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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.

Well, anyway, I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Joshua, Chapter 2. 2, Joshua chapter 2. My sermon today is on drawing the red line, drawing the red line. And there’s a wonderful story in the Old Testament. And it’s the story about when Joshua was going to go in to take your Jericho. He got some spies together and he’s going to send them in. and spy out the land. So here in Joshua chapter 2, page 260 in an old school feel reference Bible.

Now follow this as I read down through here. It says, and Joshua the son of none, sent out of Tatum the two men to spy secretly saying, go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into a harlot’s house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the the king of Jericho, say, and behold, there came men in hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab saying, they bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they become to search out all the country.

And the woman took the two men and hid them and said, thus, there came men unto me, but I whisked not whence they were. And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate when it was dark that the men went out. Whether the men went, I know not. Pursue after them quickly for you shall overtake them.” I think she’s lying. I think she told a lie. But in verse 6, but she had brought them up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flak which she had laid in order upon the roof.

And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords. And as soon as they were pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof. And she says, let’s make a deal. Now, she had done this before she hid them, but she knew that they were coming. So she made a deal with these guys. Hey, I’ll hide you, but do me a favor.

I want you to spare me and my whole family. Because I know you’re coming and we’re scared to death. But I want you to promise me that if I hide you, you’ll protect my life. Interesting little story. So in verse nine, and she said out of the men, I know that the Lord have given you the land, and that your terror is falling upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard, we have heard, how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when you came out of Egypt.

And what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side of Jordan, saiheun and ag, whom ye utterly destroyed. Hey, we’ve heard, we didn’t heard, and we’re scared. And in verse 11, and as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts didn’t melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. But the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my Father’s house and give me a true token, and that ye will save alive my Father and my Mother and my brother and my sisters and all they that I have and deliver our lives from death.

Who is this woman? She was a harlot. And yet she shows great concern and she believes the God of Israel is God. And she’s asking for a request. Don’t kill me and my family. In verse 14, and the men answered her our life for yours. Pretty good deal. If he utter not this our business and it shall be when the Lord have given us the land that he will deal with. kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window.

For her house was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountains lest the pursuers meet you and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers be returned and afterwards may you go your way. And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hath made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou dislet us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father’s household home unto thee.”

So they said, let down this red cord, the one that we’re going down to get out of here, We know where it is. We know what to look for. And there’s gonna be a scarlet thread. Now, you know, as you study the Bible, there’s a story about the scarlet thread all the way through the Scriptures. And we talk about the scarlet thread. We talk time, talk about the blood of Jesus Christ from one end of the Bible to the other end.

And it is our only hope, our only way. It is the only thing that protects any man is the scarlet thread. And so it says that they go down through here. But if we find that you have revealed, then the deal is off. See there in verse 20, and if thou uttered this hour business, then we will be quit or free of thine oath, which thou hath made us to swear. And she said, according unto your word, so be it.

And she sent them away and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window. So this was her means of salvation. Now you and I are told over and over again in the scripture that when I see the blood, I will pass over you when I see the blood. When I see this red line, this scarlet thread, I’ll know that this is what we are to protect because it’s the red, the scarlet color. Now, I want to just mention a couple things to you.

I have in my Bible, like some time I carry all the time, but it’s kind of old. I’ve been through it and marked it, but it’s a good little book. And I’ve referred to it many times. It’s called the, see what is this called? Yes, the Constitution of the United States. You ever heard of that? How many of y’all have heard of the Constitution of the United States? Do you know, there’s always something going on in the world, and I think there’s gonna be election coming up soon.

I’ve heard that. And there’ve been some debates going on and so forth, you know, all that kind of stuff. But I was reading this again. And I thought about, I wonder when the American people are going to draw the red line, the line by which they determined they will not let it go any further than the red line. I’ve heard a little bit about this from Benjamin Netanyahu, and I’m sure you all have two. But I was reading this and I thought, I’m just gonna share a couple thoughts with you, and then I’m gonna move on to something else, but it’s just to prove a point.

I believe it’s important. Where he makes a statement here in the preamble, he says, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they’re endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government.

Lay in its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most lightly to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long establish shall not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more are disposed to suffer. While evils are suffable, then to write themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. You may not have understood what that just said.

It’s talking about that men are more disposed to suffer while the evils are suffable. Because, well, we can accept it. It’s not that bad yet. So we accept a little of this and a little of that, and they get tighter and tighter and more rules and regulations that strangles out your life and your liberty and your pursuit of happiness. So he says here, but when a long train of abuse and use of patience pursuing invariably the same object events as a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it means you can suffer a little bit now, but you can see where it’s headed and you accept it, or you can do something about it.

I thought it’s interesting. It says this, it is their right. It is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. And he goes on, There’s a few more things. In other words, we got our rights from God, not from government. And we can only give to our government that which you had the right to do. You see, if government has any rights, it had to get them from somebody who had the right.

Individuals have rights. Unalienable rights means they were given to them by God. I didn’t get my rights from you or anybody else. Every individual answers to God. God gave to us the right to life. And the right to live means there’ll be free to live so that I don’t fence you in and box you up and put you in a jail and restrict your freedom. Whether by putting you behind the bars in a jail to so regulate you that you can’t move.

Both become the prison. And this is about where we are in America. But because it happens slowly, little by little, the American people so well, we’re suffering, but we can keep going a little more, but what direction do you see it going? And then to understand that it is the duty, the right of every American to throw off such government that seeks to destroy and take away our freedom. Now nobody wants to talk about this, but somewhere along the line, the American people have to draw a line, draw that red line.

What is that red line? And I haven’t heard one politician, not one congressman, nobody running for office, the presidency. Nobody knows when nor where nor how to draw that red line. That means how much are you going to take? How much will we take? And it keeps going in the same direction at what point? Do you draw the red line? Let me just mention this to you, because of the importance of this, and this is something that every school child needs to study.

Every parent needs to know. Every politician ought to know what’s in this little document. We have been so blessed, and we say, God bless America. Well, I believe I want God to bless America. But America also needs to be a nation under God. If we’re under God’s power, under God’s authority, and we want to submit to the Word of God and the laws of God, then we don’t make laws contrary to the life, liberty, and pursuit of individuals. So before some of those colonies would give their full attention to all of this, they said there had to be something else happen.

And have you ever heard a thing called the Bill of Rights? Anybody ever heard of the Bill of Rights? Let me see here, okay, sorry. A couple of y’all have, I’m not very good. But this is just kind of what it mentioned. And this was written in 1791. And it says this, the conventions of a number of the states, heaven at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added.

In other words, limiting what Congress can do to the states or to the people. They saw that if government is not restrained, government will run everything and take away all of our rights and freedom because they’ll keep growing and growing and growing and get bigger and bigger and bigger until that place. All the states become subservient to the federal government. And that’s not what the purpose of this government was set up for. You see, whatever they did not give to them, the power remained to the states and to the people to do what we want to do.

they were our servants and not our kings. I think they forget this just a tad. And this is one of them. Let me just mention this to you. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Congress cannot make a law touching religion. They can’t make one for or against it. Can’t do it. It doesn’t matter what they think is the best and what they like and don’t like. They can’t tell the Catholic Church what to do, whether abortion or not abortion or contraceptives.

Can you believe that anybody’s even talking about stuff like that? People used to be ashamed. They didn’t talk about stuff like that. Why? Because it was nobody’s business. And I just mentioned this to you. No extra charge for this. I do not believe that any individual should pay for the sins of another. If you want to sin, okay, but most sins are considered crimes. A man committed to sin. He committed to murder. He killed somebody. There will be a law against that.

Well, there are. But you don’t pass a law taking money from me so to cover your sin. Is there somebody who wants to abort a child or to keep from getting pregnant? Why in the world would you want somebody else got to pay for it? Stupid. Now, because I’m moving right along. Now remember, now I’m a man of grace. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And then he goes on to say this.

Article two. a well-regulated militia be necessary to the security of a free state. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Congress is not to make laws concerning gun control. They don’t have no authority. The states have the right to have militia where the people in the individual states should have a gun in order to secure their rights and who is going to be the biggest enemy who did they found in fathers deemed to be the biggest problem to the free states and to the individuals in America their own government this is not talking about external government federal government will take care of that but inside of our own country.

We are not to let our federal government get so big that they can control us. How are we doing? How are we doing? Somebody forgot something. Now listen to me well. I believe that our federal government ought to fear the people in America. But today the people fear our government. Ain’t that the truth? We’re scared to death to violate one of our regulation, they’re going to come and get us. They’re going to take everything we own. That ought not to be.

We should dwell safely without government destroying our rights and our freedom. And when you make this statement, a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security, if you see what is going on somewhere along the line, somebody’s going to have to draw a red line. Said, that’s enough. It should have already been drawn. It should never have gotten this far. We are guaranteed by the Constitution that we have the right for a Republican form of government, a Republican form of government.

I’m not talking about a Republican part. I’m talking about a Republican form of government. We are not to go towards socialism. not become a communist state. That is not what our Constitution and if we see it going in that direction it is the right and the duty. For every American citizen to rise up in arms against those who would take away our freedoms. And what do we do? Zero. Anyway, somewhere along the line, a line has to be drawn.

Somewhere somebody’s going to have to come on the scene and say, look, when or lose the election, that’s not the direction this country is supposed to go. Because if not, the day will come. You will not have the job you have and you will not make what you make and you will not keep what you keep and you will not have the family you have and you will not have the church that you have. You will have the government that you have.

Your freedoms will be lost and it will be lost because we would not fight for our freedoms. This freedom that we have right now is because somebody fought and died to give it to us. us, and we shame and dishonor every one of those veterans that fought for this country when we refuse to stand up for our country and do what needs to be done for our country. That was point number two. Number three, anybody ever heard of a place called the Alamo?

The Alamo? You know with John Wayne? David Crockett? And he drew the line in the sand and says, all those that are on this side, you come over here and rest of you can go home. But if you cross that line, you know you’re gonna die. Oh, I love that movie. I’ve watched it three times and John Wayne died all three times. I thought after about 34th time you’d figure out a way to keep from dying. You ever heard this Benjamin Netanyahu, he got up there and he had this picture of a ball and he drew a line.

He drew a line and says, if I ran goes at this far, we know. That’s a red line. We can’t let him cross that line. Our administration says nothing to worry about. Everything’s on the control. Question number one, has he ever been wrong before? Has he ever told a lie before? What if he’s wrong on his prescription for solving the problem? What does little Israel do? Israel can’t afford to be wrong. We can afford to be wrong. They can’t afford to be wrong.

Would you like to base your existence as a nation upon somebody else who says, I don’t see a problem, not really. I don’t think there’s no word. It’s just a little obitii country over there, you know, Iran. And so he says, we have to draw a line. He even wanted our president administration to draw a line. Tell us, where’s the line? Where is that point when you say no more? You don’t go no further. Well, we’re just going to guarantee that they’re not going to produce the bomb.

Okay. At what point? Where do you draw this line? You don’t think it’s important? I believe that it’s very, very important. Let me ask you another question. Point number four. Oh, you didn’t know this is a seven point outline. We’re on number four. Say we’re moving right along. Number four, when things are really going bad, financially with you. You know when you get all these problems and a lot of time when you have financial problems, you go through a financial advisor.

Even when I was in Colorado and I had a church there, we had one here and I had to teach some concerning, you know, the college kids, I’d always start out and not try to teach them how to do a budget. How to do a budget. A lot of families today live on them according to a budget. Well a church, we have a budget. Most churches have a budget. Most homes have a budget. It means that if you make this much and you spend too much, you’re gonna have a deficit.

You’re gonna have a problem. You’re gonna owe more than you pay. So you got to make a problem, a situation. So you look at how much comes in, how much goes out, how much is left. Isn’t that a simple thing? But when you make a budget and you really want to work, you just put a red line upon yourself. You’re saying, I make this much, I can only spend this much, I can only spend this much. Because you know if you spend more than what you make, you’re in what?

You’re in trouble. You’re in trouble, and a lot of homes are in trouble today because you see they have more going out than they have coming in. Now, when it comes to our government, the Senate has a responsibility to come over to budget, and their budget is a limitation. It means that we can’t do more than this. We can’t spend more than this. But when you don’t want to worry about that because you want it unlimited, then you don’t come up with a budget because a budget limits you.

Tells you what you can’t do. You can’t go past this. It’s a line in the sand. You can’t go past that. And so for almost four years, there hasn’t been a budget. Why? Because it puts a line in the sand. It tells you you can’t go over that. And see, if I don’t have this line, then I can just spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. It won’t matter.

And there’s people trying to run our country this way. It’s good or bad. It’s bad. It’s not good. It’s because you see, people don’t want to make a line. Or let me just mention this to you. Number six, I think. Jesus Christ. Did you know that Jesus Christ put a line in the sand? And what He said was, you’re saved by grace, not by works. If you want to go to heaven, you have to get on this side of the line.

You see, here’s grace and there’s works. That’s where you are. But if you want to go to heaven, there’s the line. You have to accept it by grace. And if you don’t accept it by grace, you don’t get to go. The Lord has made a line. You see, when Jesus Christ came into the world, the Bible says that He made a payment for the sins of the world, and that He shed His blood for all the people of the world.

But he made a line in the sand says, only those that believe I did it for them can have eternal life. Only them can know they’re going to heaven when they die. There’s a verse in the Bible that talks about in the book of Acts in chapter four and verse 12. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no other name that’s a line in the sand. It means that you either accept it God’s way you don’t get to go.

There’s a line drawn. It’s not like anybody can believe anything they want, just as long as you’re sincere. It doesn’t matter what religion you belong to. It doesn’t matter what church you go to. It doesn’t matter. Yes, it does because he made a line in the sand and he says, it’s only by grace. It’s not by worth. And if you try to get there by your works, you can’t know. Hello, this is Peter Amato from Bibleline, and I’m excited to tell you of our free book offer for the month of January.

During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send to you the mysteries of the New Testament. Have you ever wondered what the mystery of the gospel was or the mystery of the blindness of Israel? How about the mystery of Babylon? Well, we’re featuring a book written by Dr. Dan Arbeghast that explains all these mysteries found in the New Testament, and we’d like to send a copy to you for a donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, or you can call toll free at 1-800-576-3771.

We hope you enjoy the teaching of Dr. Arnold, and thank you for your continued support and prayers. Once again, contact us today for this wonderful book on the mysteries of the New Testament. 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. to live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.