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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 Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

The Bible tells us here in the book of Genesis in chapter one, if you’ll notice there in verse 26, And God said, let us make man in our image. After our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fall of the year and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. And in the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them.

So God made the first man, first woman. And he says that they were made in his likeness. Now wouldn’t it be neat if all of us were really demonstrated in our own lives the image of Christ? That when a person saw us, that’s who they saw. But lo and behold, we have an owe sent from nature. And many times we probably reveal more about the devil than we do about God. And that’s not the way God intended it. And it won’t be that way forever.

The day will come when all this will be changed. We’re living in a sinful world where people do sinful things. He says in verse 28, and God blessed them, said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth. Now the earth had already been filled with animals, filled with birds, the creaking thing that creeps upon the earth. So the earth was already full. But God says, replenish your field of the earth now with people. So that’s what God wanted.

And they were to have dominion over everything that God had made. So there was a job for them to do. Now, so here in chapter one, it tells you what it did. And in chapter two, in verse seven and eight, God tells you how he did it, how he laid it all out. Looking, verse seven, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man became a living soul.

Man was different than the animals. He was made in the image of God. And then verse eight, and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. So we know that God made a man without a sinful nature, a woman without a sinful nature, put them in a perfect environment, they didn’t have to worry about the neighbors, pollution, everything was wonderful. What a first family. And then the Bible makes the statement there in verse 16.

And the Lord God commanded the man say, and of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. So there was a lot of freedom given. Only one restriction, you could need of a certain tree. Whatever that fruit was. Now we know it had to be a banana because it had a peel. I don’t know why everybody always has an apple on a tree, but I really don’t know what kind of fruit it was. He said, but of the free of knowledge of good and even, thou shall not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest they’re up, dosh out, surely died.

And they did die that very day, spiritually cut off from the source of life after they had sinned against the Lord. The Bible says that God evidently had to share with them some things about salvation. And it says here in verse 21 unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothing. means that he had to take an animal and an animal was killed. Blood was shed because God was not pleased with the leaves that they were wearing.

He wanted a blood sacrifice and the blood sacrifice was what was required. So from the very beginning to the very first man and first woman. Now we often say, boy, what a bad thing Adam and Eve did. Look what they did to the whole human race. Yes, that’s what they did to the whole human race. But I believe Adam and Eve believed on the Lord. They wore the quotes of skin. And I also believe that we’ll see them when we get to heaven.

I also believe that they taught their children the truth, So that their kids would know and understand look there now in verse one of chapter 4 Adam knew Eve his wife nothin wonders what if Adam and Eve had had a son Before the fall Before they sinned That would have been interesting, wouldn’t it but in verse 1 this is after they sinned He says and she conceived and the and bear pain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord So the very first family the first man and woman They didn’t walk around, you know, and meet, gate, and grunt, living in a cave and trying to figure out how to make fire.

They were high, intelligent. Adam, the first man, called every animal that God had ever made. The files of the year, God says Adam gave it a name. And then he makes a statement here, I have gotten a man from the Lord, but they understood salvation. They understood the sacrifice. Then he says there in verse two, and she bear another son, and his son name was called Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a till of the soil.

Process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offered unto the Lord. Abel, he also brought the first one of his flock and of the fat thereof. So there were two sons and they brought two offerings but two different kinds. One of the soil, the works of his hands, and the other one was a blood sacrifice. So they knew the very first family, I believe, was a godly family. I believe it was a godly mom and it was a godly dad.

And I believe they had a godly son. But what happened to the other one? I don’t know. You can’t blame it on the environment. You couldn’t blame it on the movies. Couldn’t blame it on what they are singing in school. So what was his excuse? You see, a sinful nature, something you have on the inside of you. And you can forget the blame game because that’s something that’s on the inside and we all sin. And it doesn’t matter about our environment.

Our environment makes a difference because it can affect our choices. But we still make the choice and we’re responsible to the Lord for our choices. And Cain could have made the right sacrifice, but he chose not to. And out of bitterness or hatred or jealousy, he killed his brother. Now, look in verse 16. Somebody just asked me this question just this week. Where did Cain get his wife? I can’t believe people are still asking that question. But everybody wants to know where did Cain get his wife?

All right, verse 16, And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, dwelt in the land of naught on the east of Eden, and Cain knew his wife. So where did Cain get his wife in naught? The land of naught. See there? That’s how easy that is? But back then, and I want you to see this verse, Look there in Genesis in chapter three and verse 20. This is where Cain got his wife. And verse 20 and Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of what?

All living. At that time in the very beginning, she was the mother of all that was living because she was the first mom. So the first family I believe was a godly family and they had two children. One turned out right, one turned out wrong. They had another child, his name was Seth. He turnedGallery. But see, in their individual choices, we often say that this world is a dark world because the Bible says that it was filled with darkness and then the darkness was upon the face of the deep and then it says the spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the deep and then God said, let there be light in there light and God saw that it was good and so forth.

And that was even in the morning it was the first day. Even in the gospel of John it talks about the world being dark and Christ the light came into the world. Now as you go down through the various things there the light that was a cosmic light but there was not a specific light like the sun, the moon that reflected the light from the sun and how God divided everything. That was done on a different day, which was on the fourth day.

On the second day, God separated the waters from the waters, like take the water upon the earth and separate and put a blanket of water around the earth, and that would have given the earth a totally the hot house effect that would have been perfect environment upon the whole earth. Now, when the flood took place, the Bible says that water came down from heaven, from the sky, and also from the fountains of the deep. So it was coming from both directions and churning up everything.

After the flood, of course, that’s whenever we have man’s lifespan greatly shortened. Back then they lived to be eight, nine hundred years old. That’s a long time to live. Think of how many children you can have in nine hundred years. If you’re in good shape, how long? I don’t know. but you have the land and vegetation. That is the fruit. That’s where you have the growth. And then you have the light, which is a particular thing to a person where God can give you individually light.

And I’ll explain that in just a minute. And then you have the fish in the file. Those are things that swims in the water and that fly in the atmosphere. And so then we have the animals and man. And they are different. They’re not the same. We did not come from some blob of protoplasm floating around in the ooze of the Nile. We believe that there is a God who made animals and God created man and man is not an animal.

Man may act like an animal, but man is not an animal. And so there’s responsibilities that God gave to us that he never gave to animals. There’s no accountability for the animals. There’s accountability for man. As you go down through the different period of time, how God raises his children, how he has revealed different things to us. You’ll find out that God also does the same thing through the family. When the Lord reveal things in various stages, he says in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, that God planned the ages.

A dispensation is a specific period of time and how God deals with man in regard to a specific responsibility and then the follow up with the consequences if that responsibility is not fulfilled. So every one of these are dispensations or periods of time. A dispensation is the same as like a dispensary, like a medical dispensary where you dispense the various things that they might need, the doctors of the nurses, and to dispense like that. Now, we have a period of time in what God has dispensed to us a responsibility.

What He gave to one, He didn’t give to everybody, but when you start off in the very beginning, innocence, conscience, humanism, promise, law, grace, tribulation, and kingdom, all of these, The seven of them have a specific reason. They’re named in scripture in a specific way because it reveals how God deals with mankind as a whole. But not only as a mankind as a whole, but also as a mother who has a child and how she raises the child. For example, when children are born into the world, we used to say they are in an age of innocence.

True? In other words, they are not responsible for what they do because they don’t know what they’re doing. There’s a time when those little kids are just born and they’re just totally naive. They don’t even know exist. And now all of a sudden they begin to develop a signs of a sinful nature. They cry and all that. And not because they’re hurting, but because they’re training you to find what they can get away with and what they can’t. They’re pushing the limits.

And so they can become what we call spoiled. So what we have is innocence. That means they don’t really understand everything. They don’t have the knowledge by which to think and be responsible for their actions. Then they go into a place where they learn a little bit of right and wrong conscience. So that they begin to think, to be able to reason a little bit. And as we begin to reason and so forth, we learn several things. Children learn to trust.

They learn to trust mom. They learn to trust Dad. And so as they grow a little bit and they learn to trust, they are taking their mom and dad at their word. They don’t worry about the bills. They don’t worry about paying the taxes. They don’t worry about the house. They don’t worry about school. They don’t worry. Because they totally trust you. Yeah, that’s your response. All the little kids wanna do is play. Just play, eat, sleep and play.

Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t you wish sometimes you could just go back to that age? But you have a conscience that begins to work. Now, not all people’s conscience work the same. Say, why not? Because they learn a different set of values of what is right and what is wrong. If not everybody agrees on what is right, you’re not gonna have the same conscience working for you that somebody else does. So some things that you will do will bother you, but it won’t bother somebody else.

Because they don’t believe that that’s right or they don’t believe that that’s wrong. So there’s a difference. So whenever you taste the children what the word of God says, then you have a set way of thinking. So you learn how to trust by taking the promises of God and believing them. We learn to trust Mom and to trust Dad and hear what they say and then believe in it. And this is why whenever Mama says to little Johnny, Johnny, you do that one more time, you’re going to get a spanking.

Well, whenever he does that one more time, what should he get? Now, I’m going to tell you one more time. Now, that’s the last time I’m telling you, then you’re right. You’re right. That’s wrong. You tell that child one time and you say, well, you’ve got to keep your word or your word means nothing. Oh, you’re giving his threats. That won’t work. You got to say what you mean, mean what you say. That’s how they learn because you see, most parents are not disciplined themselves, so they can’t discipline kids.

we take the word promise and we learn how to give a command and we say there’s going to be consequences if you fail then we should follow through with it. Then we have the law. This is where mom and dad learn how to lay down the law. Proverbs chapter one talks about and don’t despise the law of my mother because generally it’s the mom who is in the home that raises the kids that says lay down the law. And sometimes the mother always does this.

You just wait until your daddy gets home. You just wait until your daddy gets home. So daddy finally comes home and the kid wants to run. Why? He didn’t want to see that. Why? He ain’t been her all day. But the kid lives under the threat. When do your daddy gets home? When do you get daddy in? Daddy walks in the house. Hello there Johnny. Ah! Ah! say this is what’s going to happen and you receive that. That’s part of number four.

But number five is grace. When you talk about the numbers in scriptures, the numbers mean things. Number five is grace and so you got one, two, three, four, five is grace. Now you want a person to learn how to have this light, the knowledge to make decisions, but they learned that there’s a better way to live than just abandon the law of mom and dad because then you hate the rulesannounced restrictions. Did you know if you just learn how to love mom and dad and want to honor mom and dad then the rules and regulations are no problem?

It’s when you got to do them when you don’t want to do them But if you want to please the one that you love other than that’s okay, then you don’t mind doing it It’s when you got to do it and when you don’t care And so grace is learning how to live the way you should live because it’s a law based upon love. If you love me, serve me. And so as you go through the various states, remember this is like God has taken the whole nations of the world, all these people down to the time, and he has taught systematically the course of a man going through his life.

life. As a man lives his life, it’s laid out in the same way. And there’s different responsibilities at different times in your lifeespie. God holds me more responsible now for knowledge that I have that he wouldn’t have held me responsible for 20 years ago, 40 years ago, or whenever I was a child or when I was a teenager, but the older I get, the more knowledge I have, the more I’m accountable for, more I’m responsible for. I’m not supposed to get to the place in my life where I’m just going to coast on here and it doesn’t matter anymore.

Look at all those good years I gave to the Lord so I can blow the last few years. No, no you can’t. Well, you can do it, but that won’t be the wisest thing you can do. And the Bible says this before you actually, even though if you want to live by grace, the Bible says in the book of Thessalonians in chapter two, he says that we must through much tribulation. Much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. We must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.

But this is not talking about you and I going through the tribulation, this means in our life. Before you and I, as an individual, learn how to truly rest in the Lord is because we have gone through much tribulation. Now, number seven over there is the word Sabbath. What is the word Sabbath referred to? A day of rest. So we got number seven. A day of rest. And a person, and I was born, I was like that. And then conscience.

And then I want to do my own thing, go my own way, humanism. And then you learned what the word says. You learn a better way on how to live, but you also know you got tribulations in your life. And then you know that one day is coming when you get old enough that the Lord, the Lord God Himself, can rule and reign in your life now. See, I don’t have to wait till I get into the kingdom to let the Lord be the Lord and Master of my life.

I don’t believe a man that’s lost has to make Christ the Lord and the Master of his life to be saved. No, I don’t agree with that. Because that means you’ve got to earn your salvation and that’s worked for salvation. That’s not true. When you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you as a free gift, eternal life. As a child of God, it is His will that we allow Him to be the Lord and the Master of our life, rule in our life, Be king in my life.

So this is why we have the Davidic millennial kingdom. See God laid this out. This is Bible No man figured this thing out. God figured this thing out When you talk about what God has done and then you see how it is in raising children the very same way See that’s what God did for us And this is what you do also for children A little here and a little bit there and there should always be the accountability and responsibility and so forth.

So these things are laid down in God’s Word. It’s very easy to understand once you kind of get a picture of it and you see it. And God’s Word, I want you to see this. Look over there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11. Now look there in verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders, the Old Testament saints, obtained a good report. be explaining who those Old Testament saints are.

Verse 3, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed, that word worlds is ages. The ages refers to the different periods of time, different age. We call this the church age, we call that the age of the law, and there’s different periods of time and how God dwelt with us. But remember in the part of our training, we’re supposed to not only know our responsibility but our consequences. Did God tell Admoneeb what their responsibilities were? You’re free to eat of any tree of the garden, but he gave him a grant.

Don’t eat the fruit off this tree. For in the day you do that, you shall surely die. So there was a responsibility to give them. He held them accountable, came looking for them, Adam where art thou? And then he says that they thou shalt surely die, consequences. So they were cast out of the garden. Kids need to know from the very beginning consequences to their decision. Now there comes a time when they’re on their own, Cain killed Abel and they got so wicked in the whole nation that during the flood, God had to send the flood and wipe out of everybody because everybody.

There’s a few of them that didn, but most of them didn, God started all over the water. But what was the consequences of those people in their disobedience? God sent a flood what was the consequences of God’s people violating the law of God? The fall of the temple the destruction of Jerusalem the Jews were scattered upon the face of the earth there was a consequence. rebellion. There’s going to be a consequence at the end of the church age because God’s people are going to stand in the jim and cetera Christ and give what?

An account. It’s not all free. Salvation getting to heaven, that’s free. But what happens to us after that, there’s an accountability and some people are going to be rewarded, some people are not going to be. There’s going to be tears shed in heaven. There’s going to be bonfires. Now that’s the consequences of of not living by grace during this period of time where we are. So, if we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, other consequences, God teaches us responsibility consequences, responsibility consequences because God holds us accountable.

Now, during the tribulation period, they’re not to receive the mark of the beast. They’re not to receive the mark of the beast. They’re not to fall down and worship this last one-world government to receive his mark or his name or anything about it, God says, don’t do it. Will they do it? There’ll be multitudes that will do it. God’s people are always required to live a holy life. But the consequences of their rebellion, their disobedience will be that there is a final battle of Armageddon.

Christ comes back in power and great glory. This is when he’s revealed. When he comes in the rapture, he is concealed. Here is revealed. This is when every eye shall see him. This is in power and great glory. So when every comes back in his feet, touch upon the Mount of all of them, he cleaves in the mist. And then the Bible says, there’s the battle of Armageddon. That’s consequence. That’s a result of rebellion against the Lord. And at this time is when the Israel nation of Israel will see the Lord and see the scars in his hands and in his feet and say, where did you receive these wounds?

And he says in the house of my friends, that’s in the book of Zachariah chapter 13. So Israel will be saved or born in a day. That’s in Romans chapter 11. And then the Bible says they’ll set up the kingdom upon the earth. But even at the end of this day of rest, there’s still going to be consequences to those who rebel. So God, down through time, teaches us. You might teach your children certain things, but they should understand, because after a while, it’s not between you and your children, it’s between your children and God.

And there is consequences to rebellion, consequences when you disobey God. And so you can’t live somebody else’s life for them. You have to cut the strain, let it go, but during those formative teenage years, you will try to teach them all that you possibly can. And got them in the right direction. But after that, they have to go. but you’re always concerned and you always pray and do everything to him. Now, I believe this is what a mother needs to understand because most time it’s the mothers who influence the children, more so than the dads.

In a different home, of course that’s different, but overall I think it’s true. What is this for? This is the bottomless pit. What’s it for though? It’s the consequence of the rebellion that get because of Satan. He is cast into the bottomless pit here at the end of the tribulation period. the final lake of fire for the final lake of fire called Gahimah that’s because after the great white throne judgment and the books are open they are all sent into the lake of fire.

That’s consequences for a wrong decision in life and what about paradise? This is when Luke chapter 16 when Abraham in a place called Hades or she old one Hebrew one Greek and as he tells the story the rich man also died in torment. He lifted up his eyes. But see, there’s a great God. That’s a place. There’s consequences. Good consequences, bad consequences, but consequences. There’s consequences to all of our decisions. That’s what we have to be careful. There’s consequences to angels who rebelled against the Lord and left not there and let their first estate and did things they should not have done.

And so God had to deal with him. There’s always this, the all the way down through time. And there’s multitude of decisions that we make in life and there’s consequences to our decisions. Do you understand what I’m saying? Can you follow me thinking? All right. Let’s pray, Shallelujah. Our Father, we do thank You again for Your blessings to us. We thank You for the free gift of eternal life. How that You died on that cross and paid for our sins so that we could have that wonderful gift to know that we’re going to to heaven whenever we die.

We ask Father your blessings upon each person here and help us to realize that as your children you have worked with us the same way that you did in the creation of the world and as you dealt with the nation of Israel and lay not the various dispensations, the various ages so that we could understand your logic, the thinking that you have put into this to reveal to man so that we could understand where you’re coming from. What our responsibilities are, what the consequences are, good and bad.

So probably we asked your blessings upon us. We thank you so much for being a person here today and for all the others. We asked your blessings upon them. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you 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. 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 Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.