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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 Exodus 20. The book of Exodus 20. I want to teach you something that you probably already know it but there’s nothing wrong with having a refresher course to stimulate your mind once again to remember things that are very important because a lot of times people go astray in the midst of the work because your heart begins to drift. I I begin to lose your vision. The purpose why you’re doing what you’re doing, kind of sometimes you know going astray a little bit spiritually.

You’re still in the right place doing the right thing but you’re kind of losing along the way. And some people call it being burnout, just burnout. Like they’re just giving it all they got and they can’t take anymore and so generally they want to quit and you think of quitting. Well I’ve never got to the place where I want to quit serving the Lord. Sometimes I wish I could just stop serving people but I haven’t figured out how to do that because serving the Lord is serving people and sometimes people aren’t the nicest people in the world.

Sometimes people get mean and ugly, sometimes people expect you to be perfect but then if you were remember Jesus was and what did they do to Him. So you being perfect is not the answer. People have a sinful nature and people do things wrong. But sometimes we work under a strain, a load, pressure and it can wear you down. So I was thinking in my mind going all the way back here to the book of Exodus where he talks about God given the law to Moses and then Moses gives it to the people.

So here in Exodus chapter 20 is talking about the given of the law and we’ve covered this before but the first four is your relationship to God and the last six is your relationship to man. So there’s responsibilities that we have to God and there’s responsibilities we have to man. Now all of these that you find here are are mentioned in the New Testament about what God wants us to do. But there’s one that God says specifically, let no man judge you in respect of a noon day in the moon and so forth are the Sabbath days.

But there’s one out of all of these that some people take and that’s the Seventh-day Adventist and they will take and pull that number four right out of there where he makes a statement there looking verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So therefore, Ellen G. White, there was a glow that came upon that verse. And so she knew that of all of these verses, this was the most important. And if that’s the most important, the first one says, love thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy hard mind, body, soul and strength.

But this This is the most important that you don’t work on Saturday. And so I was talking to a Seventh-day Adventist one day and he says, he asked me, he said, what day you go to church? I said, we go on Sunday and sometimes I go on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and sometimes I go on Saturday. I said, but mainly on Sunday, I knew what he was getting at. He says, you know that Sunday is the mark of the beast.

Uh-huh. I says, so you go to church on Saturday. The Sabbath. Uh-huh. I says, have you ever broke the Sabbath? Oh, yeah. I says, why are you still alive? I said, you ever realize what the penalty was for breaking the Sabbath? You’d be stoned to death. How are you doing? I said, by the way, is anybody in your church in the last 2000 years? Has anybody been stoned to death? And yet you believe in keeping the law. You keep keeping the law and especially the Sabbath.

And I said, the only thing about the Sabbath is that you’re not supposed to work. That’s period. That pretty much it doesn’t work. And I know people that don’t work any day of the week. A lot of people don’t like work at all, but notice what he says here in verse 9, 6 days shout thou labor and do all thy work. Now God did have it down pretty good. They knew that man has to have a time to break down, just to relax.

And the physical body, we’re made of body, soul, and spirit. So there is to be rest for the body. And you know that your body can only take so much. And sometimes we kind of wear it out and wear it down. And if you ever get down physically, it is possible it’s easier to get down spiritually. Because when your mind’s not as clear, you don’t think like you ought to, you’re going to lose the edge, your discernment is not as sharp.

And so therefore, it’s not the best to wear yourself physically out to where you can’t operate like you ought to. The body is a wonderful tool, but you’ve got to keep it sharp and you know you’ve got to You gotta feed it, you gotta clothe it, and you gotta get some rest. And if you didn’t get any rest for, say, 48 hours, you’d be in pretty bad shape. Some people, if they don’t get rest every six hours, they’re getting pretty bad shape.

But you need to rest the body, and every individual needs to find out what does it take for you. Now some people can get by on a few hours, some people gotta have more. Don’t try to live according to somebody else’s standard. figure out what does it take for you to stay healthy and do rutrayal. Don’t eat just because what somebody else eats. Maybe they can gorge on pizza three meals a day and never gain a pound. You can just smell it and gain coo three pounds.

So you got to learn what you can and cannot do. Every man has to find what it takes for him to get the rest that it needs. And God says that he works six days rested on the seventh. Man, pretty much the same. So God has later down in his word, but looking verse 10, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, and it thou shalt not do any work. And that’s about the max of it.

It’s not, this is the day you go to church. So I asked a minute, I said, how far are you driving? They had limits about how far they could go and so forth and what they could do. And he knew what I was getting at. So they break the law every day trying to keep the Sabbath. And that’s not what was the purpose of it. Even when Jesus was here, they got on him and his disciples because of what they did.

And so Jesus says, you hypocrites, if an ox falls into the ditch on the Sabbath day, would you work to get it out? Yeah. But he was going to heal a man. Well, there was a problem. He was doing it on the Sabbath day. You’re not supposed to do that. He says, which is easier to say, you know, be healed or die sins are forgiven. The boat takes God. They say, well, nobody can forgive sins except God. It’s okay.

Said they’re forgiven, be healed. I think Jesus loves sticking his finger in your eye. Because he knew the attitude that they have and where they come in from and he has some mighty sharp rebukes. But for you and I, we have trusted Christ as Savior, we know we’re going to heaven. But I thought about this. to rest in the Lord is learning to trust in the Lord because there is rest in trusting. Whenever you can just trust the Lord there is a relief of pension and pressure and so that’s something that God wants us to learn and I believe that we need to have rest for the body but that doesn’t mean that you have the rest you need for the soul.

Take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Proverbs in chapter 3. You have read these verses many times, but just look at it because as you live your life, there’s a lot of things that’s going to be put on your plate. And sometimes when you finally think you’ve got it clean, somebody will come and dump some more on it for you and give give you something else to do. They always say, if you want to get anything done, give it to a busy man because a lazy man just can’t get around to it.

He doesn’t have the time. But a person that works hard, this one’s in time tries to make a way. But here in Proverbs in chapter 3, look what it says in verse 5. Now you’ll find in other places, it talks about, wait upon the Lord, wait upon the Lord, trust in the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is you learning how to trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thy known understanding. You trust in the Lord can give you rest.

There is rest to the soul because sometimes even though the body can be laying down in a bed resting, your mind can be going, you know, like in the Annapolis 500, and you can’t rest, and you can’t sleep. You got things on your mind, and you can’t just let it go, and the tension builds up, and it affects you physically. The Bible also talks about, merriment is like medicine to the bone, happiness is medicine to the bone. This is so important that we learn how to understand some of these things.

But look there in that verse five, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. So we often see scriptures talks about, you know, fear the Lord, fear the Lord, fear the Lord, depart from evil. And if you don’t depart from evil, then you don’t fear God. You don’t fear him enough.

That’s for sure. Now, take your Bible and turn to the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah and chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40 is an interesting verse and it talks about us learning how to wait upon the Lord. We get busy, a lot of things to do, but there’s a lot of stress upon you. And if it gets upon the soul, it affects the body. And therefore, there’s rest that a person needs and you learn how to rest while you work.

As you go through the day and what you’re doing, learning how to rest in the Lord. And that means learning how to trust the Lord. Whenever you don’t trust the Lord, then it’s all on you and you’re limited in your knowledge. You’re limited in your skills. You’re limited in your ability. You’re limited and that can wear you out trying to figure out how you are going to get everything done until the pressure builds. Well, there’s a relief valve. Learn how to cast your cares upon the Lord, how to wait upon God.

Let God do some things. There’s things God knows God can do. He’s got all the skills that He needs and He can work and do things that you can’t make happen. And it can totally wear you out and frustrate you. So he says here in Isaiah chapter 40, looking verse 31, but they that wait upon the Lord, L-O-R-D, capital, Jehovah, they that wait upon the shall renew their strength. Not everybody does that. They cannot renew their strength. There is joy in the Lord and the joy of the Lord is my strength.

So when you learn how to rest in the Lord, there’s strength in the Lord that He can get to you, and you’d be surprised the peace, the calmness that can be yours. And we probably bring a lot of torment into our own lives because the Bible says God has given unto us a sound mind and not the spirit of fear, but a love, power, and a sound mind. fear, according to 1 John chapter 4, produces torment. So, torment means that a Christian who doesn’t rest in the Lord trusts the Lord tortures himself.

But look what he says here, shall renew their strength. That means you’re going to exchange it for something. They that shall mount up with wings as egos. They shall run, not be wary. They shall walk and not faint. Now, that’s an excellent verse. That is a powerful verse. But it’s showing you what you can get by waiting on the Lord, trusting the Lord. Believe in that God will do something and you can rest in that fact and you don’t have to have burnout.

And you’d be surprised how much you can accomplish with your life. Otherwise you get tired, weary and worn and that’s what you just can’t go. But you do have to get the rest of the body, but there’s also to be a rest for the soul. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew. Matthew, chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11.

And look what he says in verse 28. Jesus knows everything. He knows everybody. He knows what we’re all going through. But notice the power in these words. In verse 28 of Matthew chapter 11, come unto me. Some of you that labor. Is that what it says? All. It’s for everybody. Anybody that wants this can have this. All ye that labor and are heavy laden. In other words, you’ve got a lot on your plate. You’re weighted down. You’ve got burdens.

So you’ve got stress and strain and you know you’re about ready to check out out here. Come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden. And look at the rest of us. I will give you rest. Does it mean that I’m going to take the load away from you and I’m going to take this burden off of you? No, you have to learn how to cast your cares upon him. The care, the worrying about things. You still may have to go to work the next day.

You got all kinds of things that you have to do. You got pressures of life. But understand in that. Because the Lord is the Lord, He’s going to allow things to come into our lives to make us come to Him. because He wants us to learn how to trust Him. And this is why He says these words, learn of me, learn of me. Learning something about the Lord is where you’re going to get your rest because you’re going to learn how to trust the Lord.

Isn’t that what we call spiritual growth, growing in grace, growing in the Lord, learning how to walk with God? And so look what he says here. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, you shall find rest unto yourself. You shall find rest. In other words, it’s not just given to you. It’s something that you learn because of the experiences that you’re going to go through. You’re going to learn by various experiences how to trust the Lord.

And as you go through life, you get to where you get better at it. Because it becomes a habit. You have trusted the Lord in the past. You know that you can trust the Lord in the future. You can trust the Lord in the present. And he says, ye shall find rest unto your soul. Now there’s rest for the body every man needs. There’s rest for the soul. Did you know you can give the body rest and still the soul not have the rest that it needs?

Still be in because you’re worried about something. And so there’s a rest that God says that we can have. Now look in verse 30, for my yoke is what? Easy, my burden is light. When you learn how to trust the Lord, it makes whatever you have to do so much easier. Because you know that God will take care of that. God can give me the strength that I need. God will give me all the grace that I need. I don’t know how God’s going to do it.

I don’t care how God’s going to do it. I just believe that he will Otherwise you’ll take matters into your own hands and now you’ve got more pressures upon you now It’s gonna wear you down and so it doesn’t matter what you got to face tomorrow He’s gonna face it with the Lord and always remember this you and the Lord make a majority Did you know this you may not believe this but this is true between me and God we know everything in the world I like those apples Between men God we can do anything Me and God Between men God we can do anything.

We know everything between men God Now he probably knows a little bit more than I do But between the two of us we got it made Do you think that if God was here in physical form and he walked with you every day at all it that would you feel better? Would you feel better? You know if I could just see him well isn’t his word good enough? He says he lives within you and he said he’ll never leave you and never forsake you so what are you worried about?

But don’t we do it anyway? It doesn’t matter how many services we’ve been to how many verses we’ve read and memorized We still worry we still get afraid because we’re not We have an old sinful nature and sometimes it gets the best of us and it’ll wear us down now Now take it by when I’m turning the book of Hebrews in chapter 3, Hebrews in chapter 3. I just want to show you a few little verses here because whenever you read the book of Hebrews, yes, it goes all the way back to the Old Testament.

And even will tell us about, you know, in the beginning, talk about what God has done, Christ is so much better and all the things that He does for us goes back, talks about Moses. See there in verse 5 of chapter 3. And Moses, very, was faithful in all his house as a servant. Isn’t it amazing that God doesn’t mention all those times whenever he was mad and angry and struck the rock twice? Sometimes God takes and puts down your faith, what you did, what you did.

And doesn’t always hang over you what you didn’t do. When you get to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, it’s so wonderful that God doesn’t list any of the false verses. those people had. He just bragged on the faith that they had. Now the more faith that you have, maybe the more he’s going to brag on you. But understand this. God used Moses and there was the children of Israel. So you go all the way back into time and God used this man to bring the children of Israel across the Red Sea into the wilderness and they all were supposed to pass under the blood and so therefore they’re in the wilderness.

What did they have to do in the wilderness? That was so great. One is they could not take care of themselves in the wilderness. They couldn’t take care of themselves. They were like a newborn babe. They were totally dependent upon God because they had to depend upon God for their clothes to last depend upon God for their food. They’re in the desert. They’re out there. They could stop and raise crop. And God supplied their food from heaven, miraculously, man.

And he supplied water out of rocks. You got there and try it. Out of rock. and think he just smite the rock or one time he told him, just speak to the rock. Well, the people had to depend upon the Lord every step of the way. So God is doing sometimes the same thing with us, teaching us as babes to totally depend upon the Lord. They didn’t really have anything to worry about because God took care of everything. They didn’t have to worry about enemies.

Why? Because God take care of that. God would give them the victory all they had to do is trust to believe God. Whatever God said to do if they just do that, everything would be fine. They didn’t have to worry about any diseases. He says, you trust me and I’ll put none of the diseases of the Egyptians upon you. You can’t get a better healthcare plan and that was before Obamacare. That was Jehovah care. Jehovah care was so much better.

Wouldn’t be needed if everybody could just trust the Lord and we did write and God would take care of things. But there’s a price to pay when we don’t trust the Lord. So you go through these scriptures and he’s talking about there is the rest that God has for his people. He was teaching him to rest in the Lord, wait upon the Lord. God would have to supply their needs. And God did. But there’s some people who wouldn’t always believe what God says.

And it’d come along and next thing you know, we were better off when we were down here in Egypt. But they don’t forgot when they were down here in Egypt, they were crying out to God to deliver them from the iron yoke. And God says, I’ve heard the weeping and the wailing of my people. So I said, Moses, I’m sending you, Moses I don’t want to go. Anyway, he had to go. Sometimes we don’t get to choose where we want to serve or how we want to serve.

We just had to say, Lord, I’m reporting for duty. Just tell me what to do. And it doesn’t matter where you go and what I do, it doesn’t matter. That’s not important. It’s just what you want me to do. So wherever your station is in life, let’s do what God wants you to do. So he says here in Hebrews, and I want you look at in verse 1 of chapter 4, where it says, let us therefore fear. Now we know that when we read over there in the book of John chapter 14, talk about being not afraid, being not afraid.

You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house, how many men said the word out, so I would have told you so. Be not afraid, be not afraid. And here he says, what does he say? Let us therefore fear. Now wait a minute. Is there a contradiction in the Bible. One place, don’t be afraid, fear, but this fear here is fear that you might miss the rest that God has for you. The consequences of not learning how to walk with God, how to trust the Lord.

So there’s these Hebrew Christians that now are getting to the place were the temple we believe were probably still standing at this time and the Jewish sacrifices were still being done and people were beginning to go back under the law and go back into what they came out of. That never gave him the peace, the joy, the satisfaction, and now going back into that bondage, you don’t need to do that. God has something better for him. There’s a better rest because the law was work, work, work, work, you got to do, perform.

And there’s a rest to the people of God. So we know that there was a rest for the seventh day. And there was rest when they went into the wilderness. And they had to totally depend upon God. They had to rest in what God was going to give, because they couldn’t do anything else. And so there’s a lot of lessons that you learned in your beginning stages of learning how to walk with God. It’s like a wilderness. You, little babies, they’re totally dependent upon their parents.

Well, they just keep trusting. But sometimes don’t they get to the place where they get a little bit too big for their bridges and get a little bit too independent and They don’t want mom and dad telling them what they can do anymore And so now they they’re smart enough to do it on their own and you know they’re not But they won’t believe you so they have to find out for themselves and what do you have to do let them?

You have to sometimes cut the court let them learn let them let them find out and next thing you know after a while here to come and And maybe after about 20, 30 years, you know mom and dad weren’t so stupid after all. And sometimes you have to find out, you know, maybe God knows what he’s doing. After you get knocked down enough, and drug through the mud enough, and you realize that you’re not so smart after all, and you can’t handle everything, and you come back and say, Lord, I think I’ve learned my lesson.

There’s lessons like that taught in the Old Testament, especially like in the book of Daniel, when he had to deal with never a connection and also a bell shazor. They had to learn some lessons. But now notice here, he makes a statement in verse one, let us therefore fear less a promise been left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should come short of it, not believing the promise to come short of believing what God says, not trusting what God says.

You ought to be afraid that there’s rest that you have promised to you and you come short of it because you didn’t listen to the Lord. Learning to rest in the Lord in the midst of your work. There’s work for us to do. There’s a day coming when no man will work. But while we work, we have to learn how to rest our souls. Giving your body rest is one thing, but now you know that if you get down physically, there’s a good possibility it’s easier for you to get down spiritually.

So therefore yes take care of the body and a lot of people take care of the body. They feed it well, they clothe it well, they rest it well but their soul is totally depleted. 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. 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.