14 our friend, he remade just dust. We’re just a man, we’re going to pass away one of these days. But aren’t you glad that somebody came your way and explained the gospel and you heard it and you trusted Christ as your Savior? God did that. God did that. And to be thankful to the Lord for all that he has done. Turn in your Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 12, the book of Romans and chapter 12.

You see when you have there’s a way of God bringing you down. And if you have humility, there’s a way of God bringing you up. And a friend of mine, Dr. Curtis Hudson, I’ll just preach it one time. And he told the story of how that when he was preaching that he was talking about Jesus coming back again. Jesus was coming. Come for all things already. But he couldn’t remember his next point. So he thought, I’ll just repeat the last one until it comes to me.

Behold I come. What it sounded good and people like, you know, hey, man, hey, man, all over again. But he still couldn’t remember his next point. So he says, behold, I come. Said it a little bit stronger, more forcefully. More amens. Third time he says, behold, I come. But he went too far over the pulpit and it knocked it down. and he rolled over the top of it and he wound up in the lap of the lady sitting on the front row.

And as he’s later he says, man, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I am so sorry. She said apologize for nothing. You told me three times you were coming, but there’s always something that can, you know, pull you down off your little perch if you think you get too big and heady and, you know, high-minded, but in the book of Romans and chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, you and I are supposed to have persistence with patience, persist in the will of God, but patient.

I’ve done a lot of weddings, a lot of weddings, and this one preacher was conducting a wedding. Usually whenever I get ready to, you know, to move on the wedding after I’ve said so few opening remarks, I say if you two have joined together for the purpose of being joined together in holy matrimony, you’ll please signify your intentions by uniting your hands together. But some preachers, they say if you would like to be joined together in holy matrimony, you’ll please signify your hand by clasping your hands.

Well the young boy, he didn’t know what the preacher said, he thought he says, clap your hands. So I clap his hands. Well, the wife looked at him and she started clapping her hands. So they’re both standing there in front of the preacher and they’re clapping her hands. Well, everybody in the whole congregation said like this and they all joined in. Everybody was clapping her hands. It just shows you how sometimes you can know if you’re not clearly understood, people don’t get the right message.

That’s why when we studied the Word of God, we’re supposed to find out exactly what he said. Because a lot of people are running, but they haven’t got the message right yet. So there’s a problem. For example, some people, you don’t know if they’re really working or not. They’re there. They’ve ever seen people go on the job, but you don’t know if they’re working or not. And I had a friend of mine, his name is Bob Daley. He says, now, when they had the Union job and he was retired now, he said, but they had this one guy, he had a pipe in his hand and he walked around the yard all day long.

Never did any work. He just carried this pipe in his hand. Nobody ever asked him about that pipe, but he never did any work, but he got full pay and all he did was walk around carrying that pipe in his hands. You know, Christians like that? They give the appearance of work, but they never accomplish anything. This one employee says to his employee, he says, he says, Do you ever do anything fast? He says, yes, right? I get tired fast.

Some people, you can’t win. You know, it doesn’t matter. But look at Romans in chapter 12. Look in verse 1. He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. Just like Mary and Joseph, they took Jesus and they presented Jesus. Accepting the responsibility to honor God and what God wants. You and I are supposed to take our bodies and present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. That means that you recognize that my body does not belong to me, my body belongs to God.

Therefore, what you do with this body is very, very important and you and I will give an account to the Lord for what we did while we were in the body. One of these days we’re going to move out of this body and we’re going to give an account to the Lord. But until then, why should I yield or present my body to the Lord? I don’t do that to go to heaven, because I’m going to heaven. I’m already happy to turn to life.

I’m going to heaven when I die. But he says, which is a, is a be holy, acceptable unto God? Your reasonable servant. It’s just a reasonable thing. And he says in verse two, be not conformed to this world, but be it transformed by the renewing of human. And you cannot transform your life without the renewing of the mind. So you take the divine inspired Word of God and put it into your mind so that you can discern right from wrong, so that you’ll know and understand the will of God, and God said, He will bless you because of that.

Look in 1 Corinthians in chapter 15, 1 Corinthians and chapter 15. This is a very, very good verse. I’ve used it a lot of times and I guess I’ll keep using it because it has really helped me to understand how I’m supposed to think. So 1st, drinking is 15, looking at verse 58. This is on page 1228, an old Scofille reference Bible or one of the church Bibles who stole it. No, not just that. Verse 58, therefore might be levered, brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, in the work of the Lord.

So it is God’s will that all of God’s children be involved in the work of the Lord. And the work of the Lord is the purpose of the church that comes together so we can work together and help each other and pray for one another, to rebuke one another, encourage and all those things because it’s the work of the Lord. Is the work of the Lord something that’s in vain? Don’t need to do it. Look what he says. Always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

It’s not in vain. Do it because God says so now all of what you accomplished for the rest of your life depends upon Do you believe? That according to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for Reproof and correction and so forth instructs me in righteous that the man of God may be complete Truly furnished and all good work. Do you believe that the study of the word of God?

that you may not be ashamed, a worthman that needed not to be ashamed, a worthman. Not just say, look, I can quote the Bible, but if you can’t work, what profit is it? That’s what you do. That’s important. So that’s why the Word of God is so important unanimity. Let me give you this one of the verse before we close here. Look in 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Really, I have two verses that I want to show you.

Oh, one of them’s right here. 1 Corinthians 9, look there in verse 1. The Apostle Paul says, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? And you are on the line this phrase, and that verse, are not ye my work in the Lord. The work of the Lord is people. The work of the Lord is people. Can you figure out how you could serve the Lord without people? Would be the value of it.

What are you doing? The work of the Lord is people. And so he says here, are ye, ye are my work in the Lord? In the Word, my work for God is you. We’re always working on somebody. That means we’re still on, we’re not complete yet. And so we are studying the Word of God, God, the perfect Word of God, so that we can work on one another, to help one another, feed each other the right, to be the right kind of a testimony and so forth, and not to be a stumbling block for people to stumble over the habits in our life or anything that’s wrong.

We do what’s right. But I love that verse, are not ye might work in the Lord. Take your Bible now and look over there in the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians and chapter 2. and you’ll notice here in verse 18. Verse the Solonians chapter two and verse 18. Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul once and again, but Satan hindered us. Have you ever done anything in Satan hinder you? Yeah, he hinders you.

He’s always working and trying to hinder you from doing what God wants you to do. Paul had that problem, you’re gonna have that problem. There’s always something. I’ve always noticed that people from Monday through Saturday can feel great, go to work all the way, but Sunday morning they get sick. They get sick on Sunday morning. You see, what do they got? That Sundayitis. It’s the new disease that came out with. I don’t even know if there’s a shot for it, but they get a bad case of Sundayitis and they have to stay in bed.

They can feel great, but as soon as church services are where they start feeling bad. But first, that’s the Lonians in chapter two. look what he says here in verse 19. For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? What is my hope? He says, are not even the ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. What is gonna be my joy, my hope, my crown of rejoicing? What is all of that? You at the appearance of Jesus Christ.

When the rapture takes place to see you, You were my work in the Lord. My question is this. Do you have a work in the Lord? Is there somebody that God has used you to work on, whether for salvation or for service? Who have you influenced, challenged, motivated? God has been able to use you. And when you get to heaven and you see that person that’s there because of you. That will be, look what he says here. Your crown of rejoicing.

Look in verse 20, for ye are our glory and our joy, the people that have been reached. You see, we can accomplish more for the Lord if we work together. So therefore, by having essential classes, a one, the camp, the radio, whatever we can do as a group. And then there’s always the individuals, what if just everybody in here won one person to the Lord a month. They could have a sub 100, trust the law. But what if you did it once a week?

Just think, I mean, we could have trust the law. But see, you’re not in a race against somebody. God’s going to reward you when you get to heaven, not only because people that trust the Lord, he rewards you because of your faithfulness, not the result of your faithfulness. It souls that were after. But one of these days there are going to be people in heaven and we’ll see them that trust the Lord because of all the various ministries or the individual work in talking to that you’ve been so in seed for years and so forth on the job and neighbors and all that.

But never forget it, your work in the Lord is not in vain. God loves us so much. It’s the best thing in all the world to be involved in the work of the Lord. Are you involved in the work of the Lord? What part do you play? Are you busy? You’re helping. I’d love to see the quiet, holy fool. We’d love to see a few more helping in the Sunday School department that we’ll like to teach. Of course, you got to be taught, got to be trained, but prepare.

Be working toward something. Otherwise, it’ll always be, well, I could have. I could have. Yeah, I know you could have. But did you present yourself to the Lord? So this morning, I want you to do this. I want you in your own mind between you and God. Will you say, Lord, I present myself to you. You’re free to work on me any way you want. Reveal to me anything in my life that doesn’t need to be there. And help me to see everything that does need to be there.

And prepare me in whatever way you want to, by whatever means. I’m yours. And enjoyfully study the word, make whatever changes the corrections you like you need because there’s nothing greater than being used of God in the work of the Lord. Look up here. If you are here for the first time, maybe you never understood before what you have to do to go to heaven. This is the most important thing of everything that I’ve said. This hand represents you and me.

The wallet represents all of our sins. That’s the bad things that we do. See I was always told if I was good I’d go to heaven bad I’d go to hell. Well I really didn’t know if I was good enough to go to heaven and bad enough to go to hell. I had mixed emotions. But see I was raised in Georgia, in the flatwoods and my daddy was a bootleggin. I never understood but I heard one day that God loved me.

Now he didn’t like my sin but he loved me and he says for me to pay for my sins is death in Him. But I didn’t want to go to hell and I found out God didn’t need Him. So He says, if I wanted to go to heaven, I have to be perfect as righteous as God. But I wasn’t good enough. I’m not perfect. And He says, because of sin, you can’t get in. And all your good deeds that you could ever do will not pay for one sin.

If I was to stack on here a thousand good deeds won’t take away this one bad deed. God says you have to pay for it. He says you can’t save yourself. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in the flesh, He came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin, called our sins separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. He took our sins, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead.

And God said if we’ll believe that He did it for us. He put that payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. See, if I offered you my wallet and you accepted it to have a wallet, I offered you my Bible and you accepted it to have a Bible. Christ walked in here and offered you eternal life and you accepted it to have eternal life. So I’m going to ask you right now with you looking right at me.

If you died right now, would you go to heaven if you’re not sure? Only thing you have to do is believe he did it for you, that he died and paid for your sins, and would you trust him to take you to heaven when you die. When you believe that, he saves you from hell, gives you eternal life, and he’ll never cast you out and never lose you. Let’s Correct Shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around.

If you hear this morning and you’ve never trusted the Lord, Would you just talk to the Lord right now? See God knows who you are. He knows where he knows what you’ve done, knows what you’re going to do. And yet the invitation is still open to you. God so loved the world. That includes you. I don’t care how bad you’ve been, God’s grace is sufficient. He paid for your sins. Will you believe he did it for you? Will you trust him to take you to heaven when you die?

Would you right now at this moment say, Yes, I know I’m a sinner and I believe Christ died and paid for my sins and I will trust him right now That’s my only hope of going to heaven and preach our life. You to pray for me Random gonna ask you to raise your hand in just a moment raising hand does not not let’s me know that what I said made sense to you and I’d like to know it and I’d like to have prayer for you So in the quietness of this moment is anyone also Yes, I’ll trust Christ is my savior and preach I like you to pray for me Just look at it very quickly but I’m very thankful.

I’m going to go. I’m going to go. I’m going to go. I’m going to go. Yes, God bless you sir. Appreciate that. That’s a sign of good judgment. See only a full return down if we get. It’s free, friend. Anyone else before we’re closely? Yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. Just lift up very quickly and rub it down. For you that have already trusted Christ as your Savior, you know you’re going to have them when you’re down. Has there been a time in your life when you say, Lord, I present my body to you?

I want to dedicate myself to you. I want you to use me, however you want. If you’ve never done it before, would you do it today? If you will, but it is by nice closed. I’d like to have prayer for you, but you just lifted it very quickly and put it right back down. This is to those who have already trusted the Lord. Yes, God bless you and you. Yes, quite a few hands. Yes, God bless you, sir. And we have a God bless you, man.

And others, I want God to use me. I want to prepare and I want to be fit for the master’s use. Our Father, we thank you so much for this time together. You thank your Lord for the one that indicated by an uplift at hand that they would trust your Savior because we know that you guaranteed an eternal life and you’ll never cast them out and never lose them. And Father, no doubt, there’s many here that’s decided to, yes, I want you to use me.

They may not raise the hand, but there’ll be a quiet, slow-moving dedication of courage applied in their life. They’ve never seen anything in your body, but the chambers will take place because they’ll begin to walk with you and we thank you for them. Let’s each one. In Christ and we 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. impover If you wish to hear today’s program or would like to download Notting Free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-800- 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 Bibleline to continue on the air.

You can reach us toll free at 1-800-5. at 576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family. Anyway, take your Bible and turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy and chapter 3. Timothy chapter three. And look there in verse 16. I want to share with you just a few words this morning on the work of the Lord, the work of the Lord.

The work of the Lord means just but it says it’s work. It’s not always a piece of cake but it’s work, it’s diligence. And the Bible says that once you and I trust Christ as our Savior we are His children. So God has given to us something to help us. And if you’ll see there in verse 15, 2 Timothy chapter 3, look in verse 15, and that from a child, from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures, I believe that it is the will of God for parents to see that their children learn the scripture at an early age.

The earlier the better. Because as you get older, it’s more difficult for us to be taught, to be trained. They say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I’m not referring to you as that. I’m just saying that the older we get, the harder it is for us to adjust to new truth, to learn other things. We become set in our ways. We become hard-headed. We don’t want anybody telling us what we can and cannot do. But while a child’s heart is soft and tender and pliable, teachable, that’s the time to reach them and to train them in what the Word of God says.

And get what he says here. And that from a child I have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make the wise unto salvation. You see, they need to be wise enough to understand and put their faith, their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, as early as possible. That’s one of the greatest responsibilities that a parent can ever have. And so that’s why the whole family that loves that little child is supposed to do whatever they can to help and challenge them.

And to make sure they say and do nothing in their testimony that would cause a little child to stumble. Because God says not to offend one of these little ones. And then he says here in verse 16, all scripture, Old Testament, New Testament is given by inspiration of God. That means it’s God-breed. That means that men wrote as the Holy Spirit guided them and moved them. them. A man didn’t sit down and said, I think I’ll write me a book.

They wrote what God told them to write. And so he says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is, and get what the scriptures are good for. This is why you come to Sunday school and Sunday morning or Sunday night, whenever you can study the scriptures, approach the scriptures as you understand, This is the Word of God. This is God’s mind on everything that I need to know about life. I will study this book and it is profitable for doctrine.

That’s to teach you what is right. That’s what’s right. It’s the basic Bible teachings found in the Word of God. For reproof, it means to help you to see, understand, to discern what’s wrong so that As you read the scriptures, there’s things that will rebuke you on as you study that you know you’re not right between you and God. The Word of God is like a mirror that you see yourself and without the Word of God, you really don’t see yourself.

So he says, it’s profitable for doctrines, profitable for reproof. It’s profitable for corrections. In other words, how it ought to be, how to correct a problem in your life. This is why you need to learn to study the Word of God. God created you and I, put us into this world. And God gave us His Word so that we know how to live in the world. And so how to make something right when you’ve done something wrong. And see, God says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanseOrigin from all unrighteousness.

Now this is what God wants to do with every believer. This is why though we study the Word of God so that we can know and understand. He says, for instruction in righteousness. In the word, it teaches us about things that are right. How to do the right thing. Did you know that by studying the Word of God you can understand that you have an old sinful nature and you know you have a new nature that’s born of God and that you have within you the elements of a battle that will never end this side of eternity.

You’re going to always be battling because you have an old sinful nature and you have a new one that came from the Lord when when you trust it, Christ is your Savior. And so the battle is on. And God’s Word gives us the instructions on how to be the man of God. Now, the only thing that lies between a child of God in verse 15 and the man of God in verse 17 is the word of God in between.

So from a child to an adult, a strong spiritual, spiritual, godly individual. The only way you can ever become that is with the Word of God. Take away the Word of God and you will be a babe in Christ or a child of God, yes, all your life. But you’ll never be the man of God or the woman of God that God intended. And it means that you’ll never be able to experience the things that can happen to a person who learns how to walk with God.

You’ll always hear about it, but it won’t be part of your life. If you eliminate the most powerful thing to change your life, the Word of God changes you. See, once you trust Christ to save you, yes, you’re born into His family, you have eternal life. But that doesn’t transform your life. It’s only imparting of spiritual life. It’s after you apply the Word of God and study in the Word of God that your life can be changed. And what it was to what God wants it to be.

So he says here in verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect or mature, complete, truly furnished unto all good works. So the Word of God is given to you and I so that we can do the work of the Lord. When you’re limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry. And you can always have the desire to do more, but because you lack the knowledge, you don’t know how to do it. For example, years ago, especially up there in Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee and Carolinas, the old time preachers used to think there was two kinds of preachers.

The kind it’s called? and they kind of said you can’t. If you’re a cold of God, you don’t need no education. You just get up there and you open your mouth and let her fly. And the Lord will speak through you. And then there’s the other kind that gets educated. Well this one old timer he says, I’m glad I’m ignorant. The other man says, bless him Lord. He has a lot to be thankful for. But believe it or not, a God called man can be educated.

God wants a man of God, every person, every child of God, to grow up, to be spiritually mature, able to handle adult responsibilities. Now look there in 2 Timothy chapter 2, look in verse 15. verse 15. And verse 15 says, study to show off. Now, excuse me, study to show thyself approved unto God. In other words, God is looking for somebody who has fit for the ministry, fit to serve, fit to teach, fit to be a deacon, fit to be an elder, fit to be a pastor or missionary, fit to be the right kind of a husband, fit to be the right kind of a wife.

Fit means you’re prepared, you’re able to do what God wants you to do. So he says, study to show thyself approved unto God, and your underlying this word, a workman that need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, when you know what the word of God says, with one swift move, you can be able to rightly discern the word of God. But when you don’t, you just hack it to death. And a lot of God’s people can hack it all over the place and never know what they really believe.

You don’t know the Bible because of how many times you’ve been through it. It’s, does the Bible, has it been through you? You don’t know the Bible until the Bible controls your life. It’s not because you can memorize a thousand verses, not because you can quote every book in the Bible. That’s not knowing the Bible. Those things are important and you need to know them. of them, it’s good. But until this book controls your life, you won’t know this book because you still haven’t experienced it by living it.

Well, I can say it becomes precious to you, real to you, because you know it’s true. Now, as a child of God, we know that we should go to church. Most people know we should go to church. But you know, there’s always different kind of churches. Well these fair feathered friends decided to get together and they were going to start them at church. So the duck says, I think we ought to baptize by immersion. The rooster says, I don’t think so, I think we ought to just sprinkle because you know that’s going to make a bunch of these chickens matters are wet in.

The parrot says, I think we just need a good program. The goose says, I think we need a 30 year old pastor with 20 years experience. The mockingbird says, I think we just need music. The sparrow says, I don’t think we need any music at all. The robin says, I think we need a budget. The crow says, I don’t, I think we just go on faith. The owl says, all we need is sincerity. So they did, they organized them a church that was strictly of the birds.

This is not to be a church for the birds. It’s God’s people, and they are to come together to study the Word of God. So when you come to church, you should have a Bible. Don’t you think a child of God ought to study the Bible? And when you have a Bible study, there should be a time for opening up the scriptures and looking at it and see what it says. So we try to teach, thus, say of the Lord.

Take your Bible and turn to the hundred and third Psalm. The hundred and third Psalm. The hundred and third Psalm is a very good Psalm. I love this Psalm. But the child of God should be a person with a purpose. And that purpose comes because of your understanding of what the Word of God says, what it teaches. And that is so very, very important. We are to be bold. We are supposed to trust the truth. We’re supposed to study the Word of God because we believe it’s truth.

Then we’re supposed to live by trusting this truth, applying the principles that are found in the Word of God. that it’s the will of God and that it will work. Do you trust God to do what God says He will do? Can you believe the promises of God? Or do you doubt and question Him? We worry, fret. Want to get even, binge. Oh, this in our heart. God says, trust Him. Trust the truth. And so as you study the Word of God, it’s not the size of the person.

It’s the size of the faith in the person, a man by the name of Lynn Brotton up in Atlanta, Georgia was going to have a debate with an atheist. So when they got there for the debate, he was a little fella, Lynn, and this atheist was a great big fella. And he got up to him and looked down at him and he says, I’m going to chew you up and swallow you whole. So he looked up at him and says, if you did, you’d have more brains in your stomach than you have in your head.

I like it when a little guy can get even, but the Bible says to be able to give an answer to anyone that asked a question. So why do you believe what you believe? How many of you know, don’t have to raise your hand, how many of you know positively that if you were to die, you’d go to heaven. I know it. If you know that you’re going to heaven, how do you know? How do you know? Because you’ve been good.

Because you were dunked in water. You signed a card. You joined the church. You gave some money. The only way that you can know that you’re going to heaven is that there had to be some time in your life. You trusted Jesus Christ as your only hope. of getting there. You believe that He died on that cross and paid for your sins and you know you’re going to heaven when you die. So you need to be able to defend your faith.

You do that by the studying of the Word of God. You don’t study it. You won’t witness much because you won’t have enough answers and you’ll be afraid to be put down and therefore you won’t have the confidence and therefore you won’t have the boldness but you’re to be bold. The boldness comes because of your for assuredness, the security that you have in the Word of God. Can you take verses from the Bible and show somebody how to be saved?

Have you ever walked up to somebody and said, sir, have you ever had anybody take the Bible and show you how to have eternal life? I’ve done that with so many. And then I said, no, I said, look, you mind if I take just a few minutes, let me just show you a few of the verses in the Bible. And I take my heaven track. And I said, first of all, I say, let’s see right here, these things have already written under you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal.

I said, did you know you could have eternal life? You can know it. I didn’t know that. I said, let me show you right here. This is another one of my favorite verses, two of my favorite verses in the Bible, Ephesians 2, 8, 9. 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 you’ve got to find the tool that works for you.

You’ve got to find a way that you can do it. There is a way. You just have to find it. And your concern and compassion will force you to find a way. But to say, well, I just don’t know what to say. That won’t hold up. You find a way, but you do it. Because God says every child of God is going to give an account to God someday. Well, this little period of time He gave us to live.

Now, it might be different if you was born in some other country and nobody ever talked to you or if you trusted Christ to save you, and you didn’t have a Bible, but we live in America where all of us can have a Bible. And if you don’t have one, still one out of the church pews in. I probably shouldn’t have said that. We’ll probably have to replace about 20 Bibles now. But you can have a Bible. But I want you to see the importance of doing this, serving the Lord.

I always remember, you know, God not only wants to be bold, but at the same time be humble. They’ll wait on God to see what God’ll do. No one, you got to depend on him. But like this little boy, he went with his mom to the grocery store and she was at the counter and the little boy was just staring at that great, big old bowl of cherries. All those cherries look so good. And he kind of licked his lips, looking at it, a bowl of cherries.

Finally the manager, the grocer said, son, why don’t you just go ahead and help yourself go a handful? The boy just kind of held his hand down, head down, he wouldn’t do anything. He said, go ahead son, just reach in there and get your hand full of him. Just put his head down, Just put the bed in the cheapest way, right? So find out the guy he just got a little sack and he reached and got a handful and put in the sack and on the way out the mom says Sun what why didn’t why didn’t go ahead and get you some?

Was his hands a lot bigger than mine? Studying the word of God can make you sharp. It can make you smart can make you wise make better decisions So you and I need to understand it his hand bigger than mine. You can’t out give God. Some Christian becomes so stingy and selfish. They’re afraid to give, because they’re afraid God ain’t gonna bless them down the road. Or if they give $100, they run to the mailbox and say, God, send them to.

You say, well, what? I thought, if I gave this year money and I gave that, that God would bless me. No, but He blessed the church. The church was blessed and the church won’t be blessed if you become stengy because then there will be no support of God’s work and there won’t be no missionaries and won’t be no radio broadcasts. Thank the Lord for those who do believe that they’re… Support of God’s work is worth it whether God sends him at checking the mail or he doesn’t.

I don’t believe in this the gospel of health and wealth philosophy. I believe that you can support God’s work in giving, sacrificing, lose everything you have. I don’t promise anybody God’s going to take care of this and take care of that. I just believe that if you do what you’re supposed to do, there’s a day coming when God will make it worthwhile. I can’t promise you anything here. You can suffer here and you can lose a lot of things.

You can lose your job and lose your health. You can lose your property. You lose everything in this life. Nothing down here secure. That’s why you do what you can, why you can with what you have or you are. And God will bless. Look here in the 103rd Psalm, the 103rd Psalm. He says, bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

You know, as we get older, and sometimes we get any church policies, we’ll know what the benefits are, who’s the beneficiary. Or when you get old enough to become a, you know, on social security, what your benefits are, or Medicaid, or Medicare, or Medicare, you just try to study to find out what do you have, what’s your benefits? Well, if it gets too tight, they’ll cut them out. Oh, they don’t know, they don’t lower your payments. They just cut out the benefits.

But God says, you and I ought to be thankful to the Lord for all his benefits. You realize that serving God, there’s so many benefits that you can’t name them all. One day when we get to heaven and we see how God has so blessed us, been so good to us, just the ability to live this side of eternity. And for God to use us, to give us ministry whereby we can do what we can for the Lord. And the people that you lead to the Lord to see the results down the road.

It will be worth it all. Because God word says, so look what He says here in verse three, who forgive us all by any negative. That’s a big benefit. Do you realize that in the Old Testament says forgive us all by any negative or forgive us all by sin? That’s eternal security. See if God forgives you of all of your sins, that’s eternal security. All my sins forgiven. That’s taught in the old term, and just like it is in the New Testament, he told the disciples, going all where I’m preached the forgiveness of sins, or forgiveness of sins is salvation.

In other words, you’re not gonna go to hell and pay for any sin because they’ve forgiven. He said, I don’t have to pay for my sins. Why? Because they’ve been forgiven. I don’t have to pay for them. Oh, that’s good news. What a benefit. You know, I don’t have to live the rest of my life with guilt on my shoulders and in my mind and weighing me down because God forgave me. I don’t know what you’ve done. I don’t care what you’ve done, but I don’t wanna know.

But God says, if you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, you are accepting forgiveness of your sins. Because He was the payment for them. What a benefit and for God to make me his child. What a benefit. For God do all these wonderful things for me, giving me the free gift of eternal life. I’m going to have them when I die. Those are benefits. And then to be able to serve what a benefit. But he says here, and he left all by diseases.

One of these days, I’m going to get a new body. That new body will not be susceptible to any of the diseases of this world. I’m going to be totally cured. I won’t get old anymore either. You know, inside of this body, there’s a 17-year-old teenager struggling to get out. I look into the mirror and I expect to see this 17-year-old teenager. There’s this old man looking at me. Now, I finally figured out why that one lady came into the office that day and she looked at my picture on that little boat.

She says, who’s that? I said, that’s me. She says, no way. And then the war began. Look what he says here in verse four, who redeemeth, die life from destruction, who crown a thing with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfy a thigh mouth with good things. Look how good God has been. Gave me a new song, gave me a new birth, gave me a new life. God did all of these wonderful things. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget in all his benefits.

Look what he says in verse eight, and this is why we should be humble and depend upon Lord, because God’s been so good to us. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plantheous and mercy. He will not always chide. Neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins. No rewarded us according to our iniquities, called if he had, would he gone to hell? For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that hear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from a, like as a father, pityeth, or has compassion upon his children. So the Lord pityeth them that fear him, has compassion upon him. He knows in verse 14 our frame, he remembers that we’re just dust. We’re just a man, we’re going to pass away one of these days. But aren’t you glad that somebody came your way and explained the gospel and you heard it and you trusted Christ as your savior?

and God did that, God did that, and to be thankful to the Lord for all that He has done. Turn in your Bible to the book of Romans in chapter 12, the book of Romans and chapter 12. You see when you have tried, there’s a way of God bringing you down. And if you have humility, there’s a way of God bringing you up. And a friend of mine, Dr. Curtis Hudson, prayed to you one time. And he told the story of how that when he was preaching that he was talking about Jesus coming back again, Jesus was coming.

Come for all things already. But he couldn’t remember his next point. So he thought, I’ll just repeat the last one until it comes to me. Behold, I come!” Boy, it sounded good and people locked you know, hey man, hey man, all over again. But he still couldn’t remember his next point. So he says, behold, I come! Said it a little bit stronger, more forcefully. More amens. Third time he says, behold, I come! But he went too far over the pulpit and it knocked it down and he rolled over the top of it and he wound up in the lap of the ladies sitting on the front row.

And as he’s later he says, man, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I am so sorry. She said, apologize for nothing. You told me three times you were coming, but there’s always something that can, you know, pull you down off your little perch if you think you get too big and heady and, you know, high-minded, but in the book of Romans and chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, you and I are supposed to have persistence with patience, persist in the will of God, the patient.

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. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you’re not familiar with this video, please subscribe to our channel.

If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 3363.4. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church and the church’s office We begin at 10.30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, Calvary of Tampa.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. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. to live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, they are God’s word on Bibleline. Everywhere, every time, they are 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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.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.

So the title of today’s message is called Faith or Folly. Faith or Folly. There’s a thin line between faith and foolishness, and sometimes I have not been able to discern the difference myself. But I had a reckless abandonment to faith, where I was just so convinced that God was in everything that I did, I didn’t worry about anything. And I didn’t even know what I wanted to be. But I knew there’s got to be something more to life and just getting up and going to and eating and going to bed.

And then that same old routine day in and day out, there got to be something more to life. I had a lot of learning to do. But we have been covering here in the book of Hebrews in the last couple of meetings about the assurance of our salvation. Because the assurance of our salvation is critical before we can serve the Lord. You have to know that you’re saved. You have to be really sure of that. Because if you’re not sure you’re saved, What kind of a message are you going to present to anyone else?

So people that are not real sure of their salvation only magnify that into the minds of everybody they talk to. Because if you’re not sure, how are you going to convince someone else? I know I have eternal life. I know that I’m going to have it when I die. So once you understand that in your grounded in that, that’s a good thing. because that’ll bring you peace of mind. Now God made promises to many of His people in the Old Testament, and it’s interesting to read those heroes of faith as you study chapter 11 of the God’s Hall of Faith chapter.

No Hall of Fame, but a Hall of Faith. Individuals who have not only trusted in the Lord for their salvation, but they wanted to do something for God. And I used to get out here to the Bible bookstore here in Athens and when Biel Cummins used to run it back in 1961, 62. And I would sit there in the corner and read some of the books off the shelves, the missionary books. And I kept thinking, Lord, if you can use them, why can’t you use me?

And I wanted so desperately to be used of God. But I didn’t feel qualified because I hadn’t finished high school and I didn’t have any talents and I didn’t have any abilities. How can God use me? And I felt like I have been shortchanged because I didn’t have anything special that I could do. I could not see down the road because I didn’t know that God wanted to use me more than I wanted to be used. And that really blessed my little peep-picking heart when I found out that God was looking for a man.

When I read in the book of Ezekiel where he says, God searched for a man and could not find one, to stand in the gap, but he couldn’t find anybody. I’ve always thought, well, like I’ve heard, if you don’t serve the Lord, God will just get somebody else. Well, you know, there’s not always somebody else because there was a time when God couldn’t find anybody. I believe there’s a lot more could be done if God could only find them.

The Bible tells us in the book of Chronicles that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, looking for a man that God can show himself strong on their behalf. Oh, we’re God just looking for somebody, but the person has to be yielded to the Lord to give up whatever they have and whatever they want, whatever they want to be. and say, Lord, I just want your will for my life. And God is simply looking for somebody who wants to be used.

Now here in the book of Hebrews are a list of people called people that lived by faith. Because see after you have got yourself grounded in the area of salvation, you know that salvation is one thing, serving the Lord is another thing. But you never mix the two together, never think that you’re saved because you’re serving. Because when you stop serving, you’re no longer think you’re saved. You’re saved by grace, unmerited favor. You don’t deserve it. You’re saved because Christ died on the cross, paid for your sins, and gave you eternal life as a free gift.

Save means you’re saved from hell means you can’t go there. Being saved means you’re going to heaven when you die. And being saved means you have eternal life and God will never cast you out and never lose you so that you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Salvation is free When it comes to service Service is after you’ve been saved and now you make up your mind. What do you want to do with your life?

You can either serve God or serve the devil It’s a decision that I had to make and everybody has to make So long I’m not gonna make any decision. No decision is a decision now I had to come to a conclusion I I knew that my future was going to be just like my past if I didn’t make a change. And I’m so glad that I didn’t have much to sacrifice to give up to serve the Lord. I was 18 when I trust the Lord, but I decided after I trust the Lord, I want the will of God for my life.

Now, nobody else can make you want that. Nobody else can make you trust the Lord. Nobody else can make you serve the Lord. It’s a personal thing. Believe it or not, service is living by faith. Now you’re saved by faith. That’s because you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you’re trusting Him to save you. That’s His job to save you. Take you to heaven when you die. And God said He gives you turn like that’s separate. Now I did that 47 years ago.

Never have to do that again. Now the question comes down is what am I going to do with my life? So living my life by faith is a very important thing because it’s what God sees. Now you and I we look around this room and you can see those fans going around. You can see a screen up there, you can see it over here, you can see the piano over here, and you can see this microphone here, you can see me standing up here, you can look and see who’s set beside you, you can see the pew.

the pew, so you could see all these things in here and you say, that’s real. This is real because I can see it, but you see in the eyes of God, there’s one thing that God sees that’s more real than anything else. God sees faith. Now I can’t show you my faith. Show me your faith. Without your good works, I wouldn’t know you had faith at all. So that’s why he says in James, It showed me thy faith without your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works.

So the only way I can show people that I have faith in God is by what I do because you can’t see my faith. You can only see the results of my faith. But there’s a God in heaven that made the statement when he was here that when he was walking along and this woman came up behind him and in a crowd, a multitude of people up against him and pushing and shoving and all this and one woman reached out and she touched the hem of his garments.

she touched him by faith and then he turned around and said, who touched me? Remember the story? The disciple says, what do you mean who touched you? Lord, everybody here touched you. No, no. Somebody touched me because she touched him because of faith. See, God can see faith. God says, they’re in verse 1 of Hebrews in chapter 11. He says, now faith is the substance of things hope for. Faith is a substance. Faith is as real as this podium.

Faith is as real as my Bible. Faith is as real as this microphone. Faith is as real as that water. Faith is as real as that wall. Faith is real. Faith is something. It’s something God sees. As God looks down upon us. He’s looking for one thing in all of his children more than anything else. He’s looking for your faith. When he makes a statement in the book of Luke, when Christ’s return, will he find faith upon the earth?

Faith upon the earth. People who believe him, people who believe what he promised. Does most of the people that know Christ the Savior did he Live like they believe His promises. See, the promises of God are true. God cannot lie. Faith… He’s believing those promises. Do you think God in heaven knows when you and I believe his word? Believe what he promised? If you and I really believe what God promised, why don’t we put that into practice? Practice what we preach.

He makes a statement here in verse 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. The word, the word world refers to ages, dispensations, Through faith we understand. You ever hear people say, I just don’t understand why God did this. I don’t understand why God did that. Why do I have to go through this? Or why do I go through that? I don’t understand. Well faith cometh by what? Hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

So for faith to grow or even to exist, There has to be a knowledge of the Word of God. So we read the Word of God, so we’ll understand the promises of God so that we can put our confidence, our faith in God. The quality of our lives is going to be in direct ratio to the caliber of the faith that you have and what God promised. So if you don’t know the promises of God, you’re not going to trust God for anything.

And the more you know, the more you can trust, the more you can trust, the greater results. You know what really impressed me about the book of Hebrews in chapter 11? It’s not a list of these people as it goes down through here and what they did. But what they did was great and that’s what we’re to focus upon. But what caught my eye was what wasn’t mentioned. wasn’t there. Look there in verse 4. Anybody ever heard of Abel?

You know Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. Cain got mad and killed Abel. But he says in verse 4, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gift and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Now get this. I look in verse 38 of chapter 10. Now the just shall live by faith. In the book of Habakkah chapter 2 verse 4 is where this verse comes from.

The just shall live by faith. The just is explained in the book of Romans. Shall live is explained in the book of Galatians. By faith is explained in the book of Hebrews. 1 verse in the Old Testament takes 3 books in the New Testament to explain what he means. Who are the just? That’s those who have trusted Christ the Savior and have been justified. Shall live, not die, shall live. I’ve had so many people say, well I’m willing to die for the Lord.

God hasn’t asked you to die for him. He’s asked you to live for him. I came to the conclusion years ago that if I would serve the Lord today, then tomorrow I’ll be in the will of God. And when I serve the Lord that day, then I will be in the will of God. And as my life is lived, then I look back and say, I have given my life to God. But it says, the just shall live by faith.

And so now he’s taken a whole chapter, telling you, what do you mean? How do you live by faith? You take God in his work. But you’re noticed in chapter 11 and verse 4. It doesn’t say anything about his wife, his kids. Doesn’t say anything about the house he lived in. Doesn’t say anything about the car he drove. I should say the camel he rode. Doesn’t say how many donkeys did he had, how many dogs he had. Doesn’t talk about how much money he was able to put in the bank because he gods his faith.

God saw that he had faith in him. That is what impresses God. All the possessions that you have doesn’t be impressed God, one Iota. God is not impressed with our homes and God is not impressed with our vehicles we drive. God is not impressed with our bank accounts. Because when we stand before the Lord, none of that matters, you will find any of that in none of these verses because that’s not important. You see, we see with the eye, the things of the world.

But he says, when you live by faith, we see beyond this world and you’re looking at more than just with a naked eye. Because we see things that others don’t see. And you believe what God’s word says. And so you take what you have and you use it for God’s honor and for God’s glory. Now, loads of what he says in verse 5. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation.

He had this testimony. He pleased God. See, what is the most important thing that this man did in his life? See, Abel, he pleased God because he offered sacrifice. God told him to offer. God’s pleased with that. God put him in the book. God’s going to reward him when he sees when he gets rewarded. It wasn’t what he had. It’s what he did by faith. He took God as word. He believed God. In it, he loved the Lord so much.

And he had such a testimony in his life that he pleased God. And God says, one day he was walking along. He was and he was not. I wonder what that means. He existed and all of a sudden he was gone, translated out of this world, be me up, Scotty, gone. No failures. Because he did one that he pleased God. See, pleasing God, and that’s why he says in verse six, and you ought to look at verse six very closely.

But without faith, it is impossible to please him. You see, the Bible says this in the book of Revelation in chapter four, for we are created by Him and for Him for His pleasure. We’re created to please God. If I am created to please God, then my goal in life is not to find what pleases me. And most people live their lives trying to figure out what makes them happy. What do they want to do with their life. And they fail to understand that when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods.

Your body belongs to God. Your spirit belongs to God. You’ve been bought and paid for. If there’s things that you do in your life that doesn’t please God, you ought to stop. You ought to correct it. We’d have a revival in this country if God’s people would examine their lives and stop doing the things that doesn’t please God. Whatever it is, just stop it. I don’t give us habits. Will you talk? Places you go, friends you have? Some people need to make some separation, corrections in their life because it doesn’t please God.

But see, most people today say, I don’t care what pleases God is. makes me happy. I mean, this is my life. Don’t try to tell me how to live my life. I got news for you, it’s not yours. You don’t belong to you. You belong to God and you cannot live as you please and get away with it because your heavenly Father is going to beat the tar out of you. But get what he says in verse 6, but without faith it is impossible to please him.

For he that comeeth to God must believe, must believe that he is, that he He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Rewater means God’s going to give you rewards. Keep us in mind. Salvation going to heaven, that’s a gift of God. You don’t earn that. You don’t work for that. Salvation, God saving you from Him, that was free. No charge to you. That’s what gets you to heaven. Now that we’re going to heaven, God wants us to have rewards when we get to heaven.

to have rewards and I must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, diligently seek to please God. Now nobody else can make you do that. It’s a personal thing. But we’re so easily influenced by other people that if sometimes our closest friends don’t serve God, we don’t either. That’s when you have to drop your friend because they’re not worth what’s going to cost you. You’ve got to make up your mind, what does that mean to me?

Jesus Christ died for you, not your best friend, not your mama, not your aunts and uncles, not your husband and not your wife and not your kids. You owe your devotion, your loyalty to one person. That’s Jesus Christ and Him alone. And you should honor Him and regard to whatever it may cost you in this life. And if you have to sever certain things, then let it be. Because one day when all the life is over and you’re before the Lord, you’re going to be glad you did what God wanted you to do with your life.

By faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen. See, this is what faith is. You don’t see it physically with the natural eye. They may never have even seen rain up until this point. He said he moved with fear. Moved with fear is the same as he moved by faith. By faith he believed what God says, there’s coming a judgment. There’s going to be a flood. God told him to build an ark. So he worked on it for 120 years.

Build an ark, prepare an ark to the saving of his house by the way she condemned the world because he demonstrated his faith in the Lord. Came here are the righteousness switches of faith. But you know what you don’t find here in this verse? all of the wealth and possessions that Noah owned. And the reason is because that’s not what God focuses upon. God wants you to believe His promise. If you believe the promise of God, let me ask you this, I did it not long ago.

How many believe Jesus Christ could come back at any moment? You believe that, let me see your hand. All right, you believe it. Do you live like it? You don’t wanna be someplace, do something, say something, think something, you shouldn’t be thinking when Jesus Christ comes. You don’t want to be treating people in a way that you shouldn’t treat people when Jesus Christ comes. Since you don’t know exactly when He’s going to come, He can come at any moment, shouldn’t that change?

In effect, how you live? I believe it should. How many of you believe that whenever we’re caught up to meet the Lord in the air, we will stand in at the judgment seat of Christ? You believe you’re going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ? Let me see your hand. All right? You believe that? When you stand at the judgment seat of Christ, that’s the rewarding stand where God’s going to reward you for what you did. And you’re gonna suffer a loss of what you could have had.

And these rewards are eternal rewards. And God is gonna reward you for what you did here. You see, if I really believe this, it’ll affect what I do here. So you’re gonna really live your life here, according to what you really believe. And God says, will he find faith upon the earth? Will his children believe his promises? You know, we don’t have to straighten out the world. We’re not gonna straighten out the world. We’re not even gonna win the world of Christ.

The Bible doesn’t even tell us to win the world of Christ. It tells us to preach the gospel to every person because you can’t win anybody that doesn’t wanna be won. You can only present the truth in the individual has to decide whether or not they will or they will not believe that message. I am not held responsible for people’s choices. I don’t believe one person will ever go to hell because of me. I believe that a lot of people will go to heaven because of me.

You see, they’re already lost, they’re already condemned, they’re already going to hell. And I can’t change that, but one thing I can’t change if I serve the Lord, I believe I can make a difference in how many go to heaven. They’re not going to hell because of me, but they can go to heaven because of me. We’re left here in this world so that we can affect people’s lives So we can get people to understand and trust the Lord and to have eternal life Most important thing in the world, but Noah Doesn’t talk about a lot of things in the world.

He only talks about when they trust the Lord They believe what God said and you get into the biggest one of all here and about Abraham God called him to go into a country that he’d never seen before But he just believed what God said and he left the early counties and went to Heron and then on down into Israel thousand-mile journey just trusting God. And he says that he believed that there would be a country, a building, a city that God was going to have.

Look what he says in verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises in their lifetime, but having seen them afar off were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. See, we’re just pilgrims and strangers here in this world. We’re just the passing through. And there’s things that God wants us to do while we’re here. Life is so short, life is so short. And we’re getting older and time is running out.

And we want to try to see how much can we accomplish for the Lord while we can. But though you may not seem like you’re accomplishing a lot, did you know that God looks down upon every person? Just think every person in this room, God looking down upon you. God knows what you believe and don’t believe. He knows whether you love them or you don’t love them. And we can fool one another, but you don’t fool him. And God’s the one that’s going to honor you.

He says, if any man served me, him with my father, honor, pretend like I’m God. Okay? We’re just pretending. I’m the Lord. And I tell you look, I want you in this room. I want you to know that I can’t lie. I’m God, I cannot lie. I promise you that if you’ll serve me, you will be blessed while you’re here. And if you’ll serve me, I’ll reward you when you get to heaven. But in serving me, you’ll suffer a lot.

But the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that’s going to be revealedimei when you get to heaven. And when you get to heaven, every one that served me will receive praise and praise. honor and glory you’ll be greatly rewarded and you’ll rule and reign with me in my new kingdom that I’m going to set up. He says all I want you to do is trust me. Believe me. And then he gives us his word and frivols all these things and here things to do and things not to do.

And then I’m gone. The ball is in your court. In other words I have hit you the ball and now you’ve got to do something with it. You can either say, yes, I will. No, I won’t, but the decision is yours. Nobody can make it for you. And it demonstrates your faith in what God says. Is this the word of God or is it not the word of God? Does God lie or does He not? Your service to God reveals what you really believe.

If you don’t serve the Lord with all your heart, then you don’t believe what God says, because he says, if a man will serve me and honor me, he says, him with my Father, honor and bless. I want the blessings of God upon me here, and I want the rewards when I get to heaven. And I haven’t seen anybody, no Christian, go against God and win. I have not lived long enough and done enough units where I’ve seen people that say, I’m so sorry, I served the Lord.

I’m so sorry I dedicated my life to the Lord. But, buddy, I’ve seen a lot of the other kind. For people that are men, I wish I had done more. I wish I had served the Lord when I realized that the days are numbered. Concerning salvation, keep that separate from service. Does Han represent you and me? This wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God, He loves us, but He hates our sin. And the reason is because He our sins have to be paid.

Since we committed a sin, that’s our responsibility. And the payment for sin is eternal separation from the Lord in a place called hell. And God loves us and doesn’t want us to go to hell. To go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. Nobody’s perfect, nobody’s righteous. And God can’t let us into heaven because of our sin. The Bible says you cannot earn eternal life, you cannot work your way to heaven. The only thing God except as a payment is death.

Since we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned. We’re all in the same boat. This then represents Jesus Christ. He’s God in the flesh. He came into this world because He loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So what Christ did for one person He did for everybody? He took all the sins of the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said that if we believe he did it for us, he put the payment our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us.

There’s no tricks to that, no gimmicks. If offered you my wallet and you accept you to have a wallet, if Jesus Christ walked in here and offered you eternal life and you accept you would have eternal life. And if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. And if it lasts forever and all your sins are paid, where would you go when you die? Go to heaven. Can you know you’re going to heaven before you die? Yes, thatacebook is what all this is about.

Let’s pray, shall we? 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, Calvary of Tampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us to all the people who are here. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org.

We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. Look at number three, all complaining is addictive. It’s addictive. Look at Numbers 11, Numbers, and Chapter 11. I want you to know and understand that it’s not a light thing to be a complainer, a person who murmurs and argues all the time. I don’t think it’s wise for the wife to argue with her husband or for the husband to always arguing with the wife.

I don’t think it’s always wise for the children to argue with their parents or to be arguing with your boss and always arguing, arguing, or always complaining about everything, wanting about everything. Nothing’s ever right. It’s not wise. And lots of, if we don’t see it that bad or we don’t believe, well, you know, it’s us, me. And surely he’s not going to look at me the same way he does everybody else. If it’s wrong for Moses to do it, wrong for the children of Israel to do it, Would it be wrong for you how to do it?

I think he said, do all things without murmuring and complaining. Why would he have to say something like that? Because it could be possible that a lot of God’s children do a lot of murmuring and complaining. Is it possible? Sure, I’m glad there’s nobody like that here. But in the book of Numbers in chapter 11, why don’t you look here in verse one, in verse one, it says, and when the people, did what? You ought to underline that. It displeased the Lord.

So if it displeased the Lord because they did it, well shouldn’t it displease the Lord if you and I do it? And he says, and the Lord heard it, And his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them which were in the uttermost part of the camp. And the people cried in the Moses and when Moses prayed unto the Lord the fire was quenched. So yes, that was a problem. Now, and also in the scripture you see that all complaining is contagious.

Look here in your notes. All complaining is contagious. It means it affects other people. It’s just not something that you do, and it’s just you, it affects other people’s lives. Doesn’t the Bible say something about edify one another, exhorting one another, encouraging one another, praying for one another? Complaining does not do any of those things. It doesn’t do any of those things that God tells us to do for one another. It’s just the opposite. It is destructive. It is destructive.

Did you know you can complain about something and somebody else who had no problem with it can begin to complain just because you complain? And more you complain, the more people complain. And next thing you know, you could have a whole army and you know you’re right because look how many people agree with my complaining. Yeah, but is that what God wants? Is there a better way to handle a problem? See, the best way to handle a problem is to tell only those that are part of the solution to the problem.

And it’ll help you. In verse 4, And the mixed maltitude that was among them fell elusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely. The cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onion and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manner before I see God even gave him angel food.

I Guess they thought it was devil food. He gave him angel food And now they’re complaining about that, but you know whatever that angel food was made out of it must have had everything must been a health bar It had everything in it that they needed to sustain themselves and they complained about it. And it’s like there’s no end to this and they just went, but you know all this complaint, do you know where they were when they were doing all this complaining in the wilderness?

And most Christians, that’s where they live in the wilderness. See the land of Canaan is not a Tight-related heaven. It’s it’s a place of victory in the Christian life or supposed to be so we are God’s children and to go from childhood to adulthood We have to go sometimes through the wilderness and so Most people never get out of the wilderness They stay there their whole lives and wander accomplish nothing, get nowhere, just going in circles and just whining and complaining all the days of their life.

And one day you’re gonna get old and you’re gonna look back and says, what have I done for the Lord? What have I actually done for the Lord? Could God use me? Oh, He can, but look there in verse 12. Have I conceived all this people. Have I been gotten them that thou should have say unto me, carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father bear to second child unto the land which thou swears unto their fathers? In verse 14, I am not able to bear all this people alone.

It’s too heavy for me, but if thou deal thus with me, I’d rather you just go ahead and take my life right now. I’d rather die. In other words it seemed like Moses just about it had enough. Did you know that you can discourage a lot of people? Let me tell you this and this is just the truth. I get a chance to and I’ve done it a lot of it traveling around the country, sitting down with a lot of preachers and having a cup of coffee and you know a lot of preachers have become very discouraged and very depressed and a lot of them have just quit the ministry.

You know why? Because the people in their church complained all the time, never happy, never satisfied. All they did was whine. It didn’t matter what the preacher preached. It was never the right thing. They found fault with everything that he said and does. And so most of them just get discouraged. They get depressed. Did you know that you can do that to the preacher as well as the preacher can do it to you? But every one of us need encouragement.

Did you know just by a few of you saying, preacher, I enjoyed that sermon last week or today or whatever. Do you know that? That makes me feel a little bit good. Let’s me think that, you know, maybe you got something out of it because we want to be a blessing. You know, preachers want to be a blessing to people. They want to help people. They want to encourage people. I think we want that, but I also, y’all need that.

Y’all need a little, you know, praise her in there. They said, you know, flattery will get you nowhere. it will too. But it ought to be honest and genuine compliments and not just made up flattery for you know, trying to make somebody feel good when they know that you’re not real and sincere. It ought be genuine. But it says here I would rather you let me die than to see my wretchedness in that verse. So important. The next one I want you to look at is Numbers in chapter 12.

Numbers chapter 12. Well this one is about people who affect other people. It can even happen in your own family. Even Jesus had some of his own family who did not believe until the in. So he had to go through this. But look there in verse 1, and Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. In other words, somebody didn’t even like his wife. And there’s a good possibility. She was a black woman and people began to complain.

Well, evidently God was not in favor of their complain, so God had to deal with in his own family. And this is sometimes where it can really hurt too. You can be wanting to serve the Lord, but doesn’t mean everybody in your family will accept that or appreciate that, so you’ve got to go through that. Well see, what they were saying and doing was wrong against Moses. And so Maryam, God struck her down with leprosy. And Aaron intervened on her behalf.

Says, Lord, don’t let her live like that. Half alive and half dead. And so God said, well, shouldn’t she at least, you know, for seven days or seven days? But Maryam had to learn a hard lesson. But did she learn it totally? Well, she may have. A lot of times people forget things and they repeat things, but Moses didn’t want to have to say or do anything against them, but God spoke on his behalf. And it says, I want to have a word for Jude 3.

So he called them into the office and he had to meet with them. And God had to say, this is what I’m going to do and I chose Moses. And people have to be careful of what they say about or against the man of God, even if it’s the family. I believe this. If you have a husband who loves the Lord and wants to serve the Lord, you better be very careful of seeing anything against your husband. You know God can chase in you.

And I think the children need to be very careful of seeing things against their mom and dad. If they got a mom and dad who loves them and trying to do what’s right and kids are just rebellious, there’s a price they’re going to pay. God won’t let that ride. In every situation, if you’ve got a godly wife, you better treat her right. Because, see, God could chase you because you don’t honor her, because she honors him. If a person is honored in the Lord, God says, I will honor him if he served me.

The book of John 12. So always try to remember that and do right. The next thing I want you to see here is in Numbers 13, Numbers 13. And in Numbers 13 and verse 31, you know that they had sent the spies into the land. There was two of them that says, we can do this. And Caleb, 85 years old when after the 40 years were passed, he says, I want that mountain. Remember that little course I sung one time for ya?

Or Caleb, maybe he sung it first time. He says, I want that mountain. I want that mountain. No, where the grapes of escal grow. La da da da da da da da, I want that mountain. Something like that. It was a good little course. And I thought he was a man that was 85 years old. And he was still ready to fight. Still had a little fire and a gut. But he believed God. He trusted God. He believed that God says we can take that land, and he believed we can take it.

But look in verse 30. And Caleb still the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it. we are well able to overcome it. Well able to overcome it. Why? Because he believed what God said. Well, look what the people said. The other one is 31. But the men that went up with him said, we be not able to go up against the people. For they are stronger than us. See, they were looking at their strength.

Caleb was looking at God’s strength. And if God gave us that land and God said, that he believed it. But there’s always somebody that can say things in such a way that caused people to turn against something. You know what I’ve wondered over the years. This is a little reminisce and then I do a lot of that lately. I’ve often wondered what could have been done in the Lord’s work if all of God’s people hadn’t listened to so much gossip and just kept working and been faithful what we could do for the Lord if all of God’s people really work together.

I thought so many of God’s people get down and discouraged and they complain and nothing’s ever right. And so the least little thing hurts their feeling and then they’re gone and they go down to another church and they will split a church in and they go over there and they split that church and because they’re never satisfied and they want to anytime a person come to me and says preacher I think you’ve got too much power. What they mean is they want some.

And if they had it, what would they do with it? I’ve seen people do a great job in serving the Lord until you give them a position of leadership, and then they can’t handle it. Because power goes through their head. There’s something about power. Some people can’t handle it. They can’t handle the responsibility. Remember the person that’s on the place of leadership. All you’re doing is you’re serving people. None of y’all in this room serve me. I serve you.

I’m your servant. I’m here to help feed you, to lead you, to guide you. I’ll do whatever needs to be done for you. But you don’t have to do that for me. And in time we put people in place of leadership. You’re because they’re servants. They’re not lords over you and dictators and they’re trying to help these teenagers. They’re trying to help the kids. They’re trying to help teachers. We’re trying to make it possible for people to serve the Lord.

God says, now in the world it’s not that away, but in God’s work that’s the way it is. It’s the way it ought to be. So chapter 14, things really got ugly. And look there in verse 1 of chapter 14. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried in the people wept that night. Well why are they crying? Listen up there. Why? The whole count. Why? Because they listened to 10 people complain. 10 people. And so maybe 2 million people wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

Why? Because of the complaining of just a few people. And the people listen to them. So whenever you become a consistent complainer, it won’t be on just one issue. You’ll find another one and then another one and then another one. And a person who complains, listen, a person who complains to you, you stop them. So I I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear that. Because you could be the person who is destroyed because you listen to what somebody else complains about.

If they want to complain about somebody, look, you go see that person. You talk to that individual. You got a problem with me or him or anybody. You go see that person and maybe you can win them and become a friend. Would that be better? And you can win people. And if you’re wrong, maybe you can correct the problem. But see, whenever people just complain, when you’re not a problem or a solution to the problem, then you wonder, why would you tell me this?

You question me, why would you tell me that? Why would you gossip about somebody? A person who will gossip about somebody to you will do what? Gossip about you. always remember that. And so they go down through here and you know the story of they didn’t get to go into the land. Why? Because of murmurs. See they’re in verse two and all the children of Israel, and here’s that word, you ought to honor the land, murmured against Moses and against Aaron.

And then they said it again, would the God, we had died in the land of Egypt. They said that when they got to the Red Sea. Wouldn’t the God we had died in the wilderness? They said that at the Red Sea. They said that when they didn’t have any water. They said that again when they didn’t have any food. Now they’re saying it again? Because see, the story stays the same. It’s just the problems change. But see, the heart hasn’t changed.

They haven’t grown in the Lord. They’re not closer to the Lord. They haven’t learned any patience. They’re not comforted at all. They haven’t got closer to the Lord and stronger in the Lord. And if you are complaining today, did you realize that you’ll be a complainer tomorrow? And you’ll be a complainer the next time. And if you’re always complaining about your wife today, you’re going to be complaining about her next week. Five years from now, unless something happens to you.

You say, well, if my wife, no, no, has nothing to do with your wife, has nothing to do with your husband. It’s on the inside of you. It’s how God says you’re supposed to be. Not circumstances, doesn’t justify it. You can’t, well, well, I may be cause. Either you have self-discipline or you don’t. Either you have the patience or you don’t. If God says, do all things without it, unless Yes, she really made you mad. Unless he really went on.

No. Do all things without murmuring and complaining. I think that’s what the Bible says. So in chapter 16 of the book of Numbers, I want you to see that it is mentioned on the tenth complaint that somebody else had a problem. And they said, well, who in the world does Moses think he is taking upon himself this power? Who made him the prince anyway? I mean, we could be the leaders too. And so there was some who turned 250 of the princes against the Lord and against Moses.

So God says, okay, I’ll deal with this situation. He said, if they died the normal death, he says, and I didn’t judge him. But God says, if they die unnatural death, I did it. So God says, separate yourselves from them. See that in verse 21, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. And verse 30, but if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up and all that are pertain to them and they go down quick into the pit, then you shall understand understand that these men have provoked the Lord.

You see, they took a stand against God’s man, but it provoked the Lord. I’ve lived close to 50 years in the ministry, almost that long. And let me just mention this to you. Be very careful of saying anything against this preacher. If I am God’s man, And I am a good man, and I am a godly man. If I am a holy man, and if I am doing what I believe God wants me to do, and I don’t teach anything that’s illegal or immoral or fattening, then maybe you need to listen to what I’m having to say.

But if you’ll cut and criticize me, I believe from my knowledge of this book God is going be the Torah to you and I don’t say that lightly. I mean it seriously. I have watched long enough to know that you don’t play around with what God says in His Word. This is serious business. And that’s why I have to make sure I don’t treat you in a way that’s not right. I am not to be a respecter of persons.

I want to treat a teenager that comes to ranch with the same dignity and with the same respect, I’ll treat an adult in this ministry. The deacons, everybody in this, you’re just as important as everybody, because you’re a child of God. And I have to give an account to God for the way I treat you. And for the example that I am to you. But I also want you to know there’s another side to this thing here. And God says, I’m going to deal with him.

And you know what God did? He just opened up the earth and they went to hell with their boots on. He said, that really what happened. Yeah. See that in verse 33? They and all that I pertain to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them. Hmm, hmm. Problem solved. They didn’t do that anymore. You see, there’s a lot of things God can do, but when you start challenging what God has done and God will defend His own people, I trust the Lord to protect me, to lead me, to guide me, to defend me if it needs to be.

If God lets me die so bit, it lets me live so bit. All complaining, look at the last number. All complaining brings the chasening hand of God. Do you believe that? I believe that. I want to close with this verse. Look there in the book of Hebrews and chapter 12. Hebrews and chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And look at verse 11. Because we’re talking about a child of God, not murmuring Not murmuring complaining because in reality, it’s against God.

Because he God is the one who permits certain things to come into your life. God is the one that’s in heaven that uses what people say and do circumstances in order to test your love for him. So whenever you come unglued because of it, it’s against the one who permitted it. That’s God. So that’s why God takes it personally. And that means that if that is true, then there must be a God in heaven that’s watching everything we say and do and how we respond to everything in life.

So he says in verse 11, now no chastening for the present seem to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterwards, it yielded the peaceful fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised there by it. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. In other words, these are things that happens to a person who’s down in discouraged and depressed. And it usually shows in their life. He says in verse 13, and makes straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.

But let it rather be here. In other words, somebody else who’s following your example. And because of what you say and what you do and your attitude and your constant complaining, you know you cause everybody else to complain. They become bitter because you’re bitter. But you’re upset, so they get upset. So you have to be careful. And what’s that? And that’s what he says in verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Now look in verse 15, looking diligently, means watching, guarding yourself at all times, lest any man fail of the grace of God, unless any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. And if it troubles you, guess what? Thereby many become defiled. Because see, you can’t keep it to yourself. When you get hurt and mad and bitter, you’ve got to tell somebody and you will. And generally, you probably will tell the ones that’s the closest to you and hurt them, damage them.

You’ll take your garbage and dump it into their mind. Would you like people to take on bring all their trash around the neighborhood and come to your house and dump it in your yard because it’ll breed germs? And that’s what sometimes people do to each other, but they don’t know they’re doing that. So you want to be very careful that you are not spreading things that don’t need to be spread, because see, murmuring complaining, contagious, it’s contagious. It causes other people, not the trust, the Lord, not the grow, not the mature.

But in all things, we’re supposed to edify one another to encourage, to build them up. These are some things that will tear you down and others down. And you and I are supposed to want and desire the best for everybody else. You that know Christ is your savior. You know your God’s child. I know that there’s sometimes it’s so easy. And I hutch myself also in a sometimes I complain a lot. And I know that it’s strong. I know I shouldn’t do it.

And I say these things because if it helps me, I know it’s gonna help you. We need to see it as bad as what God does. And this takes from time to grow and to mature. Be patient with others that haven’t reached that stage yet. Not everybody understands all at the same time. And when somebody does get a little angrier upset, just forgive them. Just forgive them. Don’t jump on them and kick them and tout a beat them down because you don’t do it.

So be wise, be considered, love each other. Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. We’re thankful for this time together, for the study of your Word. We ask your blessings on the each one here in Christ and we 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 Bible line 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. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe at the upper right corner of our homepage. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 month… and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach This is toll free at 1-800-576-3771. One-line donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn in your Bible to the book of Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15. We often say that, you know, smiles and joy is contagious. Enthusiasm is contagious, but also complaining is contagious. Did you know that? Did you know that you can influence somebody by complaining? You sure can. And you ought to see what God has to say about it. Now I know nobody hears guilty of this, but we need to cover it so that you’ll be able to help those other people that do these things.

So Romans in chapter 15, look there in verse 1, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, not to please ourselves, that every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification, for even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written, a for time, were written for our learning.” Now, I want you to think about that just for a second.

If it was a reference to the Old Testament that was written before, the Lord here in the New Testament is putting his stamp of approval upon the Old Testament and saying that the things that were written and before are things that you and I are supposed to learn. And if it was written for our learning, then evidently we’re supposed to read it. Right? So that means that we ought to read the Old Testament to learn from it the lessons that God has for us.

And then he says here that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope, comfort and patience. Did you know that most of our complaining is because we don’t have patience or comfort? And we complain. Something’s not on schedule. Something’s not causing me to be comforted. So here in the Bible it says, the things in the Old Testament were written for our admonition. So if it was written it must be true, and if it’s for our learning, it must be read.

So we’re going to look at a few of those things. But look there in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18, to save a little time, don’t have to look there. Just look at the last part of the verse that I have out there. And everything do what? Give thanks. Some things are not as easy as others. I can handle those big monumental things. It’s It’s these little things that kind of gets in my way, you know, as we walk along.

But I want you to read what I have written under here. Everybody hates it, but everybody does it. The Bible commands us to be thankful. First, because God deserves our gratitude. Second, gratitude is the only way for us to be happy. Gratitude is a choice, an act of the will to obey God. It is an impossibility for an ungrateful, complaining person to be happy. It is just as impossible for a thankful, praising Christian to be miserable. So I think we have to work on our consistency, a consistent, praising Christian.

Look at number one, all complaining is sin. In regards of what we call it, it’s still wrong. Complaining is simple. Looking Philippians in chapter 2, the book of Philippians in chapter 2, and looking in verse 14. You ought to underline this verse in your Bible. Do all things by murmuring and disputing. Do all things without, without. Well, what about just a little bit? Without murmuring and disputing. And which actually is just complaining and arguing we’re supposed to. Did you know that when you read the Bible, especially when you have to teach it, especially if you’re the preacher?

Because you know you’re supposed to practice what you preach. You know, that might be why some preachers never preach on certain subjects because they don’t want to have to apply it. But what I try to do is whatever I’m facing, I figured that you’re not much different than I am. whatever I need, I think you need that. You need that. So that’s why whenever I’m preaching to you, I’m preaching to myself also because I know it’s things that I need and it’s the closest thing to my heart.

There are lessons that we all have to learn and some are easier than others but we still have to learn them. And so I want you to take now your Bible and go with me back to the Old Testament and go to the book of Exodus chapter 14, Exodus chapter 14. And you may wanna hold your place in the book of Exodus, but it causes a few places that we’ll be looking at here. But you remember not long ago, I preached a sermon from Exodus chapter 13, 14 and 15 about the dead end, the dry holes and the detours.

detours. Anybody remember this sermon? Oh, that’s great. Not a soul in here, remember the sermon. I want to preach it again. But anyway, here in the book of Exodus and chapter 14, look there in verse 10. Exodus 14 and verse 10. We know that the children of Israel had been complaining to God because of the taskmasters because they were slaves. And you’ll be surprised how quickly their attitude can change. And they wanted God to deliver them, so God sent Moses.

So he says in verse 10, and when Pharaoh drew nigh the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians marched after them and they were sore, afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken this away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Why did you do this? Look what you’ve done to us.

Do they not remember how bad it was? And now they complained when they were in Egypt, and now that they’re out of Egypt, What are they still doing? Still complaining. Did you know if you’re complaining about a few things, you just love it and complain about a lot of things. It can become part of your character. And so he said in verse 12, is not this the word that we did tell the in Egypt sin, let us alone, oh they did, that we may serve the Egyptians for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.

Now you think that you have problems. How would you like to be a man like Moses with 200 wine and Israelites in the desert? I’d have just left him one night and kept on a walkin’ there. But they complained. Nothing was right on because they were afraid. See, they were afraid. They couldn’t see how God was gonna do it. So they didn’t have the patience that they needed. didn’t have the patience. They didn’t have comfort because you’ll find that they had one complaint after another.

Look in Exodus in chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. And look in verse 23. In Exodus chapter 15 and verse 23. And when they came to Marat, they could not drink of the waters of Marat. For they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Mara. And the people, and here’s that word you ought to underline it in your Bible, murmured against Moses. Saying, what shall we drink? This is one of those dry holes that I was telling you about.

When they came to the Red Sea, that was one of their detours in a dead end. But the Lord is the one that led them to these things, and He was testing them over and over and over again. And every time God tests them, they would complain about it. So remember, complaining is contagious. And it only takes two bull frogs and a lake to sound like a hundred of them. Have you ever heard somebody say, well, everybody in the church hates me?

There’s probably only two of them. And when I’m gerellative, it’s not everybody, but it sounds like everybody. Have you ever walked into a place that feels like everybody’s staring at me? The world everybody’s staring at me. me. No, everybody isn’t staring at you. Everybody don’t care what goes on in your life, believe it or not. Everybody’s not against you. Maybe if you, not everybody. But it’s when you get in a bad attitude, you don’t see the things that you ought to see.

And so you don’t say the things that you ought to say. But look what he says in verse 24. And the people murmured against Moses and what shall we drink?” And then what, look what he says. In verse 25, and he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree and when he had cast into the waters the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statuette and an ordinance and there he proved them. See it was a testing to see what does it take to cause you to lose your cool?

What does it cause you to blow your temper, you know, to say and do think, what is that test? Now God doesn’t tempt you to sin, but God does test His children. Look here in chapter 16, look in verse 1, and they took their journey from Elaman, all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of sin, which is between Elaman Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after their departed out of the land of Egypt and the whole congregation of the children of Israel and there’s that word you ought to underline that word.

Now this is written for a reason and God says you go back and you read because it’s true for our learning. So there’s things you’re supposed to learn from the Old Testament scriptures and he says they murmured against Moses and Aaron in the the wilderness and the children of Israel said unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. When we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, for we have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

You see, they were complaining about the water right before that. Now they’re complaining about the food. Did you know that once you start complaining, it becomes a habit in your life and you just keep on complaining. And that’s why nobody can make you happy and you’ll never be satisfied because, see, it becomes part of your character and because you’re not grateful to the Lord and you’re not thankful to the Lord and you’re not praising the Lord. And so you focus upon anything that goes against your comfort and causes you to be impatient.

Romans chapter 15 verse one and two. So these things are written to us to learn a little bit from them, but now they were hungry. And so of course the Lord took care of that and gave them something to eat. But look in verse 7, and in the morning then you shall see the glory of the Lord forth that he hear it, he hear it your murmuring against the Lord. So there’s a God in heaven that sees and hears all of our complaining, our arguing with God or of God’s because we’re not satisfied, we’re not content with that which we have.

And so therefore, these complaining things is a dead giveaway that somewhere along the line you’re not walking with the Lord as close as you ought to. You’re worried about something. You’re afraid of something. Something is stopping you short-circuiting what you want or your pleasure or your peace of mind, your comfort, and you don’t like it. So we complain about that. And so a lot of people live in a constant state of complaining and murmuring and whining. Ooh, this hurts tonight.

Now look there at number two, to understand that all complaining is against God because as it says in verse 7, for he that heareth your murmurs against the Lord, and what are we that we murmur against us? Or that you murmur against us? And Moses! Ah, man. What a person and what he had to put it with. Do you know because of all their murmuring complaining and they were never satisfied? The day came when he struck the rock twice and because of that, he lost his cool and he wasn’t able to go into the promised land.

God let him see it from a top mountaineble, but he wouldn’t let him enter it because he lost it. He lost it. And he just got fed up. Well, I’m glad that doesn’t happen to any of us. And you say and do things that you should not do. So that was the fourth complaint. See, Israel lacked water the second time. He says, strike the rock, and that was a type of Christ, but he was a strike the rock only one time because that’s a picture of Christ’s crucifixion.

The next time he was just to speak to the rock, but he struck it again. And that was wrong because it broke the type. That was not to be done. Look at number five, I guess you could say Israel’s fifth complaint. Exodus chapter 32. Look over there. Exodus chapter 32. Exodus 32 and look in verse one. Moses had gone up on a mountain. while it was up there, him and God, he was talking to the Lord, you know. But the people thought he’d been gone a long time.

So what do you do when you get tired of waiting? You take matters into your own hand. I remember somebody like that with Abraham and Sarah and Hagar. Didn’t they wind up regretting that? Didn’t they cause trouble? We’re still having trouble because of that today. Just look at the trouble in the world today because of Sarah’s suggestion.

But we’re supposed to have respect for that woman. That’s all I will. Now here in chapter 32, when the people saw that Moses delayed, he didn’t delay, God wasn’t finished with him yet. When he came down the mountain, did you know he came down right on schedule?Accent. He came down at the right time. But you know why he came down when he did? Because God said, Moses, he says, you know what the people are doing down there? They’re partying.

In other words, he’s putting it on there with the 10 commandments and they didn’t broke all of them. They were in the midst of it. So when he got down there, he said, I’ll break him too. And God had to go make another set for him. But it says, the people gathered themselves together under Aaron and setting him up. Make us gods which shall go before us, for as for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt.

We don’t know what in the world become of him and Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives and of your sons and of your daughters and don’t forget to get the rings out of your nose. Well I just stood that in Aaron’s hand. Burt verse three and all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them under Aaron and He received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graven tomb after he had made it a mold and calf Remember now later on he says the people made me do this and he’s when it told him say you tell him get off Go get all the golds of okay Aaron told him to do that But of course we’ll just move right along Verse 4, and he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a

graven tomb. After he had made it a golden calf, a golden calf, and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron sought he built an altar before it, and Aaron made proclamation and says, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord, and they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings, and peace offerings, and the people Sit down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.”

Well, I think you’ll find out that that’s probably more than just rising up to play. In the New Testament, it was because of sex. Cuz a lot of trouble. They were wicked. They did wickedly. In verse seven, and the Lord said in the Moses, “‘Go get thee down for thy people, which thou brought us out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Look at this again. I want you to see this. And the Lord said unto Moses, go get thee down for thy people, which thy brought us out of the land.

Wait a minute now, it was God’s. Now it’s Moses. Now I don’t know about you, but I would have had a problem with this. Lord, you sent me, you told me, and God’s a first hand. Look at your people. Look what they’re doing I think even God was upset and he was upset and God Brought judgment. God took care of the situation that he did. Look at number three. All complaining is addictive. It’s addictive. Look at Numbers chapter 11.

Numbers and chapter 11. I want you to know and understand that it’s not a light thing to be a complainer, a person who murmurs and argues all the time. I don’t think it’s wise for the wife to argue with her husband or for the husband to always arguing with the wife I don’t think it’s always wise for the children to argue with their parents or to be arguing with your boss and always arguing arguing Or always complaining about everything.

Why not about everything? Nothing’s ever right It’s not wise In lots of if we don’t see it that bad or we don’t believe well, you know, it’s as me and And surely he’s not going to look at me the same way he does everybody else. If it’s wrong for Moses to do it, wrong for the children of Israel to do it, would it be wrong for you how to do it? I think he said, do all things without murmuring and complaining.

Why would he have to say something like that? Because it could be possible that a lot of God’s children do a lot of murmuring and complaining. is it possible? Sure I’m glad there’s nobody like that here. But in the book of Numbers in chapter 11, I want you to look here in verse 1, in verse 1, it says, and when the people did what? You ought to underline that. It displeased the Lord. So if it displeased Lord because they did it was shouldn’t it displease the Lord if you and I do it.

And he says and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them which were in the uttermost part of the camp. And the people cried in the Moses and when Moses prayed unto the Lord the fire was quenched. So yes that was a problem. Now and also in the scripture You see that all complaining is contagious. Look here in your notes. All complaining is contagious. It means it affects other people.

It’s just not something that you do, and it’s just you, it affects other people’s lives. Doesn’t the Bible say something about edify one another, exhorting one another, encouraging one another, praying for one another? Complaining does not do any of those things. It doesn’t do any of those things that God tells us to do for one another. It’s just the opposite. It is destructive. It is destructive. Did you know you can complain about something and somebody else who had no problem with it can begin to complain?

It’s because you complain. And more you complain, the more people complain. And next thing you know, you could have a whole army. And you know you’re right because look how many people agree with my complaining. But is that what God wants? Is there a better way to handle a problem? See, the best way to handle a problem is to tell only those that are part of the solution to the problem, and it’ll help you. In verse 4, And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting, and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt really, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onion and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manner before I see God even gave them angel food. I guess they thought it was devil food. He gave them angel food. And now they’re complaining about that. But you know, whatever that angel food was made out of, it must have had everything, it must have been a health bar.

It had everything in it that they needed to sustain themselves and they complained about it. And it’s like there’s no end to this and they just went, but you know, all this complaint, do you know where they were when they were doing all this complaining in the the wilderness. And most Christians, that’s where they live in the wilderness. See, the land of Canaan is not a tight-related of heaven. It’s a place of victory in the Christian life are supposed to be.

So we are God’s children. And to go from childhood to adulthood, we have to go sometimes through the wilderness. And so… Most people never get out of the wilderness. They stay there their whole lives and wander, accomplish nothing, get nowhere, just going in circles, and just whining and complaining all the days of their life. And one day you’re going to get old and you’re going to look back and says, what have I done for the Lord? What have I actually done for the Lord?

Could God use me? Oh, he can. But look there in verse 12. Have I conceived all this people? Have I been gotten them that thou should have said to me, carried them in thy bosom as a nursing father, bear the second child unto the land which thou swears unto their fathers? In verse 14, I am not able to bear all this people alone. It’s too heavy for me. But if thou dill thus with me, I’d rather you just go ahead and take my life right now.

I’d rather die. In other words, it seemed like Moses just about had enough. Did you know that you can discourage a lot of people? Let me tell you this, and this is just the truth. I get a chance to, and I’ve done it a lot of it, traveling around the country, sitting down with a lot of preachers and having a cup of coffee. And you know, a lot of preachers have become very discouraged and very depressed. And a lot of them have just quit the ministry.

You know why? Because the people in their church complained all the time. Never happy, never satisfied. All they did was whine. It didn’t matter what the preacher preached. It was never the right thing. They found fault with everything that he’s saying does. And so most of them just get discouraged. They get depressed. Did you know that you can do that to the preacher, as well as the preacher can do it to you? But every one of us need encouragement.

Did you know just by a view of you saying, preacher, I enjoyed that sermon last week or today or whenever, do you know that? That makes me feel a little bit good. Let’s me think, you know, maybe you got something out of it because we wanna be a blessing. No preachers wanna be a blessing to people. They wanna help people. They wanna encourage people. I think we want that, but also y’all need that. Y’all need a little, you know, praise her in there.

They said, you know, flattery will get you nowhere. It will too. But it ought to be honest and genuine compliments and not just made up flattery for, you know, trying to make somebody feel good when they know that you’re not really sincere. It ought to be genuine. But it says here, I would rather you let me die than to see my wretchedness in that birth. We’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. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible Line 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. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, they are 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. 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 Bibleline to You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at CalvaryofTampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

In 1 Peter chapter 4 it makes this statement. He says, you have been called to suffer, but in the suffering there is fellowship with the Lord. And he says, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. As though some strange thing happened unto you. He said, don’t think it’s strange because it’s going to happen and you’re going to have to pay a price. Look at number four in your notes there. Human affliction can cause believers.

You see, what will it do for me? What can I gain out of this? What’s the purpose of it? Do you know there’s things that God may want you to learn by the things that you go through? Now, it wasn’t long ago when I became 60. I thought, man, I thought it was going to die. I thought it was going to die. I almost did twice. And it’s a miracle that I’m here today. And I have suffered. I had to take pain pills for over a year and a half.

One Sunday I had to take five pain pills to try to get through the day. And I hadn’t got a clue what I preached on. I couldn’t remember. I was like in the days, but I had to go through it. And I heard I suffered. I suffered. Physically suffered. And I remember when we had this western day. Now I’m not against western day, I love western day. But we had the dunking booth. You ever seen a dunking booth? You know where the guy sits on the little ledge and somebody out there throws the little ball hits that little round thing?

Well, we’ve been playing horseshoes and so forth, but they holled and says, preacher, preacher, it’s your turn. All righty, so I go over there and I take off my coat and I’ll take off my tie, and you know, and I got into the dunking boat, took off my shoes, and so I’m climbing up on the ledge, and by now half the water’s gone. It’s been splashed out of there. So it was only half full. So I got in there, and I’m crawling up on the little ledge, and it’s kind of shaky, so you gotta be slow and careful, or it’ll go down before you’re ready.

Well, I finally get up on there, and I’m leaning sideways, and I gotta scoot over on it, And I saw this guy, he was my brother-in-law, he’s winding up. And I said, and I’m, everybody’s hollering for him to throw, throw, throw. And I thought, no, don’t, don’t, not yet. I’m not ready yet. And then I thought, he could hit the broad side of a barn.

Well, he did. He hit that little round thing over there, dead center. And when he hit it, I was leaning on the side, and buddy, I went down into that tank, And my foot hit up against the corner of that metal bin. And there wasn’t much water, and so there wasn’t much support. And I hit that thing and it twisted my ankle. And I’m talking about excruciating pain, shot up through my leg, and oh, it hurt. Now, if I hadn’t have been a grown man, if I hadn’t have been in that tank, and I hadn’t seen people watching me, I’d have cried.

I suffered, that hurt. But I laughed and got up there, and I crawled back on the limb again, and they put me down again. And I hit it again. I crawled back up there and I laughed at so far, I said, you can’t hit, you can’t hit me. I’m gone again. They delight in seeing the preacher suffer. They didn’t know how bad I was hurting. That night when I got home, I could hardly walk. So I thought, I didn’t tell my wife.

I took two ibuprofen, 800 milligrams. But I didn’t know you were supposed to have, you know, a four-mill or anything like that. I just took to them and swallowed. Believe it or not, my ankle felt better. But the next night, it was still sore a little bit. I thought, I’ll just take two more. So I took two more on an empty stomach right before I go to bed. Well, the next day. I was in Hertzville. I didn’t know that I had a bleeding ulcer and I was in bad shape.

And I couldn’t hardly walk. I lay down on the floor and I couldn’t hardly get up. I finally got up enough and I called Betty on the phone. I says, honey, I says, I think you need to take me to the doctor. At this time, I still had no clue what I needed to do. I didn’t know what was wrong. I said, I’m coming home. I want you to take me to the VA. I drove home and it seemed like I was flying and I looked down at the speedometer and I’m going about 20 miles an hour down that road It took me seemed like forever to get there, but it seemed like I was flying But I couldn’t hardly adjust things and my knuckles were turning white my hands were all turning white and By the time I got to the house and I didn’t know if

I’d ever make it Betty She jumped in the car and she was going about a hundred and ten around the bin and and got down there and they tried to stand me up and I couldn’t stand up. I was so weak they said, you have to sit in this chair. I said, I can’t, I lay down on the floor. They said, you can’t lay on the floor. I said, ma’am, I’m laying on the floor. They said, we’ll get him a, they moved me in and they actually know.

They said, oh my God, he’s got a bleeding ulcer. And they did immediate surgery. Right off the bat. It was interesting. And my wife’s wondering whether or not is am I going to live or am I going to die. she suffered just as much as I suffered, even though I was the one that was in the bed, and they were having to give me some blood, and I was crying because, see, it was Thursday and Friday. I said, I’ve got to get out of a hospital on Friday.

And they said, you’re not going anywhere. I said, I’m getting out of here Friday. I said, I’m supposed to be in Egypt. I’m leaving for Egypt on Monday. I’m going to eat with Ray Stanford. And I said, I’ve got to get out of here. And so they gave me some more blood on Friday. I got out. I was preaching on Sunday morning in church. That Monday, Betty was pushing me through the Atlanta airport in a wheelchair because I couldn’t walk out.

And they finally got me on the airplane. And I had just enough strength each day to do what I needed to do each day. Egypt is the last place you want to go when you have stomach trouble. But I like to died. Now, I don’t know whether the devil, all I know is that I did make some stupid decisions. I shouldn’t have took the ibuprofen on an empty stomach. It ate right through my stomach. And I could have died so easy.

And they said I got down to the hospital just in time. And then another time after that, I got there. And they said, another 12 hours, you would have been either in a coma. This was six months later. You would have been in the coma or you would have been dead. And they had to do emergency surgery on me again. So I am lucky to be here. I am fortunate to be here. I could have been in heaven.

I want to have been so bad. But you in this life, you’re going to have something. It’s going to hit you upside that you can’t explain it. Well, Lord, why I don’t know why I don’t care why. I think, well, God, you’re God and you could stop this or you can allow it. So whatever, I didn’t ask when to be born and I don’t care when I leave. I am at your disposal. I’m going to try to do whatever the leave is right.

And if you let me live, praise the Lord. If you want to take me home, praise the Lord, whatever you want to do, I really don’t care. And so I guess he doesn’t want me yet. Eight, nine more years has passed. And maybe one of these days I’ll be standing here telling you, hey, I’m 79 now. And who knows? You don’t have any clue just how fast something can hit you. My mama, she went through just about everything you can think of.

And I really don’t want to follow that trail, but sometimes we’re going to have to suffer. But there’s lessons to be learned. Look at number, letter A, to learn God’s word. Psalms 119, I believe he’s talking about when I was afflicted,Relle. He said, before I was a, I went astray. And so God’s affliction sometimes can bring you back. Because sometimes it causes you to search yourself and see, is there something that I’m doing that’s wrong? And sometimes there is, sometimes there’s things that you need to correct.

But you don’t think about it until something happens, and then you wonder why God doesn’t answer your prayer, and then you think, well, maybe it’s because of this, or maybe it’s because of that. God does want you to search yourself. God does one that’s the cert. An unexamined life is not worth living. Always examining yourself, seeing where my spirit’s living. What’s my attitude to the truth? Always remember that. To learn patience. Romans chapter 5, tribulation, worketh, patience. It’s the hard time.

Because you can’t make it end. You can’t solve all the problems. It’s beyond you. So you have to let God do it. Have you had situations that you have come to the limit of your own wisdom and ability and you say, if God, you don’t get me out of this, I won’t get out of this. I am at my which and I don’t know what else to do. God says, great. That’s where I’ve been trying to get you. and you’re right where God wanted to get you.

It’s kind of like this. Suppose I put a hole up there in that ceiling, and I went up on the roof, and I had a whole bunch of money up there, and I want to bless people, and whoever gets under that opening, I’m going to throw some money down. And lo and behold, James walks in the room. All I want to bless James. I can’t seem to get James maneuvered under that hole up there. If I could just get him under that hole, I’d just double a whole bunch of money on him.

So I work all kind of things in his life. And I bring somebody else in his life and they’ll try to get him over to here. And then somebody gets him over to here and then somebody gets him over there. And finally he gets into the right spot right where I wanted him. Now he got there quicker if he’d just listened to the first person I sent, but no, he won’t do that. So I had to send ten people to try to tell them and moving and working in his life and putting this obstacle in his life and opening up this door and closing that door so I can get him right where I want him.

And then when he finally got there I blessed him. He says, man, isn’t God good? But until he got there, you know, I don’t know if God knows who I am anymore. I don’t even know if he knows where I’m at. What’s going on in my life? And God says, I’ve been trying to get you someplace. I’ve been working in your life. He didn’t leave you alone. He loves you. And he’s working. Because he’s doing that with every one of his children.

Remember this, your heavenly Father is going to give you personal lies to tension. He’s going to let you go. He knows everything that’s happening in your life. He knows you. He knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. And everything’s okay. It’s in his hands. All you got to do is just trust him. And he’ll bless you because of it. Look at letter D to prevent spiritual pride. Have you ever got a problem with pride? Have you ever had a problem with pride?

Did you know how God can take away that pride? It’s for him to humble you. He said, if you be lifted up in pride, God says he will humble you. But if you will humble you, he will exalt you. So where yet? Did you realize that sometimes God what calls he wants to use you, he’s got to empty you of you. He’s got to drain all of you out of you. To where he can, I guess you could say, fill you, put something into you.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit controlled by the Holy Spirit, he has to get you where you will not try to control yourself. You’ll let him control you. And he’ll let you make some decisions that will prick you. In other words, I used to tell the teenagers in college, most of the more teenagers, I’m going to pray a hedge of thorns about you. Sometimes you want a hedge of blessings around them. But when people become rebellious, you pray a hedge of thorns around them.

It means that every time they say or do something, it seems like they’re just pricking themselves. I used to pick blackberries. And you know it’s difficult sometimes to get all those blackberries without getting your hand all scratched up. And if you squeeze the blackberry too hard, well then it just goes all over the place. So you got to be gentle. But sometimes it always seems like the biggest blackberries, the juiciest ones, are always hiding back there behind those thorns.

You got to reach over and around and under and so forth. And if you want those, then there might be a price to pay. And sometimes God will put a hedge of thorns about you so that your bad decisions will will prick you and hurt you. And why does he do that? Because he hates you. Because he loves you. And it’s to wake you up, to cause you to be aware, to realize that maybe I made a wrong decision.

Maybe I need to check with the Lord again. So it’s very important. You’ve ever heard of a verse called Romans 828? You’ve ever heard that verse? All things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose. So God has a purpose and He may not have told you what it is. But you know that He has one and so you’re going to believe it. And faith in the Lord means you can trust Him.

And you can trust somebody if you really believe they love you. And when you doubt His love, it’s hard for you to trust Him. So the death of God. all is going to do whatever He possibly can to get you to doubt the love of God. Because if God really loved you, He wouldn’t have let that happen to you. Yes, He would. Because He can use the things that happens in this world to strengthen you, to draw you closer to Him.

And let her eat, to give us a true skill of our value. In the words, brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. But such is common to man. So So you’re going to have all of these problems. But when you find out there’s something that you don’t know, he says, ask of God, and he will give to all men liberally. He will not chide you or mock you or make fun of you. But let him ask in faith, not wavering, like a ship upon the sea tossed to and fro.

He says, let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. The next point, number five, trusting the Lord through suffering prepares you to help others find the comfort of God in their own suffering because the lessons that you learn in 2 Corinthians 1 is a very important chapter you ought to read it some day and study it real carefully. But he is called the Father of comforts. It means let the Father comfort you so that whenever you’re comforted you may able to use that same comfort to comfort somebody else.

In other words, God’s given you tools to use. God’s given you experiences in life to help. God’s preparing you in a greater way. Don’t you want God to use you in a great way? Okay, whether he has to prepare you. Got to teach you some things and you’re not going to learn them in a book. You don’t learn them in a Bible college. It’s the school of hard knocks, the school of experience. You You see, wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge.

Knowledge is an accumulation of facts. Wisdom is being able to take those facts and apply them to life. And you’re not wise because you know what to do. You’re wise if you do what you’re supposed to do. A lot of difference. Number six, enduring suffering for Christ can bring believers future rewards in heaven. And you know this. We’ve taught it long enough. know that if you serve the Lord now, for whatever price you have to pay, that when you get to heaven, it will be worth it all.

But look at the last one. Number seven, number seven, suffering for Christ is worth it, not only in heaven, but now. You see why? Because of what it does. If you suffer from the Lord now, you do right and there’s a price goaltending the Above the Lord. And that’s not the Lord. He wants you to do right. Because he gets glory from your life. He wants you in spite of how bad it might be. You have glory to God.

And praise the Lord. And thank the Lord. And that’s now. That’s not later. He wants you to do that now. point due to the salvation of others. We see we’re talking about winning people when we get to heaven. We’re talking about winning people to the Lord now. So the suffering that you go through now could be the salvation of somebody else. Somebody here in understanding and trusting Christ is saving you because they heard the gospel through your lips. Did you know that there might be people that want to know the truth and because of that God is got to get somebody to him.

And in order to get somebody to this person over here, God may have to send you into the hospital in order to talk to this person. But what of the reason? There might be somebody at the grocery store that God has sent you there. It could be at a service station. You see, God knows where the hungry hearts are. And God has a person who has the desires of the Lord use me in any way you want. So God may have to allow certain things to happen.

There might be a guy that drives a tow truck, and he’s driving his truck one, and I wonder where I’m going to go when I die. Lo and behold, your car broke down and you had to call a tow truck. Isn’t that wonderful? Now you’re not the kind that’s going to curse God because the power blew out or the motor blew up because God had to work in your life because you know that. you know how God works, so it doesn’t bother you.

But see, when you don’t know that and you don’t understand that, all you’re thinking about, look what this is doing to me. I’m not on my schedule. When you dedicate your life to the Lord, expect God to interrupt your schedule. See, God has a schedule. God has a plan. God has a purpose. And yours may not be the same one. But now God says, if you will be faithful, God says, when you get to heaven, I’m going to reward you.

I’m going to bless you. But see, you’re getting somebody to trust the Lord. Now, let us see, due to the ministry, two believers. See, there’s believers. Did you know that you sometimes you watch people and you know they’re going through a hard time? And did you know that you evaluate a person based upon how they handle their problems? And you know everybody’s got them. And so you watch and see how are they gonna handle this? Do they really love the Lord?

Are they gonna fall apart? How are they doing spiritually? What kind of attitude do they have? Does it seem like they’re blaming and cursing God? Do they have a lot of bitterness in their heart? Or the kind that says, I don’t understand at all. Praise God anyway. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gave and he took away. And in all of this to maintain your integrity. See, God is watching. He really is watching. And He is working in your life in ways that you may not know and understand.

Because see, if you were in charge, you wouldn’t do it that way. But see, you’re not God. You’re supposed to believe that you have a Heavenly Father, a wonderful, loving Heavenly Father. And He’s working in your life. The last thing here, due to your own spiritual growth, due to your own spiritual growth, did you know that that’s how you grow? You see, your faith has to be challenged. It’s just like, you know, they’re having the playoffs for the Super Bowl, and they have the best in each division and so forth, and they have the playoffs, and then they have the wild card stuff, and then they’ll have the division.

They do all that, because they’re trying to get the two best teams They come together. The two best teams. What your spiritual growth in the Lord, in order for you to grow, you have to be challenged by something that’s equal to your faith. It’s where you are right now. In order for you to have to dig a little bit more and pray a little bit more and trust a little bit more. In other words, if you had a thousand dollars in the bank and you had a bill for Or 500, you ain’t got a problem.

But what if you only had $1,000 in the bank and you owed $1,500? Oh, now that’s different. Now what am I going to do? What am I going to do? So that’s what God does in your life. So He will allow you to be challenged so that your own personal spiritual growth can be greater than what it is now. God wants us to mature, to grow stronger and stronger in the Lord as we get older. And the last thing, and later.

It’s now and later. In other words, it will be worth it all. Do you believe that? I believe it. I believe it with all my heart. I’ve seen God work in my life. I’ve had him turn me upside down and spank me pretty good. But I love knowing how God works, because He is going to work in your life. Look up here very quickly. This hand represents you and me and the wall of represents sin. Now we all have sin on us.

God loves us, but He hates what we do wrong. Now if you’re hearing you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, then God says that you need to hear the gospel, some good news. But in order to appreciate the good news, I got to tell you the bad news first. You see, we have all sinned. That’s bad news. And the wages of sin to pay for it is death and hell. That’s bad news too. Now to go to heaven, you have to be perfect.

Well, I got some more bad news for you. We’re not. And I got some more bad news for you. You can’t earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven. You said, well, do you have any good news? Share. It’s your do. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s God’s Son. And the Bible says that God so loved the world. That’s good news. That He gave His only begotten Son. You see, Christ came into the world because He loves us.

But He hates our sin. So He did something for us. That was He took the sin, paid for it on the cross, and came back from the dead. Now that’s good news. And He says, all that we have. to do was believe he did it for us. That’s good news. All I have to do is believe. I don’t have to stop something or join something or turn or burn or forsake or bake or wine or pine. All I got to do is just believe it that he did it for me.

And he would put this payment to my account and give me the free gift of eternal life. That’s more good news. So see, there’s a lot of good news here. God loves you. paid for your sins. Came back from the dead and said, if you trust me, that I did it for you, I’ll give you as a free gift. Everlasting life, and you get to go to heaven on what I did. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it.

That’s the gift of God. Not a works list, any man should boast. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ trust the Christ of Savior. Or if you listen by way of internet and you never trust the Lord, then friend I urge you right now in the quietness of this moment. Just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord, I’m a sinner.

Friend, that’s just been honest. We all are. But I believe you died on that cross and paid from my sins. Tonight I will trust you as my Savior. I believe you died for me. And friend God said, if you would accept Him, He would give you eternal life as a gift and never cast you out and never lose you. Would you do that? If you’re making that decision, I’d like to have prayer for you. So with the headbound nice and close, no one looking around, I’m not going to have you forward, not going to embarrass you.

But I’d like to have prayer for you. I’d like to know what I said, may sense to you. So if you’re trusting Christ as your Savior tonight, you’ve never done it before, say pray for me. We’ll just slip you in it very quickly and put a right back down. Is there anyone at all? Our Father, we do thank You so much for Your Word that You’ve given us, not only to have eternal life, but also to understand and appreciate the ministry of suffering.

And what I pray Your will to be done in the lives of each person here, and some people in this auditorium I know and they’ve suffered a lot, gone through an awful lot. They’ve heard some need jobs, some have had surgery, and some are no doubt lonely and all kind of things that goes on in a person’s life. But Father, I know that your grace is sufficient. We want you to order to put your arms about each person here and just let them know that you love them.

And let them know that we love them, that we love each other, and we care for one another. Help us to do the things that are right. Put things in this proper perspective. Reliesing that there’s value now in suffering. And there’s value later. In Christ name we 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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Spinning Globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryuptampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bible Live and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. which is toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calbryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Let me talk to you about a ministry that you may not like. But it’s a ministry that we’ve all been called to. And if God called you to do it, I’m sure you would be very willing to do it. It’s called the ministry of what? Suffering the ministry of suffering. You say, well, I don’t like that ministry. But believe it or not, there is a ministry of suffering. God allows us to suffer for Him. And he says that he was an example because he suffered for us.

So you can see the parallel, can’t you? So God says that you are going to end this world, you’re going to suffer. There’s a price to pay for taking a stand and doing what God wants you to do with your life. Hearing the book of Revelation, I want you to look at it real quick with me. Revelation in chapter 21, you know, Wednesday night I talked a little bit about the mark of the base. And so this morning I talked about the mark of a believer and how that the mark of a believer is faith.

That’s what separates you apart. That’s the distinguishing mark from the rest of the world. Is it you believe they don’t? So here in the book of Revelation in chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was and more see. I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither crying or sorrow, there be any more pain, for the form of things are passed away. So all this is going to take place and there’ll be no more suffering. There’s coming a day when the ministry of suffering will be over. Once you trust Christ as your Savior, this time that we live in this world is a time of suffering. We suffer by the mere fact that we’re in this world in comparison to what God has for us just to be here.

And what we go through the things you think about and worry about, and fret about, the responsibilities that we have, the battles that you have to face, and the devil is real. And so you’ve got to go through all of that, but understanding that there’s a reason. And they’re simply, In this life, opportunities for us to gain or to earn rewards. Remember, rewards are earned. So it means if you have to earn them, you’ve got to work. I mean, if you go to work, do they pay you just because you show up?

Well, they probably do. You’re supposed to work. You’re supposed to earn it. The old-fashioned way. You earn it. But with the Lord, God has to give you a work to do. Well, say, His work is totally different from the work that’s in the world. God wants you to do and He’s going to pay you. So God has wages and He pays wages. John chapter 4. So number one there in your notes. Christ’s suffering and death on the cross completely pays for all sin, for all people, for all time.

This is what makes the ultimate reality in the new heavens and the new earth possible because of what Christ did for us. You and I have been called upon to suffer for Him. I said, I want to serve the Lord, but I don’t want to hurt. I don’t want to have to fight. I don’t want to struggle. I don’t want no battles. But I want to wear the medals. Well, it won’t work that way. Some people want to make a six foot splash and a six inch mud puddle.

You don’t want to be something glorious and great accomplishment and do great things for God, but they don’t want to have to put in the work or the labor that it takes to do something for the Lord. So in Hebrews chapter 9, There’s a verse there in chapter 2 in verse 9 that says that he, Christ, he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

So he did do this for every man, but remember this, there is not divine healing in the crucifixion of Christ. When he died on the cross, his payment wasn’t so that you and I could be healed of every disease in this life. If you want to have total healing of your physical body, just die. And then you’ll get one, a new one, and you will never have to worry about it again. So you are going to have total healing someday, but not in this life.

Otherwise, if we had these perfect bodies and we could just have this divine healing, we would never die. Did you ever think of that? And then if you wouldn’t die, you would never get to heaven. I mean, shame to see some old 500 year old codger still walking around here. Well, how come you didn’t go to heaven? Well, I, you know, healing is in a tome and so here I am. No, I just, Lord, just take me on home.

And if you’re going to take you home, well, I got to die of something. I want to be healthy, but I know I got to die son unless the Lord comes back and takes me out of here. So we believe the Lord is coming back. Gotta believe he’s coming back soon. Look at number two. Number two, human suffering may be due to, now before you blame it, on God. Look at other possibilities. There are other things that could be the reason why you heard or suffer.

One could be because Adam’s sin. You are in a sinful world and therefore you are going to hurt. You’re going to suffer because of that. Because of the environment that you’re in. There’s thorns in this world and you’re going to get hurt. People are going to say and do things. Number two, individual sin. In other words, because of what you bring upon yourself. Did you ever think that you might have to suffer consequences for your own decisions? A lot of people don’t know that there’s a correlation there.

Take out a hammer, hit your finger with it. And then wonder why is my finger hurting? Well, you know, I really don’t know. I don’t know why my finger is hurting. Well, there’s a correlation because of what you’re doing to yourself. And sometimes you will do things and you’re going to hurt for it. You’re going to, you don’t make all the right decision. I know that hurts. You do not make all the right decisions. You are not all wise.

you are not perfect, you still mess up. And whenever you mess up, there’s going to be some consequences to suffering. What you have to be careful is when you make dumb, stupid, idiotic decisions, and then you suffer for it, don’t say, well, I’m just suffering for Jesus. No, I don’t think so. I think you might be deceiving yourself. Because if because you’re making some bad decision because you don’t listen to what God says, well that might be because you make some bad decisions.

So before you just automatically blame God, you might look in the mirror and say, no, is there something that I’m doing that’s causing this? Is it because I made wrong decisions? Now you can correct some things. Look at letter C, satanic attack. Do you honestly, in reality, do you really believe what it says in 1 Peter, chapter five. Look there, 1 Peter chapter five. This is a good verse that you need to see. You need to know where it is in the Bible.

And look there in verse eight. In verse eight. 1 Peter chapter five, verse eight, Case 1315 in an Oscoka reference Bible, or one of the church Bibles. And look at verse eight, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he made devour. Did you know that the devil might use your wife? Did you know the devil can use you? And the devil can use your kids. The devil can use that man where you work.

So be very slow and careful. There might be more than meets the eye. Learn discernment as much as possible. Live peaceably with all men. Don’t look for an opportunity to be mean and ugly and you can blame it on somebody. God be very careful. Now look in verse 9. He says in verse 9, whom? Who? The devil. You can resist the devil by standing steadfast in the faith. Just stand strong on what God’s word says, and that’s resisting the devil.

You don’t move just because the devil wants you to. You aren’t not supposed to think wrong just because the devil wants you to think wrong. You don’t do wrong because the devil wants you to do wrong. You know what’s right and stand there. And be strong. Be strong in the power of his might. And God will bless you for doing so. Now, look in John chapter 15, the Gospel of John and chapter 15. John 15 talks about bearing fruit and the friendships that we have and how that God has made us his friends and all that.

But it’s also a warning. If you look there in verse 18, he says in verse 18, and he’s talking to his disciples. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Now if he is the master, look what the world did to him. Well if you’re his servant, well you know what they did to the master. What do you think they’ll do to you? Now you have to be careful when the world loves you.

I just can’t fathom this world loving me to death. I mean, if they love me to death, like I’m some great guy, then I must be doing something wrong. The world is not supposed to let me know. I’m not supposed to purposely try to make the world hate me. But I do believe that we’re supposed to live according to truth, and living according to truth is going to offend people, and they’re not going to like you because of that.

You live godly on your job and try to do right, and there’ll be somebody that could accuse you of something or lie about you deceive you because they can’t stand a person who shows them up. There’s a price to pay for living a righteous life. The look where he’s in verse 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own but because you’re not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world Therefore the world hated you.

Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my sins, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me. So yes, there is a price to pay, just because you want to pay. you want to serve the Lord. And you know what the world did to Him?

Don’t expect any better treatment in this life. You say, well, I don’t want to suffer, so I’m going to compromise a little bit. Your choice. But your compromising is going to cost you greatly. Because when you get to heaven, you find out what you could have done. If you’d have stood fast, you’re going to bring a lot of grief. And then that’s why God said, He’ll wipe away all tears from their eyes because there’s going to be a lot of people that’s going to be weeping.

They’ll look back over their life with a lot of regret of what they could have done for the Lord and did not do You’re going to suffer in this world Expected and when you understand it it eliminates that the whining business Here’s the Christian all the doors wine about everything just wine What you don’t have to do that when you understand all you know is all the hardships that I go through are nothing more than places For me to spend my money Remember I like I said I gave my wife a million dollars to go buy something and then there was no stores Wouldn’t it be frustration So what would she want if she had a million dollars to spend what would she want?

She want all the kind of stores she could find what because she wants to spend the money Well a Christian who has wisdom Must have problems to spend the wisdom on Problems to solve So that’s… Money to spend. But see, a lot of Christians are bankrupt. They don’t have any wisdom. They don’t have any money to spend. They can’t solve people’s problems. They can’t help anybody. They’re bankrupt, themselves spiritually. So you don’t want that. So as you go through life, God is putting money into your well by the things you learn and how deep you can go.

Now, some people go down so deep and they stand out so long and they come up so dry, but you want water and you will. That means wisdom that you store up, that you can use when it’s needed. So letter E, God’s known or unexplained purposes. Did you know that God may let you suffer and he doesn’t tell you why? Did you know this? God does not owe you an explanation. God doesn’t have to explain everything to you. Isn’t it true that one of the most asked questions when something goes wrong is why?

Because you think I can handle it better if I only knew why. Well, let’s just say this, because there are some things that God will not explain to you and you’ll never figure out. Some things you’ll never get all the answers to. But you know overall God has given to me the ministry of suffering. And it’s part of God’s will for me. So I don’t have to worry about it. Now I know God’s will for my life. I’m just suffering this life.

As I do what God wants me to do, I’m going to be hurt. I’m not going to be loved by everybody. But by the very fact that you belong to Christ, and the world hated Him, and the world persecuted Him, the world will do the same thing to you. Understand it. Look at number three. Look at number three, suffering for Christ can be expected in a godly life. You see, in Timothy it makes the statement in chapter three, it says, be holy.

Be holy. Be pure. Because those that live godly shall suffer persecution. If you live holy, you’re going to pay a price for it. Because it’s difficult talking to certain people because there could be a backlash. And you don’t sometimes want to suffer that backlash. Nobody wants to be or to feel rejected or to be unloved. We all want to be accepted. We want to belong. This is one of the hardest things for teenagers. Junior high kids, they have this peer pressure.

They want to be accepted. They want to be on the end group. Whatever the kids do, they want to do and be a part of it. They don’t want to stand out. They don’t want to be different. They want to be like. They want to feel like somebody cares about them. And they don’t want just mom and dads approval. They want the kids that are their peers. They want to be light. That’s why they want to look like them and act like them, talk like them, because they fit in.

And it’s hard for them to take a stand and to have different moral standards and what the other kids have. And so it’s difficult. And more godly they want to live, the harder it is on them. Parents need to understand that. Because it’s very difficult, especially in the times in which we live, when you have some parents that don’t care what the kids do. Or where they go, or how they talk, or who they date, all those things. They don’t care.

But when you do care, man, it breaks your heart when you see something happen that you don’t want to happen, do something or go someplace. All these things are so important. But in 1 Peter chapter 4, it makes his statement. He says, you have been called to suffer, but in the suffering there is fellowship with the Lord. And he says, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. As though some strange thing happened to you.

He said, don’t think It’s strange because it’s going to happen and you’re going to have to pay a price. Look at number four in your notes there. Human affliction can cause believers. You see, what will it do for me? What can I gain out of this? What’s the purpose of it? Do you know there’s things that God may want you to learn by the things that you go through? Now, it wasn’t long ago when I became 60. I thought of it was going to die.

Thought I could have died. I almost did twice. And it’s a miracle that I’m here today. And I have suffered. I had to take pain pills for over a year and a half. One Sunday I had to take five pain pills to try to get through the day. And I hadn’t got a clue what I was preached on. I couldn’t remember. I was like in the days, but I had to go through it and I heard, I suffered. I suffered physically suffered.

And I remember when we had this western day. Now I’m not against western day. I love western day. But we had the dunking booth. You ever seen a dunking booth? You know where the guy sits on the little edge. And somebody out there throws the little ball, here’s that little round thing. Well, we’ve been playing horseshoes and so forth, but they holled and says, preacher, preacher, it’s your turn. All righty, so I go over there and I take off my coat and I’ll take off my tie and you know, and I got into the dunking boot, took off my shoes.

And so I’m climbing up on the ledge and by now half the water’s gone. It’s been splashed out of there. So it was only half full. So I got in there And I’m crawling up on the little ledge, and it’s kind of shaky, so you’ve got to be slow and careful. Or it’ll go down before you’re ready. Well, I finally get up on there and I’m leaning sideways, and I got a scoot over on it, and I saw this guy, he was my brother-in-law.

He’s winding up. And I says, and I’m, everybody’s hollering for him to throw, throw, throw. And I thought, no, don’t, don’t, don’t, not yet. I’m not ready yet. And then I thought he could hit the broad side of a barn. Well, he did. He hit that little round thing over there, dead center. And when he hit it, I was leaning on the side and buddy, I went down into that tank and my foot hit up against the corner of that metal bin.

And there wasn’t much water and so there wasn’t much support. And I hit that thing and it twisted my ankle and I’m talking about excruciating pain, shut up through my leg, and oh, it hurt. Now if I hadn’t been a grown man, if I hadn’t been in that tank and hadn’t seen people watching me, I’d have cried. I suffered, that hurt. But I laughed and got up there and I crawled back on the limb again and they put me down again.

And I hid it again. I crawled back up there and I laughed and so forth. I said, you can’t hit, you can’t They had seen them gone again. They delight in seeing the preacher suffer. They didn’t know how bad I was hurting. That night when I got home, I could hardly walk. So I thought, I didn’t tell my wife, I took two ibuprofen, 800 milligrams. But I didn’t know you were supposed to have a four-mill or anything like that.

I just took to them and swallowed. Believe it or not, my ankle felt better. But the next night it was still sore a little bit. I thought, I’ll just take two more. So I took two more on the empty stomach right before I go to bed. Well, the next day I was in Hertzville. I didn’t know that I had a bleeding ulcer.

And I was in bad shape. And I couldn’t hardly walk. I lay down on the floor and I couldn’t hardly get up. I finally got up enough and I called Betty on the phone. I said, honey, I said, I think you need to take me to the doctor. At this time, I still had no clue what I needed to do. I didn’t know what was wrong. I said, I’m coming home. I want you to take me to the VA.

So I drove home, and it seemed like I was flying. And I looked down at the speedometer, and I’m going about 20 miles an hour down that road. It took me, seemed like forever to get there, but it seemed like I was flying. But I couldn’t hardly adjust things, and my knuckles were turning white. My hands were all turning white. And by the time I got to the house, and I didn’t know if I’d ever make it, Betty, she jumped in the car and she was going about 110 around the bin and got down there.

And they tried to stand me up, but I couldn’t stand up. I was so weak, they said, well, you’ll have to sit in this chair. I said, I can’t, I’ll lay down on the floor. They said, you can’t lay on the floor. I said, man, I’m laying on the floor. They said, well, get him a, they moved me in there. And they next to me know, they said, oh my God, he’s got a bleeding ulcer. and they did immediate surgery, right off the bat.

It was interesting. And my wife’s wondering whether or not is am I going to live or am I going to die. You know, she suffered just as much as I suffered. Even though I was the one that was in the bed, and they were having to give me some blood, and I was crying because, see, it was Thursday and Friday. I said, I’ve got to get out of a hospital on Friday. And they said, you’re not going anywhere. I said, I’m getting out of here Friday.

I said, I’m supposed to be in Egypt. I’m leaving for Egypt on Monday. I’m going to Egypt with Ray Stanford. And I said, I’ve got to get out of here. And so they gave me some more blood on Friday. I got out. I was preaching on Sunday morning in church. At Monday, Betty was pushing me through the Atlanta airport in a wheelchair, because I couldn’t walk up. And they finally got me on the airplane, and I had just enough strength each day to do what I needed to do each day.

Egypt is the last place you want to go when you have stomach trouble. But I like to die. No, I don’t know whether the devil, all I know is that I did make some stupid decisions. I shouldn’t have took the ibuprofen on an empty stomach. It ate right through my stomach. And I could have died so easy. And they said I got down to the hospital just in time. And then another time after that, I got there and they said, another 12 hours, you would have been either in a coma.

This was six months later. You would have been in a coma or you would have been dead. And they had to do emergency surgery on me again. So I am lucky to be here. I am fortunate to be here. I could have been in heaven. That would have been so bad. But you in this life, you’re going to have something that’s going to hit you upside down. You can’t explain it. Lord, why? I don’t know why. I don’t care why.

I think, well, God, you’re God and you could stop this or you can allow it. So whatever. I didn’t ask when to be born and I don’t care when I leave. I am at your disposal. I’m going to try to do whatever the leave is right. And if you let me live, praise the Lord. If you want to take me home, praise the Lord, whatever you want to do, I really don’t care. And so I guess he doesn’t want me yet.

Eight, nine more years has passed. And maybe one of these days I’ll be standing here telling you, hey, I’m 79 now. And who knows? You don’t have any clue just how fast something can hit you. My mama, she went through just about everything you can think of. And I really don’t want to follow that trail, but sometimes we, we’re going to have to suffer. But there’s lessons to be learned. Look at number, letter A, to learn God’s word. Psalms 119, I believe he’s talking about when I was afflicted, when I was afflicted.

He said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. And so God’s affliction sometimes can bring you back. Sometimes it causes you to search yourself and say, is there something that I’m doing that’s wrong? And sometimes there is, sometimes there’s things that you need to correct. But you don’t think about it until something happens and then you wonder why God doesn’t answer your prayer and then you think, well, maybe it’s because of this or maybe it’s because of that. God does want you to search yourself.

God does want us to search. An unexamined life is not worth living. Always examining yourself. See, where am I spiritually? What am I doing? What’s my attitude to the things that are happening in my life? Let her be to learn to trust and obey the Lord. Always remember that. To learn patience. Romans chapter five, tribulation, worketh, patience. It’s the hard time because you can’t make it end. You can’t solve all of the problems. It’s beyond you. So you have to let God do it.

Have you had situations that you have come to the limit of your own wisdom and ability? And you say, if God, you don’t get me out of this, I won’t get out of this. I am at my wits and I don’t know what else to do. God says, great, that’s where I’ve been trying to get you. 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.

Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the Clear Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible line 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. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the link below. the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.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. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, they are 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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.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.

Grace God’s motivating power. And so grace is the means by which God displays his motivating power. When we understand the motivating power of God’s divine nature, we will better understand the source of proper Christian motivation. Because if we’re to be like the Lord, then we should find out what motivates God. Don’t that make sense? Why does God do what He does? God knew before He ever made the man and the woman and put them in the garden that they were going to fall, because he said that he had already prepared a sacrifice before the foundation of the world, which was Christ.

So it’s not like God was shocked, but it’s all part of a gigantic plan. When we understand the motivating power of Satan’s wicked nature, and Satan has an old wicked nature, then we’ll better understand our own sinful nature. the Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and who can know it. Well, God has explained to us many of the characteristics of our sinful nature and tells us that we do what we do because of that sinful nature.

But if we see who has that sinful nature and why he does what he does, which is the devil himself, then we’ll understand why we’re acting like the devil sometime. What is the motivating power of God? Love is the all-encompassing of all of God’s divine attributes. God wants you and I to know what he’s like. Well, we could never really understand the mighty power of God if God did not reveal it to us in some way. So love is the basic of why God does what he does.

It says, but God commended. That word there in Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, commended means to display or manifest means to reveal. So God has manifested his love toward us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So if God’s going to display his love, he had to do it in some way. And Christ dying for us was God’s way of showing us that he loves us. In this verse it says in 1st John chapter 4 verses 9 and 10, in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world.

Now get this, how did God manifest his love? If God did not have a way to do this, then we would not know that God is love. God has to have a way to show who He is, to demonstrate what He’s like. We often say, who is God, where is God, and what is God like? So God has to have a means by which He can display His attributes because His attributes tell you who He is. you would not know that God is a God of love if God didn’t show you what he meant by that.

Or God is the God of kindness of God didn’t show you what he meant by that. And so he says that God manifested his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. He died for us, but because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world. Now notice each time it was the sending of God’s Son into the world to die for us. That was the manifestation of the love of God poured us. Grace is the means by which God’s love is displayed.

We often say that grace is unmerited favor. We didn’t deserve it. We don’t merit it. You could also say it just means without charge. That God wants to display His love and He has to have a way to do it. Now, if He did it and we had to earn the right to see what God is like, then we would never know what God is like, because we cannot earn that right. No man can. So God said He will display that for us freely.

Means without charge. Get this verse. And this is in the book of Ephesians in chapter 2 verse 7 through 8, or 2 9. That in the ages to come, that means in the time, in the future, down the road. He might, and the word is show. That means to display, to manifest, to reveal. In the ages to come, the exceeding riches of His grace. How rich is God? How much does God love? Just how kind is God. When it says in John 3 16, for God so loved the world.

Didn’t you say just God loved the world? God so loved the world. So God says that He has a plan by which He is going to manifest that in the ages to come, the riches of His grace in His kindness. Now you and I would not know that God is kind if there was no one upon whom to bestow His kindness. God has to have somebody to display his kindness upon for us to know God is good. We can say God is good all day long, but how do you know God is good?

For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Because if salvation was by the works of man, God could not display his love. He couldn’t display his kindness. He couldn’t display his compassion because man earned it. And And God was simply paying a debt. Well, that wouldn’t show some of the inner essence of God. Who is God? What is God? And he says, not of works lest any man should boast because then man would get the honor.

Man would get the credit. Man would get the glory. And that’s not what God’s after. God wants all the honor, all the praise, all the glory. Salvation by the works of man can never show the kindness of God. So God cannot have salvation by works because in man has earned that which God wanted to bestow as a gift Then it could not have been a gift Grace is the means by which God displays his love Grace is the mean by which God displays his kindness Now if you was to say I love God What would be your reasons?

How do you demonstrate that you really love577 God? Or how did Godmediate demonstrate to us that he loves us? You and I if we really believe that God really loves us, it’s so easy for love to respond to love We love him why? Because he first loved us So if you get to the place where you begin to question the love of God you’ll stop loving and and graces the meaning by which God displays His forgiveness. How would you know that God forgives if you didn’t have something that has been done against God that needs to be forgiven?

So you see, there has to be an object, something by which God can demonstrate what He’s like. Otherwise, nobody would really ever understand God. The Bible says that the angels studied and peered into but could not understand why God did what He did. The angels don’t understand it. And even the Old Testament saints, it says that they studied, trying to understand what God meant when the Holy Spirit, which was in them, did signify beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow because they didn’t understand everything.

You and I are privileged to have a complete word of God and so we can read it and study it and understand and believe that we are forgiven because God is a God of forgiveness. And then after you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, many of God’s children forget that God forgives and as they live their life and they fail in their Christian life instead of confessing the sin to the Lord and accepting God’s forgiveness and going ahead, they lay in the mud for the rest of their life.

They never correct the problem. Grace is the main by which God displays His mercy. How would you know that God is a God of mercy? Unless you owed something and could not pay it. And then they’d be forgiven for that. That’s mercy because you didn’t get what you deserve. You and I deserve to go to hell because of what we’ve done. But not to get that. That’s mercy. Now Grace is getting something that I don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what I do deserve, and grace is the mean by which God displays His power.

Because, see, love reveals the power of God, and kindness reveals the power of God, and forgiveness, and mercy, and compassion all reveal the power of God. If you and I want the power of God in our life, it all depends on how powerful the love of God is. the love of God is in your life. How powerful is the kindness in your life? And the forgiveness that you have toward others in your life. Because if you don’t have those qualities, you have no power.

It’s not like I’m going to pray that God will give me power from on high. It’s not some supernatural power that comes over you and makes you supernatural and you can do the work of God. Now, it’s whenever you begin to demonstrate forgiveness and love and compassion and those qualities that reveal who God is and what God is like, you’re to reveal those in your own personal life. And that’s how you reveal the power of God in your life.

Any Christian who is not loving, who is not kind, who is not merciful, and who is not forgiving, is not very strong in the Lord. The power of God in your life is revealed by the display, the making known, the revealing, the manifestation of what God has done in your own life and how you see God because you’re revealing Him. The power in a man’s life is revealed by the power of his love, his kindness, forgiveness, and mercy toward others.

And if you don’t have it, you don’t have no power of God in your life. And so many Christians live their life totally powerless, but it’s all by choice. and they do not understand how it all works together. Grace is the means by which God displays His judgment. In other words, none of these things cost us anything. They’re all free. God is willing to demonstrate all of this for us without charge, no price. And how does grace display His judgment?

because it displays his love that he has toward righteousness and his justice, because his judgment reveals his love for righteousness. You see, if God loves righteousness, God has to hate that which is not righteous. And if God loves justice, then God hates injustice. If God is a righteous God and he loves his law, which he does, then he loves perfection and he loves holiness, but how does God display his perfection? How does God display his love for his law?

And that is by the wrath that he bestows upon those that deserve it. And so there is the love of God and there’s the wrath of God. And so God is gonna reveal these things. So in our own Christian life, God loves for us to live right. But when we don’t live right, we know there is the chasing hand of God. That is justice that is right. It is only right for God to chasten his children because he says, because of his love for us, he does these things.

So you and I can look upon the earth and we can see the judgment of the Lord throughout the land. You can see God working. If you know what to look for, but if you don’t know what to look for, you don’t see anything, it’s just day in and day out. Everything’s going on the same old way. Nothing news happening. Grace is truly the means by which God displays all of His divine attributes. So God is wanting to let man know what He’s like.

So God has to have a way to reveal Himself. Even the way He made the world. Even when you talk about predestination, it all deals with man and what God has determined from the very foundations of the world. the world and it’s all about the cross. And whenever you talk about the attribute of God, the foreknowledge of God, see, foreknowledge is an attribute of God. That’s what God knows. Predestination is an act of God. It’s what God does. And so, but these are descriptive of what God is.

God can predict the future. God can pre-determine what’s going to happen before it happens. God can do that. And God knows what every man will do. That’s the foreknowledge of God. That’s the wisdom of God. But all these things are revealed in the Word of God to man in this world and he has to have an object upon which to display all these things. All a man must be the object on which the man has all of the deuteronomy.

divine attributes of God. You see, if God just did this to an angel, an angel ain’t gonna understand it. You have to have a sinful individual so that God has somebody he can show his mercy upon, so that there’s somebody God can show compassion on. See, if nobody needed compassion, how do you show it? Nobody needed love and how do you show it? You and I have to have an object for you and I to display the characteristics of God.

If you and I are supposed to live like the Lord and the Lord for the live through us, well how do you think He does that? In what way? Take over your will? No, God doesn’t take over your will. God lets you make this choice, these decisions, these choices. It’s one story in all of its glory that is really the ultimate display of God’s description of himself. How can you tell one story that would truly describe what God is like?

And that is what? The gospel story itself. From the beginning up to Christ, after Christ, everything deals with that story of the gospel because it’s got all of the characteristics in it that we need. That one story will tell you everything you need to know about what God is like in every area. There’s no other story like this story. And that’s why the gospel is the lens by which we see God, by which we can understand the scriptures. There’s one thing that the devil hates more than anything else.

And that’s the gospel story. He despises that story. But the more you understand that the more that story is so precious. There’s a song we sing sometime called, tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word for God so loved the world. Now that means that if God is love, God needs an object for him to display his love. Otherwise how do you know? How would I know that God loves us or that God his love.

So he has to have an object of his love. God so loved the object, the world, that you and I, people, that he gave his only begotten son. So to prove that he loved the world, he had to have an object and he had to do something about it. So what did he do? He gave his only begotten son Jesus Christ to down that cross so that whosoever believe it in him should not perish but have everlasting. Look at all the results because God wants to prove that He loves you.

It shows you that I have compassion, that I have kindness, that I have forgiveness, I have all these qualities. This is who I am. These traits is a description of God because how do you describe God for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, have shined in our hearts and the other underlinedings to her to give? See, the gospel story itself, when it’s told in its purest form, is the image of God. It’s not only there’s a man on the cross that’s the Son of God, but everything about the story coming up to it and from it and the death and the resurrection all about all put together is the most beautiful picture in all the world and Describing what God is like it shows his wrath against the sin It shows his righteousness for his law shows his justice and how sin is paid for it

It shows his love shows his power shows everything about shows his compassion you name it and that story’s got it That’s why I love to tell the story. I love the gospel and I don’t ever want it to get old to me or cold to me Through the receiving and the giving of the gospel. We see how God displays There’s love on man Without charge to man his kindness on man without charge to man and and his forgiveness on man without charge to man, his mercy on man without charge to man, power on man without charge to man, compassion on man without charge to man, because it’s all by grace.

So this is what God has done for us. Now if all of this is true and you have to understand this to understand what he means when he says we’re supposed to live great. The power of God is revealed when the attributes and the characteristics of God are displayed. It is the will of God that every child of God displayed the qualities of God in their Christian life. Because if you do only what you choose to do as a natural man in the flesh, in the body, then what have you done?

That’s no different than a lost man can do. You are supposed to show divine kindness, divine love, because there’s no price on yours. There’s no charge for yours. We love people because we love people. We forgive people because we forgive, because that’s the way God is. We want to be like Him, then blessed be God. Be like Him. Be like the Lord. When Christ was here, what was He after? the same thing that he would do. A saved man’s motive of service must be loved.

What is your motive? What is my motive? There has to be a motive. Because otherwise, unless your motive is the same as God, you don’t last long and you get feelings hurt and you quit. But the right kind of motive won’t hurt. The right kind of motive, it won’t stop you. Because you see, it keeps you on going. Because if the real motive is love doesn’t quit. Love doesn’t stop. Love is not easily offended. It’s whenever you’re not doing what you’re doing because you really love the Lord and you really love souls and you really love people then you won’t keep going.

For the love of Christ constraineth us. That word constrain means to motivate us. It’s to motivate. So if the love of Christ motivates us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we’re all dead, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him would die for them and rose again. So we have a verse in the scriptures that tells us that our motive is supposed to be because of the love of Christ and that challenges us.

That’s why we do what we do. Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels and have not charity or have not love, though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all miseries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not love, charity is love, though I be still all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, the motive is as important as what you do.

Why do you do what you do? You come to church, but why? You give. If you don’t believe your motive is that important, you’ll find out that God says it is important. Because God’s not just after our labor, He wants it to be a labor of love because you love. Not just labor, labor of love. Comfort of hope. These things that are taught in the Scriptures. So we have a reason why we should do what we do. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 2 makes this statement, Moreover, it is required in understood that a man be found rich, popular, famous, good looking, faithful.

God did not ask us to do anything we could not do. He’s only asked us to do what we can do, and every Christian can be faithful to do what God has told him to do. Therefore, he says, judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make and here’s the word manifest. He will reveal the councils of the heart, the reason, the motives of why a man did what he did and then after that because of that every man shall have praise of God.

Every man shall have praise of God after what is revealed in the councils of the heart. That’s more important. If God says though you give your body to be burned and you have not loved. Now you give your body to be burnt for the cause, but you didn’t have love. Then what was your real reason? Because you want to be a martyr? You want people to think great of you? If it’s all about you and it’s not about him, you’ve got a problem.

Because there is a God in heaven that wants all the honor and all the glory for us doing what we do. So the motive of man is very important. Why a saved man’s means of service must be grace. If God did what he did because he loved us, then we should do what we do for the very same reason. Now get this first. For you’re not under the law, but under grace. Notice what follows a man under grace. If you are under grace and you live by grace, know you’re not that the home ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants, he are to whom you obey, whether sin and death or of obedience under righteousness been made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.

Even though now you’re your members servants to all righteousness on the whole of them. Whatever the Christian life is, whatever it is, that it will be produced by the obedience under righteous. If you don’t have this in your life, you’re not living by grace. Because living by grace produces it. A lot of people believe that living by grace is everybody just do their own thing. Nobody has a right to tell anybody else what they cannot do and shouldn’t should not do and this is all live by grace.

And everybody just call whatever you want to and don’t nobody judge nobody else. Just let everybody alone. That is not the book. That’s not the Bible. Because God don’t let us alone. We’re supposed to even rebuke one another, challenge one another, provoke one another to do the right things. There is a thing in the Bible talking about do’s and don’t. Don’t do this. Do this. You’ll find it all the way through scripture, but I don’t want no rules and regulations.

That’s not the Bible. That’s not living by grace. Living by grace is the power of God in your life to do what God says to do. Not to play games. Why save man’s object of service to God is the lost man through the gospel. Why do you think God left us in this world? It’s not about us. It’s really not about him. It’s about the man that we’re here to reach. Even the ministry to the saint is to strengthen the Christian to reach the lost.

Christians that are not trying to reach the lost in some way aren’t reached. But they may know the Lord. But they’re not strong in the Lord until you’re trying to reach the lost that God left you here to reach. Whether through your money, through your prayers or by your personal witnesses, every Christian is responsible. Every Christian. Nobody more than any other. Everybody’s the same. What he did for me or what he did for Robert, what he did for Leon, what he did for anybody.

He did exactly the same for all of He saved us all equally the same by the same grace. Saved us gave us eternal life and we are going to get the same thing because of that. And God left us here and all of us have exactly the same purpose in life. And that’s the honor and glorified the Lord. And He says this is our object. So you and I must have an object upon whom to bestow those godly attributes that God’s given to us through the New Birth.

says I’m a debtor. I am ready. I am not ashamed to preach the gospel. For therein the gospel is the righteousness of God, reveal to everyone to believe it. You first and also to the degree. Living by grace is when the love of God motivates you to perform. Read that verse again. Not a verse but a statement. Living by grace is when the love of God motivates you to perform. See, God being loved wants to love and wants to be loved.

And He made you in His image. Why do you think one of the most important things in your own personal life is that you want to love and you want to be loved? Think about it. You want to love and you want to be loved more than anything else in this world. Where did you get it from? Who made you like this? God did. We’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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

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

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, Dear God’s Word on Bibleline Everywhere, Everywhere God’s Truth on Bibleline. Well, I’m not lying with Dr. Ralph, you’re a Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of JesusOHN through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Palinpatrickemnmaxwell,${Wikioxid 😉 😉 through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org.

We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear Gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s This concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. So the Lord said, I want you to draw nigh unto me, because I have things I want you to learn from me, and you’re only gonna learn it from him. So what does the Lord mean to you? And he makes a statement here in this verse. He says, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience in our bodies washed with pure water.

Looking verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that, and here’s that word again, promised. So you see, growing in the Lord is you learning how to trust the Lord about what he said. So the reason you come to church, study your Bible is because you’re always looking into the will of God, trying to find all these promises that you can claim. God says that He wants you to have faith to believe that what He said that it is true.

Now, if you’re looking verse 24, let us, let us consider one another. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. So am I supposed to try to provoke you, yes, to make you angry, mad, no, to love and good works, trying to challenge and motivate people to do what’s right? Because, see, if I love you at all, then I should want you to have God’s best. I should want the Lord to bless you. So then I wouldn’t want to say or do something that would cause you to do something between you and God where God can’t do that.

because I know that God blesses obedience, then I would try to do everything I can to get you to be obedient to the Lord, the serve of the Lord. I want you to watch your attitude. I want you to watch the things you say and think and all these because they’re all important. So all this is pretty good. Good stuff. Now look at Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews in chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 This also has a little bit of the same statement here about us, let us go on into perfection.

See there verse one, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us, that’s all of us, talking to believers, God’s children. See this is not how to get to heaven, this is to God’s children that are already going to heaven on how to live. And so he says, let us go on unto perfection. That word means completion, to completion, maturity, not land again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God. In other words, you don’t have to get saved again because you didn’t get lost.

God doesn’t lose you and cast you out and say, now you’re going to hell because you didn’t serve me or you didn’t walk with me. I mean, when a little baby is born into this world, now tell me the truth, you just, you have to really think about this, is every time that child does something wrong, is it unborn? Well, wouldn’t it be a shame? Kid would never get out of diapers. If every time you did something wrong, okay, now you’re not born anymore.

Gotta start over again. And we ain’t gonna let you get born until you can live it. Live what? Well, you gotta act like a mature person. And not doing anything wrong. A kid could, you know, say it’s being born. So when you trust Christ as your Savior, you’re His child, you’re His child forever. And even though you’re His child forever, it doesn’t mean that you don’t fall and stumble. Do things wrong. You’re still His child, but God says you don’t have to get saved again.

We don’t have to lay the foundation of repentance from dead works. Repentance from dead works means, you don’t trust in your works to get you to heaven. You don’t have to go through that again. And so he makes a statement, we can’t get saved again. So let’s go on to maturity. So this is why as you study the book of Hebrew, you keep that in mind, it’ll lighten up all the complicated verses as you go through the whole book.

And it talks about when you trust Christ as your Savior, see there in Hebrews in chapter six, Look in verse three. And this will we do what go on to maturity? If God permits, why wouldn’t God permit you to go to maturity? If you don’t believe His word, you can’t grow. God will not allow you to grow if you don’t drink His word. If you don’t drink the milk, you can’t grow. If you reject the word of God or the will of God for your life, you’ll never mature.

And that’s why there’s some of God’s people, they may cut trust Christ’s Savior, they’re going to heaven when they die, but they never mature because they won’t believe the Word of God. And how do you know you’re not believing what God said when you don’t believe the promises that God made? You see, if you believe the promises that God said, then you’ll serve the Lord. But if you don’t serve the Lord, you don’t believe it. Just like a lost man.

He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Well, you have to believe it. And if you believe it, you have everlasting life. So if you believe as a child of God, the promises of God, then it should affect the way we live. And sometimes God’s people just don’t believe what God says. And so God’s gonna have to chase and then discipline them. And so he made the statement in verse four, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and tasted the heavenly give, made partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God, the powers of the world.

If you’ve already been saved, it’s impossible to be unsaved and then get saved again. And that’s why he says in verse 8, if they shall fall away to renew them again and to remain in other words, the reason we don’t have to lay again the foundation of dead works from repentance, it says because it’s impossible to get saved and lose your salvation. So that’s why you can’t get saved again. Once you’re saved, you’re his child forever and how you live doesn’t affect that.

It will affect God’s blessings on your life. It’ll affect your guilty conscience and your defile conscience and it’ll affect your peace of mind and your love and your joy and your happiness and purpose and affect the reward you could have gotten when you got to heaven. But see once you’re born into God’s family you’re his child forever. Look in Hebrews chapter 12 htaking. In verse 1 Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. Now we’re still talking to God’s children. God’s children on how they’re supposed to live their life.

So let us, whenever the writer says let us, it included him. And as I preach and I say let us, I’m including myself. This applies to me. But I don’t have to do any of this to go to heaven. I’m going to heaven because when I was 18-year-old, little old, smart, Alec Brat, I trusted Christ as my Savior, smartest thing I ever did in my whole life. So he saved me, gave me eternal life, and I became a child of God.

I didn’t know it someday. I’d be a preacher. I never planned on being a preacher, but I’m gonna do it until God stops me now. So here in Hebrews, in verse one of chapter 12, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, and here’s those two little words just to underline those. Let us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Well, what do you think a sin is that so easily besets us?

The only sin that keeps a lost man from going to heaven is the sin of unbelief. The only reason we’re going to have it is because we believe that Christ did it for us. The sin of unbelief is because you don’t believe the promises. So the sin of unbelief in the Christian’s life never caused you salvation, but it can keep you from running the race. So do you want to run the race? You see, God is going to reward us for running the race and how we run the race.

Oh, this is very important. So he makes a statement and he says that and the man at sand which does so easily be said us that he says, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, I don’t know the future, the course that I’ve got to run, but I know that. this that there’s optical courses that we run in life and there’s always obstacles in our way. Always just slow us down to trip us up and so forth.

Have you ever seen them running in a race in the Olympics and they have to jump over these high hurdles and so forth and they run around and they got some again and so forth? Those are hurdles. Those are obstacles in the way. And I’ve seen some people just blitzing down through there and all of a sudden they go over And they hit it with their heel or the toe. And they say, you know, they’re rolling. And you can get hurt quick.

But there’s always the people in the stands. And the people in the stands can always see how everybody is doing. They’re the experts. They know what you should have done and how you should have done it. But of course, they’re in the stands. You ever heard of Monday morning quarterback’s? They didn’t play the game, but you would have thought they did. And you know that that person sitting on the couch with that beer gutting, you know, and it never gets off the couch.

And he is an expert on what everybody ought to do. He can criticize everybody. But see, he’s sitting on the couch. He’s not in the game. There’s a lot of people that are criticizing what everybody else does, but they’re not in the game. Are you in the game? Are you doing what God wants you to do? In the words, you’re gonna get knocked down and bloodied and hurt and scraped, but at least run the race. Don’t quit. And so he makes a statement here.

Let us lay aside the weight. You see, when you want to run to win, you usually notice all these runners, they try to strip down to almost nothing. Some of them haven’t got enough material to make leggings for a hummingbird. But they want to run as fast as they can, as light as they can, and they don’t want drag. So you and I, as a child of God, are we got to run a race? There’s a lot of things in this light that may not be bad, they’re not bad, but you could just keep adding on more baggage until the place that you can’t run.

You see, you got to figure out some priorities in your own personal life. And God is going to reward you, according to the sacrifices that you made. So how dedicated do you want to be? So let us run. I mean, you’re in a race. Let us run. But if you are going to run, do you want to win? And if you want to win, there’s things that you cannot do in your life. If you really want to be effective.

There’s a lot of things that we do probably that feeds and satisfies the flesh, but doesn’t help us spiritually at all. And you might say, well, I don’t see anything wrong with this or that. Okay, so you don’t. But it might slow you down. Is it something that’s gonna help you spiritually? Or is it something that could cause you to stumble? Okay, maybe it doesn’t bother you so much, but what about somebody else that’s running a race and they might stumble over the very thing that you think that doesn’t bother you?

That’s where love comes in. Up Min Betty pulled in at a place to get something at a restaurant. When we pulled in, there’s one of these great big old, a bar like it fell off one of these palm trees landed right in the road. It was first of all it up against the curb but cars kept going back and they went and cooked a little bit and it got right out there in the lane. I turned in and I saw it there and when I turned in all these cars had to go around and go around it and go around it and go around it.

And so I started to walk in the restaurant and I had to stop. I walked back and I waited until until there’s a break and I walked out there in the middle of the road and I got that thing and I put it up on the bank. You see, all those cars were doing this. All somebody has to do is move that obstacle out of the way and now they can go straight. It could have caused an accident. Could have caused a wreck.

Well, see, when you’re concerned about other people, you’re trying to figure out how to get obstacles out of other people’s way. Some people don’t see it until it’s too late. So as you run your race, part of running your race is helping other people run their race. See, we’re not in competition with anybody. It’s a personal race between you and the Lord and the devil’s trying to stop you. So you just keep in mind. Look here in verse two.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised in the shame, set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And one of these days, our race is going to be run. It’ll all be over, and we also will set down with the Lord. Look in chapter 13. Look in chapter 13. And look in verse 13. Verse 13 says, let us, let us, let us go forward.

forth, therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Now, if you are going to serve the Lord, you know that when Christ was here, he was rejected and crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem upon a hill called Galgatha, and he was without the camp. You see, even And in the Old Testament, if they had leprosy, they were to be quarantined away from the people because they were unclean. And Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself and He was unclean.

If you are going to serve the Lord, did you realize that there’s a lot of people who are going to probably complain, you’re unclean. They don’t want to have anything to do with you. And the closer you get to the Lord, it’s not because you’re unclean. because you want to be as clean as you possibly can be. Did you know that when you’re really, really clean, you become a rebuke to those who aren’t? If I had an all perfectly white suit this morning, and one little black spot right here, that one little black spot would be something that everybody in here would see, you wouldn’t say how much is white, you’d say there’s a spot on his suit.

True? Because that’s what you’ll focus upon. And whenever you decide to serve the Lord, did you know there’s always somebody with their little magnifying glass waiting for you to goof up, waiting for you to mess up. You’re a Christian. You’re not supposed to do that. And that’s when you would like to just give them a good old knuckle sandwich. Because you know that you still have an old sinful nature and you still do things wrong. And sometimes they stir up that old sinful nature, don’t they?

And that’s why you still, as a Christian, can get mad and bitter. Want to fight back, get even. Welcome to the club. But if you’re going to serve a Lord, realize that you’re going to be outside the camp. There’s a price to pay for your dedication. Seek going to heaven. That’s free. But it costs Christ. Serving the Lord is going to cost you. cost you. That’s the price you pay. But I can tell you this, I have not yet found where my sacrifice in any area has really cost me too much.

Because everything that I’ve given up for the Lord God’s given me more in return. Did you know you can’t out give God? You can’t out giving. The more you dedicate, the closer you walk with the Lord, the more precious He is, the more peace of mind, the love, the joy, the purpose and light, the satisfaction. Money can’t buy that. And it really doesn’t matter how many people are behind you or agree with you because there’s something between you and the Lord.

How you decide I’m going to draw closer to the Lord. And to draw closer to the Lord, you got to purify your life more. And the Bible talks about being a vessel fit for the master’s use. And I think that we see this in all these scriptures, looking verse 15, by him therefore let us, let us offer the sacrifice ofConst to God continually. Now did you know that one way of sacrificing for the Lord? There are several ways but one I’ll give you this in the book of Romans where it continually.

Now, did you know that one way of sacrificing for the Lord? There’s several ways, but one, I’ll give you this in the book of Romans, where it makes a statement, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living, what? Sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So to give God my body, he doesn’t want it to be dead. He wants it to be alive. Your body is a living.

So he wants me to sacrifice the desires of this old flesh nature, sacrifice that for his cause and God says, I can use you for my honor and for my glory. So even though in the Old Testament, they made sacrifices, but they were killed and blood was shed, God says, I died for you. I shed my blood for you. What I want from you is to be a living sacrifices. And how many time I’ve heard people? I’m willing to die for the Lord.

God doesn’t want you to die for him. He wants you to live for him. You know, it’s easy to dedicate your life to the Lord. I’m gonna dedicate my life to the Lord. Your life is that out there that I don’t have. So it’s easy to dedicate your life that you don’t have, but hard to dedicate the day you do have. If you give God and dedicate your life to the Lord today, today, not tomorrow, today, then you won’t have to worry about when tomorrow comes, because you’ve already given him this day.

And then you’ll give him that day, and then that day, and then that day. And then at the end of you say, I dedicated my life to the Lord. But you see, we should have the desire. I want to dedicate that, whichever God gives to me. You’ll say, I don’t know if I’m gonna live tomorrow, but I do wanna give him today. And so dedicate yourself to the Lord because that is so important. Now here in verse 15, it talks about a different kind of sacrifice.

The testimony, the sacrifice, the lips of praise from your lips, the things you say. As he says here, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Continually. So continually be in the attitude of prayer and sacrifice to where you’re sacrificing to the Lord that which God wants. What does God want from me? He wants me to praise Him. Remember last week I made a statement, what if you only have tomorrow what you were thankful to the Lord for today?

What would you have tomorrow? Isn’t that a good statement? So you need to be thankful for what you have today and If you focus on that which you are thankful for and you can praise the Lord for us, you haven’t got much time to complain to gripe, to grumble. Did you know that God had a lot of his people perish in the wilderness because of murmuring and complaining? Mermaning and complaining. They didn’t like the pillar of fire. They didn’t like the clock.

They didn’t like the food he gave them. They didn’t like anything he did for them. I mean, can you imagine the women? Bible says their shoes never wore out. A woman got a word of the same shoes for 40 years. I wonder if you wore the same dress for 40 years. Look now in chapter 12, chapter 12, in verse 28, where he says, Therefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God and here’s a word very important, acceptably.

You see, you want to do the things that are accepted by God, not just that’s accepted by you or even other people. Because a lot of times we don’t see anything wrong with what we do or how we live. Yeah, but look at it from God’s viewpoint. You see, God’s the one that’s going to judge, and God’s the one that can bless. If there’s anyone in this whole world that I would not want to make mad or be upset with, it’d be God.

Some people are more afraid of people than they are God. He’s the one you got to answer to. He’s the one that can open doors and close doors. He’s the one that gives you the breath, And he’s the one that can cause your heart to stop. One step between man death, as David said in those scriptures. But look there in verse 28 again, I want you to see that. Whereby we may serve God. So this book is not about how to get saved.

It’s about serving the Lord, serving God, and how to serve God, to grow in the Lord, to run the race that God has set before us, drawing nigh unto God, believing the promises of God. But as you study the word of God and you learn this, it will do wonders for you. Because remember, I’m just hitting highlights here and there. When you understand the purpose of the book, you can go back through and feel in all that other stuff and it’s mighty good stuff.

And you’d be surprised that the gospel is the land by which we understand Scripture. But you need to know what verses are talking about, service. So everything is always salvation or service. If it’s salvation, is it by grace or is it by works? If it’s service, it’s always flesh, spirit, old nature, new nature. So when you understand that, it’ll help you a lot. Look up here, this is you and me. This is sin. I got me some beautiful sin this week.

So I gave me a new wallet. Every time I pull out this wallet, I’m gonna think about the person that gave it to me. That’s not a good idea. I don’t know if that’s a good amount. I connect him with sin. No This is sin. I mean you and me the Bible says that we’re all born in this world with a sinful nature and that’s why we sin God says he loves us. He hates our sin, but he loves us But the payment for sin the wages death and hell now God loves us wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven We have to be perfect is righteous as God, but we’re not perfect.

We’re not righteous We’re sinners. And because of sin, we can’t get in. And God says, you can’t earn eternal life. You cannot work your way to heaven. It’s not by your good deeds. There is none righteous, not one. There’s none that doeth good, not one. So we can’t do good to get to heaven because there is none good. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. He’s God in the flesh. He came into this world because He loves us.

Loves the whole world. He hates our sin, all of our sins, but he loves us. So he took our sins and he paid for them, came back from the dead and said, all I have to do is foul believe that he did it for me. He put that death payment to my account and I get to go to heaven on what he did. I didn’t earn that and I don’t deserve it. I’m a sinner saved by grace. If Christ walked in here right now and offered you eternal life and you accept what would you have?

Eternal life, if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. And if it lasts forever, and all you sins are paid, where would you go when you die? The heaven. So can you know you’re going to heaven before you die? Yes. And once you trust Christ as Savior, you become a child of God, and you’re going to heaven when you die. Now, you may not always live like a Christian, but you still are if you trust the Lord. But your heavenly Father may have to chase and discipline you.

Beat the tar out of you. Take you home before your time. Serve the Lord, guard yourself. Be wise. Watch what you see and what you hear. Let’s pray, Shabbi. Our Father, we thank you so much for your word you’ve given us. We pray, Lord, you’d help each one of us to realize the importance. Not only of knowing you as our Savior, but of growing. Growing because of your word. Making effect in our lives. And Father, we pray that each person here would realize that, yes, we are running a race, and there’s so much that you want for us to accomplish.

And that we draw, need to draw a nigh unto you, and to believe your word. And Father, we just pray that we would offer unto you the sacrifice of praise, because you’re worthy of it. And to give you our bodies, because it belongs to you. We ask Father, Your blessings upon the service to follow. bless us in Christ’s name we pray, Amen. Thank you. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. 771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calbre oftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live. And now we’ll closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. So live today and every day. Be sure to come in soon.

Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free. We at 1-800-576-3771, online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

If you have a Bible and I’m sure you do, turn to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews. Here in the book of Hebrews and turned to chapter 4, Hebrews and chapter 4. I love the book of Hebrews. Deals with the subject of Hebrew Christians. Those that knew the law were on the law, trusted the Lord and had troubles with some of the aspects of the law. And so the Apostle Paul, I believe that whom God used to write this.

I can’t prove that, but it’s my personal opinion. But anyway, he writes some very interesting things in the book of Hebrews to try to help people to understand why they should go on to maturity. Now, unless you believe in the teaching of eternal security, you’re not going to understand the book of Hebrews, because there’s too many things in the book of Hebrews that gives the appearance of that you have to keep serving God in order to be saved. So that’s why a lot of people use the book of Hebrews to try to show you that you can lose your salvation or that is based upon your works to keep your salvation.

And I do not believe that. But as you study the book of Hebrews, you’ll find that it deals with the idea of going on to maturity. So you’re a child of God, mature as a child of God. Go to the place where you can learn how to trust the promises of God, to believe them. And so some people never get to what we call, and in a comparison sense, to the land of Canaan. They simply have crossed the Red Sea, they’ve got their salvation, and they spend the rest of their life in the wilderness and never get to the land of Canaan.

They never get to the land of promise. Where spiritually speaking, it’s more of a reference to the Christian maturity, the victory in the Christian’s life. It’s not the elimination of battles, It’s just that the guarantee of winning those battles. So many of God’s children never learn how to have victory in their Christian life. So they wander around in the wilderness for 40 years. And some Christians, this seems like they trust the Lord and boom, in 11 days journey, they got to the Promised Land because they learn how to trust the Lord and to grow in the Lord and to be strong in the Lord, where God can use them and then they’re blessed and they They enjoy the things of God.

And there’s others who just don’t seem like they can ever find the will of God for the life. Just always going in circles. So he says here in the Hebrews in chapter four, if you look there in verse one, the word let us, now every one of the verses we’re gonna look at this morning start with that phrase, no, let us, let us. Because the writer, whoever it may be, there’s only one author of the word of God, but there’s many writers in the word of God.

But he keeps talking about let us. So he’s putting himself in this, and I believe whoever the writer was, it’s a believer. And telling us things that we ought to do in our Christian life. So he makes the statement in verse one, let us therefore fear. Fear what? I believe it’s the fear of missing the will of God for your life. The fear of not maturing in the Lord. The fear of not knowing and believing and trusting in the promises of God.

The fear of not being able to run the race because you’re loaded down with too much baggage. and the fear of chastisement from the Lord when we don’t do what God wants us to do. So yes, there’s the fear, but here’s he talking about, let us therefore fear less a promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it. In other words, not reaching your full potential, not reaching that which God has for you in your life.

You see, I believe as you read the scriptures, you should personalize the scripture, seeking to understand primarily what is the context, what is it trying to say, what’s the main teaching, and then how do I apply that to my life? Because you can read scripture and understand a lot of things, but never have it applicable to your life. So you want to learn. And so he made this statement in verse one, Let us believers. So we’re not talking about lost people.

We’re talking about believers going on and learning to trust the promises that God has for us and believing that. So look there in verse 11, in verse 11, let us labor, therefore to enter into that rest. Now, I don’t believe this is talking about trying to work for your salvation. He’s already talking to the believers, and he’s talking to you and I about entering into the rest of God. You see, not understanding what God can and will do for you and through you, you will have questions and doubts in your Christian.

Those questions and doubts will cause you a lot of turmoil of the soul, where you do not have the peace of God. And so you will have the despair and the anxieties and all the things that happens in your life that can pull you down and discourage you. So this book is a very encouraging book. And I believe that when you’re learning how to walk, a child does not learn to walk very easy. They usually stumbling all over the place.

They usually start off crawling. And if they don’t crawl or stumble as trying to learn how to walk, we think something is wrong with the child. And believe it or not, there is. But look there in chapter five and look down in verse 11. Of home, we have many things to say and hard to be uttered or explained. seeing your dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be teachers. So you see, he’s not saying you’re lost and you need to get saved again.

He says you ought to know enough by now that you ought to be teaching the word of God. He says, in verse 12, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God. In other words, you’ve got to get back to the basics, back to the foundation. and like learn to grow. You’ve gotta learn to feed upon the word of God. And these Christians were not maturing in the Lord. So he says, you have need of milk and not of meat.

It’s amazing to me that I have sometimes people say, well, you know, I’m just tired of getting all this milk, just nothing but milk. I want some meat to eat. Well, you know, if you’re a mature Christian, you can eat all the meat you want. Because you can take the Word of God and feast all you want to, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You see, you don’t need the preacher to eat meat. All you got to do is just study the Word of God.

Don’t you have a Bible? Let’s see. But when people come to church, isn’t it true that when you have a variety of people that there’s some people that are lost, some people that are weak, Some people that are strong, some people that are on milk and some people might be on meat. And then sometime when you give them a little bit more than they can handle, it’s like a gristle. They can’t swallow it. And then they get mad and walk out of the church, so I just don’t understand.

Or I disagree with him on that. But didn’t mean I was wrong. It’s just you couldn’t chew it. You couldn’t digest it. You couldn’t devour it. It was more than you could handle. And so that’s why some people like to go to a church where the preacher tells them what they want to hear, so they feel good. And sometimes a preacher, if he’s worth his salt at all, makes people upset, makes people angry, makes people examine themselves, rebukes a person, tries to get you to look into the mirror of the Word of God so you can see yourself and see what needs to be corrected.

Are you following me? Good. I hate to repeat all of that. So here he makes the statement in verse 13, for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. So we are talking about babes in the Lord who ought to be growing in the Lord and getting to the place where they become spiritual adults. able to handle spiritual problems, to handle spiritual responsibilities. Sometimes people can trust Christ as Savior and they never mature, never grow up, and they act like children all their life.

Little spiritual brats ever seen anybody like that? They whine and pine about everything, never happy about anything. They’re always down, always discouraging. Well, that’s a sign of a babe in Christ. And so then he says in verse 14, but strong meat belong to them that are a full age or mature. So this is where we want to go. Let us strive to enter into this rest. Learn to walk with the Lord. It might be a struggle at first, and it’s a labor at first.

Studying of the word of God, the Bible says, studying is a weariness of the flesh. Nobody likes to study really. We just wish God would just cut a hole in the top of our head and just pour it all in there and then cap it and then we’re now a brilliant. Wouldn’t that be a shortcut? So he makes a statement in verse 11 of chapter 4, Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

In other words, like the children in Israel who did not get to go into the land because of their unbelief, They did not believe the promise of God. God had promised that if you believe me, even though there’s giants in the land, I will be with you. I will take care of the enemy for you. I will protect you. All you have to do is do what I tell you to do. But they didn’t. And so they died in the wilderness over a period of 40 years.

It didn’t have to be that way. So now here you are, and you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, are you growing in the Lord? Are you maturing in the Lord? Are you just gonna spin your wheels and, oh, saved? Yeah, you’ll go to heaven when you die, but you never accomplish anything. You don’t have the real peace and the joy and the love that you ought to have. You’re not growing spiritually in the Lord, but that’s what God wants for you.

So those are the decisions that we all have to make. Now, look in verse 14. in verse 14 where he says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passing to the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, and here he talks about, let us hold fast our profession. That is your confession of truth. What you say you believe, hold on to that and live like you believe it. You see, I believe that Jesus Christ is really the Son of God that came into the world that I’ve got to doubt on the cross and pay for all the sins of the world.

I believe that 51 years ago, that great truth. You know what? I still believe it. I was told 51 years ago Jesus was going to come back. You know that truth, that promise. I still believe that promise today. And when it says we’re going to stand at the judgments of the Christ, I still believe that great truth today. When I was told this was the Word of God, I believed that 51 years ago and I still believe it today.

not going to allow anybody to cause the shape of my faith. And what I learned that was this is the truth in the Word of God and I believe it. And so because I believe it, it affects my life. It has affected my life for 51 years. Now, take your Bible and look there in verse 16. See verse 16. There’s those two words again. Let us let us therefore come. Boldly unto the throne of grace that we, as his believers, may obtain mercy and fine grace to help in time of need.

So God knows that in our walk with Him, as we struggle and go through this life, we need help. So God says, I’ve got a throne of grace. You see, what’s that for? Well, when I need something, when I need help, whatever it is that I need, To be found faithful to the Lord, God will supply. God will give me everything I need to do what he wants me to do.

Hey, you know what it says? Define grace to help in time of need. So there’s things that you’re going to need. And so God has designed life that draws you, or some cases forces you to come to him. And so that’s why sometimes he pulls the rug after Monday, yeah, turns out all the lights, closes doors, and all of a sudden you’re scared to death. And sometime it can be because of a loss of finances, something wrong with the body, something wrong with the family, all kinds of things to draw us closer to the Lord.

So God does this because He loves us. Now look in Hebrews in chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And you’ll notice there in a wonderful verse 22. Chapter 10 and verse 22. So God is going to do some things for us. Now he says there’s no more payment for sin. He doesn’t have to come back and make another payment for the sins of the world. He did it once and for all for what he’s already done. And so now he says, he’s opened up the door, opened up the way for you and I to get closer to God.

Now remember, sin separates us from God, and so Jesus Christ, who came into the world, made it possible for you and I to draw nine to the Lord, so that we can walk with God, so that we can talk with God. So he says here in verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, full assurance totally believing that not only do I have the right to draw an eye to God, it’s the will of God that I do so.

You see, God wants to fellowship with us. God wants to walk and talk with us. You know, whenever he made Adam and Eve in the garden, the Bible says he walked and talked with them in the garden. So here we are. Do you think he still wants to do that? We made the first man and woman to do that. So now he wants to walk with you and talk to you. That’s why sometimes God will even permit people to turn against you.

He doesn’t make him do it, but he allows it to happen and allows you to have a lot of times of loneliness, feeling deserted at time, betrayed at time, because he wants you to learn to walk with him, because he knows what it’s like. You know, when Christ came into the world, was he alone? I believe he was a lonely individual. There was nobody else in this whole world like him. He was very different and very unique. And he was betrayed.

He was rejected. And he had his father. He says, all things that I do, I do because of my father. Everything he said, thought, dead, was all because of the father. So the Lord said, I want you to draw nigh unto me because I have things I want you to to learn from me and you’re only going to learn it from him. So what does the Lord mean to you? And he makes a statement here in this verse. He says, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience in our bodies, washed with pure water.

Looking verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that and here’s that word again, promised. So you see, growing in the Lord is you learning how to trust the Lord about what He said. So the reason you come to church, study your Bible is because you’re always looking into the will of God trying to find all these promises that you can claim. And God says that He wants you to have faith to believe that what He said, that it is true.

Now, if you’re looking verse 24, let us, let us consider one another. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. So am I supposed to try to provoke you, yes, to make you angry, mad, no, to love and good works, trying to challenge and motivate people to do what’s right? Because, see, if I love you at all, then I should want you to have God’s best. I should want the Lord to bless you. So then I wouldn’t want to say or do something that would cause you to do something between you and God, well, God can’t do that.

So because I know that God blesses obedience, then I would try to do everything I can to get you to be obedient to the Lord, the serve of the Lord. I want you to watch your attitude. I want you to watch the things you say and think and all these, because they’re all important. So all this is pretty good, good stuff. Now look in Hebrews chapter six, Hebrews in chapter six. Hebrews chapter six also has a little bit of the same statement here about us, let us go on into perfection.

See there verse one, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us, that’s all of us, talking to believers, God’s children. See this is not how to get to heaven. This is to God’s children that are already going to heaven on how to live. And so he says, let us go on unto perfection. That word means completion, to completion maturity. Not a land again, the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God. In other words, you don’t have to get saved again because you didn’t get lost.

God doesn’t lose you and cast you out and say, now you’re going to hell because you didn’t serve me or you didn’t walk with me. I mean, when a little baby is born into this world, now tell me the truth. You just, you have to really think about this. Is every time that child does something wrong, is it unborn? Well, wouldn’t that be a shame? Kid would never get out of diapers. If every time you did something wrong, okay, now you’re not born anymore.

Gotta start over again. And we ain’t gonna let you get born until you can live it. Live what? Well, you gotta act like a mature person and not do anything wrong. The kid could, you know, send being born. So when you trust Christ as your savior, you’re his child, you’re his child forever. And even though you’re his child forever, it doesn’t mean that you don’t fall and stumble. Do things wrong. You’re still his child, but God says, you don’t have to get saved again.

We don’t have to lay the foundation of repentance from dead works. Repentance from dead works means you don’t trust in your works to get you to heaven. You don’t have to go through that again. And so he makes a statement. We can’t get saved again. So let’s go on to maturity. So this is why as you study the book of Hebrew, you keep that in mind. It’ll lighten up all the complicated verses as you go through the whole book.

And it talks about when you trust Christ as your Savior, see there in Hebrews in chapter six. Look in verse three. And this will we do what go on to maturity? If God permits, why wouldn’t God permit you to go to maturity? If you don’t believe his word, you can’t grow. God will not allow you to grow if you don’t drink his word. If you don’t drink the milk, you can’t grow. If you reject the Word of God or the will of God for your life, you’ll never mature.

And that’s why there’s some of God’s people, well, they may cut trust Christ to save you. They’re going to heaven when they die, but they never mature because they won’t believe the Word of God. And how do you know you’re not believing what God said when you don’t believe the promises that God made? You see, if you believe the promises that God said, then you’ll serve the Lord. But if you don’t serve alert, you don’t believe it. Just like a lost man.

He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Well… You have to believe it. And if you believe it, you have everlasting life. So if you believe as a child of God, the promises of God, then it should affect the way we live. And sometimes God’s people just don’t believe what God says. And so God’s gonna have to chase and then discipline them. And so he made the statement in verse four, for it is impossible. For those who were once enlightened and tasted the heavenly give, made partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the heavenly God.

Tastes the good word of God, the powers of the world to come. If you’ve already been saved, it’s impossible to be unsaved and then get saved again. And that’s why he says in verse 8, if they shall fall away to renew them again and to remain in other words, the reason we don’t have to lay again the foundation of dead works from repentance, it says because it’s impossible to get saved and lose your salvation. So that’s why you can’t get saved again.

Once you’re saved, you’re his child forever. And how you live doesn’t affect that. It will affect God’s blessings on your life. It’ll affect your guilty conscience and your defiled conscience. And it’ll affect your peace of mind and your love and your joy and your happiness and purpose and affect the reward you could have gotten when you got to heaven. But see, once you’re born into God’s family, you’re his child forever. Look in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one.

Now, we’re still talking to God’s children. God’s children on how they’re supposed to live their life. So let us, so whenever the writer says, let us, it included him. And as I preach and I say, let us, I’m including myself. This applies to me, but I don’t have to do any of this to go to heaven. I’m going to heaven because when I was 18-year-old, little old, smart Alec Brat, I trusted Christ as my Savior, smartest thing I ever did in my whole life.

So he saved me, gave me eternal life, and I became a child of God. I didn’t know it someday. I’d be a preacher. I never planned on being a preacher, but I’m going to do it until God stops me now. So here in Hebrews in verse 1 of chapter 12, wherefore seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses and here’s those two little words just to underline those. Let us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.

Well what do you think sin is that so easily besets us? The only sin that keeps a lost man from going to heaven is the sin of unbelief. The only reason that we’re going to heaven is because we believe that Christ did it for us. The sin of unbelief is because you don’t believe the promises. So the sin of unbelief in the Christian’s life never cost you salvation but it can keep you from running the race. So do you want to run the race?

You see God is going to reward us for running the race and how we run the race. Oh, this is very important. So he makes a statement and he says, that San wished us so easily be said us, that he says, let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. 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.

Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

to live today. And every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

They were told what to do, His disciples. They went, they did, and the Lord confirmed what they said and what they did with signs. It happened. By the time you’re reading Mark, it’s a done deal. They did what he said do, and the signs followed, like he said. Now, there’s no promise in these verses that we are going to be able to continue doing those, all the rest of our lives. It’s not that, this is past tense. They did, they went, they preached, it happened.

It’s a historical event, just like the book of Acts and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It’s a historical event, but you do not find anywhere in the scriptures a command to be baptized by the Holy Spirit because it is an event that takes place the day and the moment you trusted Christ as your Savior, you’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. Christ is the baptizer. He baptizes you with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

And so this was the secret that nobody knew in the Old Testament. It was a mystery that was hidden in time past, but now revealed for the first time. Now take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews and chapter 1. Hebrews make it chapter 2. First mistake I’ve made this morning. Hebrews in chapter two and look in verse one. He says, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we shall let them slip.

For if the word, and we’re talking about the word, now the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how How shall we escape? If we neglect so great salvation, get this now, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and get these words and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. Now get the sequence, very important, where He makes the statement. He says, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him.

And verse 4, and God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers, miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will. So they heard Christ speak, and they had the word confirmed unto them by them that heard him and it was confirmed by them doing the signs and the miracles. And this is where this took place. Now, that’s why today the transition has been complete. We have the complete word of God. We don’t need sign gifts.

Those were given to the baby church, like a little child in the nursery likes to play with baby rattlers. Not rattlers, I mean a rattle. not rattlesnakes. Please don’t misunderstand me. And so they had sign gifts. And so babies like toys. And he says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child. I thought as a child. I put away childless things when I grew up. In other words, I don’t need the church as a babe being born.

Don’t need those toys anymore. Why? Because we are growing up as a body of believers in the churches maturing in the Lord, and we have the complete Word of God. So we don’t need those toys anymore. And there’s people today that shall hang on to their little toys. And they don’t even exist today. He said, well, I know people that have done this and this and this and this and that you know, you had people who have an experience.

But it’s not the biblical top. I know every verse in this book on tongue. Every verse. I can quote above it and below it. I do not have a desire to get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and have a fire shoot down my body and fire from my fingers and the shouting, jumping, hooting, hollering, ranting, raving, rolling. No, that’s not the Holy Spirit. the spirit of a sound mind. And he never gave any of those gifts to the women.

He says, the women keep silent in the church. That means it was never given to the women. But anyway, as you go through it and you learn where things belong, it will help you to understand the rest of Scripture and what are my responsibilities? So you got to go back to where does it all begin? And so if you look there and 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, look there 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and you’ll notice there in verse 12 and verse 13, these two verses I want you to see.

He says, for as the body is one and hath many members, all the members of that one body, then many are one body. So also with Christ. For by one spirit, are we all baptized into one body? So here in Corinth were the most rebellious Christians you’ve ever read about. I mean, they were the ungodliest Christians. They a carnal-minded Christian and yet Paul says, we have all been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. All these Christians that were this rebellious, and yes, they were still baptized and put into the body of Christ.

And not because of any good thing that they’ve done. This is what happens when you trust Christ as your Savior. Christ puts you into the body of Christ. So he says, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond are free and have then all made the drink into one spirit. So then the question come down is, well, when did this body begin? It says, we’ve all been baptized to the body. So then you find out, well, how do you know where it begins?

Where did they have the first baptism of the Holy Spirit? Because that’s the only way you get into the body. So when you go back to the book of Acts, go back to Acts, the book of Acts in chapter one, Acts chapter one. And you’ll notice when he makes the statement in verse four, remember John chapter 14, he had made the statement, he says, I am going to send to you the Holy Spirit. I will ask the Father, I will pray the Father, and he shall send you the Holy Spirit that he may indwell you forever.

And then verse 26, and this speak, he of the Holy Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. So those who believe on the Lord, the Lord and He shall teach you all things and bring all things to you. Remember what’s whoever I’ve said unto you. So the Holy Spirit came as a result of a prayer Christ made, not as a result of a prayer that the people made on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit did not come on that day because they all got together and all prayed and prayed down the whole.

No, it did not. He came right on schedule, 50 days from the resurrection. It was right on the money, honey. It’s what the book says. And so the Holy Spirit came as a result of a promise that Christ made to His disciples. Remember what John the Baptist said? He says, I baptize you with water. But there come one after me. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And it hadn’t happened in His lifetime. lifetime, it didn’t happen in Christ’s lifetime.

So the promise was still out there to be fulfilled. So look what he says in verse 4, and being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which said that ye have heard of me. What were they waiting for? The fulfillment of the promise. They didn’t bring the promise. promise came because Christ says the Holy Spirit is coming. He had already asked the Father. And so then he says in verse 5, for John truly baptize with water, but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days in, not many days from now you’re going to be baptized.

And this was about 40 days yet to go. Talked about the 40 days in verse three. But anyway, you know that it was going to happen and then in verse eight verse eight. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you the word power is be the right the authority Because the Holy Spirit is going to come and indwell you all believers and when the Holy Spirit indwells you you are Indupped by the Spirit placed into the body of Christ and God gave the great commission go into all the world and preach the gospel, but in the book of Luke chapter 24 he says, but wait in Jerusalem until you be in dude with power from on high.

So even though they were commanded to go before Christ died, they were not to go until the day of Pentecost of the Spirit came. So the command, the great commission was given to the church. And this is where some people don’t believe the great commission was given to the church because they say, well, he gave that to his disciples in the church, wasn’t starting to the apostle Paul. Christ did give the command in Matthew 28 and also in the book of Luke, but they weren’t supposed to go until they were in dude with the power.

So the command wasn’t to give the go until then until that very day. So anyway, in the book of Acts chapter Luke, Luke, he said in verse 32, Acts chapter 2 verse 32, then Jesus, this Jesus half God raised up from where we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and get this, having received of the Father the promise of what? The Holy Spirit. he had shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

So between this verse and in chapter one, in verse four, something had to have happened. Because he says, he’s coming, the Holy Spirit. You’re gonna be baptized by the Holy Spirit. And in this verse says, it’s already happened. So somewhere between these two verses, I bet you can’t find out where it is, it happened. So in chapter two, in verse one, And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, Pentecost is 50 days on schedule. Even the type is mentioned in the book of Leviticus in chapter 23, the Wave offering.

This is prophesied and it happened right on schedule. And the Holy Spirit did not come because they were all gathered together in prayer and one accord. Did not. came because the Father fulfilled the promise. And the Holy Spirit came. And then He says, and they all heard them speak in their own language. There’s nothing about unknown tongues in these scriptures. Unknown language. There was always a language of the people who were there on the day of Pentecost, Jews who came together for Passover on this special occasion, and they heard them speak in their own words.

Look here in verse six. And now when this was noise to brah, the multitude came together and were confounded because every man heard them speak in his what? His own language. His own language. And he says up here in verse five, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout women, that I read something wrong, devout men out of every nation under heaven, and they were able to hear the gospel presentation on one day, and they were able to go back to all these nations at one time.

It’s awesome. And get this in verse 8. And how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born. So did they understand what they heard? Yes, they not only heard it, they could understand. It was an unknown. If the language is unknown, it has no purpose. And then he says, as you get out through here in verse 11, any names, all the different places and creates in Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues. The wonderful works of God means they heard it and they understood what they were saying.

So the baptism took place. Now take your Bible and turn over there to Acts 10. Acts 10. The Bible says that there was a man by the name of Cornelius. And he was a devout religious man, just not saved. And so anyway Peter goes to preach to him, the Gospel. So when he preaches the Gospel to him and then a whole bunch of them trusts the Lord and see there in verse 34, Peter opened his mouth. Instead of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter persons, but in every nation he that feared him and work with righteousness is accepted with him.

The words which God sent unto the children of Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ. In verse 30, that word that you know, verse 40, him God raised up the third day. Look in verse 43, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name, Old Testament prophets preached that through his name, whosoever, believe it in him, shall receive remission of sin. So the scripture here tells us that the Old Testament prophets told people to put their trust in Jesus Christ.

Or did I misread that? I think that’s what it says. And so they believed it and then they were entwelt by the Holy Spirit and they spoke in languages that people could understand. And on this occasion they spoke in the language where there’s some Jews that had gone with them who didn’t believe that the Gentiles could be saved and no one, behold, they heard them speak in their language. Kind of shut their mouth a little bit. Now look there in Acts chapter 11.

And look in verse 12, as this is being rehearsed back there in Jerusalem at the church. As he rehearsed, he says, and the spirit made me go with them, doubting nothing more over these six brethren Jews accompanied me and we entered into the man’s house. He showed us how he had seen an angel in the house, which stood and said to him, send men to Job and call for Simon, who’s her name is Peter, who shall tell the words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.

And as I began to speak, the holy ghost fell on them as on us at the end of the underlying, this word beginning. when did it begin? When was the first time it ever took place? So that’s why I believe that the church started on the day of Pentecost because that’s when the baptism took place in the Jews into the body and in chapter 10 placing Gentiles into the body and so in this body of believers, Jews and Gentiles, all All people for the last 2000 years are part of the body of Christ.

And so this is something you need to know, but now when does this body end? When does the dispensation of grace end? Anybody in here ever heard of the rapture? It’s not rapture, it’s rapture. It means every believer in Christ, obedient or disobedient, carnal or spiritual, when the Lord comes in the air will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Now, I don’t have time to cover all these notes that I’ve got down here for you.

I wish I did, but well, let me take a stab at it. It’s still got a few minutes. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 1st thessalonians, 1st thessalonians in chapter Verse 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. This is the verses that we usually read for the rapture and showing you that the rapture is different from the revelation. See up here, the rapture revelation. Rapture is when He comes for His saints, revelation is when He comes with His saints.

Here He comes in the air to get us and take us out. Here He comes with us all the way to the earth and we rule with the Lord upon the earth for a thousand years. So as you go back here, there’s a seven-year tribulation period, the worst period of time the world has ever known. Let me ask you a question. As you look upon the world saying today, do you believe that things are getting better or are worse.

You know, and there’s people that are right now worried because we’ve lost so much of our food supply in America. They’re putting it in the gas tanks, a lot of it. And then we’re shipping it out and then we’re getting a lot of food from other countries. You realize it wouldn’t take much for this whole world to be in a not only an economic disaster which we’re there. But food, you realize what people will do when they get hungry, and it won’t take much.

And the Bible says in the tribulation period, he says, there’s going to be mass famines upon the earth. It ought to make you just, you know, a little bit knowledgeable about what’s coming up on the scene. We’ve got to be close. We’ve got to be close. Maybe today. But in verse 13 down to verse 18 talks about the rapture where he says, I will not have you to be ignorant, brother, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others who have no hope.

He said, but we do have hope. We know the truth. And he says in verse 14, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also at sleep in Jesus, will God bring with them? Then he talks about the Lord is going to come in the air and we’re going to be changed in a moment. The twinkling of an eye caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord verse 18.

Therefore he says, comfort one another with these wonderful words. That’s why we usually read these scriptures at a funeral because we want people to know, hey, this isn’t the end of it. This isn’t the end. For us, this is the beginning. And those who know the Lord should not fear death. It’sbians. It’s just a doorway. So, well, I’ve just never done it before. I know what you mean. But in chapter 5, there’s interesting verses here. And it’s sometimes difficult to explain all of these.

But in verse 1, he says, but of the times in the season, brother, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord, so cometh is a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comeeth fond them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye brethren are not in that darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.

You are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others and let us watch and be sober.” Isn’t that clear as a bell? Well as you read it, try to understand this. This is a day and this is a day and this is a night. usually two days are separated by a night. You didn’t know that. See, don’t you look how much you learned just by coming to church?

There’s today and then there’s tomorrow, but there’s probably a night separating the two. So the Bible talks about us and we, they and them. And then he says, this day will not come this day right here. this day right here, will not come until their first come a catching away and then shall the man of sin be revealed. And when they say peace and safety, first part, then sudden destruction comeeth upon them, not us. You see, when the rapture takes place, we are taken out of here.

We’re delivered. We do not go into the seven years. Why did this cause this seven year period of time actually belongs to the the dispensation of law. Because you see that’s the main judgment of God poured on his wrath because they rejected the Messiah as their Savior. This is the 70th week of Daniel. Up until the cross see it was 483 years, 69 weeks of seven years each. That’s why you get to 483 years but there was probably 490 years so there’s a seven year period, some place it got lost and it was shoved out here.

Now when the raptor takes place and all this is gone, this slides up to here and lo and behold it just flows right on through like it never needs to be. So this is where we’re headed and Christ coming in most places says as a thief in the night. This is here. Not here. So when you study scriptures, it helps make it a little bit clear. Now, I haven’t got it all worked out, but I’m still working on a few other little pieces of puzzle that I’m not sure.

But I know I’ll get it down one of these days, and if I don’t get it right, I’m just going to ask a wishmill back there to straighten me out on all this stuff. But anyway, I hope that you understand it just a little bit better. You and I, we are children of the day, the light. Not of the night, we and us is different from they and them. And this night separates these two days. And as you read that down to their it’ll enlighten it just a little bit.

So glad to have you here. I realize you may never come again. But I love you. I love America. I love the Lord. I love His Word. But whether we ever change anything in this nation, I want you to know how to go to heaven. So let me tell you, real quickly, the best news in the world, letting this hand represent you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us.

Now He hates our sin, but He loves us. But because we’ve all send we have to pay for it and that payment is eternal separation from God in hell. God’s He doesn’t want us to go to hell. He wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God. None of us are perfect. None of us are good enough. We’re all sinners. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. But God says, you can’t earn eternal life.

You can’t work your way to heaven. So how you live doesn’t determine where you go, because you’ll never live good enough to go to heaven. That’s why you need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us, but He hates what we do wrong. And He says, our sin separates us from the Lord. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin didn’t have to die, but because He loved us, He took our sins.

paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead. God said that if we would believe that he did it for us, he would put this payment he made to our account and we get to go to heaven on what he did. No, we don’t deserve that. We didn’t earn it. He says, by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. It’s not a works list any man should boast. So salvation, it’s free.

You don’t have to stop something or join anything. All you have to do is trust Christ as your Savior. So right where you’re setting it, right now, the quietness of your mind. The Lord knows who you are, knows what you’ve done, knows what you’re gonna do. Still loves you. And He said He would give you as a free gift eternal life if you simply trusted Him. So I’m gonna ask you in just a moment, we’re gonna buy our heads, close our eyes, because I don’t want you to be embarrassed.

But I’m gonna ask you, will you trust Jesus Christ right now as your Savior, would you trust Him to take you to heaven when you die? God said if you believed that He did it for you, He would save you right now. I do it this way because I want to know what I said made sense to you. I’m just being honest with you. And the only way I know to do it is to ask you. And it would be forever if I went down each person and asked, did you trust Him?

Did you trust Him? It’s a lot easier if you just say, and by that time I know you trust in Christ as you’re I say to you this morning, if what I said this morning made sense to you about how to have eternal life and go to heaven, would you trust Him right now? I want you to trust the Lord. I really do. I want you to go to heaven when you die. But right where you’re sitting, so yet makes sense to me and I want to be certain.

Is there anyone at all before we close? Let’s pray, Shavim. Our Father, we thank You so much for all that You’ve given us. For all that You’ve given us in Your Word. And Lord, there’s so much we’ll never understand at all. And maybe you even get a little bit out of sequence once in a while. But Father, we get the gist of it. And we just pray for wisdom. We want to be as accurate as we can. It’s Your Word.

And You say to study, to show ourselves approved. A work that need not to be ashamed. rightly dividing the word of truth. We thank you for each person here and for your will to be done in Christ’s name. Amen. Thank you. 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.

area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening.

Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can bring your life to life. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. One line donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calburyoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Time for you to go to college. This is one of the lectures that I have from my book that I put together a whole couple years ago, about 30, on the book of Hermeneutics, the art of biblical interpretation. Don’t that sound impressive? What it means is just rightly dividing the word of God. But what I want to do is show you a few things that I think will help you in understanding something about the fifth dispensation. I call it the fifth one because five is a number of grace, seventh number of completion, and eighth’s number of new beginnings.

And it’s just that God has numbers that mean some things. 40, number of testing, and you don’t want that one. But anyway, take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 2. First Corinthians chapter 2, this is your homework assignment. Well you should have to memorize these verses but we’re going to let it go for today. But in first Corinthians in chapter 2 and look there in verse 7. First Corinthians chapter 2 verse 7 and it talks about the mystery.

A mystery is not like a murder mystery. It’s the truth that has been hidden in times past, but now revealed for the first time. Sometimes there’s hints toward it, just like in the Old Testament you’ll find where God had referred a little bit to the time in which you and I live called the church age, the grace age. But not really revealed in a sense of what it is when it starts, when it stops, and the purpose of it until the Apostle Paul comes along and God revealed these things to him.

And it makes a statement there in verse 7, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. In other words, if the people who were living at the time of Christ were so smart and they were so wise, why did they crucify Him? It shows you the intelligence of man, not very smart is he.

Not when you have the prince of glory here and all the prophecy did been given and yet they did not know who he was. Now, if you look up here on this chart, God deals in different times with His children, and given them various responsibilities. We call that a dispensation. It is also the word a coin of us, which is actually a word that deals with stewardship. It’s the order of a house where you have servants who have responsibilities.

So God has given to Adam and Eve, he gave them a responsibility. He can enjoy everything except don’t do that one thing. You know, not to eat the fruit off that one tree. And so they had a responsibility, but there was also consequences. So they disobeyed and there was a consequence. They had to leave that beautiful island of paradise. And the Bible says, and they would die. So they died that very day. They were severed from the life of God in the sense of their fellowship with Him.

But also they died physically, even though it took a few years. So we call that the dispensation of innocence. See, they were not created perfect like you and I think of being perfect. If you’re perfect in the how could they have sinned? They were created innocent. They had no sinful nature, but they had the capacity to sin, like I can have a glass sitting up here and no water in it, but it has the capacity to hold water. But anyway, they rebelled and there was a consequence.

Every dispensation, there are responsibilities and consequences. And so as you go down through every one of them, there are consequences. That’s why there’s judgments after every one of them. Now, when you come to the dispensation of law, where God had given to Abraham the promise, but it says the law was added to the promise. So that’s why I always had the law added to the promise. And some people make it a different dispensation and I don’t have no problem with that.

I don’t give you come up with seven or you come up with eight. It’s just that you know that God deals with people in a particular way regarding a man’s responsibility and the consequences or the blessings of either failing or fulfilling that responsibility. So you and I are supposed to be wiser than all the others because we know this and we understand this. So all we have to do is find out what is our responsibility when did the dispensation of grace begin and when does it end and what does God expect from us?

See we’re not really here in the sense of trying to change this world, our main focus right now is getting people from this world into the next one, getting people to trust Christ as Savior. That is our main ministry and to teach all nations. Now in teaching all nations these great truths, it could change nations. But that’s the result of obeying the command of winning souls because you don’t teach and educate everybody until they really understand the gospel, preach the gospel and teach it in baptizing all those things.

So those are the results down the road of a person knowing the Lord and growing in the Lord. So the law was added to the promise but it did not disanow the promise even though the promise was 430 years before the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. And so God gave a promise that everybody was justified by faith. The law was added to show people they could not save themselves by their work. So the law pointed people to Christ.

They needed a Savior. That’s why they were sacrifices made, because all sacrifices pointing to Christ. So when Christ came and died on the cross, now sometimes people put the cross as the end of that dispensation. And if they want to that, I don’t have any problem with that. I just bring it all the way over as a consequences of the people not accepting Christ as their Messiah and under the dispensation of law, I take it to the fall of the temple in Jerusalem, which was in 70 AD.

But I do believe that the church age started before that. The church age I believe started on the day of Pentecost. Now any other date before or after we call it a hyper dispensationalist. And so I do not believe that it started with John the Baptist because he was a Baptist and there’s Baptist churches so it had to start with John the Baptist. I believe John the Baptist was an Old Testament prophet and he died before Christ was crucified.

So he died under Old Testament dispensation of law in my humble opinion. Now you don’t have to agree with everything that I say. You’ll be wrong but no. But I do want you to follow my logic. Now I did my chart in 1969. So that was a couple years ago. I don’t know how long ago, but it’s been a while ago. And so when you’re young, trying to understand all they say and put it all together, you don’t get everything exactly right, but you know, you try it.

There’s not a lot of things that I’ve changed over the years. Don’t think I’ve changed as my appearance. I don’t look the same as I used to. Now, doctrine-wise, I I believe pretty much the same as I already have. But now what I want you to do is take your Bible and look there in the book of Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians and chapter three. Now there are those who believe that the teaching on dispensations is something that’s rarely new.

But if I had never read any book on dispensation and just reading the Bible, I would have to come to a conclusion that there are dispensations. He’s white because it’s in the Bible. You see there in chapter three, Ephesians chapter three, I just want you to look there real quick. Look there in verse Two, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given to me. So we know that the dispensation of grace was given to the apostle Paul, and therefore it is during this period of time.

Now because of that way it’s worded here in phrase, many people believe that the church started with Paul, and so it didn’t start on the Pentecost. So they believe it started afterwards, and if it started afterwards, then the command to be baptized is not required. Nobody has to be baptized. So they do away with that. And they say, well, that’s not part of the dispensational responsibility. But Paul did make this statement. He says, I didn’t baptize a lot of people, but I did baptize a few in this and this and this and this and because he says God sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

But that was the apostle Paul to win people to the Lord and that was his main concern. But he didn’t say anything against being baptized and that he had baptized and was after he was saved. So I still see that baptism is a part of our responsibility, one of the ordinances that we have of the church. Notice what he says here in verse three, how that by revelation he hath made known unto me the mystery as I wrote it for in a few words.

Whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages, that’s other periods of time, periods of time as other dispensation, was not made known unto the sons of men. As it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, And this is what it was, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel. So they didn’t know that God was going to buy the gospel and people believe in the gospel, take believing Gentiles and believing Jews and put them together in one body and formed something totally new.

They knew there was Israel, they knew there was the Gentiles, but now the church of God. in 1 Corinthians and chapter 10 talks about these three things, the Jews, the Gentiles, the Church of God. So God has laid it out in his word. And then he says in verse 7, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given in the me. And then he makes his statement in verse 8, under me, who in less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Because he was a Jew preaching to the Gentiles. And then it says in verse 9, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery from the beginning of the world have been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ. So you see, these things were not all of a sudden made up because Adam and Eve sinned. God had a plan before the first man was ever created. This was in eternity past. God had all of this in his mind about what he was going to do and what was going to happen.

And so Christ coming was not an afterthought. It was a purpose that all men might know the love of God. And without all of this, you and I would never understand the love of God. We would know that God loved us, we wouldn’t know about forgiveness, we wouldn’t we wouldn’t know about grace, we wouldn’t know about mercy, we wouldn’t know about justice, we wouldn’t know about righteousness. All we would be is created bins, puppets on a string doing whatever we were programmed to do.

Now God has somebody who loves him and we know what love is. And in this was manifested the love of God toward us. The Christ died for us. So anyway, that’s one of the main purposes of man, been created, the fall and the redemption. And so we have been given to us the dispensation of the grace of God. Now, there is a portion of this that I do overlapping. And if you’ll look there in your notes, you’ll see where I have the arrows going over crossing.

Now you could have it to where they ended on one date, one stopped and one started, and people could still live in the ends of both dispensations. But I believe there’s an overlapping of these because it’s a transition from one to the other. It don’t happen like that. But anyway, take your Bible and turn there to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 10. Corinthians, and chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 and look up there in verse 11. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition. Up on home the ends of the world are come. The ends of the world is the ends of the ages are come. There’s people living here, up on home the ends of the ages are come. So it means to me that they lived in the ends of both dispensations. And this is where during this period of time, this transition period right here is where you have your sine gifts because it’s transitioning from the dispensation of law into the dispensation of the grace of God.

And because of that, there’s things that God says will take place during this transition period. And the reason is, is because the sign gifts were God’s confirmation upon His Word. See they didn’t have the complete Word of God. So take your Bible look in the book of Mark, Mark in chapter 16. Matthew, Mark, Luke, Mark, chapter 16. And you’ll notice up there in verse 15. verse 15, Christ has come back from the dead and He said unto them in verse 15, go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and his baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned. I believe that this is not actually a baptism of water but being cleansed. But anyway, in verse 17, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”

Now, so because of this, there’s many people who take this and apply that today and say, well, if really believe, then you can drink poison and it won’t hurt you. A snake, rattlesnake can bite you and it won’t hurt you. And that you’ll have the ability to speak in tongues and they’re healing all day. So all these things are put into this period of time. But most people don’t really look at it close enough because there’s always a sense of superiority over somebody else.

If I can claim to have something you don’t have, I’ve got the power. I’ve got the power. I’ve got the Holy Spirit power. And I can do this and that and the other. And so there is a certain self-fulfillment. The flesh loves the pride and the ability to have or to do something somebody else can’t do. But notice what he says. He says, now, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And then he says there in verse 19.

So then, remember, now we’re reading in the book of Mark that was written after Christ had already crucified and come back from the dead. So this was written later. So he says, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, that’s past tense. He was received up into heaven, that’s past tense, sat on the right hand of God. That’s all past tense. In verse 20. And they went, that’s past tense. And preached, that’s past tense. Everywhere, and get to the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following.

So they were told what to do, his disciples, they went, they did, and The Lord confirmed what they said and what they did with signs. It happened. By the time you’re reading Mark, it’s a done deal. They did what he said do and the signs followed like he said. Now there’s no promise in these verses that we are going to be able to continue doing those all the rest of our lives. It’s not there. This is past tense. They did.

They went. They preached. It’s a historical event, just like the book of Acts and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It’s a historical event, but you do not find anywhere in the scriptures a command to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Because it is an event that takes place the day and the moment you trust in Christ as your Savior, you’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. Christ is the baptizer. He baptizes you with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

And so this was the secret that nobody knew in the Old Testament. It was a mystery that was hidden in time past, but now revealed for the first time. Now take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews and chapter 1. Hebrews make it chapter 2. First mistake I’ve made this morning. But Hebrews in chapter two and look in verse one, he says, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we shall let them slip.

For if the word, and we’re talking about the word, now the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape? If we neglect so great salvation, get this now, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and get these words and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. Now get the sequence. Very important where He makes the statement. He says, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him.

And verse 4, and God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers, miracles and gifts, oh the Holy Ghost, according to his own will. So they heard Christ speak and they had the word confirmed unto them by them that heard him and it was confirmed by them doing the signs and the miracles. And this is where this took place. Now that’s why today the transition has been complete. We have the complete word of God. We don’t need sign gifts.

Those were given to the baby church like a little child in the nursery likes to play with baby rattlers. Not rattlers, I mean a rattle. Not rattle snakes. Please don’t misunderstand me. And so they had sign gifts. And so babies like toys. And he says when I was a child, I spoke as a child. I thought as a child. I put away childish things when I grew up. In other words, I don’t need those. The church as a babe being born don’t need those toys anymore.

Why? Because we are growing up as a body of believers in the church is maturing in the Lord. and we have the complete Word of God. So we don’t need those toys anymore. And there’s people today that are still hanging on to their little toys. And they don’t even exist today. You say, well, I know people that have done this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this. You know, you had people who have an experience, but it’s not the biblical talk.

I know every verse in this book on tongue, every verse. I can quote above it and below it. I do not have a desire to get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and have a fire shoot down my body and fire from my fingers in the shout and jump and hoot and holler and rant and rave and roll and no. That’s not the Holy Spirit. He’s given us the spirit of a sound mind. And he never gave any of those gifts to the women.

He says, the women keep silent in the church. That means it was never given to the women. But anyway, as you go through it and you learn where things belong, it will help you to understand the rest of scripture and what are my responsibilities. So you gotta go back to where does it all begin? And so if you look there and first Corinthians, chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 12. Look there, 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. And you’ll notice there in verse 12 and verse 13, these two verses I want you to see.

It says, as the body is one and half many members. All the members of that one body, then many are one body, so also with Christ. by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. So here in Corinth were the most rebellious Christians you’ve ever read about. I mean, they were the ungodliest Christians. They were a carnal-minded Christian and yet Paul says we have all been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. All these Christians that were this rebellious, and yes, they were You’re still baptized and put into the body of Christ.

And not because of any good thing that they’ve done. This is what happens when you trust Christ as your Savior. Christ puts you into the body of Christ. So he says, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. So then the question comes down as well, when did this body begin? It says we’ve all been baptized into the body. So then you find out, well, how do you know where it begins?

Where did they have the first baptism of the Holy Spirit? Because that’s the only way you get into the body. So when you go back to the book of Acts, go back to Acts, The book of Acts in chapter one, Acts chapter one. And you’ll notice when he makes the statement in verse four. Remember John chapter 14, he had made the statement. He says, I am going to send to you the Holy Spirit. I will ask the Father, I will pray the Father, and he shall send you the Holy Spirit that he may indwell you forever.

And in verse 26, and this speak he of the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. So those who believe on the Lord and He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I’ve said unto you. So the Holy Spirit came as a result of a prayer Christ made, not as a result of a prayer that the people made on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit did not come on that day because they all got together and all prayed and prayed down the whole, no it did not.

He came right on schedule, 50 days from the resurrection. It was right on the money honey. It’s what the book says. And so the Holy Spirit came as a result of a promise that Christ made to His disciples. Remember what John the Baptist said? He says, I baptize you with water, but there come one after me. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And it hadn’t happened in his lifetime. It didn’t happen in Christ’s lifetime. So the promise was still out there to be fulfilled.

So look what he says in verse 4, and being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said that ye have heard of me. What were they waiting for? The fulfillment of the promise. They didn’t bring the promise. The promise came because Christ says, the Holy Spirit is coming. He had already asked the Father. 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. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll-free That’s 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to hear more information about the program, please visit www.majans.org.au or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

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

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. 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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

But I want to bring you a message that I believe will help you, but there’s a lot to this sermon. I believe it helps the Christian understand that a lot of the Bible and in your Christian walk all in one message. It’s got a lot of doctrinal issues to it. But now if you want to daydream today, you’re not going to understand what I say. you’re going to have to follow me all the way, even the basic stuff that you do understand very easily, but it Ichenko I want you to stay with me if you don’t mind.

I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Romans in chapter three. The book of Romans in chapter three, we start off with very simple verses. Very easy to understand. In Romans 3, I want you to look -> in verse 9. Romans 3, verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No and no wise. But we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they’re all under sin. What it means is that they’re all under sin.

God is perfect, we’re not. And because of sin, we have come short of God’s perfection. Now to go to heaven we have to be justified, just as if I have never sin, equal with God in righteousness. But that’s not the case. God says in verse 19, now we know that what things so ever the law says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stop at all the world, because all are under sin, all the world may become guilty before God.

So everyone born into the world is guilty before God. Now look back in verse 10. And as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understand it. There’s none that seeketh after God. They’re all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. there’s none that doeth good, no not one. Sounds pretty definite to me. I don’t know if he could set it any clearer. Every man born into this world, God says, is a sinner.

See that in verse 23, all have sin. The whole world guilty before God, all under sin. Because we all have a sinful nature, we all sin and I want to use an illustration that I used a year ago. My arm represents our first birth. This is when we’re born into the world. When we’re born into this world, God says there’s none righteous, not one. There’s none that doeth good, not one. We have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection.

God said, there’s none that seeketh after God. So we’re all guilty, we’re all sinners, and the wages of sin is death. We’re all going to die. That’s why everyone born in this world is going to die. So that’s our first birth. Now look there in Romans in chapter 9 and verse 8. Romans chapter 9 and verse 8. It says, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. These that are born of the flesh, and that’s what I see this morning.

Everyone that has a physical birth born into this world, God says you are a child of the flesh. These are not the children of God. Now you may have heard about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, but God says God is not our father. You’re not his child until you’re born into his family. And the flesh was not born into his family. So God may be your God and your creator, but he is not your husband.

father. You’re not his child until you’re born into the family of God. Now look there in 1 Corinthians in chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And you’ll notice there in verse 50. Verse 50. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God neither death corruption inherit in corruption. These are not the children of God. You cannot flesh it by cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It means this one can’t inherit eternal life. This one can’t go to heaven because heaven is perfect.

God is perfect. We’re not. This birth can’t go to heaven. There’s nothing you can do about this. You can try to change it if you want to and send this God of Church, but then he’s going to get him to heaven. You can send this guy to every Bible study, every service of the Church, and give all the money you want, but it’s not going to get this guy to heaven. You see, he can’t get there by anything that you do.

We have all sinned, come short of the glory of God, and we’re condemned already. We’re just waiting for the day of execution, and then to be eternally separated from God, for all eternity. That’s why Jesus says, you must be born again. And he says this, as many as received him to them gave He the right the power, the authority to become the sons of God. The only way that you can go to heaven whenever you die is you have to have another burden.

But the other one is not something that you produce. It is you believing that when Christ died on the cross that He paid for all of your sins. And that only thing you can do is the belief he did it for you. You cannot work your way to heaven by any good days you do. God is not going to save you because you go to church. He’s not going to save you and give you this new birth as a reward for you behaving yourself down here.

No. It has nothing to do with how you live. That’s what many times blows a person’s mind. They can’t believe that God would do this, make it so easy. And yet if it’s so easy, why can’t everybody believe it. It’s almost unspeakable. It’s almost unbelievable that you could have the free gift of eternal life and do absolutely nothing for it. And they go to heaven when you die. The Bible says that there was a man that came to see Jesus one night, Nicodemus.

He was the ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou do it. except God be with him. And Jesus said unto him, barely, barely, I said to you, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse five, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flash is flesh and spirit is spirit.

Marlon, I said that you must be born again. So a man has to be born again. Flash is flesh. There’s another one totally separate from it. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you believe he got on that and pay for your sins. When God said that He gives you a new birth, take your Bible and turn it into the book of 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, make sure you look at this because this is very, very important.

This is foundation for other things that I want to share with you. 1 Peter 1, look at verse 23. 1 Peter 1, verse 23 says, being born again. Not a corruptible seed, but have been corruptible or look a bit. This one was born of a corruptible seed. I got it from my mom and dad who got it from their mother and dad who got it from their mother and dad goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. So that’s where that corruptible seed and because it was corrupted my children became corrupted.

And now I’ve got grandchildren. They’re not. Especially my granddaughter. She was born without a sinful nature. Now all have one and so this is the flesh but the new birth born again this one is born of an incorruptible seed and because it’s incorruptible this one can’t be corrupted. He can’t sin. And if they can’t sin, they can’t die. If they can’t die, how long would it live? Forever. Now look what he says here in verse 23. He says, but of incorruptible Bible word of God which live it and abide it forever.

So this birth was born from the word of God that lives in a Bible forever. This is an incorruptible seed. If God is God and He is, then He is. God is perfect and He is and God can’t sin and He can’t and He bothers a child. The child will be like the Father So this new birth here born of God Can’t sin can’t sin can’t die just like the Father and that’s why we have eternal life lives forever Now turning your Bible through the first John chapter three I want you to see this real quick First John chapter three and verse nine Verse 9, whosesoever is born of God that not commit sin?

For his seed remain at the end, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Look at him. Which one is born of God? The second verse. Born of God can’t sin. Can’t sin, can’t die. Whose who ever born of God does not commit sin for his seed remain than him and he can not. So this is why once you trust Christ’s Savior, you will be a child of God for how long we’re already turned to. Now what you begin to understand is you also understand that there’s a problem that comes in our life.

Turn very quickly to the book of Romans in chapter 7. In the book of Romans in chapter 7, I want you to look at this real quick. In verse 15, he says, for that which I do, I allow no. Well, what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I can send into the law that it is good. Now that it is no more I that do but send that dwell within me.

For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for the world was present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do. Now if I do that I would not is no more I that do it but send that dwell within me. No, live here. What Paul is saying after being saved for about 25 years.

He said I got a problem. What he’s saying is, what I want to do right evil is present with me. And now sometimes I do the things that I don’t want to do. He says, I know that in me that is in my flesh, I brought up no good thing. But how to perform? How do I live? What I want to do right and I don’t want to do right. So there’s a spider back and forth in your life.

And you want to serve the Lord and if part of it says no. You want to read the Bible and you know and you want to go to church and do right But then you got a part of it the don’t see this one over here doesn’t want to do anything It honors God and this one only can do right. This one only does wrong and where they live Inside of you You see this one the flesh you have an old simple nature in your flesh.

You are the soul and And when you were born into this world, so you were born into flesh, you were off the flesh. And if you’re born into flesh, and you live in the flesh, and you die in the flesh, you won’t die, be turned to separate from God. That’s why if a man, he says, believe in me, he shall die in his sins. I mean, he dies as a lost man, he dies in the flesh. When you trust Christ as your savior, you have a new birth, and this one is in your spirit.

And the Holy Spirit of God bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. So you have two verses and they take each other. They fight all the time and they live inside of you. So now you have this war going on. So he says, how am I supposed to succeed? And this is why it’s so difficult for a child of God to walk with the Lord when they got this old nature. and just beats the tar on them and the war is on.

And some Christians are so spiritually skinny they could use a chariot for a hula hoop. They don’t have the strength that they need to have a victory in their Christian life. And so they’ll go to church on Sunday and then they got five days, six days, they do whatever they want to do. And they just buy like, and never have any victory in their Christian life. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just serve the Lord and have victory in your life all the days of your life?

Wouldn’t you like that? Well, there’s a way. Now take a Bible look here in the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians and chapter 5. And you’ll notice here in Galatians in chapter 5, look in verse 16, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill but lust of the flesh. That means that you still have the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit, only Christian has his choice. You walk in the Spirit, you walk for the lust of the flesh, you still got him.

You’ll have the lust of the flesh all the days of your life. And he says in verse 19, now the words of the flesh are manifest. If you walk in the flesh, can a Christian commit these things? I had a man ask me one day. He says, I can still rebel against God. I said, sure can. He says, you mean I can become a drop? So go to heaven. I said, sure can. He said, I mean, I can commit murder.

I knew where he would have him. Am I as a preacher, opposed to say, yes, a murder thing go to heaven? So I said, yes. Well, that ain’t right. I said, but if he did get there, be grace wouldn’t it? Yeah. I said, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. But what about a Christian? In verse 19 tells you what a Christian can do if he walks in the flesh.

He says, adultery, fornication, and cleanness, assibiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, burial, tribulation, draft, trash, additions, heuracies. Now, he envies murders, druggling such life of which I told you before, that I told you in time, the day which you should think, and I’m here to keep him a gun. Now, look at that. Those who walk in the flesh can produce the works of the flesh. You in the body in this room, if you know Christ is your savior, you are capable of everything that’s listed there.

You can do that. You shouldn’t do that. Of course you shouldn’t. But if you do, that’s the flesh, and God’s still going to judge you in the flesh and condemn that in the flesh. you could die here in this whole life. They may put you in prison or they may fry you, not eat it by you. They may eat it by you. And yes, there’s a great Christ to pay. So you can’t live as you please and get away with it.

Now verse 22 talks about the fruit of the Spirit and this is if you walk in the Spirit, this is what you can have. So you have a choice. Now a lot of this many times people don’t really understand and catch what the Lord is talking about here and how he means it. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Exodus in chapter 17. The book of Exodus in chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17 Israel is a type of a person who trusts Christ’s Savior.

So when you trust Christ’s Savior you are a child of God. You had a by faith miracle birth. Israel is a faith child. Isaac was a faith child, miraculously born. And because he was born, and then you had Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob was named Israel because he wrestled with the angel all night and went dead and go. And he says, I’m not going to let you go unless you bless me. And he wanted the blessing of God. And God says, the angel, what is your name?

He says from now on your name is Israel. So he did him another name. So as we read the Old Testament and we hear about that nation of Israel, we could also look at the nation of Israel as a person, one individual. And Israel can never be killed. Israel can never be a malleable. Now the nation can be taken out of their land, but Israel as a person will always be. They will always be the Jewish people. They represent the second birth.

When you trust Christ as Savior, you’re just like that. You’re just like this miracle child. That’s why we call it Israel, God’s chosen people. Because they were a chosen people. They are a chosen people. And things start and stop because of God dealing with the nation of Israel. And so it says in verse 8, then came Amalek, then came Amalek. They were coming, you see, through the wilderness. And Israel was learning something that not everybody loved them. And Amalek wanted to kill him.

So at verse 9, and Moses said in the Joshua, choose us out men. Go out, fight with Amalek. And tomorrow I stand on the top of the hill and so forth and trotted my hand. And they did out, looking verse 11, he came to pass when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. Let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Moses’ hand got heavy. They took the stone, put it under him, and blah, blah, blah. You see, when he held up the hand, Israel prevailed.

And when he then emmilek revile. So this is a type of this war in the Old Testament. As you study the Old Testament you find a lot of stories. The New Testament you find the doctrine. So if you take the doctrine of the New Testament you can go back to the Old Testament and find there’s a lot of types in the Old Testament and stories that illustrate those typical doctrinal truths that we take for granted. But they understood things by stories.

You study the tabernacle and everything in the tabernacle is Christ Christ Christ. It’s all in Christ, but it’s a type. And so he says you’re going to have trouble with Amalet. Look in verse 14. And the Lord said in the Moses, write this word, memorial in the book. Rehearsed in the years of Joshua. And I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek to remember heaven. And Moses goes to knowledge and blah blah blah. In the last part of verse 16, he says, the Lord will have a warm of Amalek from generation to generation.

Now as long as we’re in this world, we’re going to have trouble with Amalek. See this old nature you have, that’s Amalek. Amalek, this old nature lives on the inside of you. Amalek, believe it or not, came first. mentioned in the book of Genesis, talking about how that he came first and was brought into the world. In chapter 36 of the book of Genesis, and talks about the children of Esau. And you’re going down through there, it says about Amalek, and these were the kings before they ever became a king in Israel.

So they had kings first. When you and I were born in the world, The flesh came before the Spirit. You have came and abled, came and came before Abel. And then you’ve also got Esau and Jacob. Esau first and then Jacob. And you have Ishmael and then Isaac. The flesh is first. You had Amalek from Esau before. And they became nations before Israel became a nation. And so they went down into Egypt for 400 years and came out a great nation.

And now the battle begins. And there has been this battle going back and forth all these years. Now the Bible tells in the book of Jeremiah 17 verse 9 that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked and who can know it? Well that’s talking about this whole sinful nature. Where’s as a sinful nature dwell inside of you. It’s depth spurt, it’s wicked. You cannot truly understand why you do what you do. You don’t understand how all about the sinful nature.

God just simply says, don’t trust it. He’ll lie to you, he’ll deceive you. You may show mercy to Amalek, but Amalek will never show mercy to you. Amalek only has one desire and has to do you in to ruin your life and he doesn’t care how he has to do it and he’ll line you and deceive you to ruin your life. That’s that ocean from nature that you were born with and you’ll think a thousand time that if your idea you thought of this and you thought of that and you do this and the devil is using no amulek inside of you to lure you to do anything he wants you to do.

Wake up But don’t let Amalek do that to you. And the only way you can defeat Amalek is to be strong in the Lord, in the power of His mind. And then you can discern what Amalek’s up to and how he works so that whenever he wants to do something, you say, not this time. And you can put him down. But this battle is going to go on and this battle is real. Israel is what Israel was literally here and that Amalek was here and they have literally had their battles and it’s going to come.

Take your Bible looking to do the Ronomy chapter 25, do the Ronomy and chapter 25. Do the Ronomy 25 and here it makes a statement in verse 17, look at verse 17. He says, remember what Amalek did unto thee, by the way, when you were come forth out of Egypt and how, get this, this is what Amalek did. As the children of Israel were going through the wilderness, through the desert, how he met thee by the way, smote behind most of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee when thou was faint and weary and he feared not God.

So you know that Amalek has no fear of God. Your old sinful nature does not fear God. Hates God. This old sinful nature is the nature of the devil. That’s why he says, concerned in the flesh, year of your father, the devil, and the works of your father, he will do. That’s why the devil is a liar. The devil is a murderer. The devil is a deceiver. And so are you in the flesh. And you’re capable of doing every wicked deed known to man in the flesh.

And he says now do you remember what am I like bit to you? By the way Whenever you were coming through and he would wait and he would smoke behind those in over heat always get those who were stragglers their safety in numbers When people come together and they pray for one another and courage one another because Amalek is after every one of us Just like I am Israel and inside of me I’ve got this old Amalek and he’s trying to destroy me.

So we need to realize that’s what Amalek is doing to every other child of God and every one of us in this room got a little Amalek, a little Paris living inside of us and I saw the Ben-Lon, I saw the Boussaint living inside of you. Yeah I guess you could say a little Mike Tyson, this is one to beat you up, He sent you down. So he says, that were feeble and behind me. He says, when the vow was faint and weary, do you know the same verses on New Testament, the book of Galatians in chapter 6?

Faint not, be not weary and well doing, or in due season you shall reap if you faint not. It means if you don’t quit, don’t start. Then a straggler, you realize that a lot of people that I’ve known over the years, they’re strong in the Lord, they go to Sunday school, they go to church Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night and then after a walk, well I can’t come on Wednesday night, then they can’t come on Sunday night, then they can’t come to Sunday school, they’re sitting up there out of all together.

Well I don’t know what happened. I do. It’s called Amalek. Amalek will defeat you. I’ve seen Amalek destroy marriages. been married for years, loved each other. And all of a sudden, no amulek gets stirred up and stirred the other amulek in the wagon, amulek in the man, and they go at each other. That’s not the new birth. That’s the old one that’s fighting. The new one doesn’t do that. The new one doesn’t want a divorce. That’s the flesh that wants that divorce.

That’s what that ruins the children. That’s because the children become rebellious. Now people can do whatever they want to do with their life, but remember behind the scenes there’s an amalek living inside of you. And the last thing we’re supposed to do is try to grow a vault amalek. Some men they learn how to deal with their wives. They know what they like and they know what they don’t like. And then they own purpose they do it. Just to irritate.

They know what they’re doing, but they still fight over nothing. Like I told you last week. When that woman, she says, honey, Christmas is coming, I want something shiny. I want to go from zero to 150 in three seconds. Did he get her back and shit. And then, the war begins. 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. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast.

If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. 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 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Vital Line and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon.

Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

We have no clue how much time God’s gonna give to us today. But Lord, someday I’m gonna be like you. Why cannot be like him now when he can do the most good? Stop and think. Don’t that make sense. Don’t it make sense? It does make sense. So look there in verse 13. Because of the fiery trial which is to try you, look in the next two words. Complain, complain, complain. Why, why, why, why, is that what it says to do?

He says, but rejoice. Rejoice. In the words you and I are supposed to believe so much, so strongly in the provision, protection of the Lord, that we don’t wait till He does it to praise Him and thank Him. We do it in advance. We live as though he already has done it in our mind. And it gives us that confidence that we want. You say, well, that takes a lot of faith. And you know what we’re talking about? Living by faith, in the words, praise the Lord now for what he’s going to do because you know he’s going to do it.

Well, I’m not sure about that. An unstable man is unstable in all of his ways. Because it means that you’re like a ship upon the sea, you’re tossed to and fro. The Lord will provide, I think. The Lord’s going to get me out of this. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. Can you be surprised what we go through? Listen, as Christians, we struggle. Because it is a strange, fiery thing that we have to go through a trial.

Because we haven’t done it before. And we’re sometimes learning as we go. And sometimes we stumble and make a lot of mistakes and we get burned we get scars on ourselves So you just get back up and keep on walking Just get back up looking for 30 But rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering that when his glory shall be revealed when his glory shall be revealed You may be glad You may be glad Do it now serve him now Count it all joy, rejoice now, and then whenever his glory is revealed, you’ll have exceeding great joy.

You’ll enjoy it better now and I can’t wait to get to heaven and really see and understand what it was all about. See, God doesn’t explain everything to us. It’s kind of like this. I’ve done a lot of funerals in my life, but there’s a little story I tell of grandma sitting on the front porch And little granddaughters sitting on the floor, grandma sitting in her rock and chair trying to get it going. And she’s doing some embroidery work and the little girl sitting down there and she’s looking up and all she sees on this side of the embroidery work is a lot of broken strings of all different colors, no continuity.

She can’t even tell what it is. She says, grandma, what are you making? She says, I’m making something very beautiful. She says it sure don’t look like it to me. Well, I’ll let you see it after a while. And when she gets through and she brings a little granddaughter of parents, that’s what she needs to show her the beautiful flower that she’s been working on. You see, it’s all because of our perspective. We can’t see things from God’s perspective.

But if we could only see what God is doing in our individual lives and how he is weaving things back and forth and over and up and down and sideways and through and all that stuff, and what God brings into your life and what he leaves out, one day you’ll live long enough to thank the Lord for all the prayers he never answered. Don’t need to repeat that. One day you may live long enough to be thankful to the Lord for all the prayers that he didn’t answer.

Because we don’t always pray for the right thing. Most of the time we’re trying to pray how to get out of a mess. When God doesn’t want to get out of it, He wants us to go through it. There’s lessons that He wants us to learn because those lessons are the valuable things that we can teach other people. Money can’t buy those things. So the Lord in order to make you rich, He allows you to have all the suffering that you go through.

And a lot of people go through suffering, but they see they don’t know this so they won’t listen They won’t learn and there’s a lot of bitter people in the world The last people that should be this way is God’s people Because we know we got the Lord We know that God has a purpose We know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to those are called according to his purpose now One of the verses I want you to look at look there in the book of Ephesians and chapter 5 the book of Ephesians and chapter 5 There’s something else that you you have that makes you pretty valuable you see You have one of the greatest commodities known to man You see it doesn’t matter how much money you have or wealth in this world If you died today, it won’t do you any good if you were dead.

So life is valuable and life is made up of time. So how you spend time is how you spend your life. So be careful how you spend time because if you waste time, you waste your life. Because that is what life is made out of. So he says here in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5, look what he says there in verse 16, redeeming the time, buying up opportunities, taking advantage of what God did give to you. Of all the open doors he has given, realize that God says you are valuable, you are rich, And I’m given to you something that if you only understood, there’s all that you need.

You see, God gives us all we need to do all He wants where we are. We always want and expect more. If I had more than I want this or that and the other. And that’s our part of our human nature. We want to always more and more and more. We’re never hardly content. I’m always striving for something more. I don’t like to be content. That the Bible says, be content with what you have, where you are. Paul says, I’ve learned to be content.

And yet at the same time, we’re always to strive and press toward the mark of the high column of God in Christ Jesus. So there’s always these battle between the human element and the human perspective and the human and the human-like and the human-like and the human-like and the human-like Where we look to the Lord and do what God wants us to do so we don’t want to waste our time because it’s so valuable Take your Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 26 Isaiah chapter 26 I Want to give to you just a few verses before we quit and that is Some of my favorite verses that helps me when I’m down.

You say, you mean you get down in the scourge? I once or twice in 50 years. Yeah, kind of a little bit. There was a couple verses that Dr. A. Ray Stanford had us memorize when we had to memorize all those verses and those classes and I thought there’d be no end to it. And as soon as we finished memorizing a bunch, here comes a bunch more and there was just no end to it. He He had me memorize one verse and hide those cells that it were for a moment until this indignation be overpassed.

I had no clue what it meant, but I memorized the verse. You see it’s right here in Isaiah chapter 26, look at Isaiah 26. And right there where he has in verse 20, it says, come my people enter the house of thy chambers and shut thy doors about the hide those cells that it were for a moment until this indignation be overpassed. And I had to learn that verse in 1964. I’ve never used that verse since. I’ve learned a lot of verses that I’ve never used.

But they got in my brain and I have never been able to get it out. I can still quote that verse. I know where it is. What’s out on the page? And that was 47 years ago. Oh, I have an idea what it’s talking about now. But on the same page, the same column, there’s two verses that I have used over and over and over again. And you know how I remembered where they are because of that verse that I never had a use for because you see there in verse three and four looking verse three and four it just happens to be the same chapter so I could always remember the verse that I couldn’t find a reason to understand I don’t know what it meant but I remember the verse so in verse three he says, I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon the

Trust you in the Lord Jehovah forever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Look at this two verses. Those are awesome verses. This is in the Old Testament. Trust you in the Lord for how long forever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Oh I like that. It’s, it never fails. It’s always there. Never diminished the strength of the Lord is ever-lasting strength and it never diminishes. What you have in the Lord is real. It will last.

It is sufficient. And look what he says in verse three, because of the mind, the mind. Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on the… Sometimes we put our eyes upon the problems and we focus upon things that are not going the way we expect and it causes us to fear. But in these two verses, trust in the Lord, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Tremendous. Now these are verses that I really like.

Now look in Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah chapter 35. Then look in verse three. You will find this verse mentioned in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12. And here it is way back here in the book of Isaiah. And it’s a really a time that’s talking about one day. The kingdom is gonna be set up upon the earth. And the desert is gonna blossom as a rose.

Mrs. Elliot wrote a book, they call it, streams in the desert. Anybody ever heard of that book? Streams in the desert. Your life sometimes will seem like a desert. Like nothing is growing, everything’s barren. Sometimes it seems like there’s no fruit, you’re starved, you’re weak, you’re down. Sometimes you just wanna have a pity party, even if you’re the only one there. Well look what he says, strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you.

This is what God is going to do. What I like down here in verse six is this verse, But then shall the lame men leap as an art and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out and you ought to underline this phrase streams in the desert.” Now I know this is talking about over in the land of Israel and I have seen the desert over there but one day it’s going to be like streams in the desert and everything is going to be as a rose.

God promise that. See up here in verse 1, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It’s going to be beautiful when God gets through. Listen, there’s times in your life when you’ll seem like it’s so barren. Go through it because you don’t know how far down the road it is that God’s going to put a stream in the desert and your life is just going to become so full and you’re going to see so much, but you’ve got to pay the price for it.

But you and I, as God’s children, are supposed to always keep walking and believing and trusting and rejoicing, though we cannot see how He’s going to do it or where the stream’s going to come from. I’m in the middle of a desert and it seems like everything’s followed apart. Don’t worry about it. God isn’t through yet. He isn’t through. But there’s a lot of other things I could throw out because of this scripture, but I do like them. Look in Isaiah chapter 40.

Isaiah and chapter 40, and Isaiah chapter 40, I, I wanted to start first of all in verse 25, look at verse 25, to whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? Say it the holy one. Now I believe the holy one in the book of Isaiah is a reference to Jesus Christ. Lift up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number. He calleth them all by name by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one thaleth.

Why sayest thou O Jacob and speaketh O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God. Has thou not known? Has thou not heard that the everlasting God? the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faint if not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He give a power to the faint. And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.

But not God, not God. You see, that’s the way we are, but God not like us. We have a God that created the heavens and the earth, and He is not limited like you and I. So He tells us to look to Him and to trust Him is because He has power that’s unlimited. And verse 31, you probably learned verse 31 years and years ago. You saw the verse, you loved the verse, but look at it one more time.

where it says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, and they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. That’s the person who waits on the Lord. When you wait on the Lord, it’s not a person who sits trying to triddle a thumb, it’s like a person in the cafeteria that’s waiting on you, somebody in a restaurant that’s serving. Wait in the Lord, serving the Lord and trusting Him to do what He says He’s going to do.

And they that wait upon the Lord. Now those that don’t wait upon the Lord know they don’t get to strength. They don’t get to joy. They don’t get the blessings. But those that do, there’s so much more for them. So it’s a good thing to know. Look in chapter 41. in chapter 41 and look there in verse 10. Verse 10, if you don’t have verse 10 in the line, you Bible, I would underline verse 10, fear thou not, don’t be afraid.

It’s so easy to be afraid of the future that we cannot control. We can’t make some things happen. But he says, fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” See God’s looking for one thing. He’s looking for faith. He’s looking for people that trust Him. Put your trust in the Lord. Curse it is the man who puts his confidence in man.

And that means in you too. Learn to trust the Lord. Trust His word and put Him first. and you’ll be surprised what God will do for you. Now, take your Bible and turn to Hebrews in chapter 13. Another good, familiar verse that you know know very well. Sometimes all I’m doing is just refreshing your mind on things you already know. You may not learn anything new, but that’s okay. Sometimes you just need a little joke along the lines of what you already know.

Don’t you remember this? Don’t you remember that was in the Bible? And some of these verses you probably have already marked them down, but you might have forgot them. Looking verse five, let your behavior, your manner of life, your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake you. And that’s not a promise given to you based upon how much money you have, or how good your health is.

It’s not dependent upon those things. See, you are a child of God. You are valuable. You are important to the Lord. And so you are the only person in the whole world. Now, you know you’re not, but do you think somebody else is more important to the Lord than you? Who do you think is more important to the Lord than you? You shouldn’t think anybody is more important to the Lord than you. You’re not more important, but you are important.

And so he says, be content. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. In verse 6 he says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. And I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Point at good. And verse 8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, but not for the moral forever. He doesn’t change. It’s so important for us to remember who the Lord is and what he’s prominent look there in Hebrews in chapter 4 Just see this real quick Hebrews chapter 4 and look there in verse 12 Verse 12 says for the word of God is quick powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing a sander of soul and spirit.

Something that can divide the soul and the spirit is the word of God. And he says, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Also talk about the joints of the marble body, soul and spirit. God knows how to talk to your spirit, your soul and to deal with your body. He sees/> everything. And that’s why the very next verse is neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

In other words, everything that involves me, he sees, he knows. Nothing is hid from his eyes, and he tells me over and over again, come boldly to the throne of grace. on the grace. And fear not. Did you realize that sometimes over the years when I’ve had to go out on a limb and commit myself to things that I did not have the power to do? How scary it can get because I’m still in a body of flesh. I still have this old man and every once in And while this old man tries to intimidate and cause me to question and doubt God.

And when I would have to get kids to a camp down in Florida, 2150 miles one way. And I would commit myself and get a couple of buses, go out on the limb. I didn’t have enough kids to go and to pay the gas to get the kids down to camp. And sometimes I would give out more scholarships than I had money for. Wondering what in the world am I going to do? But sometimes there is just a reckless abandonment to faith.

God, you’re going to have to get me out of this. And God says, oh no, not again. But somehow or other, it always seems that I’d get in a bus. Sometimes I forget to find out if I had good tires, if it had brakes, I’d just get a bus. I got to go. I don’t even remember if I had insurance on the bus. This was years ago. And then I’d drive those kids. And I was set behind that wheel.

And you couldn’t go sometimes more than 55 miles an hour in an old school bus, no air condition in the middle of July and August, hottest time of the year, 2,150 miles, 48 straight hours on the road and I’ve got a and no relief driver. I drive it straight through and the kids would fall asleep and they would have a good time in the middle of the night. I’m still, my eyes are glazed. I can’t think in my mind if they don’t serve a Lord and they waste their I had a man tell me one time though.

What about those kids if you had had a wreck or this? I know, I know, I know. I could play safe and not do anything. But I wouldn’t do that now. I did that when I was ignorant. And God overrode to my ignorance. And God has blessed them. And I’ll multitude of kids. to do to kids. Daddy came to the line. of the lives of the Lord, some in full-time Christian work. The preachers out of that. And it’s amazing of how much has been accomplished.

But was there time when I was afraid? Scared to death. Scared to death. But I love the Lord more and I love those souls more. And I knew that if I don’t do this, they won’t get the camp. They won’t hear the word. They won’t hear the Jim T. Engine story. They won’t dedicate their life to the Lord. And it’d be just like I never lived. I’m going to run the risk and God blessed because there’s a certain amount of trust that you have to have in the Lord.

I can’t explain it all. I don’t even want to try to. But I know this. God says this. Look there in verse 16. And you ought to unline verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. of grace. And sometimes I have come boldly to the throne of grace. Like when you don’t have any money, when your health is kind of problem, or you’ll come boldly to the throne of grace because I need help. You see what that verse says?

Bolded to the throne of grace that you may obtain help in the time of need. Now why did God put that verse in there? That It was just for me that if you want to use it, you can, but it was written to me. If you want to borrow it, that’s all right. But this verse was written for Yankee Arnold. So I have really used this verse a lot of times. So you’re going to face things. There’s trials and you’re going to have to go through the throne of grace.

And just because you know the Lord does not eliminate all your fear. Otherwise God would not have to say over and over and over and over again, fear not. wife because we are afraid. There’s elements of fear because we have an old sinful nature and we cannot just totally wipe it all out of our minds. It’s just that our love for the Lord has got to be much stronger than the element of fear that wants to rob our joy and cause us to live a life of being afraid intimidated by the old sinful nature.

Anyway, I have no idea if you I’m saying, but I sure hope that you do. But if you don’t need it tonight, maybe you’ll need it tomorrow. Or maybe you said, I should have had it last week. Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. Thank you for each person here. And what we know as your children, there’s so much we have to go through. Help us to bear one another’s burdens. Sometime it’s hard on them.

We pray for those that are not able to be here tonight night because they’re sick, some are facing surgery and some may not be here very long. And I just pray your blessings upon those that are hurting right now. And there’s many and to give them the courage that they need. Put their hope in you and trust in you. Trust in you to walk them through it. Thank you so much for this time together in Christ’s name we pray.

We’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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed.

up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

We have no clue how much time God’s gonna give to us today. But Lord, someday I’m gonna be like you. Why cannot be like him now when he can do the most good? Stop and think. Don’t that make sense. Don’t it make sense? It does make sense. So look there in verse 13. Because of the fiery trial which is to try you, look in the next two words. Complain, complain, complain. Why, why, why, why, is that what it says to do?

He says, but rejoice. Rejoice. In the words you and I are supposed to believe so much, so strongly in the provision, protection of the Lord, that we don’t wait till He does it to praise Him and thank Him. We do it in advance. We live as though he already has done it in our mind. And it gives us that confidence that we want. You say, well, that takes a lot of faith. And you know what we’re talking about? Living by faith, in the words, praise the Lord now for what he’s going to do because you know he’s going to do it.

Well, I’m not sure about that. An unstable man is unstable in all of his ways. Because it means that you’re like a ship upon the sea, you’re tossed to and fro. The Lord will provide, I think. The Lord’s going to get me out of this. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. Can you be surprised what we go through? Listen, as Christians, we struggle. Because it is a strange, fiery thing that we have to go through a trial.

Because we haven’t done it before. And we’re sometimes learning as we go. And sometimes we stumble and make a lot of mistakes and we get burned we get scars on ourselves So you just get back up and keep on walking Just get back up looking for 30 But rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering that when his glory shall be revealed when his glory shall be revealed You may be glad You may be glad Do it now serve him now Count it all joy, rejoice now, and then whenever his glory is revealed, you’ll have exceeding great joy.

You’ll enjoy it better now and I can’t wait to get to heaven and really see and understand what it was all about. See, God doesn’t explain everything to us. It’s kind of like this. I’ve done a lot of funerals in my life, but there’s a little story I tell of grandma sitting on the front porch And little granddaughters sitting on the floor, grandma sitting in her rock and chair trying to get it going. And she’s doing some embroidery work and the little girl sitting down there and she’s looking up and all she sees on this side of the embroidery work is a lot of broken strings of all different colors, no continuity.

She can’t even tell what it is. She says, grandma, what are you making? She says, I’m making something very beautiful. She says it sure don’t look like it to me. Well, I’ll let you see it after a while. And when she gets through and she brings a little granddaughter of parents, that’s what she needs to show her the beautiful flower that she’s been working on. You see, it’s all because of our perspective. We can’t see things from God’s perspective.

But if we could only see what God is doing in our individual lives and how he is weaving things back and forth and over and up and down and sideways and through and all that stuff, and what God brings into your life and what he leaves out, one day you’ll live long enough to thank the Lord for all the prayers he never answered. Don’t need to repeat that. One day you may live long enough to be thankful to the Lord for all the prayers that he didn’t answer.

Because we don’t always pray for the right thing. Most of the time we’re trying to pray how to get out of a mess. When God doesn’t want to get out of it, He wants us to go through it. There’s lessons that He wants us to learn because those lessons are the valuable things that we can teach other people. Money can’t buy those things. So the Lord in order to make you rich, He allows you to have all the suffering that you go through.

And a lot of people go through suffering, but they see they don’t know this so they won’t listen They won’t learn and there’s a lot of bitter people in the world The last people that should be this way is God’s people Because we know we got the Lord We know that God has a purpose We know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to those are called according to his purpose now One of the verses I want you to look at look there in the book of Ephesians and chapter 5 the book of Ephesians and chapter 5 There’s something else that you you have that makes you pretty valuable you see You have one of the greatest commodities known to man You see it doesn’t matter how much money you have or wealth in this world If you died today, it won’t do you any good if you were dead.

So life is valuable and life is made up of time. So how you spend time is how you spend your life. So be careful how you spend time because if you waste time, you waste your life. Because that is what life is made out of. So he says here in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5, look what he says there in verse 16, redeeming the time, buying up opportunities, taking advantage of what God did give to you. Of all the open doors he has given, realize that God says you are valuable, you are rich, And I’m given to you something that if you only understood, there’s all that you need.

You see, God gives us all we need to do all He wants where we are. We always want and expect more. If I had more than I want this or that and the other. And that’s our part of our human nature. We want to always more and more and more. We’re never hardly content. I’m always striving for something more. I don’t like to be content. That the Bible says, be content with what you have, who you are. Paul says, I’ve learned to be content.

And yet at the same time, we’re always to strive and press toward the mark of the high column of God in Christ Jesus. So there’s always these battle between the human element and the human perspective versus the divine perspective where we look to the Lord and do what God wants us to do. So we don’t want to waste our time because it’s so valuable. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 26. Isaiah chapter 26. I want to give to you just a few verses before we quit.

And that is some of my favorite verses that helps me when I’m down. You say, you get down in the scourge, I once or twice in 50 years. Yeah, kind of a little bit. There was a couple of verses that Dr. A. Ray Stanford had us memorize when we had to memorize all those verses and those classes. And I thought there’d be no end to it. And as soon as we finished memorizing a bunch, there comes a bunch more and there was just no end to it.

He hadn’t memorized one verse and hide those cells if they were for a moment until this indignation be overpassed. I had no clue what it meant, but I memorized the verse. You see it’s right here in Isaiah chapter 26. Look at Isaiah 26. And right there where he has in verse 20, it says, come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee, hide thou cells that it were for a moment until this indignation be overpassed.

And I had to learn that verse in 1964. I’ve never used that verse since. I’ve learned a lot of verses that I’ve never used. But they got in my brain and I have never been able to get it out. I can still quote that verse. I know where it is. What’s out on the page? And that was 47 years ago. Oh, I have an idea what it’s talking about now. But on the same page, the same column, there’s two verses that I have used over and over and over again.

And you know how I remembered where they are because of that verse that I never had a use for because you see there in verse three and four looking verse three and four it just happens to be the same chapter so I could always remember the verse that I couldn’t find a reason to understand I don’t know what it meant but I remember the verse so in verse three he says, I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon the Trust you in the Lord Jehovah forever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Look at this two verses. Those are awesome verses. This is in the Old Testament. Trust you in the Lord for how long forever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Oh I like that. It’s, it never fails. It’s always there. Never diminished the strength of the Lord is ever-lasting strength and it never diminishes. What you have in the Lord is real. It will last. It is sufficient. And look what he says in verse three, because of the mind, the mind.

Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on the… Sometimes we put our eyes upon the problems and we focus upon things that are not going the way we expect and it causes us to fear. But in these two verses, trust in the Lord, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Tremendous. Now these are verses that I really like. Now look in Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah chapter 35. Then look in verse three. You will find this verse mentioned in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12.

And here it is way back here in the book of Isaiah. And it’s a really a time that’s talking about one day. The kingdom is gonna be set up upon the earth. And the desert is gonna blossom as a rose. Mrs. Elliot wrote a book, they call it, streams in the desert. Anybody ever heard of that book? Streams in the desert. Your life sometimes will seem like a desert. Like nothing is growing, everything’s barren. Sometimes it seems like there’s no fruit, you’re starved, you’re weak, you’re down.

Sometimes you just wanna have a pity party, even if you’re the only one there. Well look what he says, strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. This is what God is going to do. What I like down here in verse six is this verse, But then shall the lame men leap as an art and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out and you ought to underline this phrase streams in the desert.”

Now I know this is talking about over in the land of Israel and I have seen the desert over there but one day it’s going to be like streams in the desert and everything is going to be as a rose. God promise that. See up here in verse 1, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It’s going to be beautiful when God gets through. Listen, there’s times in your life when you’ll seem like it’s so barren.

Go through it because you don’t know how far down the road it is that God’s going to put a stream in the desert and your life is just going to become so full and you’re going to see so much, but you’ve got to pay the price for it. But you and I, as God’s children, are supposed to always keep walking and believing and trusting and rejoicing, though we cannot see how He’s going to do it or where the stream’s going to come from.

I’m in the middle of a desert and it seems like everything’s followed apart. Don’t worry about it. God isn’t through yet. He isn’t through. But there’s a lot of other things I could throw out because of this scripture, but I do like them. Look in Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah and chapter 40, and Isaiah chapter 40, I, I wanted to start first of all in verse 25, look at verse 25, to whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal?

Say it the holy one. Now I believe the holy one in the book of Isaiah is a reference to Jesus Christ. Lift up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number. He calleth them all by name by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one thaleth. Why sayest thou O Jacob and speaketh O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God.

Has thou not known? Has thou not heard that the everlasting God? the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faint if not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He give a power to the faint. And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But not God, not God. You see, that’s the way we are, but God not like us.

We have a God that created the heavens and the earth, and He is not limited like you and I. So He tells us to look to Him and to trust Him is because He has power that’s unlimited. And verse 31, you probably learned verse 31 years and years ago. You saw the verse, you loved the verse, but look at it one more time. where it says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, and they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.

That’s the person who waits on the Lord. When you wait on the Lord, it’s not a person who sits trying to triddle a thumb, it’s like a person in the cafeteria that’s waiting on you, somebody in a restaurant that’s serving. Wait in the Lord, serving the Lord and trusting Him to do what He says He’s going to do. And they that wait upon the Lord. Now those that don’t wait upon the Lord know they don’t get to strength. They don’t get to joy.

They don’t get the blessings. But those that do, there’s so much more for them. So it’s a good thing to know. Look in chapter 41. in chapter 41 and look there in verse 10. Verse 10, if you don’t have verse 10 in the line, you Bible, I would underline verse 10, fear thou not, don’t be afraid. It’s so easy to be afraid of the future that we cannot control. We can’t make some things happen. But he says, fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God.

I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” See God’s looking for one thing. He’s looking for faith. He’s looking for people that trust Him. Put your trust in the Lord. Curse it is the man who puts his confidence in man. And that means in you too. Learn to trust the Lord. Trust His word and put Him first. and you’ll be surprised what God will do for you.

Now, take your Bible and turn to Hebrews in chapter 13. Another good, familiar verse that you know know very well. Sometimes all I’m doing is just refreshing your mind on things you already know. You may not learn anything new, but that’s okay. Sometimes you just need a little joke along the lines of what you already know. Don’t you remember this? Don’t you remember that was in the Bible? And some of these verses you probably have already marked them down, but you might have forgot them.

Looking verse five, let your behavior, your manner of life, your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake you. And that’s not a promise given to you based upon how much money you have, or how good your health is. It’s not dependent upon those things. See, you are a child of God. You are valuable. You are important to the Lord. And so you are the only person in the whole world.

Now, you know you’re not, but do you think somebody else is more important to the Lord than you? Who do you think is more important to the Lord than you? You shouldn’t think anybody is more important to the Lord than you. You’re not more important, but you are important. And so he says, be content. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. In verse 6 he says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. And I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Point at good. And verse 8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, but not for the moral forever. He doesn’t change. It’s so important for us to remember who the Lord is and what he’s prominent look there in Hebrews in chapter 4 Just see this real quick Hebrews chapter 4 and look there in verse 12 Verse 12 says for the word of God is quick powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing a sander of soul and spirit.

Something that can divide the soul and the spirit is the word of God. And he says, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Also talk about the joints of the marble, body, soul and spirit. God knows how to talk to your spirit, your soul and to deal with your body. He sees everything and that’s why the very next verse is neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open onto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

In other words, everything that involves me, he sees, he knows. Nothing is hid from his eyes, and he tells me over and over again, come boldly to the throne of grace. And fear not. Did you realize that sometimes over the years when I’ve had to go out on a limb and commit myself to things that I did not have the power to do? How scary it can get because I’m still in a body of flesh. I still have this old man and every once in a while this old man tries to intimidate me and calls me to question and doubt God.

When I would have to get kids from Colorado to a camp down in Hollywood, Florida, 2150 miles one way, and I would commit myself and get a couple buses, go out on the limb. And sometimes I didn’t have enough kids to go and to pay the gas to get the kids down to camp. And sometimes I would give out more scholarships than I had money for. Wondering what in the world am I going to do? But sometimes there is just a reckless abandonment to faith.

God, you’re going to have to get me out of this. And God says, oh no, not again. Somehow or other, it always seems that I’d get in a bus. Sometimes I forget to find out if it had good tires, if it had brakes, I’d just get a bus, I gotta go. I don’t even remember if I had insurance on the bus. This was years ago. And then I’d drive those kids, and I was set behind that wheel. And you couldn’t go sometimes more than 55 miles an hour in an old school bus, no air condition, in the middle of July and August, hottest time of the year, 2,150 miles, 48 straight hours on the road.

And I’ve got a, and no relief driver. I’d drive it straight through. And the kids would fall asleep and they would have a good time in the middle of the night, I’m still, I was replaced. I kept thinking in my mind, if they don’t serve a Lord and they waste their life, I felt responsible. I had a man tell me one time though. What about those kids if you had had a wreck or this any? I know, I know, I know.

I could play safe and not do anything. But I wouldn’t do that now. I did that when I was ignorant. And God overrode to my ignorance. And God has blessed them. And I was multitude of kids dedicated to the lives of the Lord, some in full-time Christian work. Preachers out of that. And it’s amazing of how much has been accomplished. But was there time when I was afraid? Scared to death. Scared to death. But I love the Lord more and I love those souls more.

And I knew that if I don’t do this, they won’t get to camp. They won’t hear the word. They won’t hear the Jim Tingen story. They won’t dedicate their life to the Lord And it’ll be just like I never lived I’m going to run the risk and God blessed because there’s a certain amount of trust that you have to have in the Lord. I can’t explain it all. I don’t even want to try to. But I know this. God says this.

Look there in verse 16. And you ought to unline verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. of grace. And sometimes I have come boldly to the throne of grace. Like when you don’t have any money, when your health is kind of problem, or you’ll come boldly to the throne of grace because I need help. You see what that verse says? Bolded to the throne of grace that you may obtain help in the time of need.

Now why did God put that verse in there? That It was just for me that if you want to use it, you can, but it was written to me. If you want to borrow it, that’s all right. But this verse was written for Yankee Arnold. So I have really used this verse a lot of times. So you’re going to face things. There’s trials and you’re going to have to go through the throne of grace. And just because you know the Lord does not eliminate all your fear.

Otherwise God would not have to say over and over and over and over and over again, fear not fear not. because we are afraid. There’s elements of fear because we have an old sinful nature and we cannot just totally wipe it all out of our minds. It’s just that our love for the Lord has got to be much stronger than the element of fear that wants to rob our joy and cause us to live a life of being afraid intimidated by the old sinful nature.

Anyway, I have no idea if you need what I’m saying, but I sure hope that you do. But if you don’t need it tonight, maybe you’ll need it tomorrow. Or maybe you said I should have had it last week. Our Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. Thank you for each person here. And what we know as your children, there’s so much we have to go through. Help us to bear one another’s burdens. Sometime there’s hard on them.

We pray for those that are not able to be here tonight because they’re sick, some are facing surgery, and some may not be here very long. And I just pray your blessings upon those that are hurting right now. And there’s many. And to give them the courage that they need, put their hope in you and trust in you. Trust in you to walk them through it. Thank you so much for this time together. 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 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.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. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us to free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts chapter 3, Acts and chapter 3. You and I are supposed to believe that we are valuable to God because the Bible talks about the birds of the air, how many hairs are on your head. That talks about if a sparrow falls, your heavenly Father knows about it. Are you not much more worthy? So you are worthy of God’s attention. And you must be of great value because God sent his son into the world to die for you, to pay for your sins.

And if there’s nobody more important than you, then he would have done that just for you. So you are important to the Lord and you are valuable to the Lord. You see, in the eyes of the world, we put a value upon ourselves based upon what material value we have. much am I worth?” But you know, it all depends on what you’re looking at. If you were to see the apostles, you would say they were poor. Even when Christ was here, He said, though He was rich, yet He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.

So you’re looking at a rich man. But it all depends on how you’re looking at riches. And so you need to understand this. Otherwise, you could have what you can get hurt. You think you don’t work out writing so you get hurt because you figure out God why don’t you bless or open up and give or whatever. And so you can set in judgment upon God. We have a tendency to do that. And then if we can’t figure it out, we can get hurt and then we get bitter and we get bitter.

And a lot of times whenever you’re bitter toward people, they’re just the reciprocals of your bitterness toward God. They are just just happened to get in the way. And so we take it out on people. And sometimes they have absolutely nothing to do with our bitterness. They said, we’re mad at God. So here in the book of Acts in chapter three, I want you to look at this. In verse one says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer.

Been about the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who see in Peter and John about to go into the temple, ask in arms. And Peter fastened his eyes upon him with John, says, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something. And look at us. And he looked, expecting to receive something.

And I like this. Verse 6, Peter said, silver and gold have I, an awful lot. I got my credit card, I got a Visa card, I got the Master card, and I got this Sir card, and I got money in the bank. How much do you need? That’s that what he said? Silver and gold have I none, none. Evidently, here are two of the greatest men in the world, the apostles of the Lord. And there are, I mean they had nothing.

He said, but such as I have, such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. That’s pretty powerful. That’s better than silver and gold. Have you ever had somebody say, what do you have? What do you have? Now that can be taken two ways. If you walk up to a bar and say, well, what do you have? Well, he might have something else in mind. What do you have means?

What do you want me to give you? But another one is, what do you have? What do I have? When you look at yourself, what do you see? How valuable do you see yourself in the Lord? You see, I see myself differently than probably most people do. I see myself as very valuable to the Lord. I believe that God has increased my learning, my talent, my abilities over 50 years so that I can become valuable in the hands of God, though poor making many rich.

Do you realize just how valuable you are? Now I want to give you a couple of things that I want you to kind of write them down if you want to, but look there first of all in Hebrews in chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, the book of Hebrews and chapter 11. You say, well I don’t have much. I’ve had a lot of time people say, well I don’t have much. You’d be surprised what you have. You just don’t know that it’s valuable.

And you might squander it because you don’t know how valuable you are. Look in verse 5 of Hebrews chapter 11, By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he and you ought to underline these words, he had this testimony. He had a, it didn’t say he had money in the bank. Didn’t say he had cars and homes. says he had a testimony. Now are you telling me that you can’t have a good testimony unless you have all the wealth in the world?

You can’t have a good testimony unless you’ve got good help? Unless you’ve got good friends? You see your testimony has nothing to do with anybody or anything. That’s what your life testifies to. You have a life to live and it’s your testimony that is so important because how you live testifies to something that’s important to you. So what does your testimony say? Somebody accused of a crime and you’re asked to testify, tell what you know. Your testimony by some is deemed to be very valuable, but your testimony is what does God want you to say through your life of how you live.

Now, I don’t have to have money to have a good testimony and neither do you. So what do you have? What do you have? Suver and gold have I none, but I got a good testimony. That’s very valuable. Because of a good testimony, God took Enoch and translated him. It means that he did not see death. And what did he have to pay to get that? How much did he cost? There could be somebody else with millions of dollars but couldn’t buy that.

But he got it because of a good testimony. You’d be surprised what God can do with a person who has a good testimony. That means somebody who is concerned about their effects upon other people. It is very, very important to keep that in mind. So you don’t want to lose a good testimony because of its volume. The next scripture I want you to look at is 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. See, sometimes in life it gets to where things things run of the meal just boring.

Nothing exciting happening, nothing going on. And sometimes we become so impatient waiting on God to do something. And so we sense ourselves sometimes falling to a time of depression, discouragement. And so how do you deal with it? But here in 1 Corinthians in chapter 10, I want you to look there in verse 13. There have no temptation taken you but such as his common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.

Let me ask you this, have you ever been tempted? You say, well yes I have, I have been tempted. Did you know to be tempted can become an asset? Isn’t it true that God is going to reward you by how you handle temptation? Usually temptations are the results of internal pressure. I’m tempted because of something in me that wants something and I’m tempted. Trials usually comes from external pressure. So we have temptations, internal, and we have, pressures on the outside the trials of life.

So do you ever have problems? If you have problems, you could be a very rich man. Because some people don’t get to go through some of the problems you go through, some people will not learn some of the lessons you will learn. If you don’t see those things as a value to you, you’ll despise them. But what does the Bible say in the book of James? Tell it all joy. When you fall in the divers’ temptation, it means many different kinds of testings and temptation.

So are you rich? Are you valuable? Think about this. In the book of Peter it makes a statement that the trial of your faith. Be in much more precious than gold and silver. The trial of your faith. Your faith is on trial. More valuable than gold and silver. What do you have? What do you have? Silver and gold have I none. But buddy I’ve got a lot of temptations in this world. I’ve got a lot of problems in this world.

Boy have I got a lot of trials that I have to go through. Man, you lucky dog. Shame on the man who goes through and has nothing that he has to struggle with and learn from. And most people think, well, money will be the cure of all. So if I get money, I don’t get what my problem is, I can buy my way out of it. Somebody made a statement like this. A man’s life consisted if not in the abundance of the things which a man possesses.

When who said that? And they got a clue. Jesus said that. Jesus said that. A man’s life does not consist out of the abundance of the things that he possesses. In other words, it’s something more, something better. So when you have trials and tribulations and temptations and all these things, things you are valuable because see all those things is just going to make you one rich individual because there’s a God in heaven that’s keeping the books and he is going to reward you for your faithfulness, for your faithfulness.

Well to be faithful you’ve got to have something required of you, faithful to do what? Well see the things of the world and the devil can use a lot of things is to get you to quit, to stop. But faithfulness is what God is going to reward. And so you can be truly blessed by the Lord. But look what he says in verse 13, but God is faithful. You have the faithfulness of God. Did you know that? You have something.

You’ve got temptation, yes, but I’ve also got the faithfulness of God on my side. Now you You may not have a lot of friends, may not have a lot of money, may not have good help. Who knows what you’re going through? Today doesn’t mean that’s what you’re going to be facing tomorrow or next week. But if you have the faithfulness of God in your hip pocket, you really have got some good backup. Think about it, you got backup. You got somebody that’s going to be right there with you.

Look what he says. God is faithful who will not suffer a permit you to be tempted above that you’re able, but will with the temptation. So you’ve got something, you’ve got temptations, and you’ve got something else. You have a way of escape. You have a way out. Because God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted above what you’re able to bear. So you can bear it. See, you didn’t know you was that strong, did you? God is going to allow you to be tested because He’s more concerned about your character than anything else, your integrity, and you can become a very, very valuable individual.

Take your Good bye, looking first Peter chapter four first Peter and chapter four Look in verse 12, 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 12. Beloved, this is talking to the Christian. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. So you know you’re going to have fiery trials. Trials that seem to put you through the fire. Now when you’re serving the Lord and you’re trying to do what’s right, the fire. is to purify you.

It’s not for chasin’ it’s not to destroy you. It’s to purify you. You see, Job had a few problems. It doesn’t come right out and say it, but as you studied the book of Job, it kind of reveals itself that Job, you see, could see how far he had come, but Job couldn’t see how far he had to go. So God was revealing how much more he needed and God taught him a great lesson. I’m going to cover some things about Job one of these days.

I think you’ll like it. It’s really good. But look what he says here in verse 12 he says, which is to try you as though some strange thing happen unto you? When you ever say stuff like that, strange, mention twice in that one verse, strange. Do you know because of who you are, you’re a child of God, you trust the crisis, you save you, you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Do you think it’s strange sometimes the way life is to you.

Sometimes the way people are, sometimes the way you seem to be struggling so much all the time. It seemed like it doesn’t let up and you can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. And sometimes it can just seem so strange that if I love the Lord so much, why is God letting it be so dark? You see God wants you just to trust him and he’ll walk you through it. Most people quit too soon. They usually stop right before victory.

You just keep your eyes on the Lord and just keep trusting Lord and just keep walking with the Lord. And one day your book look back upon those dark experiences you’ve gone through and you’ll realize that’s when you learn the most because you’ll You’ll know God was carrying you and God was doing things for you. Look what else he says here. As those some strange things, and here’s the word happen. So see, we like planning things. Sometimes we don’t like things that just all of a sudden happens.

Because we didn’t plan it. It wasn’t in, it wasn’t my desire. But there’s always seem like something happens. I don’t care what I’ve tried to do over the years. It seemed like there’s always somebody else got a plan and their plan is to ruin mine. You ever be like, feel like that? I’ve got a goal to reach and somebody’s goal is to keep me from reaching it. And it just seemed like it’s such a strange thing because you can’t put your finger on it.

You can’t explain everything. God wants us to keep walking with them when we can’t see, when we don’t know what to do. all know what to do. Just keep trusting Him. Keep trusting Him. Faith is born and despair. When you have come to the end of yourself and you have no more power, no wisdom, remember when I talked about the finite man, how limited we are and how infinite God is and there’s so much difference between the two of us.

Don’t you as you live your Christian life, can’t you see the vast expanse, the difference? How much were not like God? I was with Dr. Curtis Hutchin one time. He was the editor of the Sword of the Lord, great man. He come to preach at our church and he preached the sermon one time on Romans 8 28. But he also tied it in with the book 1 John 3 verses 2 and 3 where it talks about we don’t know right now what we’re going to be like.

But we know that when we see him we will be like him, but we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope purify himself. And he says, Lord, if someday I’m going to be like you. Why can’t I be more like you now when I can do the most good? It’s okay for me to be like you when I get to heaven. But I want to be like you now. And I said to you on the stage and I listened to him say that I thought that is wisdom overflowing.

I get what he’s talking about. He was dying of cancer. He had about another six months to a year to live. And he died when he was sixty years old. But he was a great man of the Lord. And I listened to him. He was eight years older than me. And now I don’t live nine years after he passed away and I thought I’ll never live as long as he did. We have no clue how much time God’s going to give to us to live.

But Lord, if someday I’m going to be like you. Why can’t I be like you now when it can do the most good? Stop and think. Don’t that make sense? Don’t it make sense? It does make sense. So look there in verse 13, because of the fiery trial which is to try you, and look in the next two words. Complain, complain, complain. Why, why, why? Is that what it says to do? He says, but rejoice, rejoice. In the word you and I are supposed to believe so much, so strongly in the provision, protection of the Lord that we don’t wait till He does it to praise Him and thank Him.

We do it in advance. We live as though He already has done it in our mind. And it gives us that confidence that we want. You say, well that takes a lot of faith. Well, you know what we’re talking about living by faith. In the words, praise the Lord now for what He’s going to do because you know He’s going to do it. Well, I’m not sure about that. An unstable man is unstable in all of his ways because it means that you’re like a ship upon the sea.

You’re tossed to and fro. The Lord will provide, I think. The Lord’s going to get me out of this. I Hopa, hopa, hopa, hopa, hopa, hopa. Can you be surprised what we go through? Listen, as Christians, we struggle because it is a strange, fiery thing that we have to go through a trial because we haven’t done it before. And we’re sometimes learning as we go. And sometimes we stumble and make a lot of mistakes and we get burned, we get scars on ourselves.

So you just get back up and keep on walking. Just get back up. Looking verse 13, but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad. You may be glad. Do it now, serve him now, count it all joy, rejoice now, and then whenever his glory is revealed, you’ll have exceeding great joy. You’ll enjoy it better now and can’t wait to get to heaven and really see and understand what it was all about.

See, God doesn’t explain everything to us. It’s kind of like this. I’ve done a lot of funerals in my life, but there’s a little story I tell of grandma sitting on the front porch. And the granddaughters sitting on the floor, grandma sitting in her rock and chair trying to get it going. And she’s doing some embroidery work and the little girl sitting down there and she’s looking up and All she sees on this side of the embroidery work is a lot of broken strings of all different colors No continuity She can’t even tell what it is She says grandma.

What are you making? She says I’m making something very beautiful She says it sure don’t look like it to me Well, I’ll let you see it after a while. And when she gets through and she brings a little granddaughter of parents, that’s on her knees and she’ll show her the beautiful flower that she’s been working on. You see, it’s all because of our perspective. We can’t see things from God’s perspective. But if we could only see what God is doing in our individual lives and how He is weaving things back and forth and over and up and down and sideways and through and all that stuff.

of what God brings into your life and what He leaves out, one day you’ll live long enough to thank the Lord for all the prayers He never answered. Don’t need to repeat that. One day you may live long enough to be thankful to the Lord for all the prayers that He didn’t answer. Because, you see, we don’t always pray for the right thing. Most of the time we’re trying to pray how to get out of a mess. When God doesn’t want to get out of it, He wants us to go through it.

There’s lessons that He wants us to learn because those lessons are the valuable things that we can teach other people. Money can’t buy those things. So the Lord in order to make you rich, He allows you to have all the suffering that you go through. And a lot of people go through suffering, but they see they don’t know this so they won’t listen They won’t learn and there’s a lot of bitter people in the world The last people that should be this way is God’s people Because we know we got the Lord We know that God has a purpose We know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to those are called according to his purpose now One other verse I want you to look at look there in the book of Ephesians and chapter 5 the book of

Ephesians and chapter 5 There’s something else that you you have that makes you pretty valuable You see You have one of the greatest commodities known demand You see it doesn’t matter how much money you have or wealth in this world if you died today, it won’t do you any good if you were dead. So life is valuable. And life is made up of time. So how you spend time is how you spend your life. So be careful how you spend time because if you waste time, you waste your life because that is what life is made out of.

So he says here in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5, looked what he says there in verse 16, redeeming the time buying up opportunities, taking advantage of what God did give to you. Of all the open doors he has given, realize that God says you are valuable, you are rich, and And I’m given to you something that if you only understood, there’s all that you need. You see, God gives us all we need to do all He wants where we are.

We always want and expect more. If I had more than I want this or that and the other. And that’s our part of our human nature. We want to always more and more and more. We’re never hardly content. I’m always striving for something more. I don’t like to be content. That the Bible says be content with what you have, where you are. Paul says I’ve learned to be content. And yet at the same time, we’re always to strive and press toward the mark of the high column of God in Christ’s uses.

So there’s always these battle between the human element and the human perspective versus the divine perspective. where we look to the Lord and do what God wants us to do. So we don’t want to waste our time because it’s so valuable. 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. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. 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 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. My broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.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. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us is told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

But it says, be instant in season and out of season. reproved. It means to charge, hear, reproved, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So this is why we’re supposed to reprove somebody when they’re wrong and to rebuke somebody if necessary. And the Bible talks about taking the light of the Word of God and shining it on people so they can see what’s wrong with them. But get what he says. In verse three, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

In other words, you might know it, but you don’t want to endure it. You don’t want to stay there. And that’s why some people that get tired day don’t want to do the work anymore. They just want people to make them feel good. That’s why you’re talking about itchineers. Just make me feel good while I’m not doing anything. And so that’s why they want to heap to themselves the kind of creatures that let them do and live however they want without feeling that sense of reprove or rebuke or confrontation where I don’t have to change anything and so preachers that do not preach against sin their churches will be packed you preach on sin and nobody likes because it’s as personal and they don’t want you to talk about that so therefore there’s a price to pay but he says and they shall turn away

their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables, things that are fiction, stories. But,” he said in verse 5, “…but what’s thou in all things endure afflictions? Do the work of an evangelist make full proof of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departures at hand, and I need you coming up behind me. I need somebody else to fill the gap. And this is what you’re supposed to do. I fought a good fight.

I finished my race. It’s your turn now. And a guy named Greg Steer, he wrote a little book called You’re Next. You’re Next. Because you see, me and Dr. Lindstrom were moving on off the scene one of the days, you know, I’ll be gone. And we’re hoping that there’s somebody that’s listened to what we’ve said and are going to be strong in the Lord so that they can continue doing and taking a stand the way they should for the gospel’s sake and to do all of this.

So that’s the serving man. Colossians 128 simply talks about how that we teaching every man, warning every man. Because it’s part of our responsibility to serve the Lord. Serving the Lord is serving people. Try on your dead level best to get people to do what’s right. I’m challenging to motivate them. Number five, be a spiritual man. And be a spiritual man, you must be spiritually minded. So if you’re spiritually minded, it means you mind the spirit. To be fleshly minded means you mind the flesh.

So you and I have a choice. And as we grow in the Lord, become spiritually minded, we should become more light the Lord.” And that’s found in the book of Romans in chapter 8 and verse 6. But 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. Look there, right where we are. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. Not 2 Timothy now. And look over there in 1 Timothy chapter 4 4, in verse 7, where it says, but refuse profane in old wise fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness unto godliness.

Because, see, that is so very important, the word godliness. That’s hard to be spiritual when you’re ungodly. And if you’ll notice here, it says in verse 8, for bodily exercise, profit, if little, but it does profit. But godliness is profitable. Under all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. So bodily exercise, there is some profit. But evidently, being spiritually strong, spiritual exercise is a lot more important. And this is what causes the person to be a spiritually strong individual, and some people are not spiritually strong.

And when you’re not spiritually strong, you cannot withstand the pressures of this life. You will not be able to win win against the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. There’s a war on, there is a battle, and you will not be able to stand against it. Number six. Number six is be a studying man. When I was making up my mind to go to Bible school, I was out there in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I don’t know why, but I did.

I imagined I pictured myself in college. But for some reason or other, I kept pictured myself in an attic. And there were books on the floor all the way to the ceiling and everything was crowded all over. And I had a desk and I’m sitting here at the desk with a little lamp. And all these books are all over and I’m swarmed. And I’m trying to study these books because I’m gonna study for the ministry. And it scared me to death.

I thought, how will I learn all of this? I used to take the Bible and I look at it. I think, how will I ever learn this book? I said, a man can’t live long enough to learn this book. So why am I gonna go to Bible school? But I knew I got to do something and that I could not know the will of God without knowing the word of God. So it was the will of God to know the word so I can know his will.

Makes sense. So I’m going to Bible college and I remember Betty’s dad I told him on the phone. He started questioning me, how do you know? How do you know that this is what God wants you to do? I said, I don’t know, but I’m going to Bible college. So you’re going to be a preacher. I don’t know. Well, all I know is that I don’t want people to go to hell, and I know that I need toReporting to know the book.

And I had a hunger and I wanted to do it. And he was afraid of me going to Baba College because he says, Baba College, or just like the seminaries, they’re all cemeteries, he says, no kill ya. They’ll rip that fire out of your gut and you’re not going to want to do anything. I go anyway, I said, well, I’m bringing Betty and the kids to your house. And I want to leave Betty and the kids with y’all. And I’m going to Bible school.

So anyway, I got a lot of memories. I know I’m getting old because I do a lot of room in this and that I use to never even do. Never even thought about stuff. But I knew that I had to study the study. And if you want to know the will of God, you have to study and know the Word of God. And I think that was an advantage that has served me well over the years. And I know that if you listen to Dr.

Anke Lindstrom, his knowledge of the Bible was unsurpassed. I mean, the guy just knew the book and probably could go back and forth all over the place and never have to even probably tell )); what was the word was. He just quote him. But if you don’t do that overnight, you’ve got to study and. memorize a lot of scripture. And there’s people that they want to serve a little, but they don’t want to spend any time in the book.

Where you’re going to be limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry. You’ve got to spend time with the Lord. Let God teach you the Word of God, and it will be a great blessing to you. But 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse Timothy chapter 4, and verse 15, and verse 16. It says, meditate upon these things. Give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. God wants you to profit so that those from you can profit. And He says that while you’re studying and meditating upon the Word of God, it will save you.

And in saving you, you’ll be able to get others. Now, not talking about salvation, talking about saving them from the false doctrine. And he says, continuing them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee, because there’s false teachers in the world. See there in verse one of chapter from now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and epochresies and all that stuff.

All that false teaching, he says, if you studied the Word of God, it’ll save you from believing that. And then because of what you believe and you’re strong, you’ll be able to help others that listen to you. And so that’s why you want to be strong in the things of the Lord. Now, in Ecclesiastes in chapter 12, and verse 12, it says, studying is a weariness of the flesh. And he says, the end of writing of books, he said, there is no end.

He says, but to know the Word of God, the conclusion of the whole matter is to know God and his will and to serve him in fear. So that’s the last chapter in the book of Ecclesiastes. And at verse 12 where it says, weariness, studying is a weariness of the flesh, but not of the spirit. Studying may be weary to the flesh, and maybe you don’t want to do it. But if you want to be strong, there is no escape.

You have to pay the price to do it. And you have to force yourself to read and to study. at a Bible college where I taught three to four hours every day for years, 15 years. And I taught 21 to 23 hours just about every week for so long. I gained a lot of knowledge in the Bible, but do you know that even now, I still study the Bible an awful lot? I will read and study for hours. I did it last night.

I did it today. I do it just about every day. I’ll come over here on Saturdays and I’ll spend three or four hours to study in the Bible again. Things I already know. Betty asked me, he says, what are you working on now? I said, just a sermon. I don’t know when I’m going to use it. But I’m always, I got to keep studying because see, if you don’t feed your mind, Then after a while all you got is cold leftovers to serve.

And whenever you go out to eat, do you always like to just get cold leftovers? Or you like to learn something that’s fresh? Even though it’s the Word of God, but it still should have some fresh bread. And I believe that people ought to have some fresh bread to eat. And not just because, well, I know that, I’ll just teach that and don’t have to ever study. No, I can do that, but myself personally I like to keep reading and keep studying And sometimes I’ll sit down by the hours and I’ll read the mo testament book has nothing to do what I’m teaching on I Have no clue when I’ll ever preach it.

I don’t know always writing making little notes and things like that But you’ve got to study the word have you ever heard us first Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 Anybody got to clue what it says? Study to show off. Study to show thyself approved Under God a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth Now The reason you’re steady so you can be a workman so you can accomplish something so you can do something with it But just to say how much you know about the Bible is no advantage at all what values that to anybody That’s why you’re looking for opportunities to teach the Word of God.

To one person or ten people or somebody, you want to be able to explain it to someone. That’s how people profit from you. And this is what God’s talking about. So anyway, number seven is be a single-minded man. Single-minded man. A double minded man is what? Unstable in all of his ways. But the Bible talks about being a single minded man. That means having a vision, you know what you want and you know where you’re going and you’re focused.

And that’s what you need to be. I wrote a little statement there. Do deeds and words of profit only. Take your Bible and look in 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy. Now we’ll hit verse 15, but I want you to see verse 14, 15, and 16, because it kind of shows a little bit about A single-minded man. Verse 14 says, of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit.

So I’m not supposed to strive about words to no profit, so that I must be striving about words that do have profit. Wouldn’t that be how you’d understand that? In other words, things that build when the Bible talks about edify one another, it does not say, edify one another. One another edify means to beautify what’s there and add to so that people that we come in contact with people in our lives We’re supposed to make them stronger. We should be a blessing to people and There are things that we can say and do to have no profit to them And that’s just why he says you have to be very careful, but get this but in contrary to that, but to the subverting of the hearers, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

And then it tells you there’s things to shun, but shun, purvein, and vain babbling, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. As we’ve looked, you’ve seen the word godliness mentioned several times, and you’ve seen the word ungodly. Ungodly means you’re not like God. Godly means you’re like God. So look at number eight. Be a separated man. Be a separated man. There’s things in this world that I have voluntarily chosen not to do. places that I have voluntarily chosen not to go.

There is a language and words that I have chosen not to use. There are things that I have done my dead level best not to think about because I can know it can leave me down the wrong path. So I wrote a little statement here and said to be a a godly man, you cannot live an ungodly life. Now I know that’s not a deep theological statement, but it’s got some theology to it, and it’s not that bad. But if you want to be godly, you cannot live an ungodly life.

They just don’t go together. So a godly individual is someone who lives a godly life. He lives like God would want him to live. So that’s why we study the Word of God. Look in 2nd Timothy and chapter 3, 2nd Timothy and chapter 3, looking verse 1. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous and boasters, proud blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truthbreakers, false accusers, incontinent fears, are despises of them that are good, traitors, heady, high-mindeders, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God.

Have any form of godliness, but deny in the power thereof. And look at those four little words. From such, turn away, that separation. It means that I’m not supposed to live like somebody else lives. If I’m not to be conformed to the world means I’m not supposed to live like the world. I’m not supposed to let the world shape my thinking. I’m supposed to live the way God wants me to live, not the way the world lives. And that’s why we don’t get our manner of life from TV, from movie.

We learn how to live, and we ought to make this statement that we believe the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice. We think we believe in how we live from this authority. This is final authority. And we’re supposed to believe it and we’re supposed to learn from it. And he makes a statement that we’re supposed to live this way. Look down in verse 10, but thou has fully known my doctrine. He says, you know how I think, you know what I believe.

You know my manner of life. You knew my purpose, my faith, my long suffering, my charity, my patience. You know about my persecution, my afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium and Listera. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all, the Lord delivered me.” Now see, we think, well, if I’m really serving the Lord and I’m doing right, I’m not even supposed to have all of that. No, you’re right in the midst of all of it.

Did you know that when you’re having a hard time, people are watching to see how you’re going to respond to it? People watch. People want to see how do you handle all of the problems of life? And if you’re strong in the Lord, how strong? won’t know if you’re strong or not unless you’re tested. So God will allow you to be tested in various ways and He won’t tell you. He said, now I’m going to test you in two days.

Get ready. Here I come. Ready or not. You don’t know when and you don’t know how the test is coming. And if you think that it won’t really matter, you be surprised how God can permit you to fall because He permits a testing to come your way. And because of pride, you don’t think it’s important. And buddy, you can mess up very, very quickly. Now look what he says in verse 12. Yay, and all that will live godly. All that will live godly.

That means there is a separation from those that are ungodly and those that are godly. Now, I don’t try to get people to live their lives exactly the way I do. But I have purposed in my own life that there are certain things that I don’t do. But that doesn’t mean that you would necessarily agree with it. You may tolerate things in your life that I won’t and I might tolerate a few things in my life that you won’t.

But I do believe you need to know what helps you to be strong and what helps you to be weak. You need to know yourself. You need to know what makes you get things right between you and God and you need to be aware of things that will pull you away from the Lord. You need to know your own limitations. Now you don’t have to worry about what somebody else does. Are you doing what it takes to make you strong?

That’s where your strength in your own spirituality is revealed. Are you aware of things that will cause you to be weak and are you avoiding those things? Or are there habits in your life that you know is not right and it’s not helping you spiritually, has no profit to if you need to understand and look at some of these things. But it’s better if everybody examines their own life without somebody else doing it. And if you knew exactly how many hours or minutes I did this or that and the other, wouldn’t necessarily make you strong if you followed my recipe.

I do believe you need to follow God’s recipe and that is you do need to read but how much and where I can give you ideas and so forth but sooner or later you’re gonna have to be on your own and you need to pray and talk to the Lord I know you ought to do that and I know you ought to be spiritually minded that means to mind the word. So does this book have more power in your life than anything else or anyone else?

Does your greatest influence come from this book? You cannot see the Holy Spirit. And I don’t think you can feel Him. But there needs to be some way that you know that the Holy Spirit is real in your own life and you can sense it and you know he’s leading you and he’s teaching you and you feel the comfort of the Lord that you’re in his presence or you’re gonna have a very empty lonely life and the Lord will never be real to you but that’s between you and him and the closer you get to the Lord the more godly you ought to be.

And the further you get from the Lord, the more ungodly you will be. So that’s why you can decide what you will and will not do, but try your best not to make somebody else try to live according to whatever your standards may be. Now in my home, I had standards. If I had a Bible college, I’d have standards. For leaders, I want certain things done for them in the way they ought to think and how they ought to live.

But you want people to grow in the Lord so that they learn how to govern themselves. Because you see, I can’t go to your house with you and go to your job with you. No, nobody can walk and hold your hand. You have to learn how to walk with the Lord yourself. And you want that. You don’t want somebody playing God in your life. And I don’t want to play God in people’s lives. I want people to learn to grow up and learn how to walk between you and because he’s precious to you.

Not because, well, I hope the preacher satisfied. I didn’t do what he said do. So I’m hoping he’s all right. Do what God wants you to do. It always comes back between you and him. I’m just a man. And sometime I’m poor when it’s dead. But I do want you to be strong. I want to try to do my dead liver best to persuade you with precious pearls. Truth from God’s Word all of God’s Word this is a book of jewels.

This is this is awesome book And so that’s why we need to read it look up here very quickly This end represent you and me and the wallet who represent all the things we do that’s wrong God loves us hates our sin, but he loves us and for us to pay for sin And which we should is eternal separation from God. And God loves us. He loves you and me. Wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

And none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection. God says you cannot save yourself. You have to be perfect to go to heaven and nobody is perfect and by your life you’ll never live a perfect life. So you cannot get there by your words. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He is the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from Him.

So Jesus Christ who had no sin did not have to die. He took ours. Payful on the cross came back from the dead and said that if you and I would believe that Christ did that for us, He would put that payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. So if you’re watching by the internet tonight, I do want you to know that God does look love you, he paid for your sins.

And if you trust him and him alone, as your only hope of going to heaven, he said, it would give you as a free gift ever lasting life. The best news in all of the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for this time together, the opportunity of giving us to be part of one another, to be a body of believers in this church. We thank you for the ministry you’ve given us. We thank you for all your provision.

We thank you Lord for the facilities you’ve given us. We’re thankful for those that are working with the kids back there in the gymnasium. We ask Father your blessings upon each person here. We pray that you’d help each one of us to be strong as we ought to be. And Father also those that are perhaps watching by internet, some may never have trusted your Savior. And Father we want them to know more than anything else in the world that you love them and that you died to pay for their sins.

And because you pay for them, they don’t have to, if they accept that payment you made for them, and that you will never cast them out, never lose them. And, Lord, we just pray Your will to be done, help them to be wise, and to put their complete confidence, their trust in you, not a church, not a man, not themselves, believing that you paid for their sins, and by doing so, that they can have eternal life when they trust you.

We ask you a blessing upon each one. In Christ’s name we 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. One-line donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

You know, and everything that we do, and working with people, you try to persuade people by the way you act, things you say do your attitude, and trying to be friendly, nice, kind, considerate, all those wonderful Christian terminology that helps us to explain who and what we are. But the most persuasive thing we could ever do is persuade someone to trust the Lord. And so, so winning is just doing that. He said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

So the first thing I guess you could start off with is you got to be a saved man. So a person needs to know Christ as their Savior because that’s the key to learning the rest of it. Now the things we’re going to talk about tonight are not for the lost man, this for the saved man, those that do know Christ as their Savior. So number one I have done is be a staying man. You say, what do you mean by that?

It means to abide. The Lord uses the word abide many times in scripture, abiding in Him. My little children abide in Him that when He shall appear, we may not be ashamed before Him and His coming and so on. And He says that He’s the, the vine where the branches is abide in me. And that’s your abiding, we ought to stay where we have been placed. And you are a child of God. And I want you to look at there in Titus in chapter one.

Titus chapter 1. And notice as Paul is talking to young Timothy, most of these things are said by senior daddy, Mr. Paul, to Timothy Jr. But I didn’t want to show this one verse here from the book of Titus in chapter 1. And you’ll see there in verse 4, 2 Titus, my own son after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. For this cause left IV in Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city.

This is what God won. Now when you study the book of Timothy you’ll find out that it deals mostly with sound doctrine and here when we’re talking about Titus it’s the divine order. So there is an order in which God wants things done. And he says, first of all, he said, I want you to get some elders. Elders don’t just appear. They have to be trained. They have to know the Word of God. They’re usually older saints in the Lord.

And he left them there for a reason because some work has to be done. And Paul was on his way to another place. He would go to a place when people to Christ, turn over to somebody you take that one and I’m going to the next one. I’m going to the next one. But here in this verse in verse 5, for this cause left I thee there. So I believe he was supposed to stay there until he got the job done.

So I wrote down there, when you’re a soldier, you don’t leave your post until orders are received from higher up, learning the chain of command. And when you believe that God leads you to a certain place to do a certain thing, stay there until you do believe that God wants you to leave. Not because of the problems and the hard aches and all the troubles, it’s because you believe this is what God wants. Then you make your decision, always because you believe this is what God wants.

Don’t go tundra to him. But look there in 1 Timothy, I want you to see this first, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3. He says, as I besought thee, and here’s those two words, abide still at Ephesus. When I went into Macedonians that thou might have charged some that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than give a golly edifying which is in faith so do. And now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and a faith on faith.

And says from which some having swerved have turned the side under Vain Janglin, you abide where God puts you and you abide in the things that God’s taught you. And don’t be fly by night, be solid, be stable, accomplish something. And whenever you learn the Word of God, you hang on to what you know to be true, and you don’t let it go, and you don’t step aside from truth. A truth don’t have to bend. Truth is always truth.

It’s what it is. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. And look there in verse 3. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 3. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Because that’s what you are. You are a soldier. Learn to take orders and you don’t move on until you get some authority from higher up. And as a child of God, your authority should always come from the Lord.

Always come from the Lord. and look to Him, trust Him, walk with Him, and stay close to the Lord, and you’ll be surprised how God may lead and guide you. Now see, everything that we do is kind of taking steps. You don’t know what you’re gonna be doing down the road. But right now you take and stand still and do what God wants you to do, where you are, and when God’s ready for you to move on, God will let you know.

But don’t just always use problems and people as an excuse to get away from a responsibility. But when you know that this is what God wants you to do, then fine, boo. I never have any problem with people that believe that this is what God wants. I may ask them, how do you know? I may want to talk to them a little bit because some people always just want to run from some responsibilities. So you’re always interested in that.

But look at number two, be a standing man. Because we’re talking about how do you persuade people by being what people ought to be? You persuade people to do what you are and see whatever you are is what you multiply. It’s what you reproduce. Everybody reproduces after your own kind. And if you are a soul winner, you will reproduce soul winners. If you’re deadhead, you’re going to produce deadheads. If you’re a winer and you’re going to produce winers. If you’re a soul winner, you produce soul winners.

It’s whatever you are. And the greatest thing you’ll ever build is not going to be a ministry. The greatest thing you’ll ever build is yourself. Let God build you. And all the things that happens is to make you strong and build you and in whatever you are is what you’ll do because you’ll reproduce after your own kind. So learn to let God do some building. And that’s why he says in the book of Jude, talking about building up yourselves in your the most holy faith, building up yourselves.

And it’s kind of like getting, you know, you wanna be big and strong and a lot of muscles, you know, kind of like I am. But you go to gym and you work out and you do some weights and push-ups and all that kind of stuff to try to build yourself up. Well, spiritually, that’s what you have to do. And whatever you are, it ought to be good enough to somebody who says, you know, as a Christian, I wanna be like that person.

But you’re persuading them without having to say the word. You’re discipling people without using the word discipleship. Because you see, you just want to train whoever follows. And you can’t determine how many will follow you. You just lead and train those that will follow. And if you get three or five or 20, maybe a hundred, maybe a thousand. You don’t know how many you’re going to get down the road. just be faithful with what God’s given to you. And God will bless you for doing so.

The stand that you’re supposed to take is about what the Lord has done for you and not forgetting what He’s taught you. And in Galatians chapter five and verse one, stand fast therefore in the liberty where the Christ hath made us free. Learning enough from the Word of God you’re able to stand the way God wants you to stand. And as God’s children realizing that as you take a stand, it’s only because you’re strong enough in the Lord. But in the book of Ephesians in chapter 6 where he makes the statement, stand fast.

And then he makes a statement in the same chapter of 6 about not running, not bending, but standing upon what the Word of God says and having done all to stand. where it talks about the armor of the Lord and put it on the shield and put it on the helmet and the breastplate and all these things and having done all you stand a Lot of Christians are not strong enough to withstand the pressures of the world and if you don’t stand You’re going to fall.

I wrote a little statement underneath there that when the war is over when the war is over and And the smoke clears, you didn’t fought your fight, you want to be left standing. And that’s why he makes the statement that, I have fought a good fight there in chapter four. And he says, I fought a good fight. I finished my course, I have kept the faith. You want to finish standing. You don’t want the devil to be able to destroy you, to knock you down, to get you down.

And that’s why as you live your Christian life, you have to be very careful that you don’t allow the devil to have an opening to get to you and always watching and preparing. But anyway, as we’re moving right along here, look at number three, be a strong man. Now, in Ephesians in chapter six, and verse 10 talks about, and be strong in the power of his might, being strong in the Lord. Now, to be strong, you have to do things that will make you strong.

And being strong is not just so that you can walk around and show how strong you are, so that you can fight battles, it’s so that you can win. It’s because there’s going to be things that’s going to happen, it’s going to challenge you and tempt you, to lure you, to destroy you. And so you have to be strong enough to know your limits, your boundary of what you can and cannot do. And so you get to protect yourself.

And this is trying to persuade a person to be wise, to be careful and don’t play the foolish game where they won’t happen to me. Anything can happen to you if you let down your guard. And that’s why it’s so important. I’ve been married going on 51 years and I’d like to make it until we get to be with the Lord. And to be faithful, you gotta guard yourself and have a testimony of this outstanding. And so that’s, that there’s a war going on.

And so you’re trying to do what’s right. So that’s the only reason I tell you. It’s not because I’m better, it’s because I’m afraid of, I might be weak and I may not stand the way I should. And so a part of my strength is guarding myself and stay away from the edge. Don’t see just how far or how close you can get without going over the edge. Not this guy. I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do.

But I do want you to look at this scripture in Joshua. Look all the way over there to the book of Joshua. I love Joshua. Joshua’s a tremendous book. But look there in Joshua. You know, he was, well Moses is sidekick for a long time, 40 years. He was just second man, second in charge. And then whenever Moses passed off the scene, Joshua got the knot and he says here in verse five, there shall not any man be able to stand before the all the days of thy life.

What did you realize what that says? That’s God giving assurance to Joshua and he says, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. I will not fail you nor for safety. And the Old Testament was written for our ammunition so that we can learn something from it. Now what can you learn from that? Is there anything you can learn from that where he says I will be with thee?

Is that supposed to be comforting? You tell me, you think about it. God said it. I will not fail thee. Surely there’s something you can get out of that. There must be a point there to be made. And the last part of this says, North forsake thee. I’ll never forsake thee. Oh, look what else he says. In verse six, be strong. See, that’s a choice that you make. You’re the one that has to decide, well, do I really want to be strong?

If I want to be strong in the things of the Lord, then that’s my decision. But I have to commit myself to doing whatever it will take to make me strong. So be strong in of a good courage because it’s so easy to get discouraged. For unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance, the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Get verse seven, only be thou, and here’s that word again, strong, very courageous. That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left.

That thou mayest prosper, whether so ever thou goeth. So this means that Joshua will never have any trouble, he’ll never have a problem. No, he had problems right off the bat. He had a lot of problems. But he did what God says to do and God never forsook him. And he did make his way prosperous. And so there’s things that I remember reading about Moses. I mean, Joshua’s saying, I know now what others going to do. He said, but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

We’re going to serve the Lord. And that’s what he did. And he says in verse eight, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein every once in a while. Day and night. Meditate therein day and night that thou may as observed to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shall have good success. So when he made that promise to him, it’s conditional upon him staying in the word night and day meditated upon the word of God studying the words so that he would be able to do what God told him to do and then God would make his way prosperous and he would have good success and then verse 9 have not I commanded thee and here it is again be strong and of good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the

Lord God is with thee, whether so ever thou goest.” Now that is a good promise that I believe God’s people ought to hang on to because you’re talking about being strong in his mind, being strong in the Lord. And every one of us should be strong. When we hear that one verse that I can do all things through Christ which strengthened with me, it must be that I can do all things through Christ. Well, if I can, then it means that Christ can do all things.

If I can do all things through Christ, then it must mean that Christ can do all things. True? There’s no limit to what He can do. And all you’ve got to do is just learn to walk with Him and learn to trust Him. And He will do what He promise that he will do. Number four, be a serving man. Remember I made this table one time. I don’t mind serving God. It’s people that I had trouble with. But you can’t figure out how to serve God without serving people.

Because God says to serve him, I have to serve people. So whether you like it or not, I mean, well, I don’t like those people that church. I don’t like my neighbors. They just don’t like anybody. Okay, so that means you’re exempt from serving God because you You don’t have to serve those that you don’t like. And you don’t have to be nice and kind and so forth to those you don’t like. It has nothing to do with who you like and who you don’t like.

You have a responsibility. And you can’t serve God without serving people. And you’re not to be a respecter of persons. But anyway, the next statement is be a serving man. Second Timothy chapter four, second Timothy chapter four, and look there in verse one. The first six verses, I charged thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I’ve had services where I’ve, because of a Bible college, I’ve had to give a charge to those that were being ordained to the ministry.

When I was over there in India, and I think he had nine or so that was been ordained into the ministry, and I had a part in that service. And these are generally verses that we read to somebody who wants to commit themselves to the ministry of the Lord. But look what Paul says to young Timothy. And you see if there’s anything in there that you can apply to yourself. Because if this is what God wants from the man of God, well, maybe there’s something in here that every one of us ought to have.

Because he says, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Well, you can’t preach the word if you don’t know the word. So you got to know the word. Be instant in season and out of season. Be instant means be ready at all times. Always be ready. In season out of season when it’s time to plant and when it’s not time to plant.

When you’re sowing and you’re reaping. . . . . . . . . . . . It’s not all necessarily done at the same time. There’s times when you will find that you’ll have a harvest of souls and then it seemed like you’ll have dry spells. Sometimes it seems like everything’s going great and sometimes everything’s not going great. But it says be instant in season and out of season. Reprove. It means to charge here. Reprove. Rebut, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

So this is what we’re going to do. why we’re supposed to reprove somebody when they’re wrong and to rebuke somebody if necessary. And the Bible talks about taking the light of the Word of God and shining it on people so they can see what’s wrong with them. But get what he says. In verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. In the words you might know it, but you don’t want to endure it.

You don’t want to stay there. And that’s why some people that get tired, they don’t want to do the work anymore. They just want people to make them feel good. That’s why she’s talking about itching here. Just make me feel good while I’m not doing anything. And so that’s why they want to heap to themselves the kind of preachers that let them do and live however they want without feeling that sense of reprove or rebuke or confrontation where I don’t have to change anything.

And so preachers that do not preach against sin, their churches will be packed. You preach on sin and nobody likes to cause it as personal. And they don’t want you to talk about that. So therefore there’s a price to pay. But he says, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables. Things that are fiction, stories. They said in verse 5, but what’s thou in all things? Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist make full proof of thy ministry.

For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departures at hand, and I need you coming up behind me. I need somebody else to fill the gap. And this is what you’re supposed to do. I fought a good fight. I finished my race. It’s your turn now. a guy named Greg Steer, he wrote a little book called You’re Next, You’re Next. Because you see, me and Dr. Lindstrom were moving on off the scene, one of these days, you know, I’ll be gone.

And we’re hoping that there’s somebody that’s listened to what we’ve said and are going to be strong in the Lord so that they can continue doing and taking a stand the way they should for the gospel’s sake and to do all of this. So that’s the serving man. Colossians 128 simply talks about how that we’re teaching every man, warning every man, because it’s part of our responsibility to serve the Lord. Serving the Lord is serving people. Try on your dead level best to get people to do what’s right.

Try to challenge and motivate them. Number five, be a spiritual man. And be a spiritual man, you must be spiritually minded. So if you’re spiritually minded means you mind the spirit. To be fleshly minded means you mind the flesh. So you and I have a choice. And as we grow in the Lord become spiritually minded, we should become more like the Lord. And that’s found in the book of Romans in chapter eight and verse six. But first Timothy chapter four, verse seven and eight.

Look there, right where we are. 1 Timothy 4 verse 7 and 8. Not 2 Timothy now. And look over there in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 7 where it says, but refuse profane and old wise fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness, unto godliness. Because see, that is so very important, the word godliness. That’s hard to be spiritual when you’re ungodly. And if you’ll notice here, it says in verse 8, for bodily exercise profit if little, but it does profit.

But godliness is profitable. Under all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. bodily exercise, there is some profit. But evidently, being spiritually strong, spiritual exercise is a lot more important. And this is what causes the person to be a spiritually strong individual. And some people are not spiritually strong. And when you’re not spiritually strong, you cannot withstand the pressures of this life. You will not be able to win against the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

There’s a war on, there is a battle, and you will not be able to stand against it. Number 6. Number six is be a studying man. When I was making up my mind to go to Bible school, I was out there in Shreveport, Louisiana. And I don’t know why, but I did. I imagined I pictured myself in college. But for some reason or other, I kept pitching myself in an attic. And there were books on the floor all the way to the ceiling, and everything was crowded all over.

And I had a desk and I’m sitting here at the desk with a little lamp. And all these books are all over and I’m swarmed. And I’m trying to study these books because I’m going to study for the ministry. And it scared me to death. I thought, how will I learn all of this? I used to take the Bible and I look at it. I think, how will I ever learn this book? I said, a man can’t live long enough to learn this book.

So why am I going to go to Bible school? But I knew I got to do something, and that I could not know the will of God without knowing the Word of God, so it was the will of God to know the Word so I can know His will. Makes sense. So I’m going to Bible college, and I remember Betty’s dad, I told him on the phone. He started questioning me, how do you know? How do you know that this is what God wants you to do?

I said, I don’t know, but I’m going to Bible college. So you’re going to be a preacher. I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t want people to go to hell. And I know that I need to know the book. And I had a hunger and I wanted to do it. And he was afraid of me going to Bible college. Because he says, Bible college, you’re just like the seminaries. They’re all cemeteries. He says, no, kill you.

They’ll rip that fire out of your gut and you’re not going to want to do anything.” So I go anyway, I said, well, I’m bringing Betty and the kids to your house. And I want to leave Betty and the kids with y’all. And I’m going to Bible school. So anyway, I got a lot of memories. I know I’m getting old because I do a lot of reminiscing that I used to never even do. Never even thought about stuff. But I knew that I had to study, to study.

And if you want to know the will of God, you have to study and know the Word of God. And I think that was an advantage that it served me well over the years. And I know that if you listen to Dr. Ankelnstrom, his knowledge of the Bible was unsurpassed. I mean, the guy just knew the book and probably could go back and forth all over the place and never have to even probably tell you where it was at, I mean, he just quote him.

But if you don’t do that overnight, You’ve got to study and memorize a lot of scripture. And there’s people the day they want to serve a little, but they don’t want to spend any time in the book. Where you’re going to be limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry. You’ve got to spend time with the Lord. Let God teach you the Word of God, and it will be a great blessing to you. 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. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the Clear Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible line 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. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.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. We will be changed. Hot 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.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us to free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts chapter 3, Acts and chapter 3. You and I are supposed to believe that we are valuable to God because the Bible talks about the birds of the air, how many hairs are on your head. That talks about if a sparrow falls, your heavenly Father knows about it. Are you not much more worthy? So you are worthy of God’s attention. And you must be of great value because God sent his son into the world to die for you, to pay for your sins.

And if there’s nobody more important than you, then he would have done that just for you. So you are important to the Lord and you are valuable to the Lord. You see, in the eyes of the world, we put a value upon ourselves based upon what material value we have. much am I worth?” But you know, it all depends on what you’re looking at. If you were to see the apostles, you would say they were poor. Even when Christ was here, He said, though He was rich, yet He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.

So you’re looking at a rich man. But it all depends on how you’re looking at riches. And so you need to understand this. Otherwise, you could have what you can get hurt. You think you don’t work out writing so you get hurt because you figure out God why don’t you bless or open up and give or whatever. And so you can set in judgment upon God. We have a tendency to do that. And then if we can’t figure it out, we can get hurt and then we get bitter and we get bitter.

And a lot of times whenever you’re bitter toward people, they’re just the reciprocals of your bitterness toward God. They are just just happened to get in the way. And so we take it out on people. And sometimes they have absolutely nothing to do with our bitterness. They said, we’re mad at God. So here in the book of Acts in chapter three, I want you to look at this. In verse one says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer.

Been about the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who see in Peter and John about to go into the temple, ask in arms. And Peter fastened his eyes upon him with John, says, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something. And look at us. And he looked, expecting to receive something.

And I like this. Verse 6, Peter said, silver and gold have I, an awful lot. I got my credit card, I got a Visa card, I got the Master card, and I got this Sir card, and I got money in the bank. How much do you need? That’s that what he said? Silver and gold have I none, none. Evidently, here are two of the greatest men in the world, the apostles of the Lord. And there are, I mean they had nothing.

He said, but such as I have, such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. That’s pretty powerful. That’s better than silver and gold. Have you ever had somebody say, what do you have? What do you have? Now that can be taken two ways. If you walk up to a bar and say, well, what do you have? Well, he might have something else in mind. What do you have means?

What do you want me to give you? But another one is, what do you have? What do I have? When you look at yourself, what do you see? How valuable do you see yourself in the Lord? You see, I see myself differently than probably most people do. I see myself as very valuable to the Lord. I believe that God has increased my learning, my talent, my abilities over 50 years so that I can become valuable in the hands of God, though poor making many rich.

Do you realize just how valuable you are? Now I want to give you a couple of things that I want you to kind of write them down if you want to, but look there first of all in Hebrews in chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, the book of Hebrews and chapter 11. You say, well I don’t have much. I’ve had a lot of time people say, well I don’t have much. You’d be surprised what you have. You just don’t know that it’s valuable.

And you might squander it because you don’t know how valuable you are. Look in verse 5 of Hebrews chapter 11, By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he and you ought to underline these words, he had this testimony. He had a, it didn’t say he had money in the bank. Didn’t say he had cars and homes. says he had a testimony. Now are you telling me that you can’t have a good testimony unless you have all the wealth in the world?

You can’t have a good testimony unless you’ve got good help? Unless you’ve got good friends? You see your testimony has nothing to do with anybody or anything. That’s what your life testifies to. You have a life to live and it’s your testimony that is so important because how you live testifies to something that’s important to you. So what does your testimony say? Somebody accused of a crime and you’re asked to testify, tell what you know. Your testimony by some is deemed to be very valuable, but your testimony is what does God want you to say through your life of how you live.

Now, I don’t have to have money to have a good testimony and neither do you. So what do you have? What do you have? Suver and gold have I none, but I got a good testimony. That’s very valuable. Because of a good testimony, God took Enoch and translated him. It means that he did not see death. And what did he have to pay to get that? How much did he cost? There could be somebody else with millions of dollars but couldn’t buy that.

But he got it because of a good testimony. You’d be surprised what God can do with a person who has a good testimony. That means somebody who is concerned about their effects upon other people. It is very, very important to keep that in mind. So you don’t want to lose a good testimony because of its volume. The next scripture I want you to look at is 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. See, sometimes in life it gets to where things things run of the meal just boring.

Nothing exciting happening, nothing going on. And sometimes we become so impatient waiting on God to do something. And so we sense ourselves sometimes falling to a time of depression, discouragement. And so how do you deal with it? But here in 1 Corinthians in chapter 10, I want you to look there in verse 13. There have no temptation taken you but such as his common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.

Let me ask you this, have you ever been tempted? You say, well yes I have, I have been tempted. Did you know to be tempted can become an asset? Isn’t it that God is going to reward you by how you handle temptation? Usually temptations are the results of internal pressure. I’m tempted because of something in me that wants something and I’m tempted. Trials usually comes from external pressure. So we have temptations, internal, and we have pressures on the outside the trials of life.

So do you ever have problems? If you have problems, you could be a very rich man. Because some people don’t get to go through some of the problems you go through, some people will not learn some of the lessons you will learn. If you don’t see those things as a value to you, you’ll despise them. But what does the Bible say in the book of James? Tell it all joy. When you fall in the divers’ temptation, it means many different kinds of testings and temptation.

So are you rich? Are you valuable? Think about this. In the book of Peter it makes a statement that the trial of your faith. Be in much more precious than gold and silver. The trial of your faith. Your faith is on trial. More valuable than gold and silver. What do you have? What do you have? Silver and gold have I none. But buddy I’ve got a lot of temptations in this world. I’ve got a lot of problems in this world.

Boy have I got a lot of trials that I have to go through. Man, you lucky dog. Shame on the man who goes through and has nothing that he has to struggle with and learn from. And most people think, well, money will be the cure of all. So if I get money, I don’t get what my problem is, I can buy my way out of it. Somebody made a statement like this. A man’s life consisted if not in the abundance of the things which a man possesses.

When who said that? And they got a clue. Jesus said that. Jesus said that. A man’s life does not consist out of the abundance of the things that he possesses. In other words, it’s something more, something better. So when you have trials and tribulations and temptations and all these things, things you are valuable because see all those things is just going to make you one rich individual because there’s a God in heaven that’s keeping the books and he is going to reward you for your faithfulness, for your faithfulness.

Well to be faithful you’ve got to have something required of you, faithful to do what? Well see the things of the world and the devil can use a lot of things is to get you to quit, to stop. But faithfulness is what God is going to reward. And so you can be truly blessed by the Lord. But look what he says in verse 13, but God is faithful. You have the faithfulness of God. Did you know that? You have something.

You’ve got temptation, yes, but I’ve also got the faithfulness of God on my side. Now you You may not have a lot of friends, may not have a lot of money, may not have good help. Who knows what you’re going through? Today doesn’t mean that’s what you’re going to be facing tomorrow or next week. But if you have the faithfulness of God in your hip pocket, you really have got some good backup. Think about it, you got backup. You got somebody that’s going to be right there with you.

Look what he says. God is faithful who will not suffer a permit you to be tempted above that you’re able, but will with the temptation. So you’ve got something, you’ve got temptations, and you’ve got something else. You have a way of escape. You have a way out. Because God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted above what you’re able to bear. So you can bear it. See, you didn’t know you was that strong, did you? God is going to allow you to be tested because He’s more concerned about your character than anything else, your integrity, and you can become a very, very valuable individual.

Take your Good bye, looking first Peter chapter four first Peter and chapter four Look in verse 12, 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 12. Beloved, this is talking to the Christian. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. So you know you’re going to have fiery trials. Trials that seem to put you through the fire. Now when you’re serving the Lord and you’re trying to do what’s right, the fire. is to purify you.

It’s not for chasin’ it’s not to destroy you. It’s to purify you. You see, Job had a few problems. It doesn’t come right out and say it, but as you studied the book of Job, it kind of reveals itself that Job, you see, could see how far he had come, but Job couldn’t see how far he had to go. So God was revealing how much more he needed and God taught him a great lesson. I’m going to cover some things about Job one of these days.

I think you’ll like it. It’s really good. But look what he says here in verse 12 he says, which is to try you as though some strange thing happen unto you? When you ever say stuff like that, strange, mention twice in that one verse, strange. Do you know because of who you are, you’re a child of God, you trust the crisis, you save you, you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Do you think it’s strange sometimes the way life is to you.

Sometimes the way people are, sometimes the way you seem to be struggling so much all the time. It seemed like it doesn’t let up and you can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. And sometimes it can just seem so strange that if I love the Lord so much, why is God letting it be so dark? You see God wants you just to trust him and he’ll walk you through it. Most people quit too soon. They usually stop right before victory.

You just keep your eyes on the Lord and just keep trusting Lord and just keep walking with the Lord. And one day your book look back upon those dark experiences you’ve gone through and you’ll realize that’s when you learn the most because you’ll You’ll know God was carrying you and God was doing things for you. Look what else he says here. As those some strange things, and here’s the word happen. So see, we like planning things. Sometimes we don’t like things that just all of a sudden happens.

Because we didn’t plan it. It wasn’t in, it wasn’t my desire. But there’s always seem like something happens. I don’t care what I’ve tried to do over the years. It seemed like there’s always somebody else got a plan and their plan is to ruin mine. You ever be like, feel like that? I’ve got a goal to reach and somebody’s goal is to keep me from reaching it. And it just seemed like it’s such a strange thing because you can’t put your finger on it.

You can’t explain everything. God wants us to keep walking with them when we can’t see, when we don’t know what to do. all know what to do. Just keep trusting Him. Keep trusting Him. Faith is born and despair. When you have come to the end of yourself and you have no more power, no wisdom, remember when I talked about the finite man, how limited we are and how infinite God is and there’s so much difference between the two of us.

Don’t you as you live your Christian life, can’t you see the vast expanse, the difference? How much were not like God? I was with Dr. Curtis Hutchin one time. He was the editor of the Sword of the Lord, great man. He come to preach at our church and he preached the sermon one time on Romans 8 28. But he also tied it in with the book 1 John and chapter 3 verses 2 and 3, where it talks about, we don’t know right now what we’re going to be like.

But we know that when we see Him, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope purified Himself. And He says, Lord, if someday I’m going to be like You, why can I be more like You now when I can do the most good. It’s okay for me to be like you when I get to heaven. But I want to be like you now. And I said to you on the stage and I listened to him say that I thought that is wisdom overflowing.

I get what he’s talking about. He was dying of cancer. He had about another six months to a year to live. And he died when he was sixty years old. But he was a great man of the Lord. And I listened to him. He was eight years older than me. And now I don’t live nine years after he passed away and I thought I’ll never live as long as he did. We have no clue how much time God’s going to give to us to live.

But Lord, if someday I’m going to be like you. Why can’t I be like you now when it can do the most good? Stop and think. Don’t that make sense? Don’t it make sense? It does make sense. So look there in verse 13, because of the fiery trial which is to try you, and look in the next two words. Complain, complain, complain. Why, why, why? Is that what it says to do? He says, but rejoice, rejoice. In the word you and I are supposed to believe so much, so strongly in the provision, protection of the Lord that we don’t wait till He does it to praise Him and thank Him.

We do it in advance. We live as though He already has done it in our mind. And it gives us that confidence that we want. You say, well that takes a lot of faith. Well, you know what we’re talking about living by faith. In the words, praise the Lord now for what He’s going to do because you know He’s going to do it. Well, I’m not sure about that. An unstable man is unstable in all of his ways because it means that you’re like a ship upon the sea.

You’re tossed to and fro. The Lord will provide, I think. The Lord’s going to get me out of this. I Hopa, hopa, hopa, hopa, hopa, hopa. Can you be surprised what we go through? Listen, as Christians, we struggle because it is a strange, fiery thing that we have to go through a trial because we haven’t done it before. And we’re sometimes learning as we go. And sometimes we stumble and make a lot of mistakes and we get burned, we get scars on ourselves.

So you just get back up and keep on walking. Just get back up. Looking verse 13, but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad. You may be glad. Do it now, serve him now, count it all joy, rejoice now, and then whenever his glory is revealed, you’ll have exceeding great joy. You’ll enjoy it better now and can’t wait to get to heaven and really see and understand what it was all about.

See, God doesn’t explain everything to us. It’s kind of like this. I’ve done a lot of funerals in my life, but there’s a little story I tell of grandma sitting on the front porch. And the granddaughters sitting on the floor, grandma sitting in her rock and chair trying to get it going. And she’s doing some embroidery work and the little girl sitting down there and she’s looking up and All she sees on this side of the embroidery work is a lot of broken strings of all different colors No continuity She can’t even tell what it is She says grandma.

What are you making? She says I’m making something very beautiful She says it sure don’t look like it to me Well, I’ll let you see it after a while. And when she gets through and she brings a little granddaughter of parents, that’s on her knees and she’ll show her the beautiful flower that she’s been working on. You see, it’s all because of our perspective. We can’t see things from God’s perspective. But if we could only see what God is doing in our individual lives and how He is weaving things back and forth and over and up and down and sideways and through and all that stuff.

of what God brings into your life and what He leaves out, one day you’ll live long enough to thank the Lord for all the prayers He never answered. Don’t need to repeat that. One day you may live long enough to be thankful to the Lord for all the prayers that He didn’t answer. Because, you see, we don’t always pray for the right thing. Most of the time we’re trying to pray how to get out of a mess. When God doesn’t want to get out of it, He wants us to go through it.

There’s lessons that He wants us to learn because those lessons are the valuable things that we can teach other people. Money can’t buy those things. So the Lord in order to make you rich, He allows you to have all the suffering that you go through. And a lot of people go through suffering, but they see they don’t know this so they won’t listen They won’t learn and there’s a lot of bitter people in the world The last people that should be this way is God’s people Because we know we got the Lord We know that God has a purpose We know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to those are called according to his purpose now One other verse I want you to look at look there in the book of Ephesians and chapter 5 the book of

Ephesians and chapter 5 There’s something else that you you have that makes you pretty valuable You see You have one of the greatest commodities known demand You see it doesn’t matter how much money you have or wealth in this world if you died today, it won’t do you any good if you were dead. So life is valuable. And life is made up of time. So how you spend time is how you spend your life. So be careful how you spend time because if you waste time, you waste your life because that is what life is made out of.

So he says here in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5, looked what he says there in verse 16, redeeming the time buying up opportunities, taking advantage of what God did give to you. Of all the open doors he has given, realize that God says you are valuable, you are rich, and And I’m given to you something that if you only understood, there’s all that you need. You see, God gives us all we need to do all He wants where we are.

We always want and expect more. If I had more than I want this or that and the other. And that’s our part of our human nature. We want to always more and more and more. We’re never hardly content. I’m always striving for something more. I don’t like to be content. That the Bible says be content with what you have, where you are. Paul says I’ve learned to be content. And yet at the same time, we’re always to strive and press toward the mark of the high column of God in Christ’s uses.

So there’s always these battle between the human element and the human perspective versus the divine perspective. where we look to the Lord and do what God wants us to do. So we don’t want to waste our time because it’s so valuable. 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. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. 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 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. My broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.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. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.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’re still trying to get to heaven because you don’t know if you’re going to make it not because of something, Then that means you don’t know it now. You can’t be saved without being saved from something. Save from what? Save from hell. Christ cannot be my Savior if he has not saved me. So I accepted the payment he made. It’s done deal. I am saved, saved and secure. It’s done deal. So the Bible is clear on this and there’s no reason for anybody to be mixed up on it.

But But what I tell you they are, so many people do not get the simplicity that’s in these scriptures. So we have been redeemed. Look there in chapter 5. Chapter 5, it kind of gives us this idea about us being redeemed. When he makes the statement there in verse 9, much more than being now justified by his blood. By his blood is the payment that was made because the life of the flesh is in the blood. So I have been justified by his blood, that payment that was made.

That’s what the law required, a death payment. So he was able to do this for us and we have been reconciled to him. So we have been redeemed. Now look at the next word. The next word is regeneration. Regeneration. If you take off the word ree, it’s just generation. And it comes from the word genesis, or you have beginning. And so if you go all the way back to beginning, when everything began and when you trust Christ as your Savior, it is a new beginning.

It is the new birth. So the regeneration, if you want to mark it down there, would be in letter H, this word speaks of the new birth. Take your Bible and look there in Titus in chapter three, the book of Titus and chapter three. But Titus in chapter three. But while you’re right here in chapter three, just so that you see this other verse I want you to see, in chapter two in verse 14, you’ll notice where it says in verse 14, Christ, who gave himself for us.

That’s why you often refer and you’ll hear He said, Christ was the payment. He gave Himself. The price was Him. And so He says, who gave Himself for us, for us, that substitution. Get this, that He might redeem us. So He had to give the payment that was required. So He died to redeem us. And not only does He want to just save us from help, But in our Christian life, he wants to redeem us also from those things that keeps us from serving the Lord.

So I can’t say I am being redeemed, but I am to be walking in the Lord and he wants to have each one of us to be zealous, zealous of good works. I can say just about from the time I trust that Christ is my Savior, just maybe a couple of years in there, I kind of floundered, trying to figure out what’s going on. And I wasn’t always clear, but I’ve had a burning zeal to want to serve the Lord.

I’ve been zealous of good works. I desire to do whatever it takes to please the Lord. And whatever He wanted me to do, wherever we want to go, God never had to argue. He never had to fight with me. I was searching. He had trouble directing me because I didn’t know which way to go and not all the things to do. But I was desirous of doing what He’s talking about here. He wanted for Himself people that were, as He says here, a peculiar people, people that are different from the world.

Now I guess I’m about as different as they come, but different. Zealous of good works. Then He says down here in verse 5. Chapter 3, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. So every one of us, once you trust Christ as your Savior, it is a new generation, a new beginning of life. That’s why God wants us to be a tree of life.

It says in the book of Proverbs, a tree, a tree that is wise, when it’s so, he has a tree of life. In other words, when you trust the Christ as your savior, has there been any fruit from your tree, another generation, another generation? No, because see, that’s what God wants from every one of us. Now, somebody had asked me this question just today at the Tampa Bible study. And so look there at this verse in the book of Matthew 24, Matthew 24, and verse 32 about the type of the fig tree.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and put it for a flea, you know that summer is nigh. Well, to me the point of the parable is that when a fig tree puts forth the tender leaves, you know that summer is nigh. That’s the point. is you know something is near because of something else. Now he says, when you see these things come to pass, then you’ll know that Christ has soon appeared because that’s in the content.

Now, it does not say here that this is definitely the fig tree is when Israel became a nation. We often refer to that. I do too. I believe that Israel is a type of a fig tree that began to blossom back in 1948. And so people think, okay, a generation could be 70 years. So a generation of 70 years, okay, from seven years from that period of time, and then take off the seven year tribulation when he comes back to the year.

So you got seven years at that close. So there is a possibility. That’s why a lot of people are, you know, saying something like it because of the generation being 70 years. But it says, when ye shall see in verse 33, all these things know that it is near even at the doors. So it’s a reference to those who see these things that are mentioned in the 24th chapter. And it’s not a reference to the nation of Israel becoming a nation as it is when ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, standing in the holy place, and when does that take place in the tribulation period.

So it’s got to be a referring to the people that will be living at that period of time. There’s many people who were alive when the nation of Israel came into existence in May the 28th, 1948. But majority of those people that were born then are dead. True? A lot of them are dead. So they never saw it. Which ones get to see it? The ones that lived the longest? Well, they might. But majority of the people have already died.

So that generation, is it those that were born at that time on, that gets to 70 years, or those who was a man who was already 50 years old. If he was 50 years old in 1948, he’s an old codger now, ain’t he? But he’s dead. So he didn’t make it. So is the generation only beginning in 1948 and those who were born at that time forward? Okay, that sounds pretty good. But you see, you can’t prove it. And that’s the problem.

Take your Bible and look there in the book of Matthew chapter one, since you’re right here real close to this. Look in Matthew in chapter one. In Matthew chapter one, you’ll notice where he says in verse one, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, son of Abraham, and goes down through here and and it mentions all these individuals. It goes all the way through here and just keeps mentioning them time and time again. And it talks about Solomon and all these people.

And then down in verse 11 in Josiah, begat, Jack and Ia, and his brother and about the time they were carried away into Babylon. And I mean, you’re going from one end to the other. Goes all the way down to verse 16. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Now looking for 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. And from David onto the carrying away in the Babylon, 14 generations.

From the carrying away in the Babylon onto Christ 14 generations. Okay? How long is the generation? Now is it years or is it the person daddy and then he has a son and then he has a son and then he has a son. And so each one of these generations, is it not true that I as Yankee had a son? That’s the next generation. And Eddie, my son, he had a son. But of Jordan that’s another generation, but is there 70 years between me and my son or seven years between my son and his son?

Or if there’s 14 generations from this one to this one is there seven years in between all of these or is it just talking about the people? Now we find the generations mentioned in Matthew chapter 1 and then also there in chapter 24. So is it possible that it’s It’s the people that were born from here to here, 14 generations during that period of time. And then from here to there, 14 generations. And from there to there, 14 generations during that period of time.

Well he says there, this generation one shall not pass away. So is it possible that it could be those people that are living at that period of time? So whether or not you want to make it say, you know, it’s Israel and the date when Israel became a nation, it can be a lot of similarities and we can always apply a lot of things. But when it comes to the Scripture and being dogmatic, I have to have the absolute Scripture that says it.

But I believe that it’s a good possibility and it may be and it may be a good type and it can be thrown in there. And so I don’t have any problem with it, per se. But I do believe that here, it’s a generation of people that were living at this period of time, and this period of time hasn’t got here yet. This is a period of time that’s yet in the future. And so you see there in verse 21, for then shall be great tribulation, such as one’s not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor shall ever be.

And except those days should be short. So he’s talking about a specific period of time. And those that will be here doing this period of time, doing the tribulation period, will see all the things that God has promised. And he says, you lift up your eyes for your, that the coming is nine. And so I believe you can refer to that more so. And the other can be secondary. Now go back there. Well, we’re not to go back there to that one verse, but just to know that Regeneration is a reference.

I only use two times in the scripture and it’s talking about the new birth and when you are born again, a new generation, totally separate from the other one. Now my son is totally separate, a separate generation from me and his son is separate generation from him and the new birth is a total separation from the first birth. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew chapter 21, Matthew chapter 21, because the next word is the word repentance.

And everybody knows what repent means. It means turn or burn. Well not exactly. But I do believe it means to change your mind, to think differently, to reconsider. And there are some words translated to repent that means anguish, to regret, great sorrow. But when it’s talking about salvation, it’s always a change of mind. And just to show you a little bit, look there in Matthew chapter 21 and verse 28 verse 28. So whenever you’re talking about change of mind, you’re talking about your thoughts, the way you think.

But what thinking, you ought to underline those two words, what thinking? A certain man had two sons. He came to the first and said, son, go work today in my vineyard. answered and says, I will not. It’s not like a typical teenager don’t it? But what he said, afterwards he repented and he went. So what do you think repentment? He changed his mind. He says, no. And then he changed his mind. And then he went. But look at the next verse.

He says, and he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and says, I go, sir, but he didn’t go. whether of the two did the will of the Father. They said unto him, well the first one, Jesus said unto them, verily I send to you that the publicans, the tax collector, the down anouse, the harlots, the horse go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye get this believed him none.

So what were they supposed to do when John came preaching? believe what he said. And John the Baptist says, believe on him that comes after me. And here he’s talking about in this verse 32, but the publicans and the harlots and you other than line these two words, believed him. So there’s those that did not believe and those, there are those that did believe. And ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterwards that you might believe. You didn’t change your mind so that you could trust them.

So there to me is a good definition or explanation of what repent means because they’re talking about changing their mind and to believe. So if a man is an unbeliever and to become a believer, you had to change your mind to reconsider to think differently. Look there in the book of Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13, and look there in verse 1. 1. Who? Chapter 13 verse 1. And you’ll notice in verse 1, he says, there were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood-pilot had mangled with their sacrifices.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, and here’s those two words, suppose you, that means that has to do with the way you think. Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” In other words, you need to change your mind. What you’re thinking isn’t true. Change your mind. Reconsider it’s not the truth. Then he also says in verse 4, or those 18 upon whom the tower in Silungfeld and slew them, think ye has to deal with the way a man thinks that they were centers above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

He says, I tell you, Nate, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Change your mind, think differently. It was because of their rejection of Christ that everything they thought about them happened to them later down the road when God destroyed the whole pit and caboodle. So take your Bible and just look at one more very quickly in the book of Acts chapter 17. And notice what he says here in verse 27. Acts 17, 27 says, that they should seek the Lord.

If happy they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. As certain also of your own poets have said we are his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God we ought not to think. So you ought to underline the words to think because it deals with the subject of what are you thinking about or how do you see God.

And so he says that the Godhead is like under gold or silver stone, graven by art man’s devices. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Why? Well, because, verse 1, there is because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom ye he hath ordained. Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he had raised him from the dead, and when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some monk, another says, we will hear the again of this matter.

But in verse 34, how be it certain men clave unto him and believed? Some believe. So whenever you’re witnessing and talking to a mixed audience, some may believe it, and some may not believe it. But it’s trying to get people to repent change your mind. So all those that are trusting in their religion to get them to heaven, they need to repent. So every man needs to repent. Anyone who’s trusting in their good works to get them to heaven has to repent of their good works.

They got to change your mind about their good works and it won’t save them. That’s why in Hebrews in chapter 6 of verse 1 and 2 when it talks about not laying again The foundation from dead works, repentance from dead works, remains change your mind, dead works can’t save. And so people that are trusting in the works of a dead man, a man separated from God, can’t deliver himself. So repent for a person who wants to be saved must change his mind about.

Nothing that a man can do can save himself, and he has to trust Christ and him alone. So repent is changing your mind about works for salvation and trusting Christ for salvation. Outside of that, it will be a wrong understanding of the word repent. Self-righteousness is pretty self-explanatory. I’m sure you understand what self-righteousness is. It’s letter B. This righteousness is man at his best before salvation. and it’s not very good even after salvation. But in the Old Testament, Isaiah 64, 6, anybody ever heard of Isaiah 64, 6?

None of the righteousness of man, it’s all filthy rags. And it says in the Old Testament, and also when he makes the statement, there’s none righteous, no not one, that’s also in the book of Psalms 14. And so you have in the Old Testament that man’s righteousness is no good. In the New Testament, when he says, it’s not of works, not of works, not of works, because man’s work is no good. And so there are people who are trusting in their works.

They are righteous in themselves. But what would be a good verse to show a person that they should not be trusting in their work? Well, of course you can use Ephesians 8 and 9 and Titus 3, 5. You can also use the scripture there in Philippians in chapter three and verse nine. And be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith.

So that is something that God says that we cannot trust in our own righteousness, but they’re self-righteous people. And 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, you ever heard of that one? For he, God, hath made him Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sinned for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So God imputes his righteousness to us. So the last one here imputed righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, of course that goes up there to where you have F.

This righteousness given to man at the moment of salvation, where God imputes his righteousness. Now we’ve covered this pretty much in detail before in the book of Romans in chapter 4. But remember he says, and it is also imputed unto us if we believe. If we do not believe his righteousness is not imputed or put to your account. So whenever you do believe it, it’s put to your account and you get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for you.

Salvation is the gift of God. It’s not a works list. And you mentioned both. So is there any question on any of these right here? Here are any questions. You got it down. You know it now. You can teach it. No worry about that. It Any questions? You got it down. You know it now. You can teach it. No worry about that. It really does make a nice little, you know, a good little Bible study that you never know that down the road you get a chance to teach and just explain a couple of things.

You’ll find out that one of the best ways to sometimes teach when you don’t know when you’re going to do it and you always have something ready. Just get about five to ten salvation verses put it together and just go from this verse to this verse and just explain it. Just let the word tell what it says and you just explain a little bit. And I used to tell the kids when they was in college, because they had to teach all over the place, because they had to do it in all the ranches that we had.

And I had five or six ranches going at the same time. And then we had the bus ministry, and they had to give devotions, and they had to give the chapels, and just always going at them. I said, just teach them what I taught you. Just teach what I taught you. You stay out of trouble out of way. Until you get on down the road, and you’ll learn so much more, and you’ll have so much going on in your mind, and it’ll help you tremendously.

Look up here very quickly. This is you and me and this is sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us, but He hates our sin. But for us to pay for this sin is eternal separation from God. So because we’re sinners and we’re guilty and we got a debt to pay, God says that you see, to go to heaven you have to be perfect and nobody’s perfect and we can’t save ourself. This is why we needed to be redeemed.

So somebody had to be able to be a kinsman, and Christ was our near kinsman. He was a man or a call the son of man, and the other part is what he had called the son of God, because he was God and man, son of God, son of man. And so Jesus Christ came into the world, and he had no sin, so he didn’t have to die. But because he was a kinsman, and he was willing to make the payment that was necessary, so he was willing to do that, paid for our sins on the cross, came back from the dead.

When we believe that he did it for us, then we are imputed with his righteousness, and we go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. There’s no tricks of that to the best news in the world. Yesterday, this nice-looking gentleman came to the church office and he was in the bookstore. And Mike came over and told me, says, Pastor, there’s a guy over there that you might want to talk to. He says, he got teenagers. I says, he does, and you know, he got teenagers.

I says, I’ll finish up here in just a moment, so I was talking to Mr. Paulson, and so we finished up. He came into the office and he sat down nice looking gentlemen clean cut and So we started talking and I had a wife and three kids and there are one of them Just graduating the teenage boy and couple girls and So anyway, we talked for a little bit and I you know ask the question I bet you can’t guess what the question was I Says can I ask you a question?

And he says, sure, I says, do you know for sure where you’re going to go when you die? Hey, sure, well, I sure hope I’m going to heaven. I sure hope so. So whenever a person says, I hope I’m going, what does that tell you? It tells you that they don’t really know for sure. So then I proceeded to explain it to him. I gave part of my testimony. And then of course I pulled out my wallet and explained it.

When I got through, I looked at him and I says, does this make sense to you? He said, yes, it does. I said, will you it right now? Will you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior? He said, yes, I will. And so I asked him, well, in 10 years, if I saw you, where would you go? He said, I’m going to heaven. And I said, well, how do you know? He said, I’m trusting Christ. So I enjoyed talking to him.

And he called. And so we talked a little bit more and find out he played basketball and was on the team for the Atlanta Hawks. And he says, but I guess he didn’t get to play actually on the court, but he was on the team. But then you want to play in New York. Anyway, he’s over here and he’s got a wife and kids and he says, I’m looking for a church. And so I thought, Joe just talked to me about it.

He wished he had a guy that could coach basketball. This guy walks in. So we got a nail of this guy. If you see him, you’d be really nice and kind to this guy. I’d love to get the whole family, I really would. So you never know when somebody’s gonna come around and the impact you’re gonna make. All because Mike talked to him in the office and just kind of channeled him. I’m glad he channeled him to me because if James had got him, James would have led him to the Lord.

That’s why half the people, I can’t lead him to the Lord. I can’t even got him before I get to him. So, because he just goes after him. But anyway, he said he’s gonna try to be here this Sunday. So if you see a nice distinguished looking guy, No. Be extra friendly to him. First name is Robert. Just walk up and say, Robert, I remember you. I saw you on TV playing for the Len Hawks. No, don’t do it.

But anyway, God’s good to us. We’re gonna have a word of prayer. Okay, let’s pray. Our Father, we do thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. We are thankful for the free gift of eternal life. We ask Lord your blessings upon us. And we thank you for those that are working with the one and we just pray Lord that the kids have listened and learned. We’ve got many great, difficult truths that will help sustain them for their life.

So bless each one here in Christ and we 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.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.

your Bible and turn there to the book of Romans in chapter 5. Romans and chapter 5. Now look there in verse 8. He said, but God sent in His or committed His love toward us into why we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified, we’re justified by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath through Him. In verse 10, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

Art, look up here. When we were enemies of God, Christ became the mediator for man, for God, and took our sins so that you and I could come together with God. And that’s all because of what Christ did for us. And whenever you accepted Christ as your Savior, you have been declared righteous, not in yourself, not because you earned it, not because of what you do or don’t do, has nothing to do with it. I am just as justified and I am just as reconciled if I never darken the doors of a church.

Never give a dime. Never live for God one Iota because these are positional truths that happen to us that when you trust a Christ is your Savior this is what happened to you. This is what God did for us and so we have been reconciled. Now take your Bible and look there in 2nd Corinthians 2nd Corinthians in chapter 5 and you’ll notice there in verse 18 And once you trust Christ as Savior, it’s a new birth. All things are new.

Concerning the new birth. So he said, all things are of God who had had past tense, reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. You see, it was Jesus Christ, our go between, our mediator, in order to bring us to God. That’s mentioned better in the book of 1 Peter in chapter 3, verse 18 and 19 and so forth. But look what he says here, to wit that, excuse me, verse 18, and hath given, that’s past tense, to us, believers, the ministry of reconciliation.

So this is a ministry that God has given to you and to me. Every one of us who hath been reconciled to God because of the death of his son, that God says, I’m given to you this ministry of reconciliation. What? Our look up here. There’s the lost man. Here we are, and there’s God. God said, I want you to go tell that man what I did for him so that he can be reconciled to God. That is the purpose of our life.

That’s why the radio ministry, that’s why ranch, That’s why Sunday school, that’s why a one, that’s why reformers your nanomot, that’s why church, that’s why that’s the purpose of life, the Christian life. God has given to every one of his children the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, to reconcile this lost man back to God. So you have to tell him what Christ did. He’s the focus of everything that we do. It’s because of Him and because you present Christ to a lost man, he’s supposed to understand that because of what Christ did, I can go to the Father.

I can be born into a spam and I can have eternal life and I can go to heaven whenever I die, all because of Christ. You don’t get honor, credit, and glory. The Bible makes his statement. He says, one plants, one waters, God gives a fee increase. That means that some may plant and not reap. And some may reap and not plant. And so it’s God that saves the soul. But our responsibility is to bring the message to the lost man so that he can be reconciled back to God.

And so God has given to us the ministry. So you can’t say, well, God never gave me a ministry. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be a pastor. You don’t have to be an elder. You don’t have to be a deacon. You don’t have to be a Sunday school teacher. You can just be on every job, though, but you have a ministry of reconciliation. Now, the more you discipline your life and the godlier you live, the more people are going to believe what you have to say.

And when you really care about that lost man hearing the message so that he can respond, then you don’t want to say or do anything that would cause him not to trust the Lord, not to believe. So that’s why you, the love of souls and this whole ministry and understanding is what causes you to discipline yourself. Otherwise there’s nothing that makes you do it. Why? Because I don’t have to. I don’t have to clean up my life and I don’t have to go to church.

Well then why do I do it? Because the ministry of reconciliation that God gave to me. You see, let me finish this out a lot because it’s so important. I want you to see that. In verse 19, to admit that God, get that God was in Christ, reconciling the world onto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Well, wait a minute, you mean you can do something and then you don’t have to give a count of it? That doesn’t sound right.

You don’t get it. And most people never get this. But he says, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath, past tense, committed unto us believers, the word of reconciliation. You see, it’s the words that we use that they need to hear so that they can believe the message. And then he says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ, dead be reconciled to God. get verse 21, for he hath made him.

Jesus Christ, who no no sin to be sinned for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That is the purpose of reconciliation. Now, if you’ll notice in chapter 6 and verse 1, it follows right after that last verse in 2nd Corinthians 5 21. But in this verse it says, we then as, and you ought to underline this, workers together with Him. Be seated you also that you received not the grace of God in vain.

God left us here and to be left here given the opportunity to serve the Lord and tell people about them That was grace because we didn’t earn that right. This is a privilege. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. It’s the greatest thing to ever come down the pike. There’s nothing greater than the ministry of reconciliation. And you’d be surprised how many people never take advantage of this great ministry, of what God can do with an individual because it’s the word of reconciliation, the word that we teach and that we preach, and it is so very, very important.

Anyway, if you look at letter E to remove the problem between two parties at disagreement with each other. You ever have two people who have a disagreement? Well, they need to be reconciled. And sometimes in this life with people, it may never happen. And even if you give the gospel to a person, they may not believe it. James was talking to somebody today and he came and says, preacher, I talked to this guy. He heard the radio broadcast and he says, I kept asking him, do you understand?

He said, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Do you understand what I’m saying? I don’t No. Well, you trust Christ’s Savior, I don’t know. Just as I know, I said, I got about 10 minutes before I had to leave for the Bible study downtown. I said, bring him in. He came in, and I was under the gun, so I gave him 10 minutes. And, Betty, I can say a lot of things in 10 minutes. And so, when I finally got through, I said, did it make sense to you?

He says, I don’t know. I hate to ask the men to trust Christ’s Savior when He doesn’t understand it. I don’t know. I don’t know. I said, James, he’s all yours. Yeah, we told him, I said, don’t you die in the meantime. I said, are you going to die? He said, I don’t know. I don’t know. So some people just don’t, they don’t know. And you can’t make a person see, you can’t make them understand, you can’t make it.

It has to be something that God turned on the little light where they can see it. And you can’t make a person trust the Lord. I’ve never yet saved a soul. God saved him. I’ve never saved him. All I do is just sow the seed. Just sow the seed. Sow the seed. In the book of Ruth, there’s a story where Boaz comes along and he sees Ruth. He tells the servant, he says, now, leave a little extra. In the words, whenever you, kind of, not all the wheat and things down, He just kind of leaves some of it there.

And in the corners of the field, they were supposed to leave it for the poor folks so they could kind of glean some of it, you know. He says, but leave a little extra. And so they left a little extra. And they would drop handfuls on purpose just so that she would get more. And when she got more, and then she had to, of course, beat it and so forth, and then she would bring it home and she would have so much more.

And Ruth, she was just pleasing Naomi. I mean, it was just great, but it was hand-pulled on purpose. As you and I go through life, we’re just reaching into the bag and getting all these verses and scriptures, and we’re sowing seeds on purpose. We’re not doing because, well, I don’t want to do it. We just do it on purpose, not accidentally, and just sow the seed, wherever you can, just sow seeds. Because you never know who’s gonna come along and pick up that seed, that little track, or hear that word on a radio or something like that because you never know.

I see, I may be on the radio, but you know, I wouldn’t be on the radio if the people didn’t put me on the radio. So who gets the credit? We’re laborers together. See that verse one? We then as, and you ought to on the line, those two are workers together, Workers together, we’re doing this because this is what God wants us to do. And if you look there in verse two, for He said, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee, he behold, now is the accepted time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation. When should a person trust Christ to save you? Tomorrow! No, today! Because he nobody has a guarantee of tomorrow. You don’t have a guarantee of the next moment. That’s why it’s so important for a person, the child of God, to trust Christ’s Savior and trust Him, trust Him now. Well, what I want you to do is hang onto your notes because we’ll cover the last four or five of them. I will cover those next Wednesday night.

And you will bring those back, won’t you? You will bring them, you’ll put them in your Bible and you’ll come back because we didn’t finish. But I know that you wanna hear the last part. And you just by cause you look at a word, you say, well, I know what that means. You don’t know how I’m going to explain it. So therefore I expect you to come and listen and learn. And a little bit of truth here and a little bit there.

They all add up. All right, you’ll notice that we’ve already covered a few of these words, adoption, faith, glorification, justification, and reconciliation. We did that last Wednesday night. So tonight we’re gonna look at the remaining words here. And we may finish them and we may not. But the first word here is on redemption. And of course you know that means to buy or to purchase. So that’d be letter G in your notes there. So redemption is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Because this is where God tells us some things that you and I need to keep in mind, need to remember. But redemption, take your Bible and turn there to the book of Romans. Chapter 3 Romans and Chapter 3 Because sometimes they look like big word, but redemption just simply means to redeem, to purchase, to buy. People use it in relationship to the slave market where somebody’s up for sale and somebody buys him from the slave market of sin, which is a good illustration.

And in our sense, it’s that we were lost and there’s a price to pay. And so he paid the price for us to be set free. And so Jesus Christ, of course, went to the cross, died, and paid for our sin so that we could be free. And the Bible says in the book of Psalms, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. those that are redeemed should say, I have been redeemed. That’s a good song by the way.

But here in the book of Romans in chapter three, look there in verse 21, verse 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is revealed or manifested. And the righteousness he’s talking about is a person, it’s Christ. Christ has been manifest. Christ has come into the world. the Old Testament saints and prophets told about it. But it says here, been witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe.

So we’ve explained this before that salvation is unto all, but it’s only upon those that believe. So the righteousness of God is something that is imputed to a person’s account, as an accounting procedure. and a general ledger of putting like assets and liabilities, expenses, and income, and so forth. And so here he’s talking about a payment that Jesus Christ has made. And you’ll notice when he makes the statement there in verse 24, being justified freely. And the reason I think that is so important because he just said if there in verse 20 that you could not be justified by your works.

And here you’re justified freely. So if you can’t be justified by your works, it would have to be free. And of course, that is what the scripture teaches. So being justified declared righteous, just as if I’d never sin freely, that means without charge, get it by his grace. In other words, you did not deserve this, but because of God’s love, this is what He did. And He says through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So Jesus Christ made a payment for the purpose of redeeming us.

He didn’t just die for himself or just to die, He died for a reason. He was born for a purpose and He died to accomplish that purpose. And that was to make the payment necessary for you and I to be set free. So when we accept the payment Christ made for us, we are redeemed. We have accepted the payment. And in verse 25 it says, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. That means that this payment that was made, it revealed the wrath of God upon sin, but it also revealed the love and the mercy, the compassion of God for the person and that Christ and God the Father was satisfied with the payment that was made.

You see, Christ could have died on the cross and paid for sin and God the Father not be satisfied. But He had made a promise to Abraham saying that in Abraham the seed, He would justify the world by faith, the heathen through faith. So He made a promise So the son had to come, the son had to die in order for God to keep his word. Because there was no other way for God to keep his word if the son didn’t do what he did.

So the son came and made the payment. God the Father was satisfied and it says here to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. I believe that’s a reference to the Old Testament, to the law and so forth in the Prophet. And then he says there in verse 26 to declare say at this time on this side of the cross his righteousness. So they had to declare his righteousness before the cross after the cross.

They look forward to his coming and we look back to his coming because he made the statement right there in verse 21 that now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest been witnessed by the law and the prophets. So the law and the property they told about this righteousness that was to come. So then the conclusion of the whole matter was in verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law and the reason is because we have been redeemed.

Now if I have already been redeemed, then I am not seeking to be redeemed. You see, if you are saved, then you should not be seeking to be saved. If any man is still seeking to be saved, what he’s saying is, I am not yet saved. You understand what I’m saying? If you’re still trying to get to heaven because you don’t know if you’re going to make it or not because of something, then that means you don’t know it now.

You can’t be saved without being saved from something. Save from what? Save from hell. Christ cannot be my Savior if He has not saved me. So I accepted the payment He made. It’s done deal. I am saved, safe and secure. It’s done deal. So the Bible is clear on this, and there’s no reason for anybody to be mixed up on it. But what I tell you, they are so many people do not get the simplicity that’s in these scriptures.

So we have been redeemed. Look there in chapter five. Chapter five, it kind of gives us this idea about us being redeemed. When he makes the statement there in verse nine, much more than being now justified by his blood. By his blood is the payment that was made because the life of the flesh is in the blood. So I have been justified by his blood, that payment that was made. That’s what the law required, a death payment. So he was able to do this for us and we have been reconciled to him.

So we have been redeemed. Now look at the next word. The next word is regeneration. Regeneration. If you take off the word re, it’s just generation. And it comes from the word genesis or you have beginning. And so if you go all the way back to beginning when everything began, and when you trust Christ as your Savior, it is a new beginning. It is the new birth. So, the regeneration, if you want to mark it down there, would be in letter H.

This word speaks of the new birth. Take your Bible and look there in Titus in chapter 3. The book of Titus and chapter 3. But Titus in chapter 3. But why are you right here in chapter 3, just so that you see this other verse that I want you to see in chapter 2 in verse 14? You’ll notice where it says in verse 14, Christ, who gave Himself for us. That’s why I often refer you to Him. He says, Christ was the payment.

He gave Himself. The price was Him. And so He says, who gave Himself for us, for us. for us, that substitution. Get this, that he might redeem us. So he had to give the payment that was required. So he died to redeem us. And not only does he want to just save us from hell, but in our Christian life, he wants to redeem us also from those things that keeps us from serving the Lord. So I can’t say I am being redeemed, but I am to be walking in the Lord and he wants to have each one of us to be zealous, zealous of good works.

I can say just about from the time I trust that Christ is my Savior just maybe a couple of years in there I kind of floundered trying to figure out what’s going on and I wasn’t always clear, but I’ve had a burning zeal to want to serve the Lord. I’ve been zealous of good works. I desired to do whatever it takes to please the Lord and whatever he wanted me to do Wherever we want to go it was no God never had to argue if he never had to fight with me I Was searching he had trouble directing me Because I didn’t know which way to go and so not all things to do But I was desirous of doing what he’s talking about here.

He wanted for himself people That were as he says here a peculiar people people that are different from the world. Now I guess I’m about as different as they come, but different. Zealous of good works. And then he says down here in verse 5 of chapter 3, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. So every one of us, Once you trust Christ as your Savior, it is a new generation, a new beginning of life.

That’s why God wants us to be a tree of life. It says in the book of Proverbs, a tree, a tree that is wise, when it’s so, has a tree of life. In other words, when you trust that Christ as your Savior, has there been any fruit from your tree, another generation, another generation? Because see that’s what God wants from every one of us now Somebody had asked me this question just today at the Tampa Bible’s day, and so look there at this verse in the book of Matthew 24.

Matthew chapter 24 and verse 32 about the type of the fig tree. Now learning parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and put it forthleads, you know that summer is nigh. Well, to me, the point of the parable is that when a fig tree puts forth the tender leaves, you know that summer is nice. That’s the point. Is you know something is near because of something else? Now, he says, when you see these things come to pass, then you’ll know that crisis soon to appear because that’s in the content.

Now, it does not say here that this is definitely the fig tree is when Israel became a nation. We often refer to that. I do too. I believe that Israel is a type of fig tree that began to blossom back in 1948. And so people figure, okay, a generation could be 70 years. So a generation of 70 years, okay, from several years from that period of time and then take off the seven-year tribulation when he comes back to the year.

So you’ve got seven years. That close. So there is a possible, that’s why a lot of people are saying something like it because of the generation being 70 years. But it says, when ye shall see in verse 33, all these things know that it is near even at the doors. So it’s a reference to those who see these things that are mentioned in the 24th chapter. And it’s not a reference to the nation of Israel becoming a nation, as it is when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel standing in the holy place.

And when does that take place in the tribulation period? So it’s got to be a referring to the people that will be living at that period of time. There’s many people who were live when the nation of Israel came into existence in May the 28th, 1948. But majority of those people that were born then are dead. True? A lot of them are dead. So they never saw it. Which ones get to see it? The ones that lived the longest?

Well, they might. But majority of the people have already died. So that generation, is it those that were born at that time on? gets the 70 years or those who are a man who was already 50 years old. If he was 50 years old in 1948, he’s an old codger now, isn’t he? But he’s dead. So he didn’t make it. So it’s the generation only beginning in 1948 and those who were born at that time forward. Okay, that sounds pretty good.

But, see, you can’t prove it. And that’s the problem. 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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. for Calvary Community Church. He’s 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 going to our website calvaryuddempo.org Big good today. his man the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us totally. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.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.

So you and I have been adopted into the family of God and it’s not totally complete yet. We’re waiting for the adoption of the body when the body will be changed. And I will have a perfect, glorified body. One day that is coming. But as you look over here on the right hand side, which one of these gives you this idea? See letter D? The act of God whereby one who is already a child is placed in the position of an adult son, where you carry adult responsibilities.

wants to bring you not just as a child of his, but to where you are expected with responsibilities to grow into a mature child of God. And that’s why in Romans in chapter 8 when he talks about in verse 14, the Holy Spirit is to lead us. So if the Holy Spirit is to lead you, it must mean you’re going somewhere. He’s trying to take you from something to something. So he’s leading you, he’s guiding you, and he guides us according to the truth of the Scriptures.

Take it number two. Number two is the word faith. And take your Bible-looking Romans in chapter four. Romans chapter four, and we have there, I believe, one of the best definitions of what faith really is. And faith, if you look all the way down there to letter J, to trust or have confidence in a reliance upon testimony. So as you read the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, of all the stories where God is actually involved in the affairs of man.

When you see God working in people’s lives, sometimes bringing blessings and sometimes chastening. But he says the testimonies of the Lord are true. And because of that, we are supposed to learn from the Old Testament stories. And as we learn from these Old Testament stories, we find out what faith is, because it deals with the idea of building our confidence in God so we can trust Him. So as you read the stories in the Old Testament, every one of us, our faith should be strengthened, If we read stories about people who trusted God, or God say, this is going to happen, or that’s going to happen, and it happens like God says.

So wouldn’t that increase our faith in the Lord so that as we grow in the Lord, our faith is growing stronger and stronger? So here in Romans 4, look there in verse 20. definition of faith, he says, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. So, unbelief is to question what God said. But was strong in faith, that means believing what God said, giving glory to God. In other words, he was giving glory to God before he got the answer.

Sometimes believing what God says means that I can go ahead and praise him now because I know what he’s going to do. Is there a problem you can’t handle? Is there a problem that God can’t handle? Can you trust him and you believe that, I don’t care what it is, he’s going to walk you through it. Now if you can believe that, do you have to wait till it’s done to start praising God or can you praise him up front?

That’s face. And you can start counting your blessings and praising God because you know he’s going to, and he hasn’t done it yet. God lacks that kind of faith. And so he says in verse 21, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, God had promised, he was also able to perform. So do you believe that God is able to do what God says that he will do? That’s faith. And every one of us as a child of God needs to have our faith in the Lord.

And your faith will grow as you learn more and more about the Lord and you find out that your confidence grows. And things will happen and you can just trust the Lord. You just trust the Lord And that’s where your peace of mind comes from because you know you’re trusting someone. He will not let you down He will do what he says he will do and that takes a lot of confidence in the Lord Now the devil is gonna do everything he possibly can to get you to question God to doubt God so that you don’t believe God Look at number three Number three is glorification Now, we don’t use the word so much as glorification as we find out that it talks about glory and glorify, and it actually can refer to this.

Look at me just a second. The Bible says, all have sinned and come short of His glory, the short of His perfection. They talk about the Chicana glory, the perfection of God. God is perfect. In the book of Timothy talks about the glorious gospel, the apostle Paul refers to it, of how bad we are, but he talks about the glorious gospel. In other words, the gospel that can get you to glory, the gospel that is perfect. In other words, a perfect message.

You see, if you have to be perfect to go to heaven and mankind is not perfect, then the message we preach, if it gets a man ready for heaven, prepares him for heaven, then the gospel has to be a message that’s perfect. It has to be a perfect message that makes a man perfect. If our gospel doesn’t make a man perfect, it doesn’t do, do him any good. True? I can think about it. Because if a man has to be perfect to go to heaven, If he talked to eight or nine the other night, if they believed it in God’s eyes, they were made perfect.

Good to go. And if they’re good to go, it was because of the message. The gospel, the glorious gospel can make a man perfect. Now the Bible says it in a book of John chapter 7. It says on that great day the feast Jesus stood and cried, send it to any man thirst, let him come into me and drink and as the scripture half set out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This fake he of the spirits which they that believe on him should receive.

For as yet Christ had not yet been crucified or glorified I should say. So he had not yet been glorified. In other words he hasn’t gone to the place of perfection and when he gets the glory then he said I’m going to send the Holy Spirit. But I don’t send him till I get there. So when I go there I’ll send him. So the Holy Spirit came. He came Christ and has a glorified body. And some were able to see this glorified body even before He died on the cross as He will be in the millennium, the rule.

Now God tells us that we’re going to have a glorified body, a perfect body. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were glorified as far as your soul you were made perfect. The day will come when our bodies are going to be changed to be made perfect, just like the Lord. So this is mentioned in Romans 8, look there in chapter 8, I want to show you this in a quick. You know there’s several things that are mentioned here.

In Romans 8, look there in verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called and whom he called, and he also justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified. So you’ll notice how many things he does. God does this. Now he’s the one that does the calling. How does he call? Picture, for example, stands right here, a lost man. So God has given to me the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God gave to me a message.

So I take the message, the gospel, to the lost man. When I go to the lost man, and he hears the word, the gospel, that God loves him. That he sent his son Christ to die for him. Came back from the dead, and if he will accept Christ as Savior, he can know he has eternal life. He can go to heaven whenever he dies. So he cannot believe until he hears. And you can’t. Here, unless somebody preaches it, and therefore, that’s why we go.

So the lost man hears the call. How does God call through the gospel? So he hears it, he trusts Christ’s Savior. God has, according to the predetermined before the foundations of the world, before this man was ever born, before he did any good or any bad. before time started, God had predetermined to save all of those that believe. He predetermined that He would justify them. That means He will make them declared righteous. And He’s going to sanctify them, make them pure and holy, perfect.

And He’s going to glorify them. That means Prepare them for heaven in a glorified body. All that is what he does. You and I don’t do any of this. This is what he has predetermined for every believer. So whenever we trust Christ as our Savior, this is what God does for us. Now look at number three there. If you look at it, it goes down to letter I, the completion or consummation of our salvation. That’s the end result. That’s how that’s where we’re going to.

were not there yet, but in the eyes of God, He already says, you have been glorified. Look at number 4, justification, just as if I had never sinned. It means to be declared righteous like an accord of law. You’re cleared of all charges against you. This is what Christ has done for us. Look there in Romans in chapter 4. Romans and chapter four. And you’ll find here words that explain what it means to be justified. Look in verse five, but to him that work if not, but believe it on him that justify it the ungodly or who’s the ungodly or that’s us.

So God is going to take the unjust, the ungodly and justify us just as if we’d never sin, declare us righteous. And He says, without your works, without you earning it, without the right, God’s going to do it. This is what He does. And sometimes I think my mind, it just doesn’t seem right that it should be so easy. But that’s God. That’s what He’s done. That’s what makes it such good news. Did you know it’s very difficult for people to accept something that’s totally free?

It’s one of the hardest things in the world. You tell people they have to earn it? Well, they aren’t thinking, well, sure, I know that. But tell them it’s free. You think, well, everybody you believe that. That’s that easy belief in them. Well, if it’s so easy, why don’t everybody believe it? They can’t believe it. I argue with my father law over almost three months because I couldn’t believe it. It’s too simple, too easy. Got to be more than that.

You mean just believe, just believe it. And you can go to heaven when you die. Now, that’s got to be more into it than that. And yeah, the only thing God requires is you believe it. The only way that any of you in here know that you’re going to heaven because you believe you are, It’s not because of anything you’ve done. It’s not the condition that you’re in today. I mean if it was because of what you’ve done, okay what happens if you don’t do everything good tomorrow?

Okay now you ain’t gonna go. Then you would never know for sure where you’re gonna go whenever you die. The only way you can be positive is that it’s free and that’s what he says. Now look here in this verse he says, believe it on him that justify it the ungodly. So if I believe on the one who justifies me, declares me righteous. Without my works.” That’s what he said. His faith is counted for righteousness. And then he uses a simple illustration.

He refers to David. Look what David says. Here’s what justification is. In verse 6, even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God get to impute it, righteousness without works. In other words, God is going to take his righteousness and put it to his account. Now many people over the years have used same illustrations and so I hear things, I copy things too. But let’s say for example, this is a book, this is a story of my life.

Alright? And in my book the story of my life, it’s got all the bad things I’ve ever done and the reason is because there isn’t any good thing that I have done. If there is none good, and all of my righteousness is filthy rags, well, this is a bad book on my life. Nothing in here is perfect. Story after story. All right. There’s such Jesus Christ right down there. He’s got a book, The Life. Of Jesus Christ. And in his book, you open it up and lo and behold, it’s the life and times of Jesus Christ when he lived here on the earth.

He never did anything wrong. And so it’s a book that is totally perfect. Everything he did was right. Not one thing against him. So what God says is this. He says, let’s just change the cover. And he says on here. Now, my book. becomes the book, the life of Jesus Christ. And He puts my name on His book. So when you look at that book and it has under the life of Yankee Arnold and you open the book up and it’s man.

See, His righteousness is put to my account. It’s just like, that’s the story of my life. And he took all of my sins and he gave me his righteousness. So God sees me clothed in the righteousness of his Son. So I have been justified just as if I had never sinned. Like I can’t sin. But I’ve gone to court and I’ve been cleared. Declared righteous. a verdict of God. And nobody can change his verdict. He has decreed it. And you can’t have double jeopardy.

I can never be tried again for any more sins. I’ve been cleared. Because you see, when Christ died, He died for most of my sins, some of my sins, or all of my sins. All of them, past, present, and future. He will not come down next year and pay for what I did this year, he made one payment for all time and eternity. So that payment put to my account, I have been justified. I’ve been cleared in the court of divine justice.

It can never be repeated. Now look down there in verse 24 of Romans in chapter 4. And he says, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed or put to your account, get this, if we believe, if you believe, if you don’t believe it will not be put to your account. You see over there in verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not imputes and you know where when I do something wrong it’s not put to my account.

No, put to his. No, it doesn’t sound fair, but who said it was? He died for me. He did this so that you and I could have eternal life. There is no other way for us to be justified. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So no man can save himself. Now he says there in verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses? That means that he died, was delivered up, paid for all the time that I have offended God.

All my sins he died for. When he came back from the dead, what he’s talking about is the money has been put into account and the check has cleared the bank. It’s paid in full. So now when I believe that he did it for me, because he is a living proof of payment. He is my living receipt, Christ alive from the dead. And because of that, he can justify me. put his payment to my count I’m cleared. I am justified not because of one good work that I have ever done or ever will do.

It’s all because of what he did for me. Therefore in chapter 5 and verse 1 it says, therefore we are justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So that is what it means to be justified and justified. If you look at letter C and maybe draw a line to it or just put it down there, but it means to declare or pronounce you righteous. This is what God has done for us.

Look at number five, the word reconciliation. Well, that’s a big word, reconciliation. But while we’re right here in the book of Romans, chapter 4 and verse 5 talks about the person being cleared because of something that’s between us. You see there’s something between us. We are ungodly in verse 5 of chapter 4. We’re ungodly. Alright, here’s God. Look up here. There’s God and here we are. God is perfect. We are not. God can’t let us in the heaven because heaven is a perfect place.

He can’t dwell with us. And therefore, there is a war like between the, the imitate between man and God. Now, we have in the book of Romans in chapter 8 where it talks about Jesus Christ as an intercessor. It talks about the Holy Spirit being an intercessor. But an intercessor is not the same as a mediator. You see, I have a problem. And my problem is with God, and God’s problem is with me. And we can’t get together because our sins separate us from God.

So the Bible says that we need to be reconciled. So Jesus Christ is the mediator. There’s only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So Jesus Christ is is into mediator. And that means that he is God, so he knows God. And he’s a man, so he knows man. So being the perfect God man, he’s the perfect mediator between God and man. Don’t it make sense? It’s so easy to follow, I think. It is in my mind.

So there’s only one media between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So what Jesus did to satisfy God’s request and what he could do for man and solve his problem, what he would take our sins upon himself and die for us that he might bring us to God. And he was the only one that could do it. Man had no righteousness of his own. So God, in the person of Jesus Christ, came into the world and paid for our sins so that you and I could be reconciled.

It’s like two people. I’ve done a lot of marriage counseling over the years and every once in a while, there’s a man and there’s a woman, they got a problem. But you try to get them to be reconciled. to get them now. Okay, whose fault is it? It’s his ors. They all pointed at each other. But what do you do? Well, will you forgive him? Okay, will you forgive her? Yes. Oh, I think some people have a fight just so they can have fun making up because, you know, making up can be such a wonderful thing.

But anyway, you’re trying to bring people together to be reconciled. So look up here. In case someone’s here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ of Savior or if someone’s listened by the Internet. Now this is so important. I want people to know that there is a God in heaven and he loves us and yes all of our works are as filthy rags. We all like sheep have gone We have gone everyone to his own way. We are rebellious. We’ve all done things wrong.

But there’s a God in Heaven that still loves us. And he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as a mediator, to take the sin, to pay for it, in order to bring us to God. Look at that verse before we close. You just got to see it. Look there in the book of 1 Peter. I want you to see this. It’s not just a nice little verse. Nice little verse, it’s a very important verse. Look there in 1 Peter chapter three, and look in verse 18, verse 18.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. Get it? Once suffered for sin, the just, that’s him. For the unjust, that’s all of us. Everybody in the world get this, that he might bring us to God. That’s what a meteor is. He did that, that he might bring us to God. And without that, no man can see God, no man can go to God. So look up here, this hand represents you and me, the wall of represents sin, we have all sinned.

The wages of sin is death, and since we’ve all sinned, we all have to die. and not just physical death, but it’s eternal separation from God in a literal fire burning hell. The Bible talks about the first death, physical death, but he also talks about the second death. That means eternal separation from God in hell fire. Now to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous.

We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So God says, you cannot earn eternal life, you cannot work for it, it’s not by our works of righteousness which we have done, or ever will do. So this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world, the perfect God man. And he had to be that. Because he represents God, but being born into the world as a man, he represents man.

So Jesus Christ was able to live without sin, so he didn’t have to die. But because of the love that God has for us, he sent his son, and because of the love that the son has for the Father, he says that the world may know that I love my Father, this is why I’m doing this. So he took all of the sins of the world and he died once, came back from the dead that he might bring us to God.

So whenever we believe that he did it for us, God puts this payment to our account, it’s imputed to us, this payment. He gives us the free gift of eternal life and because of that, we can know that we have eternal life and know that we’re going to heaven whenever we die. Just plumb good news. Let’s pray, Shami. Wherever you head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now?

You can hear this all your life, but have you really trusted Him? Do you know for sure you’re going to heaven? I would hate to think that one day when you pass away and I get to heaven and I see you at the Great White Throne Judgment. And I remember how many times I have given the gospel and there you stand. You never seriously ever trusted. You never really believed it. Because you harbored in the back of your mind that maybe there’s something I have to do.

Wouldn’t that be a shame? Trust Christ in Him alone as your only, only hope of going to heaven. And if you trust Him as your Savior, God said it would save you and give eternal life as a gift. And if you’re trusting Christ as your Savior tonight, and you’ve never done it before, first time, I would like to have prayer for you. And by raising your hand, it’s just to let me know when you’re saying preacher, that made sense to me and I’ll trust Christ as my Savior.

Or if you’re listening by internet tonight, just right where you are, you can believe it. I’d like to encourage each one of you that are listening by internet. And if you do trust Christ as your Savior, Or if you have, because of the radio broadcast, or the internet broadcast, I’d love to get an email from you. I’d just love to know. Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us, for this opportunity to come before You.

We’re thankful for Your Word that You’ve given us. We pray that we’ll be found faithful, and teach those things that are true, because we know that the truth, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, that lead in the guidance and all truth. and we thank you for all you’ve done for us. Thank you, you’re the person hearing Christ’s name, 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. 771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage. 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon.

Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 The prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

We have a lot to be thankful for. complaining is what? Contagious. But joy is contagious. And I think we need more of that and praise the Lord and compliment and encourage it so much better, so much better. So you want to stay out of the dumps. Just don’t go there. I asked the person one time and said, you know where the long range of took his garbage? He said, no. He said, to them, to them, to them, dump dump to dump.

Some of y’all shaking your head like, I can’t believe this guy. Anyway, somebody gave me a phone call yesterday. I mean, I’m ready to go to bed. It’s two o’clock in the morning. Well, maybe not two o’clock. But anyway, Peter Amato has something he wants to share with you. So I told him, I said, well, why don’t you just share that into church? And so coming up, Peter, give him a word. All right. It was Monday night. It was Monday evening.

And it’s a great story. It’s a great story. My kids, my two youngest kids, take karate. They go to a studio in Newport, Richie. And the time that they go is between six and seven o’clock every Monday night. And for the past probably three months solid, I’ve been the one that’s had to take them. Sometimes mom gets off too late and they want to go with mom but they can’t. So sometimes I’ve filled in. Well, I’ve kind of relished it because the way it’s kind of situated is he’s in kind of a little small strip center and then there’s a big parking lot right behind him that’s always open.

There’s no cars and there are trees over it. So you know what? I sit there. I read my Bible. I pray. I study. It’s another quiet time for me with the Lord and I just loved it. I always look forward to it. And so with the recent weather being great, I’d have the windows down and get that nice breeze going and then the boys would be done and I’d pick them up when to go home. So one evening, I’m trying to concentrate.

I’m trying to read, I’m trying to pray, and I keep hearing all this background noise. I’m like, man, I wish those kids would be quiet. So I look over here, and it’s on Main Street in Newport, Richie, and these teenagers are going back and forth. I’m like, man, they’re so loud. Trying to study here, I’m trying to, wait a minute. Look at all those teenagers! Hello, I’m the youth director. So it’s like five minutes till I’m like, Okay, Lord, I hear you.

I hear you. Next Monday, sure enough, I’m gonna get out here. I’m gonna pound the pavement. I got loaded for barrel, everything. So that next Monday, I’m ready to go. Got my Bible here just in case I needed it. Got my tracks in, got my sneakers on, man. I’m ready to hit the road. So I park, I let them off. I’m on the side and sure enough, I see some teenagers jumping out and I’m jumping out of the truck.

Hey, how are ya? Hey, you know, the whole thing. And no matter what I did the whole night, I couldn’t even get them to let me show them wallet illustration. Even gave that, listen I’ll give you $10 if you just stop and listen to what I say. Nothing. The whole night up and down the street but they were teenagers everywhere. And I said all right all right this is just a tough tough place to crack. Next week Lord you know it I’m going at it.

I’m not gonna give up. I’m gonna go this way instead of going that way. So the next week happens it’s about Friday and my wife says to me she goes oh Pete don’t worry about taking the kids to karate on Monday night, the karate instructor changed the times. It’s now from seven to eight, not from six to seven. So I don’t have a problem getting it. I’ll take them. You got to be kidding me. Are you kidding me? Look what the devil’s trying to do.

I knew exactly what he’s doing. He’s scared to death. He knows I’m going to go out there again. I’m going to pound that pavement. And I said to myself, I said, you know what, Lord, I don’t know what it’s going to take, but somehow I’m going to get there. Obviously, It’s not going to be this coming Monday night. I said, but I’m going to get there because I know there’s something Satan doesn’t want me to get a hold of.

There may be one. There may be hundreds. Who knows? But I’m going to get there. So a couple of weeks go by and then all of a sudden it’s Monday. She goes, oh, honey, by the way, can you take the boys to Karate at the new time? Can you take them? I’ve got this new job, this new thing I have to go to. I’ll be glad to take him. So I pull up there and sit up there and I might, all right, Lord, I’m looking for a light.

I’m looking for something to show him to be. Who’s the one that’s going to get it? And I see some guy over there. So I go running over to him. He doesn’t speak English. Okay, not him. So I go around to the back and I see some guy pulling in with a boat. Ah, I have a boat. I’m a fisherman. Instantly, we can start talking. He gets out and I realize in about 30 seconds this guy’s drunk. Okay. So I try and it’s the This isn’t going anywhere.

Okay, thanks for your time, buddy, on my way. So I keep walking, I walk into the little convenience store there and I get me a little bottle of water and I walk out and I look across the street at the library and would you know it? There’s about 10 to 12 teenagers just sitting right out front there. Yes. Across the street, I go, hey fellas, how you doing today? Good. Hey, let me ask you guys a question. If you could know for sure without any doubt whatsoever that when you died, you’d go to heaven.

Would you want to know? Two or three of them just kind of go. Start back and I say no. If you knew that there was nothing you could do, nothing you had to do, but you could know for sure you’re going to heaven once you die, would you want to know? Two or three of them said, yeah, yeah. So two or three kind of backed up over there and I’m going through the whole wallet illustration and showing and they’re talking back and forth and they’re listening.

And you could see they’re listening. And I get to the point about here’s the sins and my sins, your sins, even the sins of the guys aren’t paying attention right now, but they’re trying to, but I know they’re hearing it, and they’d look up and look over and look back. And so I keep going and then I said, but Jesus paid for all the sins of the world, even the sins of the guys that aren’t paying attention back over there, he paid for all of them.

And they’d look and I’d look and one by one I went through. Does that make sense to you? Does that make sense to you? Would you trust Jesus Christ as your savior today? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I said, man, that’s awesome. And the other group was just kind of sitting behind there a little bit and I started to walk away and the one teenager said to me, sir, thank you. Thank you so much. And then as I started to walk, that little group that was back there that wasn’t paying attention came down.

One looked to me and says, I heard that. I said, does that make sense to you? Did you trust Jesus Christ? Do you know for sure you’re going to heaven? He says, yes. And everyone there, there were eight of them. They all trusted Christ as Savior. Eight teenagers. Not done it. So I’m on cloud nine man. I’m like, woo, yes praise God, are you kidding me? Wow. So I’m back in the truck. I’m trying to read. I’m like, I can’t read.

I’m too excited. I can’t start to read. I can’t read this Lord. You’re awesome. So I finally get a little bit calmed down. Finally. Okay. All right. Get myself centered now man. I’m okay. I’m studying the corner of my eye. I guess who comes walking up another teenager. I’m like, Hmm, that doesn’t look like the same kid, you know, but maybe it’s a new one. It was a different one And he came up to me and he said sir He said I’ve got a problem and I’ve got to go to the pharmacy and get some medication and I don’t have the money I need $20 and I said well son.

I don’t have $20. I said but I do have a couple of dollars would that help? He says yeah, I said well hold on a second before I give it to you can I ask you a question? And if you were to die today, do you know where you’d spend eternity? Do you know for sure if you go to heaven? He said, no, no, I don’t. And so I shared the gospel with Him. He trusted Christ as Savior. And He looked at me when He was done.

And He said, sir, would you pray for me? Would you pray for me? And I held His hand and we prayed. So nine kids, nine teenagers, no without a doubt. They’re going to heaven when they die praise God. Can you believe he’d call me up just to tell me that? That’s that’s good news. That’s good news You really haven’t began to live until you start talking to people about the Lord and to see one experience after the other and you’d be surprised That’s how you get stories That’s how you get stories now if you hadn’t had gone or or took the initiative, there wouldn’t have been any story to tell.

You read the book of Acts and you’ll find out it’s just one soul-winning experience after the other. That’s what the book of Acts is about. Anyway, I gave you some some time ago that had to do with prophetic terminology, but this is not prophetic terminology, just some terminology that sometimes as we read the scriptures, We see these words and so forth in the Bible, and you need to know what they mean. And that where they’re found or how we use them.

Otherwise they become something that you just try to skip over real quick. But believe it or not, in each one of these words is a message in itself. Take your Bible and turn there to the book of Romans in chapter 8. Romans and chapter 8. You know the first word there is the word adoption, the word adoption. Now we often talk about, you know, somebody’s been adopted into your family. Well, they weren’t your real children, but they’ve been adopted into your family.

And sometimes I think there’s a misunderstanding with the word adoption that’s used in the scripture. And sometimes a person could be born into a person’s family, but then when they’re 13 years old, they become a legal son. In other words, they’ve been 13 years raising them, and then they call it say a bar mitzvah. But when it comes to you and I as a child of God, we’re born into God’s family, but the total job has not yet been completed.

So you have been saved, but the body stays the same. And so God has also predetermined that this body of ours is going to be changed, but it’s going to be changed in a way that it can be adopted into the family of God. Because see it doesn’t have a new birth, but it will be changed in a moment the twinkling of an eye And so we’re gonna have a glorified body someday But look there in Romans in chapter 8 and you’ll notice here When it makes the statement in verse 15 for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear See the first time you’re born into the world We have this fear we have a fear of death and so there’s many things in life that we have that causes us fear and it can come in a lot of different ways.

So your new birth was not one that produces this all over again. In other words, if we only had another birth with another sinful nature, we got to go through the same thing again. But your second birth is born of God and born of God, God’s the Father. And the Lord says that He is perfect and therefore our new birth in Christ, it is a perfect birth. So therefore He says we don’t have the Spirit of bondage again to fear but look what he says.

He says, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. It’s like we have been adopted into the family of God and God did this by choice but it’s also by choice of an individual. We chose to become a child of God. God does not force or make any of us his child against our will. So you had to literally, purposely, willfully choose to accept Christ as your Savior so that you can have eternal life and go to heaven whenever you die.

Now if you will look down there also in verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creation waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. So the Bible says all the creation is also waiting for the adoption. It means the transformation of the children of God, for the manifestation of God’s children. Because see, if God makes us perfect, and one day we’ll have our glorified body, and Christ is coming back to the earth, well the last thing we’ll want to do is to live in an imperfect world.

See sin is not only on the individual and upon our bodies, Everything in this world dies. A bird’s die and all the animals die. And there’s all kinds of things like trees and plants and flowers that die. So God is going to change the whole world. All of it’s going to be changed. And it’s going to be another adoption. See there in verse 22? For we know that the whole creation, groaneth, and travaileth. And here’s that word in pain together.

Now, we are living in this life and we are going to suffer. We are in pain. You stop and think in the last week or the last year, how much pain you have endured. You can the loss of a loved one, a physical loss of a job, finances, all kind of thing that can happen that causes pain. And loved ones that don’t serve the Lord can cause you pain. you pain. But if you look up there in verse 17, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.

So while we’re here in this world, yes, we are going to suffer. And because of our suffering. There’s going to be pain. And, uh, like we know, uh, sometimes we want others to feel our pain. That’s why sometime we like to share with others what’s going on in our life because we want people to know sometimes I’m hurting. I am hurting. And we want people to care about us to pray for us. And so others are in the same place.

Nobody is exempt if you live in this world. Now, when you get to the place where you don’t want to have no pain, you don’t want to have no pain. You’re asking to be delivered totally from the world. And that’s the only way that you’ll have no more pain is to be with the Lord. But God wants us to live here until He’s through with our testimony. And notice what He says in verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves because of our bodies that needs to be changed.

Look what He says. He says, waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. So God is going to change our bodies. Now your soul, he saved you when you trusted Christ as your Savior, but there’s still a little bit more of the has to go. So you and I have been adopted into the family of God. And it’s not totally complete yet. We’re waiting for the adoption of the body when the body will be changed. And I will have a perfect glorified body.

One day that is coming. But as you look over here on the right hand side, which one of these gives you this idea? See letter D, the act of God, whereby one who is already a child is placed in the position of an adult son, where you carry adult responsibilities. God wants to bring you not just as a child of his, but to where you are expected with responsibilities to grow into a mature child of God. And that’s why in Romans in chapter 8, when we talk about in verse 14, the Holy Spirit is to lead us.

So if the Holy Spirit is to lead you, it must mean you’re going somewhere. He’s trying to take you from something to something. So he’s leading you, he’s guiding you. and he guides us according to the truth of the scriptures. Look at number two. Number two is the word faith, and take your Bible-looking Romans in chapter four. Romans chapter four, and we have there, I believe, one of the best definitions of what faith really is. And faith, if you look all the way down there to letter J, to trust or have confidence in, a reliance upon testimony.

So as you read the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, of all the stories where God is actually involved in the affairs of man. Or when you see God working in people’s lives, sometimes bringing blessings and sometimes chasting. But he says the testimonies of the Lord are true. Because of that, we are supposed to learn from the Old Testament stories. And as we learn from these Old Testament stories, we find out what faith is, because it deals with the idea of building our confidence in God so we can trust Him.

So as you read the stories in the Old Testament, every one of us, our faith should be strengthened Because we read stories about people who trusted God. Or God said, this is going to happen. That’s going to happen. And it happened like God says. So wouldn’t that increase our faith in the Lord? So that as we grow in the Lord, our faith is growing stronger and stronger. So here in Romans in chapter four, look there in verse 20. As the definition of faith, he says, he staggered not at the promise of God.

through unbelief. So unbelief is to question what God said, but was strong in faith. That means believing what God said, giving glory to God. In other words, he was giving glory to God before he got the answer. Sometimes believing what God says means that I can go ahead and praise him now because I know what he’s going to do. Is there a problem you can’t handle? Is there a problem that God can’t handle? Can you trust Him and you believe that, I don’t care what it is, He’s gonna walk you through it.

Now, if you can believe that, do you have to wait till it’s done to start praising God, or can you praise Him upfront? That’s faith. When you can start counting your blessings and praising God because you know He’s going to, and He hasn’t done it yet. God likes that kind of faith. And so he says in verse 21, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, God had promised, he was also able to perform. So do you believe that God is able to do what God says that he will do?

That’s faith in every one of us as a child of God needs to have our faith in the Lord. And your faith will grow as you learn more and more about the Lord and you find out that your confidence grows. And things will happen and you can just trust the Lord. You just trust the Lord And that’s where your peace of mind comes from because you know you’re trusting someone. He will not let you down He will do what he says he will do and that takes a lot of confidence in the Lord Now the devil is gonna do everything you possibly can to get you to question God the doubt God so that you don’t believe God Look at number three Number three is glorification Now, we don’t use the word so much as glorification as we find out that it talks about glory and

glorify, and it actually can refer to this. Look at me just a second. The Bible says, all have sinned and come short of His glory, the short of His perfection. They talk about the Chicana glory, the perfection of God. God is perfect. In the book of Timothy talks about the glorious gospel, the apostle Paul refers to it, of how bad we are, but he talks about the glorious gospel. In other words, the gospel that can get you to glory, the gospel that is perfect.

In other words, a perfect message. You see, if you have to be perfect to go to heaven and mankind is not perfect, then the message we preach, if it gets a man ready for heaven, prepares him for heaven, then the gospel has to be a message that’s perfect. It has to be a perfect message that makes a man perfect. If our gospel doesn’t make a man perfect, it doesn’t do him any good. True? I can think about it. Because if a man has to be perfect to go to heaven, if he talked to eight or nine the other night, If they believed it in God’s eyes, they were made perfect.

Good to go. And if they’re good to go, it would be because of the message. The gospel, the glorious gospel can make a man perfect. Now the Bible says this in a book of John chapter 7. It says on that great day the feast Jesus stood in Christ and if any man thirst led him coming to me and drink and as the scripture hath set out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive.

For as yet Christ had not yet been crucified or glorified I should say. So he had not yet been glorified. In other words, he hasn’t gone to the place of perfection and when he gets the glory then he said, I’m going to send the Holy Spirit, but I don’t send him till I get there. So when I go there, I’ll send him. So the Holy Spirit came, He came Christ and has a glorified body. And some were able to see this glorified body even before He died on the cross, as He will be in the millennium, the rule.

Now God tells us that we’re going to have a glorified body, a perfect body. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were glorified as far as your soul you were they made perfect. The day will come when our bodies are going to be changed to be made perfect, just like the Lord. So this is mentioned in Romans in chapter eight. Look there in chapter eight, I want to show you this real quick. You know there’s several things that are mentioned here and Romans in chapter eight looked there in verse 30.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate, Then he also called and whom he called. Then he also justified and whom he justified. He also glorified. So you’ll notice how many things he does. God does this. Now he’s the one that does the calling. How does he call? Picture, for example, stands right here, a lost man. So God has given to me the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God gave to me a message. So I take the message, the gospel, to the lost man.

When I go to the lost man, and he hears the word, the gospel, that God loves him. He sent his son Christ to die for him, came back from the dead and if he will accept Christ as Savior, he can know he has eternal life, he can go to heaven whenever he dies. So he cannot believe until he hears, and he can’t hear unless somebody preaches it. And therefore that’s why we go. So the lost man hears the call.

How does God call through the gospel? So he hears it, he trusts Christ’s Savior. God has, according to the predetermined, before the foundations of the world, before this man was ever born, before he did any good or any bad, before he time started. God had predetermined to save all of those that believe. He predetermined that he would justify them. That means he will make them declared righteous. And he’s going to sanctify them, make them pure and holy, perfect. And he’s going to glorify them.

That means prepare them for heaven in a glorified body. All that is what he does. You and I don’t do any of this. This is what he has predetermined for every believer. So whenever we trust Christ as our Savior, this is what God does for us. Now look at number three there, if you look at it, it goes down to letter I, the completion or consummation of our salvation. That’s the end result. That’s how, that’s where we’re going to.

We’re not there yet, but in the eyes of God, He already says, you have been glorified. Look at number four, justification. Just as if I had never sinned. It means to be declared righteous like in a court of law. cleared of all charges against you. This is what Christ has done for us. Look there in Romans in chapter 4. Romans and chapter 4. And you’ll find here words that explain what it means to be justified. Look in verse 5.

But to Him, that work if not, but believe it on Him, that justify if the ungodly, or who’s the God or that’s us. So God is going to take the unjust, the ungodly and justify us just as if we’d never sin. Declare us righteous. And He says without your works, without you earning it, without the right God’s going to do it. This is what He does. And sometimes I think my mind, it just doesn’t seem right.

that it should be so easy. But that’s God. That’s what he’s done. That’s what makes it such good news. Did you know it’s very difficult for people to accept something that’s totally free? It’s one of the hardest things in the world. You tell people they have to earn it? Well, they aren’t thinking, well, sure, I know that. But tell them it’s free. Because everybody will believe that. That’s the easy believe them. Well, if it’s so easy, why don’t everybody believe it?

They can’t believe it. 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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Spinning Globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here got toured on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here got’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 Bibleline to continue on. on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.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 a person believes that when you really say it, you will live it. you will in all your life, you will live it. Can’t know for sure that they are really a Christian until they have lived it and know for sure that when they died they finally made it. Because if they end their life ever go back on what they started out on this Christian walk, if they fail in the future they’re supposed to believe by their own testimony, they never really were saved.

So how do they know that tomorrow or the next week or the next year, they won’t really mess up? And if they really do mess up, they’re supposed to believe, well, I will never really saved in the first place. Because if you’re really saved, you’re not going to do that. And yet many of them do just that. So they have reasons to question their salvation. So they don’t really know they’re going to make it because they believe in the perseverance of the saints.

The saints will persevere. I don’t believe the saints have to persevere. I believe that I’m saved and that God saves me and it’s his job to keep me saved. I was saved by his power and I am kept saved by his power. I am not kept saved by my good deeds. Therefore I know today I have eternal life and I do not believe in the perseverance of the saints because I know that in me dwelt no good thing in my flesh.

I know that I still sin. I still do things that are wrong. I don’t have to worry about what happens if you really mess up? Well, really messing up or telling a lie or having a dirty thought. Still sin. But I don’t have to worry about any sin condemning me to hell because I can’t go there. I’m saved by grace. Now, on the other hand, here’s the others who teach that you can lose your salvation. And they believe that if you do something bad enough, long enough that you’re eventually going to lose your salvation, but they don’t know how many sins they have to commit and they don’t know exactly what point you really lost it.

So if they don’t nearly know when they lost it, they don’t know when to get it back again. And then they don’t know for sure if they’re going to really hang on until they die, to know for sure that they made it. You see, that’s not the Bible. Neither one has assurance, but But can you be sure of going to heaven? Yes, she can. So I’m not an Armenian because you see, I don’t believe you can lose it. I don’t believe in the perseverance of the saints.

I believe in the perseverance of God. That he saves me and he keeps me safe. So see, I’m neither one of those. Their eternal security depends upon them living it. And if they don’t live it, they didn’t have it. And I believe that people can trust Christ as Savior and be disobedient to God, and still be God’s child. And God will have to chase him. Eternal security, eternally being secure, means that one who has genuinely saved by God’s grace through faith alone and Christ alone shall never, in the future, never be in danger of God’s condemnation or loss of his salvation, but are kept, saved, and secure by God’s grace and power.

So that when I trusted Christ 41 years ago, he saved me, and I’m going to heaven based upon his word, his promise. He is going to keep me saved. I am saved by his power and kept saved by his power. If I didn’t have the power to save myself, I don’t have the power to keep myself saved. If I can believe that I’m saved by grace without my good works, Why can’t I believe I can stay saved without my good works?

Because grace would still be grace. Number one, I want you to understand these important points. Eternal security does not mean that all who profess to trust Christ actually possess eternal life. You say, what do you mean? That sounds contradictory. Can you profess something and it not be true? Could you stand up here today and profess that you have a million dollars in the bank? Yes, you can. Does that mean you got a million dollars in the bank? Not necessarily.

Some of you all have already professed that when I married this girl, I’m going to be faithful to her till death to us part. And then not keep the word. You professed something but you didn’t perform it. A person can profess that they know God and not know Him. Now you say, where does it say that? I’m glad you asked. Look in the book of Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, look in verse 21. Notice what he said, and Jesus Christ is the one that’s doing the talking.

He’s the one that said this. So Jesus Christ has got, this is what God said. I had a person one time tell me, say, well, I don’t think you ought to be the judge. I said, I’m not the judge. I’m just telling you what the judge said. Can I do that? He’s the judge. I can tell you what he said, because he wrote it down and told us to study. This is what he said. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. So is it possible somebody to profess the name of the Lord? Look what else he says in verse 22, many shall say to me in that many. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out them, and in thy name done many wonderful works, they did it all in his name and did it for him. And yet he says, depart from me, I never knew you.

And so it doesn’t mean that just because they profess something that they really are saved. And so there’s people who say, well, I’m a Christian, that doesn’t mean they are. I meet people all the time. I asked them, I said, have you trusted Christ as you say, oh yes, where are you going to die? I don’t know, then they don’t understand it. They don’t understand. Like the other week, I mentioned this statement to you. Are you married? Well, I don’t know.

What do you mean you don’t know? If Angelo and Cathy get married, and somebody asks us, Cathy, Are you married? He says, I don’t know. If she gets married, you would assume she has a what? A husband, who in the world wants to get married not have a husband when you got through? Or are you saved? Oh yes, do you have eternal life? Well, I don’t know. Well, don’t you understand getting saved means you got this. And if you didn’t get this, you didn’t get that.

To get saved means you got eternal life. To get saved means you don’t go to hell. to get saved means that you’re going to heaven. That’s what being saved mean. It can’t mean anything else. Being saved, him saving you means he saved you from what? From hell. So I can’t go there. He says that I’ll go to heaven whenever I die. He’ll never cast me out, he’ll never lose me so I can rest assured. But a lot of people see they can say something but it doesn’t mean that it’s real.

It’s not true. He said, many of y’all say to me, Lord, or have we not? Look what we did. And they’re professing themselves to be believers in God. They follow His principles and His teaching, but they just haven’t trusted Him, depending upon Him to get Him to heaven. Look at the next statement. Number two, eternal security does not mean that all who trust Christ plus their good works are eternally secure. The Bible doesn’t say that God saves those who are trusting in their works and in Christ to get them to heaven or really going to heaven.

Let me show you a normal situation. I’ve used this before but just very quickly. The Lord says that you’re either saved by grace or you say by works. Now this without my code that’s grace. This is works and this is grace. This is work. See how simple that is. If God says that if it’s by grace, it can’t be by works, otherwise, grace is in grace. But if it is by works, it can’t be by grace, otherwise work isn’t work.

It’s how simple that is. It means you either are saved by grace or you say by work, but you can’t be saved by both. Now look during the book of Galatians in chapter 5, chapter 5, the book of Galatians and chapter 5. Many people are trusting in a combination of Christ plus their works. Eternally secured does not refer to those people. Eternal security cannot refer to anybody that professes it but don’t possess it. Eternal security cannot refer to anybody who is trusting in Christ and their works to get them to heaven.

It doesn’t refer to those people. You say, how do you know that? Well, the Bible teaches. Look in Galatians in chapter 5, and you need to write down this in your notes there. Galatians chapter 5. Look there in verse two, because there’s people who think you have to keep the law to be saved. Today is the same thing as saying you’ve got to go to church, you’ve got to live right, you McAuliffe money, you got to join and pay and all these good things.

No, no, no, that’s not true. That’s works for salvation. That means you’re trying to earn it. And if you’re not good enough, long enough, then you’re not going to have it. Well, that’s not the Bible. So he says in verse two, Behold, I Paul send to you that if you be circumcised, that means to keep the law Christ shall profit you how much? Nothing Christ profits you nothing Those that are seeking to save themselves by the law or by being circumcised which it was under the law He says then Christ profits you nothing.

He’s what I’m trusting Christ, but I’m gonna do this also Well, then you’re not trusting him Trusting Him means I’m taking Him at His Word and depending upon Him. But if you try to earn it, say you’re depending upon yourself, so you’re not really trusting Christ. You say, what’s the difference? Hell, that’s the difference. Heaven or Hell? Is it critical? Yes it is. Otherwise, how do you know you’re not one of those that simply says, Lord, Lord, I went to church, and I sent them to choir.

And I followed your teachings and I even prayed and I did all these wonderful things And God says I’m sorry. I don’t even know who you are. I never knew you you never were saved It’s got to refer to somebody because he says many are going to say this So there’s many people that are sitting in a lot of churches all over the world that are guilty of this yes or no And how do you know it ain’t you?

You say I’ve heard this all my life But do you really understand? Are you really dependent upon Him to take you to heaven when you die? Here it makes the statement. There in verse four. He says, Christ has become of, and here’s those two words, no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the Lord, you’re following from grace. See, if you’re trying to save yourself by the law, by your good deeds, then you have rejected salvation by grace.

You wanna get salvation by earning it, by your works. And God says, you can’t have it. He says, Christ has become of no effect unto you. In the words of it’s no effect, no salvation. You can know the right language. You can go to the right church. You can hear the right things. But personally, nobody can do this for you. Only you. Only you. can trust Christ as Savior for you. And if you never do that, you will not be saved.

You will not go to heaven when you die. Now inemetery 5 we won’t take the time to look at it, but it simply makes a statement. He says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done. So no-one would be saved or saved by their works. So you can’t say, I’m trusting Christ, but I’m gonna do this other just in case. Well, you’re just in case just cost you.

Then this doesn’t count. You either have to depend upon Him and Him alone as you’re only hope to get them or you are not trusting Him. You’re not totally leaning and relying upon Him as your savior. You believe somehow that you have to live a certain way and perform in order to help save you to help keep you saved NBN to prove that you SolidGoldMagikarp all that stuff. You don’t get it. You don’t get it. Church is a full of people who don’t get it.

Two of my favorite verses of the Bible is Ephesians 2 8 9. How many in here can quote Ephesians 2 8 9? Quota with it. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. It’s a gift of God, it’s not of works. And people can’t believe that it could be so simple. Or look number three, number three in your notes. Eternal security does not mean that knowing for sure that you are saved forever should be a licensed to sin, but rather grant you liberty to serve Christ.

A lot of people think, well, if you believe in that, and they call it that, hey, that damned-a-ball doctrine, And that means you just gotta license, go out here and live like the devil and still go to heaven when you die. In other words, think that you don’t deserve to go now. If you know the words, if that’s just a teaching that was damn your soul to hell and you believe that, you’re just giving people a license to go out here and sin and then think that you’re going to go to heaven whenever they die.

What if they did? Would that be grace? You’re saved by what? And people don’t believe that you ought to be able to go to heaven and believe something like that. And that’s too easy. That’s too simple. It’s got to be complicated. Do I advocate? Christians living in sin. Anybody who listens to me knows that’s not true. I want you to live as Godly as you can every day of your life, all of your life, but not to get to heaven.

Because if you’re dependent upon that to get you to heaven, as I’ve said before, you’re lost as a hound dog in the end of a soup bone. You don’t get it. I should serve the Lord. I should live right because I’m going to heaven because I am God’s child, but not to be a child of God. I want you to turn in your Bible to Romans chapter 6. I want you to see this verse Romans and chapter 6. The Bible tells us that God’s grace is greater than our sin.

Grace that is greater than our sins. Look at very first of all in Romans chapter 5 and verse 20. More over the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, graced it much more abound. So grace is greater than our… Have you ever heard of a song like that? Grace greater than our sin? You see, there are people who believe you can lose your salvation because you’ve committed some sin. Well, aren’t you supposed to believe that God’s grace is greater than my sin.

So if grace is greater than any of my sins, what sin can condemn me to hell? They can’t. So the question comes, well, then shall I live in sin that grace may more abound? So we have more grace, commit more sins. No, look in chapter 6 and verse 1, what shall we say to? In other words, because what I’m saying is true, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the next words are God forbid. No, that’s not the will of God.

Just because I know I’m God’s child and know I have eternal life and know that I can’t go to hell in the future, doesn’t mean that that’s a licensed permission from God to live like you please, like it doesn’t matter. No, it is permission from God that now I can live. for the Lord. God wants me to voluntarily choose because I love him because of what he’s done for me, that I will serve him, that I will honor him.

Not because I have to, but because I want to. Nobody, nobody in the last 40 years has tried to get me to serve God. They don’t try it. They don’t have to try to get me to serve the Lord. Nobody is constantly every week trying to yank it. You know you really need to serve the Lord. You really need to do this and you need to go to church and you need to pray and you need to what? Because I do it because I want to.

That’s better than done because I have to. I can’t make you serve God. I can’t make you right with God. But if you love God then you’ll want to do those things. And you’ll love God when you really understand what He did for you. When you know He really paid for my sins, He really did give me He really will never cast me out. He’ll never lose me. He really did all that for me. Now I serve the Lord because knowing that I have eternal security brings such wonderful peace, enjoy, and happiness that I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die.

And because of that, I want to serve the Lord. Therefore it works that way. It’s not a license to sin. The Lord tells us in His Word, do not let your liberty become stumbling block. But to use this as an occasion to serve the Lord, but not an occasion for the flesh,” says Aaron a book of Galatians. Is grace greater than our sin or is sin greater than grace? Grace is greater than our sin. And even though you do things wrong from this point on, God’s grace is greater than your sin and you’re saved by grace.

And love covers a multitude of understand, but he didn’t just cover it, he washed them all away. The next point I want you to see there in verse 4, number 4, eternal security does not mean that a Christian can live as he pleases and get away without chastisement. You cannot live like you want and expect everything to be okay and you to escape God’s chaste. Take your Bible looking Hebrews chapter 12. This is a very, very important verse that you need to see.

Hebrews chapter 12, you need to underline this verse in your Bible. As a child of God, you need to understand that though your heavenly Father loves you, you can’t live as you please and get away with it, but you can live as you please. I was reading a book while ago before church today. A man wrote in there, you cannot live as you please. I thought, yes, you can. You can live to please God and you can please not the please God.

There still be a child, but you’re going to suffer the consequences. If you will live the please God, God’s going to bless you. Rewards you when you get to heaven. And you’ll have an inner peace and joy knowing that you’re obeying your heavenly father. But if you choose not to obey God, yeah, you still is child. And you’ll forfeit many of God’s blessings and life that He could have done for you. You’re gonna forfeit a lot of rewards that you could have had.

You could have been used by God, but you weren’t. You may be set on the shelf and not used. Not fit for the master’s use. And God says that He may do something else. He says many are sick and some are weak and some are dead. He’s taken home before their time. So you see, you can’t live as you please and get away with him. But God says, be not deceived, he is not mocked. For whatsoever man’s soeth, that shall he also reap.

And you can sow to the flesh, and you can sow to the Spirit. Means you can obey God and you don’t have to obey God. But if you don’t obey God, God says, because you are his child, he will chase in you. Look at in verse six, For whom the Lord loved it, he chasteen it. Now why would God chasten his children because he loves them? And he says, and scourgeeth every son, every son whom he receive it. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior and you won’t serve God, you won’t obey Him, God your heavenly Father says, He is going to chaste in you.

I know that if I don’t serve the Lord, I already know the consequences. I know he’s going to chase in me and he may not tell me exactly how he’s going to do it, but I can rest assured in the fact that he will. He may cut my life short or many things happen in my life that would not have happened had I served the Lord. So it’s better for a child of God to put God first and serve him because he is your heavenly Father.

And when you do something wrong, you’re still his child, but he is going to chase in you. Look there in the last part of verse five, verse five. My son despised not thou the chasing of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. You see, my son despised not the chasing of the Lord. That means that when you’re a child of God, that means you still can do things wrong and you’re still his child. Because if you weren’t, then God wouldn’t be chasing you as his child If you were no longer his child because you did something wrong and that’s the only way that shows you’re not his child.

No, that means God’s children still do a lot of things they shouldn’t do. We do a lot of things wrong. But when God has to chasteness, the Bible says, says now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous. How many of y’all have ever enjoyed a good whooping? No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but you’re hoping that the chastening you give to that little son or daughter will benefit them in their life. And so you inflict a little temporary pain hoping that’s going to save them from a lot of hurts down the road.

That’s what the Lord does. Look at in verse 11. Now, now, present tense, now, no chasing for the present, seem it to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised there by them. In other In other words, God says because you’re my child, you can’t live as you please and get away with it. I’m your father. I’m going to have to chasten you. And because I chasten you means I love you.

Otherwise God would just let you do whatever you want and get away with it. But He doesn’t. He will give you personalized attention. Now He’s long-suffering, but He is a good father. Look at the next statement. In the little box, the absolute assurance of eternal salvation is based on the unfailing and sure promises of God. I want you to look in Romans chapter 4 very quickly. The book of Romans in chapter 4. I refer to these verses quite often.

And notice the contrast, as I stated here in the notes, in order to show the contrast between grace and works, Paul and Roman states, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. In other words if you had to earn your salvation. Then God says that he would be in debt to you and going to heaven would be your reward. In the words, you live in such a good way that God is in debt to let you go to heaven.

And that’s why a lot of people think it is. But that means that you have to work. It means that God’s in debt to you and it means that heaven would be a reward, something you earned and you had a right to it. God says that’s not the way it’s going to be. He says, it’s by grace. But to him that work, if not doesn’t work, but simply believes on him that justifies the ungulli, his faith is counted for what?

God gives you his righteousness without your works. God doesn’t want you to try to earn it, work for it, buy it, pay for it. And heaven is not your reward for you living a good life. You live good enough and I’ll let you go. That’s not what it is. don’t understand the Bible. God says you cannot earn eternal life, you cannot work for it. The other verse I want you to see there in chapter 4, look in verse 16.

There’s three words in verse 16. This is the verse that we read at the beginning of the service. Three words, faith, grace, and sure. I wrote them right down there in your notes, but look in verse 16. Therefore, it, being saved, have an eternal life, becoming God’s child. Go into heaven when you die. Eternal security. All of it. It is a faith that’s yours. That’s yours. Your faith. That it might be by grace. That’s God’s grace. You see, I’m supposed to take my faith, my confidence and put it into what he did for me.

Believe it, he did that for me. And God says he would save me by grace, unmerited. I don’t merit it. I don’t work for it. I don’t deserve it. He says, to the end, or for this purpose, it might be, what’s the word? That it might be sure, sure, to all the seed to everybody believes. In other words, the only way you can be positive of going to heaven when you die is that it must simply be by faith, not your work, because if you have to do it by your works, well, You won’t know it until you die.

And then that means you’ve got to live a certain way. And then you would never be sure. So God says it’s by faith. You trust Him and He’ll give you eternal life by grace. Grace means you didn’t deserve it. But I’ll save you by grace. Are you saved? That it might be sure. Positive. You can know it. Isn’t that simple? That’s awesome. 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. 771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 mother’s words. and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us He was told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Everything in this life was not made fair and it wasn’t always justice. But does the Bible say anything about, you know, whatever a man saw that shall he also reap? It means you’re going to reap things out of this world that you soon. But it can’t always be perfectly in every case. If I sow love, shouldn’t I reap love? If I sow hatred, I reap hatred. You see, when he’s talking about sewing and reaping, it’s not talking about me sewing some corn and reaping some corn.

Oh, that’s a good analogy. Or sewing some cotton and reaping some cotton. But if a man sews to his flesh, he will have the flesh reap. If a man sews to the spirit, then he’s gonna have the spirit reap. So it all depends on, do you really understand what God is saying in his word? There’s a cause and effect. And many Christians become very, Like as you get disoriented with the things of God, it’s kind of like being on a ship.

And you’re used to being, you know, walking solid. And then the boat’s going like this. And after a while your brain begins to go like that. And then you get nauseated. Anybody been nauseated lately? Oh, I know a few people. I remember one time I was on a boat. I got so sick. Oh, I got sick. And my head was a spinning and my stomach was, I anointed some fish. But it doesn’t go away right away. It stays with you for a while.

I bet he got a little nauseated the other day, yesterday. And today he says, when you had prayer, I said, let’s pray. So we prayed. So we prayed. And I bet he says, my head was still going. The close eyes are still going. So she’s not drunk. She doesn’t drink. But she still may wobble just a little bit. But you see, there’s people like that with God. They’re not clear headed. The Bible taught that being sober minded. And a lot of God’s people are not sober minded.

They can’t think clearly. They can’t discern from the right or the left between good and bad. They can’t understand what God is saying. And so it’s something to think about. Take your time and look all way over to the book of Mark, the book of Mark chapter 9. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mark chapter 9. And look there in verse 41, verse 41. In verse 41 it says, this is on page 1058, in church Bible. This is verse 41, for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name.

Get this, because ye belong to Christ. Verily I send you, ye shall not lose, or he shall not lose his reward. Now it says the same thing in Matthew 10, 42 that I usually use, but here in this verse, I wanted you to see the part says because you belong to Christ You shall not lose your reward now here for example if you give someone a cup of water and You did it for the Lord whatever you do for the Lord your land of treasure in heaven And he says because you you belong to Christ you will not lose your reward now What’s the reward for it’s something that you earned you deserve it See salvation, now going to heaven, you don’t deserve that.

You didn’t work for that. You don’t deserve it. You didn’t earn it. That was a gift. That’s free. But what you have when you get there, rewards are earned. And because it’s earned, that means you have to deserve it. So he says, because you belong to Christ, and you gave someone a cup of cold water in his name. He says, you shall and no wise lose that. In other words, you are going to be taken care of when you get to heaven.

That means that while you’re here in Matthew chapter 6, it says, If you do things to be seen of men, just for the purpose ofSHIP been seen of men, he says, you have your reward. It means you did it for them. You got your reward from them. They praised you for it. Then God doesn’t have to give you one because you didn’t do it for him. You did it for the praise of men. So if you do things just to be seen of men, does God know that?

God know you’re motive. That’s why see if you do what you do for the Lord then all you need to be concerned about is God saw it and if God is pleased you ought to be satisfied because you know in this life people are not going to appreciate everything that you do it’s not going to happen. You’re not going to get the honor the respect that’s due you because of the sacrifice that you make. Did you know that you can serve the Lord and do everything right and people persecute you for doing so and don’t want nothing to do with you?

You can lose friends, you can lose jobs and you’re doing right. Now you didn’t deserve to lose the job, you deserve to keep that job. But just because you deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. So don’t get then out of shape when things don’t go your way. Don’t let it happen to you. Look there in the book of Mark in chapter 12. Look in chapter 12 and verse 24. Chapter 12 verse 24. And it says in verse 24, and Jesus answering sudden to them, do ye not, therefore, heir, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God, because they had come up with a little scenario and he says, you do heir not knowing the scriptures, and because they didn’t know the scriptures, it affected their theology.

It was wrong. So there’s a lack of knowledge can cost you. Ignorance is not bliss. I’m not preached a sermon on that one time. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance can cost you an awful lot and because if you do not understand some of the ways of God, you’re not going to really appreciate some of the things that happens to you in this life because in your mind, if you don’t understand it, you’re going to set in judgment against God because if God is all-powerful, then God could have stopped this from happening, or that from happening, or you losing your job, or you losing your help.

See if God is God, how come God can’t stop all of that stuff? Because God is chosen not to. God has a higher purpose than yours in my desires. Whatever our goals may be. God has something He’s working out in your life and my life. And He says, now, if I make everything right here, then you won’t get it there. Because if you earned it here, then I’ll bless you here or give it to you here, and then you’ve had it.

I would rather people mistreat me here and not me get whatever I deserve to get because it will be temporary here. But if I wait till I get there, all of my rewards that I get that I’ve earned will be for how long? Forever. Now you’ve got to make up your mind. So you can do it for the praise of men which will be temporary, and man can give you praise, honor, and glory, and take it away from you just as fast as they give it.

Have you ever seen the quarterback make some touchdown passes and everybody praises them? Yay! Let him throw a couple of interceptions. Throw the bum out of there. All they think about is winning. They’re not interested in that young man. All they want to do is think about, we got to win, win, win. Why? Because they probably bet money on it and they got to have some where we’re getting their money back. Take your Bible looking. Psalms 25. Psalms 25 over there in the Old Testament, the book of Psalms in chapter 25.

And look in verse 3. Look in verse 3. In verse 3 it says, this is on page 610, He’s a yate let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress, get this, without cause, without cause. Is it possible that somebody could say things against you without a real justifiable reason, without a cause? Somebody could hate you without a cause. You’re doing all the things that you know that’s right. And yet they can turn on you and pursue you without a cause.

No reason for it. Just do it. Just sometimes I don’t just plain meanness. But not a justifiable reason. Well, you know, if that happened to David in the Old Testament, we know it happened to Christ. Is it possible that it could happen to you? Yes, without a cause, without a reason. Take your Bible and look there in Psalms 35, you’re right here in the book of Psalms, Psalms 35. And look in verse 19, verse 19, it says, let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me.

Neither let them wink with the eye that, and you’re going to underline that statement. I mean, many things that David says also refers into the future to the Lord, but where he says, that hate me without cause. You see, that’s not fair. That’s not right. I mean, if somebody, you know, gets really mad at me, maybe I should have done something that justifies it. No, you live in an unjustifiable world. You live in a wicked and perverse generation. It’s where we are with people with sinful natures.

There’s lost people. There’s Christians that don’t do right by God. If they don’t do right by God, they don’t do right by you. And so it happens. And so in verse 16 where it says, with hypocritical mockers in feast, they nash upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long will they look on, or they’ll look on? Like Lord, why don’t you stop them from doing me like this? Because they’re doing it to me without a cause No reason for it look in the 69th Psalm Not a 69th Psalm And look there is on the right hand page right hand column You know 69 Psalm, but look there in verse 4 Verse 4 makes this statement They that hate me they that hate me Without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head They, that would destroy me, be in mind enemies wrongfully, are mighty.

He has a lot of enemies, and it’s wrong for them to hate me, to feel toward me what they do, kind of wrong me. Remember a guy named Saul who tried to kill David? What wrong had David done to deserve that I? Did he deserve it? Oh he didn’t deserve it. He didn’t anything wrong. All he did was just be David and happened to be the next anointed king They just happened to be a king that Samuel told him says you’re going down boy, and he did Look into 119 Psalm 119 Psalm 119 Psalm was one long Psalm They got a lot of good stuff in it 119 Psalm Look in verse 78 Verse 78, verse 78 says, let the proud be ashamed for they deal perversely with me and you ought to underline those words without a cause.

Did you know sometimes your husband may say or do something wrong and you didn’t give him a reason for it? It was without a cause. Sometimes it’s the other way. Sometimes it’s with the kids, sometimes it’s with the parents, Sometimes it’s with the workers that you work with, but this is the way you’re going to be treated. Some things you’re going to do and you deserve God’s blessings. And the only way you’re going to get out of this is your confidence is in the Lord and you’ll accept however God works it because even though things don’t work out the way you planned, you know that you’re going to be rewarded when you get to heaven.

So you’d be faithful It’s by the whatever happens Regal to what people say or whatever people do now take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts chapter 13 the book of Acts and chapter 13 Acts chapter 13 And verse 28 Acts chapter 13 verse 28 says, and though they found no cause of death in Him. In other words, there was no justifiable reason from the human standpoint for Jesus to die, because He hadn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t deserve to die.

Now when He took our sins upon Himself, yes God said He was smitten by God Himself. But Jesus never did anything wrong. He didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to die. Now when He took our sins upon Himself, yes God said He was smitten by God Himself. But Jesus never did anything wrong. He said, no God said to God, no God. anything to deserve death, as far as any deed of what he said, thought, or done. Nothing like that.

Yet desired they palate that he should be slain without a reason. Only because of he was just, he hadn’t done anything wrong. He was truth. And some people just can’t handle the truth. And you can’t handle truth is because you can’t handle Christ. Christ is truth. Now the last script I want you to see there is in the book of John chapter 15, the Gospel of John in chapter 15. Jesus has just spent some time with his disciples and he had talked to him about how that, you know, there’s things that servants do not know.

And he says, you’re my friends, and I have revealed my will to my friends. That’s in verse 15, 16 and 17. But looking verse 18, verse 18 says, if the world, if the world, hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. Now did the world hate Christ because of any wrong that he had done? Then it wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t just because he didn’t deserve to be treated that way. If there’s anyone who deserves to be looked up to and honored and respected, it was the Son of God because he wronged no man.

But did he get in this life what he deserved? you and I, we are a little prejudiced. We always see the wrong everybody else, but we don’t always see the wrong we do. So our judgment is a little warped. Our love is not as pure as it ought to be. Everything about us, there’s a problem because we have an old sinful nature. But Jesus had no sinful nature. Jesus was the perfect Son of God. He was literally here in the flesh, never wronged anybody.

And how was he treated? Now, Christ says, if they will do me this way, what do you expect them to do to you? The world is not fair. Remember, we always talk about it. It’s not fair. That’s That’s not fair. That’s who said it was. This world isn’t fair. Your husband will not always do everything right. You already know that. You knew that before you married him. You still married him. Your wife will not do everything right. You knew that before you married her.

You knew she wasn’t perfect because if she was she wouldn’t have married you. And you know I just said a mouthful there. And you got kids that are just like you are. And they’re not perfect either. And you already know that. They’re not going to do everything right. But you don’t want to beat them without a cause. You don’t want to have to whoop your wife every week just to keep her in line. So women obey your husbands and all things for this is right.

I think there’s a verse in the Bible says something like that. But look at verse 19, verse 19, If ye were of the world, the world would love its own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also, and you’re on the line, This is important stuff because we don’t deserve to be treated like this.

Well, blessed be God who said that you had to be deserving of persecution. Who said you had to deserve to be hated? They could hate you because you’re living in a sinful world. The world here is not of God. God has his own world. He says, if I was of this world, my people would fight. He says, but I come from another world. He could have called 10,000 angels and he let them do what they did to him. Forget what he says.

Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted, they have to be And in a sinful world, the world here is not of God. God has his own world. He says, if I was of this world, my people would fight. He says, but I come from another world. He could have called 10,000 angels and he let them do what they did to him. To get what he says, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.

If they have persecuted me. They will also persecute you. If they have kept my sins, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake. And you ought to underline this verse, part of the verse. Because, get that, because they know not Him that sent me. They don’t know me. Now there’s a lot of interesting things that he says down through here, but look in verse 25. But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled, that is written in their law.

They hated me without a cause. Now if they can hate him without a cause because he was perfect, is it possible that people might hate you? And they may have a little reason for doing so. Do you think that possible with us with a sinful nature, we may not do everything as right as we think we did? Did you know somebody might have a cold shoulder toward you because of a hot temper that you have? Inversal, by the way.

Remember this, there’s two kinds of wars in this world, or I should say in marriage. The hot war and the cold war. The hot war is where you just let them know how you think. And verbally you say it and do it. Maybe even somebody asked one time, do you believe in flying saucers? You see, yen cups, knives and forex spoons. But you may find yourself in a situation where there’s anger and explosions. That’s cause of a short fuse.

Now the Cold War is a person who is usually long fused. They don’t explode. They just become like a chunk of ice, and they give you the silent treatment. So there’s two kinds of wars, the hot war, the cold war. Which one’s the worst? They’re both destructive. They’re both just as wrong. And the devil loves it, and he can destroy a lot of marriages. The key thing is this, Don’t expect your husband to be perfect. Don’t expect your wife to be perfect because they have sinful natures and they do things wrong.

See what one eye and here with one ear. You say, why? Because it keeps you from being so critical and seeing everything that each others do and then jumping on them with all fours and beating the tar out of each other. You don’t have to do that. The Bible says be kind one to another, loving one another, or giving one another as we should. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. You and I have done a lot of things wrong.

Call sin. So let this sin be placed on us because all of us have done wrong. God calls it sin and we have to pay for it. I mean, we did it. Okay, I’ll pay for it. What’s the payment? If I go to church, will that take it away? No, just turn over a new leaf. That won’t work. God says that I have to pay for it and the wages of sin is death. Eternal separation from God in hell.

So since the whole world is guilty, we’re all waiting for the day of execution. And God says that He loves us and wants us to go to heaven When they go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God, and none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. So we can’t save ourselves, we cannot deliver ourselves. There’s no escape for us, nothing we can do, until Jesus Christ came into the world. And the Bible says, God loves us, and he’s sent his son, this hen represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.

He came into the world because He loves us and He hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, but when He took our sins, the Father killed His own Son. He died, not for his sins, but he died from the dead and said if you and I would believe that he did it for us, he would put this, put this, put this, put this, put this, put this, and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did.

There’s no tricks to it. There’s no tricks to it. There’s no tricks to it. I have this. I have this Christ as my savior. 50 years ago, I have eternal life. I am going to heaven whenever I die. And that’s the best thing I ever heard in my whole cotton picking life. It was a gift totally free. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. I want you to think just for a moment, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you do it right now?

So what do I have to do? Just between you and the Lord. So God knows your thoughts. And He says, if you’ll believe that He died on that cross and paid for your sins, if you’ll trust Him, not the preacher, not this church, not in your good works, just the Lord. Believe that Christ died for you. And if you’ll trust Him to take you to heaven, God said, He’ll give you the free gift of eternal life. And if He gives you eternal life, friend that lasts forever, and that lasts forever, then all your sins are paid.

Where would you go when you die? The heaven. So it heads by nice clothes and no one looking around. If you’ve never done so and you’ll do it right now, I’d like to have prayer for you. But like I said, I’m not going to have you for not going to embarrass you. But right where you’re sitting, if that made sense to you, you say, Yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight and pray John like me to pray for me.

We’ll just slip you in it very quickly, but right back down, anyone at all. If you’ve already trusted Christ as Savior, great, you’re God’s child. But if you haven’t, trust him right now. And you that know Christ is your Savior, do you really understand that even though you deserve to be treated better and deserve for your husband or your wife or your kids, to do things right by you. And it doesn’t happen. Do you understand God is going to reward you in heaven because you earned something that you didn’t get here?

And you did it for the Lord. God sees, God knows, and God does not forget. Our Father, we thank You so much for all that You’ve done for us. Lord, we don’t understand everything, But we pray that as we read your word and study and walk with you and cast all of our cares upon you because we believe that one day when we get to heaven, because you’re a righteous God, a righteous judge, we know that you’re gonna make everything right.

We thank you for it. In Christ and we 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 toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvary of Tampa dot org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live. And now we’ll closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-5-7. hundred five seven six three seven seven one online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvary of Tampa dot o-r-g we pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Dear Bible, turn to the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis, and chapter 3. The book of Genesis and chapter 3, you and I have been told by the Word of God, rewards are earned. We believe that. And so we work by faith, believing that what God promised he will perform, he will keep his word. That’s what faith is, believing the promises of God. God says a lot of things in his word and you and I are supposed to believe it.

Now, let me give you this. If in this life we received everything that was fair and right and justice and what you deserved, and I deserve in this life. There probably wouldn’t be any good reason for a judgment later on to reward you because you getÛÛ it now. You and I are supposed to realize that everything in this life is not fair, it is not justice here, and that you do not get everything you deserve. You just don’t get it.

And I don’t get everything I think I deserve and sometimes I’m glad. But here in the book of Genesis in chapter three, I want you to look in verse 10. Verse 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. And here’s the word, because. Because. You see, this deals with cause and effect. I did something because. Now you and I need to understand that if we’re going to be judged by the Lord, everything you think, say, do, then we need to be able to defend our position.

You know, why did you do that? Why did you say that? Do you remember whenever you did something wrong and your parents would say, why did you do that? He said, cause. Cause why? Just because. Why? Because is a because. You know cause. Because. Because is an answer. Face your little kids. Why did you get? Because. Because. They don’t know why. Just because. But everything we say or think or do, there’s a reason for it. You and I have a habit of trying to justify whatever it is that we say or think or do.

There’s There’s a reason why we can excuse ourselves. And so we said in judgment upon ourselves and we very easily said in judgment on other people because we hear what they say and do and so forth and we will know why did you do that. Why did you say that? And so if we know that God is going to reward us for what we do, then we need to have a justifiable reason. And we wait until we get to the Jabin City of Christ to try to figure out a reason why we did what we did, or should we go ahead and try to figure it out now?

That’s just complicated. I don’t want to think about stuff like that. But there’s a reason Adam did what he did, and it says because he was afraid. Because he was afraid. Look there in verse 14. the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou have done this, thou art cursed. Why did God do that? Well, because even God has a reason. God says, because you did this, I did this. And so God cursed Adam and Eve. God cursed the world.

Why? Because? Because. There’s a reason for it. There’s reasons why you and I do what we do. So what are the reasons? Look in verse 17. And under Adam, he says, because thou hast hearken unto the voice of thy wife. See, there’s the biggest reason, right? There’s an, he should have done that, done that. Don’t more men get into more trouble because I better stop right here. I could get in a lot of trouble dwelling too long on this point.

Because, well, the reason Adam messed up was because of that woman that God gave. And it’s not Adam’s fault. It was the woman’s fault that God, so is God’s fault. And after all, it wasn’t God that made the devil. He made that angel. And then he fell and then he came into the garden. Well, it’s all God’s fault. So he blamed God, I just for everything, because we know that God is all powerful and God could have stopped this.

But there’s a reason for everything. You and I, we know that when we do that, which is wrong, we always say, well, the devil made me do it. I tried that on my dad one time. He said, well, I’m going to beat the devil out of you. Well, there’s things that happens in life and it’s cause and effect. There’s a reason why. So take your Bible and look there in Genesis chapter 5. Genesis chapter chapter 5 and verse 29, chapter 5 and verse 29, and he called his name Noah.

Say this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed, because God had cursed the ground, and God cursed the whole world. And God brought a flood in to destroy the known world at that time. And because of man’s sin, God cursed the world, and because of that, a payment had to be made. You see, There’s a reason and cause and effect all the way down through. And so because of sin, God sent His Son.

And because His Son took our sins upon Him, He had to die because the wages of sin is death, because the law says the soul that shall die because Adam ate the wrong fruit. was always a reason. And it keeps going on back. And this is why you and I need to understand that in this life, everything is not going to be just and fair and righteous. It’s not going to be balanced here. If God is going to reward you when you get to heaven, then you and I are supposed to understand that while we’re here, things are not going to be done right.

I heard a good statement and I heard a man who was reading it from some book that read, but I didn’t get the name of the book. But it was a statement that was along this line about things that you do. Doing right means you deserve something good, but it cannot in this life guarantee it. For example, man, woman, get married. Okay, that’s always a happy moment. It don’t last long, but it’s a happy moment and usually opposite to track and then attack.

And so you join them together in Holy Deadlock, or wedlock. And so the man and the woman are getting along fine for a little while and the woman decides to go wild. The man does everything he knows it’s right. He loves the Lord, he loves his wife and he’s on everything right. And just because he’s doing everything right, you would think, well, he deserves the wife to do it. He deserves it because he’s doing right. He deserves to be happy.

He deserves everything to work out right because he’s doing right. God’s Word does not guarantee a happy marriage just because you do right. He doesn’t. The Word doesn’t. Now if both… It probably will work out fine. But the man’s happiness cannot depend totally upon the obedience of the other. Even though he deserves a good wife, a good mother for his children, because he loves the Lord, he says to right, he’s not, but he does everything right. Doesn’t mean the wife will do automatically do everything right.

Can he suffer the consequences? Yes, he can. Is it right? Not in this life? Is it fair not in this life? Is it just not in this life? In other words, in this life you are not going to get everything you deserve. That’s wrong. And you’re not going to get everything in this life you deserve. That’s right. It’s not fair because we live in a sinful world. And some things will happen without a cause. There are things in the Bible, believe it or not, that God says without a cause, without a cause.

In other words, the person that does your wrong didn’t have a justifiable reason. So you and I are supposed to understand that in this life cause and effect, and if you do everything that’s right, doesn’t mean automatically that everything is going to work out wonderful. God does not guarantee that in this life. God guarantees that He will make it right when you do right because He will deserve the rewards in heaven because you deserved it now. If you deserve it now, you’ll deserve it there.

If you don’t deserve it here, you don’t deserve it there. The only reason God’s gonna reward you there is because you deserved it here. But you didn’t get Because you can be wronged here. You can be defrauded here. You can be persecuted here. You can be lied about here. Even though you do all the right you’re no to do. And sometimes it doesn’t work out. You may love your children. Raise your children right. Teach them the word of God.

Bring them the sun. Just go to church. Do everything you can. And you teach those kids everything you’re positive. And when they get a little bit older, they may turn on you and hate your guts. be ashamed of you, lie about you, and they can do you as wrong as anybody. And you say, well, I don’t deserve that. Of course you don’t deserve that. You deserve because of your obedient, you deserve obedient children. But can the children who have a mind of their own, can they They rebel, yes they can.

And because they do the wrong, but you did the right. And you deserved that honor and that respect. Whatever you deserved here, when you get to heaven, God’s going to reward you for what you deserve. Remember when we get to heaven and we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, God is going to reward us. What is he rewarding us for? you deserve. So you see down here, don’t worry about whether or not is everybody treating you the way you deserve to be treated?

Does your husband or wife or the children or where you were? Does everybody give you the respect you deserve? Chances are they don’t. And good possibility you perhaps don’t give the respect that others deserve. You know it goes both ways don’t it? It goes both ways. You may not be giving the honor that is due somebody up. The man may not be giving the honor that his wife is due because she is a wonderful, kind, loving, obedient wife. And I know a lot of them who is married to an absolute bum that somebody ought to take him out and just thrash him real good because that’s what he deserves.

And I know a lot of men that don’t deserve the wife that they have. But see in this life, we don’t get what we deserve. We get wronged. We get shamed. We get persecuted. And it doesn’t work out all the time the way that we expect. Look there in chapter 11 of the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 11, and look in verse 9, just chapter 11 and verse 9, where it makes the statement, therefore is the name of it called Babel.

And you see the word, because a Lord did their confound the language of the earth. God did the one because they had disobeyed and said to scatter upon the face of the earth, they refused. So God had a reason. And he broke up their means of communication, where they could not communicate. And he gave them groups different languages and spread them out all over the year. That’s why we have various nations today that speak various languages, because there’s a cause and effect.

You see, there’s things that God does because of what man does. And it didn’t have to be certain ways only because man refuses to obey God. There are things that will happen in your life that didn’t have to happen. But because you did not obey the Lord, God had to chase in you. Now remember this, salvation going to heaven is not because of your works. It means your works don’t get you to heaven because God says not by works of righteousness which we have done.

Not of works, lest any man should boast. So a man is saved by grace because Christ died and paid for my sins. Since he paid for my sins, I don’t have to pay for my sins. He did it for me. And if I believe it, he will give me eternal life. Why? Because Christ died for me. And I have eternal life. I’m his child and I’m I’m going to heaven whenever I die. That’s something that I know. And we know that heaven is perfect and God is perfect.

And when we get there, everything will be perfect. But we’re not there. There, everything is wonderful. But that’s heaven. If you want everything to be right, and you want to be treated absolutely perfect and fair, then just go ahead and ask the Lord to take you home So that’s where you have to go to get that done. That’s not happening here on planet Earth. This the Bible says is a wicked place, a sinful place. And people have a sinful nature.

And we not only have a bad case of me first, I just, sometimes we have a bad case of me only I just look there in Genesis chapter 27. Genesis chapter 27. 27 and look in verse 41. Verse 41 says, and Esau hated Jacob. Why did he hate Jacob? Why did the older brother hate the younger brother? That’s not fair. That’s not right. Well maybe somebody gave him a reason. Well look at this. Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing where with his father blessed him.

But what’s wrong with that? Because his father was supposed to bless Esau and it was stolen from him. But see before that Esau says that he would let him have his birthright for a mess of pottage. So he didn’t have respect unto his inheritance that he had by right of being the firstborn in the family. He despised it. And because of that, the Lord let it happen. And he was able to deceive his father Isaac did. And of course he had a little help from Mamaloo who helped deceive Daddy and he blessed his son Jacob.

And so There you go. Because of the blessing, where would his father bless him? And Esau said in his heart, the day of mourning for my father or at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob? I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him. Well because of this, he had to leave from home. Because of this, he wound up working seven years for a woman he didn’t want. And another seven years for a woman he did want. 14 years!

Finally came home and was scared to death. because he had defrauded his brother. But you see, there’s a reason. Everything in this life was not made fair, and it wasn’t always justice. But does the Bible say anything about, you know, what, so ever a man so of that, shall he also reap? It means you’re gonna reap things out of this world that you soon. But it can’t always be perfectly in every case. If I so love and shouldn’t I reap love?

If I sow hatred, I reap hatred. You see, when he’s talking about sowing and reaping, it’s not talking about me sowing some corn and reaping some corn. Well, that’s a good analogy. Or sowing some cotton and reaping some cotton. But if a man sows to his flesh, he will have the flesh reap. If a man sows to the Spirit, then he’s going to have the Spirit reap. So it all depends on, do you really understand what God is saying in his word?

There’s a cause and effect. And many Christians become very, like as you get disoriented with the things of God, it’s kind of like being on a ship. And you’re used to being, you know, walking solid. And then the boat’s going like this. And after a while your brain begins to go like that. And then you get nauseated. Anybody been nauseated lately? Well, I know a few people. I remember one time I was on a boat. I got so sick.

Oh, I got sick. And my head was a spending and my stomach was, I anointed some fish. But it doesn’t go away right away. It stays with you for a while. I bet he got a little nauseated the other day yesterday and today she says, Yankee, he says, when you when you had prayer, I said, let’s pray. So we prayed. And so we prayed and embedded it says, my head was still going. Close-rise is still going. So she’s not drunk.

She doesn’t drink, but she still may wobble just a little bit. But you see, there’s people like that with God. They’re not clear headed. The Bible talked about being sober minded. And a lot of God’s people are not sober minded. They can’t think clearly. They can’t discern from the right of the left between good and bad. They can’t understand what God is saying. And so it’s something to think about. Take your time and look all the way over to the book of Mark.

The book of Mark, chapter nine. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mark, chapter nine. And look there in verse 41, verse 41. In verse 41, it says, this is on page 10, 58, church Bible. This is verse 41, for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name. Get this, because ye belong to Christ. Verily I send you, ye shall not lose, or he shall not lose his reward. Now it says the same thing in Matthew 10, 42 that I usually use, but here in this verse, I wanted you to see the part says because you belong to Christ You shall not lose your reward now here for example if you give someone a cup of water and You did it for the Lord whatever you do for the Lord your land of treasure in heaven and He says because you you belong to

Christ you will not lose your reward now. What’s the reward for it? It’s something that you earned, you deserve it. See salvation. Now going to heaven, you don’t deserve that. You didn’t work for that. You don’t deserve it. You didn’t earn it. That was a gift. That’s free. But what you have when you get there, rewards are earned. And because it’s earned, that means you have to deserve it. So he says, because you belong to Christ, and you gave someone a cup of cold water in his name.

He says, you shall and no wise lose that. In other words, you are going to be taken care of when you get to heaven. That means that while you’re here in the Matthew chapter 6, it says, if you do things to be seen of men, just for the purpose of being seen of men, he says, you have your reward. It means you did it for them. You got your reward from them, they praised you for it, then God doesn’t have to give you one because you didn’t do it for him.

You did it for the praise of men. So if you do things just to be seen of men, does God know that? Does God know you’re motive? That’s why see if you do what you do for the Lord, then all you need to be concerned about is God saw it. And if God is pleased, ought to be satisfied because you know in this life people are not going to appreciate everything that you do. It’s not going to happen. You’re not going to get the honor, the respect that’s due you because of the sacrifice that you make.

Did you know that you can serve Lord and do everything right and people persecute you for doing so. And don’t want nothing to do with you. You can lose friends. You can lose jobs. And you’re doing right. Now you didn’t deserve to lose the job. You deserve to keep that job. But just because you deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. So don’t get bent out of shape when things don’t go your way. Don’t let it happen to you.

Look there in the book of Mark in chapter 12. Look in chapter 12. and verse 24. Chapter 12 verse 24. And it says in verse 24, and Jesus answering said unto them, do ye not therefore err because you know not the scriptures neither the power of God? Because they had come up with a little scenario and he says, you do air not knowing the scriptures and because they didn’t know the scriptures it affected their theology it was wrong so there’s a lack of knowledge can cost you.

Ignorance is not bliss. My priest is sermon on that one time. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance can cost you an awful lot. And because if you do not understand some of the ways of God, you’re not going to really appreciate some of the things that happens to you in this life. Because in your mind, if you don’t understand it, you’re going to have said, in judgment against God. Because if God is all powerful, then God could have stopped this from happening or that from happening.

Or you losing your job, or you losing your help. See, if God is God, how come God can’t stop all of that stuff? Because God is chosen not to. God has a higher purpose than yours in my desires, whatever our goals may be. God has something He’s working out in your life in my life. And He says, now, if I make everything right here, then you won’t get it there. Because if you earned it here, then I’ll bless you here or give it to you here and then you’ve had it.

I would rather people mistreat me here and not me get whatever I deserve to get because it will be temporary here. But if I wait till I get there all of my rewards that I get that I’ve earned will be for how long? forever. Now you got to make up your mind. So you can do it for the praise of men which will be temporary and man can give you praise, honor and glory and take it away from you just as fast as they give it.

Have you ever seen a quarterback make some touchdown passes and everybody praises them? Yay! Let him throw a couple of interceptions. Throw the bomb out They’re not interested in that young man. All they want to do is they think about, we’ve got to win, win, win. Why? Because they probably bet money on it and they’ve got to have some real kid in their moon bay. 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. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by Going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Vital Line, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 Radiality Internet. Your regular prayers and m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us was told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

God says because we have this great cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. Because see we got a race to run to and There’s a course that we have to run I didn’t design the course I’m just to run it There’s somebody who laid it up before me and it says now I’ll be with you I will not forsake you and I will help you you just run and You have no idea all the obstacles they’re gonna come all the criticisms gonna come You don’t know about all the problems down the road the trial the test you can’t say but There’s a course.

And this is why Paul says that I may finish my course with joy. Not only do I wanna finish it, I wanna finish well. I wanna finish it with joy. And look what he says there in verse two. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. In the words of beginning and the end. When I trusted Christ as my Savior and boy that began the greatest walk journey course, I think any man could ever experience. But not only did I begin but I want to finish my walk with the Lord with my compass, my faith in him.

Now you ought to understand that the devil’s goal is to use things or people for his honor and for his glory to try to get you and me not to have our faith in the Lord. He doesn’t want us to finish our course. He doesn’t want us to run the race. So he says here who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Now I don’t believe he enjoyed the cross but I do believe he endured the cross.

As you live your Christian life there’s so many things that’ll happen you’re not going to enjoy but you must endure and there are blessings that God has promised in the book of James in chapter 1. Blessings that God is going to give to you when you endure the trials and tribulations. Look what else he said. Despies in the shame, set down on the right hand of the throne of God. In the Lord he finished the job, he got to heaven and he sat down.

Our work is not done. We’ve still got a race to run. And he says in verse 3, 4, consider him. Consider him. When you get tired where you want to just quit, it ain’t worth it anymore because it’s just hard. You know, to me not to serve the Lord, that would be hard. To harden your heart against God, that would be bad news. And the Bible talks about a man who harden it to the neck, you’re suddenly cut off, and that without remedy.

So you don’t want to fall into the trap, it’d be a lot easier me if I didn’t serve the Lord. Listen, it would be a lot. Did you serving the Lord is easier than not serving the Lord? He says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Then what do you think it is without him? It’s worse. So he makes a statement here. He says, endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weird and faint in your own mind.

So that is going to take place. It’s going to happen. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew in chapter 10. I want you to see this. This is so very important. We covered a part of this the other night, but not all of it. We just talked about how Jesus had talked to his disciples about fear not fear not fear not they’re in chapter 10 of the book of Matthew. But a couple verses that I want you to see there is found.

In verse 23, see in verse 23, but when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another. Wait a minute, you mean I’m going to serve you Lord and somebody might persecute me? What do I do if they persecute me? He said, well quit. They just quit. No, go to another place. Do it again. Well, what if they don’t? Go to another one. See, the gifts in calling of God are without respect. And God in changes, mind you, because it got rough.

But look what he says. In verse 24, the disciple in Yara Andalina, the disciple is not above, is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. Now, what happened to him? Do you expect to be better or worse? And see, this is where I think the crux of the matter is. We sometimes have in the back of our mind, if I serve the Lord, everything is going to be fine.

Everything is going to be fine. It may not be fine. You can be persecuted. You can even be killed. He even talks about be faithful and to death. You mean, he’ll let me die? Yeah, he can let you die. You mean he can let people persecute you? Yeah, he can let people persecute you. Yes, what he said. He said, all these things, it didn’t mean God’s not going to stop all these things from happening. He didn’t stop it from happening to him.

He said, I’m not going to stop it from happening to you. He said, I’ll reward you when you get to heaven. It’ll be worth it. You see, salvation is free. ship cost you everything discipleship will cost you everything because you don’t know exactly what it’s gonna come but it’s cost you everything to be faithful to the Lord when it seems like everything goes wrong so he says there in verse 25 it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant is a lord if they have called the master of the house beelzebub which is the Prince of that was.

How much more shall they call them of his household? If they treated my master like this, what do I expect? What do I expect? You know what’s wrong in our day and time. What’s wrong in our day and time is that Christians don’t live in such a way that nobody wants to kill Nobody wants to kill us. When the disciples were here, everybody wanted to kill them. Why don’t they want to kill us? Because we don’t offend anybody. We want to get along with everybody.

We want everybody to like us. We got to show them how loving we are. So I was at a place the other day and I was getting a haircut. And the guy was telling me about how he just loves this guy called Joel Osteen. And I listened to him for a little bit. And I says, you know that from what I heard, I said, I’ve never listened to the man preach. I’ve heard him about maybe five minutes total on a TV.

I said, I don’t listen to him. I said, so I can’t speak from personal experience. I says, but what I heard is that he don’t like to speak on sin because that offends people. Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, that’s right. And he don’t like to make people feel bad. He makes everybody feel good. Oh, he does that. He really makes you feel good. Hebtn he says, right before I go to the Catholic church, I love to listen to him.

And I thought, I wonder if he knows and understands how to go to heaven, though. Does the man ever talk about hell? I don’t know. Does he talk about sin? I don’t know. But everybody speaks so highly. And I think there’s something missing here. There’s something missing. Beware when everyone speaks kindly of you. So, beware of men bringing gifts. In other words, people always want to give you something because they’re trying to buy you, bribe you. Don’t want you to say something about their particular sin.

I had to be very careful myself. If you’ll notice here, he says, this is coming. He says, and then that’s why he mentioned three times about being not afraid, not afraid, not afraid. And the reason he’s telling this, he’s because this is what they did to me. And if they did this to me, they’re going to do this to you. Take your Bible-looking Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15. Matthew, Mark, Luke. And look in chapter 15 and verse 1, verse 1.

And you’ll notice there in verse 1 and 2, it says, then drew near unto him all the publicans, tax collectors, sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees and describes murmured saying, this man receive of sinners and eat it with them, and they did not mean this as a compliment. They were being critical of of Him. They were criticizing Jesus Christ of what He was doing the way He was. Now the Bible makes a statement in Matthew chapter 11 that wisdom is justified of its children.

In other words the decisions you make reveal how smart you really are. And when people criticized Christ, it revealed their own wisdom because he was perfect and did. Did not deserve in reality in truth one word of criticism, but he got it because of where they were coming from. You see their perception was not correct. were wrong in their judgment. And so there’s always going to be somebody who’s going to try to pick you apart on something. You better know what you believe and why you believe it.

And it’s not going to be enough to say, well, I believe just like the preacher. What’s that going to get you? You better say, I believe the Bible, the book, because see, how do you know I’m right unless it’s in agreement with the book. This is the final authority. No man. The Bible is the final authority. Take your Bible looking Colossians in chapter 1, the book of Colossians, and chapter 1.

Yeah, General Electric Pepsi Cola, Colations, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. In the book of Colossians and in chapter 1, I want you to see what the goal is of the Lord for His children. In verse 9, for this cause, to this cause, a reason, purpose. This cause, we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might He filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may want worthy of the Lord and all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Don’t that all sound like good, wonderful things that God wants for His children? That sounds pretty good to me. He’s strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patient, long suffering, joyfulness, given thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet or fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.

That’s powerful. That’s good stuff. But this is to show us just what the goal is that God has for his people. And then he kind of breaks it down and tells us a little bit about why we shouldn’t criticize the man. Look who he is. You see there in verse 15, to verse 19, it tells us who he is. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He’s the architect, he’s the creation. For by him we’re all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible invisible, whether they be thrones or the menions, the principalities, the powers, all things were created by Him and for Him.

If you ever wondered why you were made, there you go. You were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things. He, Christ, was before everything, anything. He says without Him was not anything made that was made in the gospel of John. And he says, and before him all things consist. It means it’s all held together by him. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning of the first born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminent.

There’s nothing over him, nothing better than him. So as you read the book of Ephesians, it talks about the body, the church. The book of Colossians deals with the head of the body. So as you read the book of Colossians, talking to you about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He’s done and why He deserves the body’s attention so that we honor our head and realizing that without the head, the body can do nothing. So interesting verses as you go down through here, and you need to know why you believe this book because the wisdom of the world, the philosophy of the world is going to try to work upon your mind and try to capture even your thoughts.

But the Word of God wants to capture our thoughts and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. See there in chapter two, look at in verse eight, where it talks about, be weirless any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of man, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. So that’s what the wisdom of the world is going to do. And you know that the wisdom you have from this book is far superior than the ways of man.

Doesn’t God say somewhere in the Bible about the your ways are not my ways, your thoughts are not my thoughts. But God put his thoughts and his ways in his word so that you and I could know the mind of God. Now do you think for a moment that the mind of man is superior to the mind of God? So if you mind God do you expect man to understand? No. And you can’t make a blind man see. You can’t make it see.

And you’re going to be criticized. Somehow, some way along the way, criticism will come. Can you handle it? Can you handle criticism? Can you handle any kind of criticism? Can you handle all kinds of criticism from every angle, from anybody. Did you know that some of the most sting kind of criticism is from religious people? Jesus was criticized by religion because they had their own beliefs and Jesus was contrary to their beliefs. So they had to go through this.

So you don’t criticize the man, look who he is. And you don’t criticize his message. Look what he says. Look in verse 26. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. There’s a message here. You see there was a person up there, the man. Here there is a message and the message is a superior message than any wisdom of the world can ever give to anybody. You and I are supposed to believe that what we have from God is better than anything this world has to offer.

And when you read the book of James in chapter 3 about the wisdom of God that come down from above versus the wisdom of man that comes from below. And it shows you the difference between the two kinds of wisdom. But in verse 27, to whom God would make known. So there’s things you and I are going to know and understand the world is not going to see. They’re not going to understand. But what we know will make a difference in what we say and what we do and there in lies our criticism because people are not going to see nor understand why you say or do what you do.

So he makes a statement to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, this truth of taking a believing Jew and a believing Gentile and putting together into a body. What a mystery. Did you realize, and you often think about this, here’s a man, let’s just say he’s just a man, not a guy. Let’s just say he’s just a man. that lived over in Israel 2,000 years ago.

He only had a ministry for three and a half years. Can you imagine somebody coming up with all this stuff for three and a half years, convinced everybody of this? And two thousand years later, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of churches all over the world. And every language. And look at the people who say they believed that he was God. Abandoned that. Can you believe that? That’s a bigger miracle. And yet look at the So purity of how he set up a church that can reproduce itself over and over and over again and over and over again Just keep going and going And there’s missionaries all over the world Look coming to books have been written about this guy if he’s just a man What a man I believe he was God kind of knocks my socks off thinking about it Look in verse 28, whom we preach.

What we preach is because we’ve got a message to tell that’s different, better, superior. Therefore, let the criticism flow. I should expect it. I don’t expect the devil to like me. I hope that I am on his top 10 most wanted list. With your protection Lord of course, you know I’ll preface all of that. Whom we preach a warning every man teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We’re unto I also labor striving according to his workings which worketh in me mightily.

This is what God wants to be done, and so you don’t criticize His method. He knows what He’s doing. Look in verse 4 of chapter 2. This I say, lest any man should begow you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the Spirit. Join and behold in your order in the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him.

The method of how we do what we do is because we are rooted and grounded in the faith and no amount of criticism from whoever should stop you from certain law without your heart. Rooted and built up in Him established in the faith as you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving. Do you think that you should be exempt from all the problems and trials and tribulations, the criticisms of the world? Or do you think that you ought to have the honor of serving God like He did and go through what he did and suffer and hurt.

Don’t you think that as a man that he felt loneliness and rejection got tired and weary at the well, was thirsty and needed some water? I believe there’s so much that he went through we’ll never understand all the sufferings that Christ went through. He says that we have a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what we go through. He knows how we think. He knows how we feel. And so yes, you’re going to have the critics in their corner and they’re going to come out and you’re going to have to do battle.

But your faith is supposed to be strong in the Lord. They criticize the man. They criticize his message. criticizes method. That’s just about the way it is with you and I. And Christ says, if they’ll do that to me, they’ll do that to you. It should be as your master. Look up here. This hand representing you and me. The wallet represents sin. Now we all have sin up on us. God loves us. He hates what we do wrong, but he loves us.

But the Bible says the wages of sin is death. That means eternal separation from God. So because we sin we have to die. So Christ says we have to pay for that, which is eternal separation from God. In hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect. His righteous is God and nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s righteous. But God so loved the whole word. He loves all of us.

So what he was going to do for one man, he did for the whole world. God says, you cannot save yourself. It’s not by your deeds. This man represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. He hates what we do wrong because it separates us from the Lord. So what Christ did is he took all the sin, hatred on the cross, came back from the dead. And God says that if we would believe that he did it for us.

It’s the only way he can save us. because He paid for our sins. The only way you can be forgiven if you look there in that verse 14 of chapter 1 of Colossians where he says, in whom we have redemption through his blood. And then it has the word even in italics, which doesn’t have to be in there. It says the forgiveness of sins. Now when you read the Old Testament, you’ll see the forgiveness of sin, the forgiveness of sin.

It’s all over through the book. But here he’s talking about redemption is for the purpose a forgiving you of what you’ve done. So Christ died and paid for our sins so that we can be forgiven. And when we believe He did it for us, He puts this payment to our account and we go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it. And so He says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, soever, believe it.

Should not perish. It means you won’t go to hell. But have everlasting life. I believe it. I hope you believe it. And as you give the gospel, you’re not going to win everybody. But sow the seeds. And somebody today that doesn’t believe it might down the road, believe it because of seed that you’ve sown in advance. And sometimes you’ll win people to the Lord that somebody else is already sown seed too and there’ll be just as ripe as can be.

And there’s other ones there. Remember, everybody’s mind is like a piece of ground. It gets like a piece of rock. There’s briars and thorns on it. And then once in a while there’ll be some good ground and they’ll hear it and understand it and believe it. It’s the best thing in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed in our every eye closed and no one looking around. If you hear it, you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I pray that you have.

I believe that you have, but I’m not God. I pray that right where you’re setting, if you’re listening, just between you and the Lord, just say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for my sins. The best I know I am right now. I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, And friend God said, if you trust him right now, he would save you from hell, give you eternal life, and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die.

That’s the best news in the world. There’s no trace to it, no gimmicks. And if you’re making that decision, I’d like to have prayer for you. If you’re watching by internet, I appreciate it just hearing about it. Write me sometime. Let me know. Say, I listened to the broadcast and what you said made sense to me. and I trust that Christ is my Savior and just wanted you to know it. But if you hear in the auditorium and you say, yes, that made sense to me and I’ll trust Christ as my Savior tonight, which is to slip in very quickly and put a right back down.

Our Father, we thank You again for Your blessings. And Lord, I pray that You’d help each one of us to realize that the more godly we want to be, the stronger the persecution. People are not going to see nor understand, but help us to be strong in what we believe. help us to finish the course, to finish the race that you set before us. And Father, help us to look to You, the author and the finish of our faith.

Bless each one here. We thank You for the name Christ, and we 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 Bible line 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. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-5-7. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

There’s a subject that I want to talk to you about tonight that I think it’ll help you. It’s got to help you. Can’t you hurt ya? But if you’re going to serve the Lord, you might as well understand not everybody is going to agree with the things that you do. There is a spiritual war going on all the time and we’re in the midst of it. When you said I’m gonna serve the Lord or I’m gonna dedicate my life to the Lord, you just expect God to interrupt your schedule and you can expect the devil to interrupt your plans and hopes and drained, he’s going to do everything he can to upset the apple cart.

So he’s busy. And you’ve ever heard this statement, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Now, I like to eat, so I hope everybody don’t leave the kitchen. We want to serve the Lord, but you need to understand what Christ went through in serving His Father, because there were lessons that were supposed to learn from it. And the Bible says in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12, when he talked about running the race that’s been set before us, it says, consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against him.

That you might finish your course and so on. So it’s very important that you learn how to handle something called criticism. Have you ever heard of criticism? A majority of criticism is destructive, it’s not constructive. But generally when somebody, you know, wants your advice, they always ask your advice after they have already made their decision and they wanna know what you think about it. And I say, look, if you wanted my advice, ask me before you make the decision, not afterwards, because you already did committed yourself.

Now they’re looking for somebody to agree with them. And I say, you want my advice? If I give it and you didn’t ask for it, it comes across as criticism. So if you ask for it, that’s one thing. But make sure that whenever somebody asks you for advice or you wanna give somebody advice, it’s always with the understanding that you nor they have to take it. Do you understand that? Sometimes when people give you advice, it’s not advice, it’s a command.

Because you better take it or else. Well, I told you what to do. It means they gave you advice, but that means you don’t have the option. They’re dictating to you. You have to take their advice. Then it’s not advice. But anyway, I want you to take your Bible turn to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Now the things that we’re going to look at, maybe things you already have heard a hundred times, but I want you to follow my train of thought.

It’s designed with you in mind to help you because I’m a preacher. I am generally always criticized because I’m always stating something, saying something, preaching something. So I always have to go through the criticism part. And I learned a long time ago that not everybody’s going to agree with you on everything. But if you can’t take the heat, and don’t do anything, but if you’re going to serve the Lord, you’re going to be criticized. Not everybody’s going to love you.

I was sitting at a restaurant the other day, yeah, me and Dan, and this couple was sitting in front of us and they kept turning around looking at me and we was talking and they turned on that look at us. And so I stared back. And so finally the guy says, are you on radio? He said, yes, I am. He said, listen to you all the time. Boy, I really like your broadcast. So we had something nice to say.

Now that I can handle. That is a lot easier. Compliments are so much more enjoyable. Not everyone is going to love you. And I have gotten certain messages and emails where some people take me to task on certain things and I think you don’t really understand what I’m saying But I also know according to the Bible what the book says and that I’m going to be criticized not everybody’s going to agree I know that not everybody in this church going to always agree with everything that I say But I want you to look at this verse in 2 Corinthians and chapter 10 look there in verse 3 verse 3 For though we walk in the flesh in this body we do not war after the flesh For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal in other words We don’t use tanks and bazookas and guns and bullets and

AK-47. We don’t use that He says but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds now. Where’s these strongholds in a person’s mind? So we’ve got to have something that will break down these strongholds in people’s minds. So he says in verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And get this and bring it into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

So the way you take revenge on disobedience is bio-obedience. So it doesn’t matter what people say and do to us, we defeat bio-baian and doing what God wants us to do. This is what the book says. So he says over there in verse 11, let’s such and one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will be also indeed when we are present.” In other words, he said, I’ve written this letter to you, and some say, well, he’s waiting powerful in his letters, but his bodily presence is weak and temptable.

So, evidently, Paul was not an individual that if you saw him, you’d want to be him. Probably his physical appearance was nothing to brag about. His eyesight was bad. And as he says here, he had trouble speech-wise. See there in verse 10, for his letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak. His speech contemptible. I don’t believe he was the greatest speaker in the world. When you tie that in with the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 2 and you read down to there, he says how that, you know, all I wanted to know was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And He says, I was with Him in fear and trembling. So He didn’t have all the confidence in the world in His ability, but He had all the confidence He needed in the Lord. And so He says in verse 12, He says, I’m coming to see you. He says, but when I come to see Him, my deeds will back up my words. words. What I say is going to be backed up by how I live. Now, these two things in that verse of 11 are important for every Christian to realize because you will be criticized for the words that you say and you will be criticized for the deeds that you do.

But your deeds, your walk and your words, your talk. So you pose a walk the talk and talk the walk. It’s supposed to be the same. You shouldn’t say one thing and live another. So he says in verse 12, but we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measured themselves by themselves. Hey, I’m just as good as you are. Look at that. I’m as good as you are. He says, they that do that are not wise.

So God says, don’t do this. Now you’re going to be criticized for your stand upon the scriptures and the way you live and the way you talk, the things you talk about. Criticism will come. People will not always understand. So take your Bible and turn there to the book of Mark chapter 2, the book of Mark and chapter 2.

Mark chapter 2 and looked at some of the things that Jesus Christ said. And as you’ll notice, there’s always somebody watching, looking. So here in the book of Mark and chapter 2, I want you to look down there in verse 6. And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They don’t like each other. But whenever they have a common denominator, it’s amazing how certain people can become friends against you.

And there will be people that will join together against you. And look what he says. Straightway, he says here, and the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him. But now notice what did they want to do in the last part of that verse? How they might destroy him. So if this is Jesus Christ, this is the son of God. And if they’ll do this to him, well, then maybe, maybe they’ll do this to your, to me.

And so we need to keep this in mind and realize it. Look what he says in verse seven and you are to underline this part of the verse. What did Jesus do? But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples. You see, there is a separation. Your closest people should not be those that criticize others because if they’ll criticize you sooner or later. And you have to understand it, be wise. So you do not make people your closest friends who are angry people.

The Bible says angry people stay away from because they do not have control of all of their faculties. It means they’re not ruled by peace. They’re ruled by anger, which means that they become bitter individuals. And the root of bitterness brings up and causes other people to become bitter because they take somebody’s offense. In other words, you don’t have to offend them. It’s that they take it from somebody else. So you have to be careful. But it’s written here in the scriptures and you need to understand what Jesus did, what went on in his life and what you’re gonna have to face.

Take your Bible, look there in Mark chapter two and verse 23. Look in verse 23. In Mark chapter two, verse 23, let me make sure that they got the right scripture there. And he came to pass that he went through the cornfield on the Sabbath day and his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? So there’s always somebody watching what they were doing, looking for an opportunity that they can jump on them for it.

Because sooner or later, people are going to judge what you’re doing and disagree with it. Now their perception may be wrong. Jesus was not doing something wrong. His disciples were not doing something wrong, but Jesus knew the book. He wrote the law. And he says, don’t you remember when David did this? And he went in there and he got the show bread and they ate it because they were hungry? He says, they did it. And he says, this is what they did.

And he says, the day, he says, was made for man. Man wasn’t made for the day. And so, but they were criticized. Jesus was criticized. His disciples were criticized. There’s always somebody who sets themselves up as authority over and always want to look down upon somebody else. See, whenever you criticize somebody, what you’re doing is that you’re exalting yourself above others and you need to be very careful that you don’t do that. Also look there in the book of Mark chapter 3 verse 2.

In this verse 2, and they watched him whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. Now you ought to underline this statement that they might accuse him. They were looking for fault, looking for something that they can hit him with. They were trying to prove that he’s not as good as he thinks he is. He’s the Son of God, but they didn’t believe that. So they were looking for reasons to convince the people why they should not believe this person.

Now, you may not know it, but understand what he said over there in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 10. Our warfare is a spiritual warfare. Sometimes it’s not the person that’s totally at fault. Sometimes the devil has captured their minds and they don’t see nor understand what they’re doing. You remember when Jesus was on the cross and he made a statement similar to forgive them, father for they know not what they do. They don’t know what they’re doing it, but they don’t know what they’re doing.

This is where your love and patience and kindness and compassion all has to come into play. Because if not, you can become the same way without ever knowing it. Now be careful. Take your Bible and look in, let’s just go to the book of Hebrews, book of Hebrews. Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 and look there in verse 1. I referred to this verse just a moment ago. But in chapter 12 verse 1 where it says, we’re for it seen, and we also encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

Now this cloud of witnesses is the Old Testament Saints mentioned in chapter 11. Those who had lived by faith. And so God tells them in chapter 11 that you and I are to live by faith, to just shall live by faith. And then he explains in a whole chapter what living by faith means by showing you things that they did, but they hadn’t seen some of those things, like Enoch and like Noah who built an ark, but had never seen rain.

Or Abraham going to a place that he had never seen. And about Moses who esteemed the reproach of Christ, riches than the treasures of Egypt endured and moved and did what he did because he could see down into the future. And he saw things that most people don’t see because the chapter 11 is teaching seeing with the eye of faith where with your eye your spiritual eye you see further and better and clear that any man with 2020 vision can with two good eyes here.

And so people are not going to see what you see and understand what you understand. And so he says there in verse 1, 4, and here’s that word, seeing. Seeing we also are encompassed about what’s so great at cloud of witnesses. No, I didn’t see that cloud of witnesses, but I see them with the I have faith. It was put in the Word of God and I see people that served God. I see people who took God in his Word and I see what God told him to do and what the results were.

And because of that, my faith is increased. And so I can trust the Lord who would bore confidence and boldness because I got all these witnesses. I got all these witnesses. It’s not like, you know, this is the first time it’s ever happened. Nobody’s ever done before. Now I got a whole book here. So when I read the Old Testament, I’m reading stories and the Bible says the testimonies of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple. So you and I can be wise if we study the stories because we see how God moved in the lives of individuals.

So he says, we also are comes to bond with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight, The sin with just so easily be said us, let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus by faith. Because see, you can’t see Him, but you’ve got to see Him. You’ve got to see Him for who He is and what He promised. Let’s see there in Hebrews in chapter 11. Look at this here.

You’ve got to see this. See there in verse 6 of chapter 11, but without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that comeeth to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re-water of them that diligently seek him, or diligently seek to please him. So you are supposed to believe that. And so God says, because we have this great cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. Because see, we got a race to run too.

And there’s a course that we have to run. I didn’t design the course. I’m just to run it. There’s somebody who laid it out before me. And he says, I’ll be with you. I will not forsake you. And I will help you. You just run. And you have no idea all the obstacles they’re going to come. All the criticisms going to come. You don’t know about all the problems down the road. The trial, the test. You can’t say, But there’s a course.

And this is why Paul said that I may finish my course with joy. Not only do I want to finish it, I want to finish well. I want to finish it with joy. And look what he says there in verse two, looking under Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. In the words of beginning and the end. When I trusted Christ as my Savior and Boy, that began the greatest walk journey course. I think any man could ever experience.

But not only did I begin, but I want to finish my walk with the Lord with my compass, my faith in him. Now, you ought to understand that the devil’s goal is to use things or people for his honor and for his glory to try to get you and me not to have our faith in the Lord. He doesn’t want us to finish our course. He doesn’t want us to run the race. So he says here, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross?

Now I don’t believe he enjoyed the cross, but I do believe he endured the cross. As you live your Christian life, there’s so many things that’ll happen. You’re not going to enjoy, but you must endure. And there are blessings that God his promise in the book of James in chapter 1. Blessings that God is going to give to you when you endure the trials and tribulations. Look what else he said. Despies in the shame set down on the right hand of the throne of God.

In other words, he finished the job, he got to heaven and he sat down. Our work is not done. We’ve still got a race to run. And he says in verse 3, for consider him. Consider him. When you get tired where you want to just quit it ain’t worth it anymore because it’s just hard. You know, to me not to serve the Lord that would be hard to harden your heart against God. That would be bad news. And the Bible talks about a man who harden it to the neck, you’re suddenly cut off and that without remedy.

So you don’t want to fall into the trap, it’d be a lot easier me if I didn’t serve the Lord. Listen, it would be a lot. Did you serving the Lord is easier than not serving the Lord? He says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Then what do you think it is without him? It’s worse. So he made the statement here.hoe says endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weird and faint in your own mind.

So that is going to take place. It’s going to happen. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew in chapter 10. I want you to see this. This is so very important. We covered a part of this the other nine, but not all of it. We just talked about how Jesus had talked to his disciples about fear, not fear, not fear, not there in chapter 10 of the book of Matthew. But a couple verses that I want you to see there is found in verse 23.

See in verse 23, but when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another. Wait a minute, you mean I’m going to serve you Lord and somebody might persecute me? What do I do? I do it again. Well what if they don’t? quit. Did you just quit? No, go to another place, do it again. Well, what did they know? Go to another one. See, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God and changes, bind to because they got rough.

But look what he says. In verse 24, the disciple and Yara Andalina, the disciple is not above, is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. Now, what happened to him? Do you expect to be better or worse? And see, this is where I think the crux for the matter is. We sometimes have in the back of our mind, if I serve the Lord, everything is going to be fine.

Everything is going to be fine. It may not be fine. You can be persecuted. You can even be killed. He even talks about, be faithful unto death. You mean, here let me die? Yeah, he can let you die. You mean he can let people persecute you? Yeah, he can let people persecute. Yes, what he said. He said, all these things. It didn’t mean God’s not going to stop all these things from happening. He didn’t stop it from happening to Him.

He said, I’m not going to stop it from happening to you. He said, I’ll reward you when you get to heaven. It’ll be worth it. Ooh. You see, salvation is free. Decipalship costs you everything. Decipalship will cost you everything. Because you don’t know exactly what it’s going to come. cost you everything to be faithful to the Lord? When it seems like everything goes wrong? So he says there in verse 25, it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant is his Lord.

If they have called the master of the house beelzebub, which is the Prince of Devas, how much more shall they call them of his household. If they treated my master like this, what do I expect? What do I expect? You know what’s wrong in our day and time. What’s wrong in our day and time is that Christians don’t live in such a way that nobody wants to kill them. Nobody wants to kill us.

When the disciples were here, everybody wanted to kill them. Why don’t they want to kill us? because we don’t offend anybody. We want to get along with everybody. We want everybody to like us. We got to show them how loving we are. So I was at a place the other day and I was getting a haircut. And the guy was telling me about how he just loves this guy called Joel Osteen. And I listened to him for a little bit.

And I says, you know that from what I heard, I said, I’ve never listened to the man preach. I’ve heard him about maybe five minutes total on a TV. I said, I don’t listen to him. I said, so I can’t speak from personal experience. I said, but what I heard is that he don’t like to speak on sin because that offends people. Oh, yeah, that’s right. He don’t like to make people feel bad. He makes everybody feel good. Oh, he does that.

He really makes you feel good. He says, right before I go to the Catholic Church, I love to listen to him. And I thought, I wonder if he knows and understands how to go to heaven though. Does the man ever talk about hell? I don’t know. Does he talk about sin? I don’t know. But everybody speaks so highly. And I think there’s something missing here. There’s something missing. Beware when everyone speaks timing of you. So, beware of men bringing gifts.

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. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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 toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Spinning Globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

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 broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.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. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.