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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to talk to you on a subject that it’s kind of hard to follow. It’s a little on the difficult side, but if you get it, it will really help you. But this will help you to understand a little bit about what God does and some of the things that it doesn’t do and why does it. Now, doesn’t that sound like something that ought to help you? If you knew that, of course it does. So anyway, take your Bible and turn to the book of Deuteronomy and chapter 29, Deuteronomy and chapter 29.

In verse 29, the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. So God says there are some secret things. But notice what he does say in the verse, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. So there are some things that God does reveal because there’s some things He wants you to do. And so if we know what God wants us to know, we can do what God wants us to do.

But the question comes down is, and you’ll read this in the book of Romans in chapter 8 and verse 29, where He talks about whom He did for know. He also did predestinate. For know means to have foreknowledge. To know something before it happens. Now one of the things that you’ll see as you study the Scriptures is God telling us what is going to happen because in His mind it’s already happened and He’s telling you in advance so He’s writing history before it happens.

As he says in the book of Isaiah 53, on to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed and who shall believe our report. So he says, I’m going to tell you something before it takes place, but what he’s telling you is the history in advance, as though it’s never happened before. So he’s telling you by foreknowledge, knowing the future. Now which requires a greater miracle? For God to tell you what’s going to happen before it takes place, or knowing what takes place and then telling you in advance, and then as time goes on, make it happen.

Is it possible that God does say somewhere that this was done that it might be fulfilled? As though God was at the time, the moment operating behind the scenes to have certain things happen in order to fulfill His promise that He said what happened. It’s interesting when you look at those scriptures. One of the reasons that this is important is because if you and I knew too much, would we try to alter history? If you knew too much about things in your own personal life that’s going to happen tomorrow the next day, would you try to alter it to see that that doesn’t happen?

Or that something else happens? It is interesting. And yet some of this is exactly what God’s talking about. So as time goes on, lo and behold, he comes and he has his disciples. And yet he would tell them things, but they didn’t get it. They didn’t understand it. I often wondered for a long time, Why can’t they understand something so simple as I am going to die in three days I’ll come back from the dead? Now what about that can’t you understand?

And he would tell them simple things, and even the lost people heard what he said and understood what he said, but the disciples didn’t get it. If God told you too much, revealed too much, it may not be good to know. And so therefore I believe God in his wisdom allows us to learn things that he wants us to know, but not too much that we may alter the outcome. Because I believe that God has a will of his own.

There’s things that we can do within the will of God, but there’s things that God says this will happen, this must happen, and it’s a directive. other things that are permissive. So it makes it very, very interesting when you study the Scriptures this way. Because I asked the question, could man have altered history if God allowed his disciples to discern or understand too much? You remember the day when he told Peter what was going to take place and that how everybody was going to forsake him?

And Peter says, not so, and you know, I’ll even die for you. And the Lord told him, says, get behind me Satan. See, Peter would have altered something that God wanted to happen. When he came into the garden, remember he took his sword and cut off the ear of a high priest. And the The Lord told them to put up your sword. These things must be fulfilled. As though if He didn’t stop Peter, Peter would change the outcourse of something.

And God’s word has to be fulfilled. It makes it very interesting when you study it from a different point of view. So I want you to take your Bible looking Matthew chapter 1, Matthew and chapter 1. chapter 1 and look there in verse 22, where it makes this statement concerning something that’s very important because we celebrate this moment. In verse 22, now all this was done. What was done? Well, about Joseph, about Mary, about her going to have a child, a virgin shall conceive, call his name Jesus, but look what he says.

Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. Say and behold, now this is what is recorded in the book of Isaiah in chapter 7 verse 14. A virgin shall be with child, bring forth a son, they shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us. All this was done that it might be fulfilled. Did it happen because God already knew it was going to happen or did God see that it happened because he had recorded it in his word?

This is what’s going to take place. And it is a prophecy about what’s going to take place. So either way, whether it’s because God already knew what man would do, or he made it happen at the time. Both requires quite a miracle. Sometimes you’re not sure which way it is at the given time, but I want to show you a few things here. Look there in Matthew and chapter 2, Matthew chapter 2, and look there now in verse 15, and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt, have I called my son?”

So you say, Jesus was going to be out in Egypt, and this had to happen, and he did this, and he maneuvered things and worked it all out so that his son could go to Egypt so that he could fulfill the prophecy that he came out of Egypt. And yet, it’s mentioned in the Old Testament that out of Egypt have I called my son. And yet you would not know that in reading that prophecy in the Old Testament that it was a reference to Jesus Christ because the Son Israel was down in Egypt.

And he did call them out of there. But there’s so many things that are types, pictures, illustrations, allegory that reveal such wonderful things. As you read it, You begin to try to understand how does God work? What is his mind? How does he think? And remember I had mentioned another question, asked the question, and this was the question, can God think about what to do? I want you to think about that thought. Can God think about what to do?

You and I think. Because we gather knowledge and put it together, we try to figure out what is my purpose in life, where am I going? We think about how we’re going to get there. We think about what we’re going to eat. We think about what we’re going to do for the day. We think about what we’re going to wear because maybe yesterday we didn’t have a clue. Is God ever caught without a clue? Does he think like we think?

And yet the Bible tells us in 139th Psalm it makes the statement that his thoughts are about me continually, multitude of thoughts that God thinks about me. But what does he think about me? I wonder what Yankee’s gonna do today. You think God wonders, well, I wonder what he’s gonna wear today. God can’t think like that. The Bible says that his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. So if his thoughts are not our thoughts, then our thoughts are not quite like his.

For his ways and his thoughts are higher than ours. So there is another realm that you and I can’t enter into. So I often wondered, does God have emotion? Now we know that when Jesus was here, Jesus went. We also know that he had communion service at one time and said they went out and sung the hymn. So we sung the hymn. Well, were they had a, you know, a smile on his face or not? I don’t know. Was he happy?

And yet at the same time, the Bible says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. How can we say or do something that grieves God? Because let’s say you’ve got seven billion people on planet Earth. Three billion, please God, and four billion don’t at any given time. Would you have mixed emotions? Can you think more than one thought at a time of negative and a positive? It’s interesting. But how would God be at any given time? Where does He live?

Does He live in the past? Does He live in the present? Or does He live in the future? We know He is called the great eternal I AM, so if He’s the eternal I AM, then with God there can be no past, there can be no future. That only applies to man. Just how much does a man think like God? To reason like God. And at the same time, there’s so much that God wants us to know and to do.

And yet he says he’s the same yesterday, today and forever. So it do get exciting. For example, when you read here in Matthew in chapter two about this in verse 15, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken about the Lord. So it’s also letting us know that this has to be fulfilled. This has to happen because God promises in the Old Testament. God must keep His words. So as you read the Old Testament and see what He promised, even the prophecies are promises of what’s going to take place.

Then we can easily believe that some of those prophecies about the future is God’s way of validating His Word today. See, it’s in there now it has not yet been fulfilled, but because it is the Word of God it must happen. and therefore we don’t try to spiritualize the Word of God away. It causes us to believe what He does say. And the thing that have happened that had been prophesied validates the Word of God. For example, if the people in the East that came, whether it was straight across in about 500 miles or they went up by heron and come down, like Abraham did, up to a thousand miles.

How long had they traveled? And not only how long had they traveled, the timing of when they saw the star, based on how long it would take them to get there, God had to calculate all of this. Because God had to have them get there at the right time. And when they got there, they said, where is he that is born king of the Jews? So they knew he’s already been born. But where is he? So evidently God didn’t let him know everything only that the Messiah had been born.

So they said, well, where is he supposed to be born? And they said the scribe says, where he says, Where it says, don’t I be little among the thousands of Judea yet out of these shall he come forced to be ruler in Israel? So they went there. Why couldn’t the star have brought them straight to the place? Because by the time they got there they saw the star again and Yet they had to go to see Herod When they went and seen Herod that caused no small trouble Now you’ve got not only that problem, but it has created a serious problem.

The angel of the Lord appeared unto them and told them to go back another way. So now he goes in there and kills all those babies that are two years old and under. But look, all this happened, and yet it says in the Old Testament, Rachel weeping for her children. Now, you would not know that’s what it’s referring to unless the Scriptures had said that it might be fulfilled. And so the Lord allowed this, the Lord allowed that, the Lord did this, all the time it’s and Bob, and then he told Joseph in a dream to take the young child and flee into Egypt that it might be fulfilled out of Egypt, have I called my son.

But look at all the things that had to go into creating the problem that had to have a solution that it might be fulfilled which he had promised. Either way, whether it was simply years past where God was able to look down to the telescope of time and say, this is what’s going to happen, or whether God says, this is what’s going to happen and I’m going to see to it that it happened. So there’s some things yes God can make happen according to His will.

But you know that there’s some things that God does not reveal every step of the way. Otherwise, man could alter that which God had promised in his word would happen. The reason this is important is because if God in heaven is true and real and this is not just about Him, it’s also about me. Then I should know and understand that God is no doubt working behind the scenes in my own life, that He is also allowing this to happen, allowing that to happen, and allowing something else to happen, to get me where He wants me to be.

But I do believe that if all of this is true, that what He did here, God’s also doing the very same thing in our lives. It’s just that we don’t see it. We don’t think about it. We don’t see how that I’m so insignificant, God doesn’t need me. But did you know that in the eyes of God, God says that you and I are very valuable, that you are worth more than all the value of the whole world. So you should look at yourself the way God looks at you.

And I’ve had people and say, well, God doesn’t need me. If God allows you to breathe, and you have a pulse, you have a purpose. And there’s something that God wants you to do, and God wants to use us. So I’m supposed to believe that God is using me as I contact other people’s lives, and that you are being used by the Lord, as He allows things to work in your life to get you at certain places that He wants you to be.

And yet God is able to work and to weave things according to His will, that it might be fulfilled. Did you know that there’s a good possibility God been God? God is working in order to get you at a particular place in a certain way. You’d be surprised what God can do anything He wants. But since God is not shocked or surprised by anything, then maybe He knows everything that’s going to happen and many things that He makes happen.

And He doesn’t tell us what it is because we would ruin it. We would try to take matters into our own hands. You know, Abraham tried that a couple of times it didn’t work out too good. And God still did what God wanted to do. And God still fulfilled His purpose even though He had, He worked around some of the decisions of mankind. Look in Matthew 4 and verse 14, Matthew chapter 4 and verse 14. And you’ll notice there’s a verse here that says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet.

And he’s talking about this great light and about John the Baptist, and when he comes on the scene and what he’s going to say and what he’s going to do, that it might be fulfilled. Look in Matthew chapter 8, Matthew chapter 8, and look in verse 17, in the book of Isaiah 53, it mentions this, but he’s telling you what part of that prophecy is going to be fulfilled and when it’s going to be done. See, many people believe that the healing is in the atonement.

You know, when Christ died on the cross, it wasn’t. Jesus did healing before He died on the cross. And so he says here in verse 17, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. Not on the cross, this was before the cross. See what he says in verse 16, when the evening was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with the devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word healed all that were sick.

This is the fulfillment of that verse. And if you go back to Isaiah, many people try to say that this is in the atonement. So when Christ died on that cross, it’s guaranteed you to be healed of all of your diseases. It is not. This is before Christ ever went to the cross and fulfilled that verse. So it pays to look at some of the things of what God said when He said it, and when it was fulfilled, not just that it was fulfilled.

And yet all these things are so very important that when Christ came, He did these things and it fulfilled what God said. Now you and I know that because God is God and He has foreknowledge, He can see the end from the beginning and He can have it recorded before it ever takes place, because He knows exactly what’s going to take place. And so when it comes to that time and he recorded in his word, if people knew too much when it was a boff to be fulfilled, they could alter it or change it.

And that’s why I believe there’s a point where they could not understand. The Bible says it was hid from them, hid for a reason. Like he says in Deuteronomy 29 verse 29, where it says secret things belong unto the Lord, but God has revealed some things to us.” And so that’s good to know. Take your Bible and look there in Matthew 27, 35. Matthew 27 and verse 35. This is a verse that I’m sure you are familiar with. Because some of this was fulfilled in the, I guess you say, prophesied in the 22nd Psalm that when Christ was going to be on the cross the soldiers gambled for His close.

In verse 35, and they crucified Him, parted His garments casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them and upon my vester did they cast lots. But it’s in fulfillment of a prophecy. So there’s some things God allows to happen, because he knows it’s going to take place. Some things God must intervene. Do you know if God had not intervened in the life of Joseph and Mary, Joseph would not have married her.

The scripture says he was going to put her away. It means he was not going to marry her until God intervened. So there’s some things God has to intervene on to make it happen in order to fulfill his word because some people won’t do what God wants him to do. There are times when God will intervene into your life and God will allow people in circumstances and even sicknesses or whatever God, see everything that God’s disposal and he can use it any way he wants to get you and I to do the things that we’re supposed to do.

But God doesn’t go against our will. He didn’t go against Joseph will. He won him. He had an angel explain it to him. And if he hadn’t explained it, tell me, wouldn’t have done it. Would you have believed Mary’s saying, hey, I’m having a child, but I never, and no man’s ever touched me. You’re right. But the Lord intervened. And if it hadn’t been for the Lord intervening in the life of John DeBabters’ mother and father at their old age, they probably would not have had a child.

So anyway, there’s a lot of interesting things as you go through the Scriptures and you see this. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20, and look in verse 17, verse 17. Now, several of the books will say the same thing, but one of them add just a little bit extra to it. But I wanted you to see this. In verse 17, and Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way and sudden to them.

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the cheap priest and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death. Now what part of that would you have trouble understanding? I mean, did you understand what I just said? Well, what did he do? Choose the dumbest guys in all the world? Why wouldn’t I understand that? Because the Lord says, even though later on through the Holy Spirit they could write down what God wanted them to write, recalling those incidences or the Holy Spirit telling them exactly and bringing all things to their remembrance, whichever way they wrote it down.

and says that they didn’t get it. They didn’t get it. Have you ever heard something from the Word of God a hundred times? And all of a sudden one day, I got it. I finally see it. I came, I didn’t see that before. It was right there. But look what else he says here. He says in verse 19, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify him And the third day he shall rise again.”

Now what part of that verse would you not get? What was the problem? He must have talked to him in Greek. Maybe it was Hebrew. Maybe it was Aramaic. Maybe they just didn’t get it at all. Maybe these were the dumbest fishermen in all the world. Or maybe God had a reason for it to be recorded. But they didn’t get it because it was hid from them. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tappa, 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 tool free, 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link.

If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10.30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed.

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