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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 prayer… Your 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. One line donations may be made through the Bibleline 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. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. So now that you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, don’t you believe that the God that created the heavens and the year also is interested in your life? That God that can give you eternal life, can he give you a hamburger from day to day?

I think so. But here in Romans in chapter 8, I want you to look in verse 28 28 says, for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. It says, and we know. If you know this, then it’s one thing, but a lot of people don’t know it. A lot of people know the verse, but they don’t believe the verse. And so that’s why we have so many miserable, weak, bitter, angry Christians that are not really happy or feel with joy of the Lord.

If God is going to take you from something to something, He’s got to lead you through something. If He’s taking you from childhood to adulthood, He’s got to take you through the teenage years. In 1 Corinthians 10, there’s five basic privileges that God does for all of us that are pretty much the same. I want you to see it very quickly. In verse one, he says, Moreover brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant that all our fathers were unto the cloud and all passed through the sea.

All were baptized unto Moses. In verse three, ended all eat the same spiritual meat. In verse four, ended all drink the same spiritual drink. When God took the children of Israel out of Egypt, what And he did for one Hebrew, he did for all the Hebrews. And so what God does for you and what God does for me, he’s done for everybody else. When God saved me and when God saved you, he did exactly the same thing for me, he did for you.

When Christ died on the cross, he did the same thing for me, he did for you. No difference because it was for you, it was for me, it was for all of your sins, it was all of my sins. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, well then God gave you eternal life. Well, He gave me the eternal life too. Well He made you His chat. Well He did me too. He gave you the Holy Spirit. Well He did me too.

And He promised that He’s going to take you to heaven. Well He did me too. So He said, there’s no difference in that. The difference comes between how you and I show our appreciation to God. That’s an individual choice. I get a chance, you get a chance to tell God how we appreciate what He’s done for us. And that’s where the difference comes in. You see, when we get to heaven, God rewards us, He’s not going to reward us for the things He did, He’s going to reward us for the things we did.

The rewards in heaven will be different because they’re based upon the individual decisions of individuals. Yours, mine. You can waste your life, okay, but when you get to heaven, you’re not going to have what you could have had. If somebody else decides to serve all over, they’re gonna have what you could have had, but you’re not gonna have it. And you may not think it’s that important. There’s a song that I’ve heard recently. It’s called I can only imagine.

Only imagine. No, you can’t. I don’t really like the song. I just as on scripture song. I can only imagine what it’s gonna be like in heaven. No, you can’t. I have not seen ear, have not heard and neither has entered into the heart of man. That’s what God has prepared for them, the love. It hasn’t even entered your mind. You cannot imagine what God’s got for us in eternity. You can’t imagine it….” You can’t dream up. You can’t think of how God is going to reward you when you get to him.

You can’t. It’s beyond your mind. You can’t see it out of sight, out of mind. Therefore, you may not think it’s that important. But whenever God is going to take a child and make a man out of him, he’s got to take you through certain processes. And how you work with those various things and yield to them and so forth, the lessons you learn depends on how fast you grow, or whether or not you become a mature Christian, with the Christian character that you ought to have.

And God is going to lead you through many of these things. There’s a song in the book. It’s page 96 in your songbook, but you don’t have to turn to it, but it says, God leads us along. That’s the title of what I want to talk on. And it’s on page 9 and it says, but listen what it says. In Shady Green Pastures, so rich and so sweet, God leads His dear children along. Will the waters cool flow bathe the weary ones feet?

God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives us a song. End the night seasons and all the day long. It’s a wonderful song. It really is. And God leads us along. But in the midst of where he’s leading us, he will lead us through pretty much the same thing. It depends on how you respond in the midst of all of these things.

And that depends on where you are spiritually. The same problem that I face, somebody else may face, they may stand, I may fall. But if I fall and they stood, you see it’s because of where I was spiritually. God never gives us anything to make us fall. God will allow us to be tempted because of pride or because of some particular lesson he has for us to learn but God’s not picking on people because he got it in for you.

God’s always trying to instruct and to correct anything that’s wrong in your life where he wants to lead you and he makes this statement in verse two. Sometimes on the Mount where the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in the rally in darkness of night, God leads his dear children along. Did you know that the light in the darkness means nothing to God? Did God exist before there was light upon the earth? Remember it was God that created the heavens and says, and darkness was of all the face of the deep.

Well, see, it didn’t matter if it was light or there is no light. God sees all as though there is no such thing as darkness or light. That’s for our benefit so that we can see things that we could not see with the natural life. But he makes the statement here and I love it, sometimes in the valley and in the darkness of night, God leaves his dear children alone, to the water, some to the flood, some to the fire, but all to the blood.

Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night seasons and all the day long. Did you know that those who sometimes may have to go through great sorrow, sing the better songs? They write greater songs. They learn greater lessons. So don’t curse the dark light of candle and don’t become bitter because of things that happens in your life because God is leading you someplace. There are particular lessons that God wants every one of us to learn through the things that we have to face.

Now look there in verse five. In verse five of the same chapter there are five basic sins that plague people. See everybody’s going to be tempted and you’re going to be tempted in different ways by these various means. In verse five, he said, but with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things. You’re tempted to do so.

Many will fall because of it. Verse 7, neither be idolaters. That’s the second thing. And many people will because they’ll put idols before God and they worship their idols. You may worship sports. You can worship money. You can worship your wives. You can worship your kids. You can worship anything but not worship God. And God calls that idolatry. Nothing is to be between you and God. And then number three, they’re in verse eight, neither let us commit for an occasion as some of them committed and some are tempted in this area.

Verse 9, neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Many people are going to tempt God. Sometimes we step out and we take dangerous detours thinking that nothing will happen. Or we mock sin thinking there’s no consequences. And God says you’re mocking me. You’re mocking me. You think you can do what you want to do and get away with it. Some Christians will do that and they get this. And the next one he says in verse 10, neither murmur ye, number five, as some of them also murmur.

In other words, to complain, complain, complain. Have you ever made Christians that all they do is complain, complain, complain, always whining about something? Nothing’s ever right. They’re always negative, always pessimistic, always down. You’re always having to say something to encourage them. Well, there’s time when we do, yes, but you shouldn’t live there. That shouldn’t be where you make your daily abode. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 1. When God wanted to take Israel, that’s whenever Jacob’s name was Jacob before it changed to Israel.

And there were about 70 in his clan now, as time has gone on. Joseph had already been sent down into Egypt. God promised the land of Canaan to Israel. But there were enemies in the land and Israel was just a little old small group of people, just the tribe. And so God sent them down into Egypt. God sent them down into Egypt where they were there for 400 years. Now America is a little over 200 years. old, and God led them there in order to get them there.

God will sometimes lead you in the exact opposite direction of where He wants you to be because of the lessons He has for you to learn. So while they were there, there’s many lessons they had to learn. And God had promised them a land that flowed with milk and honey. But to get them from where they were, to get them where they are supposed to be, God had to work some miracles. And so God had led them there so that they could go through the furnace of fire.

And many times the scriptures tells us that Israel down in Egypt was a furnace of fire. They were being purified. And then whenever he led them back out of Egypt, he had to go through the Red Sea. And in every step God was leading his children along. He is the shepherd and he’s leading his flock. They didn’t always get led where they wanted to go, but they were led exactly where God wanted them to be. God is the one that had planned on Jacob taking his family down to Egypt and had sent Joseph in advance and he used the wicked decisions of his family, his brothers, and sold him as a slave and he was sent and God led all that happen because he got has a bigger plan.

God, and you must believe, is working in your life. You may not see in all the little details. But after a while, you can look back over you like me, you can see how God did this and God did this and God did this. And some people never see God working in the life. I can look at my life and I’ve seen God move in a mighty and mysterious and strange ways that I could not have planned. I could not have ever designed all the things that God has done for me.

And I look at it and I stand, it is an awesome thing to know that God is doing something in your life and that God has a purpose and a plan. You see, I don’t have to know where I’m going to end up. I’m going to end up in heaven. But while I’m in this world, God is leading and He’s taking you here, He takes you there and so on. And He brings you into something that He might bring you through something that you might learn something to be better for him.

Some people, they don’t mind it if God turns out the light on somebody else, for they can learn all these lessons. But when you see God’s hand going for the light switch, you become, you begin to panic. You become fearful. When you start losing your money and you don’t know what you’re going to do, when your health starts to go. Or you’re facing some serious operation you don’t know what you’re going to do. Or people turn against you and you don’t know what you’re going to do.

And so God leads you through all these things. One of the biggest things I believe is because God wants you to learn that He is enough and He is sufficient for your life. If it’s just you and the Lord. What if there was nobody else in the whole world, just you and the Lord? Could you handle that? It might be that that’s where God will take you. Now here in Deuteronomy in chapter one, look what he says there in verse two.

Before they got into the promised land, he had to bring them through the wilderness and they were went through the wilderness for 40 years. Think about that. When God who had Moses already in Egypt, let him go out of Egypt, the backside of a desert and left him there for forty years waiting. Waiting until Moses was right, waiting until the people in the land, in the iniquity of the emirites are not yet full. And he says that he had to get Israel ready and make a nation out of them and an army out of them.

So God had all these things in mind and he’s planning. God is behind the scene and he has on overall purpose. And he says the wickedness of the people in the land that had the land God’s because of their sin, he was going to take it away from them and he’s going to give it to them. See the earth belongs to God. And God can give it to whoever he wants to. This is his world. Those are his planets and that his stars.

This is his earth. And you are, as The Bible says you are the chief of his pastor, the people of God. So God is free to do whatever he wants with that which belongs to them, but God works according to the rules, the rules of law, the rule of love. God can show the various characteristic traits of himself. He may show his judgment and his wrath or his compassion, his mercy, and he chooses different vessels to do it and different nations to do it.

But God is alive and God is working and though you may think my life is dull, it’s boring, whatever I am, just because you fail to see what’s been done. He didn’t take and create us and then take a vacation someplace. God is intricately involved in the daily affairs of every individual. In verse 2 there are 11 days journey from from horrible by the way of Mount Sir on Decadeus Barnea. In other words, from Mount Sinai, where God gave him the law, Decadeus Barnea, he said, it’s only 11 days journey.

In other words, they could have been right there and went into the land. But how long did it take them? 40 years. 40 years to go to 11 days journey. Why? Because you see, God used the wilderness experience in order to take all of those individuals who believed that they can’t go into the land because of the giants of Enakkari in there. And we can’t win. And so they came back with an evil report and convinced the children of Israel that they can’t go.

And so their unbelief kept them from going into the land. And so God said, I’m going to let you wander around in the wilderness for 40 years. And doing that 40 years, he says, all of y’all are going to die off. And I’m going to take the other generation in. And he says, but Caleb and Joshua, they’ll get to go into the land. Now stop and think for a moment. That means that during these 40 years, and all these people that had died, every death was by the hand of God.

Everyone that lived that went into the land was by the hand of God. Because God could have kept them alive or God could killed all everything in God’s hands. And that means that God individually knew all those who did not believe and those that did and God called some to live and some to die. Well, it was just an accident, that a freak accident. This person died. No, everything is been watched upon by the eyes of God. and whether man lives or whether man dies in God’s hands.

Now God may use wicked things in this world but God is in charge. God is still on the throne. God still rules. Christ, when he was here, he told Luke, chapter 13, he says, do you think that those 18 that died because the tower’s alone fell upon them? They were wicked than somebody else? He says, that’s not true. In other words, he knew the real reason, but he knew they died. But it wasn’t because they were more wicked than somebody else, but then evidently God did know the reason.

They doesn’t say it. He makes this statement because some came and says, Why was this child born blind? He said it wasn’t because of the sins of the mother and the father, and therefore this child was born blind. He says that’s not true. He said it had nothing to do with the mother and the father and their sins. He said this man was born blind that you might see the power of God. In other words, he had been blind from birth all the year because God was going to do something in the life of this one blind person.

See there’s a reason. You just may not always know it. Why would God have a man like Moses born and he couldn’t speak right? Had an impediment of speech. Moses used his flaw as an excuse not to serve God. But God says, I want to use you just the way you are. Moses wouldn’t do it. Moses missed out on some mighty good blessings. When God told Moses certain things to do, Moses at times got angry. And because of his anger, he said and did things he should not have done.

And when he did so, it was not permitted to go into the promised land. Just a coincidence? No, he died upon the mountain. Right before they was to go in. So, well, the one lives, one dies. You say, well, it’s just an accident. No, it’s not. There’s a God in heaven that knows what’s going on. And God will bring you into something that He may lead you through something that you may learn what God wants you to do. There’s always something that’s going on and you should always ask, Lord, what do you have for me to learn?

What do you want to teach me through this? And I assure you, there are lessons to learn in every testing, every trial, every temptation that you have. There’s something to learn. I have over the years wondered why did God leave me here and in the there and in the there and in the there and in there. My life is a step. It’s a walk. You’re walking with God. It’s a step at a time. You don’t have to know where it’s going to end up.

You just go ahead and serve God. Just keep walking with the Lord. And if you’ll serve God faithful today, you’ll be where you’re supposed to be tomorrow. And if you’ll serve God that day, then you’ll be where you’re supposed to be the next day. You see, if God is going to use you, God has got to prepare you. And God has to toughen you up. He has to let you get beat up a little bit. As you go through life, whether with people or things, They are to rough you up so that you get strong in the Lord and not in the power of your own strength, not in your own wisdom.

But you as a child of God, realize there’s some things I cannot control. I must trust God. I don’t do this because I’ve got people who believe in me. I do this because I believe God wants me to do this. And in the power of the Lord, I will do such and such and you do that And you hang with that and you don’t change. And God will work miracles. Because what are you gonna do? If everybody you know, every friend you have, all decide to turn against you.

Now what are you gonna do? Are you only as strong as the ones you hang around? What if they don’t agree with you anymore? What if they don’t love you anymore? What if they turn and say mean and hateful things? What are you made out of? Well, this is why you have to sometimes go from childhood to maturity, and God’s got to bring you to the wilderness. As that song says, some through the waters, some through the floods, some through the fire, but all through the blood.

Because of who Christ is and what He’s done for you, it’s an awesome song. But I read the words to that title one day. God leads us along. Some of you might want God leave me alone. No, God leads us along. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 22. David had been anointed king of Israel when he was just a little lad. God had looked over the other seven brothers and he picked the smallest one, the youngest one, and says, this is the one I want to be king.

God did that because that was the will of God. It’s what God wanted. So, from childhood, until he became the king, there were many things God was going to bring him through in order to prepare him to be the king. He can’t go from here, straight to king. God has many things for him to learn, lessons to go through. God took a shepherd boy, not the most intelligent person in all the world. He wasn’t born in a palace. He was a little shepherd boy.

and God blessed him. And no doubt while he was out there he learned how to play the harmonica. Well a harp. And the Bible says that he was a sweet musician of Israel and he would learn the same and he played and he was skillful. Did you know that God used that? On a day whenever Saul would have his down moments and he would bring the little young David boy in there and he would play his harp and perform.

And Saul was aged and he enjoyed it and it sooth his spirit, calmed his bad attitude. When it wasn’t long before Saul realized there’s something different about that boy. Someday that boy is going to get my job and so he tried to kill young David. Why did God let him go through all that? Why would God let this young boy who didn’t ask to be the king? And yet at the same time, God had to prepare him. And at one time he had to kill a bear with his bare hands and a lion.

Pretty good. But there was a time in David’s life where there was many things that God had to do for him. Here he had to run for his life. And yet God had promised, you’re going to be the king, and yet here’s a man running for his life. The king was trying to kill him. Look up here. This man represents you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God, he loves us, but he hates our sin.

For you and I 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 cannot enter into heaven because of sin. the goal is to get rid of sin and God says that you cannot get rid of this sin except by death. The wages of sin is eternal separation from God in a place called hell. But God loves us. He says you cannot save yourself, you cannot earn eternal life.

This sin represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in a place. He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin. He says it separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, all of it. Paid for on the cross, came back from the dead. Instead, if we’ll believe He did it for us, He would put the payment to our account and we get to go to heaven, and watch Jesus Christ did for us. I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior.

I hope that you trust the Lord as your Savior. It’s so important not only to know Christ as your Savior, but to realize that God is working in your life. God is leaving you alone. It doesn’t matter about your family situation, job situation, the finance situation, the health situation. God wants to lead you through everything and He wants to become more real to you than the clothes you have on your bank. He wants to teach you things about Himself.

You would never learn any other way. Let’s pray show 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. 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 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. 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.