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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 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 BibleInemistries.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.

I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of Matthew in chapter six. Matthew in chapter 6, throughout the world, there are many types of experiments in government, trying to find out how to rule people. There’s all kinds of governments that we have. America was a little different, but it was a combination, which I want to share a couple thoughts with you concerning. As you know, there are communistic countries, dictators. And a dictator has a man who has a will of his own.

So the only way he can control the people is to eliminate their wills and impose his will upon everybody else. And so he rules and he has to rule with a rod of iron, making decisions while the people like it or don’t like it, so he has to have an army imposing his will upon the people and putting down anyone that doesn’t agree with his will. So we have countries like that today. So is that the best form of government and does it produce something that everyone wants?

The peace, love, joy, happiness, tranquility. Well, not exactly. Then you have another kind of government where instead of one man ruling the masses, everybody just do your own thing. That’s pretty much where we have gotten in America today. So, let everybody do their own thing. Go their own way and not try to impose your will, your beliefs on everybody else. And there’s people who think that that’s the way it ought to be and so they impose their will upon everybody else.

So is it the best way? Just let chaos reign. Everybody just do whatever you want to do. So you go from one extreme to the other extreme, where one man controls and imposes his will, where you have the masses of society let every man do his own will. And will it produce the end results that you want? If everybody can just do whatever they want to do, without somebody imposing their will upon you? Does it produce the tranquility that you’re after?

Does it produce the peace and the joy, the harmony of love? I think you’re well aware of the answer to that. So there are others who say, let’s just take the good of both kinds if there is such, and let’s take a few dictators that we elect for us and let them make the laws for the rest of us. But it’s really our will because we elected those who are imposing our will upon the rest of everybody else. And so you get a combination.

So you have one extreme, another extreme, and well, we’re more balanced. Is that going to produce the form of government that we want. Now stop and think. Out of all the nations in the world today, is there a perfect form of government going on right now that’s producing all the love and joy and happiness and peace, the utopia that everyone wants? I don’t think you’re going to find it. So I thought I would bring a little message on the will of God.

But here in the book of Matthew in chapter 6, it makes a statement here in what is considered to be the Lord’s Prayer, though He didn’t pray this prayer. It’s a form of a prayer, but not to be habitually repeated, because He says it just because it becomes vain repetition. But He says in verse 9, after this manner, therefore, pray, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, and earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.” But that one statement where he has here in verse 10, “…Thy will be done, and earth as it is in heaven.” We’re supposed to pray that the will of God in heaven will be performed on earth. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? The harmony of a perfect will produces the perfect peace and joy and happiness everyone would love to have, the perfect will, where everybody believes exactly the same thing but because they want to.

Well, we don’t see that happening anywhere in the world either. But I want you to take your Bible and look in the book of Ephesians in chapter 1. The book of Ephesians in chapter 1, you’ll find that in the beginning of time, or I should say before, time began. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the blessed Trinity, were and have been and always will be in perfect harmony, a perfect will among those three. So if you look up here very quickly, over here we have eternity past, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And before the world was ever made, before this time as an island in see of God’s eternity ever began, there was the perfect will of God. That means that whatever these three thought they all agreed, there was never any disagreement in the Godhead. They never had a fight, not down drag out, never had any disagreements among them. Total, perfect peace, and then God made a man. Everything was going long fine, and God made a man. But he also had something else going on, and I want you to see this.

Look there in Ephesians in chapter 1. Look in verse 5 where he says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the an underlined this phrase, good pleasure of His will. In other words, in the beginning God did not call us into His office and say, look, Yanki, what do you think about my plans? He didn’t ask me, did He ask you? Do you think He really didn’t care what you think about it?

He didn’t ask us. After the counsel of his own will, so there was counseling, but it was his own will. There was a Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They were all in agreement of the plan that God had, a plan of redemption, a plan of salvation. And so he also makes a statement here in verse 9, looking verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of these two words very important, His will, His will. According to His good pleasure which He had purposed in Himself.

There’s three things in that verse that are very important when He says there in verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He He had purposed in Himself. So God has a perfect plan, a perfect will. And when you have a perfect will, you have everything you need for perfect harmony to produce this peace and joy and happiness, whatever it would be. There was perfection. Look down at the next verse.

Look in verse 11. Verse 11 says, in whom, talk about in Christ, also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worked with all things after the counsel of his own will. You ought to underline that last phrase, the counsel of his own will. So God didn’t ask us our opinion. He didn’t ask us what we think about it. We didn’t ask to be born. We didn’t ask when we would be born. We didn’t choose our parents, but here we are.

And we didn’t ask to be on planet Earth. God stopped this thing and let me off. Oh, he will. He’s going to let you off one of these days. But you didn’t ask for it. Why is all of this? After the counsel of his own will, God had a reason. God had a purpose. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Acts, the book of Acts in chapter 2. And you’ll notice there’s something that’s mentioned here that’s I think very revealing.

Acts chapter 2 and look in verse 22. Acts chapter 2 and verse 22. I guess I’m always trying to get into the mind of God. If you want to get into the mind of God, the word of God is the mind of God. So get into the word of God and you’ll find how God thinks. Why he did what he did. Why he does it the way he does it. A lot of things are revealed but you got to look for clues here and there.

But notice in the book of Acts chapter 2 verse 22 he says, ye men of Israel. Now Christ has already been crucified. Come back from the dead. The day of Pentecost, the 50 days from the resurrection has occurred. Things were going on, things were happening. Jewish people had come from all over the world, in those days, they come back to Jerusalem for the Passover and all that. So he says in verse 22, ye men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you you as ye yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, God delivered him to this world. God did that. By, as he says here, the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. Before the foundations of this world, God had a plan to send His Son into the world. He even made a promise about it in advance.

And He delivered. A woman brought forth a man child, the Messiah, God’s Son just like he promised that he would. But then he says, but by your wicked, sinful hands ye have taken him and crucified him. I delivered him, but look what you did to him. So God had a responsibility and he fulfilled. Man did the most wicked thing man could have ever done. The slave, the most innocent, perfect individual that ever came into this world. That was God’s Son.

But God says that he raised him up from the dead in verse 24. God raised him from the dead. Wonderful. You’re talking about the harmony of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So there’s a lot of things that goes on in all of this. So now I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 14, the book of Isaiah in chapter 14. This is a familiar portion of Scripture.

When in the beginning when there’s just the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and everything that He created everything was wonderful. There was the perfect will of God and then God created an angel and over here we have Lucifer. Lucifer, probably the most powerful, most beautiful, wisest angel God ever created. Very powerful angel. And the Bible says that he exalted himself, lifted himself up. And he makes this statement here in verse 12 of chapter 14, how are thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, as you look into the future and see the end results of the person that caused the earth to tremble, caused all this damage, a most wicked individual.

And he is cast into the sides of the pit. The Bible says that hell was made for the devil and his angels. And people are going to be in hell. Who were deceived by this angel? So he says here in verse 13, the reason why. For thou have said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit upon the Mounts outside of the mountain of God and so on in the sides of the North.

I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high. I will. I will. I will. And so from here, you see, another will has developed. When you have somebody who has a will that is in conflict with God’s will things are not going to be pretty. You’re asking for trouble. A man and woman when they see each other and they put on their, you know, their best side, show them how they’re so sweet and wonderful and loving and then they get married and then the war begins.

They find out that they don’t have one will, they have two wills. His will and her will. And of course we know from the Bible the will of the woman supposed to submit to the will of the husband and she says, do you realize what I’m married to? Yes, but it was your decision. God did not put a gun to your head and forced you to marry that bum. You did that. You show a, I don’t trust his judgment.

Look who he married. That should have been a dead giveaway. I’m treading on dangerous grounds at this moment. I’m looking for a way of escape that I may be able to bear this moment. Now here you have a conflict, another will. So is Satan and all of his power able to according to His will, produced this state of Nirvana, this utopia upon the earth. If everybody simply just did what the devil wanted us to do, how wonderful everything would be.

No. Because he cannot create the peace, the harmony, the joy that God can. Satan can only imitate, but he can’t create it. That’s why he produces all this misery that we have here in life. And then lo and behold, Isaiah 53, look there in your Bible, Isaiah 53. God then creates a man. See, God created an An angel that rebelled against him and he has his will, he convinces angels to follow his lead. And all of them and all their power, they can’t win.

They cannot make people. They cannot produce anything. They can’t produce a world that’s peaceful, filled with joy. You see, well, that’s not his goal. It doesn’t matter. He can’t do it regardless if he tried. He works against God. Now then God comes along and he makes a man. And this man has a will. And God says, you may do this, but you can’t do this. Gave to him the power to choose. in His sovereignty, back here with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in perfect harmony by the Determinate Council of God chose to give this man a free will, where he can choose a will among that he can think and decide.

But there’s consequences to its decisions. And so man sinned against God, and now all of a sudden we have a man who is in rebellion to God. God says, do this. Man says, I will not. He has his own will. He wants to do his own thing and go his own direction. So here in Isaiah 53, you’ll notice there in verse 6 where he makes this statement. Isaiah 53, verse 6, all we like sheep have gone. We have turned every one to his and these two words.

Not necessarily we often say you know there’s God and there’s the devil and you read the Jews in one of the other. But understand this man is still according to his own way in his own will. Not everybody wants to serve the devil. There’s a lot of people who still have even though they’re lost, a yearn into one to worship God and not worship the devil, but they don’t know how. So man, God says, has a will. Now if you have God and the devil and you have conflict between the two wills, what happens if you have a man and a woman that produces 7 billion people upon the earth.

And they are all like sheep have all gone astray. We have all these wills and people are free to choose even though they are children of the flesh. They’re lost and they have the same sinful nature just like the devil has. But not all will lost. People want to worship the devil, but then they don’t know how to worship God. But if Satan is able to manipulate totally their mind and take away their will, then they will never accept Christ as their Savior.

But because they are individuals who are free to choose, even in a sinful state, can man by his own power, by his own intellect, produce a government upon this earth that would bring in a utopia. There are people who believe they can. I don’t believe they can. I believe that there’s a lot of problems and because each man has within himself his own will about what he wants to do. We don’t like somebody but a plundish what we can and cannot do, we are children of rebellion, children of wrath by nature.

So each man has a will of his own, and the will of man cannot produce in himself without everybody else or anybody else. Just me myself. Can I by my own will? Can I solve my problems? I solve all of my problems. Can I produce a mind that thinks good and righteous and holy? Can I live that desire or that dream that I really have? Can I really make it happen? I don’t want to get sick, so therefore I will not get sick.

Try it. I visited a hospital one day with a Christian science. I said, what are you doing in here? He says, I think I’m sick. I said, you are sick. He said, no, I just think I’m sick. I said, why don’t you stop thinking that you’re sick? He says, I haven’t figured that one out yet. I Went back later to see him and they said he’s no longer with us. Oh, he thinks he’s dead. He thinks he’s dead. So you can think whatever you want.

That doesn’t make it truth. It doesn’t make it reality. So Remember this, a man for himself cannot produce consistent joy. Since everybody wants to be happy, okay, well, why aren’t you perpetually happy? Are you always happy if that’s what you want? Why can’t you just make yourself happy all the time? If you want to be filled with joy, why can’t you just be filled with joy? Why are you in such misery if that’s not what you want because you can’t do it not for yourself.

You can’t do it for your family. Regardless of how much you love your wife or you love your husband and you love your children, you cannot produce the consistent harmony that you want. Because everybody has a will of their own and it doesn’t matter if the man is a dictator and that you will do my will. Oh, try that. Well, we just let our kids do whatever they want to do, see if that form of government works. Or the woman will I’m just as much of an authority as you are, you’re not the most brightest light in the world, you know.

I mean, God gave me a brain, too, you know. Yeah, I know. So women sometimes want to rule the home because they married a wimp. I feel like I’m getting sidetracked here momentarily. You’ll have to forgive me. This is not going to be my better moments today. But I do want you to understand the thought process that’s going on in my mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s you as an individual or you as a family or you as a church or as our nation or the world.

Man cannot produce a better world. All the scientists in going to make it happen. You see, because we have defiled minds. We have rebellious wills and we’re in conflict where they perfect will. The perfect will of God can produce all those things, but a man in conflict with the will of God can’t have it. So God says there is a way. Yesterday I had to do a service and I brought up a couple things I’d like to just share real quickly with you.

One was there’s three things that I want to talk about that we cannot change. And yet there is something that can change everything. One of those things that man cannot change is something that God says, man cannot save himself. If God says man cannot save himself, I got news for you. Man cannot save himself. regards to how he tries, regards to how wise he tries to be, regards to using all of his resources, and all of the power that he has, he cannot save himself, and you can’t change that fact.

So you can go to church if you want to, but that is not gonna change the fact you can’t save yourself. You can try to keep the 10 commandments, but I got news for you. You cannot save yourself, or by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself. Not of yourself means, not of yourself. That’s in the Greek. So I say, well that’s just all how you interpret it. I interpret not of yourself as not of yourself.

How do you interpret it? That it is of yourself? Not of works, lest any man should boast. So the Bible makes it very clear that no man can save himself. So there’s some things that a man cannot change. And that’s some other things that God has said. You have been listening to another great message from Dr. Arnold, and we hope that Bibleline is a blessing to you. In appreciation for your support of this ministry, we’d like to send to you a gift.

During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send the Bible promise book. It is a book that organizes verses of the Bible by topic. For example, if you wanted to know of verses that address humility, or forgiveness, or obedience, You would simply find that topic in the table of contents, go to the chapter listed, and there you would find the verses that address that topic. It’s a wonderful study guide and resource for your own devotions, as well as for lesson preparation, and we’ll send it to you for a gift in any amount for this month.

Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. 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. 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. leaving that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.