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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Did you know to live on this earth, this side of the grave after you trust Christ’s 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 says, verse 11, when the people saw what Paul had done, they looked it up their voices saying in the speech of Laconium, Laconium, he said, the gods are come down to us in the lightness of men.

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 in 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? You see up there, they were really to bow to them and worship them.

And here he says, who persuaded the people and having stoned. 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. He can be your husband or he can be your wife. He can be your kids and he 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’d been stoned to man to 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 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. Earthquake takes place and I mean, the jailer was just going to kill himself. That’s all because all that, all the prisoners, 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 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 despair even of life? He just spared of life. It’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, 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 him in a big old pit with nothing but mud at the bottom of it. I mean, it’s cold, damp, and wet, hunger. He says, but in all these things he says, I’ve learned to be content. I bet you they pass a poll and everything that happened, he never complained about any of these things. But a lot of people trust the Lord. Go over to chapter 27, Acts chapter 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 festles. He said, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed on the seizure. We could have let him go.

But because he appealed to go to seizure, he’s on his way to Rome. And Paul wanted to go to Rome. You say, well, it wasn’t right or wrong. It doesn’t matter. This is what’s happened. It’s a 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 going to have some problems. And there’s some wind that comes up and says in verse 9, not when much time was spent, when And in sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them. Sit unto 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 going to be a lot of problems, lives are 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 think, well, everybody would listen to, no, no, no. Paul had a lot of hardship.

Everything didn’t work out. As you serve the Lord and you go from day to day, there’s things that’s not going to work all the time on your job, not everything’s going to work right at home all the time. There’s always going to be conflict. There’s afflictions. You’re in a sinful world. You should, well, I just want everything to be right. Okay, didn’t God have to take you home to heaven? That’s the only place that everything is right. Down here in this church, not everything going to be done right because all we got is a bunch of people.

And we have people who have different ideas about things. It’s not going to be that way in your home. It’s not going to be that way in anything and on your job. It’s not that way in this country. You have to serve the Lord in the midst of all of this. You’ve got people that are rebellious to God and there’s some people God you don’t have to break and even though you may be tender and you may want your mind to be broken up with that from the phallogrown so that God can work and make it just right so God can plant seeds and the Word of God can grow.

Well you might be that way, but that doesn’t mean everybody else is. And it doesn’t stop you from being rebellious at times, blind at times, not able to see us straight for all because you get out of focus. We don’t love the way we should. We don’t forgive the way we should. There’s so much that we do that’s so wrong. But grace is God giving you the strength and grace to bear with people. Love them anyway. Forgive them anyway.

And see the strong the Bible says in Book of Relations, Chapter 6, if you are the strong then help restore the weak. If you’re stronger and you can see what everybody else is doing that’s so wrong, then help win them, help encourage them, pray for them. So there’s a big problem. And as they go through here, there’s a lot of things to have looking for, 13. And when the South wind blew softly, ah, everything’s wonderful. Because see, they had just stayed there and poured for a little bit and they realized everything is wonderful.

is wonderful. So now we’re going to move on. Wait a minute, wait a minute. They didn’t listen to what Paul told them. He said, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing dense, they sailed. Okay, so they’re on their way, all these people on this ship, and they’re going to head right into a storm. And Paul is right in the midst of all of this. When Paul wanted to go to Rome. The ship goes down what happens to him.

So it says that in verse 15, when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. And so let it go, however the wind blows it. And sometimes you’re at the mercy of circumstances. You can’t change. And you’re with people who won’t listen. This is what Paul went through. Why should you and I have it any different. See, serving the Lord is not God blocking everything, so everything goes smooth for you. And it’s smooth sailing from here on end.

Paul didn’t have that smooth sailing. You won’t find it anywhere in scripture. It’s a battle. It’s a warfare. Can you do it in spite of everything else that goes on? Can you still serve him? Can you still be faithful to the Lord? Look what he says down here in verse 20. when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us and you’re on the line these two words all hope all hope that we should be saved was taken away so even the Apostle Paul believed there is no hope there’s no way out of this the ship’s gonna go down and everybody’s going to drown.

And sometimes you and I, as we serve the Lord, we see like it’s we’re going down. I’m going to drown. And unless God intervenes, you don’t know how you’re going to get out of it. I wonder if Paul ever went through something like that. I bet he did. He’s telling us about it right now. And this is one of the greatest Christians you’ll ever read about. And look how wonderful he had And you want to serve a Lord, huh?

What do you think it was going to be? Cakewalk? Look what he says. In verse 21, but after long after this Paul stood forth in the midst of them and says, sir, you should have listened to me. In other words, Paul is saying, I told you so. Ain’t it what he said? That’s in the Greek. And he says, sir, you should have harkened unto me and not have have loose from cream and to have gained this harm and lost.

See, when you go against God, there is going to be great harm to you and great loss to you. See that? And when you go the wrong way, it’s not going to be a free ride. Ask Jonah. The Bible says he went down, down, down. And everything that happened to Jonah was down. It wasn’t until he got right that he came up. any land on dry ground. But look what he says. He says, and now I exhort you to be of good cheer.

He says, for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whom I am and whom I serve An angel saying fear not Paul I must be brought before Caesar and Low God hath given the all them that sell with thee that do you know out of all that there’s the centurion There’s the owner of the boat. There’s the captain all these important people and this is a little Jew and You know how God sees it Not from their viewpoint God sees this as though So Paul, you’re in charge here.

You’re in charge. I’m gonna give everybody on this boat safe journey because they’re with you. It’s because they’re with you. There’s not that you’re with them. They’re with you. And this is why it’s so important. So God sees it totally different. So He says there in verse 24, fear not Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar. No wait a minute. Who wants him to go to see Caesar? God? Well, God, don’t you know about this storm? Don’t you know about this ship?

Don’t you know where there is no hope? And God says, I want you to go to Rome. And He says, I’m going to save everybody that’s on this ship, that’s with you. And they’re gonna lose the ship. He’s told this in advance before it happens. And yet could He convince anybody? What he says? He says in verse 25, therefore, sirs, be of good cheer for I believe God. That’s faith. I believe God. They had no hope. But Paul says, this is what’s going to happen.

That it shall be even as it was told me. How bit we must be cast upon a certain island. And after all this time goes on that they kept sounding and see how deep the thing was. of Nixon, know they had bellied up. They bellied up. And so some of the guys on the thing was going to take and let down one of the other boats and get in it, and they were going to sail away. Paul says, don’t leave the ship.

Don’t leave the ship. If you leave the ship, you will not live. So he says in verse 31, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldier, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then, so we’re gonna start a new ministry called the shipites. The only way you can be saved, you gotta abide in the ship. So we’re gonna get us a ship ministry. Now we talk about a real ship and physical life. He says, then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.

When the day was coming on, Paul be saw them all to take me. So this day is the 14th day since we have been tearing, since we’ve tearing, continued fasting, which goes all the way back over there to verse nine when we talk about the fast. And so he said, have taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat for this is for your help. For there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you.

And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, gave thanks to God in presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. They were of good cheer, all because of the hope of one man. Did you know it might be possible that God allowed this whole circumstance to take place and that God could use this man in this catastrophe for his honor and glory because God had a purpose and God can use all those bad things that’s going on in your life for his good.

don’t sometimes see it. It ain’t over yet. But maintain a proper testimony in the midst of your storms. And all of us will have storms at different times. And you’re going to have to weather the storm. Sometimes you just got to go through right through the middle of it. Always trust the Lord to just walk you through it. Just walk you through it. It got to be good to you. And verse 36, and they were all of good cheer.

They took some meat to eat. It goes on down here, they started to lighten the ship and all that stuff, you know, but look in verse 40. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves into the sea, loose the rudder bands and hoist it up the main sail to the wind and made toward shore, and fallen into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground and the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the wave.

You see, God broke up the ship. Paul broke up the bread. But God is breaking up people’s lives. Sometimes, like I said, he’ll break up the fellow ground because of what he wants to accomplish. And God knows when you’re hardening your heart to the things of God. When it’s in your heart that you want to go astray, you want to stop, Sir Nalord, You want them to stop this thing so you can get off of it because you feel like you’re on a merry-go-round going in circles and going nowhere.

Don’t panic. Just become. Be patient. God is in control. And you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to fret. All you have to do is trust. And when it seems like you have no hope. No hope. Paul says, I believe God. I believe what God said. So is there anything that you can face that’s too great for God to handle? Don’t embarrass yourself and try to shame God. By thinking your problems are too little to bother him with, or too big for him to do anything about.

And so he says here, it was all broken up. And when it was all over with in verse 44, and the rest, some on boards and some unbroken pieces of the ship, so it came to pass. And you ought to underline this, that they all escape safely to land, all because of one man. A lot of people on that boat, but they owe their lives to this one man. Because God, he has a purpose. God has a plan. God knows about the storms of life.

Nothing takes him by surprise. He didn’t wake up this morning. Oh, I didn’t know that was going to happen. He’s not shocked by anything. Let me just give you a couple of other verses because it’s so good. Look there in the next chapter, chapter 28. When they finally came to this place, Komalita, the land of honey and sweetness, they said in verse two, and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness. They were a very nice one. They kindled a fire, received us every one because of the present rain and because of the coal.

Hey, this is a bad time to be in a ship and go because of where they were, the time of the year. But he says there in verse three, and when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, they came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. Now, How can he get any worse than this? I mean, look what the guy has just gone through for weeks. Wonder whether he’s going to live or die.

And God brought him through all of this. And next thing you know, now there’s a snake, a snake in theRecently. And he’s getting some wood and a snake bite him. A poisonous snake at that. Because the people were watching this, says, Oh, what evil man he must be. What he says? In verse four, when the barbarians saw the venomous beast, hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt. No, there’s no doubt. There’s no doubt. This man is a murderer, whom though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffer not to live.

So look at their judgment. This must be a wicked man. And only because of this man, everybody was alive. Do you think you’re gonna be misunderstood in your serving the Lord? People not gonna really know who you are. It was kinda like when Christ was here, the Bible talked about, they wish not who it was. They wish not, they don’t understand who he is. You see, in God’s eyes, you may be a great man, But other people not see you like that.

Somebody else may not see you as someone who loves the Lord, and God considers you a great man of faith. Because you’re trusting him when it doesn’t seem like there’s any blessings whatsoever. When it seems like everything’s falling apart, when it seems like, yeah, it seems like, it just seems like. And people can misread things. Is that possible? Can people prejudge too soon? Have you ever said something later on you wish you hadn’t said it? I have done that once or twice.

But get what he says, no doubt this man is a murderer whom he had escaped the sea yet vengeance suffered not to live and he shook off the beast until the fire felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly. But after they had looked at Graywell they saw no harm when No harm come to him. They changed their minds. I wonder what that means. Oh, they must have repented They changed their mind and says that he was a what now he’s he got he went from a murder to a God Earlier he went from a God to a dead man Paul couldn’t win But he won Because of the one he served People come and go their judgment is not always right.

They want right with him and they won’t be right with you And that’s what I’ve told people, never make the shadow bigger than the real man. Never lift me up, because one day I may let you down and I’ll come crashing. We’re all people. We have sinful natures. We do things wrong. We should love each other, encourage each other, pray for one another, do all the right we possibly can. But we have sinful natures. I got one. Sometimes I feel like you get a whole bunch of them and y’all got one.

And you’re gonna say things and hurt each other. You’re gonna, husband’s gonna hurt wives, wives’s gonna hurt husbands, and kids are gonna say things, do things. It’s no end to it, as long as you’re in this body. But growing in grace should be that you, not that you’re sinless, but you should sin less. Because you’re growing in the Lord. You’re becoming more mature in the Lord. Anyway, look up here. But if you’re watching by internet, pay attention. This is very important.

Or if you’re here tonight and you’re not sure, this hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. It’s everything we do that’s wrong. And buddy, we have all done things wrong. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us and to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven. We have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect.

None of us are righteous. We have all sin to come short of God’s perfection. And God says that you and I cannot live a perfect life. Remember to go to heaven and you want to earn your way there, you have to live a perfect life. From the time you’re born to the time you’re dying, you’ve got a problem. Nobody’s perfect. This sin represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from Him.

So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. He said if we would believe that He did it for us, He would put this payment to our accounting. We get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. That’s good news. That’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? If you’ve ever had bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you right now just talk to Him and say something simple like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner.

I got questions, I got doubts, but I know that you’re down on that cross and paid for my sins, and I’m going to trust you right now to take me to heaven whenever I die. And for in God’s sake, if you’ll believe He did it for you, He died for you. Pay for all of your sins. That means you don’t have to pay for them. that means you don’t have to pay for them because he paid for them. God said he would give you eternal life as a gift.

If you are here tonight and you say yes, that made sense to me. And I want to be certain I’m going to heaven and preach I life for you to pray for me. Would you just slip your hand up very quickly and put a right back down? Say anyone at all. Right where you are, all you have to do is believe. Just believe it. And if you do believe it, I’d like to know it. I would love to hear from those that watch the internet.

And if the show is a blessing to you, we’d love to know it. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come together and share with your people. But Lord, unless the Holy Spirit takes the message and applies it to each individual heart, I preach in vain. I trust you. I believe that you will do your work in the lives of your people. So bless each one. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. 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.