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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 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.

Good to have you here this morning. I want you to take a Bible and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. the book of Ecclesiastes. But here in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter three, I wanna talk to you about being able to see in a moment of time. You have people that try to predict the future. Some people do palm reading. You see the signs, you know, madam, blah, blah, blah, read your palm. I’ve watched people, said it houses and they would, let meudebom, mm hmm.

Oh yeah, yeah, that’s a deep groove. And yeah, you’re gonna get married, you’re gonna be six foot tall and you’re gonna have five kids and y’all have, of course, y’all never did that. But everybody always tries to say, if they can figure out what’s gonna happen next. I believe we have a lot of politicians today trying to figure out what’s gonna happen next. Where are we headed? I believe we are living at some very exciting days. More exciting probably than most people wished.

But here in the book of Ecclesiastes, it kind of gives us some things that let you see. Things that happen in a moment in time. Now you and I, we live in time. There was a time when we were born there’s a time when you’re going to die. And God has got everything under control in case you didn’t know that. Well, there are in verse 1. He says to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Means you have to have time to pursue every purpose. It’s got something you want to do, it takes time to do it. He says it’s time to be born, time to die, time to pluck up that which is planted. Time to kill. Time to heal. Time to break down. Time to build up. A time to weep. And a time to laugh. A time to mourn. A time to dance. A time to cast away stones. A time to gather stones together.

Time to embrace. A time to refrain from embracing. A time to get. A time to lose. A time to keep. And a time to cast away. A time to win. And a time to sow. A time to keep silent. And a time to speak. A time to love. And a time to hate. A time of war. A time of peace. Now if God told you now, I’m going to let you be born into this world, you say, well, what am I going to do?

Well, I’m going to let you have some time. You say, well, what’s time? Well, that means you’re going to have some time to do this and this and this and this and others. A little period of time, life to live long enough to do a little this and a little that. And you look at that and say, you mean, this is what I’m going to, this is my life. Oh, it’s pretty much just what your life is going to consist of.

Yeah. And it’s true. So as time goes on and in the process of time, you and I will go through a lot of this same stuff. And then He makes a statement. In verse 11, He had made everything beautiful in His time. Also, He had set the world in their heart. That word world means like eternity. Even though we’re limited by different periods of time, we have within us the desire to live forever, which is a contradiction of itself.

We all know we’re going to die, and yet we want to live. But if we live here in this life, it’s consumed with so much trouble and heartache and disappointment, discouragement, like there’s no end to it. Look down in verse 14. He says, I know that whatsoever God do it, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor can anything be taken from it. And God doeth it that man should fear before him. Look at verse 15.

That which hath been is now. And that which is to be had already been. And God requires that which is passed. If that won’t blow your mind, nothing can blow your mind. You’re talking about God is the great I am, and whether it’s past, present, or future with the Lord, it’s now. You know, I think we’re just a little bit short of understanding God. Now God understands us, and He gives us little bits and pieces to let us see how we’re going to live in consequences, sorrow.

But what about beyond this life? He says, now during this period of time, there’s going to be kingdoms that are going to come up on the earth. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke chapter 4, the Gospel of Luke and chapter 4. For most people have heard of the story about Jesus Christ going up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And you know that we could add in a little bit more about that, you know, a time to heal, a time to kill, a time to war, a time to die, a time to be born, a time to be tempted, a time of trials, tribulations.

A time that you’re going to have to deal with the devil. A roaring lion who seeketh whom he may devour. Where Jesus Christ came into the world, he was born. When he got ready to begin his ministry, the Bible tells us that the devil came to get him. In verse one it says, And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost. Return from Jordan, led by the spirit into the wilderness. Now the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Being 40 days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing.

And when they were ended he afterwards was hungry. Well you would be hungry too if you hadn’t ate for 40 days. I’m hungry now and I’ve already had breakfast this morning. Verse three, and the devil said unto him, if thou be the Son of God, command thee stone that it may be made bread. The words look who you are. Oh, you got to do it just boom. And they can take a stone and turn it into bread. Don’t you wish you could do that?

Jesus could do that. And Jesus answered him saying, it is written that man shall live, not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. In other words, the word of God is more important than food for the body, the food for the soul. He says, and the devil takes him up into a high mountain, showed unto him, and you ought to get this, all the kingdoms of the world, and underline this in a moment of time, just a moment of time, how he was able to show Jesus Christ, all the kingdoms of the world.

Now, he probably wasn’t able to show him the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. But he was able to show him the kingdoms of the world. And he says, it’s given unto me. In other words, it’s like the devil has certain amount of power. He can do a lot of things. And we read in scripture that the Lord sets them up and the Lord sets them down to my kings. And can a nation rise without the knowledge of God, but God allows the devil to have certain powers to do certain things.

He is called the Prince of the power of the year. So there’s a lot of things he can do, but he is limited. He cannot do everything. Only what God permits. The devil content me, but he has limitations. He can’t do anything to me, he wants to do. Read the book of Job and you’ll see that. But get this in verse six, and the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee. and the glory of them.

For that is delivered unto me, and to whom, soever I will, I give it.” Now, he might have been telling the truth, but he could have been lying. You know, he is a liar. But now he made an offer to Jesus Christ. Look, if you just serve me, just worship me, I will give you the kingdoms of this world and all the glory that goes with it. Now, remember when Jesus was born into the world, He was born king of the Jews.

He came to claim a throne, the throne of David. And he was going to set up a kingdom upon this earth, and all the other nations of the earth will come to Jerusalem, and Jesus Christ will rule this world. But here’s the devil offering him all of this. When God, the Father has already offered him the other. You see, you and I are making choices all the time. You see, God has offered us so much if we serve Him.

But the devil is also offering you an awful lot if you serve Him. And here you are. You reveal your wisdom by who you serve. If you’re not serving God, you’re serving the devil. You say, well, I’m neutral. I don’t serve either one. You don’t get it. There’s the Lord. There’s the devil. not neutral and not to serve God is to serve the devil. But you just don’t know it because he deceives. He don’t tell you everything. But notice what he does say here.

In verse 7, he says, If thou will worship me, all shall be thine, if you’ll worship me. Well, what is worship. How do I worship the devil? In verse eight, and Jesus answered and said to him, get thee behind me Satan, for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou, and here’s that word, you ought to underline it, serve you worship by service. If you’re notÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ for the Lord, you are living for the devil.

If you’re not serving the Lord, But you are serving that ever. Now whether you like it or not, it’s immaterial to me. But if this book is true and I believe it is true, then I’m going to teach it the way SIGN it. And this is how I see it. Christ says, if you’re not with me, you are against me. How can you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? So there is a responsibility that God has given to us.

But this one little statement here where he talks abouttif the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time largeDownload take your Bible and turn to the book of Daniel in chapter 2, the book of Daniel and chapter 2. at times I will repeat a few things that I’ve taught before, but then I will end in a few new things that I haven’t taught before. So there’s always going to be a certain element of review, things you’ve heard a lot of times, and something maybe you haven’t heard.

But in the book of Daniel in chapter 2, I want you to look in verse 31, Daniel is telling the king of Babylon, never can answer what he had dreamed. You see he had a nightmare. And you’re talking about something 600 years before Christ. Look what he says in verse 1, Thou, O King, sauced and behold a great image. This great image whose brightness was excellent stood before the end, the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was a fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, belly and his thighs of brass, legs of iron, feet, part of iron, part of clay.

Thou sauced till that stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, and were of iron and clay and break them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold, broken the pieces together, and became like they chapped for the summer-threshing floor. And the wind carried them away. That no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now this is a prophecy of what’s going to happen in the future concerning the times of the Gentiles.

You see, Israel was under Gentile rule. And so therefore it’s the times of the Gentiles when God is allowing Gentile nations to come and go. And he names these kingdoms in advance and tells you what’s going to happen, how many there’s going to be. But then he tells you there’s going to be one kingdom going to consist of ten toes. And those ten toes, well that’s the feet of the beast. And there’s this man standing there. Just very simple.

Very quickly. I just want to kind of show it to you. Come up here and just stand right here, right quick. This is the image of the beast. Now remember he says, the form there oblous terrible. The form there oblous terrible. Now not just just reading the Bible. But now he said the head was the head of gold. And then there was the arms of silver and the belly and so forth of brass and the legs of iron and the feet part of iron and clay and there was ten tote.

So he says to Nebuchadnezzar, he says, the thou art the head of gold. So that’s the head of gold. So hold out your arms. That’s the mead and the Persians. then the belly, that’s the Alexanin Empire, and then he can’t do that long. Then the legs is the Roman Empire, and then you have the one with the toes. Okay, thanks, you can be seated. Give me a big hand. I mean, that was hard. But now he saw this image of this beast, and he says, now these are kingdoms that’s going to be taking place in the world from Nebuchadnezzar.

But look there in verse 35 again. Verse 35, then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold, broken the pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away. No place was found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The stone is Christ. Christ comes back at the end of all these Gentile nations that’s going to rule upon the earth.

The tomb of those 10th and destroy the Gentile ruling empires. The stone is filled with the whole earth. In other words, his kingdom grows. So there’s these kingdoms mentioned in advance. Now look there in verse 44. Remember now we’re reading something that was written a long time ago, 2600 years ago, and what’s interesting is four of those kingdoms have come and gone. Now there’s one more left. That’s the one that’s right ahead of us. It’s the next kingdom, according to the word of God, that’s going to appear upon this earth.

And then whenever says, and in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up his kingdom. Look there in verse 44. In the days of these kings, the 10 kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall, and you ought to on the line this, never be destroyed. and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for how long?

Forever. So it doesn’t matter what comes and goes and what happens until this point. We know how it comes out in the end. We know we’re going to win. We know this, but now we also need to understand what’s going to happen before the end. Now get what he says in verse 44, for as much as thou saw us, that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gom, the great God hath made known to the king, which shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, the interpretation thereof short.

Now turn to chapter 5. In chapter 5, a grandson, Belchaser, is ruling in Babylon, and he has taken the utensils from the temple that came from Jerusalem, and he’s having a big party, a big banquet, they’re getting drunk and pretty prideful until he saw a man’s hand right on the wall. You’ve ever heard that statement? I can see the writing on the wall, the handwriting on the wall. Well, that was a hand. Just the hand writing on the wall.

That’s where they got cousin it. I don’t reason you’re laughing because you know. And you know now that I know you know. But the hand was writing on the wall, but nobody knew what it says. And it says that his knees were smote him one another. I wonder what that meant. He scared the death. Daniel told him this is what it means. You see there in verse 26, verse 26. This is the interpretation of the thing, many which God says has numbered by kingdom, finished it.

So this gold is gone. It’s been numbered, it’s finished. And then he says there, thou art weighed in the balances and are found wanting. And verse 28, thy kingdom is divided given to the meat. And the Persians, So that’s the next kingdom afterwards. And now… . . . . . . . . . The Bible tells us history is being unfolded. God tells them what’s going to happen in advance, names the kingdom, and even names the Grecian afterwards. But what I want you to see there is in chapter 7.

The time came when under the first reign, the year of the reign of Belshad, he had another nightmare. Daniel had a vision. And he says that, um, He saw weird stuff But he says I saw four beasts come up out of a sea See in verse three four great beast came up from the sea diverse one from another each one of them’s different and It goes down through here and kind of describes what they’re like But what I want you to look at is in verse seven Because this is the the fourth one look up here.

Just a second You had One had a gold Two, the Medes and the Persians, the Arms. Three, the Allegheny Empire, the Roman Empire, and the last one, number five, is the feet with the Ten Tows. Now, when he says, Thou art the head of gold. Thou hath been numbered and finished it. Now that left four more. So now he says, I saw four. Beast coming up. But when did he see the vision? The only one bell shazzy was still ruling.

He saw four that shall arise. And so he says here, they’re different from each other. But in verse seven, after this I saw in the night vision, behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly. And it shall had great iron teeth, devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before had ten horns. These ten horns becomes ten kings that had ten toes. This is the last one.

Now we know that the Babylon Empire was here historically and they’re gone. We know that the region, the Persians, ruled and they’re gone. That’s where you had Darius and Cyrus. Then you had the Alexander and Empire. They’d come and they’d gone. We’ve had the Roman Empire. They come and they’re gone. Now we have the last one. Gonna be composed of 10 towers. So 10 nations are gonna come together. And this is where a lot of times people get split, very divided on prophesying how to put it all together.

We know the pieces are there, but we can’t fit it together. And the thing about putting a puzzle together you don’t not close to try to force it. It’s supposed to be fitting there real nice. Have you ever done it with something to put the puzzle and then we don’t work? Always have some scissors and cut it where you make it fit. Or just make sure you have a hammer, you know, you can hammer the thing in there. And so sometimes that’s what we want to do with the prophecy that’s still ahead of us.

Trying to decide now what does God mean when he says this or this? Now, we know that this is going to be a bad time. It says there’s never been a nation like this, and that this one is worse than all the ones that went before it. Now some people say that this is a revival of the Roman Empire. Well, it says that when the stone hits upon the toes, that it destroys all of the kingdoms. So is it possible that in the last days, all of them will be, in a sense, revived, but it’s going to compose all these kingdoms.

Good possibility. But look what he says here in verse 9. And I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days, I believe, is a reference to the Lord God Himself. ancient of days did sit, whose garment was widest known, and a hair of his head liked a pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame in his wheel that burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The judgment was set and the books were open. Boy have we advanced in time. All the way into the time of maybe the great white throne judgment when the Lord himself will judge. But he says a lot of things in here that we need to understand. We also know at the end of the tribulation period, the worst period of time the world’s ever known. It looked there in verse 11, I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horns may, I beheld even till the beast was slain, his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.

At the end of the tribulation period when Christ comes back. On a white horse, the Battle of Armageddon, the Bible says the beast and the false prophet were taken and cast into the lake of fire. So all this revelation stuff has got seeds of it planted back here in the Old Testament and they were taught these things. But Daniel have to be honest, said he did not understand all of these prophecies. And the Lord told them, says, seal up the book until the time of the end.

And many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. But I don’t think it’s talking about just the knowledge technology, which yes, that’s increased. But the knowledge of understanding the Word of God, he said, seal this book until the time of the end. And then this book, knowledge shall be increased. You’ll be under understand things that they could even understand 2,000 years ago. Because we have the book of Revelation. We’re living at some very exciting times. Who would have ever dreamed how you could have ever saw people around the world and the witnesses being killed and then somebody around the world been able to see it happen?

Then we got everything today. You could see anything anywhere at any time. See, that wasn’t even possible. A hundred years ago, fifty years ago, But it can be seen today. And there’s things that God has mentioned that only could have been fulfilled in our time in which we live. Look what he said. In verse 12, he says, As concerning the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away. Yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

I saw in the night vision and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days. And they brought him near before him. And there were given him dominion and glory and a kingdom. This is the stone that was cut out of a mountain. Remember there was the nation of Israel. And there was a stone that was cut out. They didn’t want him. He was rejected. And this stone is coming back.

And at the end of the tribulation period, this stone is going to destroy the Gentile powers upon this earth and Jesus Christ is going to set up the Kingdom of Israel and Israel will be the greatest nation on the face of this earth. Today it’s one of the smallest nations in the world. Isn’t that just a coincidence? Just a coincidence? It is surrounded by all those Muslim nations over there and they hate Israel and want us dead. And here’s a little the low nation of Israel, existing only Baba, provident your hand of God, and they want to destroy Israel.”

Look what he says. He says here in verse 4, he says, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, means it lasts forever, which shall not pass away, that lasts forever, and is Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, which means it will last forever. It’s sound like permanent to me. This is talking about His Kingdom. 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. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Vital Line, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

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