This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 1-800-576-8 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 1-800-576-8 371 online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.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. Matthew chapter 3, there’s a verse that says, Who hath warned you to flee? So look there in verse 5, John the Baptist was just come on the scene. He begins to preach telling them about Jesus Christ who is following Him, that they should believe on Him. So John the Baptist was not the most, I guess you would say, civilized individual in the sense that he did like everybody else.

He was a wilderness man, kind of like a wild individual, but he was used by God. And Christ says there’s never been a man born greater than John the Baptist. So look there in verse 5, then went out to him, Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the regions round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins, admitting what they had done on and up to it, confessing it. And then it says in verse 7, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, old generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

Now, all we through the Bible, from the beginning to the end, there is a plea for people to flee from the wrath of God. God is going to judge. God is going to send something and everybody is to flee. No one needs to be saved from something that doesn’t exist. Nobody needs to be saved unless there’s something to be saved from. There has to be some consequences. The Bible calls it the wrath of God. The wrath of God is when God takes out his vengeance upon what people do.

We sometimes get lost in thinking that since I don’t see God and I don’t see anything going on, that I’m getting away with whatever I’m doing. And everybody else is getting away with it. But understand, nobody gets away with anything. But he makes a statement here in verse 7, when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were the self-righteous individuals, the law keepers. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the power of God. They didn’t believe in the resurrection.

They didn’t believe in the spirits. They didn’t believe in miracles. So the Sadducees were the total other extreme of the Pharisees. And both groups came to him and to the baptism of John the Baptist. And so he says, who warned you to flee from the wrath of come. So evidently fleeing from the wrath to come was a good thing and a wise thing. But what he wanted to hear from them Pharisees was that they would confess their sins and that have to commit that they’re not as righteous.

And the Sadducee, they had to confess their sins then that means that they would have to believe in a coming judgment and the power of God and miracles. And so they didn’t believe that. The Pharisees didn’t think they needed it, so he said they’re in verse 8, bring forth their fore fruits, meet for repentance. Show me, tell me, confess your sins, you hypocrites. And that’s what John the Baptist said. Now bound there in verse 11, he says that he that comes after me is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The Holy Spirit was for those that believed on Christ and the baptism of fire was for those that would not believe. On Christ. So he says in the last part of verse 11, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire, who spanned his in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor, gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Those that believe is the wheat, though that don’t believe is the chaff.

The chaff is going to have a baptism of fire. And this amazes me how many people that they saw about you got to get the baptism of fire. Well, you can have it if you want it. I don’t want it. of the Holy Spirit which takes place the moment you trust Christ as your Savior and you’re placed into the body of Christ. So we do have in the scriptures a warning to flee from the wrath to come. That’s really what all of our preaching is about, a teaching that we do, why we try to live the way God wants us to live because there’s a consequence if we don’t.

Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Numbers in chapter 35, all the way over there in the Old Testament, Numbers and chapter 35. There is an illustration that’s given in the Old Testament because they didn’t have the New Testament and there was a lot of stories and types and so forth that God would use to teach and Numbers in chapter 35, why don’t you look there in verse 6? Remember now, the Lord has given them the information about what they’re to do when they finally get into the land of Canaan.

Moses has the people in the wilderness for 40 years, and much of the first five books deal with the the wanderings through the wilderness and all the things that happened. But God told Moses things that he needed to get ready and what he’s supposed to teach the people so that when they got into the land they’d know what to do. So the land of Canaan was going to be given to Israel and they were going to divide it up among the twelve tribes.

Well 11 tribes got land. But one tribe, the tribe of Levi, well they didn’t get the land as far as a piece of territory. So God said, I want you to give them 48 cities among the other nation, of the other tribes because they would go to the temple and they did their work and so they had to be given 48 cities out of all the nation of Israel and out of those 48 cities there would be six cities that Would be long I should say that we call it cities of refuge that if a man accidentally kill somebody and back then say people took vengeance and Generally the family would come after you and catch you and kill you.

So people took vengeance. Now we’re studied in the book of Romans in chapter 13 where we are, in the last part of chapter 12, about not taking vengeance. Vengeance’s mind sayeth the Lord. But back in the Old Testament before everything got set up, God let a lot of things happen. So God said, I’m going to put six cities, three of them on one side of Jordan and three cities on on the other side of Jordan. And these six cities was where the tribe of Levi would own those cities.

They had 48 total, but six of them would be the cities of refuge. So that if a man did something that he shouldn’t have done, or accidentally killed somebody, he could flee. That he had to run to one of these cities. And when he got to that city, then it was the elders of the gate that would secure his safety until he found out what the story was. So, these cities sometimes could be a hundred miles away from where a man committed a crime.

Guilty or not guilty. And he could run. But then the gold of the family was to see if they could overtake him and catch him before he got there so they could take out their vengeance on him. Sounds pretty cruel, don’t it? Would it be exciting though? I I mean, all I gotta do is just, now Leon be in trouble. David did catch Leon out right now. But now, when he gets away, he can run better, now he’d be all right.

But what if you had to run 100 miles? And knowing somebody could take off and come after you and they’re gonna try to catch you. You’re trying to do everything you could to get away. But look what he says in verse six. And among the cities which are, shall give unto the Levite, there shall be six cities for refuge, which each shall appoint for the man’s slayer, But he may flee there, and to them you shall add forty and two cities.

They’ll get forty-eight total. So verse seven, so all the cities which ye shall give to the Levite shall be forty and eight cities. Them shall ye give with their suburbs.” So it goes down here now and it says in verse 11. in verse 11. Then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you. That the slayer may flee there, which killeth any person and unaware. In other words, he didn’t plan it. It wasn’t premeditated murder. He wasn’t angry at the guy and wasn’t mad before.

But he accidentally did something and somebody died. It was an accident. Now some people, yes, they could have done this and plainly deliberate murder. Well, he can run too, but the elders of the city are going to find out whether or not and listen to the story and the charges, but at least they had a, just like a Supreme Court. Now, after this court, there’s no court of appeals. There’s no court of appeals here. You can appeal to this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, like we do today.

It was go one court, you were wrong, That’s it. Death. But look what he says. And verse 12, And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger. That the man’s slayer die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment. And one of these cities, and all these cities which he shall give six cities shall you have for refuge. He shall give three cities on this side of Jordan, three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge.

These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, for the stranger and for the sojourn among them, that every one that kill of any person unawares may flee to them.” That sounds like a good method, a good way of handling the problem. You just about to make sure that you can go fast enough. Now what I want you to do is look there in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 19. Just a very next book to your right.

Chapter 19 of the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 19, look in verse 1. Verse 1 says, When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwelt in their cities, and in their houses, thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. Thou shalt prepare thee away, and divide the coast of the land, which the Lord thy God giveth they to inherit into three parts, that every slayer may flee there, and this is the case of the slayer which shall flee there, that he may live, who shall kill his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hate if not in time past, as when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor to who would, and his ex-fetcheth a stroke with the, and his hand fetches a stroke with

the axe to cut down the tree and the hedge slippeth from the heave, and lighteth upon his neighbor that he die, he shall flee unto one of those cities and live. Get the last, the avenger, generally a kinsman, the family, of the blood, pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot. That means angry, mad, bitter, upset, and in fierce rage. He says, and overtake him because the way is going to underline that phrase, the way is long. In other words, it did have a long way to go and having a long way to go.

It means you better not play around. You better get on the move because somebody is after you and going to slay you if they possibly can. So he says, whereas he was not worthy of death in as much as he hated him not in time past. So the scripture is clear on what was to be done concerning the cities of refuge. Now you stop and think, oh we live in a time where we don’t think that anybody is on our trail.

Nobody is after us. We are getting away with murder, so to speak. And it doesn’t seem like God is concerned about the wickedness in America. like he just let everybody just does as bad as they want to and they’re all getting away with it. But see, we don’t see sin the way God sees sin. Now sometime back I preached the sermon on the, you know, it’s not that bad. It’s not that bad. But it is that bad if we see it from God’s viewpoint.

So the Lord lays it down in His word that while we live that there is somebody on our trail, somebody is hot after you and somebody wants to avenge you. And the Bible says that even the Lord has a place of refuge for us. But if we don’t get to the place of refuge before the enemy gets ahold of us and destroys us, then we won’t make it. Well, what is that enemy that can overtake us before we get to the city of refuge?

You ever heard about death? Death. Did you realize that in this life death is on the trail of every individual? And we’re all trying our best to escape dying. None of us really are pursuing how to die. We don’t really want to die. We’d rather live. But there’s another scripture that says that the devil has a roaring lion, seeketh whom he what? May devour. Who is also on your trail? There is a lion. on your trail. There is a lion that is after you.

And this lion is doing everything he can to bring you down. They don’t care how he does it. So there is an avenger where the Lord also says that there is something coming down the road. There is his wrath. The wrath of God is on the way. I mentioned the other night about God shooting an arrow. The arrow is called trouble. And here comes the arrow, and here you are. And God has at time just perfectly so troubles will hit you at the right time.

You say nothing so far, nothing so far, but you don’t understand, trouble is on its way. Everybody has troubles in this life, and troubles are on their way and they’re targeted for you. And if you don’t take in straighten up and do right, there’s an additional problems that God said is going to happen in your life. And I’ll show you that in a little bit. Look there in the book of Joshua, chapter 20. Turn to the next book to your right.

Joshua and chapter 20. And look in verse 1. Although there’s three statements about this cities of refuge, each one adds just a little bit more insight. Verse 1, it says, the Lord also speak unto Joshua, saying, speak to the children of Israel, say, in a point, I offer you cities of refuge, where I by speak unto you by the hand of Moses. Now, Joshua is in the land. Moses was not in the land. So he told them what to do.

Now they’re there, and now they’re getting it set up. And so Joshua is telling them what tribe gets to go where? And there’s some of them that want on one side of the Jordan and some want on the other side of Jordan. So he’s telling them now about the cities of refuse to get this thing set up. So he says there in verse two, speak to the children of Israel saying, I point out for you cities of refuge, where have I spoken to you?

Verse three, that the slayer that kill of any person unawared and unwittingly may flee neither. and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And when he that death flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them and give him a place that he may dwell among them. And the reason was that he will be able to stay there in the city of refuge until the high priest, every one of these cities because they were given to the tribe of Leavat will have a high priest in these cities.

And so they would listen to his case and if they let him stay there then the high priest will let him stay there until he dies. When he dies he is free to go and the family can’t touch him. He’s a free man. But if he leaves and that high priest is still alive, then the family can get him and kill him. That keeps that man in that city until that high priest dies. And you better hope that you didn’t get a young one because he might live a long time and you’ll never get to go home again.

You say that’s cruel. Don’t say anything God does is cruel. God doesn’t make mistakes. God doesn’t do anything wrong. God is righteous. And still even today, though we know these stories in the Old Testament, these stories are in here to teach us truths about what he’s talking about in the New Testament. So he makes the statement there in verse 5. He says, and if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand, because he smote his neighbor unwindly and hated him not beforehand.

He foretold and he that dwell in the city until he shall dwell in the city until he stand before the congregation for judgment and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days, then shall the slayer return and come into his own city into his own house unto the city from whence he fled. And it names those city in here, he’ll be all right. So all he has to do if he does something he shouldn’t do.

But he better high-tail it and get to one of these cities as fast as he can. Now, how do you apply all of this stuff? Well, that’s… Good question. You will notice in the very beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned, how many sins did they have to commit to get kicked out of the garden? One sin. So if they want to get back in, they would have to virtually be perfect, right? Because if one sin took them out, you’d have to be perfect to get back in.

True? That’s why to go to heaven, you have to be what? You’ve got to be perfect. You cannot go to heaven unless you’re perfect. But when Adam and Eve sinned, They hid themselves from God, and God came looking for them. Now did God know where they were? Yeah, Adam where art thou? But God already knew where he was. Wanna know, well, what happened? What’s going on? But he had to give an account. See, there’s always somebody that’s gonna cause you to give an account of why you did what you did.

We don’t like this idea of accountability, especially to God because he knows the truth, he knows everything. So it’s easier sometimes just to believe that there is no God. That way I don’t have to worry about ever facing God. But because the Word of God is true, God says there’s something that’s after you. And every soul that sin shall die, there is an enemy called death. And sooner or later you’re going to die, but you need to get into a place of safety before you die.

Now even though Adam and Eve had sinned, what did they put on themselves to cover their nakedness? Anybody know? Big leaves But God still saw their nakedness and they still knew they were ashamed Because they knew they were naked So what did God do? God is the one that took an animal kill the animal and took and offered up the blood sacrifice for them. An innocent died for the guilty and put coats of skin up on them. So that is a type of salvation.

So they had a covering. It didn’t take all their sins away because this is only what Christ did. Christ took our sins away. It only covered it until the payment was made. But they had to flee from the garden and then always through the time you’ll find out that man had to flee from something. Now back during the flood the Bible says that it was in the mind of man to be as wicked as he wanted to be and everything he imagined himself to do or could do or wanted to do he did and God says the world was wicked and that God was going to have to judge the world and he gave him a hundred and twenty years.

So every year that passed, there’s another year gone, but there’s something coming. What was coming? A judgment. There is a wrath of God. The judgment, which was the flood, is the wrath of God upon the wickedness of man. Did they get away with it? None of them got away with it. There’s also an accountability as an individual between them and God. But also in this world, there was a judgment upon them. Did God judge them while they were in this world?

Yes. We’re not talking about heaven. We’re not talking about hell. We’re talking about in this life they were judged. In this life they were judged. They didn’t do whatever they want to do and got away with it. They didn’t get away with it. Nobody living today is getting away with anything. Even your own personal sins that you don’t think nobody knows and nothing’s happened yet is costing you blessings in this life now, peace of mind, now, and rewards in eternity, it’s already costing you.

You’re not getting away with anything. You’re already paying a price. It says you don’t even know it yet. And not in the event that there is a God that is on your trail. There is the devil that is on your trail. And there’s also the sin of death and it’s on your trail. See, there’s somebody’s after you all the time. That’s why the Bible has given us cities of refuge, place to hide, places of safety. You know what I love to get people to understand?

If they only understood that the church, the church, the local church is a place of safety and refuge in the world. It’s a place where Christians are supposed to go and feel safe because you know this is where God’s people come together, God’s people meet and God’s people love the Lord and we pray for one another, we encourage one another and there’s a safety here. It’s a safety net. There’s better protection here. Yes, you got to go out in the world but there’s a God that can watch over you and bless you because you did what he said do.

But when you don’t do the simple things God says to do, there’s no protection out there. You rebel against God and see if God don’t judge you, you don’t get away with anything. And there’s a great price to pay. Now when you come to the flood, did those people have an opportunity? They could have gotten corrected way before the flood ever hit. The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. It doesn’t say that in Genesis chapter 6, but it does say that over in the New Testament.

So we know that Noah was a preacher and he told them and that he warned them. But Noah found God. the grace in the eyes of the Lord. And whenever the flood was going to come, it says that the fountains of the deep sprung up, that means fountains of water from underneath, pressure broke up. You remember what happened with these, what they call the tsunami, because the tatonic plates that shifted in the bottom of the ocean floor, and how it sent that great big old wave and washed it up on the beaches and so forth, and all those people that were killed, that’s what happened, I believe, for the flood.

It was happening all over the earth because there was a shifting of the earth and you’re talking about the rain upon the heaven because there was like a canopy of water around the earth. Baba talks about that in the book of Genesis. And so there was a greenhouse effect upon the earth. That’s why people lived to be so long and animals got to be so big because of a greenhouse effect. It was all the same all over. But whenever God got through judging the earth, the water from above, the water from below and the Lord says that He’d tirt and just killed everything except what was in the ark.

So there was a place of refuge, but whenever the Bible says they went into the ark, God shut the door. Not Noah. No one didn’t shut the door. The Bible says that God shut the door. So if He shut them in, He also shut them out. God did that. God let them die. Because they refuse to obey and to correct their wickedness. Now when you get to the Sodom and Gomorrah and how wicked they live, you know, women with women and men with men, that’s sinful.

It is wicked. It is not right. Any kind of sex outside of marriage, it is wrong. Son, Godly. And it’s bringing down the standard of the people in America. Now young people, it’s a shame what’s been done. But are they getting away with it? nobody’s getting away with anything because there’s judgment coming upon America. There’s judgment coming upon this whole world. And the Bible tells us to flee from the wrath that is to come. There is a wrath of God’s judgment coming upon this earth.

That is what the tribulation period is about. Where are we on God’s timetable? Well, there’s the cross. We know we’re on this side of the cross. We’re about 2,000 years on this side of the cross. And so the next thing to happen is going to be the ratchet where God takes us out and delivers us from the wrath to come. But this wrath that is coming is God’s judgment upon Israel and those that rejected Christ as their Savior and upon all the nations of the earth.

God, judgment, coming. God says, flee. When Christ was here, He warned about the judgment that is coming and to flee. John the badness when he was here. He preached and says, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come? So we can live our lives like nothing’s happening, nothing’s coming. It doesn’t matter, yet it does matter, everything matters. So when you go on down the line here, you find out that all these things that God comes in His Word, it is true and it’s going to happen.

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. Our two 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 10.30 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 Bible Live. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air.

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