This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now take your Bible and turn there to the book of Haggai, the book of Haggai in chapter 2. But I want you to notice there in these scriptures, something that’s very interesting, if you’ll notice in verse three. In verse three. You’ll notice that there is a comparison with people who can remember way back. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? In other words, they were there looking at the temple that had been rebuilt out of the rubble.

And some were old enough, but see, they had been taken into captivity in 70 years has passed. So you’re talking about some old people, but they were there and they had seen the Solomon’s temple. They saw it in all of its glory. They were there. They saw that temple. In comparison to that temple, what they have now isn’t anything compared to that. Look what he said. And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

As you compare it as nothing compared to what you used to have. This is nothing. But he also wants them to understand this. Down there in verse 9, the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace. In other words, there is going to come a time where there’s going to be in the future another temple that’s going to be built. And that one will look like nothing.

Solomon’s will look like nothing compared to the temple that God’s going to. In other words, you’re comparing this to that. You ought to compare that to that. The one that God’s going to build. Now you sometimes think, boy, look what I’ve got, compared to who? And as you look back and sometimes you’ll see how God is You have more now than you had before and you always are comparing. And you say, boy, I wish I had that house instead of my house.

I wish I had that car instead of this car. And God says, be content with what you have. And wait a minute. He says, regardless down here of how you compare yourself with others or what you have, the material things of the world. He says, compared to what you’re going to have when you get to heaven. and this is nothing, this is nothing. Don’t put your desires in the things that will fade away. As though this is all there is to it.

That this is all of your hopes and all of your dreams because you can lose it all. Then what happens to your hopes and your dreams? And that deep burn in desire, see God placed within me, a deep burn in desire. A desire to want to serve the Lord because I know that according to the word of God, God says lay up treasure in heaven so that you can’t lose it. Thieves can’t get it. It won’t rust. It won’t decay.

Nothing happens to it. It’s saved. In other words, everything I have ever done for the Lord lays up treasure in heaven. I’m not interested in laying up treasure on the earth, just heaven, laying it up there, so that when you get there, you have something. Let that be your great desire. The Lord says it another way in this word in the book of Colossians and also in Philippians, Set your affections on things that are wired. In other words, set your affections on things that are above, not on things of the earth because the things of the earth, God says He’s going to shake it one of these days.

Now, you’ll notice as He goes down through here, down in verse six, looking in verse six. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. That’s the verse we just read in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12. That verse over there to the Christians is to wake us up to help us to realize like the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, all these Old Testament saints, everything was lost in this world.

And many lived their whole life and never saw the fulfillment of the promise in their lifetime upon the earth. But you see God says like Abraham, He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. Talk about when I get to heaven. there’s going to be a day when there’s going to be a kingdom upon the earth, something that’s rock solid that will not change. God says, I want you to understand this heaven and this earth will pass away and the works therein will pass away.

But he that doeth the will of God shall last for eternity, shall last forever in the book of 1 John in chapter 2. Now notice, we said, I will shake the heavens and so on. Then down in verse 7, he said, I will shake also all nations. Shaking the earth is one thing. You know the visible things of the material wealth of the world. You know the land and the sea and the mountains and the Bible says the whole earth will reel to and fro like a drunk man.

But when you talk about shaking the nations, it means that the people in the nations upon the world won’t have the answers about what to do and how to solve the world’s problem. You know what’s interesting? The Bible, now I’m not saying that this is the start of it. I’m not saying the Bible predicts, after two days, I believe 2000 years, that there is going to be massive chaos in the world and great economic problems in the world, that the nations of the world will be so shaken as the people because they’re perplexed by not knowing what to do about the things they they see coming upon the earth.

And no solutions. Now the Bible talks about that in the book of Luke, chapter 21. If all these things are true and God shakes the world, he said, don’t put your hope in men of the world or don’t put your hope in the White House. Don’t put your hope in the legislators. You’re supposed to put your hope in God. Trust in the Lord. Some things you can’t change. You don’t have to worry about changing them. All you gotta do is have enough faith for yourself that you can know how to live while the rest of the world is falling apart.

Notice what it says there in verse seven. And I will shake all nations and get this you’re underlying it. And the desire of all nations shall come. The word desire refers, I believe, to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all people’s hopes and dreams and desires. Whatever I want. One day, maybe not all here, one day I will be totally satisfied with all my desires when I get to heaven. I won’t want anything that I won’t have.

I’ll have everything that I need for all eternity. I’ll be forever loved. Never be cast out, never forsaken, never worry. None of the things that down here causes you all of those things. And the Lord says, put your hope and your trust in the Lord. One day, he says, after he shakes the earth, and I believe during the tribulation period toward the end of it, the desire of all nations will come, Jesus Christ. And they are going to accept him as their Messiah.

Now, when that takes place, he will set up his kingdom upon the earth. And he will rule, and nations will be blessed. People will be happy. There will be peace on earth. There will be good news for all people. And joy for all people. And the Bible says to them, the thousand year reign, and children will play in the streets and the lions and so forth will play with the children. And nobody will be harmed. Because Christ will be here and He will rule with a lot of iron.

Wonderful thing that the Lord says is going to take place. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke in the Bible. The book of Luke. This is in the New Testament. We got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but in the book of Luke and chapter two. And it’s a story of Jesus Christ being born. He is the desire of all nations. And it makes the statement there in verse 10, as we read a little bit earlier.

And the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which I’ll be to all people. Listen, it doesn’t matter who the person is. Doesn’t matter where they are or what year they were born. What century does it matter? For all people of all time got some good news for you. He says unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Best news that anybody ever heard.

Because man cannot deliver man. Man can’t change man. Man cannot fulfill the dreams and hopes and aspirations of man. Because the only thing we can do is all temporary. Have you ever been happy? Yes. Have you ever been sad? Have you ever had something wipe away your smile? In other words, it never lasts. It’s always temporary. Well, one day it’ll be forever. Eternal joy, eternal happiness, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. But you see, they rejected the king. They rejected the babe.

And can you believe this? Can you believe that there was a government upon the earth at that time, a government that wanted to kill a little baby? Can you believe that a government wanted to kill a poor, helpless, little baby? They did. And the Bible says the government killed a whole bunch of little babies. A lot of it to be done. Little babies were killed. Innocent little babies. These are a government today that does the same thing. Abortion is murder.

Abortion? Murder. The Bible says here in verse 13, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And like I said earlier, if all men of all nations on the whole earth would give glory to God in the highest because of the Son that He gave, then there would be peace on earth and good will toward all men. But today we don’t have people who want good will for everybody.

There’s people who get mad enough that want to take their life, mad enough to do physical harm, mad enough for revenge in their heart. You see, we don’t wish good will to all men. we wish goodwill to those that treat you right. Those that do us wrong, we want to punish, but the Bible says that we’re supposed to them. But why isn’t there peace that rules? Now remember this, when Jesus Christ came to rule upon the earth, He was rejected and crucified.

So the king was rejected. The kingdom was postponed. Well, then the ruler is gone. The king is gone. How can he rule? And yet the Bible says the Kingdom of God is among you. Then he said the Kingdom of God is within you. And it means that the King of heaven, God Himself, can’t steal rule. When you read the book of Colossians in chapter 3, it says, and let the peace of God rule in your heart. You see, the world doesn’t have to have this peace.

It doesn’t have to accept Christ. They can reject it. They can be as mean as they want to be for those who do. But personally every individual can allow the peace of God to rule in their own individual heart. You as an individual, you can choose to be as happy as you want to be. You can choose to have as much peace as you want to have. You can choose to have as much joy as you want to have or you You can be as miserable as you so desire, but it’ll be your own personal choice.

Nobody can do it to you. Nobody can rob you of that. You have to surrender it. Nobody can make you mad. You have to choose to get mad, choose to get angry, but those are all individual choices that you and I make. Or you can allow the peace of God to rule in your own individual heart because you see after you trust Christ as your Savior, there is still somebody on the throne who still wants to rule in your life.

And he should rule in your life. Now, he doesn’t rule over me to get me to heaven. I trusted Christ as my Savior. I became his child, he became my Savior. I am going to heaven when I die. That was by grace and grace alone, something I do not earn, I do not work for, I don’t deserve it. But God loved me and He did that for me. And as a child of God, I have decided that I would rather have God that created the heavens and the earth who put everything in its orbit, the perfect God, the note how to rule.

Let Him guide my life. Let Him tell me how to live. Let Him tell me how to think. And I have loved His decisions, loved His choices. I could not have planned a better design for my life than the one he has given to me. I wouldn’t swap it for anybody or anything, not in this world. God’s been good to me. You see, God wants to rule in every individual heart. One day he’s going to take us out of here and the world is really going to get dark and then it will become the desire of all nations for this so-called peace.

You know why they’re going to rally around this anti-Christ, this last one-world government because they put in their hope into somebody hoping that they will be able to produce peace upon the earth because that’s what people want and they’re going to accept a mark upon their hand or upon their forehead. And they’re going to become worshipers of this last one-world government, the mark of the beast, they’ll accept it because they want the economy to prosper. They want to be happy.

They want to have things, but they’re putting all their hope in the wrong thing. I want you to take your Bible, not your Bible, but your songbook. Take your songbook out and turn the page 429. And I want you to look at the words of a song that we sung just a few moments ago. the first verse. It says, Hark, the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Think of the words of what this thing is saying. Glory to the newborn king.

He was born king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. Listen, God says there is enmity between him and man. Christ that he may reconcile man back to God. So that there can be peace between God and man. That’s why in the book of Romans in chapter five, verse one says, therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. You see, I’m not at war with God. God’s not mad at me because of all my sins.

He’s not gonna condemn me to hell because of all my sins. I made peace through Christ. God said, if I accepted Him as my Savior, what He did would be put to my account as though I did it and God is satisfied with that. And so we had a mediator. There’s only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. One mediator. If you accept that man, Christ Jesus, as your mediator, then you could have peace with God.

Look what He says. Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies. With angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. One of those wonderful words, but we just sing the songs. Don’t think about what they’re saying. Look in verse two. Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord. Everlasting. Late in time behold him come, offspring of a virgin’s womb. They’ll enflest the Godhead sea. Hail the incarnate deity. It means that God, God, God, in flesh.

God is in the flesh. That’s why he says, and the word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world, the world was made by him, and all things were made by the Lord.

And he is the light of the world. You see, this is what God became, God becoming flesh. That’s who that person was. was born 2000 years ago. Now notice what else he says here. Vailed in flesh that God had seen. Then pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. What’s the word Emmanuel mean? Emmanuel is an untranslated Hebrew word which means God with a…Jesus was God in the flesh. Now you can’t believe he was just a good man.

He was a good teacher, oh he’s a good prophet, Jesus Christ is God. He is God in the flesh. That’s who he is. I’m not interested in dedicating my life to some man, to have some man rule over me. But I’ll yield to God. There’s only one true and living God. In verse three, hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace. Hail the Son of righteousness. The Son of righteousness is a phrase that’s taken out of of the book of Malachi.

Malachi. Light and light and life to all he brings. Listen with healing in his wings. Mile he lay his glory by. Born that man no more may die. The Bible is in the book of Hebrews, I mean in the book of Philippians in chapter 2. And the Bible says he became as a man even unto death. And that he even rose again from the dead. So that every person would one day bow and confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Mile, he lay his glory by man, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Second birth. You see, I was born to the world once, but I got another birth. When I trusted Christ as my Savior, I would see a second birth. And verse four, come and here’s those words. You ought to underline them even in your book. Well, it belongs to the church. Unline it carefully. desire of nations come come desire of nations come fix in us thy humble home now though he was rejected by the nations you as an individual don’t have to reject him you could still accept him and Christ will entwail you and yes your body your literal body becomes the home of God himself and you can let God who created a heavens and the earth, ruled over everything, rule in your own heart.

And He can give you the power that you need to live the way God wants you to live. It’s awesome when you think about this. Fixing us by humble home, rise to woman’s conquering seed, bruising us the serpent’s head. In other words, every one of us has a little devil within us, and that little devil within us is an old sinful nature. But in the book of Genesis in chapter three and verse 15, there is a reference made there about the seat of the woman, the seat of the serpent.

And at one day the seat of the woman, a man child will come and bruise the head of the serpent. And if I took my heel and stopped the head of the serpent, I’d bruise my heel, but I crushed the head of the serpent. That’s what he did. The guy that wrote this song had a little Bible knowledge. Today we have people that write songs that have no knowledge of the Bible. There’s no doctrine, no teaching in them. These are, this is awesome.

Notice what he says, Adam’s likeness now a face. That means the destroy, the destroy, the likeness of our physical birth or our flesh birth and stamp on me the image of him, the image of Christ. Look at the last part of that. Stamp a thine image in its place. In other words, to make you like Christ, second Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love. I think it’s an awesome song. I love it. Not all songs has as much to say, but then you stop and you think about the other song we sung while ago, the first song, Joy to the World, Joy to the World.

Think of how exciting that is. Think of how many people all over the world are gonna be singing that song at this time of year. Do you really think that most of the people who sing that song know what that song’s even talking about? Joy to the World, the Lord is come. That’s why we have joy. Now, I have a lot of things that’s well, I ain’t going to be able to change. Some things I don’t, I won’t spend my time on.

But I do know that I believe Christ is coming back. And my hope is in some things that will never change. Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. See, I’m going to shake this world. I’m going to shake it so that you’ll know you can’t trust anything in this world. I’m going to burn this world up by fire. He said, but my words, what I say to you are rock solid. My promises are good. You and I are to hang on to that.

Do you believe that if you cast all of your cares upon Him, He’ll care for you? Do you believe that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to those recalled according to His purpose? Do you believe that? Do you believe that my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus? Do you believe that? Or are they just words? What’s words? I’d rather hang on those and all the promises of the White House or the legislature in Georgia or anybody else.

God promised me that if I served him, he’d take care of me. Now, him taking care of me is his business. I ain’t interested in how he’s going to do it. I don’t care how he’s going to do it. I just know that God promised to take care of me, and so far so good. Look up here. This hand representing you and me, and this represents sin. We all have sin upon us. because of sin. Sin destroys the fulfillment of our desires.

Because there’s so many things we want. Most people want a happy marriage between a husband and a wife. And look how many homes have been wrecked. What happened to the dream? We always want all of our children to turn out right. And then when it don’t happen, what does it do to you? When you hope for that job or that certain raise and you got it and then something else happened to take it away or you finally couldn’t wait to you retired.

And then when you finally retired, your health went and you couldn’t enjoy anything after that. Republic, I mean, I’ve seen that happen. But you are living in a world that changes. Your desires change is always rocked by some tragedy somewhere along the line. To rob you of the peace and the joy that you would have had. But God says, he loves us. He loves us. He knows the desires that we have. But he lets us have the desire, but he says, now, don’t fulfill the desires with the things of the world.

He says, put your hope in something that’s better. You see, if you didn’t have desires, you wouldn’t want to be saved. If you didn’t have desires, you wouldn’t want to live in heaven. You didn’t have any desires. You wouldn’t want to have a new body. If you didn’t have any desires. But say, God gave you these. And they’re to be used correctly. But God loves you, hates your sin. And for us to pay for this sins, eternal separation from God in a place called hell.

Now God loves us once us to go to heaven. To go to heaven, you have to be perfect, just as righteous as God. And nobody’s perfect, nobody’s righteous. We’re all sinners. That’s why we need a savior. Everybody in the world of all nations, of all time, everybody needs a savior. We’re all in the same boat. Nobody can save themselves and nobody can save another. Everybody’s lost. There’s only one that can save us the desire of all nations. Here he is.

Somebody, it can deliver us Christ. He came into the world because he loves us, hates our sins. So he took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. Said now, all we have to do is to believe he did it for us. And he puts his payment to our account, and we go to heaven. Now, at this moment, right now, If you could all be placed in heaven, all of your desires will be fulfilled.

Forever. They’ll all be fulfilled forever. You see, it’s not over yet. God hasn’t broke His Word. He hasn’t broke any of His promises. Never. He doesn’t change. He says, the heavens and the earth, oh, they’ll pass away, but my words will never pass away. You can believe that. Though some things are going to be shaken And the faith of a lot of people are going to be shaken? God’s Word doesn’t tremble. You’re placed upon the solid rock. You may tremble on the rock, but the rock will never tremble under you.

Let’s pray, shall we? Every headbound, every act closed, no one looking around. If you’re here this morning, and if you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, talk to the Lord right now. Say something simple like this. Say, Lord, I know that I’m a sinner, because friend, we all are. But Lord, I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and that He paid for my sins. And right now I will trust Him to take me to heaven whenever I die.

Now friend, if you’ll do that right where you are, God said He would save you, give you eternal life. And if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. Never cast you out, never lose you. But if you’ve never done so, would you do it? Would you trust Him right now? And if you will, I’d like to have prayer for you. If you know Christ is your Savior, I hope you understand that He is the desire of all nations. And I hope you understand that when you sing that song next time, it’ll mean just a little bit more to you.

Our Father, we thank You so much for Your blessings to us. We’re thankful for Your Word You’ve given us. And we pray, Lord, that one day, yes, there will be peace on earth, good world to all men. In Christ, and we pray, Amen. Well, it’s almost Christmas, and we’d like to give every listener a Christmas gift. listening, we’d like to send Dr. Arnold CD on understanding difficult passages of the Bible. No donation is required. We’ve compiled on CD Dr.

Arnold’s teachings on difficult passages. For example, does James chapter 2 teach that true faith will produce works? Does 2 Corinthians 5 17 mean that a true believer will no longer desire to sin? These and many other verses are explained in their biblical context so that you can have confidence in the agreement of all the Word of God. Call us today toll free at 1-800-576-3771 or you can write us at 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again no donation is necessary, just your address so that we can send to you this important teaching.

God bless you and Merry Christmas and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. We’re leaving that the Lord is coming soon.

Just keep looking up.