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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, a Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel is 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 about an interesting little subject today. There has been times in all of our lives that we have made decisions that we have lived to regret. And I’m not talking about your marriage now. I’m not going there. I’m not going there. But I do want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews, and chapter 12. Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews is the reason why men are supposed to make coffee and not women because it says he, Bruce.

It’s just scriptural. But anyway, we’re in the book of Hebrews and we’re gonna discuss a little bit today, some of the things that we think about, decisions we make, that at the time we make them doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal. But as time goes on in the process of time and the course of life that we sometimes realize the consequences when we’re having to go through the chastisement phase of life. You see, in the Christian life, you’re a Christian because you have trusted Christ as Savior.

You’re not a Christian because you go to church. You’re not a Christian because you read the Bible and you pray and you give money. That is not a Christian. Going into a church doesn’t make you a Christian. a Christian only if you have accepted Jesus Christ and Him alone as your only hope of going to heaven believing that when He died He paid for all of your sins. See there is no salvation outside of that. There is no option B.

We all get to heaven the same way. Did we or did we not accept the payment Christ made for us? So if I trust Him as my Savior and He made a payment for my sins, how many of my sins, did he pay for? All of them. So I have a payment for all my sins. That’s the only way you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die because eternal life is the gift of God. It’s not of works.

Christ died for my sins. And if you understand that, then you’ll know that there’s nothing that can keep you from going to heaven once you trust Christ as Savior. You say, well, you don’t deserve it. Well, that was the point from the very beginning. Grace, are you saved, means you don’t deserve it. It is the gift. It shows you how much God loves you. In spite of how bad we have been, are or ever will be. Salvation is the gift of God.

But now after you and I trust Christ as Savior, we make a multitude of decisions. And God says we can make a lot of decisions. The lost man who doesn’t even believe in God makes a multitude decisions. And if he plants corn and a Christian plants corn, well if he waters it and does right and his sunshine it’ll grow just like it does for you. If I’m a saved man and a lost man walk outside and it’s raining guess who gets wet?

Only the lost men. No, everybody gets wet. So you see there’s certain principles that are in life and you can either follow them or not follow them. So a lot of lost people they know how to make money. Most lost people can make money better than the Christian can. So we’re just going to sit and wait for God to do it all. And the lost man knows that, hey, this is all the time he’s got. So he gets up and he works hard and he tries to make all the money he can because this is it.

That’s what he lives for. But there’s something else for the Christian. So God says there is this thing called chasening. Now it doesn’t sound like a very good word, but it just means the discipline, correction, just like having children and you correct your children. I mean, you hate the kids. I mean, you’re trying to correct them and lead them and guide them and teach them. So the Bible says that when you trust Christ the Savior, your heavenly Father does not always tell you yes.

He doesn’t always answer all of your prayers in the affirmative. So you look what He says in verse 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. See once you trust Christ the Savior… You’re a child of God. And as a child of God, your Heavenly Father is your Father, and so he’s gonna try to raise his children. So he uses all the things in the world, the problems and trials and tribulations to get you to come to your daddy so your daddy can teach you.

And you’ve got all kinds of problems and you don’t have the answers, and so he wants to solve your problems for you. I used to see this little thing on the back of cars all the time and then on the billboards. Jesus is the answer. I didn’t even know what the question was. So you’re going to have a lot of questions, but you go to the Bible to learn the answers. And so he says here in the last part of verse 5, my son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

Why would God chasten his children? God chastens his children because he said, I’ll never cast you out. He says, I’ll never lose you. See, once you trust Christ to save you, He said, I’ll never cast you out for no reason. And I’ll never lose you for no reason. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. That’s a guarantee. So I know that from the day that I trust them, Christ is my savior I have, eternal life, I’m His child forever.

But I’m not in the forever yet, I’m still here. And so some people are, you know, They really want to walk with their heavenly father and they really want to please their heavenly father and they love their heavenly father and so they want to do those things that he tells them to do. But you always have some of God’s children who love themselves. Well, then they love God. They love themselves more than the world. They love themselves and they want to please themselves and they don’t realize they’re going to make some bad decisions and live to regret them.

being chastened by the Lord is not always a happy experience. I don’t remember the time when I’ve ever of offed him and my dad and his dad, I mean I could sure use another weapon. Would you please just lay it on me real good? Did you know your heavenly Father, sometime he’ll just talk to you. He’ll just kind of look your way. And sometimes he may have to get out the big stick. Some of God’s children, they have to have a two before over their head before they wake up and listen to God.

So he says, my son despised not the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuke. In other words, don’t quit just because God says no. Realize that he does it for a reason. Look at the next verse, for whom the Lord hated, he chasteeth and scourge at every son whom he received it. Is that what it said? For whom the Lord, what? Loveth. Now the reason And he chases his children because you’re still his child. Just because you don’t do what you’re having the father wants you to do doesn’t mean not we’re now you’re lost.

Well that must be a sign you never saved. No it doesn’t. It just means you’re a disobedient child. It’s just like me having a son, David. David, when he obeys me, that’s a sign he’s my child. When he’s disobedient, that’s a sign he belongs to his mother. His obedience or disobedience is not the proof. It’s not the evidence he’s my child. Well, maybe a little bit, you know, man. So you go out through here and you read this about the chation.

Now look what he says there in verse 10. For they, talking about our parents, very for a few days, chasing us after their own pleasure. I didn’t know my dad got pleasure out of that, but the Bible says they get out of the, in other words, they get tired of us messing up because it reflects back on them and so to please them, they beat the Torah out of us. And have you ever noticed it whenever the mama says to the child, “‘Don’t do that,’ and then he does it.

“‘Don’t do that,’ and I’m telling you for the last time, “‘and then he does it 10 more time.'” Well, not you, gone too far. Now this is it. Well, they’re training you. You’re not training that kid. They’re training you. When you speak one time and they don’t do a bam, or you correct, somehow, whatever it takes. But you’re supposed to be the head of the home. Today we got children that are running the homes. Teenagers that won’t obey, have no respect for their parents.

We can think government for a little bit, but it’s people that vote and put the people in place of office that are making some of these stupid decisions. But anyway, we’ll move right along. I want you to know that when he makes a statement here in verse 11, now no chasting for the present seems to be joyous. But grievous, causes grief. Nevertheless, afterwards, it yielded the peaceful fruit of righteous unto them which are exercised thereby. Now look in verse 15.

This is why God says, make straight ways for your feet and so on. In verse 15, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness bring enough trouble and therefore, many be defiled. In other words, when God chases his children and you don’t respond the way you should and because you got hurt from various things that God may bring into your life in the form of Chasing and you get hurt and you get bitter.

And when you get bitter, you defile other people because you’ll tell them why you’re hurt. And they don’t have to know the truth. They just know and will take it upon themselves. Well, if they hurt you, then that hurts me. So therefore I hate you too. And people can turn people against people who have never had anything done to them by those very people. And it does a lot of damage. Now get this. When he makes the statement in verse 16, lest there be any fornicator, profane person as he saw, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

No, he was first one born. He’s the one that should have been, you know, inherited what his father had. But there was a little shenanigans going on here, and he had sold his birthright for one little message of pottage. In other words, one little bowl of soup. He was willing to give away his birthright because I don’t need it. And this was worth it at the moment. But later on down the road when his daddy laid dying and his brother went in there and got the birthright and his father blessed him, then here comes, and he was upset and he wept bitterly.

He said, can’t you just give me one blessing, one blessing. And so he says here in verse 17, for you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he would have. He was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, so he changed his mind and all the tears could not change God’s mind. It could not change his daddy’s mind. It was done, it was too late, and he had grief. And I call this the Valley of Regret.

Later on, down in the valley, you have this regret of a decision you made years before. So God wants us in advance to think about the decisions because it could be a valley of joy which will be the result down the road of a decision you might make today. And you’ll find out that you can suffer consequences 20, 30, 40 years later and live with regret that you didn’t make the right decision back then. Wouldn’t it be needed if we could always learn from the previous generation, but because we’re so hard headed and we don’t have any respect for the other generation, they just don’t know.

I’m different. I’m not gonna be like that. I’m not gonna do that. And then he wanted to do exactly the same thing instead of listening and learning. Look there in your notes. You’ll notice there is a verse that I have right before the number one, multitudes, multitudes and the value of decision for the day of the Lord near and the value of decision. Now I want you to take very quickly and turn in your Bible to the book of Genesis in chapter 4.

Look there in the book of Genesis. You know the story. There is a story about Adam and Eve. The Bible says, and they knew one another, means they came together and they had a child. And the child was Cain. And then he had another child and his name was Abel. Well Abel, well he took here the flock, so he brought a lamb as a sacrifice. Cain, well he killed the field, so he brought some fruits and vegetables of the field.

And God did not have respect for his, but he did toward Abel’s. This is where you had the first fundamentals and the first modernists in the Bible. There was a problem here and Cain would not listen to God. And God says, all you have to do is make the right sacrifice, but he would not. He was going to offer the sacrifice. He wanted into it his way, because what’s the great difference? I mean, what difference does it make? It’s no big deal.

Well, that’s what he thought. But you’ll notice what he says here in verse 8, Cain talked with Abel, his brother, came to pass when they were in the field that King rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. The Lord said in the King, where’s Abel thy brother? And he says, I know not. Is he telling the truth or lion? He’s lion. You see, you got to do one sin to cover another sin that covers another sin. You don’t just make one sin and then that’s all over it now you got to keep on sinning and keep on lying and keep on deceiving.

And then he says in verse 10, he says, and he said, what hast thou done? Now do you think God already knew what he had done? Yeah God knew what he had done. The voice of thy brothers blood cryeth unto me from the ground and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy earth. hand. In other words, what you did, you ought to see the punishment that you’re going to have to pay.

In other words, did God see it? Yes, God knows. Yes, but he lied and killed and deceived and did all of it and then tried to fool God. So he says in verse 12, when thou tell us the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. When you rebel against the Lord, whatever you do, you’re not going to get the full benefit of everything that you do. things are not going to drive it. Like God says, He says, you’re putting money into a bag that’s got holes in it.

And that’s why most Christians lives are. When you run from God and you rebel against the Lord, you don’t win. You cannot win. You’re not stronger than God. You’re not wiser than God. Understand as a child of God, correct the problem. Examine yourself and correct the problem. Look what He said, in verse 13, and Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. And that’s why down the road to you’ll always come and call, make me say, I just don’t know if I can bear anymore.

I can’t handle it anymore. You’re using words that are similar to somebody else. Why can’t you bear it? Are you that far away from God? Have you lost your vision of what God is and who he is and what he can do? Or is it because you’ve got guilt? Things are on your mind of past things and wrong decisions and now you want to admit it. God did, look what God did to me. And you become a bitter individual and you can turn on God and then you bitterness will cause other people to turn against God or turn against somebody you blame.

Because we’re always blaming somebody, remember you need to go back and read the book of Genesis, the beginning of how these things happen. Look at the next statement here. Lot regretted the decision as to where he would live. You see, whenever him and Abraham were together, and their flocks grew, and their hurt, they had everything, they had so much, well, the area where they were, they couldn’t support both of them. So Abraham told Lot, so look, you just choose out wherever you want to go, and I’ll take the other side.

And so he saw the will, watered plains, and he says, that’s where I want to go. And he went toward Sodom. And it wasn’t long before he just, And look at the plains, next thing you know, hey, he’s sitting in the gates. He’s somebody now. He didn’t move, doesn’t he? Sodom and Gomorrah. Look what the statement says here. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. God took Lot, his wife, and his kids, two girls, and they got him out of Sodom.

And then God let that place turn into a furnace and destroyed everybody else. Now it didn’t have to happen that way. He just made the wrong decisions about where he was gonna live and how he was gonna raise his family. He took him to a hellhole. He took him to a place where there were a bunch of sodomites. You see what’s wrong with that? And seeing and hearing vexed his right to soul from day in today. Look at the next statement.

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example under those that after should live how? Ungodly. In other words, that’s not like God. That is not what God wants. It is sinful and in his wicked. And does God love him? Yes, God loves the people, but he hates the sin of the sodomites. You see what’s a sodomite? Men with men and women with women having sexual intercourse. One way or the other.

Any way you wanna claim God says it’s sinful and it’s wicked. wrong. It is not to be accepted in a society. I just hope that somehow my convictions will leak out and know where I’m coming. Look at the next statement. But Lot was a just man and delivered just Lot. It wasn’t just Lot that he delivered, but Lot was a just man, meaning that he had believed in Jehovah and he knew the Lord. But he wasn’t serving God and it cost him his wife.

It cost him his two girls. It cost everything that He had. It was all burn up in fire. His whole life, everything’s gone. All of His servants, everything that He owned. But He blew it all. But anyway, look the next statement. For that righteous man. A believer in the Lord, dwelling among them. That’s why we’re not to have them dwell among us. Now we ain’t going to be able to change it, not just a little old bitty church right here, but I do believe it is something that ought not be accepted in society.

They ought to be looked upon with disdain and with shame. And what do they call it? Gay pride. Pride. And it’s one thing that God hates, it’s called pride. Not the person, but look how bold they’re getting. Now you’ve got to have praise, the honor of that. And it’s a shame and a disgrace. You’ve got one preacher in this country, in this town that’s going to tell you what the book says. I don’t owe anybody else anything. I told people, I always preach with my bags packed right here.

You can’t see them? Just picture them there. Because I’m not going to curb or trim one word from what I believe the word of God has to say. And you cannot justify the sin of sodomy. Anyway, we’re moving around a lot. Look at the next statement. The Lord know of how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be funny. Do you believe there’s a possibility that, well, lot couldn’t look back over his life when he made it.

when he made that decision to live in the wrong place and go to the wrong town and to live among them and the price that he paid on his wife and his children. Do you think there’s any regret there? God tells us these stories in the Bible so that we will be wiser down the road. We’ll make better decisions on road because you only get one trip through life with all the stuff. You don’t get a rerun. You don’t get to do it twice, just one time.

Look at the next statement, 10 men regretted the decision as to what they would believe. You see, in the book of Numbers, and we won’t take the time to look at all these verses because well we could, but let me just kind of tell you about it. You see, the Lord had used Moses to bring these children of Israel, about 2 million across from the Ritzy, from Egypt into the wilderness. And they came to a place called Kedis Barnia, about 11 days journey from where they were into the promised land.

So they sent in 12 spies, one from each of the tribes. They went into the land. So they went into the land and they came back and they had a big old pole between two of them just to carry a clump of grapes, they were so big. And it says, the fruit there is unreal. They marvel over it. But pin of them had a bad report. In other words, this bad report, this evil report was fake news. You ever heard of fake news before?

In other words, it’s not the truth. But it causes people to get stirred up inside. We have people doing a little bit of that in our lifetime, don’t they? Not true at all, but everybody is enraged. Enraged about what? They don’t even know. Most of us nothing but a show. It’s a knack. They’re actors. But anyway, we’re not talking about government today. So 10 came back and they gave an evil report. And this evil report turned the hearts of the people.

So we can’t take it. They said there’s giants in the land. We’re like little grasshoppers. And they’re big. The Children of Anecdonk, these giants in the land. And we can’t do it. We can’t do it. But God has already promised them, I’m going to give you that land. See, the battle was the Lord’s. It said they took their eyes off the Lord. And did that decision cause any problem? I mean, it’s no big decision. We just don’t believe that we can do it.

Well, all of them died in the wilderness. And God raised up another bunch. They go into the land. Two people that did believe it would Joshua and Caleb. Did they get to go into the land? And this is an amazing how many of those people died and others lived and they go into the land just like God promised. Whether you live or whether you die, a lot can depend upon the decisions that you make. Do you think those tendets said, what did God we had died in the wilderness?

Guess what? They did. They got exactly what they asked for. Do you think they could have lived to regret that decision they made that day? When they came back with a lie and deceived the people because they had no confidence and trust in the Lord and look at the price they had to pay. Their punishment greater than what they can bear. And you’d be surprised how many of God’s people go through the same thing. It’s greater than I can bear.

Really. Have you ever heard of a verse called cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you? What are you bearing? Did you cast that on the Lord? I don’t believe He can do anything about it. I don’t believe he cares. No, then you care it yourself until it weighs you down like a yoke of iron and it destroys you. Yeah, that’ll happen. Look down at this verse. I want you to see this. where says, um, fake news, but the men that went up with him said, we be not able.

It didn’t depend on them. It depended upon God. They couldn’t do it, but God could have done it. And God eventually 40 years later caused them to go into the land and they were able to take the land. And God did it. Look at the next verse there. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer the holy one of Israel, I am the Lord thy God which God unlineeth, teaches thee to profit, which leadeth thee in the way that thou shouldeth go.

See, there’s a way God wants his children to go, and there’s a way God’s children want to go. You have a conflict. Now, either you can obey God and win, or go against God and lose. But you will live to regret your disobedience. You cannot win. I hope I’m clear on this. Because I have to watch people who suffer the consequences of those decisions that they didn’t have to make it that way. It’s just that they lost sight of who they are, where are they going when they die?

Why they’re here? And trust your heavenly Father. Your heavenly Father loves you enough to chasten you until you know you can’t have that and you can’t do that. But he loves you. He said, but don’t quit just because I told you no. And a lot of people who get to the place where they just quit, not going to serve God, not going to walk away. Well, why? Your heavenly Father has never done you wrong. He’s never done you wrong and never will.

page two, page two, moving right along. King Saul, when thou was little in thine own eyes, he humbled himself to God, and God used him to be the first king of Israel. What a wonderful story. But he regretted his decision to visit a witch. I’m not talking about who you’re married to. Don’t miss him, don’t miss him. He’s not talking about his wife. There was a woman, the witch of Endor, those who had familiar spirits. And you see, it had gotten to the place where Saul would not listen to the Lord.

And so because he would not obey the Lord, Samuel stopped talking and telling them what God said. He said, well, what would his God say? Well, where’s Samuel? He’s not here. Oh, he’s dead. So Samuel, I gotta get him. I gotta find out what God wants me to do because if the listings are coming and they’re gonna do us bad and I need to know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Well, he had a problem. He was told, you do not go and see information about the future from familiar spirits, you know, sitting around the table and holding hands, kind of conjure up the dead and all that.

You just remember this, evil spirits can mimic and copy anything you’ve ever known or read about or thought about with any of your who, this is your end. Susie. Well, remember, they knew Ansusi, and they know all about Ansusi. And they can tell you things about Ansusi that, huh, how did she know that? Duh? Don’t you read the Bible? And you will know what evil spirits can do. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader?

Then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa. traditional and online classes taught by instructors with years of experience. Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you. To learn more, visit online at floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 850227 5325. That’s 850-227-5325. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.