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Bibleline Bibleline, here 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. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. 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.

I have a few things I wanted to share with you. And if you have a Bible, I want you to turn to the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke and chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Here in the book of Luke is one of the most startling stories that you’ll find in the whole Bible. You know the Bible makes this statement of why God gave the law in the book of Romans in chapter 3. It says that every mouth may be stopped.

In other words, God wanted to stop every mouth. I guess because somebody could say, hey, I’m not that bad. I mean, I’ve been pretty good. So God gave his law to shut every mouth. God let us know what he required. And that was perfection. So he gave a law that required perfection, or you messed up, and the wages of sin is death, and the sin is transgressing the law of God. So he gave a law, not only to shut every mouth, but he says he gave the law that all the world would become guilty.

And so there’s nobody who can justify themselves in the eyes of God. Nobody can claim their right, that God doesn’t have a legitimate claim to condemn an individual to an everlasting fire burning hell. Another word is just to be guilty of the law. Okay, big deal. All have sin. Okay, so what? Wait, the sin is dead. All right, I’m gonna die. That’ll be the end of it anyway. You know, six feet under. I asked the man one day, I said, where are you gonna go in your die?

He says, Tennessee. There’s always somebody, you know. But if all that is true, what’s the big deal? You’ve got to be perfect to go to heaven. Okay, I’m not perfect. Now what are you going to do about it? You know, it’s just what he’s going to do about it. That’s so bad. The consequences. And that’s something that we don’t want to think about. You know, people sin because it’s fun. If it wasn’t fun, most of them wouldn’t do it.

Some people enjoy telling their lives. Some people enjoy deceiving. You know, have you ever watched a football game And the guy is trying to fake out the guy that’s coming up, trying to get him with the ball. And he tries to pretend like he’s gonna go that way, and then he cuts back and goes the other way. Is that deception? That’s deception. And every team is trying to deceive the other side. Trying to fool them. They even try to have a certain defense, and then they’ll shift it right at the last minute, and they try to fool them all.

Calling plays in a hollow, why don’t you just tell everybody what you’re gonna do? Then everybody knows what you’re gonna do, and then see how it works. But there’s something about us that we love sin. And people wouldn’t commit adultery if it wasn’t fun. I believe people enjoy committing murder at times. But did you know that there’s consequences to our decisions? And Jesus tells one of the strangest stories, and I just want you to look at this with me.

I want to read it to you, and then I want to talk about it. Here in verse 19, there was a certain There was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. He was a beautiful of sores and designed to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.

Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes, been in tournaments and sift Abraham afar off. And Lazarus in his bosom and he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. And sin Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and comb my tongue for I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things. Likewise, lather evil things. But now he is comforted, thou art torment him. Beside all of this, between us and you, there is a great goth fix, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us. God would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore, Father, that thou would have sinned him to my Father’s house. For I have five brothers, that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham said to Him they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And He said, they Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent. And He said unto Him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. This is a story about real people, believe it or not. It’s not a parable. Jesus is the one telling the story. It’s It’s the reason why he did what he did.

He came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. And he gives us a beautiful picture about what happens to those that die and they’re lost. So this thing about that every mouth may be stopped, it was for a reason. And that the whole world become guilty for God, that that was for a reason. That no man is justified in the eyes of God. Well, that was for a reason, because there’s only one way to get to heaven that’s through Christ.

It was to take away all the excuses of man, to nail it down and get everybody to see that no man can save himself by his good deeds. It would be only through accepting Jesus Christ as a Savior. Now in this little old story, there’s two lifestyles as you can see there. One man was rich and one man was poor. I have to be honest, I can relate more to the poor guy than that rich guy. I had a fairly rough beginning myself.

One had too much and one had too little. Anybody like that here? When it comes to money, do you always feel like you just don’t have enough? That you could always use just a little bit more. Well here was a rich man that fairs sumptuously every day. I mean, he had everything he could desire. A rich man, clothing, purple and fine, linen and fair, sumptuously, every day, every day. Now, some of us, we get good days here and there, but as you look back over your life, can you say, every day, every day?

Well, probably not. Well, God did not stop the rich man from being rich. And God didn’t stop the poor man from being poor. So here’s Jesus Christ who made the heavens and the earth and he knows the complete story of this rich man and the poor man. God did not stop the rich man from being rich. Even though he knew where the rich man was going to spend eternity. Is God God, does he know the end from the beginning?

And he allowed a man to live and enjoy all the benefits of life. He lived what we call houndahog. He allowed him to make a lot of riches and didn’t stop him. And then there’s another man that didn’t believe on the Lord, God’s child. And God allowed him to be poor. He could have changed it, I guess. I mean, God is God. God can set up kings and take them down, lift up princes and take them down. God can do whatever God wants to do.

And God knew this man was a poor man and never let him become rich. I mean, we don’t know the whole life story, but whatever it was, God knew it. Does God know your situation? Does he know that there’s rich people? Now, I don’t know. We may have some rich people in our church. I have no clue. I don’t know what people make. I don’t know. We may have some people in the church that are very poor. Does God know which one you are?

And God allows you to be poor. Did you know that God might allow you to be poor than you are? That coming down the road, He might even take away more than what you have now. Did you know that there’s people around this country because of this storm and that storm and all these things that happen? Some people have lost everything they’ve had. Does God know that? Does God permit things like this to happen? Evidently He does. So God knew the story about these two individuals and He did nothing to change it.

You see the Bible says that the rich man in this lifetime, He received the good things. Lazarus says he received evil things. You see, look over there. I want you to see this. Look at verse 25. But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime, receiveth thy good things. So he knew that in your lifetime what you received. Does God know everything you have received and things that you would like to have and you didn’t have? God is God.

God knew the whole story of these two individuals. And it looks like God didn’t do anything about it. I mean, after all, I’m God’s child. Why wouldn’t God make me the rich man and make the rich man the poor man? Now, that’s how I would have done it. That seemed like that would have been more fair. But God is God and God makes no mistakes. God is wise. wise. And he said, in thy lifetime, lifetime is a small period of time.

Read the 90th Psalm when it talks about, you know, three score and 10, that’s 70. And then if perchance you live to be 80, there’s still hardly can sorrow and we still fly away. It means you’re still going to die. He said, well, I live to be 90. Okay, you’re still going to die. Well, maybe I’ll make it the 95. you’re still going to die. What then? What then? So God knew what then? See, God knows what was going to happen when they died.

And He knew that this man in his lifetime, he enjoyed good things. He also says that Lazarus evil thing. In other words, he was a child of God that was going to Abraham’s bosom to paradise, but in his lifetime he suffered. In his lifetime he had sores all over his body and it says more over the dog. That’s the name of the dog, moreover. Moreover the dog came and licked his sores. So he was a beggar, didn’t have anything.

He had disease on his body and dogs would Look in the sores! Did God know that? Did God see that? Jesus is telling the story. Jesus knew the two individuals. He knew everything about them. Why didn’t He stop this beggar from being a beggar? Couldn’t God have just unloaded beneficial? Maybe He did it one time. We don’t know all of it, but He received evil things. Now listen, in in your lifetime that you and I are going to get to live?

God seems like He allows you to have a little touch of both. A few good things, and then there seems like there’s things that just came from the devil. He allows you to suffer so much, and sometimes it seems like you feel like I’m a beggar. I don’t have anything, and you might lose a job, and you can lose all your money, and you You can lose your health. And then you wonder whether or not, hey, God, don’t want to cause no fuss.

But what about us? Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? But we want the Lord to know who we are and where we are and what we’re going through. God even says, come unto me and make your petitions known. Let the Lord give praise and thanks unto the Lord. For all that he has done in the 103rd Psalm, He has loaded us with all these benefits. Loaded us. You mean, I got more than I need of the benefits.

The spiritual blessings that God has given to you and I in the book of Ephesians chapter one and verse three, when he talks about we have been blessed in the heavenlies. In other words, God sees us in His Son in the heavenlies. Somebody said, well, how you doing? Well, under the circumstances, what are you doing under there? You see, we’re supposed to have the position that we’re in heaven and we’re looking down. Well, on top of everything, I said, pretty good.

See, it depends on your perspective. How you see things. Do you see that there’s a God in heaven that knew the rich man and he knew the poor man? He knew one believed and one did not believe. And he allowed the one to be comforted. See there in that verse 25, Abraham says, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivers like good things likewise, that’s an evil thing. Now, now, hey, things have changed. Would you rather have the good things for a short period of time and then you have the evil things for eternity?

Or would you do the have the evil things for the short period of time and the good things for eternity? It’s perspective. You see, I know that whatever happens to me in this life, it’s a short period of time. Because we’re going to vanish away. We’re going to disappear out of here. Whatever the worst thing that could ever happen to you in this life, it’s a short period of time. But you see, God looks down the road and he saw Lazarus in the future because God has to know where Lazarus was going and God knew where the rich man was going and wasn’t it great for the Lord to be merciful and kind to the rich man?

He at least enjoyed a few things but you know all those good things that he had can come back to haunt him someday because there’s things that God says and put here in his word. Now both lived and both died of all the people in the world. We’re born and we live and we die. Ecclesiastes talks about a time to be born, a time to die, a time to laugh, a time to cry, Time to war, time to love.

The Bible says that when Lazarus died, he was carried by the angels. I remember a teacher I had one time in college. He was asked to go to the hospital because a person was dying. And he was young in the ministry, and so he didn’t know exactly what to do. He’d never done this before. this before, and he was standing by the edge of the bed, and the person passed away, and everybody looked at him and he thought, I guess I’m supposed to say something.

He says, there she goes. No, I’m f-ing. There she goes. No, I’ve been in a lot of situations, but I’ve never. There he goes. Anyway, he kind of embarrassed, but he has his own thing he could think of. So you never know what to do in every situation. But we all live and we’re all going to die. And so he was carried by the angels. You know, the Bible didn’t say that about the rich man being carried by the angels.

He had to be cast in because nobody wanted to take him. I don’t know. But the Bible says that when the rich man died and in hell, he lifted up his eyes. Now, I wrote down a few things just so that you’ll know that there are some things that a man who dies and goes to hell can happen to him. I wrote this down. The rich man, he could see. He saw Lazarus. He saw Abraham where he was, he could see.

Now it doesn’t say he could see anybody else where he was, but he could see through the goth somehow, boy he had to have good vision. So this is the great goth between the two. You can’t cross one to the other, but he could see, he could recognize. Now here’s a man who’s dead, and he could look across this chasm and he could see in the place of paradise. I see Abraham. She knew if he could see Abraham, Abraham was alive, but Abraham was dead.

The Bible says that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That means if he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he’s not the God of the dead, he’s the God of the living. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be alive. They are alive. And when people die, they’re still alive. But the people that are without the Lord, they’re looked upon as being dead, and being separated from God. So you and I understand that whenever we die means we’re separated from our body, it’s not the annihilation of a person.

You still exist, you’re just separated from your body. So death is you being separated from your physical body, and everybody’s going to die. If you think, well, I’m just gonna die, and they’ll put my body in the grave and that’s all there is to it. Have you died before? Then how do you know that’s true? That’s what you hope is true. But why not listen to the person who died and was buried came back from the dead? Know anybody else that’s done that on their own?

Jesus is the only one to come back from the dead. And he says, now this is the way it really is. You see, if you die, you can’t come back. You can’t make it happen. But the one that did can. And so we have interesting things here in the word of God. The poor man, he received compassion. You see, he said he was in Abraham’s bosom, the individual, the writer that God used to write the gospel of John. It says that he laid his head upon Jesus’ bosom.

It means he was as close as he could get. That’s as close as you can get. The last of the people, that’s as close as he could get to the great patriarch Abraham. Did you know that he was isolated and probably nobody wanted him? Nobody met his need. A poor man, a beggar. Now he is comforted. And it says, in thou art tormented, He is comforted. You see, we in this life, we don’t always have the comfort that we would like.

There’s a lot of struggles that we go through, a lot of problems and hardaches of all kinds, disappointments and discouragement and despair. But you see, it’s so, so short, a period of time. It’s just this little lifetime, time of life, and it’s temporary. But there’s something that’s going to be for eternity. And you and I are going to be blessed and comforted for eternity in something like a place called paradise forever and ever. No more sorrow, sickness, death, and disease.

Why? Because there’s be no more sin. All these things are because of sin, sin in the world. So the Bible says this is what it ought to be and the way it’s going to be. You see, Abraham, it says, could not show mercy to the rich man. What was the one thing the rich man says here? He cried in verse 24 and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me. Mercy. He couldn’t have mercy on him. After the man is dead, there was no more mercy.

We have people today who teach that whenever you die, you can go to a place called Purgatory, which is not in the Bible. And somebody can pray you out of there, help ease your time there and your pain. But that’s not taught in the Bible. You see, there’s a way to be sure of going to heaven. I’m so glad I can never go to purgatory. I can never go to hell. I’m going to heaven whenever I die. Whenever Lazarus dies, he didn’t go to purgatory.

Two men died. One went here, one went there. They both didn’t go to the same place. That’s contrary to what a lot of religions teach. Jesus is the one that tells the story. And you notice what he prayed, he says, Father Abraham. Evidently they thought at one time that’s all they needed. As long as I can say that, hey, I know who my Father is, is Father Abraham. Look there in the book of John in chapter eight. the book of John chapter 8.

And look in verse 19, verse 19, and you notice the Jewish people had, I guess you could say a special bonding to Abraham, and they thought just because we are of the lineage of Abraham, we got it made. That’s all we need to do is just make sure that we are of the of the nation of Israel. Well look what he says in verse 19, then said they unto him, where is thy father? Where’s your father? Where’s your father?

Because he talked to them as though he always referred to somebody else being his father. Now see Joseph was not his father and he says in the last part of verse 19, And ye neither know me nor my father. If ye had known me, ye should have known my father also.” So you see, they said, they knew who his daddy was because they said, we know that your father is Joseph. They made the statement, we be not born a fornication because they knew that Mary and Joseph, they had a child before they got married.

So it’s like a mockery back to him. We’re not born a fornication. We know you were. See there in verse 41, he says, ye do the deeds of your Father. Then said they to him, we be not born a fornication. In other words, we didn’t come from outside the matrimony of marriage. But now look what he says up there in verse 38. Look at verse 38. I speak that which I have seen with my father. And ye do that which you have seen with your father.

They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto them, if ye were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man that have told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. He do the deeds of your father and that’s why they said what they said and then Jesus said what he said Well, I love to have been there and seen this In verse 42 Jesus said unto him if God were your father Because he said God is my father because he said I am the son of God that would make Jesus God But look what he said He loved me not for I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of myself, but he sent me So he says in verse 44.

You are of your father the who? The devil This is what Jesus said to us and I see Jesus has never read Dale Carnegie’s book on how to win friends and influence people So he should have took that course because Jesus should have known you gonna make those people mad They’re not going to light you offended them people. But it says, you are of your father, the devil. Now look at verse 52. Then said the Jews unto him, now we know that thou hast the devil.

Abraham is dead. And the prophets, and thou sayeth, if a man keep my sin, he shall never taste of death. Thou greater than our father, Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead, who make a style by self. Who do you think you are? And Jesus said, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me. Of whom ye say, he is your God. Yet ye have not known him, but I know him.

And if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar just like you. Does that seem like he’s tipped Owen through the tithers? What’s he calling them? Liars? He says, I’d be a liar like you. Looking for the first 15th, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. They said unto Jews and to him, thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Have you seen Abraham?

Well, slap my mouth. He had. So he says in verse 58, Jesus said unto them, very I say unto thee, unto you, before Abraham was, I am. See, Jesus was Jehovah. He is the Lord, he is God. He said, I was here before Abraham was. They said, you mean you seen Abraham? Yeah. Now, Jesus knew that he was setting him up. And it says in verse 59, and so they all got together and honored him and thought he was a wonderful man and everything wonderful happened to him.

And they took up stones to cast at him. They didn’t like what he said, but did he lie? He told the truth. 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. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are 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 broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, 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.