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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 m- 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18. If you are paying attention to what’s going on in the country today, I don’t believe that you have been very impressed with the integrity of those that are elected to office. You may have a problem. I have a problem with it. But I want to ask this question. God is going to judge America. As Abraham asked the question, will thou destroy the righteous with the wicked?

And there’s a little dialogue that goes on. It’s called God had finished communing with Abraham. So it was God saying some things and Abraham saying something. They were talking back and forth. It’s not so much a prayer, is it just making requests known, asking God just how far are you willing to go on this? And what would it take to stay your hand to keep it from happening. Those are important because we’re facing some of the same problems today.

And some of the things that are happening around our country is coverage right here in the scriptures. So I want you to take your Bible and look there in verse 23. The Lord had taken upon flesh and appeared as an angel. And says in verse 23, Abraham drew near and said, Willthau also destroyed the righteous with the wicked. Now you have to admit that’s a good question. Isn’t there any righteous people in America? I believe there’s some righteous people.

I think there’s some godly people in America. I believe there’s even godly people in our state legislature. I believe there’s godly people in Washington. I can’t say all of them are. I don’t believe you can either. But we haven’t scattered throughout. Maybe we don’t know everybody, but like the Lord said, I’ve got 7,000 that haven’t bowed the knee to bail. So there’s a lot of people who love their freedom, love their country, love their families, love their church, and just want to be left alone and live a quiet, peaceful life.

But you can see that there’s things that are on the move that is gonna get worse and worse. And so we have to know how shall we live when it seems like the world has fallen apart. So in verse 24, he says, per adventure, there be 50 righteous within the city. will now also destroy and not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein. That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked.

That be far from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right. Can you believe somebody’s talking to God like that? God you’re God, but you have to do right. You have to be fair. Does it make sense to destroy all these good people along with all those bad people? And yet most people that are godly today realize the wickedness of our country. And we know and believe that somewhere along the line, God’s going to be in Jesus country if he hasn’t already started.

That’s all there’s a lot of things going on. Verse 26, and the Lord says, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the plays for their sake. Abraham answered and says, no, not so fast. Because then you realize, you know, there may not be 50. So he says, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the U of Sperit, Abraham answered and said in the Him in verse 27, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, but and but dust and ashes per adventure, there shall like five of the fifty righteous without destroy all the city for the lack of five.

And he says, if I find their forty and five, I will not destroy him. And he’s speaking to him yet again and said, prevention, there be forty found there. And he says, I will not do it for forty sake. And he said unto him, Oh, let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak per avenger, there shall be 30. And he answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there. You know, I could have saved a lot of this.

He says, Lord, how many is there, right? Just or if you just tell me, I’ll just ask for that. And you won’t have to go through all of this, but he kept, you know, bringing God down because he knew that the odds are what they may not be 40. There might not be 40, you know, 30. So he goes on down. Verse 31 and he said, behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Pervention there shall be 20.

And he says, I will not destroy it for 20 sakes. And he says, oh, let not the Lord be angry. I will yet speak. But this once per venture 10 shall be found there. And he says, I will not destroy it for 10 sakes. So what are you saying? He did destroy it, but there must not have been 10 there. Maybe he should have went down to five. Then three. What about one? But you know there was a man there.

His name was Lot. This is nephew. He had a wife and had kids there. Two daughters and things weren’t looking too good. Lot didn’t have the best testimony. Now he was a just man. As God says, he was a righteous man living in a wicked city who vexed his righteous soul from day on to day with their unlawful deed, seeing and hearing the things that they did. That’s why it’s not good for you to see it and hear it because it will vex your righteous soul.

Therefore you ought to watch what you see. But he makes his statement in verse 33, and the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned into his place. Communing. You see I wanted that word for this reason. See we’re gonna have a communion service. We call it the Holy Communion service, mainly because of who’s going to be here. You see, I believe that when we partake, I believe God is here. I believe God sees and God knows.

God lives within us. Our bodies are supposed to be a holy temple set apart for the Lord. And we have the Holy Spirit living within us. And we are communing with the Lord because there’s things God wants to say to us. And there are some things that we might need to say to Him. It’s just not a one-way conversation. It’s something that we do that’s visibly because of what’s taking place on the inside of us. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Exodus chapter 31.

Exodus in chapter 31. Exodus 31 and look there in verse 18. As you know, God took Moses aside, took him upon a mountain, had a word with him. And he says there in verse 18, and he gave unto Moses when he had made an end up communing with him upon Mount Sinai. Two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Maybe you’ve heard of those tables of stone. heard of the Ten Commandments, written with the finger of God, this is what the Bible says.

But you see, God had a long talk with Moses. God had a long talk with Abraham. Sometimes we fail to have a long talk with the Lord. We just don’t give God enough time because you see it’s just Lord, bless and in we’re gone. But do you ever stop long enough to really talk to the Lord, to commune with Him? To get on the same page? Some people I don’t think really take the time that they need. Praying and talking to the Lord is one thing that will change your life.

Now let me mention this to you. It says in the book of Luke, for the disciples had asked Jesus, Lord, teach out how to do it. to pray. When you say, Lord, teach me to pray, you’d be surprised how God is going to teach you. He’ll teach you to pray. And one way he may do it is he works on you as an individual. There’s things that you don’t know and you can’t solve, you can’t find a way out.

Things too great for you to handle as an individual. So God in His wisdom will force you to your knees. He will force you to cry out to Him. He will force you to seek Him out. And so if God sends you a little bitty warning signs and you don’t respondapestend you some more bigger. And then He may have to take it to before and put it over your head. But God wants to teach you to come to Him.

He wants to sometimes allow you to be so burdened, so many worries, so much care. You can’t handle it and you’re on the edge of a note down so that you’ll learn past your cares upon Him. Now some people never learn the lessons. They just let it go to crash and they never seek the Lord. So God will do things to help you as an individual, but also this.

Do you have a family? Do you have a husband? Do you have a wife? Do you have kids? You see, as a family, there’s things that God will allow to happen in our family that will drive you to your knees. Sometimes that wife of yours, or you lover. Remember, when you couldn’t live without her, now you can’t live with her. Did you realize that she might be thinking the same thing you are? Did you realize that you probably thought at one time you married the perfect individual, now you’re not so sure?

Do you have kids? There isn’t anything that will make you pray as much as having kids. And the more so when they become teenagers, you can think you have the world by the tail and you got your family totally under control. Wait till you have teenagers. They can try you like nothing else can. But there’s things that will happen to drive you to the Lord and you can do it as a family. There’s things that God will allow churches to go through.

There will be times when everything is wonderful. Everybody’s got a good spirit. Everybody wants to help. Everybody gives like they should. The church is on the move. Everybody’s excited about the things of the Lord. And then, did you know that things can happen so quickly and And all of a sudden, people become irritated with each other. I don’t like the preacher anymore. I don’t like that Cody wears. I don’t like that thing that comes out of his ears, grows in his mouth.

You’d be surprised and it could happen so quickly. And then you say, you know, I wouldn’t say anything about anybody unless it’s good. And boy is this good. and then you start talking and then you spread seeds of discord and it can split a church. It can drive a church to pray. And sometimes you accept responsibilities and burdens and you’ve got to do a lot more pray it. Well, see, sometimes it happens with the country that we live in.

It gets bigger than our little world. And we can see there’s a country that we know and we love and we love our freedoms and we can see that there’s decisions being made that jeopardize in everything that we have. I had a woman two days ago that I talked to her from Colorado, 75 years old. And she said, Pastor, I listen to you every day on the radio and I don’t know what I’m going to do. She says, because of this healthcare thing coming, I’ve already lost about three things that I I had on healthcare, I’ve already lost them.

And now the rate’s done going up, and I don’t know what I’m going to do. She said, I’m scared. She’s 75. She’s scared. You know, there’s a lot of people that are probably fearful of the things that they see coming upon the earth. And the Bible says hearts failing them for fear because they don’t have answers. They don’t see the security. They don’t know what the government’s going to do next. And whatever they can do for you, they can do to you.

And they can’t give you anything until they take it from you first and always give you back a little bit. less. We are in a fearful time, and in some times you want to pray for the whole world, because you can see Turbul all over the earth. So many things going on, how terrible it is. I was thinking about the guy the other day over there in England that these two guys decapitated him, cut him all up in the name of Allah.

And I’ve said this before, I do not believe that the religion of Islam, anyone if you believe the religion of Islam, you ought not be permitted into this country. I believe the Quran is a war manual. It’s not a book on how to have peace. I don’t think we want our country turned into that. Now, I’m thankful for the opportunity we have to win people to Christ. And if they come and They’re willing to listen and to learn, but they become exclusive and they do not disseminate in two society.

They’re the conqueror of the society. And I believe that our people in Washington need to see this and understand this, but I’m not sure that they do. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Exodus 25, since you’re real close right there. Exodus in chapter 25. And look at verse 22. He says in verse 22, and there I will meet with thee. Now he’s talking about the ark that’s going to be placed into the holy of holies. And there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony and of all things which I will give thee in commandments unto the children of Israel.

In other words, there’s a place that I want to meet with you. You see, the communion that we have is just a place for us to meet together. There’s things that God wants to remind us of. And so you see, when we take the communion, we’re supposed to look back at what He did, forward to His coming again, and realize that in between there’s things that God wants us to do and how He wants us to live. And He says, to examine yourself, to examine yourself.

are there things that are in your life that are not right and should not be there, things that you tolerate that nobody maybe even knows about? And so you don’t have a clean mind, a clean conscience, a pure heart, but nobody else knows it. But you know that God knows it. And if you keep going on and on and on and you don’t correct the problem, somebody is going to step in and it’s going to be the Lord and he’s going to chase and he’s going to chase and hard.

And maybe even take you home before your time. You can’t play games with the Lord. I want you to also look there in Genesis in chapter 6. Look in Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6 and it makes this statement here in verse 5. Gee, there’s times when God has had to step in and make decisions and there’s a price to pay because God sees. See, God sees what you do as an individual. He sees where you are as a family and God sees where we are as a church.

God sees where we are as a nation. In Genesis in chapter 6 and verse 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, so that means God must see what man is doing. And then he says, and that every imagination of his thoughts, so that means that God must know your thoughts. So God sees every man, God knows every thought of his heart, and it was only evil continually. In other words, not something happens once in a while.

It becomes your course of life. It’s a way that you decide to live. You see, there’s God’s way and there’s man’s way. And sometimes people just are not going to go God’s way. You see, it’s one thing to trust Christ as your Savior. You have eternal life. You’re going to heaven when you die. But then there’s a lot of people that’s going to live their life their way. And they failed to realize that the body has been bought with the price.

Therefore glorify God in your spirit and in your body which belongs to the Lord. You should live a holy life because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God owns you. You belong to Him. And so He says here in verse 6, and it repented the Lord, a Greek God, that He had made man on the earth, He grieved Him. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping things in the fowls of the year, for it repented me that I have made them.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You know God looks down with the eye of favor to those who look up with the eye of faith. faith. God looks down with the eye of favor to those who look up with the eye of faith. See, God knows what individual looks to Him in faith and believes Him. And God is free to show His favor upon whoever He wants.

But God wants us to believe Him, to trust Him. reveal your wisdom by the decisions that you and I make. And if you don’t make godly decisions, you’re not godly. If you don’t live godly, you’re not godly. Godly means be like God. God wants us as His children to live like Him. He says, be imitators of your Father. And He is my Father. We are to imitate our Father, to live like he wants us to live. Now, turning your Bible to the first Timothy in chapter 2, the first Timothy chapter 2, the first Timothy and chapter 2 is an admonition for God’s people.

And this is what he says in chapter 2, looking verse 1, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intersections, and given of thanks be made for all men. For kings, for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty, that this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

I want you to pray for the President. It doesn’t matter if he’s a a Republican or a Democrat or a foot washing Aboriginal. He’s still the president and we can pray that God can use him to steer into God willingly and unwillingly, but we can still talk to the Lord about it. Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank you so much for the privilege we have to live in a great country like we have and to enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy.

To be able to come before you as we’re doing right now, to pray about anything that we want to. And Father, we do pray especially for the President. Lord, there’s a lot of things he may not know and understand. So easy to quickly judge because he doesn’t believe perhaps the way we believe. But Father, I pray that all these things that are coming upon Congress in the White House would bring him to his knees where he seeks your will, seeks your face.

And follow me, we don’t know all the things that goes on. We don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, but we know you do. And I pray, Lord, that somehow, some way, you can utilize all these things that are happening, all the pressures, all the problems to teach a person to pray to seek your will. And we pray, Father, more of anything else, if He has not honestly and sincerely trusted Jesus Christ as a Savior, that we understand that there is no other God, there is no other Savior, there is no other means of salvation except the payment Christ made for Him.

We pray, Lord, if He does so, that He would make it clear. And we also pray for His wife and His two girls and pray that you would help them to do the things that are right to honor our country as they should, but Father, we want them to be right with you more than anything else in the world. We also pray, Lord, concern in this ministry, help us to do right to walk right. And Father, the blessed, every person here, every family here.

And Father, we also know that there’s a great need, a prayer in the sense of unknown request. I know personally of individuals that need help. That need your hand up on them, your blessings. And Father, we may not make the name known, but I’m sure that each person here knows somebody that maybe they can’t reveal all the stuff about them, but they need to talk to you about them. So with everybody’s head bowed, no one looking around. Do you know of somebody right now that has a heavy heart?

It could be yourself. It could be your family. It could be a loved one. You may not know everything that’s going through, but would you take just a moment and bring them to the throne of grace and ask God to help them. They give them the strength and the grace that they need. God doesn’t always remove the pressures, the problems, but He instills the grace that we need to bear it. Maybe it’s something that you need. Take just a moment and reflect back upon your own testimony.

Do you believe you’re doing right? Are you honoring the Lord? Do you love Him? Is there something that you need to talk to the Lord about? Why not do so? Our Father, we thank You so much for all that You’ve done for us, for the privilege we have to come before You, make our requests known. bless each one in Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Our look up here because there’s something I need to share with you very briefly before we have communion.

This hand represents you and me and the wall represents sin. We all have sin on us. The Bible says God loves us. He hates our somebody loves us. And the paper sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. So God says, you can’t save yourself, you cannot earn your way to heaven by your good deeds.

This hand represents Jesus Christ, He’s the Lord, God in the flesh, came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. He said it if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account. We get to go to heaven on what He did for us. So eternal life is free.

It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I pray that you have trusted Christ as your Savior. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head, bow, and eyes, as closed. No one looking around. But if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, you heard about it, but never did. Would you write down the quietness of this moment, say, yes, preach of that made sense to me. And I do want to go to heaven when I die.

And I will trust Christ right now as my Savior. If you’ve already done it, you don’t have to do it again. But you say, that made sense to me, and I would like to trust the Lord. Would you slip you in it very quickly, better up back down? They went off. They went off. Father, we thank you again for this time together. Bless now as we partake of the Lord’s suffering Christ name. 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 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 broadcasts 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.