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Bibleline Bibleline, they are God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. 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. One-line donations may be made through the Bible-lined 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.

Anyway, I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of Malachi, the book of Malachi. As you read the Bible, two things that you will come to the conclusion of and that is this. One, that God loves you and two, He wants you to love Him. Is that how simple that is? Now you know the Bible in a nutshell. God wants you to know He loves you and He wants you to love Him. So as you read the Bible, God is showing from the Scriptures how He loves us and why we should love Him.

Now the Bible tells us that God is love and love has been manifested by Christ on the cross. So we know that we already have the greatest demonstration of love that can ever be. But isn’t it true that experiences in life have taught us a question or to doubt God’s love? And that’s why so many people do. So as we look in the book of Malachi, the Lord asked this question, have not I loved the and they said how has thou loved us and it looks like God if you really loved us do you realize what we’ve been going through lately because see when Solomon messed up and he messed up bad he said to mess up so bad well he took a thousand counselors 700 wives and 300 concubines so he had a thousand women advising him.

Now how would you like that? It’s rough enough just letting one woman tell you what to do. Let alone a thousand of them and yet he was the wisest man in the world. That many counters he ought to be but lo and behold toward the end of his life he really messed up pretty bad. Now I want you to look there in Malachi in chapter 1 look what he says in verse 2 I have loved you say the Lord yet you say, where in hast thou loved us?

He says, was not Esau, Jacob’s brother? He says, sayeth the Lord yet I loved Jacob. So in verse three I hated Esau but you know he said, I love Jacob. Now remember these two individuals, these two brothers, they’ve been dead for centuries. So he’s not talking about them literally. It’s the people who came from them and the land that God gave to both of them. So God actually, He blessed both of them, but He favored Israel. God had the chasing Israel, and so He took them into captivity.

But when He took them into captivity in the Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzarim, well, eat them, the Edomites, and also the more also they called them the itemarians. They, they laughed at Israel’s calamity. They thought this is great because they didn’t like Israel anyway. So God, even though he chastened Israel and took him out of the land and the other countries, they laughed and made fun of it. So God walked them, kicked him out of their land and he says, now Israel, you know I love you because I brought you back into the land, but I haven’t brought them back.

You can see it for yourself. You’re right here in Jerusalem. I brought you back because I love you. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn all the way over there, hold your place right here, and just kind of turn over there to the book of Ezra. You’ve got first and second chronicles, Ezra Nehemiah, Esther and so forth. But right after the book of Chronicles is a little old book called Ezra. And looked there in Ezra in chapter 1.

Now these are a few of the minor prophets that wrote after the Bible-ownian captivity. That’s why it’s called post, means it’s after. Pre would be before. So there were some books that were written before they went into captivity. And there were books that were written after the captivity. And of course there were several books that were written during the captivity, like Ezekiel in the book of Daniel out. Now here in Ezra, I want you to look here in verse one.

Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, and this is what he said. Thus says, Sours King of Persia, the Lord God of Heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me, who build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God, which is in Jerusalem, and whosoever it remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, Let the man of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with bees Beside the free will offering for the house of God that is at Jerusalem So the people will say you can go But the ones that didn’t want to go They’d give them some silver and give them some gold and give them some provisions and help them on the way the ones that’ll go back Remember God says that you’re going to be in captivity for 70 years so 70 years has passed and And they’re over there in

Babylon, a place called Iraq today. And God says that this is what’s going to take place. And so they went and the Spirit came and told them what to do and that’s what He began to do. Now He gathered all these things together and they made some of these decisions. But I want you to take your Bibleline and turn to Nehemiah. turn your book over there to the book of Nehemiah, just a few pages to your right, to the book of Nehemiah.

And so now Nehemiah is going to go and he has been appointed by the governors. Look there first of all in chapter 5 and verse 14 I believe it is. Yeah verse 14 chapter 5. He says, more over from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah from the 20th year and so forth blah blah blah. So when you studied the book of Malachi you will see that God says would you offer the sacrifices that you offer?

Would you offer them to the governor for him to eat? He says you wouldn’t do that for him. Why do you so despise me? You wouldn’t take the offerings and the sacrifices that you make in the temple and give them to that governor. He said, why would you do it to me? Don’t you have any respect for me? So here in the book of Nehemiah, there’s a lot of things that are said down through here, but he talks about some of the things that would need to be done.

But look there in Nehemiah chapter 8. This is what Nehemiah did. Now he is before Malachi and instrumental in bringing some of the people back to the land of Judah. And while he’s there, he helps them to build the wall and get a few things done. But he also was concerned about the people spiritually. Where are you spiritually? So in Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 20 he said, And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street.

That was before the water gate. And they They speak unto Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. So Ezra was a priest, and so he gets all the people together, and he is going to preach a sermon. And here it makes the statement in verse 4, and Ezra described, stood upon a pulpit of wood. Well, lo and behold, I got a pulpit of wood. comes from a long ways away don’t it?

But it says, which they had made for that purpose. And what did he do? Well in verse 5 Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up and Ezra blessed the Lord and he read to them out of the law because they had been away for so long they didn’t have synagogue there like They did in Israel. And so the temple had been destroyed so the people kind of got away from how to worship God And so now they come back there.

Temple had been destroyed. The walls were gone and the city had been ramsacked. Everything was lost. And so some of the people didn’t want to come back because they enjoyed where they were now after 70 years. Probably a lot of them got old. Daniel never came back as far as he know or he was ekeled, but they were old. And because Daniel went, when he was a teenager in 70 years past, I’d make him 85, 90 years old, he was an old man.

So Nehemiah was used by the Lord to do a great job. But God used Ezra because they were concerned about the people spiritually. And they knew the only way to get them right was to teach them the word of God. So they got the law out and read it to them again so that they would understand, Do you know why you were taken into captivity? Because after all these years, they don’t know what’s going on. Maybe nobody was telling them, nobody was teaching.

But see, one of the jobs that the high priest had, when the people would bring their lambs for their sacrifices and different animals, it was the job of the priest to teach the people, the meaning of what was going on, so that the people would understand, And they wouldn’t just do it without understanding. Now, when we look there in the second chapter of the book of Malachi, you’ll see where the priest or hell responsible for teaching the people the Word of God so that they would know it.

So this is what Ezra is doing. And so when they heard the Word of God, it so convicted them. And so they begin to have joy because they wanted to do what God said to do. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter what it was, just tell us we’ll do it. They were relatively correct, anything. So you look there in the last part of, well, let’s just look at verse 10. Then he’s sending of him, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, get sinned portions unto them, for whom nothing is prepared.

For this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry, and you ought to underline this state. For the joy of the Lord is your strength. Do you ever heard that before? Oh, he of the Lord is my strength. Might be where they got that song from. And then if you’re looking to verse 12, and all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth because, get the, because, and you are on the line, they had understood the words that were declared unto them.

So he told them what God’s word has to say. See down there in verse eight, looking verse eight, where he says, and they read in the book, in the law of God distinctly, gave the sense, caused them to understand the reading. You see, a lot of people mess up in their life because they really don’t understand God. They don’t understand the Bible. They don’t understand what they’re supposed to do. So most people just do whatever they wanna do. They live the way they want, think the way they want, act the way they want, as though there is no God.

They may believe in the back of the back of the back, there is a God, but that’s okay. I don’t know him, he don’t know me. I’ll leave him alone. He leave me alone. We get along fine. But see, that’s not the way it’s going to end up. God is going to hold every man accountable, every man. And after death, the judgment. So nobody can just do whatever they want to do and try to put God out of their mind because sooner or later, prepare to meet thy God.

There’s a God. And And all of our lives is just preparation to meet God. So some of us God will give you some time and others God is going to take you on home because God knows your rebellious heart. And God knows what’s going on. You can’t fool them. Can’t deceive God. So anyway, look there in verse 3 of chapter 9. He says, and they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God.

fourth part of the day. And another fourth part they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God for one fourth of a day. He’s talking about between three to four hours. And somebody thinks the preacher talks too long. If I go an hour, they did it for three hours and more. Well, don’t know yet. And though he told them, he rehearsed everything and how good God has been to him. Because people see, they think, well, if God is good and God really does love me, then what does He let all these bad things happen to me?

Did you know that most people are simply suffering the consequences of their own bad decisions? God says, if we want to take and have a better life, make better decisions. Be smarter. Be wiser. Don’t be so dumb. Study the word of God. Okay. Alright, that’s it. Okay, let’s do that. Okay, all right, good job. That’s it. All right, we’ll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. I’m really excited. All right. All right. Thank you. Good. You guys, thank you so much for your time.

All right. I’m going to start by doing this. I’ll see you guys in the next few minutes. Do what God says do in His way will work. But see, people don’t want to do what God says do. They want to do whatever they want to do. They want to be the boss in charge of their own individual life. Very few people really understand how much God really loves them. And that God’s blessings upon your life, although with holding a blessing, has to deal with your revealing in your life, not only the mouth of saying, I love the Lord, but God’s using what you’re doing with your life too.

They both go together. It’s kind of like this. There was these four salesman. They had gone to Chicago, and they had told their wives they would be back on Friday night and time for them to take out their wives to dinner. So they had flown there and they had their meeting and they was getting ready to catch their plane, But they were running late and said they were running through the terminal. One of the guys hit this little apple cart and knocked it over and apples went rolling all over the terminal in that place where that person was.

But they never stopped. They just kept on a running because they had to catch their flight. And they got there and they got to the gate and all of them made it in time. But one guy says what we did wasn’t right. He says, you call my wife and tell her that I’ll catch the next light. He said, I got to go back and help pick up those apples. He turned around and he went back. And there was this girl that was 16 years old and she was trying to find the apples and she was crying.

And everybody was in such a hurry to get to their plane or from their plane, get to the bag and nobody stopped to help her and she was trying to find her out. And that’s when he was a blind 16 year old girl trying to get her apples and she was crying. nobody offered her any help. He got back and he says, ma’am, I am so sorry. I’m so sorry for what we did. He said, let me help you get so he helped get the things up and put them in the basket.

And he noticed that a bunch of the apples now had been bruised because people had kicked them and and he felt sorry so he put those in the back and separated them and helped try to get her display put back together. And when he finally got done he says, I’m gonna give you $40 for all these bad apples that we ruined. And he said again, I am so sorry. So then he started to walk off and she says, Mr.

And then look back at her and she says, are you Jesus? Are you Jesus? Has anybody ever asked you that question? Because of what you do and how you live, somebody might believe you’re not just an average individual. All God wanted was somebody to love him, but love him enough to obey him. God says, if you love me, serve me. And so with the nation of Israel, God had miraculously done so much, and yet Israel would not serve him, would not be faithful.

So God had taken him into captivity, and now after all these years, they come back to their land, and under Ezra, near Maya, they have rebuilt the temple and the walls and so forth and people were again living there. And he had preached to them and they had gotten straightened out a little bit. But look at something else. Look there in Nehemiah chapter 13. I want you to see this because this is so important because Malachi deals with this subject of the marriage of some of these priests and because of what was going on with the people.

You see when they were in captivity, after what? They just married whoever they wanted to. It didn’t matter. They married anybody you want. See, God had it to where Israel was supposed to only marry within the nation of Israel because of what God wanted to accomplish. God wanted a people that he could bless, a nation that would love him, and he wanted to use this nation as a light to the Gentiles. Israel was going to have such a of beautiful ministry in the lives of the whole world.

But Israel messed up. But God had wanted them to stay separate from the nations of the world because he says, if you take their wives to be your wives, they will come in with their own religion, delude you. In other words, you won’t be as strong. Those women who come from those other places, they will have beliefs and their own gods and worship. And you’re not gonna take a strong stand because now you’re married to somebody who is not strong.

Doesn’t believe the same way you believe. So look what it says in verse 23 of chapter 13, Nehemiah. In those days also, so I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod and Ammon and of Moab. And their children spake half in the language or the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair and made them swear by God.

you shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things.” So you thought it didn’t matter. Well, look, God let him have a thousand wives, 700 wives and 300 concubines. Yeah, but it split the nation. It split the kingdom after he died. So you see, there’s always a price to pay. And so Solomon sinned against God, yet among many nations where there no king like him, who was beloved of his God and God made him king over all his room.

Nevertheless, even him did outlandish women, what does he say? Cause to sin. So God knows, you say, well, he won’t bother me. said, well, you cannot just do anything you want to do. That’s why when the Bible talks about being not unequally yoked together. It means that you’re not supposed to marry somebody who does not know the Lord and I wouldn’t marry somebody who does not want to serve the Lord. So let’s say you do and the person you marry doesn’t.

Is there going to be conflict? There’s going to be a lot of conflict on how the children are raised, the school they go to, everything, all the discipline, the church you attend, everything is affected. You say, won’t it? Yes, it will. That’s why the Word of God is given, not to be mean or unkind to anybody, it’s because God knows. He’s always right. And just because there’s a few exceptions that you might find and so forth doesn’t change the principle in the word of God.

So these people were willing to do whatever God said and that’s what they did. Now take your Bible and go back now to the book of Malachi. You see how you can just about go anywhere in the Bible when you start studying one book, you’re in another book, then then then you’re in another book. But back to the book of Malachi. So he has gone through and he says some things to the priest about what they should do, how they’re supposed to be.

He reminds them of Levi who was a high priest, or the of Aaron who came from him. And so God had told him it was because they were godly individual. They were good examples and this is what he wanted them to be in and they were not. And see what they were doing up there in verse 8 of chapter 1. If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? If you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?

Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased? In other words, if you took and offered to the governor what you’re offering to me, you think he’d be pleased with it? God says, I’m not pleased with it. And here’s the two things that really ought to settle it with people. You see, I am a father. It means that I have some kids, children. Because I have children, I’m a father. I believe, and most people believe, that children should honor their parents.

It’s just something that we think they ought to do. And we believe we ought to be obeyed. Don’t you? Don’t you think children should obey their parents? It even says that in a verse in the Bible, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is wrong? No, this is right. And so look there in verse six, I just want to show you this very quickly. A son on earth his father and a servant his master. So the father and the master are two identification truths concerning the Lord, God, Jehovah of Israel.

He says, I’m the one that brought you into being as a nation. I got that I did that. I’m the one that took Abraham. I’m the the one that gave them that miracle child from which came 12 tribes and he says, I’m your father. And if I’m your father, why don’t you ask my child? Why don’t you honor me? He says, I have provided for you. He says, I took you out of Egypt. I met all your needs and the wilderness.

And it says, I gave you food. I gave you water. I even gave you some meat to eat. And he says, you close it and we’re out for 40 years, 40 years. And he got to look what I’ve done for you. And then I gave you the choicest land in the whole world. I gave you the land of Israel, a land that flows with milk and honey, everything that you want. And God says, I did just because I loved you.

And they said, wherein hostile love does. Prove it to us. How do we know you love does? Look where we have been. We’ve been taken out of the land. Never can ever came in here and destroyed. A lot of people were killed. We were taken out a thousand miles away And to another land, and everything we owned was destroyed. And now after all these years, we come back and you’re trying to convince us, you love us. Do you know there’s a verse in the Bible in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12, God says, for whom, He loveth, He chasteeth.

Didn’t God in His word promise that if you serve me, I will bless you. And if you don’t, I will curse you. So God’s chasening was because he loved them. Did they see that? No, I don’t see that. If things don’t go right in your own life, does it ever cause you to question the love of God? Well, it was causing it to happen with them. And so he says down here in verse 12, but you have profaned it in that you say the table of the Lord is polluted.

That means the altar of the Lord is polluted. And when he says this, polluted means it’s contaminated. It’s blemish, it means it’s impure. It means the sacrifices that you were offering. He says they’re lame and they’re blind, they’ve got problems with them and they’re not pure, they’re not holy. You’re offering something God says is contemptible to me. And so he says, I would that you would just shut the doors of the temple and put out the fire. Don’t even have a sacrifice.

You see there in verse 10, who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not? Neither do you kind of fire on mine, alter it for not. I have no pleasure in you and say, if the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept and offer nip your hand. So God says, that’s not what I want. You see, people can give God lip service. Do you think it’s possible if those people could treat God that way back then?

And you’re talking about during the silent years, 400 years between the last book and the Old Testament and when Christ came on the scene. Do you think that it’s possible in this hour day for people to go to church and play game and go through the ritual? You come and hi everybody, we give them that Christian smile and we stand and we sing our songs when the offering plate comes by we put money in and then we listen to the preacher preach the word and Then we say amen and go out the door and say oh me and Forget what you heard it makes no difference and no change in your life You see God expects his word to change his people Are you a changed person?

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 these 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. My broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound, and 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.