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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

David, come up here a minute. Come on up there, man. Just come up here. I’m not going to have you sing or anything like that. All right, this is Devon. He’s a great kid. Here it is. And we’re thankful that we have him in the college. But I want to just show you just a little bit of the difference between Old Testament and New Testament. And that is, this is the man. And my coat, well, the coat is the Holy Spirit.

So in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon the man and give him the power to do whatever God wanted him to do. It was not to save him, it was to use him. He was chosen by God to be a vessel that God can use. So even with Gideon, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, the spirit of the Lord came upon him. And you’ll find that mentioned also in other places in the Old Testament.

And so So even David prayed, Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Now in the New Testament it’s a little different. Well it’s a lot of difference. So in the New Testament, this is Devon over here. And this is the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit wants to get on the inside of Devon and now he works from within before He works from without. So now He says He will indwell Him forever. So He’s gonna be on the inside of us.

So the Holy Spirit now lives within us and our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit. And there is a difference. And the Holy Spirit will never leave you and never forsake you. So thank you, Devin. And the Old Testament came upon, but in the New Testament to dwell within. One was to use for a certain purpose and in leave, but now the Holy Spirit indwells us forever. Now, you hear a lot of on football and Monday morning quarterbacks and all kinds of things that lets you realize that you’re supposed get in the game instead of just sitting on the sidelines criticizing.

Now when it comes to serving the Lord you’ll find out there’s many of the people in the Bible. They not all were top notch individuals. Their lives weren’t always that clean. God even uses sometimes vessels that were not exactly usable to the place where God would get all the credit and the glory. There’s people who did wrong. And so when you read the Bible, you’ll see you think, why did God use that person? The same reason he uses people like that today.

The best thing to do is try to live as clean as you can, as strong as you can for the Lord. So God can really use you. Now, a man by the name of Theodore Roosevelt, he made this statement. And I love statements like this because it helps me to know how I’m supposed to think. He said, it is not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled. Because if you decide to serve a Lord, somebody’s always waiting for you to fall.

if you commit yourself to serving the Lord, you are a natural rebuke to those who don’t. And therefore, there’s a lot of people who want to just stay lukewarm. They’re not hot, they’re not cold, but if you got hot, it would reveal how lukewarm they are. So they don’t look too bad as long as everybody’s the same. But when one person steps forward and does something different, then it’s like a rebuke to them, like a slap in their face.

I remember when I was at Florida Bible College, we had to take a class call, public speaking. And I guess it was good for me because I was scared to death to get up in front of people. I know you probably don’t believe that, but it was the truth. And our teacher told us that we had to step up in front of the class and say, I know men and their reins are going to stay in the ring. Why?

Because they don’t have the ability to get things done. And every one of us goes up there and say exactly the same words. Exactly the same thing. Well me and Bob Ryan and ourselves and others, we got up there and we really acted at our and we poured it on, we pounded a pulpit and we screened hard as loud as we could. And so we got a good grade, you know. That’s what the teacher wanted, that’s what we did.

And it was try to come out of your shell, forget for a moment and just holler and raise your voice. Say something. So we’d do it. And then we’re sitting there on the front row and there’s this girl. And her name was Marie Mosher. But Marie was come up to the platform and men were sitting right there on the front row. And I don’t know where in the world Bo got this from, but he did it. He had a great big old lemon cut in half.

And when she got ready to do hers, he went and she got there and says, I love you, I can And it was so funny. It was so funny. We laughed and laughed and our tears went down our faces. Well, the teacher didn’t know what was going on because he was in the back grade, you know. And she was mad. She was mad. We were all laughing. It was so funny. You’re not supposed to do that. I don’t do that anymore because now I’m more mature, swab, you know, and all that stuff.

But there was a time, and I didn’t do that. Well, Brian did it. that so she tried to start again so she did and did the same thing. Anyway the teacher came up in Diner, he could see something was going on and so he took us up to the back of the class and so they went ahead with it and everybody did alright you know. But you know there’s just something in some people that are just meanness you know and they were God can’t use people like that.

Can you find out? Well sometimes people mess up. I used to tell the kids in Ranch, and there was in college, and you work with people, and you’ve got all these kids on the buses. And there’s always one loud mouth on the bus. There’s always one smart aleck. I says, give them a job. Get letting them be the leader. They want to be a leader. Channel it. Don’t stifle it. Let them be the leader. Get them to lead the singing.

Do the clap and do something. Give orders. Let you tell them what to do. And they develop, that it really does. And so when it comes to certain, oh Lord, sometimes you have to try to figure how to use people the way they are. It would be so neat if we could just get everybody spiritually minded, holy, and godly, and everybody did right. But I haven’t found it quite like that yet. Everybody’s in the process of being rebuilt, remade, God’s working on us.

Know that little song, God’s still working on me? Well, he says, the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, sweat, and blood, who strives violently, who airs and comes up short again and again, who knows the great devotions, the great enthusiasm, who at best knows victory, and who at worst if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who never knew victory nor defeat.

And in Winston Churchill said this, to each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very great special thing. You need to them and fit it to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour. You see, the light shines the brightest when it’s the darkest. And sometimes, somewhere along the line, the Lord may just tap you on the shoulder and have something for you that could be your finest hour, that one great opportunity to do something really great that God wants to do, and you blew it because you were unprepared.

Or you didn’t perceive it to be great enough for you. And so I think it’s better that if you learn how to just be faithful, and the courage that you may be looking for might be that simple little day by day quiet type of courage that just goes through life and you faithfully do what God wants you to do. And leave it to God to bring across that great big opportunity should he do so. But if you’re faithful in little things when the big times come, if they do, you’ll be prepared to take advantage of it.

So just keep that in mind. I also wanted to read this to you because this is so prevalent in the time in which we live and yet it’s not anything new. I want to tell you this story about a man named Sam. Sam was an only child. Sam was born to Christian parents who loved the Lord. He did not live here in the United States but lived in a different country. Sam’s parents tried their best to raise him to love the Lord and dedicated him to the Lord.

There was Christian communities around in this country. When Sam got old enough they tried their best to get him to marry a good Christian girl. Sam had an eye for worldly girls and he found a beauty but But she was not a Christian. She was not a good girl and did not come from a good home. They got married against his parents’ wishes. They fought over a lot of stupid stuff. Her love was for worldly things, idled and sinful friends.

She nagged a lot. She was one of those girls who would cry until they got what they wanted. She would throw words at him like, you only hate me and you do not love me. me they finally separated. When Sam did go back to wrecking Sal, he found her living with his best friend. In fact, this friend had been the best man in his wedding. He left and surely after this she was killed in a fire. He had nothing to do with her death.

It was as though God had worked in his behalf and his parents were happy. That’s not all. You think, well, the man finally has learned his lesson, but Sam fell in love with another girl. Her name was BD. She was not a Christian. You would think Sam would have learned his lesson, but he had not. Sam had gotten a very important job in this country. It was a judgeship. As a judge, Sam tried to deal right, but he was hated by some of the people.

as a judge, they considered him a foreigner and would like nothing more than to see him disappear. They said about to make that happen. Those that did not like Sam found out that Dee Dee was the love of Sam’s life. So they came to Dee Dee and offered her a very large sum of money if she would participate in kidnapping him. Evidently it was enough money for her to go through with it. When Sam and Dee Dee were in one of their little love games and he was at least expecting that she notified them and they went through with the planned.

Dee Dee left a very wealthy girl. What they did first to him was not a pretty thing. They tortured Sam, blinded him for life. Sam was made to do very hard labor. Sam did not live much longer. Sam’s life was cut short by the bad choices that he made. Choices have consequences. Bad choices have deadly consequences. And I imagine by the time I finish reading that little story you have an idea who I’m talking about. I mean you know who I’m talking about.

Talking about Samson and Delilah. Have you ever heard of them? It’s almost like you was talking about somebody today. true, some little soap offer maybe. But this is what happens when you get away from doing what God wants you to do. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Judges, the book of Judges, in the book of Judges. To understand a little bit about Samson, you need to know a little bit about his parents, how God set all of this up.

Samson being born was the will of God. You see, they had been underneath the Philistines for about 40 years, and God was sitting about to deliver them. And so he told this young couple, in verse 2, of the 13th chapter of the book of Judges. And there was a certain man of Zora, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoa, and his wife was Baron and Bernard. They didn’t have a child. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art Baron.

not. But thou shalt conceive and bear a son.” And it’s something when the Lord can come to you and say, hey, you’re going to get pregnant, you’re going to have a child, it’s going to be a boy, and this is what I want you to call him. I mean, that’s pretty good. But God knows the future. There’s things that God wants done, and God can work in people’s lives. He works with sinful people. There are no perfect people, but God has a plan.

In verse 4, now, therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and need not any unclean thing. For lo thou shalt conceive and bear a son, no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite, unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistine. So God wanted this special man to do something special for God. And you notice that you read the stories and as we talked about last week about Gideon, none of them are all done exactly the same way.

God is a God of diversity. God can use a lot of different kinds of people. We talked about Gideon. He was, you know, a little fella from a little tribe and poor didn’t have anything of the tribe of to Manasseh, and the Lord says, Thou might He man of valor. And He turned around ten times, looking for who in the world He talking about. And God used a man who had all kinds of questions in doubt. But now this man was a little bit different.

You’ve heard the story of Samson, strongest man that ever lived, the strongest man that ever lived. I what he looked like. I don’t know if he had rippling muscles all over his body, you know, built a little bit like myself, you know. Okay, James Hayshlip, maybe a little bit better. But here you have a story of how it began and that God had a plan. Wouldn’t it be neat if everybody would just fully, totally give the Lord all their hearts?

See, a lot of times people know what to do. They know what’s right, but they won’t do what’s right. It’s like they do just enough to keep God from zapping them. Instead of just getting His close to the Lord and want to serve God with everything they have. But when you don’t there’s a price to pay. But look what He says. I think it’s so important to see what the angel of the Lord told the wife and the husband about this child.

Because there’s some good questions in here or comments I should say. So He then He says here in verse 6, then the woman came and told her husband, said, hey, a man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very terrible. But I asked him not when he was. Neither told me his name. But he came and said unto me, behold thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine or strong drink.

Neither eat any unclean thing for the child shall be a Nazarite to God, from the womb to the day of his death. In other words, a man totally that supposed to be set apart and given for God to use. And he started with the parents. And so he says here in verse 8, then Manoa entreated the Lord and said, Oh my Lord, let the man of God which thou did sin come again unto us and get this. Now this part you ought to underline it in your Bible in this verse.

But look at it because it’s very important. Teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. Isn’t that a good verse for every man and woman that has a child? If you’re going to have a child, shouldn’t you seek the Lord? Lord, teach us what we need to know to teach this child. I just love that verse to which worded. And God harkened to the voice of of Manoa and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoa, her husband, was not with her.

And the woman made haste and ran and showed her husband, said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. And Manoa rose and went after his wife and came to the man and said unto him, Art thou the man that spake unto the woman? And he says, I am. And Manoa said, Now let thy words come to pass. Now get this part. This is also very important. The words here. How shall we order the child?

They knew this child was to be a special child. You know, I’ve always thought I had three children. Bobetti had three children. We had three children. And we felt every one of our children was different and unique and special. My mama had six kids. I was the third. So there was two girls older than me. And then there was another sister, Kay. And then there was a little man. And then there was a sibble. So there were six kids in our family.

And I’ve always felt like I was the pet child that my mother loved me more than all the rest of them. She didn’t. I never heard my dad ever say these words. I love you. And I was probably 60 years old when I heard my mother say those words. But she put it together with all of us, says, well, you all know I love y’all kids and that’s the closest I’ve ever heard my mama come just say that my mama loves me.

Now generally you have a little baby and I love you I love you I love you I love you and you act like an ape in front of a little baby maybe that’s why they think we came from apes and don’t you do all of that? You’re like a little ape little monkey you get in front of a kid’s face if you want to see a man make a fool of himself put a baby in his arms I think Sometimes a man takes a baby and puts it in his arm just because women sympathize with the man holding the baby.

That’s why politicians do it. They look so kind and so loving like they really care. And they just look at them. You’re a vote. You’re a vote. But in this verse, how shall we order the child and how shall we do unto him? What do we do to this kid? How do we train this kid? What is the order? What do you want us to do? Because he told him this is a special child and in verse 13 the angel of the Lord said unto minua of all that I said unto the woman let her beware and then then verse 14 let her observe.

Let her be careful not to do anything that I told her not to do and what not to drink what not to eat all these things and make sure that she observes to do this. So in verse 15 and minua said unto the angel of the Lord. I pray them let us detain thee until we have made ready a kid. For they know we’re going to kill a goat and they’re going to have something to eat and blah blah blah.

We’re going to have a party and celebrate and all that. They’re going to have something to drink, and so the angel of the Lord says, you can detain me, but I’m not going to eat anything. I’m not going to eat any bread. But he was going to show them something that remember at this point. They still did not know that this was an angel of the Lord. They thought it was a man of God, but not an angel of the Lord.

He’s your verse somewhere in the Bible that says, be careful that you might be entertained in angels unaware. Where’s that verse found? Hebrews 13. Very good. So Hebrews chapter 13 tells us, now I don’t know whether or not it ever happens anymore or not. I really don’t care. But I do look at people wondering, sometimes I’ve seen the strangest things happen, like people are showing up at such a time, telling me certain things, and then all of a sudden, you know, they’re gone.

And they showed up at the right time to give me the right information that I needed, and then they’re gone like they’d never showed up at all. And just come down to my life and I’ve wondered, have I been entertaining the angels unaware? I don’t know. But it is something to think about to be curious, and it is found in the New Testament. It is found in the book of Hebrews. So whether or not an angel of the Lord could appear in the form of a man in such a way that you couldn’t tell that it was an angel of the Lord.

That might be a good reason why you ought to treat everybody like they’re an angel of the Lord. Be careful what you say because you never know who you might be talking to. And especially if they have power like the Bible says they do. But look what he says here. She said, well we don’t even know who you are and we don’t even know your name. He says it’s a secret. See in verse 18, and the angel of the Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name?

saying it is secret. So Manoa took a kid with a meat offering offered it upon a rock unto the Lord and the angel did wondrously. Now wondrously goes down to verse 20 when he tells you what he did. And Minoa and his wife looked on for it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. So there’s a fire. Now we know we’re talking about Gideon and he touched it and flame consumed it and the broth thereof.

And now lo and behold he touches it and fire goes up and the angel goes up in the fire and disappears on other sites. When you say, without a dream, did you see what I saw? And knowing that you don’t have an experience like that every day of your life. Do I believe what I just saw? Do I believe what I just heard? It’s one thing when we have the Word of God and we can go back and read it a thousand times.

to have an experience one time and it may be 10, 15 years before you have another one like Abraham. Wouldn’t that be enough? Did he say do this or did he say to do that? Can you remember? I can’t remember what he said. Oh, 15 years ago, we didn’t write it down. We have an advantage, because we have a more sure word of prophecy. We have the word of God. And that’s why I love it because I can sit down, I don’t have to wonder what he did say.

I can read what he said, and I can read it a hundred times, a thousand times I can read what God said. So it is important. But notice what he said, the angel of the Lord had to give him assurance. See, they said, we shall surely die because we have seen the face of God. Well, they saw an angel and sometimes maybe say theophanes or a pre-manifestation of Christ in the Old Testament as an angel of the Lord, and those things have happened.

But he says here in verse 21, but the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoa and to his wife. Then Manoa knew that he was an angel of the Lord, and Manoa said unto his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. What did he just tell them they were going to have. They’re going to have a child. And he told them how to raise the child. So you’re not going to die.

It’s amazing how fast you can forget. But his wife said into him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burn offering and a meat offering at our hands. Neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would he at this time have told that such things as these, the woman smarter than the man. You all understand that men are not always smarter than the women. I know this is a special revelation.

You did not know that. But women are not the dumber of the species. The Bible says she’s weaker and the reason that you know she is the weaker vessel is because of the weakness of the stronger vessel for the the weaker vessel, therefore she is actually the stronger vessel of the weaker. We’ll leave that go. You’ve 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.

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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, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.