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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 Calbreak Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and month… and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us was told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

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’s after us. We’re getting away with murder, so to speak. And it doesn’t seem like God is concerned about the wickedness in America. Looks 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 a 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. And if we don’t get to the place of refuge before the enemy gets a hold of us and destroys us, then we won’t make it.

Well, what does 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 go wrong. We’d rather live, but there’s another scripture that says that the devil as a roaring lion seeketh whom he 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 and 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. If you don’t take in straighten up and do right, there’s an additional problems that God says 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. 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. In 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 have I spoken to 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 golopp and there’s some of them that one on one side of the Jordan and some one on the other side of Jordan. So he’s telling them now about the cities of refuge to get this thing set up. So he says there in verse two, speak to the children of Israel saying a 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 dither and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And when he that death flee under 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 see every one of these cities because they were given to the tribe of Leela 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 never get to go home again He said, 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 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.

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. It names those cities in here, he’ll be all right. So all he has to do, if he does something he shouldn’t do, did 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 a good question. You’ll 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, once in? 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. Want to know, whoa, what happened? What’s going on? But he had to give an account. See, there’s always somebody that’s going to 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. 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, killed 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 all the way 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.

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 120 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 doing 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 mine now and rewards in eternity.

It’s already costing you. You’re not getting away with anything. You’re already paying a price This is you don’t even know it yet and not even that 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. Do you know what I love to get people to understand?

If they only understood that 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 And there’s a safety here. It’s like a safety net. There’s better protection here. Yeah, you gotta 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 say, 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 him and that he warned them, but Noah found 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. But it was happening all over the earth because there was a shifting of the earth. And you’re talking about the reigned 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 greenhouseosponsors 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 judge in the earth the water from above the water from below and the Lord says that He’d turt 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 refused 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. It’s ungodly. 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?

No, nobody’s getting away with anything because there’s judgment coming up on America. There’s judgment coming up on 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 up on 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 happen is going to be the rapture 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 had 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. It does matter. Everything matters. So when you go on down the line here, you find out that all these things that God promised in his word, it is true and it’s going to happen. I want you to take your Bible and look in Revelation chapter six. Revelation and chapter six, the last book in the Bible. Revelation chapter six. And you’ll notice in verse 12, verse 12 talks about that God says some things are going to happen in this world.

Things are not always going to be like it has been. A lot of things are going to change. In verse 12, he says, an eye beheld when he had opened the six seal and lo and behold, there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood. stars of heaven fail upon the earth. Even as a fig tree catches her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. Now this is God’s judgment upon the earth and upon the stars and upon the sun and upon the moon.

And the Bible says also upon the earth and then he gets down to the people. And he says there in verse 14, and the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together in every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The Bible says that God is going to shake this earth like it reels back and forth like a drunk man. And that means that this earth is going to be literally shaken and moved and islands and mountains are going to be changed.

You think it’s everything just going to be just like it? Nothing’s happening. Nothing happened. Well, it’ll roll around and all of a sudden boom. You see, he gave them 120 years, but did the flood come just like he promised? Yeah. Should they have fled? They could have fled to the Ark for safety, but they didn’t. Look what else he says here. In verse 15, and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the chief captain, the mighty men, and every bondmen and every free men hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that said it on the throne from the and you ought to underline the wrath of the Lamb.

And in verse 17, for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand? There’s people that will want to die and cannot die. Asking for the rock to fall upon him and it won’t hide him from the wrath of the land. You can’t run. You can’t hide. In other words, he says it’s a long way. You don’t know how long you got to live. You may have already lived 20 years or 30 years or 40 years of 50.

How long do you have the run this race? Somebody’s after you and you’re running for all that you’ve got. Trying to get to us place of safety before the wrath comes, before the avenger gets ahold of you. This is what this whole thing is about God’s vengeance because in Romans he says, do not take vengeance as an an individual and God says, I will avenge and God is moving. God is, I can see God working in a lot of people’s lives.

I’ve watched a lot of people over the years and I look what this book says and I see what people do and I see the consequences. God is not dead. God is still on the throne and God is working in people’s lives. And I’ve seen the misery that so many have and I’ve seen the loss of peace and joy and heaven so many of them have because They refuse to do what God says to do. They will not be obedient.

They will not be faithful. They play little games with God and they’ll be as faithful as they choose to be, but not dedicated to God. Will they get away with it? Nobody gets away with anything. Look there in the book of 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, and look in chapter 1 and verse 5. You get what he says here. is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. Keep it in mind. The wrath of God, the judgment of God is righteous.

God has a right to do what he’s doing, what he’s going to do, and every man that goes to hell, it will be right. Every man that gets rewarded in heaven, it will be right. And every man here that gets blessed by God, it will be right. And every man in there that gets is miserable, it’s right, he should be miserable. Because there are results of choices that we make. And it makes this statement here. Look there in in verse six.

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. Alright, look. Somebody does me wrong. Alright, let’s pretend. Somebody does me wrong. I don’t have to do them wrong back. He says in Romans, render not evil for evil. So I don’t do them wrong back. All I got to do is understand this verse and believe this verse. God says he will recompense to those who troubled me Pay him back is that what he says or not?

It’s what it is. Look what it says again Seeing it is a righteous thing With God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you now What do you think is gonna do that the next life? No You’re gonna do it and there’s a price in this life for people to pay And you may not see how they pay it. It doesn’t matter. You just believe what the book says and don’t take vengeance into your own hand or try to get things made right and that’ll keep you from getting angry and bitter and upset with everybody that does your wrong because you can turn that over to God.

I turn that over to God. And that, well, you can turn everything into that. I turn that over to God. God will take care of that. It’s not an unrighteous thing. It’s a righteous thing for for God to recompense tribulation on them that trouble you. And God said that he will do this. Look what he says now in verse seven. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, get this in verse eight.

In flaming fire, taking vengeance. Who’s the one who’s taking vengeance? God says that he look up here. Christ is gonna come back in power and great glory. He’s going to take vengeance upon those that went against his people, Israel, in the tribulation period and wipe them out. So there’s going to be a judgment of the nations and those that they leave on the Lord, when they see him, will go into the kingdom upon the earth. Those that do not will be cast into the lake of fire.

There’s wrath coming here. And the Bible says that one day at the great white throne judgment, after the end of time, everybody will stand there. Those people that have not accepted Christ as their Savior, the Bible says that they will be judged. God will be righteous. They will be cast into the lake of fire. That’s the second of eternal separation from God. That is a result of God’s wrath. God taking out his vengeance. Did they get away with it?

No. What about you and I? You see, all the way back here, if the raptor took place right now, let’s pretend the raptor takes place right now. We are changed in a moment caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We will stand at the Judgement Cedar Christ where God is going to reward us for what we did in our period of time upon the earth. Every day is important. Every hour of our life is important. Every decision we make is important because we’re either gaining or losing something that will amount for all eternity.

So do we get away with anything down here? You don’t get away with anything. Does God see what you do? How you think? Even the motives of the man is going to be judged And so that’s why we flee why we can The devil is after you to try to ruin your life ruin your testimony so that you’re not faithful and you will not be able to be dependent upon to serve God Taken give what you’re supposed to give Servant the way you’re supposed to pray like you’re supposed to re like you’re supposed to because there’s a day come the wrath of God is coming There’s consequences to our decisions That’s why I think it’s so important for people to understand.

Serve the Lord why you can with what you have, where you are. Let me show you an illustration. I just thought of this illustration. Look up here, this hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. The Bible says that God loves us, but he hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us doesn’t want us to go to heaven wants us to go to heaven So to go to heaven I’ve got to be perfect is righteous is God because heaven is perfect and God is perfect And I got to be perfect to go there But because of sin I can’t get in So the Bible says that we cannot earn our way to heaven we cannot buy our way into heaven I can’t go to church and go to heaven that won’t get me into heaven and given money won’t get me into heaven

the only way the paper sin is death and And I committed it I have to pay for it and so do you so we cannot save ourselves There is no way to save ourselves this hand represent Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh He came into the world Because he loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from him So what Christ did for one person he did for everybody He took all the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead.

And God said, if I would believe he did that for me, he would put that payment to my account. And I get to go to heaven on what Christ did. See, I don’t earn it. I don’t work for it. I don’t deserve it. I’m a sinner, saved by grace. So God says, once you trust him as your Savior, you become his child and he’ll never cast you out and never lose you. I offered you my wallet and you accepted you to have an empty wallet.

I offered you the microphone and you accepted you’d have a microphone. If Christ walked in here right now and you accept him as your Savior He would give you as a free gift eternal life and they’ll never cast you out in nevelujaENDED There’s no tricks to it. There’s no gimmies. It’s theurion in all the world you cannot Buy or earn your way into heaven because it’s a gift of God and what is The importance of doing it now behold now is the day of salvation Because you see you don’t know when death is gonna overtake you When is the death going to overtake you?

Now if you knew you’re going to make it and you get to a city of refuge out there Wherever that might be and you can get away with that’s one thing but say you can see your place of refuge It’s not the ark in the Old Testament Our place of refuge is the Ark of Satan which is Christ Christ is a type of the Ark in the Old Testament Christ is coming to me and being saved all the ends of the earth the Lord.

He is our refuge That’s why he says, come into me, I’ll not cast you out. So important, let’s pray, show him. With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, why not right now say, yes, I know I’m a sinner, I believe Christ died and paid for my sins, and I will trust him right now to take me to heaven whenever I die. And if you’ll do that, God will save you.

Do it now. You don’t know how much time you got because somebody’s after you. If you’ve never trusted Lord and you will tonight today, why not just in the quietness of this moment say this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sins and I’ll trust Him as my Savior. Trust Him to take me to heaven whenever I die. And God said, if you’ll trust Him right now, He’ll give you a free gift eternal life and you’ll go to heaven whenever you die.

Is it in one of all before we close? Yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior and preach I like you to pray for me. Now I’m not going to have you forward. I’m not going to embarrass you. I’m not going to point you out. It’s overdone with when you make that decision. God knows who you are. God knows that you believe it. But would you believe it? See that? Yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior. I believe He died for me.

And I want to be sure of going to heaven when I die and preach it. Would you pray for me? But just slip your hand out very quickly, pack down. Anyone at all. Our Father, we do thank you so much for your blessings to us, for the opportunity to come together as a body believers and to see the importance of trusting your Savior, of serving you, and Father the importance of a good strong church because there is safety there.

The world is a wicked place, crooked and perverse nations. And follow the ash of blessing to fund each one. In Christ and we pray, Amen. 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. 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. broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, Calvary of Tampa.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. 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.