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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 1-800-5-7. hundred five seven six three seven seven one online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvary of Tampa dot o-r-g we pray that you’ll 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.

Dear Bible, turn to the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis, and chapter 3. The book of Genesis and chapter 3, you and I have been told by the Word of God, rewards are earned. We believe that. And so we work by faith, believing that what God promised he will perform, he will keep his word. That’s what faith is, believing the promises of God. God says a lot of things in his word and you and I are supposed to believe it.

Now, let me give you this. If in this life we received everything that was fair and right and justice and what you deserved, and I deserve in this life. There probably wouldn’t be any good reason for a judgment later on to reward you because you getÛÛ it now. You and I are supposed to realize that everything in this life is not fair, it is not justice here, and that you do not get everything you deserve. You just don’t get it.

And I don’t get everything I think I deserve and sometimes I’m glad. But here in the book of Genesis in chapter three, I want you to look in verse 10. Verse 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. And here’s the word, because. Because. You see, this deals with cause and effect. I did something because. Now you and I need to understand that if we’re going to be judged by the Lord, everything you think, say, do, then we need to be able to defend our position.

You know, why did you do that? Why did you say that? Do you remember whenever you did something wrong and your parents would say, why did you do that? He said, cause. Cause why? Just because. Why? Because is a because. You know cause. Because. Because is an answer. Face your little kids. Why did you get? Because. Because. They don’t know why. Just because. But everything we say or think or do, there’s a reason for it. You and I have a habit of trying to justify whatever it is that we say or think or do.

There’s There’s a reason why we can excuse ourselves. And so we said in judgment upon ourselves and we very easily said in judgment on other people because we hear what they say and do and so forth and we will know why did you do that. Why did you say that? And so if we know that God is going to reward us for what we do, then we need to have a justifiable reason. And we wait until we get to the Jabin City of Christ to try to figure out a reason why we did what we did, or should we go ahead and try to figure it out now?

That’s just complicated. I don’t want to think about stuff like that. But there’s a reason Adam did what he did, and it says because he was afraid. Because he was afraid. Look there in verse 14. the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou have done this, thou art cursed. Why did God do that? Well, because even God has a reason. God says, because you did this, I did this. And so God cursed Adam and Eve. God cursed the world.

Why? Because? Because. There’s a reason for it. There’s reasons why you and I do what we do. So what are the reasons? Look in verse 17. And under Adam, he says, because thou hast hearken unto the voice of thy wife. See, there’s the biggest reason, right? There’s an, he should have done that, done that. Don’t more men get into more trouble because I better stop right here. I could get in a lot of trouble dwelling too long on this point.

Because, well, the reason Adam messed up was because of that woman that God gave. And it’s not Adam’s fault. It was the woman’s fault that God, so is God’s fault. And after all, it wasn’t God that made the devil. He made that angel. And then he fell and then he came into the garden. Well, it’s all God’s fault. So he blamed God, I just for everything, because we know that God is all powerful and God could have stopped this.

But there’s a reason for everything. You and I, we know that when we do that, which is wrong, we always say, well, the devil made me do it. I tried that on my dad one time. He said, well, I’m going to beat the devil out of you. Well, there’s things that happens in life and it’s cause and effect. There’s a reason why. So take your Bible and look there in Genesis chapter 5. Genesis chapter chapter 5 and verse 29, chapter 5 and verse 29, and he called his name Noah.

Say this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed, because God had cursed the ground, and God cursed the whole world. And God brought a flood in to destroy the known world at that time. And because of man’s sin, God cursed the world, and because of that, a payment had to be made. You see, There’s a reason and cause and effect all the way down through. And so because of sin, God sent His Son.

And because His Son took our sins upon Him, He had to die because the wages of sin is death, because the law says the soul that shall die because Adam ate the wrong fruit. was always a reason. And it keeps going on back. And this is why you and I need to understand that in this life, everything is not going to be just and fair and righteous. It’s not going to be balanced here. If God is going to reward you when you get to heaven, then you and I are supposed to understand that while we’re here, things are not going to be done right.

I heard a good statement and I heard a man who was reading it from some book that read, but I didn’t get the name of the book. But it was a statement that was along this line about things that you do. Doing right means you deserve something good, but it cannot in this life guarantee it. For example, man, woman, get married. Okay, that’s always a happy moment. It don’t last long, but it’s a happy moment and usually opposite to track and then attack.

And so you join them together in Holy Deadlock, or wedlock. And so the man and the woman are getting along fine for a little while and the woman decides to go wild. The man does everything he knows it’s right. He loves the Lord, he loves his wife and he’s on everything right. And just because he’s doing everything right, you would think, well, he deserves the wife to do it. He deserves it because he’s doing right. He deserves to be happy.

He deserves everything to work out right because he’s doing right. God’s Word does not guarantee a happy marriage just because you do right. He doesn’t. The Word doesn’t. Now if both… It probably will work out fine. But the man’s happiness cannot depend totally upon the obedience of the other. Even though he deserves a good wife, a good mother for his children, because he loves the Lord, he says to right, he’s not, but he does everything right. Doesn’t mean the wife will do automatically do everything right.

Can he suffer the consequences? Yes, he can. Is it right? Not in this life? Is it fair not in this life? Is it just not in this life? In other words, in this life you are not going to get everything you deserve. That’s wrong. And you’re not going to get everything in this life you deserve. That’s right. It’s not fair because we live in a sinful world. And some things will happen without a cause. There are things in the Bible, believe it or not, that God says without a cause, without a cause.

In other words, the person that does your wrong didn’t have a justifiable reason. So you and I are supposed to understand that in this life cause and effect, and if you do everything that’s right, doesn’t mean automatically that everything is going to work out wonderful. God does not guarantee that in this life. God guarantees that He will make it right when you do right because He will deserve the rewards in heaven because you deserved it now. If you deserve it now, you’ll deserve it there.

If you don’t deserve it here, you don’t deserve it there. The only reason God’s gonna reward you there is because you deserved it here. But you didn’t get Because you can be wronged here. You can be defrauded here. You can be persecuted here. You can be lied about here. Even though you do all the right you’re no to do. And sometimes it doesn’t work out. You may love your children. Raise your children right. Teach them the word of God.

Bring them the sun. Just go to church. Do everything you can. And you teach those kids everything you’re positive. And when they get a little bit older, they may turn on you and hate your guts. be ashamed of you, lie about you, and they can do you as wrong as anybody. And you say, well, I don’t deserve that. Of course you don’t deserve that. You deserve because of your obedient, you deserve obedient children. But can the children who have a mind of their own, can they They rebel, yes they can.

And because they do the wrong, but you did the right. And you deserved that honor and that respect. Whatever you deserved here, when you get to heaven, God’s going to reward you for what you deserve. Remember when we get to heaven and we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, God is going to reward us. What is he rewarding us for? you deserve. So you see down here, don’t worry about whether or not is everybody treating you the way you deserve to be treated?

Does your husband or wife or the children or where you were? Does everybody give you the respect you deserve? Chances are they don’t. And good possibility you perhaps don’t give the respect that others deserve. You know it goes both ways don’t it? It goes both ways. You may not be giving the honor that is due somebody up. The man may not be giving the honor that his wife is due because she is a wonderful, kind, loving, obedient wife. And I know a lot of them who is married to an absolute bum that somebody ought to take him out and just thrash him real good because that’s what he deserves.

And I know a lot of men that don’t deserve the wife that they have. But see in this life, we don’t get what we deserve. We get wronged. We get shamed. We get persecuted. And it doesn’t work out all the time the way that we expect. Look there in chapter 11 of the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 11, and look in verse 9, just chapter 11 and verse 9, where it makes the statement, therefore is the name of it called Babel.

And you see the word, because a Lord did their confound the language of the earth. God did the one because they had disobeyed and said to scatter upon the face of the earth, they refused. So God had a reason. And he broke up their means of communication, where they could not communicate. And he gave them groups different languages and spread them out all over the year. That’s why we have various nations today that speak various languages, because there’s a cause and effect.

You see, there’s things that God does because of what man does. And it didn’t have to be certain ways only because man refuses to obey God. There are things that will happen in your life that didn’t have to happen. But because you did not obey the Lord, God had to chase in you. Now remember this, salvation going to heaven is not because of your works. It means your works don’t get you to heaven because God says not by works of righteousness which we have done.

Not of works, lest any man should boast. So a man is saved by grace because Christ died and paid for my sins. Since he paid for my sins, I don’t have to pay for my sins. He did it for me. And if I believe it, he will give me eternal life. Why? Because Christ died for me. And I have eternal life. I’m his child and I’m I’m going to heaven whenever I die. That’s something that I know. And we know that heaven is perfect and God is perfect.

And when we get there, everything will be perfect. But we’re not there. There, everything is wonderful. But that’s heaven. If you want everything to be right, and you want to be treated absolutely perfect and fair, then just go ahead and ask the Lord to take you home So that’s where you have to go to get that done. That’s not happening here on planet Earth. This the Bible says is a wicked place, a sinful place. And people have a sinful nature.

And we not only have a bad case of me first, I just, sometimes we have a bad case of me only I just look there in Genesis chapter 27. Genesis chapter 27. 27 and look in verse 41. Verse 41 says, and Esau hated Jacob. Why did he hate Jacob? Why did the older brother hate the younger brother? That’s not fair. That’s not right. Well maybe somebody gave him a reason. Well look at this. Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing where with his father blessed him.

But what’s wrong with that? Because his father was supposed to bless Esau and it was stolen from him. But see before that Esau says that he would let him have his birthright for a mess of pottage. So he didn’t have respect unto his inheritance that he had by right of being the firstborn in the family. He despised it. And because of that, the Lord let it happen. And he was able to deceive his father Isaac did. And of course he had a little help from Mamaloo who helped deceive Daddy and he blessed his son Jacob.

And so There you go. Because of the blessing, where would his father bless him? And Esau said in his heart, the day of mourning for my father or at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob? I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him. Well because of this, he had to leave from home. Because of this, he wound up working seven years for a woman he didn’t want. And another seven years for a woman he did want. 14 years!

Finally came home and was scared to death. because he had defrauded his brother. But you see, there’s a reason. Everything in this life was not made fair, and it wasn’t always justice. But does the Bible say anything about, you know, what, so ever a man so of that, shall he also reap? It means you’re gonna reap things out of this world that you soon. But it can’t always be perfectly in every case. If I so love and shouldn’t I reap love?

If I sow hatred, I reap hatred. You see, when he’s talking about sowing and reaping, it’s not talking about me sowing some corn and reaping some corn. Well, that’s a good analogy. Or sowing some cotton and reaping some cotton. But if a man sows to his flesh, he will have the flesh reap. If a man sows to the Spirit, then he’s going to have the Spirit reap. So it all depends on, do you really understand what God is saying in his word?

There’s a cause and effect. And many Christians become very, like as you get disoriented with the things of God, it’s kind of like being on a ship. And you’re used to being, you know, walking solid. And then the boat’s going like this. And after a while your brain begins to go like that. And then you get nauseated. Anybody been nauseated lately? Well, I know a few people. I remember one time I was on a boat. I got so sick.

Oh, I got sick. And my head was a spending and my stomach was, I anointed some fish. But it doesn’t go away right away. It stays with you for a while. I bet he got a little nauseated the other day yesterday and today she says, Yankee, he says, when you when you had prayer, I said, let’s pray. So we prayed. And so we prayed and embedded it says, my head was still going. Close-rise is still going. So she’s not drunk.

She doesn’t drink, but she still may wobble just a little bit. But you see, there’s people like that with God. They’re not clear headed. The Bible talked about being sober minded. And a lot of God’s people are not sober minded. They can’t think clearly. They can’t discern from the right of the left between good and bad. They can’t understand what God is saying. And so it’s something to think about. Take your time and look all the way over to the book of Mark.

The book of Mark, chapter nine. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mark, chapter nine. And look there in verse 41, verse 41. In verse 41, it says, this is on page 10, 58, church Bible. This is verse 41, for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name. Get this, because ye belong to Christ. Verily I send you, ye shall not lose, or he shall not lose his reward. Now it says the same thing in Matthew 10, 42 that I usually use, but here in this verse, I wanted you to see the part says because you belong to Christ You shall not lose your reward now here for example if you give someone a cup of water and You did it for the Lord whatever you do for the Lord your land of treasure in heaven and He says because you you belong to

Christ you will not lose your reward now. What’s the reward for it? It’s something that you earned, you deserve it. See salvation. Now going to heaven, you don’t deserve that. You didn’t work for that. You don’t deserve it. You didn’t earn it. That was a gift. That’s free. But what you have when you get there, rewards are earned. And because it’s earned, that means you have to deserve it. So he says, because you belong to Christ, and you gave someone a cup of cold water in his name.

He says, you shall and no wise lose that. In other words, you are going to be taken care of when you get to heaven. That means that while you’re here in the Matthew chapter 6, it says, if you do things to be seen of men, just for the purpose of being seen of men, he says, you have your reward. It means you did it for them. You got your reward from them, they praised you for it, then God doesn’t have to give you one because you didn’t do it for him.

You did it for the praise of men. So if you do things just to be seen of men, does God know that? Does God know you’re motive? That’s why see if you do what you do for the Lord, then all you need to be concerned about is God saw it. And if God is pleased, ought to be satisfied because you know in this life people are not going to appreciate everything that you do. It’s not going to happen. You’re not going to get the honor, the respect that’s due you because of the sacrifice that you make.

Did you know that you can serve Lord and do everything right and people persecute you for doing so. And don’t want nothing to do with you. You can lose friends. You can lose jobs. And you’re doing right. Now you didn’t deserve to lose the job. You deserve to keep that job. But just because you deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. So don’t get bent out of shape when things don’t go your way. Don’t let it happen to you.

Look there in the book of Mark in chapter 12. Look in chapter 12. and verse 24. Chapter 12 verse 24. And it says in verse 24, and Jesus answering said unto them, do ye not therefore err because you know not the scriptures neither the power of God? Because they had come up with a little scenario and he says, you do air not knowing the scriptures and because they didn’t know the scriptures it affected their theology it was wrong so there’s a lack of knowledge can cost you.

Ignorance is not bliss. My priest is sermon on that one time. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance can cost you an awful lot. And because if you do not understand some of the ways of God, you’re not going to really appreciate some of the things that happens to you in this life. Because in your mind, if you don’t understand it, you’re going to have said, in judgment against God. Because if God is all powerful, then God could have stopped this from happening or that from happening.

Or you losing your job, or you losing your help. See, if God is God, how come God can’t stop all of that stuff? Because God is chosen not to. God has a higher purpose than yours in my desires, whatever our goals may be. God has something He’s working out in your life in my life. And He says, now, if I make everything right here, then you won’t get it there. Because if you earned it here, then I’ll bless you here or give it to you here and then you’ve had it.

I would rather people mistreat me here and not me get whatever I deserve to get because it will be temporary here. But if I wait till I get there all of my rewards that I get that I’ve earned will be for how long? forever. Now you got to make up your mind. So you can do it for the praise of men which will be temporary and man can give you praise, honor and glory and take it away from you just as fast as they give it.

Have you ever seen a quarterback make some touchdown passes and everybody praises them? Yay! Let him throw a couple of interceptions. Throw the bomb out They’re not interested in that young man. All they want to do is they think about, we’ve got to win, win, win. Why? Because they probably bet money on it and they’ve got to have some real kid in their moon bay. 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 home page.

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.