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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 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.

Turn in your Bible to the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation in chapter 22. This is a difficult sermon to speak on this morning, but I’m going to do the best I can. So you stick with me, just hang in there. I want to try to give you something that when the Lord tells us, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. I want to try to show you His mind, the mind of God.

When you have a tree, do you want a tree to come up with only one limb? limb or did you like to have maybe two limbs on a tree or three limbs, maybe four limbs? Well, I love to climb trees when I was a kid. I don’t do it anymore. I used to pretend I was, well, I was tarsing and I would cut me a monkey vine and I’d swing for all I was worth. And I would swing over this cliff and there’s big branches going and I’d swing way out there over this cliff.

And one day it came down and I, it was a garbage dump. And I fell and rolled down this garbage dump and there was tin cans in there and bottled glass, all kind of stuff. I put a dash in my leg about like that. And my whole leg was soaked in blood and I ran home to see my mom. And when she saw the blood she beat me half death for doing such a stupid thing. I said, well, I’ll never do that again.

Well, I did, but my momma didn’t know about it. But you know, the Bible tells us about trees. When John the Baptist came on the scene, the statement is made about, he’s going to lay the ax to the root of the tree. And he’s going to cut down every tree that does not bring forth fruits of righteousness. You see, all of us are like little trees. We’ve all been little plants and we’ve all grown up and God is looking for something from our life.

He wants to see the fruit of righteousness. But something happened back here in the garden and because of a sinful nature, all of our fruit is bad. All of our fruit is bad fruit. Every tree brings forth bad fruit and God says you’re gonna cut down every tree that brings forth bad fruit. Well, so much for the human race. That’s why everyone dies. Everyone dies because nobody can bring forth this fruit of righteousness because we’ve all sinned against God and the wages of sin is death.

So the Bible tells us about a tree that one day is going to be planted and it’s going to grow and God is going to get the fruits of righteousness that he wants from this tree. But this tree is going to have four branches on it. And these four branches is going to bear something different, but they’ll all be fruits of righteousness. So here in the book of Revelation, in chapter 22, look there in verse 12, the Bible says, and behold, I come quickly.

Now, Jesus came the first time 2,000 years ago, And he lived as a historical fact. And he was killed, historical fact. He came back from the dead, and that’s a historical fact. He ascended into heaven, and that’s a historical fact. And when he went to heaven, he had told him, I’m coming back. I’m going to come back. Here he’s talking about at the end of the book of Revelation, I come quickly. Now to us, it seems like I come slowly.

Or are you ever going to show up? Why are you taking so long? And so many believe that, well, where is the promise of His coming? Well, I’m looking forward to the day when Jesus Christ comes and we will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of our lives. I caught up to meet the Lord in the air. But the Lord says that when He comes here, His reward will be with Him. In other words, He’s coming to reward those that not only trusted Him as Savior, but for those who individually you serve the Lord.

You see, there’s a God in heaven that’s watching everything we do, every trial that comes our way is an opportunity for us to earn rewards. They’re like, you know, you can invest in stocks and bonds and sometimes you wish, boy, I wish I could have got it on the ground floor on this and ground floor on that. Now, this is when you trust the Christ as your Savior, you’re getting in on the ground floor. You have an opportunity that God has given to you and to me while we’re here living on planet earth in a few years, we can become incredibly rich.

But you have to make some investments in the right thing. And God says He’ll reward us when we get to heaven. So He makes His statement. In verse 12, and he says, my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. So God is going to reward you according to your work. What you have done, understand, going to heaven is free. He paid for that. What you have when you get to heaven, you have to pay for that.

You have to earn it by doing the thing that God tells you to do. That’s the reason it’s so important for you to study the Bible so you’ll know what it is that God wants you to do. And if you will obey it, God’s gonna reward you for it. So your ignorance is not going to be bliss. And you might think that it doesn’t pay off to serve the Lord, to be found faithful to the church and support and missions and blah, blah, blah and whatever.

It will be worth it all. You just can’t see it because God made this statement. He says, I have not seen ear, have not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for them that love him. Now, nobody can make you love God. Nobody can make you serve God. If you choose that you’re not going to, that does not cause God to re-nig upon the gospel of salvation. He can’t take it away from you.

But you’re costing yourself. You’re ruining your eternity as far as the rewards go because God says it will be worth it. Now look what else he says. In verse 14, blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. Now, there is the scripture that tells us that yes, when I trusted Christ as my savior, I have the right to eternal life. there is going to be a holy city.

This holy city is about 1500 miles high, wide and long. Over half the size of the United States, a city of gold. And it’s demented and it’s where we’re going to be. And God says that there’ll be no need for the sun or the moon and that there’ll be no more sea. And we’re going to live there. But now look there in Revelation 21 and verse 27. and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that the falleth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or makeeth the lie, but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Anything that is sinful won’t be there. Anything that God says is an abomination won’t be there. So when you look there in chapter 22 and you make this statement in verse 15, without outside of this holy city where we’re going to be. He says in verse 15, for without our dogs and sorcerers and whore-mongers and murders and idolaters and whosoever, loveth and maketh of lie. All of those will not be there. In this holy city where we’re going to be is a place that is perfect.

It is holy and and everything good, there’s no more sin, sorrow, nothing like that. Look there with me in chapter 21. And you’ll notice where he makes a statement in verse two, and I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Then he says there in verse three, and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall I be.

or cry and neither shall there be any more pain. The formal things are passed away and he makes all things new. Everything is going to be wonderful. There’s nothing that will be an abomination allowed into God’s new heaven and earth. Everything else is outside of that. Now look what he says there in Revelation chapter 20 and you’ll notice in verse 15, and whosoever was not found written book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is what happens to all those that are outside of this holy place.

Now God said it and I believe it, that settles it. Or God said it, that settles it. What will we believe it or not? But God has given to us this wonderful thing. The question keeps coming down. Christ, What will you do with Christ? Whose Son is He? They’ll take your Bible and learn to the book of Matthew in chapter 22. Matthew and chapter 22. Now make sure you look at the Scriptures because you will not believe everything that I say unless I back it up with what the book says and I want you to see that it’s in the book.

So you’ll notice there in verse 41 this is in Matthew chapter 22 verse verse 41, page 10, 31. And verse 41, he says, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, what thank ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They said in the Son of David. He’s the son of David. So Christ comes from David. And in verse 43, he said unto them, How then do David in spirit call him Lord? Now, Jesus is asking this wonderful question.

When the Messiah comes, when Christ comes, whose son is he? They say he’s the son of David. Okay, if he’s the son of David, then why did David call him Lord? Hmm, good question. So he says there in verse 44, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit down on my right hand till I make nine enemies thy foots to him. If David then called him Lord, how is he his son? Isn’t that a good question? And there is a reason because the Bible tells us that Jesus is the root in the offspring of David.

The root of David means he came before David. And he’s the offspring of David means he came after David. How can this be? Because you see Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. And this is why so many in the Old Testament had such a problem understanding the scriptures because they could not put it together. But God says I’m going to have a plant that’s going to be planted and he’s going to be different from all the other trees upon the earth.

This tree is going to have good fruit on it. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah in chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. And look there in verse 1, this was written almost 700 years before Jesus Christ was born, written in advance. This is one of the reasons why you can know that the Bible is true. If the Bible is true, if it’s true, then heaven is real and hell is real. And what God says about how to get there must be the truth.

and what God says that He will do if you serve Him might be true. And if you don’t serve Him, well what He said about that might be true. What is wonderful to know is that once you trust Christ’s Savior, you have eternal life. You’re going to heaven when you die. God will never change that. Can’t be altered. Can’t… Anything happen to that. Can’t be annulled. So when you trust Christ’s Savior, you You now have a choice as a child of God.

You can either serve the Lord or not serve Him. You can be obedient or disobedient, but still is child, still go to heaven. But God is gonna reward you if you’re serving. Be to tarot of you if you don’t. So it’s your choice. It doesn’t seem like it’s a hard decision for me to make. I just decided 53 years ago, I’m going to heaven and I’m going to have to be in heaven for all eternity. And I’m going to be with God.

I might as well go ahead and serve him now because when I get there, I wish I had him. So why should I have to have years of regret? Doesn’t it make sense to go ahead and serve the Lord in the days of your youth while you’re young? 70s young. I read about a guy the other day, he was over 100 years old. I feel very young. Here in Isaiah 53, look in verse 1, who hath believed our report?

Who is going to believe that? He’s writing history in advance. Who’s going to believe our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? In other words, the arm of the Lord is the power of God and Christ, Christ coming into the world. Who’s going to believe this? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, looking verse two. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.

He hath no form of commonness, and when¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ shall see him, there’s no beauty that we should desire him. He looked like everybody else. Now, if you was God and you could make yourself look, however you wanted to look, wouldn’t you have made yourself the most handsomeest man in the world. I mean, if you were in charge, if you had a choice, would you rather be good-looking or ugly? What would you have done, girls? What would you have done? But it’s so wonderful to know that he was not distinguishable from anybody else.

That’s why he could hide in the crowd. When you looked at him, he didn’t say, he’s just a man. When they saw him, he’s just a man. It looks just like a man. Nothing unusual about this guy, but there was something unusual because when God looked down from heaven and saw this man, this man did everything to please God. This man lived righteously. This man was a good man. He never told a lie. He was not deceptive. Never wronged anybody.

He was perfect in every way. And how did the world receive such a perfect man in their midst? Wouldn’t we love to see a guy like that? All they did was just crucify him. You probably heard about that. But he was a tender plant that grew up. Now I want you to look there in Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11. little tree that was going to grow up. Well, he went to have some branches on this tree. But look how God described the branches.

If you’ll look there in chapter 11, now, remember this is over seven hundred years before Christ came and it describes the the way he is. Now remember this, God has an emission impossible in the eyes of man. He must give to us the prophecies concerning Christ, in other words, telling us how to recognize him when he comes so that God can say, I told you so, and do it in such a way that nobody would be able to figure out all the details lest they would try to prohibit Christ from coming and living and dying the way he did in order to try to change history.

That’s why his disciples that walk with him for three and a half years, the Bible says they understood not these things. Other people could understand some of the things that the disciples could not because the disciples had understood they would have altered the course of his life. Remember when Peter grabbed the sword and was going to cut off the guy’s head? He missed and got his ear because Christ had to go to the cross and God could not let Peter stop him from going to the cross.

Anyway, that’s another sermon. But what I want you to see in chapter 11 and verse 1, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse. Now Jesse is not talking about the Jesse Martinez that we have around here. This Jesse is the father of David, King David, and he’s talking about there’s somebody going to be born from Jesse’s line. And on down the road, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. So on down the road comes along David, and in a thousand years later you have Jesus been born of the line of David.

He had the right to claim the throne of Israel. He had the right to be the king of Israel. This one that’s going to be born, this is one of the branches that will be identified. He must be the king of Israel. He has to be of the line of David and of the tribe of Judah. He has to be born in Bethlehem, Africa. He has to be. So there’s some truth that identify him. And as you look at this and you see all these things down through here by his righteousness And then notice that this is going to be during a kingdom upon the earth.

The king is coming. Now understand this. When you study the New Testament, the first four books of the New Testament, you’ve got Matthew, which pictures Jesus Christ as the king, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And then you have the book of Mark, which pictures Jesus Christ as the ox or the servant. Then you have the book of Luke, which picture Jesus Christ as a man, a perfect man. And then you have the gospel of John that picture Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Holy, He is God. He is deity. That’s who He is. So this one that’s going to come, there’s four branches of identification truths that when Jesus comes, He has to be of the line of David. He’s going to be the king, but he’s also going to be a servant, a king, going to be a servant, but not only is that, he’s going to be a man, the perfect man, but he’s going to be God. He’s God, man. He’s a king, but he’s a servant.

There’s four branches that give the identification of who Jesus is, the Messiah, the Christ. Whose son is He? Well, He’s the son of David. How can He be the son of David and yet David call Him Lord? Because He was before David, He was the root and He is the root. Jesus was who He claimed to be. Now, understand this, when you go down there and look in verse 6. It describes what’s going to be like in the kingdom.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatland together and a little child shall lead them. So there’s going to be a kingdom upon this earth for one thousand years long. Christ will rule and there will be little children in the kingdom. That means it’s still going to be children going to be born. Not good news. Not by y’all though. You’re going to have a glorified body.

So I doubt that you’ll have kids in the kingdom. So don’t worry about it. There’ll be other people that will not have this glorified body yet, but anyway, that’s another story. But God says this is what’s going to take place. It’s a good thing to know. Now take your Bible and turn to the of Jeremiah. The next book to you right, Jeremiah and chapter 23. Jeremiah 23, the Bible tells us in Jeremiah how that the pastors had not done their job.

There were some bad pastors. They didn’t care about the sheep. So God was going to have to judge these preachers and he did. And so God says, one day I’m going to get me a real shepherd. I’ll get a real shepherd that really cares about my sheep. Well, if you look there in verse 4, and I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.

Behold, the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, a king shall reign in prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. God said, I’m going to have me a king because every king always messed up. But God says, I’m going to have a king and he’s not going to mess up. But this king that’s coming is going to have, see, he’s not going to have a sinful nature. He’ll be born of a virgin.

That’s why in Isaiah 714, behold, under you was born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord is said in the book of Luke, but it also talks about that a virgin shall conceive and bury son. So, he called his name Emmanuel. So, being called Emmanuel, he was revealing the character of Christ because Emmanuel means God with us. Jesus was the lion, he was the king of Israel. So, when you read the book of Matthew, you’ll notice that it talks, where is he that is born king of the Jews?

Born king. When you look at the end of the book of Matthew, you find out that they put a crown of thorns upon his head and they mocked him and says, prophesy, oh King, who it is that smiteously? And it says that he put a thing over them that here is the king of the Jews and they wanted them to take it down. There’s a gnaw. He is the king of the Jews. But see, that’s what Matthew is all about, the kingdom.

And so it’s looking at that from that point of view. Now take your Bible look there in the book of Isaiah chapter 4. Isaiah chapter 4. Isaiah chapter 4, and notice there in verse 2, because you understand that this is where the branch is the Lord. Let me just read one verse 2, you might like this. Look at the first verse. Now this might be a man’s heyday when there’s seven women to every man. Do you see that? And in that day seven women shall take whole of one man.

And that man’s going to think he is truly a God’s gift to the women. But anyway, we’re not going to talk about that right now. I should not have showed you that verse. Look at verse two. Verse two, in that day shall the branch of the Lord. This is the Lord. The branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. This is, the branch that says, Jesus is God.

So when you read the Gospel of John and you go through it, you don’t find any of the temptations in the Gospel of John that you find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, because God cannot be tempted with sin. It shows you the deity of Jesus Christ, and it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.

He was life and He was the light of the world. He made the world and came into the world and the world received Him not. But in verse 14, He says that this Jesus, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. This was one of the credentials that He had to have when He came.

He has to prove that He has the right to be the King of Israel. And He has to be able to prove He is God. And so he was able to forgive sins and walk on water, create fish sandwiches out of nothing. When’s the last time he was able to do that? Some guys are going to be out here today cooking in this whole hot sun. I bet they wish they could just snap their finger and it’s all done.

Now when we go out there, that’s where it’ll be, but we don’t have to worry about how is it going to be accomplished. Somebody’s going to sweat and cook. But Jesus was God. That’s why he was able to do what he did, and he was able to know the thoughts of people. Just like for right now, there’s a God in heaven that knows all of your thoughts. Good and bad. He knows all of your deeds, what you’ve done and what you haven’t done, what you should do.

He knows it all. He is the Lord. 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 2 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 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 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. 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.