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

You and I don’t see down the road. We don’t know how it’s going to end up. I’ve told the Lord recently. recently I said, Lord, I said, you know, I’m running out of time, you know. I thought about this one day. I was going to preach a sermon on this. How do you give God a vision? How do you give God a vision? I mean, here I am and I’ve got all these visions of what I want to do.

And sometimes I don’t think God really understands what I could do if he would give me millions of dollars. Lord, do you realize what I could do? Lord, if you would only come through, if you only had a vision and I can’t understand why my vision is bigger than God’s. Now, I want you to spend the rest of the week trying to figure out how Can you give God a vision? Can you have a greater love for soul than God?

Can you desire to do more than God would want you to do? Why would God hold me back? Why would He limit me? Doesn’t He realize what He’s got in His hands? Lord, do you realize who I am? And you’d be surprised how easy it is to exalt yourself. But in your mind, do you realize God has a plan? God has a vision. God has a vision. But see, he’s got a lot of chillins. And he’s got a lot of things he wants a lot of us to do.

And we all work together to do what God says to do. You’d be surprised what we could get done. And God’s probably up here says, Can’t you see what I’m saying? Can’t you see? Can’t you trust me? And yes. So where was Daniel to be placed? All of a sudden, everything changed. Why did it change? He prayed. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just prayed. And everything went wrong. Or did it go wrong? There was a king that really liked Daniel.

There were some other people who didn’t like Daniel. They knew that Daniel was going to have to die because they knew according to Daniel’s convictions, he would not change just because you passed the law saying you can’t pray anymore. So he prayed. Now he has to leave it in God’s hands. Did you know that God could have loved this whole thing to be set up? Think it’s possible? For a king to see if God is able to deliver him, look what he says here in verse 20.

And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice under Daniel and the king spake and he says to Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God is thy God, whom thou serve continually able to deliver thee. Do you think he wanted to know, can God deliver? If he didn’t think so, would he have ever gone to the den and cried out, Daniel? I mean, if you’re in a den of lions, do you expect the person to live?

Then lions should be laying around there rubbing their tummy. Mmm, what that was a good meal. But maybe Daniel doesn’t got old now and he was nothing but a bag of bone. They say, you know, there’s not enough there to eat. Who knows what went on in the mind, but God gave him a long jaw. But whatever reason, Daniel was there the next morning and a man spared Daniel, but he took care of those that were against him. But see, you know why God used those three Hebrew children and why he was able to use that?

Because they didn’t have hard times like we do. They were just threatened with going to be burned in a furnace of fire one hour later if you didn’t do what they said do. you’re going to be thrown into a den of lions if you prayed. Now what if they was to pass a law here in this country? You can’t pray. Well you know the law, we got to obey the law. Oh really? Is that what Daniel did? Well you got to bow to government.

Is that what those three Hebrew boys, that’s why they suffered because they believed God. They feared God more than they feared government. More than they feared anything or anybody. So yeah, take your Bible and look in the hundred and fifth Psalm. The hundred and fifth Psalm. Let me show you this. 105, I brought some of this I told you before, but just again, it won’t hurt you none. Here in the hundred and fifth Psalm, he’s going through and kind of rehearsing a little bit about some of the times of old, and he tells them some of the things that’s going to take place.

Look there in verse 7, He is the Lord our God, His judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word of which he commanded to a thousand generations. Now somewhere along the line I think that means something more than what just written here but we won’t get in there right now. But looking verse 11 saying, unto thee? Well, I give the land of Canaan. But look what they had to go through to get the land of Canaan.

Four hundred years. They were down there in Egypt for a hundred years. That’s almost twice the age of America. And you stop and think, that’s a long time. But that God had a plan. God knew how long they were going to be down there and He told Abraham in advance. There it is. And then when people wanted to mess them up, He says they were few in the book in verse 12, when they were but a few men in number, yea, very few and strangers in it.

Very few. Remember you had a man like Jacob and he had 12 sons. Isn’t it wonderful to have 12 good, strong, godly kids that loved the Lord, their dad, their mom and loved each other and they were just the perfect children. The reason God was able to use Joseph because they loved him the most. I hope y’all know the story of Joseph and you know that I’m not telling you the truth. They hated him. Except maybe Ruben, the oldest one.

But now they had a problem. But what had Joseph done? He hadn’t done anything bad. But you know he was He was his father’s favorite. And somebody loved him and I guess maybe this jealousy and envy and all of kind of things in there. So what did they decide to do that this young boy, what did they gonna do to him? They were gonna kill him. They put him in a pit. And then they saw some Ishmaelites coming by and saying, hey, let’s sell him.

So they sold him. Isn’t it amazing that they came by just at the right time? Just at the right time. Just coincidence. And then he goes down into Egypt. And lo and behold, he’s just minding his own business, serving God and honoring God and keeping his mouth shut and just doing right. And the Bible says over and over again, and God was with him, and God was with him, and God was with him. And then here’s this woman and she tries to get Joseph in the trouble to have sex with her.

So what did he do? He took a poll and got on the internet and says, what should I do? No, it says he grabbed his coat and ran. Isn’t that what everybody does today? See, the reason God used him is because he didn’t have the temptations like we have. He didn’t have problems like everybody loved him, except his brothers. And everything went smooth for Him except these terrible accusations that she said, He tried to rape me. So what happened to them now?

What did they do to him? They put him in prison. So he went from the pit into prison. What wrong has he done yet? And done anything wrong. Here I am trying to serve God and everything goes wrong. Welcome to the club. What did you expect? Everything to be rosy? No problems from here on end? How did you like Daniel in the closing time of his life to have to go through what he went through? How did he end up for Paul?

You know, after all those years, a Paul dedicated, serving God. How did he end up for Paul? Yeah, he got a permanent haircut. But see, they didn’t have to go through what we go through. I mean, the persecution we have today is so hard. Oh, we’re a bunch of wimps today. Just a bunch of wimps. We whine over the little list of things. And here, look what they go through and we don’t see, you know, the whining, where’s that whining chapter?

I saw in the hall of faith chapter, but the whining chapter. God, I’ll have a whole list of all of those, the whiners. Doesn’t it but whiners? So. Look what he says here in verse 16, moreover, he called for a famine upon the, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you trying to tell me that God brought the famine that caused his Jacob’s sons to have to go down into Egypt to get some bread? God caused that? Evidently God has a higher plan.

So God, the Bible says, sent Joseph down in Egypt. Bob says, God sent him. God sent him down there. Because God knew what was coming. God knew where he wanted his people to be nurtured and raised and brought up as a nation. They couldn’t take the land of Canaan. They were few in number. They didn’t have an army. They were in a nation. So God found the choicest land in all of Egypt, the land of Goshen, and gave it to them.

But you see, they wouldn’t have done it if Pharaoh didn’t like Joseph. So what in favor of light Joseph? Well because Joseph had the answer to a dream. And was able to tell him about the five fat cows and the seven skinny cows. He knew all of that. And so God has a plan and he worked. See it would be great if you and I could figure it all out ahead of time. But he didn’t tell Job all the things that was going on in his life because God was working behind the scenes.

Do you believe that God is working in your life? Maybe behind the scenes. You can’t see it. And you don’t know how it’s going to end up. It ain’t over yet. And how smooth something may be today and how catastrophic it might be tomorrow. But to believe that it was not an accident that God was caught off guard is, oh no, Oh, now what am I going to do? So every day God has to try to figure out how to get out of something.

No, he’s still on the throne. He’s in charge. Believe it or not. And so he makes this statement in verse 16, moreover he brought or caused a famine upon the land, he break the whole staff of bread. He did that., he break the whole staff of bread. For one reason, he has to let them know what was going to take place. down in Egypt, and about the seven years of plenty so that they would store up and look at the years involved in this thing.

And how God sent him down here when he was just a young kid? About 17 years of age. And the years have passed. And God is laying the foundation way in advance. You’d be surprised what God is doing in your life today for something you will not see the benefits for maybe 10, 15, 20 years down the road. He doesn’t tell us everything he’s going to do. He just wants us to trust him just to walk with him. And when it seems like everything’s going wrong, it could be that everything is going right.

That’s why sometimes I say that they say the testing, then the blessing. it could be that the testing is the blessing. Now look what else he says here. See then verse 17, he sent a man. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. Do you think God knows all the stuff that was going on? Sure. And God allowed it to happen. If God loves me, why did God allow this to happen? And why did God allow this to happen?

Because maybe God has a reason. You don’t have to know what it is. You just trust the Lord. But He says, do all things without murmuring and complaining. Ew. What did God use these guys such a great way because they didn’t have the problems like we have? You believe that? Well, there were people of light passion just like us. Well, not really like us. You know, they were super people. And you know as life has lived on for another three, four thousand years, you know people have got a lot worse than they used to be.

Did they lie back then? Did they steal back then? I think I recall the first fellow you know he killed somebody. Didn’t he kill somebody? I think he did. And didn’t have the flood and all those people were so wicked they did everything they could imagine to do. See, things ain’t changed really. People have an old sinful nature and they’re just as bad today as they were in the time of Christ as they were in the time of Moses as they were in the time of the flood.

Man’s sinful nature is sinful. And we all have a sinful nature and we all struggle. Look what else he says in verse 18, whose feet they hurt with fetters and he was laid in irons. So he went from a pit and he went into prison. And in verse 19, until the time, see that word, you ought to online, until the time, see God has a timetable. God has a reason. Until the time his word came. The word of the Lord tried him.

The word of the Lord tried him. So do you want to be used? Then you’ll have to be tried. There’s probably a lot of people that have had a lot of the same things happen to them, they don’t mature. They don’t get closer to the Lord. They complain about God and therefore God just kind of like puts them on the shelf because of their erotic attitude they may have. God, remember, is in charge. 11, trust them, serve them and be thankful for what God has for you.

Now look what else, he says. In verse 23, Israel also came into Egypt and Jacob so jerned in the land of Ham. And he increased his goods as people made them stronger than their enemies turned their hearts to hate his people. Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, verse 25. He, God, caused the people in Egypt to hate his people. And so they begin to think, hey, they’re strong. If our enemies ever attacked us, if they ever sat with them, they could wipe us out.

So they made them work and became slaves, kill all the men children so that all the little babies would be aborted, murdered. I mean, aren’t you glad we’re living in a time where we wouldn’t dare do a thing like that, kill innocent life, killing little babies. We would never do something like that. Those were barbarians back there. But do we do anything like that today? It’s been done and it’s a shame. So he makes a statement down here in verse 20, he sent Moses.

See, he sent Joseph and then he sent Moses. God did that. You see, God could have just snapped his feign on everything. So you know what I thought about. Here’s all these years of people living. 6,000, 7,000 years, all these people living going to all these things here. Well, if this is what God wants, why don’t we just eliminate of that and just give what you want? And stop all of this. Because if this is what you want, just do that.

Say, I can hide and shorten things up. If I had the ability to, like Christ, when He was here, He could write through walls, disappear. Okay, I’m going to go to Georgia. I’m in Georgia. Now, wasn’t that a lot faster than getting in the car and driving for six, seven, eight hours? I’m there. Why not let it be like that instead of all this time it’s involved? I could have a wreck. I got to stop and eat. I’m going to get tired.

Betty’s going to have to drive. So, you’re thinking about all that could be eliminated. God, you can eliminate it more if I was in charge. But you’re not in charge. God did not ask us into His private counsel so that we could counsel God on, I think you ought to do this. I think you ought to do that. I think God just, He ought to just ask, no, carry or what to do. Somebody that really knows what He’s doing.

That was a joke. It was a joke. Someone did you know that? But He sits down here and he tells us what he did. And he says here in verse 28, he sent darkness, he turned their waters in verse 32, he gave them, he smote them in verse 33, verse 34, he spake, he smote, he brought all these things. God did all of that. And yet nobody saw him. You see, all these things that he’s talking about, nobody saw God.

You see, he worked behind the scenes. And in people’s lives, they just see what’s going on. But they don’t know and couldn’t figure out that God can use the sinful man to accomplish his will. The God used Joseph’s brothers to fulfill His will, He allowed them to fulfill their evil thoughts. But God also is able to intervene wherever necessary. I think it’s awesome when you start and think about it. And yet God does not override our will. God simply uses our decisions for His honor and for His glory.

And God can do that. So I don’t want you to get discouraged because of anything that might happen to you. It could be a good day, it could be a good day tomorrow. It could be the opposite. But you know in the back of your mind, it’s alright. My God’s on the throne and he knows what he’s doing and his grace is sufficient. Isn’t that easy preaching? It’s so easy to say that. Just trust the Lord. Say it to yourself.

I’m just going to trust the Lord. Can you say that? That in your mind. I’m just going to trust the Lord. See how easy that is? Look up here. This hand is you and me, the wallet, with all of our sins. God says we have all sinned. And to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. In hell. So we’re all condemned. Christ didn’t come to condemn us. We were already condemned. That’s in John 3, 17. The Bible says that God loves us and wants us to go to heaven, but because of sin we can’t get in.

So we’ve got to do something about this. So people think if they do enough good things, it’ll cover up all these bad things they do. See there? You can’t see them. Now it’s under there. And God doesn’t see our good work. He says all of your good works are filthy rags. So we can’t save ourselves. So therefore it cannot be by works. 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 our sin separates us from Him.

So Jesus Christ took all the sin. Of all the world, Pedro on the cross and came back from the dead. And he says, the only thing anybody in the world has to do to go to heaven is to believe that he did it for them. And if you’ll believe he did it for you, he puts the payment he made to your account. You have a payment for your sins. So I can’t go to hell because I don’t have any sins to pay for it.

I have a payment for mine. They’re all paid. He did it for me. Why? Because I’m so good. No, because he loved me. I don’t deserve to go to heaven. I’m a dirty lousy thinking rotten sinner now to go to hell and I know it and you do too. But God loves us and he wants us to go to heaven so he went and paid for our sins and he only asked you, will you believe it? If you’ll believe it, you’ll be right there along with all the good guys.

You’ll be there with all the Old Testament prophets. You’ll be there with Jesus. You’ll be there with David and Joseph and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and they’ll come from the North and east and south and the west. We’ll all be together, but there’s some coming beyond the outside. They can’t come. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and thrown into the furnace of fire. It didn’t have to be that way. That’s why he pleads over and over and over again.

And he told the stories where they can understand it. They don’t listen to him. Do you know we have people today that still can’t fathom this? And even after they’re cold, it’s free. I’ll never believe that. You make it too easy. Okay, well, I’ll try to make it hard. No. God does love us. Pay for our sins. Would you believe he did it for you? How many of you in here have already believed it? Let me see him. All right, put it in time.

They’re not going to heaven because they’re good. I know some of them. It’s because they believed that when Christ died, He died for them. You can do this. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bow and every eye close, no one looking around. The cryiness of this moment, no one looking around. Would you right now just say, look, Lord, I don’t understand at all, but I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died and paid for my sins. And I don’t want to be left out.

I don’t want the weaving, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth. I don’t want to be thrown into a furnace of fire. I don’t want that. So right now, the best I know how I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. And when God said, if you’ll believe it, He will save you and give you eternal life. Would you trust Him? I pray that you will. God loves you so much. But I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand, raise and your hand doesn’t save you.

It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. I’d like to have prayer for you. I really would. So we’ll hit by a nice close. Anyone all before we close? Say yes, preacher, that made sense to me. And I will trust Christ as my Savior. My only hope of going to heaven would just slip it up very quickly, but right back down. See anyone at all. If you have already trusted Christ as your Savior, you’re God’s child.

But chances are you know people that never understood, never trusted the Lord. It’s a serious thing. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to teach your Word and pray your blessings upon those that are watching by internet those in the auditorium, help us understand your words and to take it the way we should, to believe in Christ and in God. Well, it’s almost Christmas and we’d like to give every listener a Christmas gift. Just for listening, we’d like to send Dr.

Arnold’s CD on understanding difficult passages of the Bible. No donation is required. We’ve compiled on CD Dr. Arnold’s teachings on difficult passages. For example, does James chapter 2 teach that true faith will produce works? Does 2 Corinthians 5 17 mean that a true believer will no longer desire to sin? These and many other verses are explained in their biblical context so that you can have confidence in the agreement of all the Word of God. Call us today toll free at 1-800-576-3771 or you can write us at 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

Again, no donation is necessary. Just your address so that we can send to you this important teaching. God bless you and Merry Christmas and thank you for listening to 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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.