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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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts, the book of Acts, chapter 7. I want to bring to your attention a few things that I’ve said before, then perhaps a few things you haven’t heard before. And look there in verse 20, Acts chapter 7 and verse 20. We’re talking about a man named Moses. Everybody’s heard of Moses. Just about everybody in the whole world’s heard of Moses. And would you believe that one time Moses was just content?

Content to live on the backside of a desert spent 40 years of his life there. And he was content to be left alone. He didn’t want to do anything. He didn’t want to go anywhere. what you call he had been burned out. You see, he made a commitment and didn’t follow through with it. He thought things were going to be different and it didn’t work that way. So you’ll find out that as you serve the Lord, not everything is going to work out the way you planned.

But there’s a God in heaven whose time in his perfect. But notice what he says in verse 20, In which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair and nourished up in his Father’s house three months. When he was cast out Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, nourished him for her own son. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and indeeds. And when he was full of forty years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. And you ought to underline these three words in your Bible. You see before he ever went to the backside of the desert, he already knew and believed God was going to deliver the children of Israel by Him. He knew it before He ever left. And He says, He did what He did because He supposed His brethren and you ought to underline these three words.

He supposed they would have understood. But you know, they didn’t understand because Moses did something that he shouldn’t have done. Now whether or not he got angry or not, maybe hard to tell, but when you study the Old Testament, you’ll find that Moses got angry an awful lot of times. Moses lost his cool. Moses got angry and bitter and paid a price for it. And that’s one of the reasons he never got to go into the Promised Land. God let him see the Promised land from the top of Mount Nebo but wouldn’t let him enter it.

All because he got angry and he did something that God never told him to do. He took matters into his own hands. He thought he had the right to strike the rock twice when he was only supposed to speak. So his anger cost him. His anger cost him here too, I believe. But it says here in verse 25, Or he supposes, brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, and it said, but they understood not.

The next day he showed himself unto them as they strove and would have set them at one again. So, in Sirs, ye are brethren. Why do you wrong one another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? That must have hit to the quick, because he knew somebody knows what he had done. Now he knew that somebody knew that he had murdered an Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

You see it, one time he didn’t think anybody knew. Nobody knows, but somebody did. Somebody saw. And so the Bible says that he was going to leave. Because he said in verse 28, well, thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday. fled Moses at this say, and was a stranger in the land of Median, where he begot two sons. When forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord, and a flame of fire in a bush.

Now when you read this in the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, you’ll find that this scripture almost quotes that scripture perfectly He tells the story. It shows that what God wrote back there was inspired and quotes it again here, and this is inspired of God. Because the Holy Spirit knows the Word and can draw out of those Old Testament scriptures knowledge that is needed for this day. Now Stephen’s is preaching the sermon, and as far as we know it must have been his first sermon and his last sermon.

Boy, he must have preached up a storm. One sermon and everybody loved him. No, nobody loved him. It says they stoned him to death. How would you like to preach one sermon and get stoned to death for it? Well, it says in verse 31, when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him. So, and I am the God of the Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Now, it says in the Gospels that Jesus had made the statement to them that God is not the God of the dead. He’s the God of a living. And if he says he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be alive. That’s what he said. this is tremble and there’s not behold. Then said the Lord to him, put off thy shoes from thy feet for the place where thou standeth is holy ground and get these three statements in this verse because I’m going to show you these three statements later.

I have seen, I have heard and I will deliver.” See that verse four, verse 34, I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt. I have heard their groanings and have come down to deliver them. And now come I will send thee into Egypt. Then Moses whom they refued said, who made thee a ruler and a judge, the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

Now, you know, there’s some things that are not mentioned here. There is a few things that, as the story goes back and draws all of this knowledge and puts it up here for us to see, there’s a few things missing. I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews and chapter 11, Hebrews and chapter 11. You’ll notice that there’s a few things that’s missing in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. Now you and I know that God used Noah, but after Noah had, and the ark had landed, he made a sacrifice off, but you remember he got drunk and things didn’t go too well with one of his sons, but it’s not recorded here.

Remember Jacob, who was a sireplanter. In the words, he was a… A liar, a deceiver, he wasn’t the most upright individual. Jacob. You know, there’s nothing said against Jacob here in chapter 11. Well, even when you talk about Moses here, and yet Moses, well, he lived 120 years. Not one bad thing about Moses is said here. This is the Hall of Faith chapter. It’s what he did by faith. And God is putting in here the things that they did for him.

This is what God sees. You see, the day will come when the Bible says, the former things will be remembered no more. God is going to reward you and I for what we did do. And those things that we’ve done will last for eternity. the rewards that God’s going to give you will be eternal. So there are some things that God must have forgot about. I wonder if God forgets. You remember all those bad things you did? The Bible says that God won’t remember them anymore.

Well, that’s good news. God can forget something. I got a whole bunch of things I want him to forget. I’m so glad I’m going to heaven. But if I got to heaven and God reminded me of all those bad things that I’ve done, I’m not sure I want to go. I want to stay here as long as I can and drag my feet and try not to get there too soon. But God says He’s forgiven all sins. Been removed, blotted out.

That’s good news. Now here in Hebrews, I want you to see what it says. In verse 8, verse 8 it says, By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, he obeyed. And he went out not knowing whether he went. He didn’t know where he was going to go, because God was just going to lead him as he goes. Serving the Lord is not always seeing the way clear.

It’s just seeing the Lord, trusting the Lord, and one step at a time. And you don’t know how it’s going to work out. You don’t know where he’s going to lead you. You don’t know how he’s going to use you. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or 10 years from now. And reality, it doesn’t matter. You really shouldn’t care. As long as you’re doing what God wants you to do, nothing else matters. God can open doors, God can close doors.

And it says that He made promises to Abraham. And look in verse 9, by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised.

She judged him faithful who had promised. Remember, there’s other scriptures whenever he told her she laughed. And the angel says, you laughed. I didn’t laugh. Yes, you did. She did laugh. But that’s not found here. Isn’t it true also that Abraham didn’t always sojourn in the land where he was supposed to that he wound up going down in Egypt and he got in trouble and that woman that he was married to when she was 75, she was a looker.

She was a beautiful woman at 75. Pharaoh wanted her at 75? She’s my sister. Well, that’s not found here. There’s a blessing of knowing that there’s some things that God’s not going to remember and they’re not going to be recorded and that God is a good God to us and God’s going to bless us and reward us when we get to heaven, we’re not there yet. So sometimes I like what not only the word of God says, but what it doesn’t say.

And it makes a statement here in verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but haven’t seen them afar off. We’re persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. See, that’s all we are right now is strangers and pilgrims. Strangers means we’re away from God, pilgrims means we’re going home. We’re away from God, but we’re going home. Doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be a stranger a pill, but you are a stranger and a pilgrim.

So the Lord has promised all these wonderful things, and He made promises to them, and they didn’t get to fulfill them in their lifetime. They never saw the acquisition of all this land that God had promised. Did you know that God promised them the land from the river of Egypt all the way to the river Euphrates over there where Babylon is in Iraq Do you know all that land is going to belong to Israel? I don’t know if people understand how big of a piece of property that we’re talking about that God promised Israel and Israel will be the greatest nation in all the world someday Now look down there in verse 23 By faith Moses when he was born was he had three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.

By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. That’s when he was about 40 years of age. You see he knew and understood who he was and he believed before he ever went on the back side of that desert. He knew that God was going to deliver Israel by his hand. He just didn’t know how God was going to do it or when God was going to do it. But it believed that God was going to do it.

And so he committed himself and he’s going to do it and follow me. And they said, who are you? Who are you? And so he fled and went to the back of a desert. see before he ever did that he had already made up his mind and he chose, he chose the affliction with God’s people over the treasures of Egypt. See what he makes the statement here in verse 26, it’s steaming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

Did you know that what’s not here is those forty years on the backside of the desert. He didn’t put that in there. Just kind of like skipped right over all of that. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Genesis in chapter 15. The book of Genesis and chapter 15. And you’ll notice there in verse 2, Abram said, Lord God, what will thou give me? See, and I go chilis. And the steward of my house is this eliaiser of Damascus.

God, you said you’re going to make a great nation from me, and I’m an old man. Where’s this kid? And an offspring has to come from me. what you promised. So how are you going to do this? Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hath given no seed. One born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, sayin, This shall not be thine heir, talking about ishmael. He said, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine air, and he brought him forth abroad and says, Look now toward heaven, till the stars are count the stars, if thou be able to number them.

And he says unto him, So shall thy seed be. Who doggy? When that blow your mind. Have you ever tried to count the stars? And verse six, you ought to underline this verse in your Bible. And he believed God. He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now even in the New Testament, in the book of Galatians in chapter 3 and verse 8, is his Abraham believed God, and it was counted in him for righteousness.

What hath Abraham found? That a man could be justified by faith without the deeds of the law because Abraham was justified by faith. 430 years before the law was ever given to Moses on Mount Sinai. But there’s something that God told them here. You are going to have a son and you are going to have as many as the stars of heaven. So he says there in verse 13. and he said unto Abram, know of assurity that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs.

And shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.” So did God tell Abraham in advance that they were going to go to a strange land, And they’re going to be there for 400 years. Just think America’s a little over 200 years old. Give us 200 more years how many people would there be in this nation. Israel went down into Egypt, about 70 of them. Came out with a couple million. Nobody knows the exact number. Some believe two, two and a half million.

I don’t know how to count them on, but there’s a bunch. And God says there’ll be 400 years. And the reason they’re going to be there for 400 years is because God is building a nation and He put them in the best place in the world at that time to take care of them and gave them the choice land of all of Egypt, the land of Goshen. And God used them and blessed them and they were fruitful and they multiplied.

And then there came a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph, and now began to put the thumb on him, and became afraid that if an enemy was to attack Egypt, would find that Israel might side with the enemy and destroy Egypt. Therefore they was going to kill all the male children. Now did God already say about how long it was going to be? Yes. Isn’t it amazing that those years in advance God had already knew exactly what was going to take place in the time and has got to be just right?

Got to be just right. Look also what he says there in verse 15, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age.” Well he should, he was 175 years old. Do you realize that after he had that child, Isaac, at 100 years old, he lived another 75 years, got him another wife and a whole bunch of more kids? I ain’t making that up. It’s in the book. And then he says there in verse 16, But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Now, this is a list of the people that will be in the land when the time is right, because God is giving those people time that’s in the land of Canaan. And the land of Canaan, Canaan was the son of Ham, and he was the one who had the curse. It was not upon the black folks, it was upon Canaan. Canaan went into the land of Canaan, and they’re the one that was under the curse, and God’s gonna take it away from them, and he gave it to his own people.

And see what he says in verse 18, in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I didn’t make that up. He was in the book all along. So this is what God says. Now take your Bible and look there in the book of Exodus and chapter two. The book of Exodus and chapter two. And look in verse 21, verse 21.

You see, Moses had left Egypt and he went on the backside of a desert. And in verse 21 it says, and Moses was, and you ought to underline this word, content. Do you believe that God was going to get Moses out of his comfort zone? He’s minding his own business. He had been greatly burned because he’s supposed and it didn’t happen that way. He thought they would understand, they didn’t. Follow me, always. And they wouldn’t follow. He says so much for this leadership business.

If those people are coming out of Egypt, God’s going to have to use somebody else. He had the death of a vision. God, you’ll have to get somebody else. He went on the backside of the desert and was content. See there in verse 21, to dwell with the man and he gave Moses a pore at his daughter. She buried my son. Called his name Gursim Solomon. No, just Gursim. Y’all know the guy named Gursim Solomon? I met him over there in Israel interviewed him 20 something years ago, 20 years ago I guess.

And it says here in chapter 3 that Moses kept the flock. Now he was content doing nothing more than hurting sheep, just taking care of some sheep. Can you imagine that God has taken this little low sheep herder from the back side of a desert who was in the pits and had finally got content. This is good enough. This is all I’ll do. And he never thought of what was coming down the road of how much God could do with him.

He never saw it. Did you know that a lot of time, That’s the way you and I are. We don’t see down the road, and we can’t see what God’s going to do. Can you imagine a few years ago when I lived in Georgia in the backwoods of Georgia, when my daddy was a bootlegger, when I went barefooted to school and were overalls, I never didn’t go to church, Didn’t know one verse of the Bible. Didn’t know there were books in the Bible.

At that time I didn’t even know there was a Bible. And that’s the truth. Never saw my mom and dad have prayer. How in the world is God ever going to use that little old snotty-nose Georgia boy? He don’t know anything. anything, but there was a hunger. And then how the Lord worked it out to where I came across this man. And I believe the Lord opened doors and his perfect timing. A man sat down with me and explained the gospel to me.

And I trusted Christ as my Savior. And I had never finished high school. As I looked back over all those years, it blows my mind. Did you realize that you may be sitting here right now and you think, well, it’s all over. I’m already, maybe I’m an old man or maybe you don’t have this, you don’t have that. You haven’t let the Lord work on you yet. It ain’t over yet. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tapp of 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 by the line 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 Bible line 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 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. 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.