This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us He’s toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online 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.

Here in the book of Psalms and chapter 107, it breaks it down into various sections when it talks about like in verse eight, looking verse eight. Psalms 107 verse eight. It says, Oh, that man would praise the Lord, and you ought to underline these three words for his goodness. If you do not believe that God is good, you’re not gonna praise the Lord. You must believe that God is, and that God is good. And like sometimes people say, well, how are you doing?

Well, God’s been pretty good to me today. Was he good to you yesterday? God is always good. That is the nature of God. God is a good God. So if God is good, and I’m his child and he says he will not withhold any good thing from those who love him and walk uprightly, so then this must be a good day. Every day is a good day. A good day to live. And there’s a few other things that I want you to see in these verses, look there in verse 27.

Psalms 107 and verse 27, they real to infrow, stagger like a drunken man and are at and you ought to underline these words at their wits in. Have you ever been at your wits in? Whit, it means the wit of a man, the thinking power of the man, the reasoning of man, the logic of man. Sometimes we think we’ve got the answers to everything, but it says that, and I believe that it’s true, that if you have not been at which end, you will just stick around life long enough and you will be at which end.

What it means is you will stagger like a drunk man. Talk about it in your faith, that you’re not going to know what God wants to do with you And so therefore you won’t know what to do with yourself and you will be at which end. In other words, you’ve been blindsided. You, you don’t know what to do. You don’t have the answers. And one of the greatest places in all the world for a Christian to come to is that is which in faith is born in despair.

Faith is born in despair. As long as you see humanly possible a way of manipulating things or doing something, well, then you don’t need much faith in God. True faith in God is when it appears that God has failed you or let you down, that there is nothing else. And right at the last minute when you think it can’t get any worse and you know what to do, that’s been it which’s in. And sometimes you may look like a drunk man who staggers, hither and dither, because you you’re not sure of your steps.

And I have been at which in a number of times in my Christian life, I’ve never been drunk, but I have walked like a drunk man, meaning my faith back and forth not sure. And so we all will stagger just a little bit. But I want you to look there in verse 15. says in verse 15, all that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. All that men would praise the Lord.

Look what he says there in verse 21, all that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Seems like a repeat of what we just read. Well, it is a repent as a reason for it. Now I’ll show you. But look what he says there in verse 31. All that man would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Every one of these breaks down a different portion of scripture.

That has a different teaching. So there’s four different things that I want you to look at in these verses. But before we do, I want you to look there in verse 33. 33 through 35. Tremendous verses. Just understand that what God has the power to do that God may do. And he can do it with anyone at any time, whether you’re obeying or disobeying. It doesn’t know us in explanation. But this is what God has to do with God.

the power to do in verse 33. He turned the rivers into a, what’s that word? Wilderness, turns a river into a wilderness. Alright? And the water springs into dry ground. In other words God can take that which seems to be flourishing, a lot of water and make it like a desert. And God can take a desert and a well us dry and make it flourish. So God can do whichever he wants. God has that power. Look what he says in verse 34, a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

He turned up the wilderness into a standing water and dry ground into water springs so he can reverse it. At any given time, this is what God can do. In our eyes, sometimes it appears that God is not doing anything. But I assure you, God is not taking a vacation. That God is intricately involved in the daily affairs of every individual. And God knows what to bring into our life and what to take out. And whether not to let it flourish or to let it dry up, God can do all things.

Now what I want you to see, because the four statements that are mentioned about all that men would praise the Lord and see the goodness of God. But if you don’t see the goodness of God, you become bitter at God. Because you know and I know that if God is so great and powerful that God could have changed things. God could have let things be different. When you read the Old Testament, the Bible talked about many times how that God moved upon the people and created within them the spirit or the desire to do certain things, to do the work of the Lord, to give.

God did all of that. And God motivated people. And then there’s time when it seemed like nobody cares or wants to do anything. God has a reason and God is alive and God is moving. So look there in verse 1, we’ll give thanks unto the Lord for He is good for His mercy in doeth forever. If you did not know that God was merciful, you probably wouldn’t believe that God is good because generally you do not cry out for mercy until you have been plagued with adversity.

So the adversities of life cause you to cry out to God and to have mercy upon you and change the situation. And when God changes the situation where God’s good. Boy, God is good. But God is always good. And He can change the situation. And He can change it any way He wants. I get thrilled, wondering how God is going to do certain things. Even with the church, with me, with you. It’s an exciting adventure in faith. Look in verse 2.

Now this first part of the verse, you should underline it if you have not done so. So let they redeemed of the Lord. Say so. Are you redeemed? Yes, say so. I am redeemed. I am redeemed. What does it mean to be redeemed? Means I have been bought off the slave market of sin. I was a slave, I was up for sale and nobody could pay the price. I was condemned had no hope and lo and behold Jesus Christ came and was my Redeemer.

He redeemed me. He bought me I had been redeemed not with silver and gold But with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. I’m redeemed Well, if I’m redeemed not going to be talking about myself. I already have been redeemed now one day He’ll redeem my body. We’re waiting for the day of redemption. Yes, but I have been redeemed So I can sing, I have been redeemed. That’s a good song. And then he says here, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, gathered them out of the land from the east, from the west, from the north and from the south.

Number one, the first thing I want you to see is that… When you look at people, whether in the church, out of the church, every individual needs direction. Because the Bible says that all we like sheep have gone astray. After you trust the Lord, you’re just now still a sheep, but you’re in a different fold. You’re in his fold. You’re one of his flop, still a sheep. And is it possible that you as a child of God can still go astray?

Well, yes, many of God’s people go astray. It can happen to anybody at any given time. And sometimes going astray means they didn’t know they were going astray. Now, to be rebellious means it’s a direct choice of the will, where you choose knowingly that it’s wrong and you do it anywayancel. And we have people that will do that. But whatever, looking for sport, they wandered into wilderness in a solitary way. they found no city to dwell in. I mean whenever they were taken out of Egypt and across the Red Sea into that wilderness, yes.

There was no cities there, no hotels, no place to sleep at night except out there on the ground. And the Bible says they found no city to dwell at hungry, yet they got hungry, thirsty, they got thirsty. They’re so fainted in them. In other words, they became so despaired, so afflicted and you’ll wonder sometime about the heat, the crowd, the food, the water. How would you like to have upon you the responsibility of speeding 200 say two and a half million people every day and then finding them water.

It’s a staggering thing that demanded a man that truly trusts the Lord and yet here in In our lifetime, say, we don’t have to worry about two and a half million people. All we got to do is just keep yourself straight. We have trouble keeping ourselves right between us and the Lord. Not counting anybody else, just you stay right and you wonder all the time. Then it says in verse six, what does it say in verse six? People that need direction, did they need direction?

Yes, they did. Then they cried. You ought to underline verse six. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. And what did he do? He delivered them out of their distresses. So they redeemed of the Lord should say so. People need direction. I need direction. So do you. But one of the ways in which to give us direction is to convince us that we don’t know where we’re going, that we don’t know the way. So that’s why I preached a sermon one time about the 14th chapter of the book of Exodus, where it was talking about how that they were led into dead ends, detours, and draw holes.

And by the way, remember that sermon? It’s been about 10 years ago. Dead ends, draw holes, and detours. So here you are as a child of God. And whenever he took, that Moses took the children of Israel led by God. Well, if God was leading Moses and Moses following God and the people following Moses, why did he lead him into a dead end? Didn’t God know that there was a Red Sea they couldn’t cross? Didn’t he know that Pharaoh and his army were going to be coming up behind him?

Didn’t God know that? Yeah, God knew that and led him into a dead end anyway. Did God have a purpose? Yes, he did. One of the greatest events of all time in the Old Testament was when God parted the waters and they walked across on dry ground. Just think about it. The Bible said they went across on dry ground, means that it was kicking up dust as they went. It was dry. Went across on a riverbed to see that and it was dry, dry.

And the water upon the sides, the Bible says, like jail. It was jail. It was just standing there. God did that. they would have never seen that if they had never followed Moses and Moses followed God and they came into a dead end. So there’s times in our Christian life where God will lead us to a dead end. And then whenever we do we’re looking verse 6 again, then they cried unto the Lord and these three words in their what?

Most people don’t cry out to God until they are always in their troubles and their troubles and what does he do he delivered them out of their distresses that’s the mercy of God this is how God convinces you he’s a good God otherwise how do you know God’s good how do you know God’s a good God what has he done for you lately so the Bible says that when we need direction God will fix it the word you lose your way you don’t know what you’re You don’t know what’s next and God says they cry out to God and then God delivers and delivers you from your Distresses and then the Bible says we are to praise the Lord for his Goodness.

And throughout this you have the explanation of what he means up there in verse one when it says for he is good and is mercy. Goodness and his mercy. Everybody remember the 23rd song, the last part of it says his goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Will God’s gonna let things happen so that you are totally boxed in. Don’t know what to do so that you’ll cry out to God and then God will deliver you and you’ll never be able to do it.

see how good he is, how merciful God is, and you’ll praise the Lord for it. Now God does that for you and you don’t praise the Lord, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You hear me say over and over again, the Lord has done this for me, the Lord has done that for me. I am so thankful for the Lord, the Lord has been so good to me. God has been so good to me and everything and every way, you know, every problem that we’ve had here as a church, I praise the Lord for.

I’ve learned so much. I thought I had all the answers before. Then I found out you don’t know anything. The longer I live, sometimes I’m not sure I know anything. I just enjoy seeing God do things and teach. And God can do things that you have never dreamed of. So then in verse 8, old that man would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of him. God says, that was a good thing.

What? He boxed you in, left you out there in the desert. You didn’t have anything to eat. You didn’t have anything to drink. And you would just fill with distress. You didn’t know where you was going. And then they got totally at wits in. And they cried out to God and God delivered them. Isn’t God wonderful? Now you probably can’t wait till that happens to you. You probably can’t wait till you get at wits in when you don’t know what to do.

Some of you might face, you might. Fran, face a little on the health problem. You never know. Well, I might face it in a lot of ways. You’ve got chores. But whatever it is, we’re to praise the Lord in the middle of it. Why do we always have to wait till we come to total wits in before we cry out to God? Can’t we praise the Lord first at the beginning? It’s kind of like this woman. She met this man at a travel agency.

It was last resort. Oh, anyway, look in verse 9. Verse 9, I want you to notice the second thing is the wonderful thing about God is that there’s none to help. At times there’s nobody to help. And verse 9, for he satisfied the longing soul. He fill up the hungry soul with what? Goodness, such as sitting darkness and in the shadow of death being bound in afflictions and iron. So there’s people that will go through this and there’s there’s slaves there’s all kind of things that people don’t have light they can’t see they don’t understand they don’t have the knowledge and he says here in verse 11 because because they rebelled against the words of God and contented the counsel of the Most High now when you read the first chapter in Proverbs it talks about how that they they mocked the counseling of God.

See the counseling of God is the word of God. People say, I don’t need to go to church. I don’t need to go to church. Alright, so when you don’t need to go to church means I don’t need the counseling of God. So that whenever your troubles come and they will. And because you didn’t have the counseling of God because I don’t need God. Tell me what they do because the Bible says they would not listen to the counseling of God.

God says that when their time comes, I will have them in duration. And God says he shall laugh at their troubles. I’m not making this up, but that’s what God says. So there’s people who rebel against God, rebel against the counseling of God. Even God’s children to do that. And when they do that, it says during verse 12, therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down. Notice the direction here? Down, down. And the other underlying this statement.

was what? None to help. In other words, there will be things that will happen in your life that nobody else can deliver you from. See God, the one that is so good that does this. And that’s why sometimes you find out nobody seems to have the answer for you. Nobody seems to be able to tell you exactly what you need to do. And counsel as they may, do you know one of the greatest things we do, we are always so convinced that we’re wise.

Have you ever been in a place where, and I’ve done this and I know you have, boy, I tell you, if that had been me, that’s what I’d have done. Boy, this is what I would have done. Alright. We’ll show you that. So, we’ll do that. I’ll do that. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now, I’ll try to make sure it’s that way. And I’ll go ahead and do it. Okay. All right. Okay. I’ll take a look at that.

And I’ll do it. Okay. I’ll do it. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. All right. But they didn’t have to do it, and it wasn’t their call. But I can tell you what I would have done. Well, until you’re there, you’re not sure what you would have done. That’s that Monday morning quarterback. I’ll never throw it to that. Why don’t all any thought to the other guy that was open down there in the end zone? Man, the guy must be blind.

As you said on TV with the instant replays and you’ve got a total vision of everything, and there’s this guy down here having to make a split second decision and five guys are in his face trying to kill him. And you want to go, why didn’t he see that? Didn’t he see that? Well, I can tell you what I would have done. And there’s a lot of things in life where somebody else may seem like they have all the answers, but it’s not their call.

It’s yours and you’re gonna find yourself at which end. You have finally come to the place where you don’t know what to do and there’s nobody to help you. No individualist got the answers. So what does God say? In verse 13, when there was none to help, then they what cried unto who? The Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distress. Well, why do you think God let them have all these troubles? Can you figure this out yet?

Can you see where God’s going? Isn’t this a wonderful chapter on the issues of life? because this is what this whole chapter is about. So he said, there was none to help. You’re at wits end, you stagger like a drunk man. You don’t have all the answers. So what do you do? You cry out unto God, he delivers you and lo and behold, God gets the honor once again because you couldn’t give it to nobody else. He didn’t have anybody to help.

So you cried out to God and God did a wonderful thing for you and he showed mercy upon you. And because of the mercy, God’s good, boy God’s good. But if there’s been times in your life when you haven’t found the right words, yes, God’s good to me. This time when you’re not sure if he is or not, because you know that God could have stopped this and he could have stopped that. And I don’t see why he let this happen to me.

I have a sermon that I’m working on right now. I haven’t got it down right. But I’m working on it. But one of the parts of it is this, Here’s Daniel. Daniel refused to obey the command not to pray. He wouldn’t pray to his God anyway. And they took Daniel and they was gonna throw him into the lion’s den. He’s in the lion’s den. Here comes a lion. Ah, teeth. And he’s right there. Freeze the film. Stop it right there.

Freeze it in motion. And Daniel says, Lord, if you’re going to do something, now’s the time. There’s not much time left between me and his teeth. Whatever you’re going to do, help me speedily. But if not, have you ever been that close to death? Have you ever faced it that close to knowing that, you know, this could be my last moment on earth. I’m fixing to be a meal for a hungry tiger or lion. And you know that at this moment, there’s nobody else can do anything for you.

It’s just you and God and this lion. And you can’t stop the lion. And you have to totally depend upon God. Do I become a meal? you and I miraculously deliver me. This isn’t wonderful. Now, would you like to be like Daniel? Has it been that bad for you yet? Has it got that close for you yet?

Anyway, that’s just one illustration, but I got a bunch of them that I’m going to be using. But I think it’s the, I was thinking about that the other day, it says, here is the lion connected and starts freezing. And Lord, I need a word with you. I’m running that a time. Lord, help me speedily because it seems like the Lord just seems like he waits and waits and waits like he’s not in our hurry to get anything done.

And we become so impatient, but if we’re learned to just wait upon the Lord. So anyway, he says here, all that men in verse 15 would praise the Lord for his goodness and for the wonderful works for the children of men. See God says that was a good thing that he did. What? Letting you be in irons, let you be in darkness, let you be in your troubles, why? So that you would find there’s nobody to help you, but God.

And therefore, when you’d call out to God, that’s what God wanted in the first place. So, God uses these wonderful things. The third thing I want you to see is that there are fools. There are fools. And you may be one at different times in your life. You see, we want to be all spiritually mature. All truly Godly individuals. Always making the right decision. But there’s times in our life when we actually are just plain foolish. We play the fool.

We do foolish, stupid, idiotic things. And there’s consequences to it. There’s prices to pay. But now look what he says here in verse 16. For he had broken the gates of brass, cut the bars of iron and sundae, and get verse 17, fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquity are afflicted. Now, not everybody gets the same benefits of everything. It’s that God may do something with one, that he doesn’t do with somebody else, but in all of it, it always boils down so that men may see the mercy of God and praise God for his goodness.

You see, God not letting us go to hell by saving us, by grace, we received the mercy of God. We didn’t get what we deserve. Boy, isn’t God good. Now when somebody asks you, do you believe that God’s a good God? Yes, God is a good God. God is a good God. God is so good. God is so good. I love that song. I really do. I love that little chorus. But look what he says here. And because of their iniquities are afflicted.

Now some are afflicted because of the sins that they actually commit and they bring it upon themselves. And some people are going to go to an early grade because God’s gonna have to chase them, maybe take a home before their time. And it says in verse 18, and their soul of hoath all men are of meat and they draw near unto the gates of dead. Though God didn’t bring a man right to the door of death. And generally I have seen people who could care less about God until they’re in the hospital.

And then they want the preacher to come and see him. I remember one time I went to say this one guy, he had trust the Lord. And I walked into the room and he was in there, he was sick. And so I came in and I said, what can I do for you? He said, I’ll pray for me to preach. I appreciate you just pray for me. I said, what do you want me to pray for? He said, pray that I can get well.

I says, why? Thought that was kind of dumb. I said, I’m serious. Why do you want to get well? He says, could I don’t want to be sick? I said, no, I want to know the reason. Why do you want to get well? I said, if God was to get you well, would you want to serve the Lord? because of the goodness of God? He said, I don’t want to talk about that. I said, I’m sorry, sir. I don’t want to pray for you either.

And I walked out of the door. You said, you shouldn’t do that. Yes, I did. Well, I should I want that man to get well. So he can continue living. I know what was going on. Just keep on doing it. No, no, no. I want God to flick that man. I want God to get that man because I want that man to serve God. You use people’s problems to get them right with God. If I can get you right with God, He can’t do much for your problems because he God bring those problems.

I’m not for patting the sale for the man that’s going into the prison. 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 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 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bite Online and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound, we will be changed. Hot 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.