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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 the book of Hosea, chapter 10. Look there in the last part of verse 11 where he says, I will make you from to ride Judah’s shop plow and Jacob’s shop break is clods. There’s clods. You see, whenever the people are not right, you see our minds is like a piece of ground. And so before seeds can be planted, sometimes you have to break up the mind. You You’ve got to break the will of the man so that the man’s mind will be sensitive, you know, where you can plant seeds.

And so God is talking about these hard, harded people. And that’s what they were. See there in verse 7 of chapter 11, just look over there and just underline that one part of it. He said, my people are bent to backsliding. In other words, God is having the hard time plowing a straight row, you know. It’s just very difficult with people who have been on going their own way. And people just don’t want to walk straight. They don’t want to do what’s right.

You ever see the, my dad used to have this old horse named Carrie. And sometime we write it, but not a lot. It was a workhorse mainly. But he put blinders on a horse. You ever wonder why they put blinders on a horse? It was easier for them to control the direction and they was, you know, not looking over here and then looking over there. wherever they look is where they’re going to, that’s where they’re gonna go. So you wanna look straight ahead.

And so that means you stay focused. And it was easier for that horse just to keep him going straight when they had blinders on and they couldn’t see everything on the sides. Well, see, God’s people have gotta have some, I guess some blinders on them so that they can focus on what they’re supposed to be doing. We’re so bent in going astray. When the Bible talks about training for child in the way he should go into the other way he’s been, there is a way that a child is supposed to go.

But everybody wants to, you can’t, you can’t force him and you don’t want to break him. And that’s why he said we want to break their will, but not their spirit. Same thing with a horse, but the same way with people. So sometimes God has got to break us before he can bless us. So God in many cases is going to have to break your haughty spirit. And sometimes he might have to break your health or break your home.

God may have to do some breaking up of these clods because he got to prepare the soil for the seed. And this is where God is so wise in what he does in individual lives because sometimes he’s trying his way to break a person. because he wants to lead and guide you and you’re bent on going your own way. And so he says here in verse 12 of chapter 10, so to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, sowing and reaping.

Break up your follow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord. In other words, God wants his people to come back. He wants them to be tender. He wants them to hear the Word, to sink into their minds. So there’s some people whose minds are hardened to the Word of God and so therefore they don’t receive it. And then He makes a statement in verse 13, you have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you reap What you sow.

So he said, it’s time for you to return, but he’s letting them know that because of what you have done, I’m bringing in the Assyrians, or I’m bringing in the Babylonians. In other words, God says, I’m doing what I’m doing because I’m trying to break you. And you would think after 70 years of captivity, it finally would break them. But there was a few, yes, it came back. A few of them had broken hearts. So God may have to give you a broken heart or a broken home or broken health or break your heart’s spirit.

So there’s a work that God is doing in our lives, though we may not see it and understand it at the time. But look at the last part of verse 13, he said, you have eaten the fruit of lies and underlined it because thou distrust in thy way. So God God has got to break you from trusting in your own devices, your own imaginations. So sometimes God will have to break your hopes and your dreams. Because see, God wants something for you that’s so much better than we could ever think of or imagine.

Now whenever you read up here in verse 1 of chapter 11, when he says, I love my son, And I have called my son. He says out of Egypt. Now yes, it was the nation of Israel that he brought him up out of the land. But remember when Jesus was taken down into Egypt right after he was born and out of Egypt, God called his son. So even though it was how many years later, that prophecy, though you would read that and not see that there’s a prophecy written here, but yet it’s still talking about Jesus Christ.

So as you read it, there’s like sometimes double meanings. There’s near prophecies, far prophecies. It can be talking about one thing and yet behind the scenes of it, it can be a prophetic scripture that talks about the Messiah. And we have many of those in the scriptures. And that’s why in the Psalm we call it a messianic Psalm, because it deals with the prophecy concerning Jesus Christ. But he says, or in verse 4, he says in chapter before he said, I drew them with a band.

And look what he says. He says, with bands of love. In other words, what is it that God uses to try to draw a man? What can God do to cause a man to believe God loves him? And what God wants is so much better than what any man could ever dream. And yet we rebel against them because we’re so bent on going our own way. We are, as the scripture says, here’s concerning the nation of Israel. They were bent on rebellion backsliding.

Now we know that a Christian cannot backsliding loses salvation. That’s not possible, but it is possible for a child of God to turn away from the Lord. It’s possible to draw nigh unto God. So God does teach us in His Word. Take your Bible looking, James chapter 4, the book of James and chapter 4. James chapter 4 deals with a person looking at himself and thinking of what I am going to do, of who I am and what I can do.

And sometimes we don’t see it as rebellion. It’s not as bad in our eyes because we compare ourselves. Well, at least I’m doing better than blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing better than blah, blah, blah. I might not be doing very good at all. But it says you’re in verse six of James chapter four. He says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he say it, God resisted the proud, but give it grace unto the humble. Now as you study in the Old Testament, you’ll find out it’s talking about pride cometh before fall.

And there’s people that don’t see that, but when he’s talking about pride cometh before the person has a fall, the fall is what’s going to break you. A vessel that’s hardened itself against God is easily broken and shattered. Now God would allow you to be broken. And this is why sometimes we get all broken up over things. Sometimes it doesn’t. Merited. It’s not worth it. But because of what we have wrapped our lives around, determines how important that thing is to us.

And when we lose this particular thing, then our lives are shattered and we fall apart and we have our nervous breakdowns. Because we have heaped not only the pressures of today upon us, we borrowed pressure and problems from the past, then we reach into the future and bring all those problems that we think is going to happen into the present. And the Bible teaches that God will give us grace for the day, sufficient for the day. It’s when you try to borrow problems from the past and the future and bring them into the present that you have your problem.

God did not give you the grace for next week. next week comes, God will give you the grace you need at that moment and you can bear it. Now if you listen to some of the things that I say, even though it sounds like just a preacher rambling, I’m trying to counsel you, I’m trying to help you. Most of what I teach, I learn the hard way because I am very hard headed, I am very stiff-necked and I am a show me, prove me kind of an individual.

And God’s had to knock me down a little bit. And sometimes you get so lifted up with pride, but you don’t see it because it blinds. Deception means you’re deceived, but you don’t know you’re deceived. Until you read and study the Scripture, you find out, oh, my, that’s just what I’ve been doing. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it again. It’s just a habit. I’ve got everyone’s for a while. But look what he says here in verse 7, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee.

Look what he says. As big and as strong and powerful as the devil is, if you resist him, God says he will flee. He will run. Resist. Don’t give in, don’t surrender, resist. But he’ll leave you alone for a little while, but he’s back. He’s coming back. Always remember, he’s coming back. He never stops. He never quits. Look in verse 8, draw 9 to God because that is because of a humble spirit. But if you harden yourself, you’re not going to drive near to God.

You’re going to try to get away from God. When you get in the wrong frame of mind, you’ll want to get away from God’s people, you want to get away from the church and anything that’s right. But you won’t know that. You won’t sense it that away. It’ll always be justified in your own mind. But remember behind all of it, there’s something else going on. Look what it says in verse 10. You ought to handle the line in verse 10 in your Bible.

Humble yourselves into sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up. So in Proverbs chapter 16 verse 18 is the verse that says that pride, cometh before destruction. It comes before you fall. And if you fall, you’re going to break. And if you break, there’s going to be some clods, and God will have to beat those down because you cannot plant seeds on clods. You have to get it to real fine soil so that seeds can be planted.

See, God wants to plant His word into your mind. How would you describe your mind? Is it formal ground for the Word of God? Or is it hardened? And it doesn’t matter what the preacher preaches, it doesn’t matter what you read, what you hear. It’s not going to make any effect in your life. There’s never been a change in your life, probably for five years, ten years, twenty, but you can still come and sit and listen and learn zero because nothing’s ever going to be applied.

Your mind can be hardened without you even knowing it taking place. But what will help you see it is, are you closer to the Lord now than you were before? Is your heart warm to the things of the Lord? Because if not, you’ll be surprised at things that God will allow to happen in your life in order to break your will, to break your health if necessary, you know, it’ll break your your wealth, your heart, and he can do all of these things.

Remember, God is real and he is powerful and he knows exactly what he is doing. I want you to look in your Bible to the book of Acts in chapter 27. Acts chapter 27, I know of many people who God God had to bring some heartaches. Heart breaks into the life just to get their attention. It didn’t have to happen that way, but some people just don’t listen and don’t learn. So they get harder. So God’s gonna have to break you.

But here in the book of Acts, look in chapter nine, first of all, Acts chapter nine. You know, as you read about the Apostle Paul, it’s almost like reading or watching some Indiana Jones movie, I guess. just one exciting adventure after the other. I mean, even the way this guy comes to know the Lord is not just your average everyday type of so-and-an experience. I mean, this guy had a light knock him down, blind him. I mean, he starts off with a bang.

But here in the book of Acts in chapter 9, I want you to look there in verse 22. Verse 22, here’s a man that God had to tell him, look down, I’m gonna do something for you. I’m gonna use you as a vessel to the Gentiles. And I’m gonna show you what great things you’re gonna have to suffer for me. So God had to really break out some phallogram and then begin to plant some seeds and watch it grow.

And the way that the Apostle Paul matured, didn’t take long. Look what he says in verse 22, but Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews, which dwelt at Damascus, proven that this is very Christ. Now here’s the Apostle Paul talking to the Jews in Damascus about Christ, proven that he was the Messiah, that Jesus was the Messiah. And verse 23, and after that, many days were fulfilled. The Jews took up an offering to help him on his missionary journey.

Everybody was behind him. Now if you want to find out what the Christian life is like and how it’s serving the Lord, things to work sometimes. Well just look at the way it happened in the word of God. The book of Acts is action. That’s what it’s about. But then you’ll notice it says in verse 24, but their lane away was known of Saul and they watched the gate day and night to bless him. No, to kill him. So not everybody is going to be for you preaching the gospel.

It wasn’t that way then and it’s not that way now. Now you’ll win some here and you’ll win a few there but there’s people that not always are going to appreciate what you’re trying to do and they’re going to try to stop you. But look what he says in verse 25, then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall and the basket. Now come on Lord, can’t you do a better way than this? I mean people are going to kill the guy.

All you got to do is just make him invisible, invincible or whatever it is or give him a supernatural human body and he could just walk right through everybody and make nothing happens to him. No, this guy can be killed. But God has a work for him. So the disciples let the great Apostle Paul escape by putting him in a basket and lure him over a wall.

Isn’t that exciting? Where’s the last time anybody ever did that for you? And you say, men, I’d love to be like the apostle Paul. Oh, really? Really? And then he goes down through here looking verse 20 and when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he has say to join himself to the disciples. But they were all in favor and gave him great hand of fellowship. Everybody wanted to be with, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, he says to join himself to the disciples.

But they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared of them How he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus and the name of Jesus And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem and he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputing against the Grecians So here the Greeks, and up there in verse 22, the Jews, and then they went about to slay him.

I mean everybody he went after, nobody likes this guy. And yet God sent him to the very people that hated him. Just look what he says there in verse 15 of chapter 9. He says, but the Lord said unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And I will show him what great honor he is going to have in this life and how he’s going to be able to have so much and he could sit in his rocking chair at Cracker Barrel.

He peanuts. Look at where he says, how great things, great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. Let me ask you, since you’ve known Christ as your Savior, you decide to serve the Lord. Have you done any of this suffering along the way? Has there been any price that you’ve had to pay so far? If you’re serious about it, you’ll pay a price. It’s not free. not cheap. You see salvation is free. Discipleship will cost you everything. Discipleship is expensive and the stories that you’re going to get in your life, they’re going to cost you something.

There’s a price to pay for all of that. Look over there in chapter 11. In chapter 11 he talks about there are some the people that had come to see the apostle Peter and how that he had been used by God to be a blessing. But you don’t see Peter suffering quite like the apostle Paul. He goes there and nobody wants to kill him. They wanted to be saved. And he has a wonderful glorious testimony about this. But when he was going to die, they said it was crucified upside down.

But he didn’t go through some of the stuff. The Apostle Paul even made this statement, I labored more abundantly than they are. I labored more abundantly than they are. God’s grace was not bestowed upon me in vain. Did you know the live on this earth, this side of the grave, after you trust Christ the Savior is by the grace of God. Has God allowed you to live since you’ve been saved for nothing? Has it been in vain? Or are you doing what God wanted you to do with your life?

Look there in chapter 14. And look very quickly in verse 11. When the apostle Paul was coming to this city here, he He says, verse 11, and when the people saw what Paul had done, they looked it up, their voices saying in the speech of Lake Konyam. Lake Konyam, he said, the gods are come down to us in the lightness of men. They, these are gods. These are gods. And they call Barnabas Jupiter and Paul, mercurious. He says, because he was the chief speaker.

These are gods. And then you come on down here a little bit further in verse 19, and there came the other certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people. These are not gods. But by the time they got through with them, what did they want to do with them? See up there, they were ready to bow to them and worship them. And here he says, who persuaded the people and having stoned. And they went from their gods to stoning them.

You’d be surprised that the people who are for you today may be against you tomorrow. Your friends that you have today can turn on you that quick. And you come, sometimes you won’t be able to figure it out. You think, well, what did I do? You don’t have to do anything. There is a real live enemy that you cannot see that uses people. And sometimes the people they use will be your closest friends because they can hurt you the most.

I’m serious. It can be your husband or it can be your wife. It can be your kids. It can be your neighbor. It can be the people you sit within church. It’s going to happen. People are going to hurt you. People are going to say things. It’s devastating. But look what he says. They drew Paul out of the city, supposing that he had been dead. They thought they didn’t stone-demanded death. But they’ve already been trying to kill him. Now they have finally succeeded.

And then of course he came back from the dead. You’ll notice when you get to chapter 16, where is he? Well he just happens to be in prison. He’s in prison. Philippian jailer. Well they were singing amazing grace about midnight. The earthquake takes place, and I mean… The jailer was just going to kill himself, that’s all because all that all the prisoners escaped. But lo and behold, he trusts Christ as Savior and just baptizes his whole family does. It turns into a great victory.

But God is working and guiding the Apostle Paul. But look what he’s going through. Look how things happen. Some of these things that God does for him, some miracles, but there’s some things that happens to Paul to Paul that he just live in his life doing what God says do and he has one problem after the other. Problems, problems, problems. All these troubles that he has. And in 2 Corinthians in chapter 1 he talks about some of these problems.

How did he just spare even a life? He just spared a life. That’s like not wanting to live. Don’t want to get up in the morning. How do you think he actually felt from stones that he suffered? Now if he didn’t suffer it, he didn’t hurt, then the stoning would not have been that bad. But I believe he felt every stone, every lash that he received up on his back. I think he hurt. I think he bled. And to think all these things that they did to him, and then when he goes to Rome to put them in a big old pit with nothing but mud at the bottom of it.

I mean to be cold, dampen, wet, hunger. He says, but in all these things, he says, I’ve learned to be content. I bet you the apostle Paul and everything that happened, he never complained about any of these things. a lot of people. Trust the Lord. Go over to chapter 27, Acts 27. And I want you to look down here in verse 9. You see, he had appealed to Caesar and then a Romans by birth, he was able to appeal to Caesar and so they said we would have let him go if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar, but because he appealed to Caesar, he says that’s what we got to see.

Verse 32 of chapter 26, he says, then said a gripper on the fastest, he said, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. We could have let him go. But because he appealed to go to Caesar, he’s on his way to Rome. And Paul wanted to go to Rome. You say, well, it was it right or wrong? It doesn’t matter. This is what happened. It’s the history. It’s telling you what he’s done.

Doesn’t tell you everything that Paul did that was right no more than it says that everything that David did in the Old Testament was right. They did a lot of things they shouldn’t have done. The Scriptures just record accurately, perfectly, everything that happened. But notice what He says down here. Here’s all these people on the boat and they’re gonna have some problems. And there’s some wind that comes up and says in verse 9, not when much time was spent, when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already passed.

as Paul admonished them. Sudden to them, sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage. Not only of the laden and the ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul. Now Paul has done said what he thought. They didn’t believe him. They’re heading into trouble. There’s gonna be a lot of problems. Life’s going to be in jeopardy.

A lot of loss with all the stuff that’s on the boat, but they wouldn’t listen to Paul. 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 tool 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 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.