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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.

You have a Bible turned to the book of Romans. It was spring, but it was summer I wanted. the warm days and the great outdoors. It was summer, but it was fall that I wanted, the colorful leaves and the cool dry air. It was spring, but it was winter I wanted. The beautiful snow and the joy the holiday season. I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted. The freedom and the respect. I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted to be mature sophisticated.

I was middle-aged, but it was 30 I wanted, the youth, and the free spirit. I was retired, but it was middle-aged I wanted, the presence of mine without limitations. My life was over, but I never got what I wanted. And some people I think during their Christian life are always living in such a way that it’s always something else that they want. They want to be somebody else, they want to be somewhere else, they want to have something else, they’re always wanting something and they never seem to be content with where they are and what they have.

And I believe that when it comes to serving the Lord we should learn how to want what God wants. So I want you to think for a moment, could you at this moment. Stop thinking about what you want. Don’t think about what you want. Because if you want something that you don’t have then you’re always wanting something so that means you’re chances are you may not be satisfied with what you have now. But I want to see if you can do this.

This will be hard for you but I think you can do it. Can you want what you now have? Can you want what you now have? You say you just don’t know the heartache I’ve got. I want you to see if you can change it around. Want every problem that you now have. You have hurts and pains. How can I want that? Can you find a way to want your lack of finances that you have? And you don’t have anything to maybe live on enough.

You wish your house was bigger, you wish your car was better. always wanting something and if you don’t learn how to want what you have, you’re just liable to find out life will pass you by and you never got anything that you ever wanted because this is the day that God has given to us. This is the day that the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I want to say I’m thankful for this day.

We just had Thanksgiving. Everybody’s supposed to be thankful for something. What were you thankful for? Can you say I’m thankful to the Lord for giving me eternal life? That’s a good thing to be thankful for. I’m thankful that I’m His child. I’m thankful that I know that I’m going to heaven when I die. I’m glad that God made salvation free so that everybody could have it. I’m thankful that the Holy Spirit indwells me. I’m thankful that God gave me His Word so I can read and study it and know His will for my life.

I’m thankful for my wife. I’m thankful for my kids, I’m thankful for my grandkids, and I’m thankful for every problem that they have, every heartache they’re going through, all their struggles. Because see, if we really believe Romans 828, what does it say? Well, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. So that means that I’m supposed to want the will of God. But if it’s the will of God for me to suffer, should I want that?

Yes. If it’s the will of God for me to do without finances, should I want that? Yes. If it’s the will of God for me to… To have a million dollars, should I want that? Huh? Elion? Yes. I want the will of God. The will of God is the most important thing that any of us could ever want in our life. I read something about a missionary and I got teary eyed when I saw it. It was in a magazine for missions.

And this older lady in this church stood up in a missions conference and she made this statement. When I was a teenager, when I was a teenager, I knew that God wanted me to be a missionary. And then the saddest words she ever could have said, I didn’t go. I didn’t go. I knew God had something more for me to do. God wanted me to be a missionary and I wouldn’t go. I didn’t do it. You know, whenever we get to heaven and we find out what we could have done for the Lord, what God wanted us to do and we stand there and all we can say is I didn’t do it.

I didn’t do it. I didn’t go. And I think it’s going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth where people are going to be very regretful. See, we’re not as regretful now because we can’t see what it’s cost us. We just always think, well, it’s not that bad. I mean, if I don’t do what God would mean, it’s not that bad. And anyway, my life’s pretty good anyway. So it’s not that bad. We’re to look at things through the eyes of the Lord.

Look there in Romans in chapter nine and verse 14. A verse 14 says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. You see, when the Bible says that God, in order to justify us, must be just in the way he does it. In other words, if God lets a man go to heaven, if that man gets to heaven, it’s got to be right. So no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.

So how can God justify a man? Whereas you read the book of Romans, it is a book on justification. How did God make some man justified in the eyes of God and gets to go to heaven? Now we know that it says that the Gentiles had the world and the Jews had the word. So they both had one revelation and reason. Not everybody takes advantages of those opportunities. Even though God gave to the one the word of God to Israel, it did not profit them because they wouldn’t believe it.

And then he gave the mind the reasoning power of the world that know that there is a God, a Supreme Being, a power. And they turned against God and neither were thankful, became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. So their reasoning didn’t prove to be too advantageous to them. Is God unjust to save anybody? Well, if he saved us because of the way we are, then that would have been unjust, because nobody deserves to be saved.

So in the book of Romans, it shows us that no man is saved by his works. He must trust Christ as Savior and how that Christ in chapter 5 of Romans, prove that he loved us, displayed his love for us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So by trusting Him, Him along we have as a free gift ever lasting life. Now because we have this everlasting life, then in chapter 6 it talks to us about the how that we need to yield ourselves to the Lord as those that have come back from the dead.

And we are supposed to use our bodies as an instrument of righteousness and to bring forth fruit unto God. Chapter 7 reveals to us all of our struggles how that we want to do right, but we don’t do right. And every time we want to do good, he says, evil is present with me. How to perform that which is good, I find not. So I find in me a law, a law that every time I want to do right, sin is present with me, means your own sinful nature.

So you have the struggle, but chapter 8 reveals about the Holy Spirit and how that it is our choice. We can follow after the Spirit or after the flesh. Christians have a choice. And it says that we can have victory because it starts off in Romans 8. There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ, so we can never be condemned. And the ending of that chapter 8, there is no separation. And within those that framework, there is to be no frustration because we have learned how to just trust the Lord for what He’s done for it.

Now in our Christian life, we’re supposed to yield ourselves to the Lord and… God will walk us through life. Yay, do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death? I will fear no evil, fear no evil. And majority of Christians live their lives in fear, afraid of something that’s going to happen that they cannot either explain or deal with. I’ll have to admit there’s a lot of things that I have even at this point in my life.

I don’t know the future. I don’t know what’s coming down the road. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But there’s some things I wish I did know. I wish I had the answers to, but I feel like if God has walked with me for all these years, I can trust Him to walk me the rest of the way. I don’t know how dark it’s going to be. I don’t know what all the problems are going to be. Can I at this point in my life want what God has for me today?

And tomorrow when I get out of bed, regardless of what it is and whatever it unfolds, can I say, Lord, I want what You have for me today. You may have for me to suffer today. I love it when I don’t suffer. But he says that in the book of Romans in chapter 8, the sufferings of this presentptr are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. So the sufferings of this present time is the will of God for us.

So we don’t always get our way. Things go wrong, but things can work together for good to those who know and love the Lord. So you have to have a right kind of a mind on how you see life. There’s always the human perspective and a divine perspective. The human perspective is from our view and the divine perspective is from God’s view. But in verse 14 of chapter 9 it says, is there unrighteousness with God? Is God unrighteous? No, God is not unrighteous.

It says, God forbid. No, that’s not true. And why would we say that? because we don’t think it’s fair in our minds and the lost people, especially in all the religions of the world, they just can’t believe that a man can just simply trust Christ’s Savior. And God will give them eternal life and they go to heaven whenever they die. And here’s somebody else that goes to church, all their life lives right. And another guy lives like the devil and he goes to heaven and the good man that did right, paid his bills and did all the good stuff in life and he goes to help.

That’s not fair. So in our minds, we weigh things. We judge and we’re always judging and sometimes we judge God. God, that ain’t right. That’s not fair. A lot of things in life isn’t fair, but God is in charge. So he uses an illustration here to show you that he has the right being the potter or the the way he chooses to mold the clay. In verse 15, for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. He’s God. So God chose to have mercy on whom he want, compassion on whom he want. And he also says, those that I want to, I can harden them. Make them hard. See what he says? And verse 16, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that run it, but of God that showeth mercy. That’s found also in the book of John in chapter one.

We’re born not by the will of man, not by the will of man, but by our faith in Christ. It’s not the man who wills himself to be saved. That won’t save you because I wanna be saved. I wanna go to heaven, that won’t get you there. You have to trust Christ and Him alone. It’s not the man that runs, I do this and I did that. Look how many things I’ve done for the Lord. That’s not gonna get it.

God showed mercy. And so that’s the way God decided to do it. God decided to save a man by grace. And see up here in verse 11, pull the children into Isaac and Jacob. He said, for the children been not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of what? Not of works.

But of him that call it. So it is God. And so when he makes the statement there in verse 13, Jacob have a love, Esau have a hate of that. That’s a reference to the first birth and the second birth. The first birth is the flesh birth and the second birth is the spiritual birth born of the spirit. So God hates the sinful nature that’s in the flesh birth that ruined it for us. So whenever you trust Christ as Savior, you have a new birth.

Well, is that wrong for God to do this this way? No, God said it’s not wrong. He has the right to do it because he’s going to be people are going to judge God and God says that He wants to be just when He’s judged by those that He’s justified and for those that refuse to be justified. Because the great white throne judgment is coming, people are understanding judgment against God and try to prove to God. God you were wrong.

God says, I’m not wrong. He’s given us his word and tells us why he does things. Now look in verse 17, for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised the yep that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the year. In other words, God wanted to declare his power to the world. Well, he had to have a problem. You see, you just can’t show the power.

So, I mean, if there’s a lame man in Christ was able to make the lame man to walk, well, if a man hadn’t been lame, he couldn’t have used that miracle. If people hadn’t have been hungry, he couldn’t have fed the 5,000. There’d been no reason for it. It was the problems, the man that was blind. And God could make him see, well, if a man hadn’t been blind, God wouldn’t have had a chance to demonstrate his power. Or would it have raised Lazarus from the dead?

Well, if a man hadn’t have been dead, there wouldn’t have been nobody to raise from the dead. See, God uses the problems to show his power. He wants the world to know who he is, what he can do. But God wanted to use something big on a grand scale. So in order to demonstrate his power to the nation of Israel to get him to believe, yeah, because the Jews require sign. They want to see miracles. They want to see something.

Now, the Greek philosophers, they wanted to hear some new thing. But what God did, is he allowed O’Fayro to come to great power. And here’s all these people that he had, the nation, his army, and then he had the nation of Israel, right in his midst as slaves. So God raised up Pharaoh in order to use him as an illustration of his power. Look what I can do. And he showed his people what he can do by what he did to the sky.

So there’s problems in your life that God will raise up too big for you to handle. See, the children of Israel, they couldn’t handle Pharaoh, and the people? No, too big, but not too big for God. So you and I are going to face giants in our life, but we’re supposed to believe that you and God are the majority. You and God can handle anything. I don’t get what it is. You and God can handle it. See, my goal in life is not to see how many people I can convince that I’m right.

My goal is just to serve God, whether anybody believes it or don’t believe it. You can’t maybe always convince anybody of anything. People have a right to believe whatever they want to believe. I should say they have the freedom to believe it. But see, you and God ought to be able to handle anything in life so that you can keep serving Lord all the days of your life. And so He makes the statement here in verse 17, for this same purpose, I have raised the that I might show my power and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore had he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will, he hardened it. I will say unto me, why does he yet find fault? Or who hath resisted his will? Then why can God find fault if God just does whatever God wants to do? Did God make me the way that I am? Therefore if I don’t make the right decision, not my fault, God made me. Boy, I could really get out of a lot of responsibility that way.

God, how can you judge me? It ain’t my fault. I didn’t ask to be born, you know. Did you? God, how can you stand in judgment on me? That’s not fair. Remember, whatever you really want to do in life, you’ll find a way to justify it. I want you to take your Bible looking Jeremiah 18 real quick. Hold your place here, but Jeremiah chapter 18. And look there at this verse. In verse 1 says, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Say, and arise and go down to the Potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. When it says cause thee to hear my words, I mean, I’m going to cause you to understand my word. So you may hear what God says, but you don’t understand what he says. And I believe there’s a lot of people that just don’t understand. But he said, I want you to see something. If you see this illustration, and what are illustrations?

Illustrations are nothing but windows that let light into a dark room. Illustrations, it luminates the mind so you can understand a spiritual truth. So he makes the statement in verse three, then I went down to the potter’s house. And behold, he wrought a work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter. Isn’t it amazing that the time that Jeremiah got down there, God allowed this man that was on the wheel, making a vessel of whatever.

It was marred. He probably just did 10 of them right until Jeremiah got there and he happened to do what I’m wrong. And Jeremiah got to see what he did wrong. You know what? That time and the planet also has to be of God? I believe that God moves in the lives of individuals. Now that doesn’t mean that God is fatalistic. We’re fatalistic. No. I believe we have choices. And God gives us the right, the power to choose to make decisions like trusting Christ as my Savior.

And He says, before the foundations of the world, all that believe on Christ will have eternal life. And before we were ever born, did any good or bad God had already decided that any man who rejects Christ will spend eternity separate from God and Hell. That’s what God decided. But he didn’t decide who believed and who did not believe. That’s our choice. So he makes a statement here in verse 4. He said, and the vessel that he had in his hand would marred, so that he made it again another vessel.

As seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Sayeth the Lord, Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand. So are ye in my hand. O house of Israel. Does the potter, the Lord, have the right to do with the clay, you and I, whatever he wants? Look what he says. Look at this. This is so important.

7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy? that you know that God can cause a nation to grow or to put it down. God can do that. And then he said in verse 8, If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. Now God repents, but does God turn from sin?

No God won’t turn from sin. But see, he’s talking here about, I change his mind about the judgment he’s going to bring upon the people because of what they’re doing. But if, let’s say, for example, here you are as a child of God and you decided I’m going to rebel and do whatever I want to do. There’s a God in heaven who’s already thought about the thing that he’s going to bring into your life to have chasing you with.

But if you correct the problem, then God won’t do it. Isn’t that wonderful? But if you don’t correct the problem, God will. Now look what else he says there in verse 9. And at what instant I shall speak concerning the kingdom and concerning the kingdom to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight, that it will be not my voice, then I will will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. So here you are and we’re supposed to apply the scriptures.

Do you see anything in this that can apply to your life? Well all of it you should because remember it’s talking in chapter 9, 10 and 11 of Romans. Chapter 9 is the past of Israel. Chapter 10 is the presence of Israel. Chapter 11 is the future of Israel and is dealing with Israel as though Israel was a person. And if you see how God dealt with Israel you know how God will deal with you and me. And if Israel wanted the blessings of God, all they had to do is abide and land, listen to obey Him.

And if we want the will of God for life, all we have to do is obey Him. But what I want you to see there in verse 10, if you do evil in my sight, not to obey the voice of God is an evil thing. Not to obey God is evil. We need to see things from God’s viewpoint and judge things in our life like that. What we need in America, we need a revival in America among God’s people.

God’s people are filled with complacency. The churches are filled with complacency. In other words, what does that mean? They don’t care. People are going to hell. I don’t care. Why don’t you read the Bible? Because I don’t care to. Why don’t you go to church? I don’t care to. Why don’t you witness? Because I don’t care to. I don’t care. I’m going to do what I want to do. This is what people do. You think you’re really hurting God?

Yeah, God hurts because God is greed when his children don’t obey him, but you have no clue what you’re doing to yourself because it’s costing you here and it’s gonna cost you later. I want what I have. Whatever I’m going through, thank you, Lord. I want you to use this to make your name known. I’ll honor you. I want you to receive glory because of my attitude, because of what I’m having, or do you complain about everything that you don’t like?

And whatever you’re going through, we are going to suffer. But here he makes the statement in verse 20, neighbor, oh man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed? Say to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Does the potter, who’s the potter? That’s God. Who’s the clay? That’s you. That’s me. Does God have the power over the clay? Then why can’t God just do whatever He wants? Then he makes a statement here in verse 22, what if God willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endure with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?

If God wants to reveal His wrath, is there anything wrong that if God after a period of time and though He’s worked with it in long suffering and a person continue to rebel against the Lord, doesn’t God have the right to use that person to show His wrath upon? Yes. Isn’t that what He did with the Pharaoh? Yes. When it says, God hardened his heart. God hardened his heart because his heart was already hardened and God just made it harder.

Why? Because God forced him to make a decision. Let my people go. No. And sometimes God is going to confront you. Abol the eyeball with a problem and you got to decide what you’re going to do. Yield or not yield. Surrender or fight. And too many people fight against God. They don’t want his way or his will or his word, so they rebel. Well, see, God will bring things into our lives that forces us to make a choice, and we choose.

And because of your wrong choices, God, as a wonderful kind, loving heavenly Father, has the right, the power, to work on that piece of clay and remake it if he has to. It has to break it sometimes. Sometimes clay stays moist, tender, pliable in the hands of the potter and the potter can shape that vessel any way he wants and always just believe. God can do a better job transforming your life than you can because he’s the one that knows what kind of a vessel he’s trying to make.

And so he says there in verse 23, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared on the glory. So God has vessels of wrath and vessels of honor and even makes the statement in the book of Timothy where he says that in a big house they have all kinds of vessels, vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. And so if you decide to be a vessel of honor, well then purge things from your life so that God can use you in a greater way and you’ll be a vessel of honor.

And if you choose to rebel against the Lord and harden yourself, well then when the clay gets hardened like that, say, and God’s not finished with it yet, then it’s not going to be good. God’s going to have to not bend it. God’s going to have to break it and start all over again. And many Christians in our Christian life never mature because they never graduated from kindergarten, except the problem that you now have as though So God just put a million dollars in the bank for you.

And He says, the trial of your faith is much more precious than gold and silver. Don’t be tried with fire. And that one day at the Judgement City of Christ, every man shall receive his own praise, his honor and glory. Can you see that far? Can you see through the eyes of the Lord? That’s having a divine perspective. And God chose to use rebellion to reveal his wrath and submission obedience to show his blessings. God explains what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and use the nation of Israel as a living illustration of things that you and I are supposed to learn.

Have you heard about Bibleline Institute, the online Bible College of Bibleline Ministries? There are 11 different Bible College courses to choose from, and for this month we’d like to give you a free enrollment to the class Cult Evangelism 1 taught by Dr. Arnold. For your gift to Bibleline Ministries in any amount, you’ll have full use of the 10-hour course which you can access whenever you like and as often as you’d like. It’s all online. The classes include video instruction, lecture notes and quizzes if you’d like to submit and again it’s all online.

When you send in your gift, please include your email address and we’ll enroll you in the class, Cult Evangelism 1. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your email address or contact information. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.