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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want you to take your Bible and be turning to the book of… Now what’s a good book? Judges. Through the book of Judges, and Judges chapter 4, I was over at the mall, you know, we had just finished our radio broadcast Friday, and so on Friday, after the radio broadcast, I’ll always take my little in Ireland, not for a breakfast. And so we was over there, we’re sure. And anyway, we walked up there, and there was this little girl behind that little counter, a little booth.

And I walked past, and I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. So I got her to give her a track. She said, oh, you gave me one of those last time you came by. I says, well, did you read it? Not yet. I said, no, not me. I said, wait a minute. I said, you probably never will read it. I can give you this one and you will probably never read it. She says, I will too. I said, you probably won’t read it.

She says, yes, I will. I said, no, you won’t. She said, yes, I will. She says, I’ll read it right now. So I gave it to her and we wouldn’t got something to eat. Well, on the way out, I forgot all about the girl. As I walked toward her, I wouldn’t pay any intention about her, but she saw me and saw me in bed just walking down. And so she has her track in her hand and a piece of paper and she had it together and she says, hey, hey, hey, she would leave it at me.

So I walked over to her and she gave it to me and she said on there, I served the Lord and I try to do as good as I can and here’s the track you gave me. So I opened it up and she didn’t made a whole bunch of checks on it. Now you know if they make a whole bunch of checks on it, something’s wrong. I says you you failed and have you ever saw a deer in the headlights?

It was like her eyes got big and she said, huh? I said you failed. What? And I says I said you you marked the wrong ones. Really? So I says you really don’t know where you’re going when you die doing it. She says, not now. I says, and I just looked at her and there’s a few people walking by. You know, this is out there in the public area. So I don’t raise my voice so that everybody here isn’t a bearish person.

So I kind of lean forward and she’s behind this old counter. And I says, look, isn’t it true? Now you’ve heard all your life that Christ paid all the sins of the world. She said, yeah, I know. I said, now if he did, now think about that, I said, if he did, why should you and I have to go to hell and pay for our sins if you already paid for them? And then once again she had that deer in the headlight look and she was a little black girl and this is cute as a button on and she was just and then she’d smile and then she go on.

And so I said, let me explain it to you. what I got to explain it. I said, see, the Bible says that he loved you so much he would rather die than live without you. So he paid for all of your sins. I said, you know why he did that? So you wouldn’t have to. That means that he paid for my sins. I don’t have to pay for them if I believe he did it for me. So that means I don’t have any sins to pay for it.

So that’s why I can’t go to hell. And she says, I see what you’re saying. She said, nobody’s ever told me that before. I said, do you understand what I’m saying? She says, yes, right now when you trust Christ your safety. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, no, I’ll probably never see you again. She’s yes you will, yes you will. I hope I can see her again. If not, I’ll see her up there. But she even told me she says, I might become the church at Sunday.

And then she says, I can’t come. They make me work every Sunday from 11 to 6 o’clock. That’s the both hours that she’ll miss. So anyway, I’m glad the person doesn’t have to go to church to go to heaven. What about all the people who can’t go to church? What about people who can’t get baptized? What if they’re crippled? What if there’s someplace else and there’s no water? I’m so glad there’s a lot of things. God just says, if you’ll just believe it.

But can God use women? Can God use women? You think so? God even used a woman to bring the Messiah to the world. So you can’t say God can’t use a woman. And God can and God has. You know, the Bible says that He was the mother of all living. Because you know, without her, there wouldn’t have been any kids. So God, in the beginning, made a male and female and says they become one and, oh, behold, la, la, la, and here we are with a whole bunch of kids.

And evidently somebody figured it out because we’re coming to people that are today. There is a whole bunch of people all over the world. And some people said we need to have population control. So they’re trying to figure out how to eliminate some of the population. And some of it is that when we get an old, you know, we’re just taking up space. We’re no good anymore. So there’s going to be a movement on to euthanize those older folks.

And some of these nuts that are trying to get some of that stuff passed, it’s going to be them that they’re going to do it to. But maybe they can’t figure that out. But I am so glad that I have eternal life and I know I’m going to heaven and I die and we can serve the Lord. But when it comes to a certain Lord, God will use anyone who has faith. If you believe. I had this person who emailed me this letter.

And this is what he said, howdy, pastor, howdy. I want to say thank you for the notes you sent me last week. I was able to follow along with you as you preached your message. I can also read it now at a later date to refresh my mind. I watched your service that you did on Sunday morning because I had missed that service. So I decided to watch it tonight. I did catch Sunday school and Sunday night services. Both services were fantastic.

I am a handicapped person, slow speech and hard of hearing. Because I enjoy all the messes that you have done. I also have been watching some of the videos you have done in behest. I watch one video each day. Wouldn’t it be neat if all my church members would do that? I mean, here’s somebody I don’t even know. And they listen to one of my videos every day. might all be a requirement for everybody before they go to bed at night.

They turn on and listen to one of my one hour sermons. Wouldn’t that help you to go to sleep? In about ten minutes you’d be all asleep. Okay, we’ll forget that. He says, of all the things I love to do studying God’s word highlights everything I do in life and it makes me very happy. Now here’s a person that’s handicapped, can’t do anything. And he says a few other things in here, but I thought that was so neat to somebody.

And then, I don’t even know where he’s from. We had a person trust the Lord this week from Sweden, believe it or not. And they were listening to the sermon that Jesse titled The Joy, something about the joy. I don’t think that what it was on. But sometimes he’ll make up a title and then try to put it up there so somebody might listen to it. So you’d ever know. But here in the book of Judges, We’re talking about a woman.

Can God use a woman? Well, I believe God would prefer to use a man for doing manly things. But God said he couldn’t find a man, so he used a woman. So this is a woman that became one of the a judge. And you know, up to this point, God used Moses to bring the children of Israel up to the Jordan River and he wasn’t allowed to go in to the Promised Land. So God used Joshua to take the people to do the Promised Land.

So when they went into the Promised Land, they were supposed to conquer all the people that were in there, the enemies, and spare none. They’re supposed to get them all out of there because God says you’ll become unequally yoked. Those people who keep their gods will influence you. So God discriminates. He believed that he’s the only one that needs to be worshiped and all the rest of them are phoneies and so he commanded them to take care of them and get them all out there but they left little pockets of unbelievers throughout the land.

Whenever you do that They multiply. And those little problems down the road become what? Big problems. So they had some big problems down the road. So after Joshua and his generation passed away, well then there became another generation that they didn’t see all those things that God had done. They didn’t see those walls coming down and miraculously the Jordan River even opened it up. They didn’t get to see all of that. So there arose a generation afterwards that never saw it in that and so instead of getting stronger in the Lord They got weaker and so the next generation the second generation They went downhill.

It’s just like for example here you are If you are gun ho for the Lord and you fought a lot of battles and certain Lord and trying to get strong in the Lord And then when you have kids To change your kids are not going to be as strong as you are now And some of there’s a few cases where they, yes they will. But majority of the kids who didn’t have to fight and defend their faith because you made it easy on them and you want them to believe what you believe and so you took them to church, you took, because you want them to know what you know and believe what you believe and see if you’re a Catholic, the Catholic, get their kids to do that.

If you’re a Baptist, you get their kids to do that. If you’re a foot washing every region and you got to get your kids to do that. So whatever the religion you are, I don’t give it some more, I don’t give it some more, everybody tries to get their kids believe what they believe. It’s just the way it goes. But you and I know that everybody can’t be right, but everybody tries to teach their kids, you know, to follow my example.

Well, when you have it, they don’t take it as seriously. So whatever the parents do in moderation, the kids will sometimes do that’s wrong, it’s access. But it’s just the opposite when it’s spiritual. Wherever you are spiritually, chances are your kids are going to take them to be a little less. They won’t take as serious what you believe. And that’ll sometimes break your heart. Or if they decide to go wild and kids can go wild, then they take and go further than you would go.

So trying to have success with your families is sometimes the most difficult thing in the world. How do you handle all the problems? Well, the dad sometimes is the one who has to go out and make a living, and sometimes the now and our day and time of women do too. But sometimes it’s the woman who lays down the law for the kids and try to make sure that they obey and do these things. But a lot of things change in over the years.

Now we’ve got in America, we have little pockets of all those people who no longer believe in Christianity. We were founded as a Christian nation up on the Bible, and kids went to school, even public school, and the Bible was taught in the public school. And you even stood and did the plagival ages to the flag. All those wonderful things that we used to do, and you got a fairly good education because you learned how to read and write and so on.

What a day, kids are coming out of schools and they can’t read and they can’t write. They can’t think. They can’t relate. They can’t record. They can’t research. They can’t put it down. So when you can’t think clearly and understand some things, it’s a dumbing down process because the more of the congregation, I should not congregation, but the citizens of the country, if you dumb them down enough, you can control them. It’s hard to control thinking people that can reason and know truth and they can stand up for their freedoms and so forth, but we have people today fighting for their rights.

As though some of the things they’re fighting for is right and it’s not right. It’s wrong. They’re fighting for the homosexual right. There are no homosexual rights. There are no right for homosexuals because if it’s right, then it wouldn’t be wrong. But if God says it’s wrong, then it can’t be right. So how can you fight for a right? You don’t have. And regardless the world situation in regards to who makes it lawful or legal, it still doesn’t make it right.

Whatever God says is wrong is what? It’s wrong. And all the majority of the people, everybody in America voted that the Bible is no good. It’s still good. It’s still perfect. It’s still God’s word. And so we have pockets now that have grown and because they have multiplied growth, they’re taking over our country and I’m going to say a little bit about that in church service this morning so you just fashion your seat belts and hang on for their life so I thought I’d tell you but nobody can leave the parking lot.

The gate out there will be up and so nobody can leave. But anyway, here’s a story about a woman that God was able to use. So now Godioxin judges because Joshua has died and he says, for me in my house, we’re going to serve the Lord. And so he passed off the scene and other ones come on the scene and they’re not as spiritually minded. So they begin to do what is right in their own eyes. This is what religions are.

Most religions are just doing what is right in their own eyes. make up their own religion. They write it the way they want. Whatever you want to believe, write it down. So this is my religion. And find a verse in the Bible that’s how to prove that point. And so therefore, there you go. So he says that he was going to deliver them because now, you know, after a while, they’re supposed to worship the one true God. Well, that’s good until you become friends with those pockets of enemies in the land.

And next thing you know, you’re friendly and talking and getting along and sharing and next thing you know, I don’t think that. They’re not that bad. And they’re gods. They can’t see and they can’t hear. They can’t talk. They can’t walk. They can’t do anything. And they got all these idols. And they’re God isn’t God. Because there’s only one true in living, God, and that’s the God of Abraham. I think in Jacob. Well, they’re gods of false God. But they worship those false gods.

So next thing you know, you’re more tolerant. You’re tolerant. So after you become tolerant, this is what the people want us to be tolerant of everybody’s beliefs. And we can’t discriminate against anybody. I mean, if you believe abortion is all right, and if you believe that homosexual, that’s all right, they’re trying to force their beliefs on us, and we need to be tolerant while they are in tolerant of us.

They can’t stand what we believe because we are in offense to them. So therefore they wanna use the law to discriminate against us and say, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t. Well, we used to have freedom and we could, but now you can’t do that. You can’t do this over a punish you. We’ll take this from you and we’ll take this from you. And so that’s where we are. Now, the children of Israel had become kind of like friends, but in doing so, they begin to worship other gods and when they become the worship of the God, God is gonna have to chasing them.

So God then causes them to rise up against Israel and rule over Israel. So God will let them go into years of servitude. And so this is what happened. If you look there in verse one of chapter four, in verse one, and the children of Israel again, they’ll evil in the sight of the Lord when E. HUD was dead. Now he had killed a guy named Eglon, but that’s a death story that was right before this. And the Lord sold them into the hands of J.B.

King of Canaan that reigned in Hazart and captain of whose hose was Cicera, which dwelt in hereseth of the Gentiles and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, for he had 900 chariots of iron. Now just think, 900 chariots of iron. So they had a fierce army and they ruled over Israel. Look what he said, 20 years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Because it didn’t have to be that way. Why did it happen? Because the children, as he says there, again did evil in the sight of the Lord.

So you see, once you trust Christ as your Savior, even for you and I am. When you trust Christ as Savior, you become a child of God. Now look up here. So you understand, it’s so clear, you now are free to choose. I trusted Christ 55 years ago, or I’m a child of God. But now I am free to choose. I can make good decisions and bad decisions. Now, my eternal destination is fixed. That’s a separate issue. Now, as a child of God, § if I make good decisions, God bless my life here, I’ll have peace, join happiness, to what God promised.

But if I make bad decisions, does it possible for me to make bad decisions? Yeah, all God’s children, you got a choice. And every day we live, we’re making choices, decisions. If I make a bad decision, then God’s gonna have to chase and then discipline me. But he can’t cast me out, I’m still his child. I mean, Betty had three children, the hard way, one way. But those three kids, when they’re obedient, They’re mine. When they’re disobedient, they’re hers.

They’re still our kids. So whether they’re all beating or disobeating is not the issue. They are our children, but we want them to learn how to make good decisions. And we watched them over the years and some of them have made some good decisions. And some of them made some bad decisions. And over the years, so have we. But you see, God says you’re his child, but he’s going to have to change. and discipline you. Maybe even take your home before your time.

So when he tells Israel this, Israel were like in a sense God’s people. He made a promise to them, unconditional promise, I am going to do this. I’m going to make you a great nation and blah blah blah. But Israel, you look at Israel as a person. So Israel is like a miracle child that came from a miracle beginning. Abraham and Sarah was old beyond the place of having children, and so God had to quicken their bodies, and they had this miracle child, Isaac.

Isaac was born, and in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob had his name changed to Israel and 12 tribes that God always looked and as a person, the nation as a person. So God made promise of, if you will serve me, I will bless you. I will protect you from all of your enemies. I will put none of the diseases of the Egyptians upon you. He said, but if you rebel against me, I’m going to beat the Torah you.

And so he’ll raise up other nations and use them as a rod to whoop his own children. And so that’s what happens. So they would cry out to the Lord for deliverance and so God would send them a man and he sent him another man. And he sent him another man but this time he sent a woman. Now to be delivered by a a woman was a little on the, not just to be humble, but to be humiliated. And it kind of says that in the scripture, I believe.

Look at verse 4, and Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lepidot, she judged Israel at that time, a woman of a fiery spirit. So here’s a woman that God is going to use. They need somebody who can bring about, now what she would do is she would be a judge in between these two cities and she was set under this palm tree and the lines would line up and people would come with her with their problems and she would solve their problems and answered.

So she had to be a pretty good godly individual. But this woman, she was a woman, I mean she was, had to be something else. She was like a commander of an army. This woman life was a warrior. This woman was ready to step out in faith and chill, you know, charge hell with his work gun. Now, not all women are like this, but this woman was different. But she believed in the Lord. And she did not like her people who she listened to that was so depressed because of Sisera and his army, because of what you call their Jabin, who was the king of Canaan.

Remember that they were taken into the land of Canaan to conquer Canaan and to take the land, but they let some Canaan Iks there and now they’re suffering the consequences. Anytime you tolerate sin in your life, sin will grow and become a big problem to your sonar later. That’s why you don’t tolerate little things in your life because sooner or later those little things are going to come and get you. So he’s told them, says, this is what I want you to do.

In other words, Deborah, I want you to get Beyrak, which was a man that was of the tribe of Naptali, and saying to him in verse 6, have not the Lord God of Israel commanded saying, and draw toward Mount Tabor and take with the 10,000 men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulon and this is what I want you to do. So she knew that God was going to be able to use her to get this accomplish to deliver them from the iron heel here.

So she got Bayrach and said now this is what you’re supposed to do. Get 10,000. Now they already got about a hundred, I mean 900 chariots of iron. Some estimate they could have had up to a hundred thousand people. Not you talking about a great big army. And now, Veyrak, I want you to get 10,000. Wait a minute. Sometimes in life you’ll feel a little bit on the outnumber side, but remember you and the Lord make a majority. You and the Lord, I told kids in college the other day, I said, no, between me and God we know everything there is in the world.

You believe that? Between me and God? Between me and God we can do anything. There’s anything we can do between me and God. In other words, always believe that you and God, you’re a majority. And whenever you’re right and you stand with the Lord, you don’t have to be afraid. Just trust the Lord. So now 10,000 against how many? And he says, now I want you to go up here to Mount Tabor. And so on the side of that mountain, you’ll have a good view of what’s going on down here in the valley.

And this isn’t the valley of like Jez Riel, there’s a place called Maguetto there. There’s also Cadeshi. Now, Cady’s, there’s a Cady’s, Zebulam, but there’s also one that whenever they came out of Egypt, they came to Cady’s Barnia. That’s a different one. That’s in the southern part. And it was about 11 days journey from where they had to go. But now God’s going to use this woman. But Barak says, I’m not going to do this. I’m not going. I’m not going.

Unless you go with me. So here’s a man says, I’m not I’m gonna do 10,000, but I need one woman. How does that make you feel? Ah, a man that’s got 10,000, he’s afraid, but if this one woman goes with him, probably because she’s a godly woman. He knew God is gonna bless this woman. I’m not afraid as long as I’m with this woman. Oh, I’ll tell you. Aren’t you glad God put that in the Bible? I think it’s a wonderful story.

Some people would be considered Deborah as the mother of Israel because of what she was like, and they sung the song about it because in the next chapter it says, the song of Deborah. And it’s a song that tells more in detail than what you’ll read in chapter four. But look what he says in verse seven. And she says, and I will draw unto thee to the river Tishan Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army with his chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him into thy hand.”

So you do this, and I’ll do this, and I’ll draw them out, I’ll draw them. I didn’t say exactly how she was gonna do this, but whenever the word got out to Sisera, the captain of their army of the Canaanites, well, you’re coming against me with 10,000, I’ve got 900 chariots of iron. This is going to be a cakewalk. I mean this is in the bag. Now there’s enemies that are against us, but it’s not the size of your enemy or your problem that is your problem.

Our problem is the size of our God or the size of our faith. See if we put even a little faith in a big God that’s better than anything the enemy can ever throw at us. Remember, your God is God. 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, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Cut 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.