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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Just take your Bible just very quickly and go to the book of Revelation. I just want to I’m going to show you a few things here. The Bible talks about some things that are going to take place up on the earth. John was caught up into heaven and he saw some things and look, there were some angels, but look there in verse 1 of chapter 7. And you’ll notice where it says, and after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth.

it’ll blow your mind when you see just how many angels he saw and how many times he saw angels and what they were doing. He heard what they said, he saw what they were going to do and so the angels begin to appear. Now you and I, we’ve probably never seen an angel except maybe you’ll why you you know, see not angel. But look there in Revelation in chapter 8. You notice in verse 2, and I saw that seven angels would stood before God.

So we know where He is, He’s in heaven. Now there’s always what we call two perspectives. There’s a human perspective and a, you know, a divine perspective. And so from our point of view down here, we see a human perspective what we see with our own natural eyes. But there’s another world going on that we can’t see and it’s a an angelic world. God is a spirit and the Bible talks about angels and so forth been in heaven and look in chapter 10 and verse 1 where it says and I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven.

So So John is privileged to see what goes on behind the scenes. You see, he’s seeing the angels and what God tells them to do, what they said and what they did and where they were upon the earth and what they were doing. And the people upon the earth, they just see what’s happening. It’s just like you and I. Here we are. This is not just going to take place in the tribulation period. There’s things like this going on now.

It’s just that we don’t see them. We don’t see what’s behind the seat. We don’t see the angels working. When you’re driving your car, you don’t see the guardian angels. You probably be surprised that you’ve lived as long as you have, but you’ve got the Lord watches over us. There’s so much that goes on that we can’t see. We just can’t fathom it all. And so almost every chapter would just about start off with the angel and the angel.

And so you go through these scriptures and it keeps talking about all these angels down through here. And there’s a lot of them when you look at it and talks about the everlasting angel. Look here in chapter 14 and verse 6. And I saw another angel flying the midst of the heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the year. So here we have even an angel that’s going to be preaching. Look in chapter 15 verse 1, and I saw another sign in heaven, great in marvelous, seven angels having the seven last place.

And then in chapter 16, he starts bringing out these bowls of judgment and so forth upon the year. In verse 1 of chapter 17, and there came one of the seven angels. It goes all the way through the book of Revelation talking about these angels. So there is a thing called angels, and it is another world that’s invisible to us, but John was able to see both worlds. Wouldn’t that be awesome to see what’s going on behind the scenes and what’s causing some of the things and how the Lord uses his angels to accomplish his will.

But there is a story in the Bible about an angel that, well, he’s not a good angel. He’s a bad angel. And there’s a lot of little demons running around in this. I’m not talking about your kids, but there’s real demons. The Bible teaches there is a personal devil that will do all in his power to defeat us. He will attack us and he longs to have victory over us. Now I don’t want to go through this too fast.

I want to go slow enough that you really get a chance to think about what we’re saying. We have an enemy. You have an enemy. But we face this enemy and he is an expert warrior and he is a specialist in the art of destruction of ruining people’s lives, destroying marriages, destroying churches, destroying nation. The devil has a lot of power. And the Bible tells us that there is a real Satan in the scriptures. If you want to say, I just want to talk about enjoying the Christian life.

Well, there’s somebody that doesn’t want you to enjoy the Christian life. And it’s going to do everything in his power so that you don’t enjoy serving God. So you need to know your enemy and how to stand strong in spite of whatever he does. But look at this scripture reference we have right here in your notes. Be sober, be vigilant because you’re adversary. Now adversary is someone that is fighting against you. He’s not just somebody who lets you alone.

He’s somebody that’s actively in war against you. Now he may not give you personal attention, but he will see that one of his demons know who you are. Because you’re adversary the devil as a roaring lion. walk at the bout seeking whom he may devour. So how does he devour you? I believe a lot of Christians gonna find out when they stand before the Lord that God gave him so much time to live and they were to use it for him.

And they’ll find out that so much of their time was devoured by things that never amount to the Hellebenes. And the devil was able to eat up all of their time, He ate up their wealth, he ate up their life. And so the devil just wants to devour you by devouring your time because life is made up of time. And when you waste time, you’re wasting life. So he’ll get you to do a thousand things other than that which God wants you to do.

And you have to stay focused upon what God wants. Look at the next statement. He may come as a roaring lion or he may come as an angel of light. Now the Bible says that the devil has his own ministers. He’s got ministers that preach his message. In our college class this morning we were talking about in 1 John chapter 4 verses 1 three, about there is false spirits. And you’re supposed to judge the spirits. And we’ve said this before, you can’t take a spirit that you can’t see and put them on a stand and you’re going to try them and convict them.

But you try the spirit by testing the message against what the Word of God says. Because the very next verse talks about false prophets are already here. False prophets have a false message. The false message did not necessarily originate with that teacher but because of evil spirits that give them a message and tells them and they don’t know where it came from and probably totally deceived that it came from the devil himself. And yet they’ll preach the message because this message of salvation by grace alone and once your Savior always saved and you’re saved by grace, you just can’t believe that because if you believe that you’ll go to heaven, you’ll be saved.

They’re going to add works to it and make it sound like it so illogical. It just doesn’t make sense. You can trust Christ as your Savior and not have to serve the Lord. You just can’t believe that. Well, maybe they can’t believe that. But it’s still the truth. If you’re saved by grace. You’re saved by grace. Man is not left by God too. Hey, why don’t you guys go on there? Y’all get together and decide how this thing ought to be.

No, God decided how it’s going to be. And He says it’s free. I pay for the sins of the whole world and they go and tell people that. That’s good news. It’s good news to have eternal life and know that you’re going to heaven. And the only way you can know that you’re going to heaven is free and that it lasts forever. So look at the next statement. When he comes as an angel of light, Satan is using his lying technique to deceive.

God’s Word says he is the Father of lies. Now listen to what Jesus said about the devil and we know that Jesus always tells the truth. Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life. So whatever he says it must be the truth. And this is what he said about the devil who was our adversary who is seeking to destroy our life, destroy our testimony. He says, He are of your Father, the devil, and the lust of your Father ye will do.

He was a murderer from the beginning and about not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he He speaketh the lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Now there’s a good possibility. He goes all the way back to when Cain killed Abel. He was a murderer. He was behind that. The devil was working even in the garden when he deceived Eve. Now the Bible says Adam was not deceived, but he was hell responsible.

So we have a lot of trouble. Look at the results of their rebellion. You see, our problem is that we don’t get to live long enough to see the consequences, the total consequences of all of our rebellion. because one of these days he will die and after you know 30, 40, 50, 60 years we die. And then when we die we haven’t seen the end results of our lives that were not used for the Lord. And the consequences of how many people were led astray because we did not do right.

Or how many people could have been reached if we to walk with God. But Satan is busy deceiving us and lying to us, but you don’t see the devil. I don’t believe the devil and his angels can read our minds, but I do believe they can interject thoughts into your mind. That’s why you study the Bible so that you can discern your thoughts. You may think that just because you thought of it and your motives are so sure. And it was you.

So therefore it must be okay. I’ve had people tell me, I know this is what God wants me to do. I said, how do you know? I prayed about it. If it still goes against the book, I’ve had people get married, because I wouldn’t marry. I said, I wouldn’t do it. They go do it anyway. And if they go ahead and do it anyway, it was the Lord’s will. And in somewhere along the line, God changed his mind. No, you breaking principles in the Word of God doing what you shouldn’t do, but because, well, I prayed about it, then it makes it okay.

It’s not okay if it still goes contrary to the Word of God to be unequally yokeurations. Always go by the book. Look at the next statement. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Revelation and chapter 20 and verse 10. Many people think that the devil, well they know what he looks like because they’ve seen his picture. He has a red union suit. He has horns and he’s got a fork and tail and so we know what he looks like.

So we’re not going to be deceived when he shows up. We’ll recognize that bird. But you don’t understand, that’s on potted meat cans. And that’s not how the devil probably looks. He may come to you and be a guy with a three piece suit and it just looks sharp and everything in need of bottom and articulate, or it might be some good looking blonde bombshell. You see, the devil can use all kinds of people to lead people astray, and he does.

You see, he uses people like God uses people. So if you want God to use you, well then God can use you. But if you don’t want God to use you, then the devil is going to use you. and the devil will use you to accomplish his purpose. If you know it, you know how the enemy works, it will help you tremendously. Now look at the next statement. Satan is the God of this world. As the God of this world, Satan does all in his power to keep folks from hearing and believing the gospel for salvation.

He endeavors to keep you from being saved and will do the same for others, In whom the scripture, the second Corinthians 4 for him, in whom the God of this world blinded the minds of them which believed not. Less the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Now you see that the gospel is what paints the portrait of God. You see, that’s what he’s talking about, the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.

So when you mess with that glorious, perfect gospel, you’re destroying the image of what God is like. When you add works to the gospel, are you affecting how people see God? Think about it. Then salvation isn’t free, it’s not really by grace, you really do have to earn it and that’s not fair. So you’d be surprised how God will be judged. But what if God made it free for everybody? You realize that shows you just how much God loves us.

But if you had to earn it, earning it doesn’t show love. If it’s free, God loves us because He’s given us something we could never earn. And so therefore, this gospel should shine unto them. Well it can’t shine unto them if those who are standing before them don’t give the light. the one that God has blessed us with this treasure in earth and vessels and therefore we speak. Look at number two, the resistor who will fight the believer. This verse presents Satan as a cunning fighter.

Using every technique he can, find to defeat the believer. Now this verse is very good to know that it’s in the Bible. Paul is the one who is reigned enough, and 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 11, lestmonton should get an advantage of us. In other words, he knows things and can get an advantage of us if we let down. If there’s things that we do, we may open the door the total defeat. So therefore you know Satan is working on you trying to defeat you to destroy your life, destroy your testimony and you always have to be on guard.

You can’t trust the devil. So I can’t see him. That’s why you better go by what the book says. So the only way you can defeat the devil is that you believe what God says. See Satan tells a lie, God tells the truth. You’re the one that decides what you want to believe. So when you study the Bible you’re learning a lot of truth and Satan has a lot of fiery darts. So by truth you dispel the lies, the question, the doubts, because you know the truth and you can believe the truth.

Look at the next statement. Number three, the adversary who accuses the brethren. Now you know we’ve said this before, that the devil has deceived the whole world. The devil has deceived the whole world. Evidently it’s probably meant to save then to lost alike. There’s probably times even in a believer’s life that Satan has deceived us because when we have questioned and doubts about things, do you think questions and those doubts and those fears come from God? God have not given us the Spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind.

See, worrying is not of sound mind. Worrying is a sign of not trusting the Lord. Thou will keep him in perfect. Peace, whose mind is stayed upon the trusty in the Lord Jehovah, and the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. So the Lord tells us how to think. But if you’re not thinking the way God wants you to think, then maybe somebody else is telling you how to think. Sometimes we think, well, I just want to be neutral. I don’t want to serve God and I don’t want to serve the devil.

I’m just going to do whatever I want. Well, that’s what the devil says. That’s the devil’s thought. That’s the devil talking. God says, your ways are not my ways, my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. When a man wants to go his own way, all we like sheep have gone astray. Do you think after you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you still have a tendency to go astray?

You’re still sheep. You’re just now a saved sheep in his pasture, and you still have that tendency to want to go astray, do your own thing. And you think, I can make this happen. I don’t need to go to church. I don’t need to study the Bible. I mean, I’m smart enough. I mean, I’m not a dummy, you know. You reveal your wisdom by the decisions you make. And you’ll notice that you’re placing yourself up as God when you begin to argue with God and argue with the Bible and argue about your faithfulness to do the things that God says you’re to do.

And you’d be surprised how many people have been bold, deceived, and they go astray. Revelation in chapter 12. I want you to take your Bible here. You’re right here in the book of Revelation anyway. And look here in this verse. See there verse 9. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9. He says in verse 9, and the great dragon was cast out. Even God didn’t want to put it with him. that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives, you ought to underline this in your Bible, deceives the whole world.

He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Now is this true or is this false? Does the devil have angels? Yes he does. And many believe that that’s what he’s talking about up there when he says about the in verse 4 and his tale drew the third part of the stars of heaven which could be a reference to the angels and a third of them left in rebellion against God. And you’ll see what he says there in verse 3 and there appeared another wonder in heaven behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth.

And the dragons stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” I wonder who that was. To devour her child as soon as it was born. A woman has a baby here. Anybody got a clue what that’s talking Israel and Christ. I now look down in verse 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.

This is the accuser of our brethren. This means believers. This is believers and the devil is not letting you alone. Did you know if he accuses us before the father, he must know what’s going on and I don’t believe he would waste his time if he didn’t have the goods. Did you know there could be little demons that watch everything you do? You know like there’s a woman right now I think she’s running for president of United States. Did you know there’s probably people that are watching everything she says, everywhere she goes, everything she does, because they’re looking for something they can use to destroy her?

True? You agree with me? Just hoping they can catch something on video or an audio, something that they can use. Now we know they wouldn’t do that to the Republicans, right. They wouldn’t do that to those guys. But everybody is trying to find out not the good that they do. They’re trying to find out something they can use to destroy the other person with. But there are people who are going to be looking for reasons to use to say that guy is not qualified and this one is not qualified.

And that’s why I said the other night. You don’t have to, you know, pay money to dig up your family tree, run from political office and your enemy. office and your enemy will do it for you. And they’ll try to find anything they can use. See, if the devil has his little demons around and you can’t see them, but they can see you. So whenever you’re doing things that you shouldn’t do or say something but nobody knows, the devil might know, then little demons might know.

Have you ever read of a verse in the Bible that you’re, be sure your sin will find you out in In other words, it’ll tell you there’s somebody that’s the author of sin and he’s gonna pay the devil is a tattle tale. He’s not in favor of you. He wants to destroy you. And people say, well, nobody will ever know. Yeah, the devil knows. He’s watching. He’s got his little demon. Have you ever rode down the road to my wife or she’d say, yank, see that there in that corner.

I said, look up there. What? Camera. Camera. Did you know that every one of you in this room have a camera? Probably. Don’t you? Bob, don’t you have a camera? You don’t, your wife has it. I just wanted to find out who was charged. You got a camera? They get camera everywhere. I mean, nothing’s safe anymore. And you hate to even pick your nose and make things, you know what’s on Facebook? Everything that happens. Now, if you want to serve the Lord, God also has His angels.

And so if you’ll serve the Lord, God will help and guide you. But when you want to go with the devil, he’s got his little demons to guide you. And it just seems like everything just works out for me. It’s just, you just don’t understand how all the doors were opened up and they got further and further and further away from the Lord. The devil opens doors too. The devil has got his friends out there too to help encourage you to keep going in the wrong direction.

If you want to serve the Lord, God’s got people that will help you. If you don’t want to serve the Lord, your water seeks its own level. I can take a teenager to camp who loves the Lord and they’ll find people who love the Lord. If I take a rebellious teenager to camp, it don’t take about two or three hours and they’ll find out who the other ones are that are rebellious and they will group together. How do they do it?

You don’t even have to tell them. There must be a devil involved in all of this. What’s that? They are. They are. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address. And God bless you and thank you for listening to 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, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.