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

Now, I want you to take your Bible in turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. As you read the scriptures here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it says in verse 1, as he warns them, he gives them about five privileges, and there are also some things that would hinder their walk with God in the wilderness and that was five sins were mentioned. Verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I would not judge you should be ignorant how that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea.

Talk about in the Old Testament now where we were just reading. We’re all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and into sea. Did all lead to the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for for they drink of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was who? This is talking about Christ in the Old Testament. And it’s talking about whenever they would have strike the rock and get the water, that was the Lord.

You see, in the New Testament, he’s telling you that was Christ. I was there. He said, I’ll stand over here, and you’re to spite this rock. And he says, the spiritual lesson that you get from this, this is Christ in the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament, it just seems he says, it’s the Lord. You see, Jesus Christ was either God or a liar. I can’t see, as I study the scripture, how a man, if he wanted to deceive the world, could ever write such a book.

How could you have figured out all this stuff in advance over a period of 1600 years in different languages? 35 to 40 different writers. And all of it tell the same story and there’s continuity to all of it. And just say, well man just wrote the Bible. You’re out of here. Help me. Man couldn’t write this book because it’s got so much loaded little jewels all the way through it. So yes, I believe that in the Old Testament, Jesus was there, and that God, this invisible God, had revealed Himself at times and appeared to mankind.

Go in your Bible to the book of Genesis chapter 18, Genesis and chapter 18. I know it’s a lot easier sometimes to just say, let’s just study Ephesians 2, 8, 9, 1 John 5, 13, John 3, 16. But there’s a lot of other things in the Bible that we’re supposed to know. Paul says, I want to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So I will be here and I’ll be there and then I’ll be over here and then I’ll be over there because I believe it’s all interwoven together and that the old cannot be understood without the new the new.

Can’t be understood without the old. So you need to all the scriptures. But here in the book of Genesis in chapter 18, I’ve mentioned this to you before. If you notice here in verse 1, and the Lord appeared unto him. Remember, he told Moses that he did. He says, I have appeared unto them. And here’s the Lord, and yet you’ll find as you read down through here, the Lord was in a human form. Because he says in verse 2, he lift up his eyes and looked and loathe three men stood by him, three men.

Two of them were angels. One was the Lord. Two of them went down in the Sodom and Gomorrah. And the other one was God. And He… He ate something. He looked. He had a physical body. Abraham could see him like he saw you and me. He could walk. He could talk. He could reason. And then all of a sudden it seemed like this man also has qualities of the divine. You know what he had the nerve to say? He says, your wife.

That old lady you’re married to is going to have a young man. It’s going to be a boy. About a year from now. Now who does he think he is? If he’s just a man, how does he know this? But if he’s God, I guess he has a right to know, wouldn’t he? That woman had a baby. 90 years old. Abraham was a hundred years old. That baby came right on schedule. I don’t think that baby was one minute late.

God told Abrahams, I can’t hide from you what I’m fixing to do down in Sodom and Gomorrah. What he’s gonna do. I mean, here’s a natural normal man. And he’s able to call down fire from heaven and devour Sodom and Gomorrah. Just the man. No, there’s elements here. find it all the way through. Well, he looks like a man. He talks like a man. Sounds like a man, but there’s also something else that’s different about this man. He’s like, he’s divine.

Like he’s God. And yet God says, I appeared to him. He was the Lord. Look in Genesis Chapter 32. Genesis Chapter 32, and look at verse 24, Jacob had been a bad boy. Well, he had to run for his life. He went down to see Laban, and he wound up getting two wives. That was a mistake already. He worked a long time to get them women. He was after only one. Now, after it was all over where he knew, I need to get away from this man.

So he waited the right moment he took off, but now he’s got to go back to hometown. But he knew that whenever he left, he saw his sworn to kill him. He was a little scared. He didn’t want to go back, and he didn’t know how to go forward. So anyway, he took a nap that night. And in verse 24, and Jacob was left alone. they’re wrestled a, and you ought to underline this word, amen. They’re wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

And Jacob would let him go and says, until you promised to bless me. Because he knew he had some bad situations coming ahead of him. And he said, I want you to bless me as in verse 26. Verse 28, he changed his name to Israel. And then in verse 30 says, and Jacob called the name of the place. in the yellow. For, get this, I have seen God face to face. Well, didn’t Jehovah tell Moses, I appeared under Jacob?

Then who is this? Well, he looks like a man, but he wasn’t a man. He was more than a man. You see, the problem that some people have is when Jesus Christ comes into the world, they can’t believe he’s God because, well, he’s a man. Well, this isn’t new. You see, this was done in the Old Testament. This is what we call, like I said, a Theophanes. God in the flesh, manifested in the flesh, revealing things supernaturally. Did you know there’s a verse in the Bible in the book of Hebrews in chapter 13 that says, Be careful for some have entertained angels unaware.

You ever read that verse? Some have entertained angels unaware. You mean they can take on human form? That’s what the Bible says, and you will not be aware of it. You have no clue what has happened in your life. I’m not trying to scare anybody. I’m just trying to make you aware because some are not aware. And yet the Bible tells us that these things are true and it ought to make a difference on how we think about Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was the Lord God in the Old Testament and He had made a promise. See, He made a promise to Abraham and to his seed, the seed returned to Christ. Usually, A covenant is made between two people. But he made the covenant between him and his seed. He promised that he would save the world by faith alone, that the heathen would be justified by faith. So he gave the law to convince men that they can’t save themselves and will need a Savior.

So the law was given. But Christ came into the world and was born. And Jesus Christ, the seed, had to die to pay for the sins of the world so that He could fulfill the promise God the Father made. So God the Father needed God the Son to keep His Word. So it’s a covenant of one. He made it with himself. And that’s why it’s an unconditional covenant that he made. Now some covenants are conditional. Some are not. You see, all I had to do was trust Christ as my Savior and God gives to me as a free gift, everlasting life.

Now, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Joshua. Everybody loves Joshua. It’s at the end of the wilderness journey. Now they’re going to go into the Promised Land, and God would not allow Moses to go into the Promised Land. Well, then who is going to lead the people into the Promised Land? So the book of Joshua is a book of battles. It’s the fight. It’s the victory. And God used another man. He used a man called Joshua.

And so God told Joshua, be strong and very courageous. He says, and meditate in my word day and night that I’ll miss prospering the things that I want you to do. And he says, if you’ll do this, it will make your way successful and you’ll have great success. So take your Bible looking, Joshua in chapter 5, chapter 5, and chapter 5 and look in verse 13.

In verse 13, and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man. There stood a man over against him with his sword drawn to his hand. Now this is the commander in chief. You know, we have a president and he’s the commander in chief. He’s over all the military. He is over all the military. Newton and the Lord. And he says, a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, because now you’re talking about military.

We’re talking about fighting that spiritual warfare that we have and that the battle is the the Lord’s. And so he says here, Joshua said, are you for us or against us? Just who are you for? In verse 14, and he said, nay, but as captain of the host of the L-O-R-D, am I now come? This was a reference to Jehovah. He is Jehovah, revealing himself as a man. And then he says there in verse 15, and the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoes from off thy foot.

For the place whereon thou standeth is holy. Sound familiar? Don’t sound just a little familiar. You remember a story about a man named Moses who was walking along and lo and behold, God says, take off your shoes because the ground are standing upon His holy ground. He was in the presence of the Lord. He saw the burning bush and the Lord was in the bush, the Lord, L-O-R-D. So has God ever revealed Himself before Jesus was ever born. But back then see it wasn’t the birth.

God the Father, see, had to have a Person born into the world in order to be a kinsman. You see, we have to have somebody who was innocent. No sin to die on the cross to pay for all of our sin. We needed a sacrifice, a land without spot, without blemish. All mankind was sinful. There was none good, no not one. There’s none righteous, no not one all have sinned. sin and come short of the glory of God and all of our righteousness or its filthy rags.

So Jesus was born into the world as a man, lived as a man, under the law as a man, but never sinned. And they examined him closely. He says, who can convince me of sin? I find no fault in him. See, Jesus was a perfect… Hey, we can use Him. He don’t have to die. He doesn’t have any sin. So God was able to take Him and use Him as the substitute for the rest of us. There was no other way.

But God had demonstrated in the Old Testament of manifesting Himself to mankind. So when He was born into this world, He shouldn’t have been something that would really blow people’s minds. He prophesied that He would do this. He told us when He would be born, where He would be born in Bethlehem, Africa. He says, though I’ll be little among the thousands of Judea, yet out of thee shall He come forth that it will be ruler in Israel, who’s going forth and been from old everlasting.

And He says, He’ll be born of the son of David and of the tribe of Judah. He was born right on schedule. He did all the things he was prophesied to do. So there’s no reason why anyone should not believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord. He is God. While he was here as a man, did he walk on water? You try it. You see, even as a man, yet he had attributes of divinity. He did things that only a God can do.

You remember the time that he took a couple of little old loaves of bread and a couple of fishes and fed over 5,000? You try that. Peter, you have to really be good if you could figure out how to do that. It saved a lot on the bill that we have to pay here for food and all. But Jesus did it. Jesus did that. He walked on water. He fed to 5,000. He healed the blind. He healed the dumb, the death.

He healed all of them. I don’t care what the disease was, he was able to do it all. He did things only God can do. And then whenever he made this statement, thy sins be forgiven thee. They said, who can he claim to be? God can forgive sins. Did they understand what He was talking about? I think so. Take your Bible, let me just show you a couple things. Look there in John chapter five very quickly. The Gospel of John in chapter five.

John chapter five and look there in verse 18. This is in chapter five where it says, therefore the Jews who sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Did they understand what Jesus was claiming to be? Evidently. They knew you were claiming to be God. They knew that. And that’s why they wanted to stone Him. Well, look in chapter 6 and verse 9.

six verse nine says, there’s a lad here which had five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what’s that among so many? And Jesus said, make the men sit down. Now there were much grass in the place of the men sit down in number about 5,000, 5,000. And he fed them all and had some left over. You see, it would always be like, well, he’s a man, but then he’s doing these other things like he was God. Maybe he was a God man.

He was perfect man, perfect God. Look in John 10, I love the scripture John Ch 14, verse 28. He says, and I give unto them temporary life and I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish unless they do something wrong, unless they sin again. Unless they don’t walk the straight and narrow way. No, he says, they shall never perish, never perish. There isn’t anything afterwards. He said, but yeah, but if you can take yourself out of his hand, well, women, why do you want to add to what God says?

The Bible didn’t say that. He said, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Some of the little straight in the light of yours. Here’s the Lord. Here’s me. Most people think that to go to heaven, you got to get a good grip on God. Well, I’m going to heaven now. All I got is hanging in there. But if I do something wrong, uh-oh. Now I’m slipping away. I’m losing my salvation. Oh, no. Now I’m going to hell.

I got to get right again. So then you get saved again. And then if you do something wrong, oh, no, I’m losing my salvation. Oh, there I go. I got to get saved again. I think, boy, I got a good grip. I’m going to heaven. and then some blonde bombshell walked by. Yeah! So you don’t know where you’re going because see, you’re going to heaven depends upon how strong you are. That’s not the Bible. The Bible says that if we trust Him, He saves me.

See, it’s a lot of difference in Him taking me to heaven than me hanging on. Do the best I can. I’m trying. But that’s not the Bible. The Bible is, I trust Him, He saves me, and He said, He will never cast me out. He said, He will never lose me. He says, nobody can pluck you out of His hand. Sounds pretty secured on it. So when I trust Him as my Savior, I’m trusting Him to do what? Take me to heaven.

He says, consider it done. You have eternal life. You will never perish. It means that I can never go to hell in the future. See, I didn’t make this up. This is the Bible. But look what he says there. In verse 30, I and my father are one. Well, that doesn’t mean anything. Yeah, but look what they said it meant. Then in verse 31, then the Jews took up stones again to stone them. Jesus answered them. How many good works have I showed you from my father?

Which of those works do you stone me? And the Jews answered sin, for a good work we stonley not. But for blasphemy. And because thou get this, be in a man. Make us thyself God. You are a man. You’re claiming to be God. They knew what he claimed to be. Let me ask you this. Is it possible that he was? Is it possible that Jesus was God? And if he’s God, then that’s why I can trust him. Why should I trust a man?

I’ll trust God, who became a man, to pay for my sins. And after I trust him as my Savior, not have eternal life and I’m going to heaven when I die, why should it be hard for me to serve Jesus Christ? I don’t serve Jesus Christ as though he was a man. I serve Jesus Christ because he was God. I can worship God.

So therefore he means an awful lot to me. He ought to mean an awful lot to you. It wouldn’t it be a shame for you to trust Christ as your Savior, know you have eternal life and then for you not to walk with God. You can walk with God. Think in the Old Testament says, and Noah walked with God. Moses walked with God. Whenever your life is over with, will they be able to put on your tombstone, walked with God?

He walked with God. You can’t think of anything better than that. He walked with God. You and I are to walk with God. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents everything we’ve ever done wrong. This is you and me. This is sin. This is all those bad things that we do. We’ve all done things wrong, but God loves us. He says for us to pay for sin, eternal separation from God, in the literal fire burning hell.

But to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God, but we’re not perfect. And we cannot save ourselves. That’s why we needed a Savior, but a Savior has to be one like us. It has to be a man. man, a perfect man. It’s the only one that can redeem us was a perfect man. Throughout the Old Testament you’ll find there’s many times it talks about that whenever you are sold into salavory for whatever reason, it’s somebody who is a kinfolk that has to redeem you.

He is born into our family. He’s like one of the kinfolk and he died in order to redeem us means to pay for our sins. See, if he paid for my sins means that I don’t have to pay for them. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. Came into the world because he loves his hates, our sin because it separates us from him. Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. Took all the sin of all the world, paid for it, came back from the dead, said if you and I would believe he did it for us.

He would put the payment to our account, we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. I’m not asking you to trust just the man. I want you to trust the God-man, the man that was God. Does that make a little bit more sense? Because God that made the heavens and the earth made us in His image. And there’s somebody up there that has the appearance of a man, and he loves us. He wants you to spend eternity with him.

And the only way is that it’s through Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. That name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is Yeshua. He is the Lord. He He is Jehovah. He’s God. Let’s pray, shall we? With his bow, nice clothes, no one looking around. If you’re here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, why not right now just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this?

Lord, I know I’m a sinner. And I believe that Christ died and paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust him right now as my only hope of going to heaven. If you will do that, God said he would save you and give you eternal life. I’m not going to have you forward, not going to embarrass you, but right where you’re sitting. If what I’ve said made sense to you, you see, yes, I want to know that I’m going to heaven.

I believe Jesus Christ was the Lord, that He died and paid for my sins and came back from the dead. And I’m going to trust them, this God-man, to take me to heaven whenever I die. If you’ll do that, we’ll just slip you in a very quickly, better right back down, in one at all, in one at all, just slip it up very quickly, better right back down, in one at all. If you’re watching by internet, remember that’s all that you have to do.

It’s only thing you can do. Trust the Lord. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one. In Christ 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 Watch 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 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.