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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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

When God had done a miraculous thing for the nation of Israel, He took them down into Egypt. They were in their incubation period 400 years they were given the choice land There rose up a pharaoh that knew not Joseph This new pharaoh put them in the bondage. They became a slave and now the time has come for deliverance scriptures talk about many times about as the pains of childbirth, travail. And he says that Israel was travailing in pain. Seeking to be delivered, the Bible tells us that out of Egypt have I called my son.

We know it’s a double reference. One, later on Jesus Christ after he had been taken there by Joseph and Mary, Later on he came back from Egypt and it says that he fulfilled the scriptures and that God it’s promised that out of Egypt have I called my son. But also out of Egypt did God call his son the whole nation of Israel and Israel is looked upon as one individual and God as the king over Israel, wanted to direct Israel and God gave them laws.

And God says that I will not put any of the diseases of the nation of Egypt upon you. I will protect you. I will make you victorious. I’ll give you the land that flows with milk and honey and all kind of things that God just couldn’t wait to do for Israel. But he also promised to me, he says, now, if you serve me, I’ll bless you. If you don’t, I’m going to chase in you. And so Israel had a choice.

God wanted to direct and rule his people one on one. The other nations around the bottom had a king and they wanted a king too. But they wanted a literal man to set up on a throne in Jerusalem and rule. And the Lord told them, says, look, if If I give you a king, that king is going to take your land and that king is going to take your money and that king is going to take your sons and daughters.

So you’re going to pay a great price just to have that king. When you didn’t have to do that, all you had to do was just let God speak to his prophet and the prophet would tell you and that’s what you would do. The children of Israel had rebelled against God. They wanted to have this literal king and God was angry with him. know the name of the first King of Israel? The Apostle Paul. Saul became the king. And as time goes on, well, he rebelled against God.

First Samuel in chapter 12. He says here in verse 6. Now remember, he’s already said, is if anybody has any reason, anything against me because I was the prophet and you refused to obey God through me. If I’m wrong, do you any way? Let me know. And of course nobody said anything. Nobody had anything against Samuel. And that’s pretty good from his childhood all the way up to now. He says, I am old. He says I’m grayheaded. But look at verse 6, Samuel is now rehearsing to them.

Now, always seek to understand the scriptures by how would I receive this message or what would God want me to do if I heard this message? And so are there anything in your own light that you need to correct? Remember, everybody has to have something that rules them. Something has to tell you what to do not to do. Sometimes we feel like if we could educate the masses, then the education is supposed to solve most people’s problems. Samuel said unto the people, it is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you. In other words, let me talk to you for a little bit. Every once in a while people need to shut up, sit down, and listen to what God has to say. This is why your personal time between you and the Lord is such a valuable time. If you get too busy in life that you don’t have no time to stop and let God speak to you, then you’re too busy.

You’re just too busy. Stop something. You’ve got something that you’re doing that you don’t need to do if you don’t have time for the Lord. Period. He says here in verse 7, I want the reason with you about what God did for you. Now the reason you and I should serve the Lord, because if we stop and think about what God has done for us, how that he saved us from a place in hell and gave us eternal life and made us his children, and of all the blessings that he wants to give to us in this life and how he wants you, every person, if they would only just reason, they’d want to serve the Lord.

But see, people can’t stop and think, because if they reasoned about this thing, then they would do it. The devil will keep your mind so busy, keep you so busy that you can’t think about the priorities. Remember this, when you read the book of Revelation in chapter 2, and he’s talking about the church, he says, I know by works, and I know your patience, I know the tribulations. He says, but I have somewhat against thee. He says, because thou hast left thy first, your first love.

So you can do a lot of things, but if you ever lose your first love nothing else matters Everything that you do you’re not rewarded for Because God rewards the efforts that are done because of the labor of love If I do all things and give my body to be burned And if I could move mountains because of my great faith or if I could speak with a tongue of angels But if I don’t have love it profit with me how much it doesn’t profit you anything So you can go to church and not get one reward.

You can read your Bible and get no rewards. You can even witness and not get a reward. Because the reason is why you do it. If it’s not to honor the one that did all these things for you, he says your labor is in vain. Now I would rather you do it. Because the man who hears the gospel, even with your wrong motive, still can hear the gospel, trust, Christ, the Savior still go to heaven when he dies. But if you want the blesses of God, Then he says, don’t lose your first love.

That means don’t let anything or anybody come between you and God. If you do, God can remove anything that comes between you and him. I always keep it in mind. So he says here in verse eight, When Jacob or come into Egypt and your fathers cried unto the Lord, Then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, made them dwell in this place. When they forgot the Lord of their God, He sold them into the hands of Cicera, captained the host of Hazar, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them, and they cried unto the Lord, and said, we have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served a balam, an astorop, but now deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, and we will serve thee.

In other words, you can look at it as an individual. They got a lot of whoopins they didn’t need to give. They got a lot of whoopings because they were rebellious. I got whoopings when I was a kid. Some of them I deserved. I also believe I got some I didn’t deserve. But when I was going to school, if you did get a whooping in school, you did get one when you got home. And it didn’t matter what the reason was.

You got one in school, when you got home, you got another one. And the one that got at home was a lot worse than one I ever got in school. I think they’ll probably get back to a little bit of that. Anyway, now you know you touch my kid, you say anything to my kid, they come on beat you up. So you, though you in jail, God says His children got a lot of weapons they didn’t have to get.

Now here you are, you trust the Christ is your savior. You’re going to heaven when you’re dying. You’re a God’s child. You don’t see God in human form. I mean you don’t see God. He’s a spirit. You don’t see the Holy Spirit. You don’t even see the devil. You don’t see heaven. You don’t see hell. We live by faith. We believe in all of that because God says, so we live our lives because I believe that God is alive and He’s working and I’m His child.

He’s my father and He’s going to do what He promised. So as you live your life, God says we are going to receive a lot of weapons, spanking, chasing. We didn’t have to have. But because God is concerned about our attitudes, God knows our anger, he knows our bitterness, he knows the results of what we do, what we do. He knows if we lose our first love. God knows he’s going to have to lay the rod. But he’s a good God, a loving God, a forgiving God, and then he will always deliver.

And in every case, when they cry out to God, God forgave them and everything was fine and you would think, well they ain’t going to do that again. Have you ever had a kid? It didn’t matter how many times you whooped that kid. It did not help and in their sometimes you can just look at one of them and Embud they straighten up. You don’t have to touch him if you don’t obey your heavenly father like you should then you should understand God is going to have to chase you but when he chastens you it’s not because he hates you it’s because he what?

He loves you. Can you say that God loves me? He loves me. Jesus loves me this I know So he loves us, but we don’t always obey him. And he says there in verse 11, and the Lord sent, durable, and beat and, and jethyp, and Samuel, and delivered you out of by hands of your enemies. Some of these were the various judges. On every site and you dwelled, saved. God sent different individuals. And God used those men to do miraculous things for the nation of Israel.

Gideon was using a great mighty way. We’re looking verse 12. When ye saw that nay has the king of the children of Emmon came against you, ye said unto me, nay, but a king shall reign over us. When the Lord your God was your king. So we want a king over us. He says, you already had a king. It was God. God ruled over you. Well, we don’t want God. We want us that king. And it is, or I’ll ever get some bad kings.

Do you know that God caused Saul and Jonathan to die in a battle with the Philistines? All because of Disobedience. Well look what he says here. Now therefore behold the King whom ye have chosen and whom ye have desired and Behold the Lord has said a king over you Sometimes God’s love will let you have it He’ll let you have your own way and that thing that you wanted so bad will become the very thing that you’ll hate and despise afterwards.

Remember one time I was listening to Ray and he was telling the story about this guy in the insane asylum and he was walking down the hallway and he heard a guy down at the end of the hall hollering. Susie Susie! He says what’s he hollering for? He says he used to go with a girl named Susie and she left him for another man and it drove him crazy. Went down another hallway another guy on the other end with Holler and Susie Susie.

So what happened to him? He said he got her. In verse 14, you ought to on the line verse 14, very important in this verse, if ye will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God. He says, if you will keep serving God just like I told you to, then God says, I’ll bless you and the king.

So God says, all right, I’ll give you a king. But the king is still a listen to me and you are still to listen to me. And if everybody listens to God, then everything will work all right and he’ll guide the king and so forth. So he says, the people are going to get the kind of a king they deserve. The people will get a king like they deserve. But that doesn’t mean that you know, just because you don’t like or agree with all the person to sit.

That doesn’t make him a wicked man. Just because you don’t agree with your husband on everything doesn’t make him a wicked man. Just because the preacher doesn’t say anything that you like. That doesn’t make him a wicked man. You’re wicked when you do wicked things, not just something you disagree with. He makes a statement down here in verse 15. But if he will not obey, you notice in God’s word he’s always a positive and then a negative. So, if you will do this, this is what I do.

But if you don’t, this is what kind of… This is why if you read the Bible, the Old Testament stories, and there’s stories, a lot of stories. You don’t see as much doctrine or teaching as you do the stories. But these stories, if you really understand them, teach doctrine. They’re telling you what God will do and what God will not do. He’s just the principles of God. if I will obey God, what He’ll do, if I don’t, what will happen.

And so the Bible says this in the 19 Psalm, thy word is sure, making wise the simple. And the testimonies of the Lord are sure. In other words, the testimonies that are in the Bible of the various individuals are teaching principles. And that if you will do what God says, do this is what you can expect. He says in the book of Romans in chapter 15 that the scriptures were written a four time for our benefit for our profit so that we studied the doctrine in the Bible in the New Testament, a lot of doctrine in the New Testament.

But you go back to the Old Testament and there’s your sugar and your salt and your pepper that flavors those doctor no teaching so that you can enjoy them and understand them. them. The nation of Israel is like the teaching of eternal security. It’s the doctrine of chastisement. You can see it all. There is the doctrine of salvation, soteriology, and the Old Testament that you can see and understand and help you. But he makes this statement here in verse 15, but if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you as it was against your fathers.”

All right. The Bible says that this was not written to us but this was written for us now. As you read that, can you get anything out of that? Can you learn anything from what the verses are saying? I can’t. I can see it and scares me to death. That God is not a respecter of persons. That if I do what they did, God will blessed me to it. But if I do what they didn’t do, if I do that, then God’s going to chase him just like he did here.

Because it’s the same God. When you read in the New Testament and in Hebrews when he makes this statement, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, forever. He doesn’t change. God doesn’t change. His character never changes. But how he works with every just people at different times and certain things, yes, he may tell you something different, but it still boils down to either obey that or disobey. Whatever he told Adam and Eve was a simple thing about obey or disobey.

What he told Israel was simply an obey or disobey. The New Testament is always just in an obey or disobey. This print was still saying today, obey or disobey. Either you do what God says or you don’t do what God says and if you do, he’ll bless it if you don’t, he’s got to chase him. And many of God’s children living today going to church, we can still be chasing by God. You may not perceive it as a chasing.

You say, it’s just something to happen. Just an accident. Anything can happen. And you’re the one that has to decide in your mind. Is this simply a testing by which God is going to make me stronger? Or is this something because of something that I’ve done? Is this because of the way that I’m thinking? Is This is a result of something else in my life that I need to get, is God trying to get my attention. You’re the one that has to decide that.

And somebody else observing might not know the difference between being chasteened or being blessed. Because a chasteening can be a blessing. Trials and tribulations can be a blessing, because that’s where you learn and draw you closer to the Lord. But sometimes it’s because God got so much for you to learn and wants to grow, but it might be because you did something you didn’t correct. That’s the decision you have to make so that you have that confidence between you and God.

You’re walking with the Lord. Now, I’ll get what he says up here in verse 16. Now, therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Guess what? He says in verse 17, Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord and asking you a qua- a came.

See, in their mind, they didn’t see anything wrong with it. That’s what the other nations have. Why can’t we have it? Wickedness is not from your perspective. Just because I don’t see anything wrong, I don’t think it’s that bad, it has nothing to do with your perception. It all has to do with God’s perception. God’s the one that says what’s right, God’s the it says what’s wrong? And based upon God’s perception, something is right or wrong. Not yours and mine.

And therefore, when you read the Word of God and you see that God says this is right, this is wrong, you better just mark it down. That wrong is wicked and God’s eyes do right. And you govern your life by what the Word of God says from his viewpoint, not from yours. But in their eyes, they didn’t thing was so bad, otherwise they probably would have not have asked for a king, but they did. And God said it was a wicked thing.

So in verse 18, so Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people who stood in the Samuel prayed for by servant unto the Lord by God that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king. So they knew it wasn’t just that one sin, it’s added to all the other ones. See, God knows there’s an accumulation where people, yeah, we fail, but did you take care of it?

Or do you just let it go, overlook it and try to forget it about it? And you know that it’s wrong, but you don’t do anything about it. And then you do another one. And then you do another one doing another. And you’re just trying to block it out of your mind. And God knows you never dealt with this. Sooner or later that two before is on its way. I’ve been preaching long enough and I’ve been watching people long enough and I’ve never seen a person go against God and ever win.

Sooner or later the two before is going to hit you over the top of the head. In verse 20, and Samuel said unto the people, fear not ye have done all of this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord. But serve the Lord with all your heart. Regrets of what you have done, in regards to how bad it was, listen, you can correct the problem. You don’t have to keep doing that way. And there’s tying things that somebody else may not know that we may hide secret sins in our own heart.

But God knows, confess things to God, keep things clean between you and the Lord and keep doing what’s right. And He says here in verse 21, turn you not side for then should ego after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for their vain. Any time you turn away from doing what God wants you to do with your life your life is in vain. There’s no profit there. Remember God is only going reward you when you get to heaven for what you’ve done for him so everything else you do is in vain.

It doesn’t profit it doesn’t last it’s only temporary and And there’s pleasure in sin for a season. It’s temporary. But if you’ll do what God says to do, your land of treasures, that you’ll never lose. Now give what he says in verse 22, For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake. You are God’s child. You are a Christian. You trusted Christ. That’s what makes your Christian. For his name’s sake, he’ll never cast you out in evolution.

There’s a verse in the book of Hebrews in chapter 13 that says, I’ll never cast you, I’ll never forsake you, never. See, we have New Testament doctrine that states all these things that we’re reading right here. We’re reading right here, the book of Hebrews chapter 12 about Chasenin. Right? It’s all right here. First Corinthians in chapter 10, that’s all right here. New Testament doctrine is the basis, the foundation for all these stories. Verse 23 should be a verse that you underline.

It is a tremendous verse. I’ve had kids learn this verse when they go to camp. More over as for me. Now this is Samuel saying this to the people of Israel. More over as for me, God forbid or I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. Isn’t that a good prayer? My prayer to God is that I am going to pray for you and that I’m going to teach you the right way.

So he says not only what he said, but didn’t he also in the first part of the chapter say, look what I did. From childhood to an old man, he says, you look at my whole life, my life is the testimony of what I believe. Bring charges against me if you have them. They say, we don’t have them. So what I believe and what I’ve done is to teach you the right way. So Samuel is, spite of what they’ve done that was wrong and what they did was a wicked thing.

He says, I’m here for you. I won’t pray for you that you’ll still do right and honor God. And he says, I’m going to teach you the good and the right way. Look at verse 24. Only fear the Lord. You know, he didn’t say fear to King. He says, fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. There’s a story that I heard years ago. I don’t know I don’t know if I can remember it as well as I used to. I don’t know if I remember anything like I used to.

But I was reading an article and it was talking about during the time of Rome and they had all these wrestlers that would come into the arena and the gladiators would all fight. And they had these professional wrestlers, but their wrestlers they would wrestle even on today, as sometimes those at loss would be fed to the lions. And that saw that refused to fight, they would put sharp stakes into the ground, and then they would take the wrestlers and set them on it, and pour pitch over them and light them on fire.

And they said, everybody in the realm had to acknowledge that Caesar was king. As you know, part of the problem with the Christians was that now they believed that Jesus was the King, and that they would bow to Christ, but they would bow to no man. They would pledge allegiance to Christ, but they wouldn’t pledge allegiance to no man. Well, they lined up all the wrestlers that they had and all the gladiators and everybody that fought in the arenas and told them that this was a new decree, that everybody had to swear allegiance to Caesar and state Caesar is king and pledged their allegiance to him.

Allegiance to the king means to totally obey the king and whatever the king says do. It was called the divine rights of the kings and you’ll do whatever the king tells you to do. Well that was kind of hard for those that believed in the Lord and that if they didn’t do it, then they would die. 40 wrestlers stepped forward, Satan, they thought they would not pledge their allegiance to Caesar. And doing so, they knew that they would die.

It was in a dead of winter time, the lake was frozen, and they marched them out into the middle of the lake. They built the fire on the beach, and the rest of them were around the fire keeping warm, but they marched those forty out there. They stripped them of their clothes and those forty wrestlers would march in a circle. And they marched and they said, forty wrestlers wrestling for the O Christ, to thee the victory for us the crown.

And they would walk in the circle and they kept saying that. Forty wrestlers wrestling for thee, to thee the victory for us the crown. And after a while it was 39 wrestlers wrestling for the O Christ to lead the victory for us the crown. And then 30 wrestlers wrestling for the until after a while there was no voice left. And yet the fire was right there on the shore and all they had to do was come over there and renounce their faith in Christ.

But they would rather die for their faith. We have people the day that can’t even live for their faith, let alone die. Have you placed yourself over God? Are you more powerful in your own eyes than God wiser than God? Can you make better decisions than God? Remember years ago, I took a blank piece of paper, and I said, on this piece of paper, many people, they write down what they want out of their life. And then they said, God, would you kind of sign it right there?

This is what I want. they expect God to sign him. And then when they don’t get what they want out of life, I try God. Now what God wants you to do is He wants you to sign your name on the bottom and say, Lord, you just fill it in. Whatever you want from my life, that’s good enough. I’m not demanding anything. I’m your to use. Until death. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr.

Arnold? Well, if 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.

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.