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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.

I remember when the children of Israel had to face the Philistines and lo and behold, the giant comes out there of Goliath and he challenges the children of Israel, send me a man that will fight with me. I was scared. Nobody wanted to do it. And here comes little O David. He says, what’s that big mouth talking about? He’s defined the armies of the living God. He had no fear of that big mouth. He says, hey, no problem. I can handle this.

He said, I’ve already killed a bear, and I killed a lion. He says, this giant is nothing. And he picked up five little smooth stones out of a brook and his sling because he had some brothers. I guess he was preparing for the other four brothers. And he put that stone in there and he whirled it around. the Holy Spirit took that stone and guided it right to the middle of his forehead, sunken his forehead and he went down and David went over there and he took his sword and cut off his head.

A young kid. He saw how big God is and everybody else saw how big the giant was. The children of Israel saw how big those giants were and how big the problem. You see, those are stories in the Bible to help you and I realize, hey, you got problems? There’s a God bigger than your problem. I don’t know what your problem is. So that’s why I say that generally it’s a spiritual problem. Spiritual problems mean that you’ve got problems, but those problems are not bigger than what God can handle.

So many times we don’t commit our problem to the Lord. We try to handle it on our own. And God says, you ain’t big, you can’t do it. So you commit unto the Lord. And if you’ll do that, you’ll be surprised what God will say due to you. But now notice what he says in verse 25. He said, but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, had followed me holy, of holy, him will I bring into the land wherein he went and his seed shall possess it.

Then he says, now they amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. So they knew there’s going to have problems, but this is what God had promised them. But now you’ll look there in chapter 14 and look in verse 1, because you’ll notice the word all and all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried. The people wept that night. Why were they weeping? Why did all the congregate? Why is everybody crying? Because they heard a bad report from 10 spies who came back and says we can’t do it.

Here they are, they didn’t come all this way, they’ve left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea into the wilderness, now they’re up there at the door and they got giants in the land. Where are they gonna go? What are they gonna do? Well, I guess we got to go back to Egypt. Now you think, God says, you saw all these miracles that I did. You saw it and you won’t believe me now that I can take care of them. Don’t you realize, did you see what I just did with the Pharaoh and his armies, and how I brought you out with a mighty hand, and I opened up the Red Sea and you could walk through on dry ground.

Don’t you remember that? It’s amazing how quickly we can forget how good God has been to us. What did this unbelief did it cost these people anything? Those that were twenty and over, God says, you’re not you want to go into the land. You’re going to die in the wilderness. But notice what he says in verse 2, all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God we had died in this wilderness?

Okay? God says, okay, you’re going to die in the wilderness. You’re never going to get into the promised land. So God made a promise. And so in the next 40 years, God allowed all those people to die, but He had promised Joshua and Caleb. He says, because you follow me holy, you believe you get to go into the land. So God is the one who can watch and see that everybody else dies, and those two people were going to enter into the promised land.

that is like a guarantee you’re not going to die because God had made a promise. You’re going into the promised land. And so it says down here in verse six, Joshua, the son of none and Caleb, he says, which were then with him in verse seven, and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying the land which we passed through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, He will give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey, only rebel not ye against the Lord.”

But they wouldn’t listen to them. In verse 10, and all the congregation bade stone them with stones. How’s that? Taking a stand for the Lord. Now, everybody’s willing to stone those two because they told the truth. The other ones lied. So God says, okay, you can do what you want. But God says you’re going to die in the wilderness. So look what He says here in chapter 14. And you know what He says here in verse 31. But your little ones which you and said should be a pray, then will I bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised.

But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. Your children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years and bear your hoardoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you search the land, even 40 days each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities even 40 years. In other words, you’re going to pay one year for every day that you went into that land, you come back and you did this, you’re going to pay.

So God has a reason why He does what He does. And He says, they are going to die. Now look in Joshua chapter 1, the book of Joshua chapter 1. God in verse 5 of chapter 1, blesses Him with invincibility. To be blessed with invincibility, that is awesome. Look what he says here in verse one now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord It came to pass that the son or the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of none Moses’s minister saying Moses my servant is dead Now therefore arise go over this Jordan thou and all this people Onto the land which I do give to them even to the children of Israel 40 years has passed Now they’re there.

And Moses couldn’t even get into the land. He could see it from Mount Nebo where God allowed him to die, but he couldn’t get into the land. Now why couldn’t he go into the land? Well because he disobeyed God. God told him at one time there’s a rock and they were thirsty, he says, strike the rock. So he struck the rock and the water came out. The next time they were thirsty and so Moses struck the rock again? And God, no, no.

I told you to speak to the rock. You struck the rock. You say, something so simple. Yes. But that rock was Christ. Christ died on the cross how many times? One. And you don’t strike him again. He is a pitcher of this living water that we get because of who Christ is. That’s why in the book of Corinthians in chapter 10 it says they all were under the cloud, they all were in the sea, they were all all all and they were all drinking that same spiritual water which was Christ and so to see the Old Testament are types of New Testament doctrine.

That’s why these stories in the Old Testament, we teach them to the kids though later on they learn doctrine but sometimes we say well we don’t need the Old Testament but the Old Testament is the stories that illustrate those doctrinal truths. They go together. And that’s why if you just had just the Old Testament, it is like a symphony that has no ending to it. And so it just doesn’t end. I was told the Catholic the other day. I said, for example, we’re up here and you’re doing Handel’s Messiah.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, ha! And he stopped it for it and everybody walks home. You said, well, you didn’t finish it. You didn’t finish it. You got an uppere crescendo, then you just didn’t finish it. Well, the Old Testament is like that. It’s like a beautiful symphony, but it needs the New Testament. You got to have the ending of it. You have the Old Testament and it builds, and then there’s 400 years of silence. You talk about a rest. You ever have music and it has a little rest you’ve got to have in there.

And then the rest of the symphony takes place. But if you don’t have the rest of it, this is incomplete. And you have all these prophecies but no fulfillments. So therefore you have to have it. You need both. And some people, they miss out on the true symphony of the Word of God because, well, I just read the New Testament. The Old Testament is so hard and complicated. You can’t understand what he’s talking about right here. I mean, we read these verses.

That’s not understandable. Do you know that King James is written on a sixth grade level? Well, it used to be. Now they’ve done them down even more. But now look what he says. He says in verse 2, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore, rise, go over this Jordan. Verse 3, every place that the soul of your feet shall tread upon, that have given unto you as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the head tight.

Euphrates that goes all the way over to Baghdad. I mean that goes all the way over to the Babylon, the Tigris and Euphrates, that’s over in Iraq. All that belongs to Israel. But anyway, he says here in verse 5, he says, there shall not any man be able to stand before the all the days of thy life. That is invincibility. God said, I am going to watch over you and protect you. He’s already done it for 40 years. Although all the ones that died, but Joshua and Caleb, they get to go in.

And so he says, I will be with you. I will not fail you. These are some wonderful promises that we have in the Word of God. So he says in verse 6, be strong and of good courage, or unto this people shall thou devivor and inheritance the land.” So God used him, there’s 12 tribes, there’s the land, 11 tribes get land, and one tribe, the tribe of Levi, didn’t get property placed of their own because they lived among the people in all the other tribes.

And so he was to divide the inheritance up. You know, it’s like, hey, been told about this will and you know some rich relative left you a bunch of money so you want to go and hear what you know what do I get what do I get and this is your inheritance what piece of land do I get there’s all this land and these tribes you know they’re all tribes they get to certain pieces of land would you want to say I want this when I want that one you know what Caleb says I want that mountain.

I want that mountain. And so the Lord had promised it to him. Moses promised it to Caleb. Caleb now is 80 years old. And he says, I want that mountain. And you know what? That’s where the giants lived. Here’s an 80 year old man. He believed it 40 years before and he still believes it. And he’s still young enough in heart and spirit that He says, I want that land and I’m going to go take it. And God gave it to him.

I think it’s awesome. It really is. But notice what God promised him here. See there in the last part of verse 5, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. I will not fail you. So God has promised all this and letting him know. And think about this for a moment. How would you like to live in the shadow of somebody else 40 years. You see, some people can’t handle that because some people are power hungry. They want to do it this way.

Let God do whatever God does. And Joshua was content to do whatever God wanted him to do. And Moses didn’t do everything. There was things that Joshua did. But whenever Moses died, God had already prepared another person to take his place. This is why it’s a good thing. Prepare somebody else to take your place. Some people are afraid somebody else of knowing what I know, because my job is not secure. I had a ranch in Colorado where we had, you know, average four, five, six hundred kids.

So that was good. But… When I had the college kids, I gave up my big ranch and I split it up into different areas so that they can learn how to run a ranch. Because the gold is always try to work yourself out of a job. And you’d be surprised how more secure because you are training others to do what you’re doing. Why do you think I split up our Sunday school class here? Get more people teaching? I didn’t want everybody to sit in here listening to me.

They’ll learn more and preparing every week. They have to prepare their Sunday school lessons. So what does that do for them? Make some learn, make some study. They have to dig. They have to be faithful. Now they’ve got little darlings sitting in front of them. Now they have to watch everything they say and do a lot more. Or if you just sit there and nobody cared whether you don’t come up, you don’t go. create jobs, create opportunities. So am I jealous because they got other classes and some of the adults went to their classes, so therefore I’m upset.

No, I’m the one that did it. So therefore if I get five in here or 10 or 20, I’m satisfied because I just wanna teach whatever God gives to me. I don’t worry about it. I’ve had people say, well, you know, I just believe in discipling one person at a time. So I’m gonna disciple one person for a year, then after that year, we’ll have two of us, and then we’ll both disciple. And that’s how it works, that sounds good.

But if that person doesn’t, because your labor can be in vain with that individual, you don’t know if that person can do anything or not. And I really don’t care to spend my whole life with one person, I wanna teach as many who wants to follow. I wanna educate as many who wants to learn. So if I get in a college classroom, and I’ve had 20 kids, and I’ve had 30 kids in a college classroom, and I’ve had as many as two in a classroom.

Well, whoever wants to learn, I’m willing to teach. Because I don’t know what they’re gonna accomplish down the road, so you be a good second man. Because sooner or later, see, that person may have to go off the scene, and then you’ve got somebody else, God could, 40 years, he said patiently. And then when it was all over, God raised him in the right time, and then God, so look, As I was with Moses, I will be with you.

So you learn how to be used of God. Let God promote you, or if he wants, he can be mocha. So look what he says here in verse six. This is all good stuff that he told Moses to do. Be strong and of a good courage for unto this people, shout out, divide for an inheritance to land. In verse seven, only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observed to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper, whether so ever thou goeth.

And so this is what he says to do, so that you’ll have good success. And in verse nine, he makes the statement, he says, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whether so ever thy goeth. So God told him you can go into the land and you can have victory and you can win. Now, we know that when he got ready to cross the Jordan River, it was at flood stage.

Lot of water pouring down the Jordan River. So the Lord told him and says, when their feet touch the water, it’ll split. Now, how do you like to demonstrate your carry in the art and the high priest you gotta go. And as soon as his foot touches the water, the water divides. And you’ve got to put your confidence, is this guy that’s going down there? Would you try that? And as soon as he does, then the water parts for him.

Just like it did for Moses in the Red Sea, now he’s doing it for Joshua at the River Jordan. And so they cross over Jordan. And the first place they have to fight is the Battle of Jericho. You heard of the Battle of Jericho? Joshua, I love Jerry Cole. It’s a pretty good song. But it was a miraculous fight in which they conquered the city. They just marched around it. Then seven times, they went seven times and blew the horns and the walls fell.

I have been there. I’ve seen the walls. And I’ve seen all this. It’s amazing. It’s good to go there. Though it’s a literal place, it’s really there. And the walls are like God says it is. So, but then the next battle was supposed to be at the city of AI. That’s an AI, AI. And they got defeated. And then at that battle, they had 36 Israelites that died. And Joshua was beside himself. Because of a man named Agin, he had sinned against the Lord by taking some of the garments and silver and gold and he hid it in his tent.

And Joshua wanted to know why. did not have victory. The big place they took it, the little place they got defeated. And there will be times in your life because you had a great victory, you think you can have a little victory and it won’t be much. So he didn’t send everybody and they got whooped because one man in camp sinned against God and so their victory was annulled because of sin of one family. So God had them find out who it was.

They found out who it was. They stoned the whole family and everything else you had. Kill them all. So then they went back and they had some victory. Now take your Bible look at Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 10. There’s another battle that was taking place here and there was an alliance with the the Amorite kings, and there’s about four or five of these places that come together. And so Joshua asked Yahweh, Jehovah, to do something for him that no man has ever asked before and God had never done before for anybody like he did for Joshua because he God had promised him victory, but now there was an alliance of him and they were all packing it one time and so the sun started going down and Joshua asked the Lord.

So Lord give us more daylight. The suns just stay in still so that we can have more daylight to get this victory. Now do you think God is going to obey a request like that, a bill of request like that that God would actually literally do this? Well, look what he says here in chapter 10. Let’s just start up there in verse 12. Then speak Joshua to the Lord. End the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel.

And he said in the site of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Agilon, and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. It is not this written in the book of Joshua, so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hated not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord harkened unto the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel.

Now that’s awesome isn’t it? Now he didn’t know God was going to do that in advance but he asked for a miracle and God gave him a miracle. Now I know there’s probably probably nothing that you can learn from that, is there? Or do you get any idea that maybe you could have had a lot more things happen in your life if you’d have prayed more, if you’d ask God. Or do you just live your whole life and you never ask God for anything?

You know, it doesn’t matter. Or more like a blanket thing. Lord bless me, and you don’t know if he does, or it doesn’t, well I’m still alive, I guess he bless me. Have you ever gone to the grocery store and you walk into the manager and say, look, God, give me some groceries. I mean, there’s all these shelves loaded, stopped high. But what do you want? Just give me some groceries. I mean, there’s all these shelves. Load is stopped high.

But what do you want? Just give me some groceries. Well, you’ve got anything in mind for particular. I can’t give you all these groceries. What do you want? Isn’t it wonderful that God says, um, ask for this, ask for this, ask for this. It’s the city. So whenever you get through, you can say, you know, God gave me this and this and this and you know God did it. But if you never ask for anything out of the ordinary, you’re not going to get anything but an ordinary life.

You want a supernatural life, you’re going to have to ask for something that’s beyond your power to produce. God delights when he finds a person that has faith, somebody that believes him. Now look there in the book of Joshua and look there in chapter 24. This is the last chapter in the book of Joshua but Joshua’s old now he’s about a hundred and Ten years old, he don’t have long to go, and so he’s going to die soon. So he kind of gets a few of them together and it makes a statement to them.

He says, I came here and I’ve done what God told me to do. And he says they’re in verse 14. Now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the Lord. Now the other side of the flood I believe here is probably as referring to the other side of Jordan because this is not going all the way back because then he has in here about Egypt and this is beyond this side of Noah’s flood, but the flood of the Jordan River at this time.

But anyway, he says in verse 14, put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and they need you and serve ye the Lord. So as a dying man after he’s unlived his whole life, he’s seen the victories, he’s seen the miracles, and now he’s talking to a generation that’s coming after him that never saw many things. And that’s why when you get into the book of Judges it says there was another generation that never saw any of those things.

They’d only heard about him but they never saw him and so they went astray. It’s amazing how that you know you as a parent sometime you fight some battles and you had some victories and then you And when you’re kids don’t want to serve the Lord like you do maybe. They didn’t fight for those battles. They didn’t see those battles. One time they don’t see all those things. And so they don’t have the same burning desire. But notice what he says here.

I want you to see it. Verse 15, And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites and whose lands you dwell, but ask for me, get this, ask for me in my house. We will serve the Lord. Isn’t that a good statement? You ought to run the line that in your Bible.

That’s a good verse to know in your Bible. Choose you this day whom you will serve, but ask for me in my house we will serve the Lord and that should be the desire. And those to me are the best things we can never learn for my man like Joshua. Let’s pray, shall we? Father, once again we thank you so much for leaving a testimony like this in your word so that we can read and understand how that you can take a man and miraculously use him and how he walked with you and stood when no one else would except Caleb.

So thank you, Lord, for using him and for giving us this story to tell, to understand, to believe and to encourage our own hearts. for the message one here today. Christ and we pray. Amen. Hello friends, thank you for listening to Bibleline. And thank you to those who write in and tell us how Bibleline is making such a big impact in your lives. It’s such an encouragement when we receive your letters and emails. Can I ask, how is your prayer life?

Does it need some help? Most Christians think of prayer as a secondary or last resort. Do you realize that Jesus spent hours upon hours in prayer to his Heavenly Father, and yet we so often fail to practice prayer as a priority in our lives. Well during this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s Four Sermon Series on the Power of Prayer. Perhaps prayer is a shortcoming in your life, and this teaching is surely able to help.

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, 336-34. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.