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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.

in your Bible to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John. A couple of weeks ago, I preached a sermon on the tabernacle, and I used the auditorium as an illustration. How? That there’s the outer court, and they had the brazen altar, and they had the altar of incense, and they had the labor, and they had a veil, and this was called a different room, it was the holy place. And in the holy place was, well, the table of show bread and the lampstand.

Then there was another veil that went into the holy of holies. And this veil, only the high priest got to enter into that veil once a year to offer a blood upon the mercy seat once a year for the sins of himself and for the sins of the people. And And that the Ark of the Covenant was in that holy of holies. And there on the top, the lid was what the mercy seized over the Ark. And in this Ark of the Testament, well, there were three things in there.

One was the Jar of Manah, and then the Aaron’s Rod that butted in the Ten Commandments. And so we went through that and took the whole service that night. I made a statement that as you studied the gospel of John, you will see it looks like Christ is walking through the tabernacle. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the gospel of John and I want to show you what I was thinking about because you’re looking at the gospel of John as it’s laid out as though he was walking through the temple.

John chapter 1 looked there in verse 14. When it makes the statement in verse 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That word dwelt among us means to tabernacle among us. See, Jesus Christ had been prophesied to come and that he was the righteous branch. He was my righteous servant. And so in the Old Testament, They knew the Messiah was coming. They didn’t all understand the difference between the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow and how the timing of all this was to be done.

So there was a lot of things they didn’t put together. Well, even today there’s a lot of people that don’t put some of these things together. But in this verse when it says that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now look there in verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Now He was the life of the world, and He came into this world, and the Bible says that the earth is like a dark place. And he’s the light that came into the world and talks about John the Baptist and says there was a man named John who was sent to be a witness of the light that all men might believe in him.

And he says he made the world and came into the world, but the world received him not but to as many as received him to them gave he the power, the right, the authority to become the sons of God. And then in that famous verse that we talk about in verse 14, where it says, the Word in the beginning was God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and the word was made flesh.

God manifested himself, took upon himself a human body, and lived upon this earth, and refers to his body as the temple. Because this was the Lord living inside of an earthly tabernacle. And so this explains a little bit at the beginning of where it’s going to head. Soon as all this takes place, you’ll notice there in John chapter one, and he makes the statement in verse 21, and they ask him, what then are thou Elaius? And he’s answered, I am not.

Or thou that prophet and he answered, no. And this is a question that were asked to John the Baptist. They said to him, who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sin is. What sayest thou of thyself? He says, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. straight the way of the Lord as says the prophet Isaiah, and they, which were sent were of the Pharisees and they ask him, instead of him, why baptize the style then?

If there’ll be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there stand one among you whom you know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latches I am not worthy to and loose. These things were done in Bathabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing. Now look in verse 29, you ought to underline this verse in your Bible because it says, the next day John seeeth Jesus coming unto him and sayeth, Behold, the Lamb of God which take it the way the sin of the world.

He’s done to be the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. You remember of the story where Abraham was going to offer up his son upon the altar and actually slay his son. And the Bible says that God stayed his hand and there was a ram caught in the thicket. And right before that it made the statement because the concerned son had asked the question, Dad, I see the wood and I see the altar, I see the fire and where’s the lamb.

And he says, God will provide himself a lamb. Not that God would provide a lamb. God would provide himself a lamb. And that’s written all the way back there in the book of Genesis. So this isn’t some new idea that come along. Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world. And so as you go through here and you notice in this chapter, talks about somebody that he met. This was not the normal man.

This was not just a regular individual. He had supernatural abilities. Look what he says down here in verse 45, Philip findeth Nathaniel and said unto him, we have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did right. So even they understood that Moses back there in the first five books the Messiah that was going to come, the Christ that was going to come. Because they said they wrote about it and get the rest of it. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph, and Nathaniel said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Philip said unto him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel come and set him to Him, and said unto Him, Behold, and Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathaniel said unto Him, winch noest thou me. into him, went to knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree I saw thee. Jesus didn’t have to be there, but he could see him. Now that would let me know right off the bat.

There’s something different about this guy. He has supernatural abilities. It says her in chapter 2 in verse 24, Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of men, for he knew what was in man. This is not your average individual. Jesus Christ is that righteous servant, that righteous branch the Bible talks about that is going to come someday. And he is going to go into the temple and the reason he has to go into the temple is because he is going to offer some blood upon the mercy seat.

The mercy seat was the lid over the ark. It wasn’t a big place, it was a small little place. The ark of the covenant was a small thing and the lid had two cherubim that came over it. And inside of it was those three items and the blood was to be sprinkled by the high priest. Now the thing is, in order to do that, you had to be of the tribe of Levi, but Jesus didn’t come from the tribe of Levi.

Came from the tribe of Judah. So where does he get the right tact as a high priest? Well, the Bible says he was not going to be a high priest after the order of Aaron or the Levites. He would be one that would be after the order of Melchizedek, who the Bible doesn’t say we have any knowledge about his beginning or his ending or anything about him. He just shows up. And Jesus was going to be one that had no beginning and no ending.

And this is going to be a totally different different kind of a high priest. You see, those high priests in those days, they had to offer sacrifices for themselves. And then they go into the presence of God in that holy place, for the Shekana glory, and they didn’t know if they would live or die. So it was always done with fear and trembling. And that was only done once a year, and nobody else got to do that. So Jesus is the one that’s going to take and make our way for you and I to enter into the presence of God.

How can a holy God meet with a center on what grounds? And so that’s why the Bible says there’s only one man that’s a mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So Jesus was going to come and do this. Now in chapter two you’ll notice the first thing right off the bat is he goes into the temple. As he goes into the temple he sees all these people, these money changers in been there. And I got a good hunch that not only did they change money, make profit, but they probably sold some animals.

They weren’t probably the best, but they would make deals, bargains. And Jesus, when he came, was very upset. And he says, the zeal of the Lord had eaten me up. In other words, I think he was mad as a hornet in Georgia language. So he says there in verse 15, and when he had made a scourge of small courts, he drove them out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen poured over the changers’ money and over through the tables and said unto them that so does take these things hence make not my father’s house a house of merchandise and the disciples remembered that he had written to the zeal of thine house had eaten me up then answered the Jews instead of named him what signs sure style unto us seeing that thou doest these things in the words who are you where’d you come from what right do you

You have to do this. I mean, this ain’t your party. Nobody invited you. But all the things about the temple pointed toward Christ coming. And here he is, and they whisked not who it was. And so he says there in verse 19, Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and he’s not talking about the literal temple that had been built after 46 years. He’s talking about his own body because his body was the temple. God was tabernacle in this body.

And that’s why Jesus was present. He was God. And that’s why he said, he that have seen me have seen the Father. Because nobody could see God, but he was veiled in a body. And get this. The Jew said, four years six years this temple in building will thou reared up in three days, but he spake of the temple of his body. And therefore he was risen from the dead. He disciples remembered that he had said these things into them, and they believed the scriptures in the word which Jesus had said.

So he starts off right off the bat with the ideas about this temple and how he thinks about the temple. Because the temple, see, was the way the people were supposed to have a way by which they could approach God, but only through that high priest. So Jesus Christ is called the king. He’s called the high priest. He’s called the son of David, son of God, and he’s the priest. He’s the prophet. He’s the king. And so to be the high priest, it means he has to offer the blood upon the altar.

Now, in the Old Testament, somebody tried to take that honor upon themselves, and that was a no-no. You didn’t do that. As you would enter into the temple, there was this brazen altar by which they had the burnt offerings made to consume at time the total flesh, which was a sin offering. There were other ones that were like guilt offerings and trespass offerings by which people who sinned against each other had to come and make a sacrifice. So there were different kinds of offerings that were made.

There was the the labor and the labor was the water where they had to wash themselves. And the very next chapter, in chapter three, he’s talking to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that thou do us except God be with him. In verse three, Jesus answered instead of him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And then he talks about that which is one of the flesh is flesh, that which is one of the spirit of spirit, but the new birth as you wind it on down through. You’ll find out that when he gets to chapter 4, he talks to the woman at the well and he said to her, he says, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink, thou would have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.

And she says, give me this living water. And he makes a statement there in John chapter 4 and verse 13, he says, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But in verse 14, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up and everlasting life. God said, I have water that when you drink this water, you’ll never thirst again, never thirst again.

And so as you go through the temple, you’ll find out there’s certain things that are all referenced toward the Lord. the washing of the water by the Word. Because see the priests had to bathe themselves or wash their hands and their feet before they could enter into the holy place where they had the table of show bread. The table of show bread, well there’s the bread and 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel. And there was the, some call it the candle sticks but it’s not candles because they didn’t use candles.

that was oil, they were oil lamps. And the oil, they had to take care of these things every day. So there was priests who had to minister in the temple every day that had to go on. But only once a year did they go into that veil. And that was where they had the holy of holies. So in John is talking about the washing of the water by the word. Now that’s where we get when you trust Christ as your Savior and you drink of the water of God’s word, you have eternal life, once and for all, forever, to be forever clean, to know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die.

And the Bible makes the statement in chapters 7 and verse 39, I believe it is, on that great day of the feast Jesus stood in Christ and if any man thirsted, let him come into me and drink and as the scripture hath set out of his belly, shall flow rivers of living water. water. This make he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. See, in John chapter three, when he’s talking to Nicodemus, he’s talking about the Holy Spirit.

That which is more of the Spirit is Spirit. And that which is one of the flesh is flesh. There’s two different kinds. But the Holy Spirit is talking about the Word of God and the water of the Word. So it’s laid out in a wonderful way as you make your way down to the temple. Take your Bible and turn there to the book of John in chapter 6. You’ll notice in John chapter 6 we have it talking about the bread now.

How that Jesus Christ says that He is the bread of life and man cannot live by bread alone in this world, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. There’s something more important than bread, but God wants us to understand if Jesus can do this, He’s not just your normal man. He’s not just the average guy. This man is the God man. And it says here in the book of John in chapter 6, he says in verse 5, when Jesus then lifted up His eyes and saw a great company coming to Him, He said unto them, Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat.

Now Jesus knew why he asked the question. He knew what Philip would say and he also knew that there was a little boy there. He already knew this because he’s God. He knows what’s in man. He knew there was a man there, a little boy that only had two little bitty fishes, five loads of bread. Jesus knew that. But he asked the question because he was going to do something. He was going supply fish sandwiches for everybody. But look at verse 6, and this he said, to prove him to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

He knew in advance what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 pennies worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said it to him, there’s a lad here which had five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what of a among so many, what are we going to do? And Jesus says, make the men set down. Now there were much grass in the place.

So the men set down in number about 5,000. Now I don’t know how many women and children were there, or it’s just a really a reference just to the men. There’s a lot of people there. How would you like to feed 5,000? Peter Amato. He He has fun just with a couple hundred at times, five thousand. And here’s Jesus out there on the seaside, the northern part of the Sea of Galilee. And there’s two fish, five little baritos. This guy is not your normal guy.

You know, as I read this and I see what he says behind the scenes of these things about it, he knew what was in man and he knew already what he was going to do. I love reading stuff like that because it works on my mind. If that’s true then that’s true now. That means he knows what I’m thinking. Not just what I say. Not what I do. He knows how I think. He knows my motive because he didn’t lose all of that just because he went to heaven.

If he knew it then, He knows it now. True, scary, huh? Look what he says. He said, tell everybody to sit down, 5,000 of them. Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks. This is one of the reasons we do it. We should give thanks to the Lord for the food we’re about to eat. You remember after his resurrection and he had those two guys on the road and they didn’t know who he was? And then when they got ready to eat, says he broke the bread and gave thanks.

Ah, I know who he is. So he says there in verse 11, and Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given things he distributed to the disciples, the disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gather them together, fill twelve baskets with fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

In verse 14, he said, hey, we just saw a miracle. Did you know a lot of the people follow Jesus only because of the free handouts? They could get something for free. It wasn’t because of him, it was worth a day, get from him. There’s people like that. They don’t need God. They don’t want God until they’re in trouble. And then they wanna take and pray some magical prayer. And God’s supposed to, voila, here I am. And then do it.

You can’t use God like that. It won’t work. God wants to use you, not you use him. There’s a difference. Yeah, God wants to use you for his purpose, his honor, his glory. Not you using God for whatever you want. Like he’s my little, my sugar daddy, he’s my little, um, miracle working guy that I keep in my back pocket. And I only call upon him once in a while when I really want him. And you think, okay, now you made a bunch of bad decisions, you got yourself in a lot of problems and then you’re just gonna quote some nice little prayer God doesn’t love me.

God didn’t answer my prayer. You think he’s just some millionaire uncle that suppose you call him. He told to give you whatever you need. Won’t work. Sorry. But he worked a miracle and many have because they saw the miracle. They followed him. But is he the bread of life? He is the bread of life. You see, he is more important to me than my necessary food. And I like food. I love food. But the Lord is to be more important to us than bread.

They keep us alive. And then in this whole rest of this chapter talks about how that he says your fathers were in the wilderness and they had manna from heaven. He’s on the true bread that came down from heaven. That’s why in the Old Testament, yes, they had the manna come. It was a pipe. It was a them to understand that the the bread that caused us to live forever is the bread that came down from heaven. And it was the man in the Old Testament.

But when Jesus literally came, he watched the bread from heaven. See there in verse 33, for the bread of God is he, which come down from heaven and give a life, eternal life to the world. And that’s why he says in verse 35. And Jesus threatened him, I am the bread of life. He that come up to me shall never hunger. He that believeth in me shall never thirst. See, that’s why when you go into that temple, that’s the bread and there’s the water.

And he’s all of these things. Because it’s a picture of Jesus Christ. They had a vivid picture of the Lord in the Old Testament so that they would understand these things. Because see, the Bible says he had not yet been manifested. He hadn’t revealed himself yet. Hold your place right here. Look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter nine. Hebrews and chapter nine.

I want you to see a verse there with me. And just take a quick look at this. Look in verse one, then barely the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service. and a worldly or earthly sanctuary. And there was a tabernacle made. The first wherein was the candlestick and the table in the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. That’s in the holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, the holy of holies, which had the golden sensor in the art of the covenant overlaid about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded and the tables of the covenants.

See, I didn’t make that up. I was getting it from the book. See, the Bible says this. What else is it? And over at the cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy seed of which we cannot now speak particularly. in detail. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself and for the heirs or the sins of the people.

The Holy Ghost, this signifying, and Yara on the line, this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. Christ hadn’t come yet and made the way and explained it all. Everything hinges upon Jesus Christ. Now he has been manifested in the Bible, tells in the book of Timothy in chapter 3, and obviously, verse 16, where it says, concerning the order of the church, how that God was manifested in the flesh.

It’s been done. And he has gone into the temple. It’s been done. The veil has been writ. He has entered into heaven and offered his blood upon the altar in heaven because the one upon the earth was made after the pattern of the one that Moses saw in heaven. You say, is that in the Bible? I’m glad you asked. Look in verse 23. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves were better sacrifices than these.

For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but in the heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. So He is our High Priest. And He has done these things. It had been manifested, Revealed so we can see and understand how you and I now have the right to enter boldly to the throne of grace Because of what he did he made a way He made a way there was no way before there’s no way for you or me to enter into the presence of God We had no standing We had no right no authority We’re not on the same level The only way you can face God without dying is to be just with God.

No fault, no sin. Christ was the only one that had that right, that authority. So that’s why all this is so interesting. 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. 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 home page 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. Friends, 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.