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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 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.

There’s always something going on in our lives that makes us put aside the things that are so important. And we get so buried sometimes with a lot of little bitty things, little bitty stuff. And sometimes God has to ring our bell to get us to realize, hey, there’s something more important. You didn’t lose focus. You’re not honed in like you ought to be. So this is what he says. Concerning it, what is your life? Look what he says. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes the way.

That’s us. Compared to eternity, we are just a little vapor, just a breath. We’re just here not very long and then we’re gone. You know it wasn’t too long ago that I was running around barefooted, back with Georgia, where my overalls, no shirt, no shoes, no socks, Barefoot didn’t run in all over the place. And all of a sudden, 70 years has passed. And they were in the world at the time go. Where’s it gone? I was talking to Dr.

Posten I think just today. I said, you realize in eight years, just little old bitty eight years. Just little old bitty eight years. I’ll be 81 years old. Now don’t that blow your mind? If it doesn’t bother you, it does mine. I’m going to be an old man soon. Don’t you even say it. Remember, respect your elders. But we’re changing. We’re always changing. We’re getting older and all. Now take your Bible and turn all the way back here to the 90th Psalm, the 90th Psalm.

And I told you all this before a lot of times when I do a funeral I love to read the 90th Psalm because there’s a one main verse that I like in this whole 90th Psalm. I mean the whole thing is good but there’s one verse that really sticks out to me and I want you to look at that verse 12. Teach us. See that verse 12? Teach us. So teach us to do what? To number our days. How do you number your days?

I don’t know. I mean, days I’m going to have. You know, it didn’t say number of your years. Number of your days. You’re not going to be here long. We’re going to be moving out one of these days. Anybody ever heard that song, some glad morning when this life is or isle, lie away. Well, let’s see there in verse 10, last part of verse 10, for it is soon cut off and we what? We fly away. Don’t that sound good?

When he’d date him, I’ll fly out of here. I was listening to the radio the other day, coming over here to the church. They had a song on there and you could tell it was Some color folks were singing the song. Swing down, we’d carry to stop and let me rise. And it was just going on and they were… No. . . . . . . . They’re singing it, but there’s about two or three other verses singing it all at the same time.

And they’re just, oh, it came out, they were great. And I’m next to you know, I don’t have a foot pedal, just to go to the area. You ever give it gas according to beat? And so I’m listening to this thing here, and I’m pitching this through Jerry to stop letting me ride. Don’t you all sing it in the choir, I’m just saying it’s just, I don’t care. I thought, wouldn’t that be a way to go, coming down to get me in a big old chariot?

And I wouldn’t mind it if everybody saw me when I go. But you know, the Bible says, and I believe that Abraham was carried by the angels in Abraham’s bosom. He was carried by the angels. So I got my guardian angels. They’re going to say, finally we got him. Let’s get him out of here. and they don’t carry me away, I’m going to fly away. But when he sits down here in verse 12, so teach us to number our days and look at the rest of it and to apply our hearts unto wisdom.

We wise enough to do that. The reason we study the Bible because God wants you to know, you don’t have a lot of time. Get all the wisdom you can as quickly as you can. This is why kids that have been taught the Word of God from a child up, they have an advantage if they use it. But a lot of them don’t even appreciate some time if they come from a Christian home or if they even went to a Christian school.

Sometimes when they take all that knowledge, everything they will learn and as soon as they get old enough to get on their own, they go wild. You think they could have been so wise. They were given the tools by which to discern, and then they throw it all away. Wouldn’t it be a shame for God to say, number your days and apply your hearts into wisdom, and you blow it, you throw it all away. You waste your whole life for a few small things here in this life that will not last.

in this world will last. Why would you chase anything in this world and give up all that God has for a few little pleasures in this world when God has so much and it will be worth it all when we get to heaven? Look over in verse 1, he says, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling plays in all generations before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world. even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Thou turneth man to destruction, because all men have sinned, all men will die. All these bodies we have are going to be destroyed. These bodies cannot last. They’re not meant to last. Or the ones that Adam and Eve got, if they hadn’t ascended, so be walking around here today. Wanna be something? But he says in verse three, say, In return ye children of men. So you see, God created us, and now death is a man returning to meet his maker.

Death is a man returning to meet his maker. God made you you’re going to die. You’re going to be destroyed and you can’t stop it. And you don’t know how much time you have. So God says, apply your hearts under wisdom. Teach us to number our days, to see how important every day is. What’s the value of every day? And so He says here in verse 4, for a thousand years in thy sight or but his yesterday when it is passed and is a watch in the night.

Thou carry us them away as with the flood that they are as a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grow with up. Now in the book of James it talks about this also and how that we’re just like grass it grows up and the heat comes out and we’re dead. So we’re not going to last forever. It wasn’t long before, since Tyler was just a cute little kid. Betty used to have me in her Sunday school class, I think.

Maybe not, I remember. Did you ever have me in class? Huh? You had Trent? Okay. But it wasn’t long ago. He was a cute little kid. Now look at him. Now he’s a big kid not cute anymore. One of these days you’re gonna be a man. But he’s changing, he’s growing. You know, some people never make it that far. I’ve had funerals for little kids and I’ve had funerals for teenagers. I’ve had funerals for big adults and I’ve had, you know, really up their age.

And it is so much better to do a funeral for somebody that you know is trusted Christ a Savior. One of the hardest struggles that I have is when you don’t know, and nobody seems to know if that person had trusted Christ. then you can’t really say. And so sometimes the preacher, you know, in order to comfort everybody make everybody feel good. Sometimes the preacher goes too far and says too many nice things about the person laying in the casket.

And this one preacher was up there and just bragging about what a wonderful husband he was, what a wonderful father he was. And so the mama said not there. She says, go up here and look at that casket and see if that’s your daddy. You can see somebody else might not see them the same way, but the days are short and we’re going to be out of here. So he says, a thousand years in his sight is like that.

Now that’s a long time for us, but when you compare to eternity, our lives are not very long. And so if a man is wise and knowing that this is only the staging area, we’re just getting ready, getting prepared for eternity. We’re just getting prepared to meet God. You see, none of us have seen Him yet. We’re just preparing to meet Him. And I think you should want to do all that you can, in every way that you can, for as long as you can, as diligently as you can, because you know you’re going to see Him soon.

And as He says, be wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is, redeeming the time, using your time that you have as fruitful as you possibly can. I was at the house today and we saw somebody was moving in next door to it. I went in there and I sat down and I got my Bible out and I sat there and I read most of this afternoon. And I sat there and I read and I study. I go back and forth and all over the place.

Sometimes I just get caught up in it and I can’t. The next thing Betty will come in, she says, Yankee. Oh, I don’t fell asleep. You ever sit down and start reading? They just fall asleep. It’s always a good sleep. She goes, and she came in the door. I said, I didn’t even know you left. She’d gone next door and passed out about what, 15 Spanish tracks. So she was out of evangelizing where her meno huddersman’s in the house they’re just reading and studying.

But it is it’s redeeming the time taking advantage of an opportunity. But look what else he says here. In verse 5, thou carryest them away as with a flood they are as a sleep in the morning. They are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourish it and grow a thought in the Eden it’s cut down and wither it and you don’t believe you’re gonna wither when you get old you just look at the old folks we start withering and hair starts falling out and all kind of thing here in the you know whatever the body is going to die and it’s already starting to destroy itself and sometimes you want to can how long am I gonna get and And you know, years ago, just think about it when the founder of this country, when they didn’t even have hospitals.

You didn’t even have to worry about Obamacare because nobody cared. There was no hospitals along the way and they were in wagons going across and, you know, there was not doctors everywhere. And it’s amazing how they managed to live and survive. Of course, most of them didn’t live past 35. But they kept plowed on. And now we’re so concerned, so concerned. Get what he says here. When he says here in verse 7, 4, we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

Because of sin, we are in a sinful world. We’re in a crooked and perverse generation, which those that know the Lord are to shine as children of light. So we have something but it’s temporary. It’s temporary, our time here. And the time that we have, we got to watch it. We don’t just blow it all. Just the waste our time. You got to have some time. It’s downtime because the body can’t go all the time. You got to have some time.

It’s a little rest in relaxation. And the Bible talks about that Jesus took his disciples and they went apart from the people for some rest and so on. And I was always told that if you don’t come apart, you will come apart. to come apart, get away, or you’re going to come apart, you’re going to lose it. And so you have to be very careful. Then look what he says here in verse 8, Thou have set our iniquities before the our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

Do you think God sees not only the thing that everybody else sees, but he sees the sins of the mind. He sees everything. And there’s no reason for God to let any man keep living because all have sinned. And the law says, the soul that sin of shall die, and so we all have to die. And then he makes his statement. First nine, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told.

It doesn’t take long to tell a tale. It may take you 50 years to live it, but two or three minutes to tell it. And there are sometimes there’s not many highlights in our life. You know one of the reasons that I do this, because I was always told when I was in Bible College, Ralph Dantfra always said it. He says, when I tell a joke, I tell it three or four times right away, because every time I tell it, it puts a crease in your brain.

And once you get the crease in there, it’ll always be there. You know, it’s like permafrost. You put it in there. And he says, if you’ll just do that, you can remember it better. Years down the road, you can remember them. So I started telling the joke, as soon as I’m telling something, I’d tell three or four people right away. Then I could remember that joke. But if I don’t, it’s gone. I can never recall. And I’ve heard it now, oh, it’s so funny, it was so good.

Can’t remember it. Have you ever been there? It’s gone, but you know it was good. You just can’t recall it. You don’t know where to find it at, a little filing cabinet up here at yours. And so I found out if I tell my stories, so over the years I have told a lot of stories, that now I don’t have to work at remembering them. I can remember so many stories and my life has been full of a lot of stories because I love stories and I find out that people love to hear stories.

Jesus when He was here was the greatest master storyteller there is. Nobody can tell a story like Jesus. So if you look at this when it makes a statement, all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are three score and ten plus three. And you know what it said? Well it should have. This does not mean you are automatically guaranteed to live 70 years.

It’s a general principle in the Word of God. It’s a good average. If God gave you 70 years, wouldn’t that be wonderful? But what if he let you live to be 80 years? Well then he says there that if by reason of strength because you’re able your body you can go and reason of strength there be four score years that’s 80 years yet is their strength labor and sorrow and it is soon cut off you’re not gonna last too much longer isn’t amazing that was done you know almost 3,000 years ago and Here it is today, and it’s still pretty close ain’t it?

Still pretty close. But before the flood, to that perfect environment, people lived for a long time. How would you like to live? Eight, nine hundred years. You know, if you were in good health, that would be great. But would you like to be in bad health and live? I only got 500 years ago with this cough. I broke my leg and it didn’t heal right. And I got to walk around with a bum leg for, you know, 600 more years.

Well, it would be torture. But I’m glad he got us for gracious, and he doesn’t let us stay like this that long. And so he says, we are soon cut off. The Bible says in the book of Daniel in chapter 9 where it says about the Messiah, that when he comes he will be cut off. We will be cut off. This is when Jesus came and he says the axe is laid to the root of the tree. It means every tree is going to be cut down.

Everybody is going to die. So the most important thing is where are you going to spend eternity? So all of life is just getting ready to meet God, preparing for eternity. And what we have when we get to heaven is a result of what we did for the Lord, and those little short years that God gave us to live. And it’s just loaded with problems, which means it’s just loaded with opportunities. So God is going to give us a lot of opportunities to earn some rewards.

And He gives rewards. That’s what we used to tell the kids, you know, go to camp. We’ll have some, we’ll give a present to whoever can win the Bible drill. And then we’ll give some to somebody who can never answer the questions of the previous meetings or something. And sometimes we’re going to have a race and we’ll give a prize. Whoever wins the volleyball contest or whoever does this, and they get to go to the line first, we’re always trying to figure out a way to motivate people.

Well, God has a lot of things in your life, and he will use trials, remember trials are opportunities. Don’t curse the trials or the testings or all the hard times you have. Don’t begrudge those times. They just reveal to you that, hey, God’s fixing to bless you with an opportunity so you can be found faithful. A problem is just something that needs to be solved. And you and God could solve anything. You and God, between the two of you, you know everything here is to know.

Between you and God, y’all can do anything. As long as it’s you and God. So whatever you can’t do, he can, as long as you understand that. But without him, how much can you do? Nothing. Where does it say in the Bible, for I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me? Philippians 4, 13? Is that where it is? That’s right. All right. Can you see that? He’s all right.

All right, look down in verse 14. Verse 14, oh, satisfy us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. All our days. Does God want you to be glad all of your days? That’s what he says. But there’s things that’s going to happen, but the only reason you can be glad is if you understand the purpose of why God does what he does and the way that he does it. So if you can understand the ways of God, the word of God, It can greatly help you as you walk with the Lord.

Look up here. This is still, I believe, the most important thing in all the world. And sometimes you wonder whether or not anybody ever learns it. That little daughter of mine, she’s a sharpest little daughter anybody ever had. You know that girl, she’s strong, she is strong. She’s too strong. She’ll come up behind me and totally put on her and totally me clean off the ground. I said, Trina, put me down. She’ll hold me up off the ground. Trina put me down.

And she got my arms tied down like that. And I can’t move. She loves it. I know, but she does. Being able to throw her daddy around like that, but you know, you watch them when they’re little kids, and you watch them grow up. And you never know if what you taught is going to stick with them. You pray that it does. But you can’t live their life for them. You have to let them go and let God teach and train them.

We can’t always walk through life holding everybody’s hand. I can’t do that with yours. I’m only one guy who’s hanging what I hold. I only got one down here and that’s what I’m all over in. And so you learn how to walk with the Lord and just let the Lord hold your hand. He says, I will uphold you. In no time will he let you go. He’ll never catch you out and never lose you. You’re in God’s hand. Believe it.

This is you and me. This hand represents you and me. And the wallet represents all the things that we’ve done that’s wrong. God calls it sin. We may call it a mistake, but God calls it sin. We may not think it’s that bad, but just one smallest sin you’ve ever done. The whitest sin you’ve ever committed. Won’t let you go into heaven. That’s how bad it is. The lightest sin, the littlest sin, the whitest sin, is so bad God won’t let you in.

So God says, He loves us, but He hates what we do wrong. And because we committed the sin, we have to pay for it. And that’s the eternal separation from God in hell, but God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We’ve all come short. We’re all sinners. And the Bible says you cannot save yourself.

You cannot earn your way to heaven by your good deeds. See, go into church and things like that and give them money. That’s good. But see, if you try to save yourself because of those things, then God says you’re trying to earn it and you can’t have it. Not of works means not of works. Not of works. It means that’s off the table. It means you can’t do that. That’s one thing you can’t do is you cannot earn it.

Heaven is not a reward for people who did good. The sin represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord. So the Bible says Christ took the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. And God says that if you and I, if we would believe He did that for us, He would put that payment to our account, He would save us from hell.

So I don’t have to go there. All my sins have been paid, but I haven’t accepted the payment He made for me. God says, if I would believe He did it for me, He would give me as a free gift everlasting life, and I would go to heaven on what Christ did for me. And He says, these things have are written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and maybe you’ve never trusted the Lord, would you just honestly just talk to the Lord right now and say, Lord, I don’t understand it. I don’t like that question. It got doubts. A friend, everybody does. Maybe there’s a lot of things you don’t know, don’t understand, but you know this, you know you’re, you know you’re a sinner, you know you’re not perfect, And you know that you’re going to die.

Would you take God in his word and believe that if you die you’re going to hell and you don’t want to go there. So the best thing to do, the only thing you can do is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Would you believe that when he died he did it for you? God said if you’ll believe that he’ll save you, give you eternal life and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you. And I pray that you will.

I’ve done so. I did that a few years ago. So if you’re here tonight and you say, preg to that made sense to me, or if you’re watching by internet, would you trust Christ as your savior? And if you will, I’d like to know and I’d like to ask you just to slip you in a very quickly and better wrap back down. You’re anywhere at all. You’re anywhere at all. Our follow we thank you so much for your blessings.

Thank you for the opportunity we’ve given us. To come together and fellowship with one another, to share these thoughts. And follow sometimes we just need to be reminded of things that we should have learned so that we could teach your word. Let’s each one here and help each one in Christ’s name we pray. Hello, this is Peter Amato from Bibleline. We hope you’ve enjoyed the message from Dr. Arnold and pray that Bibleline is helping you to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And thanks for your donations and support of Bibleline, we’d like to send Dr. Arnold’s complete teaching on the Book of Revelation. Both on one disc are 27 lessons in MP3 format of all 22 chapters of the revelation of Jesus Christ that was given to the Apostle John. Dr. Arnold provides clear insight and understanding to this often misunderstood book and for a donation in any amount we’d like to send this gift to you today. You may contact us by calling 1-800-576-3771 or by mail to 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. Once again, thank you for supporting Bibleline, and may God richly bless you. 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.