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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.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Hosea. The book of Hosea. chapter 11, Hosea chapter 11, and verse 1. So Hosea chapter 11 took away way back here in the Old Testament out of all these books. There’s a little verse. And when you read it, you think, well, I know what that means. See there in verse 1, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.” So we know that according to the Old Testament that Israel, you know, Jacob and his twelve kids, eventually all wind up going down into Egypt.

And we also know that 400 years later they came up out of Egypt. So God called his son out of Egypt. And most times whenever we see something like that, we think, well that’s the total meaning of that verse. And then sometimes you’d be surprised there are so many verses in the Word of God that we have not even yet, we haven’t come close to understanding the depths of the Word of God. I don’t know if we’ll ever in this lifetime understand it until we get to heaven and maybe doing the millennium, we’re going to read the Scriptures and we’ll be so enlightened.

We’re going to see so much and we’ll wonder, why didn’t I see that? Why didn’t I see that? It’s so clear. It’s right there. Just like we can read the Bible and see some of the Old Testament prophecies and wonder why didn’t they see it? There’s probably people that are already in heaven right now saying, why in the world can’t you see that? It’s right there in front of them. Well, take your Bible and turn to the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis, chapter 37.

Genesis chapter 37, and look in verse 1. Now we know there’s Abraham, Isaac, and in Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons. But out of those 12 sons, there was one of them that Daddy loved an awful lot. Maybe he loved him more than he should have. He set the stage for a little bitterness or jealousy and envy within the other children. That happens in families sometime whenever one child thinks that he’s favored among the others or above them. And so you get jealous and feel with a little envy because you think, oh, that’s Daddy’s little pet or Mummy’s little pet.

And then whenever Mummy and Daddy’s not around, you want to beat up on that little pet. Now I know that didn’t happen in your family. I know that, I know that. But I did have a sister that was Daddy’s little pet. I’m very out to you. I still have memories to this day. So anyway, if you’ll look there in Genesis in chapter 37, look at verse 1. And Jacob dwelt in the land where in his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, been 17 years of old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Billhead, and with the sons of Zilpa, his father’s wives, and Joseph brought under his father their evil report. Now Israel, Jacob, he loved Joseph more than all of his children, because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Who started that? You see, it wasn’t Joseph hadn’t done anything wrong. And his sons, well because of Daddy. And so, Daddy didn’t know maybe that what he was doing was stirring a pot. Did you know that God can use the evil wicked ways of a man? to accomplish his purpose, God can use what people say and do. And in this family problem that they had right here, God still was able to work his will. And even though somebody else might treat you wrong in an evil way, God can use it for his honor and his glory.

And God can still protect you in the midst of all of this. But look what he says in verse 5, Joseph dreamed a dream. He told it to his His brother and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray you this dream which I have dreamed. So he was known as the dreamer. He was a dreamer. And so they say, Hey, the dreamer cometh when I saw him coming in the field because he had dreams.

Was it Joseph’s fault that he had dreams? The other night, right before I went to bed, God bless my little darling wife, she made me something that I love, peach cobbler. Oh I love peach cobbler. I sat there in my chair and she said, now here’s a surprise for you. I accidentally got some on my cheek and my tongue like to slap my face to death getting at it. I was eating that bowl of peach cobbler. Oh, it was good.

You know that night I had a million dreams. I couldn’t say it was a natural dream. It was snapshots. I went like I was going through a slide show. One picture, another picture, another picture, another picture. And I couldn’t concentrate on anything. And I saw these snapshots all night long and couldn’t remember a thing. I was worn out the next day. So last night I had another ball. But anyway, there’s times when it’s worth it. It’s just worth it.

I’ve had dreams that, you know, sometimes I can remember and sometimes I can’t remember. But he remembered his dream. Who gave him the dream? God gave him the dream. Did God know that giving him the dream was going to cause family problems? God already knew that. You’re sometime you wonder, well, why did God let something like this happen to me? Or God let this happen? And we question the things that happens in our life. Did you know that might be, might be, God is working in your life.

And he just didn’t tell you in advance. And he’ll allow things to happen. And he knows what you’re going to do. And he knows how people are gonna respond to how they’re gonna react all of that. And then sometimes you’ll see down the road how God has worked and weaved in your life and done some wonderful things. Now here in Genesis I want you to look there in verse 28, look in verse 28. It says, then they’re passed by meeting the nights of merchant men and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of a pit because his brothers were selling them.

They wanted to get rid of him. They were going to kill him. And now they’re just going to sell him in. And they drew him and lifted him up Joseph out of the pit, sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites 20 pieces of silver and they brought Joseph into Egypt. See, this is how in the beginning God got the whole nation, the whole family down there because he had one guy, one little 17-year-old boy, and allowed this to happen to him.

And to be separated from his parents, his brothers, they hated him, and to think what he went through. And it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Remember, we talked about this morning about some of the things that happens in people’s lives in Joseph and Mary. Everything is just supposed to go so smooth and everything is supposed to work out just perfectly. Sometimes in our mind the things that don’t work out is what God wanted to do. They didn’t work out for us, but it doesn’t mean that everything was shot and that you’re a total failure.

You may just be an individual that God is using to accomplish this purpose because God has a plan. If we study the Bible, we’ll find that out. That God has a reason for you living. And that God is working in your life, whether you see it or you don’t see it. So he goes through here and he makes the statement. makes the statement, but look in chapter 39 now, chapter 39, and look in verse 1, verse 1 down to verse 3, and it says, and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, and officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard in Egyptian, brought him of the hands of the the initialites which had brought him down to the other.

And the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hands. So I kind of call this the land of prosperity. He didn’t know when he was So by his brothers and taken down into Egypt and all the things that happened to him, that God was with him.

And all he had to do was just serve the Lord and do right. God had a plan. And I want you to look there in chapter 41, chapter 41, and look in verse 51, verse 51. Now Joseph has, oh, gotten married and had a couple kids. And sometimes you study the 12 tribes, you don’t always see the tribe of Joseph. He had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And you’ll always keep reading about Manasseh and Ephraim. And look what he says in verse 51, and Joseph called the names of the firstborn, Manasseh.

For God said he hath made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house. God has helped me to forget. And that’s the he didn’t because he remembered his brothers. He remembers his dad, but he caused him to forget over the herd or even the bitterness and all the things that you have that builds up inside of you when someone wrongs you. But look what he says in verse 52, and the name of the second called he Ephraim from and you ought to underline this phrase because it’s an awesome phrase because this is the land of persecution because he was persecuted and he was even persecuted when he first went down into Egypt and the things that he suffered because of well somebody’s woman and he had to take in coat and he had to run.

He was placed in prison and all of that he went through and yet he didn’t deserve any of those things. Have you ever thought to yourself this isn’t That’s just isn’t fair. You haven’t been reading the Bible lately. Doesn’t say anything about being fair. It’s about God being just and right and having the authority to use you in any way he wants to. He is God. And look at the last part of this verse. For God had caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

truthful in my affliction, the land of my affliction. So you see, there’s the land of prosperity and the land of persecution and the land of preservation. Look in chapter 45, chapter 45. And look here in verse five, verse five. In verse five, and we’ll read down to verse eight, but in verse five, now therefore be not grieved because now time has passed by. And lo and behold, yes, Jacob was in a place of famine. There was no rain, there was no crop.

And so therefore they were starving, they needed food. And so they heard that there was food in Egypt. So they came down to Egypt, they sent a couple of those kids, and they go down there and while it wasn’t long, Joseph recognized them. He knew who they were. And he remembered what they had done. They didn’t know who he was at first until the second time he came down. And he revealed himself to them in the Bible says he sobbed.

He just sobbed. Just broke down and wept. Well, wouldn’t you have? See, he still loved them. They’re still family. And God used it in such a way to break their hearts and their will and cause them to be humbled because they knew that he had the power. He could have killed every one of them. And it wasn’t long before he even got Jacob to come down, Daddy. But look what he says here in verse 5. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither for God get this.

God did send me. before you to preserve like God sent me here. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be hearing of or nor harvest. And God sent me before you to, and here’s that word, preserved. This is the land of preservation. And then he makes the statement, apostarity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. Verse eight. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but you are done the line those two little words, but God.

Sometimes we say and do things, things that we don’t mean to say, we don’t want to say, and yet we do them. And sometimes we feel so rotten inside. And yet it might have been something that God wanted, but you can’t sometimes always put your finger on it. And sometimes people may treat you in a certain way and you don’t know why they did what they did. Because God may be working something. Don’t be too quick to jump the gun.

Don’t be too eager to kill somebody. Don’t be so quick to be mean and ugly with somebody. You see, there’s factors involved that you and I are not aware of, and that we can’t control and sometimes other people can’t control. Because there’s things that happen. God can use everything for His honor and glory. You must believe, and I’m supposed to believe, that God’s on the throne and He’s working out as well. See, the greatest thing you can ever do is to trust Christ as your Savior.

After you trust Christ as your Savior, decide to serve the Lord. And if you decide to serve the Lord, then expect God to interrupt your schedule. to use you any way he wants to for his honor and glory. But look at that last part again in verse eight. So now it was not you that sent me hither but God, and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Now look in verse 13, and ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. And of all that he ye have seen, and ye shall hasten, and bring down my Father hither.” And so they did, and it wasn’t long before they were all one big, happy family. Isn’t that wonderful? They were all back down there in the land of Goshen, top part of the Nile right next to the Alexandria, where we call it the day. I’ve been there.

And you cut a good land of Goshen. Well that’s what it is, the good land of Goshen. Somebody’s talking about that. Holy Moses. No, Moses wasn’t holy in that sense, but Moses was a good man. I’ll admit that. Take your Bible and turn now to the New Testament. We know that Joseph here in the Old Testament was used by God to get the son down into Egypt. And then he tells him, when you go up out of Egypt, you remember to take my bones with you 400 years later they did.

Now take your Bible and turn to the New Testament. Matthew chapter one, Matthew and chapter one. We have a little story about another man named Joseph. And guess what Joseph was in the New Testament? He was a dreamer. He was a dreamer. You’d be He surprised how many dreams he had. You see, if it hadn’t have been for some of those dreams, his life would have taken a different course altogether. You see, he was engaged to a woman. And that engagement peers was supposed to be long enough and guaranteed by the mom and dad, hey, my daughter is a virgin.

Well, she became pregnant. And he began to have what we call doubts. Then dreams and then a decision. But first of all, he had his doubt. You say, I didn’t think he doubted it. Well, let’s just look at it. Look in verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, been a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privately.

Why? Because he’d have to believe that she’s pregnant. and it wasn’t him. Now what would you think? What would you think? The normal thing to think. This was before his dream. And then he had a dream. And in this dream God told him the plan. Told him what was going on. Told him that yes, she’s going to have a child, but that child is of the Holy Ghost. Did you know that he believed it? He really believed it. He believed what it says.

Look in verse 20, while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream. St. Joseph, thou son of David. Fear not to take into the Mary thy wife, for thou shop, that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth the Son and call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Verse 24, then Joseph, been raised from sleep, had made a decision.

He did as the angel of the Lord had biden him. He took unto him his wife. So he didn’t put her away. He took her and became as was supposed husband or the father of Jesus. Now remember this morning I mentioned to you that whenever you look in Matthew chapter 1 it’s so and so begat so and so begat so and so begat. But now take your Bible and just turn real quickly over there to the book of Luke the book of Luke and you’ll notice in the book of Luke and chapter 4, excuse me, not 4, chapter 3.

First mistake I’ve made, you know, five minutes. Bullying now in verse 23, in verse 23, and Jesus Himself began to be about 30 years of age, being and get this, as was supposed. People thought Joseph was the daddy, as suppose the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli. Now, this we believe that he was really, He is Mary’s dad and he’s the son in law. See, it doesn’t say here that he begat Jesus. This is the son of, the son of, the son of.

And you go all the way down through here and look down there in verse 31, which was the son of Malia, which was the son of Minan, which was the son of Matata, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David. And so it’s going through and showing a genealogy, but this is from Mary’s side because Mary also was of the line. And whenever we read over there in Matthew while ago, it talks about Joseph of the line of David.

And here he’s talking about, see, Mary is of the line of David. But it’s through Nathan. And in the book of Matthew, chapter 1, it’s through the line of Solomon. But because later on down the road there was a curse put upon the line of Jack and I are saying that he would not have any of his seed to set upon the throne of Israel. That’s why Joseph could not have been a king. If it hadn’t been for that, he could have claimed the throne.

Joseph, he was in line. But there was a curse put upon the line and none of them could be king. So unless God intervened some way, there would not be a king in Israel. But anyway, as you go through and you read and you study and you find out some of these things that’s really interesting, how that God kind of puts all these things together. But it’s not done in such a way just to satisfy curiosity seekers. Well, somebody that looks and they read this thing and they say, well, now, why did they do that?

No, why did they do that? I was looking for reasons and trying to put things together. Because, you know, everything has to perfectly dovetail. The Word of God cannot contradict itself. And so it causes you to really take a look at it. But he did what he did because God intervened and gave him a dream. I think it’s amazing that, you know, here it was 1500 years in advance and you’ve got a man named Joseph that was going down into Egypt.

Now here it is in the New Testament in the first book. In the New Testament, you have Joseph going down into Egypt with his son. But look what he says here in verse 11 of chapter 2, Matthew chapter 2. And in verse 11 it says, and when they were come to the house, because see by the time the wise men got there, they didn’t come to the manger scene. This was not a domain. This was at the house and the child was about two years of age.

And he says, and they saw the young child, and they were in the house. Notice it, when they come into the house, this is not outside the house at a stable and a manger and all the animals. Now that’s the way we see the mangers scene, but that’s really not the way it happened in the Bible. But look what he says, and they found the child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him, and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincent and mura, and get this in verse 12, being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod.

Why? Didn’t Herod say, when you have found the child, bring me word again that we may come and worship him also? Do you really think that he really wanted to worship him? There’s a God in heaven that knows that Herod had evil in his man. And so God calls him to see if God didn’t intervene at times in people’s lives. You’d be surprised what would have happened. There’s time God may intervene in your life. Did you ever want to go someplace and get there quick and it seemed like everything goes wrong?

The car breaks down? The radiator messed up? And you think sometimes, Lord, that didn’t have to happen. I mean surely that didn’t have to happen and yet God knows what He’s doing. You and I will enjoy life if you just learn to enjoy the ride. Don’t pick God apart. Don’t try to make God explain everything to you. Enjoy the trip. It’s part of the trip. I’m on a vacation and something happens goes wrong. Enjoy the trip, not just the destination.

It’s like life. Enjoy life, not just, well, when I get this, I’ll be happy. When I get that, I’ll be happy. Like, it’s at the end of this. No, I don’t want it at the end of anything. I want to enjoy it as I go. I have really enjoyed my life. I was telling Betty this the other day. Well, I was telling her today. I says, I don’t know if you really think about it. I don’t all the time.

I says, but you stop and think, honey, we have we have pretty good health and God given us a good ministry and we’re sitting here eating some good food and we’re here in Tampa, Florida and we’re can drive down here and overlook the bay, drive a little bit further, you can see the beach and just look how good God’s You don’t realize they’re having 18 degree weather up there. We’re down here with a sunshine almost all the time. Isn’t God good to us in our old age if you want to call 70 old age?

I don’t. I think we’re just hitting to the top of the peak and it could last for a long time on the top of this plateau. 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 Maine. 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. Caught 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.