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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.

Now, take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews in chapter 11. Hebrews in chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a little bit more of an insight into Moses. Notice what he says in verse 23. Now we’re talking about the Hall of Faith chapter, what God looks at. And in the Hall of Faith chapter, God doesn’t record all of their faults and flaws and failures. And yet you read all these things and these people listed in chapter 11, when you read the Old Testament, God records a lot of things that they said and did and they were mad and bitter and upset and rebellious and you know they’re all kind of things.

But when you look at it from the faith part, God that’s what God records and I like that because all the things that they did was wrong has been forgiven. Look what he says in verse 23, by faith Moses, now because this is because of what Moses believed, when he was born was he had three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. Verse 24, by faith Moses, when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

Now he could have, but he had to make a choice. This is what everybody has to decide. In other words, we’re always making decisions, choosing. And so when you’re limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry. So you need to have correct knowledge to make the right decisions. Now, I don’t do what he says here in verse 25. choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now he could stay where he was at, all the riches of Egypt, and he had it all.

Or he could give that up and suffer with the people of God. What would you have done? For a little fame and honor and power and glory, I think I’ll to stay and be the Pharaoh. No, he made a decision. Why did God use him? Because he made this decision before he went into the desert. He made this decision first. And he thought that the people would understand, but they didn’t understand. But he committed himself only to be rejected.

You be surprised as you live your life. You can commit yourself, I’m going to do this for the Lord and this for the Lord. And you think, well, everybody’s going to be for it. And they don’t care. They don’t care about your dedication to God. How much you love God. Because see, if somebody else is, if they’re not in that same mindset, they don’t understand why you do what you do. Before I ever went to Florida Bible College, and I told them I was going to Florida Bible College, I was told you’ll never finish.

You’re making the mistake of your life. What are you going to be when you go out of Bible college or Bible? and they’ll say, how are you gonna make a living, you know, go to the Bible college? I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know you could get paid being a pastor. I don’t know if I thought I’d been a preacher. All I wanna do is just learn how to tell people how to go to heaven. I just didn’t want people to go to hell.

And I didn I didn’t know that you could have a whole ministry in your whole life doing this for over 50 something years. God knew that, but I didn’t know that. I just wanted to know more about God’s word. I wanted to know this Bible. So I went to Bible school. Sounds like a reasonable thing to do. But notice what he says here in verse 26. Esteming the reproach of Christ, greater riches. Then the treasure in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

By faith he foresoaked Egypt, get to not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He didn’t see God, but by faith he did. By faith he didn’t see those rewards he would get, but by faith he did. You see, we’re to walk by faith, not by sight, not by what you see with the natural eyes. But by faith be leaving that when I get to heaven, it will be worth it all.

And therefore you can go ahead and serve God. And it doesn’t matter what the world says or does. It doesn’t matter whether they accept you or reject you. As long as you do what’s right between you and God, nothing else really matters. Seek to please the Lord above everything else. Choose, choosing. words of pit and hip, that means he had a choice. He could have chosen the other way, but he chose to serve God. And nobody can make you serve God.

Nobody can make you love God. Nobody can make you walk with God. We can try to make our children obey certain roles or suffer the consequences, but you can’t make them right with you and have a good attitude. You have a good attitude or else it’s wonderful we can make a person have a good attitude. But generally that’s their option, isn’t it? Now you may beat the Torah out of them in half-kill them, but still sometimes it doesn’t help one Iota.

You ever spanked the kid and they become more rebellious? That’s what God says in Isaiah chapter 1, he says, I have whooped you and whooped you and whooped you. You’re sick from the head of your, tuppy your head to the soul of your foot. You’re one sick individual. And that’s how he described Israel. You’re sick because they would not obey him. And so He laid down the law. Now go back there to the book of Exodus. Back to Exodus.

God comes to him and says, I got a job for you and this is what I want you to do. And notice there in verse 21 of Exodus in chapter 2. It says in verse 21 and Moses was and here what’s that next word? Content. He was content to dwell where he was doing what he was doing. Now remember what he was. Now he’s working with a bunch of sheeps and goats. And then you look there in verse 23 and he came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died.

The children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. God heard their groanings. God remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and and God had respect unto them. So because of this, God called to Moses. So Moses was, well, he was walking out in the hills one day and the next thing you know, he saw something that looked kind of strange, a bush was on fire.

And so he says here in verse two. Let me just read that verse one. Now Moses kept the flock of Jeffrow, his father-in-law, the pre-scent million. So Moses now had done found a young lady, got married, had a couple of kids and blah, blah, blah. He has a father-law and he led the flock to the backside of the desert. That’s why you often hear me say on the backside of the desert for 40. Well, that’s what he was. The Word of God says that.

And verse 2, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight while the bush is not burnt. That would get your attention, wouldn’t it? Now remember, Moses is now 80 years old and God had never spoke to him. And all of a sudden, the back side of a desert, upon the side of a mountain, a bush is on fire.

God got his attention. Do you think all this time God knew exactly where Moses was on the backside of that desert? Knew who he had married, know that he was content. Sometimes we don’t like to get out of our comfort zone. We don’t want God to shake up our world. A lot of people they get in a groove and they say, let me alone. the job of the preacher is to try to make everybody as uncomfortable as possible. I’m supposed to try to stir you up.

I’m supposed to try to get you to do something. And let me say, look, don’t rock the boat. Let me alone. And so you try to in the afflicted and try to afflict the comforted. Sounds like a wonderful job. So that’s what you’re trying to do. And as you go through here and you see these things and he says Moses I got a job for you. Moses says not me IStage here. So he says here in verse six, Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the afflictions of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters for I know their sorrow. Now remember this, wasn’t it God that allowed the famine to come in order for Jacob to take his family down into Egypt. God produced the problem that created the solution where they would have the best land, greatest safety, so they could grow and multiply.

And he says the Amorites is not for yet the judgment, the sin that gone down. So God had already put a curse upon the son of which was Canaan, the land of Canaan. He was going to give this land to Israel. So he asked to judge them and take the land away from them and give it to Israel. So God’s got to get them out of there, but God’s got to allow things to take place and in periods of time they turned against children of Israel.

They made them slaves. they got them fit for travel. And then God is going to bring them into the land and they were to conquer the land and get rid of all the people that were in the land. Israel obeyed partially. Sometimes everything God said and most times not. It’s just like us in our Christian life. Do we obey God in every area of our lives? No. Some areas we say, man I got that nail, I got that nail, but doesn’t hear that, this is not that bad.

I don’t see anything wrong with it, but we don’t want to look at what God says, so we judge it according to our own belief. Now notice what he says here. In verse 8, I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. I’m going to do this. Verse 10, come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses says, Whoopee, finally, I get to go.

Been waiting 40 years, I want to go. No, he didn’t say that. He was content where he was. And so he says here in verse 11, Moses said unto God, Who am I? This was the first objection to the will of God. Who am I? Remember that little illustration I said when I went up to the counter to airline counter? Do you know who I am? He said, I’m a nobody. I don’t want to go. Who am I? And you’d be surprised how many people have held back in serving God because they don’t feel like, I mean, how can God use me?

What value is going to be for me to do this or that and the other? I’m not worth much. I don’t have any talent. I don’t have any ability. And people lowrate themselves so they can justify not doing something God wants him to do. You remember how that it says Moses was mighty inward? Now he’s got a problem with speaking. Well, he hadn’t been speaking for almost 40 years, maybe. He’s married now, he just didn’t listening. Well, anyway, I shouldn’t have said that.

But anyway, you will look at this. I’m jumping the gun, but I just got to throw this in here. Look there in verse 10 of chapter four. Here’s one of the reasons why he says, why I can’t do it. Remember everybody thinks, well, Moses just, you know, he was just a glory hound. He just wanted to be the number one, the top dog. No, it was anything but that. And Moses said unto the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent.

Neither here, therefore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” He had an impediment of speech. Lord, you want me to do what? I got trouble speaking. I got trouble talking. Did God know He had His problem? God, you just don’t know my problem. Oh, really? Look at it in verse 11. And the Lord said unto Him, Who hath made man’s mouth? Who hath made the dumb, or death, or the sin, or the blind have not I, the Lord?

Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth. teach thee what thou shalt say. I just want you to do what I tell you to do.” And Moses said, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don’t understand. I am not eloquent. I’m not a public speaker. Were there times when Moses had to speak to the whole children of Israel, all of them? Time he had to talk to the elders of the tribes of Israel. And Moses did not want to go.

So he began to give God reasons why He ought to get somebody else. And you stop and you look at these, and these are reasons and excuses why people use them today. Now, it didn’t work with God, it didn’t work with Moses. And when you stand before God, these reasons are not going to hold up. If God wants you to do something, what should you do? Do it. When you read the word of God, and you know this is the will of God and what God wants me to do, better do it.

Because there’s consequences if you don’t. Know what he says. So they’re in chapter 3 and verse 10. The question was, who am I? Why me? So in verse 11 that I should go into Pharaoh, that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt and he said, certainly I will be with thee. You’re not going alone. He was humble enough to realize I can’t do this. This job is too big. But God says, here’s how you solve this problem.

I will be with you. So you should always believe me and God make a majority. True? You and God make a majority. You and God can do anything God wants you to get done. What you can’t do, He will. But what God wants you to do, you can. So, down in verse 13, he says, wait, wait, wait, wait. If I go down there, they’re going to ask me, who sent you? And Moses said, I don’t even know who you are.

What’s your name? Well, he’s verse 13. Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers have sent me unto you. They shall say to me, what is His name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And He says, Thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. The eternal I am.

Eternal past, present, future, he is the I am. When you read in the New Testament talking about Jesus Christ. Remember he says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, I am the door, I am, I am, I am the light of the world. And so when they came to arrest him and they said something to him and he says, I am and they fell backwards. What he was saying is I’m God. You want to know who I am?

This is who I am. So he had an objection, but did God answer the objection? Yes. So yeah, look there at another one. Look down there in chapter four, look in verse one. His other problem that he had, he says, when I came there the first time and I was going to do this Lord, they didn’t believe me. I was rejected. So says, Who is going to believe that you sent me? So in verse one, Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me.

Nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee, and the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? He says, A rod, so he cast it down and became a serpent. He says, I’m going to do some things that will convince them that you are sent by me. And so it says here in verse 5, this is the purpose of the miracle that they may believe. So I’m going to do some things through you so that they will believe you, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath prepared unto them unto them.

Now remember, the nation of Israel is already being stirred where they want to get out, they want deliverance, and this is why the affliction, the sufferings of their past masters against them as slaves has already created this resentment where Pharaoh and his men, they were afraid of Israel. Israel is crying out to God to deliver them. So the nation of everything is being prepared. God prepares things for us, but He doesn’t do it on our timetable. You may wait a long time for God to do one thing that you prayed for and took 10 years or 15 years.

And then sometimes you’ll see God moving and working in your life. I told people this, I said, put everything you have in God’s hands. And sooner or later you’ll find God’s hand in everything that you’re doing. You’ll begin to see how God is working and what He’s doing. It’s a marvelous thing. It really is. So he says, this is what I’m going to do. Look down in verse 8, and it shall come to pass if they will not believe thee.

Now, if they won’t believe, you just said they would, if they will not believe. Neither hark unto the voice of the first sign, then they will believe the voice of the latter sign. In other words, I’m going to give another one. And then another one. By the time you got through how many plagues were there? How many? Ten. He’s had to do it ten times before they finally let them go. But finally they did. And it worked, looked in verse 9, and it shall come to pass if they will not hear or believe also these two signs, neither harken to thy voice, that thou shalt take of the waters of the river, poured upon the dry land, and the water shall thou taken out of the river, shall become blood upon the dry land.

So God says, I got a plan. If option one doesn’t work, I got option two. If that doesn’t work, I got option three. And so God has laid it all out so that they could know and understand what’s God doing, trying to talk Moses into doing it? All of this is about Moses. Did Moses wanna go? He didn’t wanna go. He was content just doing his thing on the backside of a desert. I told somebody this yesterday, I said, if it wasn’t for me knowing what I know, I would rather be on the backside of a mountain up there in Alaska someplace living like a hermin off the land.

When I was in Colorado and I had the opportunity 18 straight years, I went elk hunting and I’d get my jeep and I’d drive up into those mountains and I’d be up there for a week to two weeks. Every year I did that. I got caught in snow storms, you know, blizzards, I mean top of the mountains and so on and nobody would have a clue where I’m at. We didn’t have walkie talkies that would work, not in those mountains.

There’s no cell phones and there was times when I would get scared because I realized, you you know, here I am in the middle of some dark, you know, brush and nobody knows where I’m at. It’s snowing. You can’t see my tracks. And I was trying to follow some bear tracks. And all of a sudden I looked over this year and I saw about three or four timber wolves coming from both directions and started following the bear tracks that I was following.

And I said to myself, self, you need to get out of here. Because I don’t mind with that bear from a long distance, but those timber wolves, that’s a different story. They work in packs. They work together. I thought, I don’t need to be here. So I got out of the way. That was only the first time that I really got scared. So there were times. And then I would be walking along with my gun. And sometimes I didn’t always keep my safety on because I wanted to be ready because when you see something, you got to shoot quick.

So I would be walking. And then I would slip and fall over a log and that gun would go off. I mean, I had that happen on a number of occasions where I would, I’d slip and I’d fall over a lot because I’m trying to step over something, I’d foot with slip and I’m talking about a couple feet of snow and I thought, it is amazing that I am still alive. And I thank the Lord for watching over me and keeping me alive.

But sometimes you do things, if it wasn’t for what I know, I wonder what I would have done. I probably would have been dead by now. It’s been hard enough for God to keep me alive just serving Him. I’ve had angels that put in for transfers. You know my guardian angels? Everybody’s supposed to have one. I’ve got about ten. So… God worked, but I want you to see this before we quit. Look down in verse 12 of chapter four.

Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou will sin, send somebody else. And verse four, and the anger of the Lord was kendled against Moses. And he says, is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well and also behold he cometh forth to meet thee and when he seeeth thee he will be glad in his heart.

God already knew Aaron, his brother was on his way to meet him and God says they will use Aaron but was God pleased with Moses’ rebellion? No he was angry with him. It didn’t have to be the way and you’ll find out later didn’t Aaron cause some problems in camp? When Moses was up on the mountainside getting the law. He came down and Aaron says, hey, I don’t know what happened. I just threw something in the water and his calf comes out.

Lion is done. And he was lying. But then that’s another story. We’ll get into that next week. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us, He hates our sin. And for us to pay for it is eternal separation from God. But God loves us. He wants us to go to heaven. But to go to heaven we have to be perfect. His righteousness is God.

And none of us are perfect. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. So God says you cannot earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven. Let’s say any man should boast. So God says I’m going to do something for you and I’ll make it free. That sounds pretty good. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He was the Lord. See, He came into the world, lived thirty-two and a half years, didn’t sin. So He didn’t have to die.

But because He loved us, He took our place. He took our sins. He paid for it, came back from the dead, said that if you and I, if we would believe He did it for us, He would give us as a free gift everlasting life. His death for my sins would become my payment. I don’t have to make. So now I have eternal life and I’m going to heaven whenever I die. But I’m not there yet. So the Lord in order to live here gave me His power, the power of His mind, the Holy Spirit to indwell us.

And if you will yield yourself to Him, And He’ll teach you how to live. The Lord can teach you how to live. How to handle every trial, every tribulation, every temptation. He can teach you everything you need to know. But you’ve got to let Him. He will take you through His Word and He will highlight things as you read and study it. And a lot of it, you won’t even get it. It won’t make any sense. You won’t understand it.

all of a sudden there’ll be a verse that says, this is for you. This is for you. This is all you need right now. And then next time you’ll read it, ah, I didn’t see this before and it’ll teach you something else. It is the living Word of God. Let’s pray, shall we? Father, we do thank you for your blessings. For the study of your Word and we know that many times we We have questions just like Moses had.

But Father, you didn’t accept any of His excuses. We’ll wonder someday when we see you of what we could have done if we would have not have just said all those no’s. So just say yes Lord, yes Lord. So bless us today. Give us a good day. Christ and we pray. Amen. Well, it’s a new month and that means a new offer to those who support Bibleline. In this month we have something really special for you, the brand new book by Greg Steer, the founder of Dare to Share Ministries, called Gospel Eyes.

What a fabulous book written about the model for evangelism according to the book of Acts. Greg is a way of teaching some profound truths in simple and easy to understand ways with practical examples that you can use immediately. I could not put the book down and when I finished it, I wanted to stop everyone on the highway and tell them of the free gift of salvation. And this life-changing book is yours for a gift to Bibleline in any amount.

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 and just keep in looking up.