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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to speak on the subject, wallowing in the mire. And here in the book of Isaiah chapter 53, look there in verse 6. Now the Bible says that we have all gone astray. Well, if you’ve got to go astray, you’ve got to have a starting point. Where were you to start with? What did you go astray from? See there in verse 6, all we like sheep have gone what? Astray. He says, we have turned everyone to his own way.

So go in astray means going your way and away from God’s way. always have to know what did you go astray from? You went astray from the way of God, the will of God, the word of God. So any person who was not in the way of God has gone astray. Believe it or not, you can sit here this morning and if you’re not in the will of God, you have gone astray and you’re living your life away from God.

And the Bible describes that very simply as wallowing in the the mire. You said, really? Yes, I want to show it to you. Because the last thing that you want, last thing I want, is to be compared to a sow that’s wallowing in the mire. In Psalms chapter 40, look there in verse 1. Verse 1 says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the mirey clay.

So God says, in his word that he brought you up out of a horrible pit. You said, well, I’ve never been in a pit. What you can walk out here on solid ground, on dry, that you can walk on the asphalt. But God says that if you are astray, you are walking in my replay. That’s how God sees you. That’s how God sees me. When we are as a sheep gone astray from a particular point, then God says we have left his way for our own will.

And so God says that you are to be delivered from a horrible pit. And even though I didn’t know I was in one, but I was, I was lost. I was undone. I was sinking. I could not save myself. And I was like the tar baby that got stuck in the tar and can’t get loose. And that’s the way people are in the world. They cannot shake themselves loose from the Meyer in the world. Now get what he says, and out of a Myricle and set my feet upon a rock, which is Christ, and upon and establish my goings, my directions.

And then he says in verse 3, and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God, many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. So the reason that you are supposed to have your way established, the way you live, the things that you say, the song in your heart, is so that other people will see and understand and the Bible says come to know the Lord. So God wants to use you and me because He lifted us up out of the Mary Clay and then He says the verse, Lord blessed is that man that makeeth the Lord his trust and respected not the proud nor such as turn aside to lies.

There are people in the world that are going to lie to you and I. There are different peaches in the world. And the Bible says there’s false prophet, false teacher. Anyone who teaches you to leave the way of God or the will of God is false. But because they are so powerful and so strong and the example that we see of other people is going to lead you and I away from that which God won. All we like sheep have what?

Gone a strafe. It’s so easy for us to go astray. It happens without us knowing it. We don’t even see it sometimes. All we want is to do what we want to do. What’s wrong with that? That’s going astray. So you find out from the Word of God, the will of God. And are you doing what God wants? He said, well, no, not exactly. Okay, then you’ve gone astray. And verse 8 says, I delight to do thy will. Oh, my God, Ye thy law is within my heart.

So there you have a statement about being brought up out of the Mary Clay and established your way. Put a song in your heart so that you will establish your going and that do the will of God for your life. Isn’t that wonderful? Now that’s what happens when you trust it, Christ, as your Savior. Now it would be great if every Christian did what God said. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Peter in chapter 2.

Chapter 2 verse 19, there is an illustration given here, and it seemed like it’s a very strong statement that Peter could say something like this. But he says in verse 19, while they, and the word they refers to the false teachers. I’ll show you that in just a minute. They promise them liberty, those that they teach. We’re going to set you free. And you hear a lot of that in America today, Hala. We want our freedom. We want our freedom.

And the ones that are talking about freedom wouldn’t know what to do with freedom if they had freedom. And remember years ago the old Hifty crowd used to always talk about make love, not war. it looked like they were capable of either one. While they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome.

The latter end, worst with them than the beginning, for it had been better for them not to have known the way of God or the way of righteousness, that after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them. How would you explain these scriptures? It seemed a little on the contradictory side. Are you saying that it would be better for a person not to know the Lord than to know the Lord and then not serve the Lord?

Be better off not to know the Lord and to know the way of righteousness and then turn from it? Well, I don’t think That’s what it says, but I can see where people would get that idea. But let’s look at it from two different viewpoints. One, let’s just pretend we got a lost man here. Okay, there’s a lost man standing right here. That means that he’s a sheep that’s gone astray. He doesn’t know the way of God, the will of God, the word of God.

He doesn’t know how to get to heaven. Why? He’s lost. He don’t know where God is. It can’t find God. And there’s a lot of people like this wondering through life. And they’re sheep. And God’s word talks about here’s a lost man, but there’s like in scripture two kinds of lost people There’s the lost man that knows the truth about how he’s supposed to live and they will do his best Then there’s the others that know what you’re supposed to do and totally defy it and have no desire to fulfill it but there’s some people who know the truth and and rebel against the truth.

So there’s lost people that know what’s right and will not do what’s right. God describes that in the book of Romans in chapter 1 of the people that know the will of God and refuse to do it. But there’s another thing whenever you’re flaunting your sin and glorifying in your sin and you want to get other people to believe in your sin that is nothing wrong with your sin. Well see that’s where the Bible talked about the false teachers.

See there in verse 1. But there were false prophets among the people, even there’s there shall be false teachers among you and they will come and they will teach things. They’re teachers but they’re false and they teach people to go astray, to go away from the truth, the word of God itself. So the more truth you have, the more light you’ve been given, Well, the more severe the punishment is going to be to those who rebel against it. So is it better to tell the lost man?

So if you tell the lost man, now he knows, but then he rejects it because of his additional life the judgments is worse upon the man because he rejects it. But there’s a possibility that by telling the gospel we get many people to trust Christ to say to them, I’m one of them. If you are someone who at one time you were lost, but somebody presented the gospel, you trusted Christ as Savior, you have eternal life, you’re going to heaven.

Aren’t you glad that you were at least told, so you could at least make a decision? In spite of the fact that if you had rejected it, that’s light that’s going to be worse upon you than if you’d never heard of. So there’s choices that we make. Then you take a man who knows Christ as Savior, let’s pretend that you have trusted Christ as your Savior. a chow of God. Is it better for God to at least tell you what he wants you to do with your life?

Or not to tell you what to do with your life. If he tells you what to do with your life and you’ve got the light, the knowledge from the truth of God’s work on what God wants you to do, and then you rebel against it, you’re going to be judged because you did not do what you should have done. But if you were ignorant of it and you didn’t know, then the Bible says in the book of Luke in an illustration about a parable, they shall be beaten with fewer stripes.

That means you didn’t know as much so you not as much required. So whom much is given, much is required. What do you do with Christians? Is it better not to tell a Christian what God wants him to do with his life? Because once you tell him he has additional light. And that additional light means God’s going to hold responsible for what he knows. But what about the person that says, well, I’m not going to go to church because if I go to church, I’ll learn more.

If I learn more, I have to do more. If I don’t do it, then I’m going to get just so I’ll just stay home and learn anything. Okay. So we have to deal with those. But then you can’t do the will of God because you don’t know the will of God. And because of that, is it possible that God knows what you could have known? you gone, had you listened, had you read the word? So God knows all the facts concerning every individual, whether it was good or whether it was bad.

It is the will of God to get his children to escape the pollutions of the word. God wants you to live differently. He has lifted you up out of a mari clay, set your feet upon a rock, and now he says, don’t go back to the the Mary Christ. Don’t go back to what you used to have and the way you used to be. Do you believe that the Word of God wants you to live Godly? Not to live on Godly, but to live Godly.

So you find out the things that are the will of God the way is it possible for a Christian as a sheep of God to go astray. Can you, can I go astray? Yes, we can. So if we go astray it’s because we are still sheep. Let’s pretend for a moment. Here we have a pig. See this pig? Now you got to be able to see the pig. See this little pig he’s sitting up here? Now what does a pig like?

A pig loves to wallow in the mud. That’s the nature of the beast. That’s what a pig likes. But what if we took this pig and we brought him in the house, we give him a bang and we spray him with our piggy end and your curl is tail. Put the earrings on the pig. Put a ribbon on the pig. Don’t that pig look beautiful? But if you let the pig go, where’s the pig going to go? Just because you cleaned him up, washed him up, smelled him up, and curled his tail and put a little ribbon on him, he is still a pig.

And the pig still likes the mud. So it doesn’t matter what you do, the pig that was washing to, the wallowing in the mire, has God saved you and saved me to simply be a pig that goes back to wallowing in the world like we don’t know the will of God we don’t know that he’s my father and I’m his child and I’m supposed to serve him but you see whenever you trust the crisis your Savior it’s like taking this pig and this pig believes on the Lord and lo and behold God gives this pig the nature of a lamb.

Now this pig is really messed up because the sheep doesn’t like the mud and the sheep likes the cool steel waters. The pig wants to wallow in the mud but the sheep doesn’t want to so it’s got two extreme natures living inside of that pig. So how are we going to help this pig that outwardly looks like a pig? Things like a pig. All of this life has acted like a pig. But now we have injected into this pig a new nature of a lamb.

Now how am I going to get the lamb nature to dominate the peg nature. You understand the problem? This is where you and I are. So many of us, the older we get. Our finding now that we have different kinds of physical ailments. And so we go to the doctor, and the doctor says, I want you to take this pill. Twice a day, every day for 30 days. So you take that medicine. Some of us in here, we probably take one pill a day or one pill a month or one pill every two weeks or take them for a year.

And we take the very pill. Once they keep me from getting arthritis, once they try to lure my blood pressure, once they kind of thinned my blood, you got all kind of pills of all kinds. But what if God says, now, now, piggy, if you want to look and act the way you should, I want you to take four shots every day. If you’ll take these four shots, then it’ll really help you to be a strong little sheep. And so this is a shot that I’m going to give you.

And this little shot is the studying of the Word of God. If you’ll study the Word of God, take this shot every day. It’ll help you. And if you’ll take and meet once a week, take this shot, at least once a week, I want you to go to church. That’s the little shot. And if you’ll take these four shots and I want you to learn to witness, that’s one of the things that you get it. And I want you to pray.

I want you to talk to me every day. One pill a day on that. that. So if you take these shots and you’ll do this right thing, it’ll help you to be a strong little sheep, even though you live in a pig. And next thing you know, there’s a pig that is totally different. And the changed pig, the changed pig is the pig that can influence the rest of the pigs.

Some of God’s people can’t influence anybody because their own life has never been changed. They won’t take the daily appeal that God says. They won’t study the Word of God. They don’t take their shots and then they don’t pray so they don’t take their shots and they’re not able to go to church so they don’t take their shots and so they don’t witness to other people and so they don’t take their shots and then they wonder why they’re not strong but physically we will do it all the time because we want to live longer.

Is the reason the purpose of the goal of your Christian life, is it to be just to wallow in the mind? Now get what he says here. Look in verse 20, for if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and say to Jesus Christ. So we can use this as a double reference. One, we can refer it to lost people who know the truth and rebel against it. We You can also use this illustration to those who know Christ is Savior and have escaped the pollution of the world by trusting Christ is Savior.

And then lo and behold, turn and go right back to what God pulled them out of. He says in the verse 20, He says, they are again entangled therein, overcome the latter in worse with than the beginning. a person who knows the truth and refuses to obey the truth, God says it’s worse for them than it was before because now you’ve got additional life, you’ve got to count for it. You can’t say, well, I didn’t know. Yes, you did know.

And that’s why whenever you read the Word of God, God tells you what He wants you to do, how He wants us to live. And then when we won’t obey God, then God says that you are wallowing in the mark, just like a pig does, goes right back to what He was before. Is it possible for a Christian to live the way a lost man lives? Yes, exactly the same. And then get what he says here in verse 21, For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known to turn from it.

So it’d be better if you never learned it at all. But if you don’t learn anything at all, then of course you will wall in the mark all your At least by knowing the truth you’ve got an option. If you know the will of God, you know what God wants to do, you can choose. Now look in verse 22, because it says it’s true according to that proverb. In verse 22, but as it is written unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own what?

Ugh, his own vomit. Now in God’s eyes, for Him to save you, give you eternal life. Stabbing your feet upon a rock, stabbing your going, and reveal to you what He wants you to do and for you not to do it, there’s no difference that you, like a dog, return into your own vomit. Now you think that makes God sick. This should make you sick. Because it’s not the will of God. You don’t want that. That’s how God sees it.

But look at the other part of it. He says in the last part of it, and the sow that was washed to her, wallowing in the mark. In other words, the old pig goes right back to what he was doing before. You don’t want to do and to live the way you used to or you could. You don’t want to go astray. Only way you can keep from going astray is stay close to the shepherd. Stay close to the shepherd.

When it be neat that once we trusted Christ our Savior, there was some way somehow they could guarantee me that I’ll never go astray. Well, wouldn’t that be great? But you know, there isn’t anything. There’s no personal experience that I have ever had. That can keep me from going to the street. See, I can go astray today. I can go astray tomorrow. Every sheep can go astray at any given time. So there’s no personal experience that I have ever even though I’m thankful that I was saved when I was 18 years old.

And I can say that they that changed my whole life. But I’ve lived long enough to see a lot of people who have been saved and served the Lord and still go astray. Is there any guarantee that could keep that from ever happening? Is there any exposure to any truth that can guarantee that you will not go astray? Any truth. I can read the Bible, study the Bible, memorize the scripture, study the Hebrew, study the Greek, always doing us, but I have never been exposed to anything that I know of right now that can keep me from going astray.

There’s no guarantee. I can go straight. You can go astray. And maybe at different times in life we do go astray. We go back to wallowing in the mark. It means to live according to the flesh. It means to go your own way. Do your own thing. It means to violate the will of God. There’s no example in heaven or in earth or in hell that can guarantee you that once you trust the Christ as your Savior you’ll never go astray again.

That if I only gave you this illustration, this story about this person, something you’ll never go astray with it be great if all of God’s people would serve the Lord with all their heart all the days of their life Wouldn’t that be great? Do they? And yet I cannot refer to any great example of anybody that will guarantee me I will not go astray.

But there are numerous, numerous lessons to compel us forward. I have watched and seen a lot of examples and with people and some experiences that compel me forward where I want that, but there’s no guarantee. But God’s Word gives us a few little ideas. 2 Peter and chapter 1, he says, whereby are given unto us, exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. So when you trust the Christ as your Savior, God injected you within the divine nature.

A nature that does not sin, hates sin, can’t sin, and you have a godly nature given to you by God when you trust your Christ’s Savior. But you still have the nature of the old flesh. You’re over. And that’s why you’re like the pig who’s been injected with the nature of a sheep and you have conflict. You want to get in the mud, you don’t want to get in the mud. You want to go to church, you don’t want to go to church, you want to read the Bible, you don’t want to read the Bible, you want to be faithful, you don’t want to be faithful.

And you struggle with that. But God says if you’ll take these pills faithfully, you do what I say do, He says you can be strong. And then He says this in verse 4, He says you might be partakers of the divine age of having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. When you trust it, you escape. And if you go back to it, you can. You’re still safe, still have eternal life, still go to heaven when you die.

But look at the price that you’re going to pay for all eternity of the blessings that you could have had here and the rewards you could have had when you got to heaven. Is it better to have known or not to have known for you personally? Do you want to know the will of God? And what would be the reason for knowing the will of God, so that you can do the will of God? Of course, if you knew the will of God, would you do it?

And if you don’t, it’d be better off if you did not know it. That’s why this is so important. And he makes the statement there in verse 10. for the rather. Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things, you shall never fall. God gave us a guarantee. And the guarantee that you’ll not fall or go astray is based upon the human. Go and write. So whenever the divine gives a divine guarantee that’s dependent upon the human man’s obedience, That can be no guarantee.

Because the guarantee is based upon your performance. Will you follow? He makes the statement about do this and add to your faith. And he says, and you’ll be able to see and you won’t have to fall. But many of God’s people will not heed what the word of God says. When you little by little, when you violate some of the little simple things and you don’t take this pill regular. You don’t take this pill regular. Okay, you can, there’s something’s going to happen in your life that’s not going to help you to be as strong as you could have been.

I hope that you understand what I’m saying because this is so important. It deals with, well or not, do you want to be like a dog that returns to the vomit or a sow to wallow and in the mire? I didn’t write these verses. They’re in the Bible for the Christian. And God said, this is what many of his children do. So be strong, be wise, look up here. Let me show you something. Probably never seen this before in your whole life.

Look at me now. This is you and me. This is, is sin. We have sin on us. God loves us, but He hates our sin. And for you and I to pay for sin is eternal separation fromabiding a place called hell. But LIMITED wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God. This is God and none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. So we can’t go to heaven because God will not allow us in and we can’t get rid of the sin.

And you can’t get into heaven. So how do I get there? Well, God says you can’t earn it. You can’t work for it. You can’t buy it. Well, how do I get there? This hand represents Jesus Christ. Aes the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him. He took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead, and God said that we would believe that He did it for us.

He would put this payment to our account, and we would get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. See, that’s free, that’s a gift. You don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you can’t buy it. And once you trust Christ as your Savior, God says that you have been placed upon a solid rock, which is Christ. You’re going to heaven is because you’re on Him, And he will never let you down. He’ll never cast you out.

He’ll never lose you. He’ll never leave you. He gives you eternal life. You’re going to heaven because He is saving you, taking you to heaven. You’re not trying to hang on to God to get to heaven. Because then you could slide away, lose yourself in. But once you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life and you go to heaven on what He did for you. Not the best news in all the world. Hello, this is Peter Amato with Bibleline.

And we hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program. program. We’re so thankful your support of Bibleline and we would like to offer you a free gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s teaching series on the book of Colossians. Paul writes to a concerned pastor about false teachings that are entering his church. Some were teaching that one could find additional and greater knowledge outside of Jesus Christ, which is not true. Paul teaches that Christ is the head and we are complete in Him.

This teaching series is certain to help you in your spiritual growth. So email, call or write to us today to receive your CD series on the Book of Colossians. 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 Bible on. 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 1111 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.