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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 through the Bibleline website at Calvary of Tampa. of Jesus Christ.

And that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family. We are designed, especially by God, with certain desires. And I believe that those desires that are right or desires that came from God. And God said he made us in his image. God wants us to be part of him, not just his creation, but somebody that’s part of family. I’m sure you understand. one thing about people that, you know, they may be neighbors, might be good people to work with, but sometimes you just feel like, you know, family is still family.

And whether it’s your wife, your kids, brothers, sisters, family, family, and you believe that there should be a closer tie there, you know, because say, well, we’re blood, and blood is thicker than Well, I believe God has placed a little bit of that in us. God loves. God wants not only someone to love, God wants to be loved. And you and I think have lived long enough now, most of us in this room, we’re all adults. We’ve lived long enough to know what it feels like to be loved and be hurt by being rejected.

Rejection is a terrible thing. I remember whenever I was in school, I was at a stage in my life where I wasn’t really that athletic. I didn’t have a chance to play like some of the kids, so I didn’t have a chance to develop in certain, you know, certain athletic skills. would get together and they’d always pick up sides and they would take this when they take down. And Yankee is the last one. How would you like to be?

It’s either me or some guy that’s got three left feet and they’re trying to decide whether or not to pick me or the guy that’s totally off the wall. And you think, this is where I am in life. I am on the bottom. And one of them know that whether you can’t hit, you can’t catch, you can’t run too good. We don’t want him on our team. And there’s a sense of rejection. I used to hate it whenever they had to pick up size because I always knew that they were going to pick all the good guys because they always want the good guys on their team.

Some of you may have experienced some of that. But as we got older, I always made sure that look, we’re going to pick up teams. Me and Tim, we’re going to pick up teams. have I done now? I am on a team. I am on a team because I just put myself on the team and I learned that very early just to go ahead and do it. I always wanted to be the president of a Baba college so the best way to do it president of a Baba college do what?

Start one and then you have just nominated yourself the president. Well isn’t that wonderful? There’s things that we don’t like to go through in life We don’t like the experience and that is the feeling of being despised and Rejected do you know anybody that the Bible talks about that was despised and rejected and Think for a moment. What was the world like? When God sent his son into the world Was the world? Ready to receive him was the world all the getting everything straight.

Remember one of the jobs that John the Baptist had was getting the people ready for the Son of Man. And he went preaching and repentance straighten up. Do right. Straight paths for your feet and all this stuff. It didn’t make much difference. They weren’t ready for him. When God sent his son into the world, the world was not ready. It was a terrible time. In the book of Genesis in chapter 6, we won’t turn there right now. But the more people there were, population explosion, wickedness got worse, got worse, and worse.

until God had to destroy the world. And then when God did send his son into the world, the world was still a wicked place. You imagine when Christ was born, what the world condition was like. Israel was under the iron heel of Rome. The people were in rebellion. They had added to the scriptures. They weren’t looking for Christ to come. the Sadducees were Sadducee, because they didn’t believe in any miracles, they didn’t believe in the resurrection, they didn’t believe in a new birth.

These are the leaders of the Sanhedrin. You got people that were really in a bad fix. The Romans were killing anybody that rises up against them, made prisons other than them, Made and pay taxes to Rome So Christ was not born at the best time in history The world was not in a better condition There’s people today that write books that we’re not looking for the rapture the job of the church is To get the world already So the Christ can come back and he’s not coming back until we’ve got the world ready So that’s why we’re supposed to get all the countries and do a lot of socialism and get people and solve the world’s problems and get it so good that God will have to come back if he wants to have any part of it.

Because if he don’t, we’ll do it without him. And there’s people to write books like that. I’d read some. It’s pathetic. But in Isaiah 9, the Bible tells us that God is going to send a son unto us, sent His Son unto us. And us there was the nation of Israel. Then of course He would have benefited the whole world. John chapter 1 in verse 11. Now we know that from John chapter 1 that 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.

And he says, and he was in the world, and the world was made by him. And the world knew him not. And then he makes this statement that they received him not. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God. But when he came unto his own, his own received him not. So he was rejected, despised. And there’s two things about him been despised at his birth. One was just plain because people were ignorant, they were indifferent, they really didn’t seem to care, they were careless, because they had the word they could have known.

So carelessness was a choice. They chose not to care. They didn’t care about what God said. They wouldn’t do anything about getting their lives right. And so they paid a great price. They were not ready when he came. They didn’t recognize him. When God gave all the ear marshal how you could know this was truly the Son of God. And then not only that, but Herod, his was blatant. His was not indifference. His wasn’t carelessness. And it wasn’t because he was totally ignorant.

He actually believed that this could be the child that was supposed to come that was to be the king. So what did Herod do because of it? He murdered probably thousands of little children that were under the age of two years all and under, just murdered them. In other words, an outright hostility to the Son of God. This is how the world received them. Nobody cared. And those that did believe, they wanted to kill him. And that’s the world that God sent His Son into.

When He came to the end, and they said there was no room for Him in the end, do you think that if he had been rich, royalty, famous, they probably would have made room. You think they would have made room but think nobody really cared, either careless or ignorant or indifferent. But throughout his life, as they begin to find out who he claimed to be, there was great hostility toward him and a great price was paid. I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Isaiah in chapter 53.

Isaiah and 53. You will see that this was a prophecy about Jesus Christ. This is like reading today’s paper, 700 years in advance. And Isaiah chapter 53, talking about Jesus Christ, it says in verse 1, Lord, who hath believed our report? In the words you’re writing something no one’s going to believe. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed the word arm of the Lord up in verse 10 of the previous chapter really is a reference to Jesus Christ because he says in verse 13 of chapter 52, Behold my servant shall deal prudently.

He shall be exalted and extolted be very high. As many were astonished at his visage was so marred more than any man. This is the one that God’s going to sin. This is what the world is going to do to him. But he says in verse 2 of chapter 53, He shall grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of a dry ground. He have no formative commonness than when we shall see him. There is no beauty that we should desire him.

See when Jesus Christ was here, he wasn’t the most cancerous man around because he drew no attention to himself that he was somebody different or greater. I don’t know if he had a physique that was any different from anybody else because he didn’t stand out in the crowd. They couldn’t even recognize him. They had to have Judas that even gave McKiss at night when they brought the torches and all just so they How did Judas recognize them from the others?

See, there was just, Jesus was just a plain, common, ordinary individual as far as the human eyesight went. There was nothing at the bottom that stood out, plain and ordinary. But He was anything from being plain and ordinary. He was the Son of God. And verse three, this is a picture of how the world is going to receive him. Remember in Hebrews, it tells us that whenever we get faint and weak in well-doing, when we think it’s not worth it, when we have been despised and we have been made ashamed and we’ve been rejected.

God says, consider Him, consider Christ. So what we’re looking at today is for you really to be able to keep serving the Lord. Not to get weak and well doing, not to faint, not to become lackadaisical, not to become careless or indifferent, but to be aware of the time in which we live and the example that we have to follow. Verse three, he is despised and rejected at man a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You ever feel sorry for yourself?

Look who he was and he did no wrong to no one. There’s not one thing that Christ did that caused him to deserve the treatment that he received to realize that one of the worst things in the world that you and I go through is to be rejected by somebody that you love. It hurts and it’ll hurt deeply cuts to the quick. He says and we hid as it were our faces from him. You didn’t want him. The world did not want him.

And remember when Christ came here, He was perfect. He did absolutely nothing wrong to any individual. Why wouldn’t we want somebody like that? Have you ever seen somebody that says, you know, I like this guy and I like this and I like this guy, but I love this man. I love him. I really love him. Or I love her. Have you ever thought that your love at one time was totally pure? As real as can be… And you’re all as honest as you know how to be, and then after a while you might even sure about your love.

Because if somebody rejects you and in a way it’s amazing how your love can change. Because maybe you love them only because you thought they loved you. And you love them because they treated you right. But if they do you wrong, I don’t love you anymore. Did you ever really love? See the Bible says God loves us with an everlasting love his was a pure love If there’s anything that anybody wants would be able to really have somebody love them, but think about this for a moment Are you really capable of discerning when somebody really cares about you?

How do you know someone he really cares about you? really loves you are other signs and Then as you think about that If God really loved you and Jesus Christ was the Epidemy of love When God sent his son God sent his love So what people were not knowledgeable of Was the love of God They could not see nor understand real genuine pure perfect love Because they rejected it So what does that say about the nature of man the discernment of man?

When the world rejected the most perfect wonderful unlovable individual the world’s ever seen. What does it say about our character? About the integrity of man, the wisdom of man. And yet here we are, if God offers to you and I his salvation, if we reject salvation, you reject Christ, you reject Christ, you reject love, you reject God. That’s what you’re rejecting when you reject Christ. But what about those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior? Isn’t it difficult for you to understand how anyone, anywhere, once they know it, hear it, could ever reject salvation by grace?

That’s hard to understand. And yet the world has rejected the Lord here in Isaiah. He says surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we had did esteem him, stritting of God and afflicted. God had to afflict his own son because the son took upon himself the sins of the world. I want you to take your Bible and look in the book of Mark, the book of Mark and chapter 6. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the book of Mark and chapter 6 and look there in verse 6.

He says in verse 4, but Jesus said of him, a prophet is not without honor, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house and he could there do no more mighty works, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and heal them. He marveled because of their what? Their faith. He marveled at their unbelief. In other words, for them not to be amazed at what he was doing, brought attention to the fact that he marvel at their unbelief, not their belief, because that to him was a miracle.

What he did was so miraculously done that it was hard for the Son of God to imagine why wouldn’t you believe, marvel at their unbelief, because they rejected him. They rejected him. But look what else he said, in verse three, as they made the statement about Christ. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judah and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us, and they were offended at him, because you’re just a man.

You’re no difference than anybody else. Who do you think you are? God? Yes, he was. What does it say about the so-called wisdom of the world? You and I would have a difficult time believing that one of your brothers or sisters could have been the Son of God. If he’d ever did anything wrong with it, just blow your mind. You find out later that my wife, because you say, well, I know he did this wrong and this wrong and this wrong and this wrong and you’d have a whole list of things you did.

wrong. But what if they couldn’t find any fault in him? Could you live all those years with a brother or sister and not know if they did something wrong? Or maybe they just thought he did. Maybe they imagined things. What it would have been like. And so in verse 5, and he could there do no more mighty works. Couldn’t do any more mighty works. They didn’t believe. But there’s three things in verse for what you see. But in his own country, the nation rejected him.

Among his own kin, his kin folks, rejection. In his own house, rejection. And yet what’s the most wonderful thing that you and I want in life? Acceptance. You want acceptance. Do you know what’s biggest problem with teenagers today is the peer pressure. They want to be accepted by their peers. That’s why they like to dress like them, act like them, talk like them because they want to be accepted. Even in our society, most adults like to be accepted. We want people to accept us.

Nobody likes rejection. And to think the person that came into the world that never did anything wrong to anybody, this happened to. But God wants us to understand this. The more that you want to be like Christ, Christ made the statement in the gospel of John. He says, the world hated me. The world despised me. What do you think it’s going to do to you?

So as you try to live godly, you’re going to suffer persecution. So the closer you are like Christ, the more you’re going to be rejected, not accepted. The more you’re going to be despised. And people may not really understand who you are and what you’re all about. If you really want to live Godly. He says in James, he says you cannot be the friend of God and the friend of the world. He said, if you’re the friend of the world, then he says, you just made yourself an enemy of God.

And more people would rather have the world be their friends than God be their friend. But the one thing that’s made Abraham different from the majority of the people that came along as the Bible says that Abraham was a friend of God. that means if he was a friend of God, he was not a friend of the world. And he wants to be your friend. He says, I have called you friends, John chapter 15. I’ve called you friends. If you’re my friend, you can’t be a friend of the world.

He says, the world does not love me, then how can the world love you? We want to try to love the world, but don’t expect the world to love you back. If your love is only because you expect the world to love you, the world to accept you, then you won’t last long because you’re going to be so easily offended because not everybody’s going to appreciate what you stand for or who you are or what you’re trying to accomplish.

But he made these three statements in his own country, his own kinfolk, his own house, And then he told us about his own. So he says there in verse 6, and he marveled because of their unbelief. Don’t you think that Jesus Christ marveled when his own brothers and sisters didn’t believe that he was who he claimed to be? Wouldn’t that be rough? What about with his relatives? And what about with the nation of Israel? He came unto his own and his own received him not.

Luke chapter 4, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, look there in verse 16. Verse 16, their scriptures here where he had gone into the place with Nazareth and so on. But you realize that when Christ was in Nazareth, he had lived there for 25 years, approximately 25 years, lived a perfect life for 25 years in front of those people that were the closest to him and they couldn’t tell. He was different. He was God. How bad must their eyes have been?

How blind they must have been. And Christ marveled at that. Why couldn’t they see? There’s people that are in our world and they are blind. But here in Luke chapter 4, he makes a statement in verse 16. He came to Nazareth as he had been brought up as his custom was. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, stood up for the reed, but he’d been going there for years. Been there about 25 years. And one day he decides to read something and say something.

He says, this day is this scripture that he’s reading from the book of Isaiah chapter 61 fulfilled in your ears. He says, these scriptures are talking about See that verse from him, he began to say this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness, wondered that the gracious words was foreseeded out of his mouth and they said, is that this Joseph’s son? Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Do we know this guy? We know his family.

How can he claim to be somebody like that? He says surely. A lot of things were done. But as he goes down through here, he makes some statements. He says they would not believe. The very same people after they heard him for a while made a few statements and then he made some comments that they didn’t like and look in verse 28. And all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with joy they were waiting they were thrilled this was an exciting moment the Messiah had come and he says I’m the one that is talking about this day the scriptures fulfilled in your ears I’m here and they said they were filled with what wrath evidently Jesus had not read Dale Carnegie’s book on how to win friends and influence people he must have had a bad attitude.

That’s why they responded that way. It was all his fault. Jesus did not know how to deal with people. He rose up and thrust him and they rose up and thrust him out of the city. Let him onto the brow of the hill where on their city was built and they might cast him down headlong. What were they gonna do to them? They were gonna kill him. Wait a minute, this is hometown. This is hometown. I can kill 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 homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on 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.

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