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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.

The Book of Isaiah, chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40, the story of John the Baptist, which is part of the Christmas story. So when you look here in the book of Isaiah in chapter 40, you’ll find that there’s an interesting statement made here in verse 3. Verse 3 says, The voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the highway or the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted in every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight in the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

Now this is a reference to John the Baptist. You see he was was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He was about six months before Christ and they were cousins. And so John the Badgers had a very unique ministry. He was just the voice of one crying in the wilderness. And he was sent to bear witness of the light that Jesus was the true light that light of every man that cometh into the world. So he had an awesome ministry.

Jesus says there’s never been a man born a woman like John the Baptist. Anyway, notice in verse 6, look what he says about the voice. The voice said cry and he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass with with the flower faded because the spirit of the Lord brought upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower faded, but the word of our God shall stand forever.

Jesus Christ is the word and the word was made flesh. The word was going to be revealed. The glory of the Lord has come to visit mankind. And the Bible says that John says all flesh is as grass and all of us are the same. We all live and we all die, but there’s one that’s going to be born. He is the Word and He will live forever. And then He says in verse 9, Oh Zion, that bringeth good tidings.

Get the up into the high mountains, oh Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings. You see, when John the Baptist showed up, he was preaching some good titans and good things. Lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, and you ought to underline these three words. What was John the Baptist going to say about Jesus Christ when he was born into this world? He says, I’m just the voice of one crying in the wilderness, behold your God.

You see, Jesus Christ was God manifested in the flesh. And scriptures tell us that there’s nobody like Him. There’s no birth quite like this one. Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be. Now, since He is different, very unique, special, I wanted to just this morning, share with you some thoughts about this John the Baptist and something that was going to take place. But take your Bible now and look in the book with Jeremiah. go to your right to Jeremiah and chapter 31.

Jeremiah chapter 31. And just look there in verse 15. Verse 15. Because you see, when Jesus Christ was born. The angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph and says, take the child down into Egypt. When you take him down into Egypt, I’ll let you know when to bring him back. I’ll bring your word. But Herod came in and killed all the children that were two years old and under. And there was a lot of weeping and wailing. And this is why this verse 15 is referenced to in the book of Matthew, talking about that moment.

In verse 15, thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Rehma. Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel weeping for her children. He refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. All these children that were killed, because he Herod was trying to kill one little baby boy and think about it. What difference can one little baby make? I mean, what difference can one little baby been born in the world? What can it do?

Well, this was no usual baby. This was an unusual baby. This was the Son of God. And for a woman to have a child without a man, that would take America. Well, it did. Look down there in verse 22. Verse 22, How long will thou go about? O thou backsliding daughter? For the Lord hath created a new thing. Now if it’s just a woman having a baby, it’s nothing new. But for a woman to have a baby without a man, as it says, created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man.

This was an unusual man that was born. John had a very unusual ministry. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Luke in chapter one, the gospel of Luke and chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. And look there in verse 5. Verse 5 says, there was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zachariah of the course of Abya and his wife was the daughter of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the law, O Lord, blameless, and they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well-stricken in years.

So here’s these older folks, well-stricken in years, and God is going to do another miracle. You see, God is going to allow these old folks to have a young man. I don’t know if I would want another young man, but they’re gonna have a young man. And this is going to be an unusual child too. In verse 11, I want you to look in verse 11, is it? And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zachariah saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him and the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zachariah, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear a son. And Zachariah said, I prayed that prayer 40 years ago. I don’t believe in his age he was probably asking the Lord for a child. But the Lord heard the prayer, and Elizabeth had been praying for a child, because she was excited that the Lord had taken away her approach from among men.

See down there in verse 25, the Lord has taken away my memory approach among men. This old couple, they might have been wanting the child, but I think they probably prayed when they were younger. But you know, you never know when God’s going to answer that prayer of yours, that you prayed four years ago and God will wind up coming, it comes around. You see, God doesn’t forget your prayers. That’s what’s interesting. But I’m glad I have had some of my prayers not entered yet.

But look what he says He says in verse 13, the angel said unto him, fear not zechariah, for thy prayer is heard, thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. So the Lord’s even telling them what to call him, that you’re gonna have a son, a child is gonna be born. In verse 14, and thou shalt have joy and gladness. Many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord.

shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He shall be filled with the holy goes, even from his mother’s womb. Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Get this, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. In other words, this child has a great ministry.

God said, I want to use this child as the forerunner of my son. And he has got a ministry of turning the hearts of the fathers to their children. And to proclaim, yes, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you’ll see that in chapter two of Luke, but it also makes this statement. It says, He shall turn the hearts of the children of Israel unto the Lord their God, not just the fathers to the children, but the children of Israel to God.

And He says to prepare people for the Lord. God is sending His Son into the world and He wants Him to be the megaphone, the voice that runs ahead of them and tell them, hey, He’s coming, He’s coming, He’s coming. So we had a tremendous ministry, a very unique ministry. Nobody had ever had this ministry before to tell people about the Lord coming on the scene. Look what he says in verse 18. Now Zechariah is hearing what the angel of the Lord has said.

But now remember whenever it was told to Joseph, Joseph believed what God said. And he told Mary, Mary believed what God said. But the old codger has a problem. He said, no, wait, wait a minute. So he says in verse 18, And Zacharias said unto the angel whereby shall I know the, how do I know this is true? Did he have any questions or doubts? He said, I’m an old man. My wife is well stricken in years. How are we going to have a young man?

Well lo and behold. The angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel that standeth in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad titans. This is good news, good news. And behold, in verse 20, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed because, because thou believe us not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. God see has his own timetable.

You see this couple they had prayed for a child years before I believe because now he’s questioned whether he can even happen now. And because he was wondering how can this happen? How can this be? How do you think Mary felt whenever God told us that you’re going to have a child without a man? Oh really? What would you have thought? And so in verse 21 the people waited for Zachariah because, see, he was taking too long in the temple.

You don’t take that long to do his service in this course that he had. And he says, and he carried so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak unto them. And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple before he beckoned unto them and remained speechless. Came to pass that as soon as the days of its ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying, thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men.

We talked in Sunday school about how Mary, a young woman that’s never had a relationship with a man could have a child and how would you like to behave with the explain that’s sticking out in your tummy out there and you’re not married. And explaining it to mom and dad or to your neighbors. You know, God sometimes puts us in very strange predicaments. He produces a lot of problems in our lives. It was so bad that even Joseph had to go into Egypt a fear of his life.

Who produced that problem? Oh, God did. See, God doesn’t mind producing problems in your life because he knows how to solve the problems in your life. That’s easy when you understand that. This one you don’t think he does or he will. So Elizabeth is going to have a young man. She’s going to have a young man. Now as you go down through this, I want you to look there in verse 57. Verse 57, the birth of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist. Now Elizabeth, full time, came that she should be delivered. She brought forth the Son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her. Isn’t that wonderful that Lisa was standing by her? They believed her story. This is Elizabeth. How does an old woman explain to somebody, I got a child, you mean from that old man?

You realize just all the problems that can be created by the Lord doing these miraculous things? Anyway, he says here in verse 58, and her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her, and it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they shall call him Zechariah after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, not so. He shall be called John.

Nobody in the family was called John. Daddy was Zechariah. My name is Jakey. I haven’t figured out what my kids never called their kids janky. I Was with a guy yesterday, and I says I’m glad to meet you. My name is Jakey Just looked at me. I said well you’ve heard of Yankee Doodle. Oh, yeah. I said that was my dad He did what y’all did. He just laughed it How did I ever get stuck with that? I’ll never know when I get to heaven.

I’m gonna say Lord why But in verse 61 and they said unto her there is none of thy kindred that is called by this name They made signs to his father how he would have him called and he asked for a writing table and he wrote saying his name is John and they marveled all and his mouth was opened immediately. Remember he’s been his mouth been shut for nine months. There was a little piece of quite a run house.

At least he didn’t have to do much explaining because he couldn’t talk. Verse 65, fear came on all that dwelt round about them and all these sayings were and noise abroad throughout all the healed country of Judea, and all they that heard them lay them up in their hearts, saying, what manner of child shall this be? What kind of a child is Zachariah gonna have here? What kind of a child is this gonna be? You could say the same thing about Jesus, what kind of a child is this going to be?

And so it says in verse 67, his father, Zachariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. That means he was controlled by the Holy Spirit. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he had visited and redeemed his people. Remember now, he had promised this over and over again in the Old Testament. What is happening right now is simply the fulfillment of many scriptures. Why is it always fulfilled and fulfilled? And it is written, because we are hard headed and stiff night.

We wanna know how do I know this is true? because they had the Old Testament Scriptures. The last book in the Old Testament was written over 400 years before this happened. 400 years of silence. So all those Old Testament books go way back. And there it is. It’s written in those scriptures. And they still have those scriptures today. When Jesus came, he quoted many of those Old Testament scriptures. How did they do that in advance? Because God told them, This is what will happen.

This is what will happen. This is what will happen. And they wrote it. They could not make it happen. And the one that wrote it couldn’t fulfill what they had wrote. It was always far enough out of their reach that they couldn’t manipulate things. Isn’t God wonderful? But God is patient and He allowed in His perfect timing. For this whole couple, I have this miraculous child. And this child was going to be different from a lot of other children too.

He only lives for one reason. He’s just to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness. As a forerunner of Jesus Christ, to get people ready, the Lord is coming behind me. And so He would baptize in water if they believed the preaching that He gave. That is that they should believe on Him from God have sent. They weren’t to believe on Him. He wasn’t anything great. In other words, he says, I must decrease and he must increase.

Look what he has here. He now goes into the Old Testament and he shows things that you and I, if we read them, we may not see it. But remember, even when Simeon had seen him, he says, behold the salvation of the Lord. Talking about a person, he is the salvation of the Lord. The redeemer of the Lord. here is your notice in verse 69 and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

Because he says in verse 17, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the old which is swear to our Father Abraham, no, with everything God promised God fulfills. And yet look how many years down the road it took. A long time.

And now it’s happening just like God says. And also you find in the book of Luke in chapter 19 where he talks about that God says because of your rebellion, because you did not believe that Jesus Christ was God who came to visit the house of Israel. He says the country of Jerusalem the temple the wall is all going to be destroyed And it happened just like he said it would Just a coincidence. No, this is God. Everybody wants to know if there is a real true and living God Why don’t God reveal himself?

He did He told you how he would do it in advance Wouldn’t that be the best way to do it? If he just showed up right now and you say I’m God God? What if I told you I was? Would you believe that? Why? I mean, don’t I lie, God? You aren’t incorporating it all. But with the Lord, see, He was told exactly He had to be of the line of David, of the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem.

All these are prophecies in advance. And He says, before He came on the scene, John the Baptist would come on the scene and be the voice crying in the wilderness and talking about the salvation of the Lord from Isaiah chapter 40. Coincidence? Not a coincidence. It’s also found in the book of Malachi. But notice, he makes a statement down here in verse 74 that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life and that thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest.

For thou shalt go before the face of the ill or the the Lord. See the scriptures keep talking about Jesus Christ being God. You cannot deny that. And when it says in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah and chapter nine and verse six and the government shall be upon his shoulder and he shall be called counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. Jesus is called God, the everlasting father. How can you have an everlasting father if you don’t have an everlasting son?

So if you’re going to be an everlasting father, you had to have an everlasting son. Jesus Christ existed before this world came into being. It says, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. So that means nobody made him. He’s always existed. You see, it’s hard for people to understand how God could have always been. But can you fathom the idea that you will always be? Just think from this point on, you can’t explain before, but you will always be.

And you’re going to be somewhere. That’s why I’m so glad that I know I’m going to be with the Lord. I’m going to have eternal life and I’m happy. But notice these three things here. There’s about three things mentioned here real quick. I just want to show you this. The verse 77, he’s going to take and say, to give knowledge of salvation, down in verse 79, to give light, and also the last part of 79, to guide our feet, to give knowledge of salvation.

See, people need to understand that when he’s talking about this one that comes after me, he is our salvation. He is our righteousness. He is our wisdom. He is our sanctification. Whatever we need, He is it. Have you ever seen in the back of cars, I always say, Jesus is the answer, Jesus is the answer, and you think, well, what was the question? But Jesus is the answer, but you gotta know what the question is. You see, to go to heaven, He is the way.

When it comes to what is truth, He is the truth. What about eternal life? He is the eternal life. That’s who He is. He is the answer to everything. He is the solution to all the problems in this world. Did you know that all the problems we’re having in America, he is the answer. And if there’s anything the world today doesn’t want, and majority of the people in America don’t want, it’s Christ. And yet he’s the solution. Because what if everybody in America would just trust Christ as their Savior and really understand it, really believe it, and started loving each other, the way we should and treating each other the way we should?

Daddy’s would love their moms, the wives. And the wives, they might love their kids. And nobody rebag us. And stop all this divorce and all this shacking up and everything else is going on. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of our politicians were honest? I know, that’s asking too much. This is why Jesus Christ could not come today and to be born in Washington, D.C. because they would have trouble finding three wise men. And we’ll move right along. I could go further than happen on the internet.

But in verse 79, to give light to them that said in darkness. You see, there’s those that are in the nation of Israel, see there in verse 77, unto his people. Then in verse 79, to those that were in darkness and don’t have the truth. You see, Israel had an advantage because they had the word of God. They had the prophets. But there’s others that don’t have a clue. And sometimes I love taking the gospel to those that have never heard it before.

And when they hear it and they understand how they can have eternal life and know they’re going to heaven when they die, man, they just kind of light light up because they see the light. And it makes so much sense to them to hear it, to see it, believe it. And the last part of verse 79 says, says, and to guide our feeds, see, after you know the Lord. Did you know that if you would let the Lord guide your steps, did you know it leads to peace and joy and happiness?

In this life, so many people are in such great turmoil and such despair. If they only knew the Lord and loved the Lord and walk with the Lord, You’d be surprised what God can do. And guess what he says in verse 80 now. And the child grew, talking about John DeBantis, whack strong in spirit was in the desert till the day of his showing under Israel. Now this is what John DeBantis was to do. Now take your Bible and look in the gospel of John.

The gospel of John chapter one. Gospel of John in chapter one. He is from verse 6 to verse 15 talking about Christ the light of the world. He is the light of the world. Verse 29 and 30, he is the Lamb of God. Who said so? Well, that John fella. Now, the one that wrote this is not the same John. This is John the Apostle John the Beloved. This is John who lived a long time and wrote also the book of 1st and 2nd, 3rd John in Revelation.

And so that’s a different John. He was a young man that leaned on Christ. This John the Baptist. John the Baptist. See there in verse 5, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now the ministry begins. What was the purpose of John’s ministry? Well, it was talking about the Lord. You see, what I’m talking to you about right now, this is really the Christmas story. The Christmas story isn’t just about his birth. The Christmas story is about his death more than his birth.

Believe it or not. 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 2 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, 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 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast 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.