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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.

All right. Hop and wonder, what am I going to tell y’all that you don’t already know? You all have been around so long and come to church, so favely you know everything in the Bible. Some of you probably can quote it by memory. But I’m always trying to figure out now what do I think they could help? But going along the lines of a little bit of this morning, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews.

The book Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I thought it was kind of strange. I walked out of the office. I walked down the aisle here and I walked over there to see Al and he says, you look like you’ve been chastened. He says, you have that look on your face and I had been thinking about the word chastened. That was the title of my sermon tonight. And And he says that. So I look like I have been chasing.

Long as something like that. And I thought, he’s been reading my mind. And I don’t like it when somebody can read my mind. So anyway, here in the book of Hebrews, it is the chapter on chasing. And you need to understand this chapter. It is something that every child of God should be aware of. It’s simple that a man cannot live as he please and get away with it. Now you and I cannot always tell when a person is being chastened.

That’s also very difficult. Because it could be just like a regular trial that you go through and consequences of decisions. And though at the time you may not even think that they’re bad decisions and you’re trying to serve a Lord make them good decisions and somebody else is going to exactly the same thing you are. And with one, he has been blessed and the other one has been chastened. Same kind of trial. And so be careful when you automatically speak up and say, well, I know why this is happening to them.

They got sin in their life. War you may miss it by a mile. And if you prejudge and you’re wrong, God may let that happen to you. So he does warn about that. Now we know in chapter 11, it’s talking an awful lot about men of faith, men of faith. Those who heard the word and obeyed and God put him in his hall of faith chapter. So that’s wonderful. But not everybody obeys the Lord. Not everyone will choose to live by faith.

going from those who obey to those who disobey. Those who have been blessed and those who are been chastened. So you have those dividing line right here in chapter 11 and chapter 12. So in verse 1 of chapter 12 he says, wherefore, seeing we also are accomplished about what so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight in the sin which does so easily be set us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, the spies in the shame and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him, verse 3, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weary and faint in your own mind. And and there’s a good warning. Last, you become weary and faint in your mind. You ever get discouraged?

Every get down. Get tired of being faithful, tired of going to church, tired of reading the Bible. Tired of the responsibilities that you have and you wish you could all be over. Is your reason for wanting the Lord to return because you just can’t wait to see Him, or to get you out of this world? You don’t have to answer that, it’s just a, you know, something you just kind of think about. Why do you want the Lord to come back soon?

Are you running from something? You’re hoping somebody doesn’t get you. You’re afraid of the IRS. Is that old devil lying after you? You want to get home before you fall? I preached a sermon years ago called Getting Home Before Dark. Getting home before dark. I want to get home before it gets dark. You know, before I start walking in the dark, I’m supposed to walk in the light, but I also know that their old devil is always tempting. And you’ve got that old sinful nature.

And Lord, I want to get home before it gets dark. Before I go astray and walk in darkness. Now you stop and think about it. Don’t you want to get home before dark? Yeah, I would venture to say you do. And so we sometimes think, Lord, I want you to come back, and I love for the Lord to come back soon. And I think of all the things I like to do, and Lord, if you can hold off just a little longer.

It’s like so much work to be done. But you know what? It’s not going to be in our hands. Lord can come back at any time. But He says, consider Him. When we think about what we go through sometimes, He says, consider what He went through, but was faithful even unto death. And now it’s talking about us and why we should be. So he says here, in verse 4, you have not yet resisted unto blood. In other words, you’re not dead yet.

You’re not dead yet. So you may resist against sin. The Bible talks about, raise up a standard, a wall against the flood of evilness that comes. Resist the devil, resist evil. Lord looking for somebody that can stand against the wicked one, the wiles of the devil, and all the things that goes on in the world. So even though it gets pretty bad, we’re supposed to still stand. But he says in verse 5, And ye have forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto children.

My son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. So there’s things that happens in our life that causes us to lose hope and become filled with despair and wondering if we can continue to go on. Do you ever live with that certain little fear that some temptation is going to get you and you’re going to fall? You’re afraid of falling? Afraid of bringing shame upon the Lord, shame upon yourself, shame upon your family and You just don’t want that to happen.

There’s some of these little fears that can be good fears because that’s what causes you sometime to walk a little bit more circumspectly, a little closer to the Lord, because you don’t want to fall. And the best way to keep from falling is to keep your eyes open and keep them on the Lord and keep focusing, keep doing what’s right, and to guard your thoughts at all time. But he says here, my son despise not thou the chastening the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.”

Now, when you read these verses, understand that God sometimes goes to the Old Testament and uses Scripture to help us understand something in the New Testament. And you’ll notice when you go over there to verse 16 and 17, it goes all the way back and talks about, you know, Jacob and Esau and what he did and how that he would have inherited the blessing, but he didn’t. And even though he saw it with tears, but it was too late.

But that was after the fact. And so God wants us to think of afterwards. When you think about doing your own thing and going your own way, think about afterwards. Or after you do that. after you fail, after you fall. Do you realize you could have prevented that? You didn’t have to do that. But most people they forget, as he said up there in verse 5, you forgot the exhortation. So we’re supposed to watch every step. And so I want you to see just a few verses in the Old Testament that relates to this chasting idea because here’s the children of Israel that had rebelled against God and God looked upon Israel as one man as a child and refers to them as Israel as though it was just a person.

And he says, I’ve warned you and I’ve done so much for you and yet you’re sick from the head to the toe. And he says, I’m going to bring in an enemy and they’re going to chastise you. And so the chastisement was on its way. But you can learn something from all the chastening that God did upon the nation of Israel. There’s still a people. In other words, they’re not annihilated. It’s like teaching us eternal security. Once you’re his child, you are his child forever.

So turn in your Bible and look at this in Jeremiah chapter 2, the book of Jeremiah in chapter 2. Behold your place where you are because we’ll be coming back there. Jeremiah in chapter 2. I know these are not as familiar with you as all the other verses in the New Testament, but there’s a few things that are here that I believe can help us a little bit. In Jeremiah chapter 2, look there in verse 19. Verse 19 says, Thine own wickedness.

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee. You see, when you do something that’s wrong, sometimes you’ll find out you can learn a lesson because, well, I did this and that was bad and I don’t like the results and it can correct you because you don’t want that same thing to happen again. And thy backsliding shall reprove thee, know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou have forsaken the Lord of thy God. And that my fear is not in thee.

See, God wants us to have this fear of God, that God can chasten us any way he wants. We’re free to choose and obey or disobey. And if we disobey, we can choose whatever sin we want to do. But God is free to also chasten us any way he pleases. And he gives us personalized attention. just know that you run a risk of receiving something you’re not going to like down the road. Always think about down the road and knowing that the decision that I make today is going to affect tomorrow.

Ray Stanford put it like this, your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. Your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. And so sometimes we’re gonna reap later on in life the results of seeds that we’ve sown years before. And so just hold your place right here in Jeremiah because I want to come back to it in just a second. But I want to read this verse again to you where it says, my son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

Then he says, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteeth. Now think about this. Did God love Israel? Does God love Israel? Did Israel obey God all the time? So there were times when Israel did not obey God. And when they did not obey God, did God chasten them? And because God chastened them, that means he no longer loved them. He still loved them. He loved them with an everlasting love and it was so true. Now look there in Jeremiah chapter 5, look in Jeremiah chapter 5 in verse 3.

Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 3. And you’ll notice where he says in verse Verse 3, O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth. Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Because God loves us, is it possible that God could chasten us and the chastening instead of softening our hearts can harden our hearts?

And God’s children get bitter toward God and despise God because of the consequences of their own sin. And sometimes it doesn’t matter what God does, they won’t listen. So because they refuse to accept God’s correction, God’s going to have to bring in another nation as a rod upon the people and they’re going to be destroyed. They were taken into captivity. But God warned them in advance. Now I do believe that all of God’s children should be warned. that yes, you are his child and you are his child forever, but understand there is a price to pay in rebelling against the will of God, that your heavenly Father who loves you will chasten you, and he chastens every son whom he receiveth.

So you go back there and look there at this verse in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12, where it says again in verse six, for whom the Lord leavened, hate chaste-ness, and scourgeeth every son whom he received. Now, you say, well, that’s a one way of a sign of those that believe. Well, this is a sign of God chasing somebody, but other people can go through exactly the same thing. So you can’t use it as a proof text about who is and who is not a child of God.

understanding that all of God’s children will be chastened by the Lord. But you can’t always tell whether or not does that mean that everybody who has a problem, there been chastened of God. Now you can be doing right and suffer consequences for doing right. And then sometimes you do wrong and there’s consequences to pay. So go back there to the book of Jeremiah, go back to Jeremiah and and look in chapter 25, Jeremiah chapter 25, Jeremiah chapter 25, this is on page 798, and the Old Schofield reference Bible, and look there in verse seven, in verse seven.

He says, yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, And you ought to underline those last few words to your own hurt. Remember I preached this sermon not long ago on praying a hedge of thorns around somebody. A hedge of thorns. Hosea talks about a hedge of thorns so that your decisions get you into trouble. Your decisions will hurt you and get you back to the Lord.

So everybody is tempted to go astray. All we like sheep have gone astray, but when you get saved, that’s not lightly anymore. Or is it still possible to go astray? We still go astray. So God puts a hedge of thorns in order to hurt, so that you don’t keep doing it. You get back to the Lord. The reason God has designed life in such a way, and if people don’t understand how God works, they take everything he meant for good or something that’s bad.

Have you ever had children and you try to correct them and chasing them or disciplining you talk to them and you psychology and philosophy and everything you can think of and they only harden themselves even more? Now I know nobody here’s ever had kids like that. But it is possible, you know, even from good old Christian homes, it’s hard for some people to learn their lesson. So sometimes you have to let them go, turn them over to the Lord and God will deal with them.

And that’s sometimes a good thing to do. Now, you’ll notice back here in this verse where he says, If ye endure chasing God, they lift with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chafedeth not? So if you’re a child of God, shouldn’t you expect your heavenly Father to chase in you? And yes, he will. He will chase in you. while we’re in the Old Testament, look in Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah 66, and there’s a verse there that I think is a little appropriate for this.

Isaiah 66 and look in verse four. Isaiah 66 and verse four, he makes a statement. I also will choose their delusion. Now why did he say that? Well, because the verse right before it, where they said, I will choose. You see there, look there in verse three. He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man. He that sacrifices a lamb if he cut off a dog’s neck. He that offered the nobility. As if he offered swine’s blood.

He that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol. Yeah, they have chosen their own ways. In other words, these things that they’ve done was so wicked, it was an abomination to God. It was as they did the most wicked in the thing and yet they think it’s all good, but it’s not. And you even talked about in the New Testament where their lips, they praise Him but with their hearts are far from the Lord. And so he makes a statement since they have chosen their own ways.

I also will choose their delusion. In other words, the consequences of their choices. So God is alive and well on planet Earth too. And if the Lord is alive and well, then you know the devil is here, because he’s in everything. And because God has allowed us to make choices, good choices, bad choices, consequences. I also will choose their delusion and will bring their fears upon them because when I called, none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that in which I delight at none.

Now isn’t there a verse somewhere in the Bible that says if we delight ourselves and the Lord he will give us the desires of our heart? Psalms 37, 4. But in Isaiah chapter 58, he also makes the statement on delighting yourself in the Lord. So here in this verse, it’s important to understand you make the choice. Like you said in verse three, God makes a choice in verse four. So a lot of things you may go through life and experience because of decisions you make that you didn’t think was gonna be that bad.

This is why we are supposed to really think through all of our decisions to discern, to really think what’s the consequences of what I’m doing and God wants us to do this. But while we’re right here just look in I and say a 58 just a couple pages back to your left there and you’ll notice this in verse 13 and 14, but verse 13 says, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honorable and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.

Do you see anything there about your own, your way and all that? then he says in verse 4, then shall thou delight thyself in the Lord. You cannot delight yourself in the Lord going your way. It means that you’re going to go God’s way and do what God wants you to do and make the decision God wants you to make. And if you do, then he makes a statement. I, in verse 4, I will cause the to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob by Father.

But we’re going to get it. What I’m going to do is because of what you’re doing. So there’s a God in heaven that’s looking for somebody with some faith to believe what God says and you act upon that and God’s going to react to that or respond to that. If you rebel against the Lord, then God is going to respond to that. So you see, of maybe a lot of things in your life, you don’t have to face and go through, but it’s because of your own decision.

And most people want to blame, blame, blame, blame, everybody else instead of maybe looking in the mirror and says, you know, maybe you need to make some better decisions. Did you know that even one thing that really upsets God and makes God a little mad and angry is the sin of murmuring. Murmuring is the same as complaining. Nobody like that here. We don’t complain, do we? Do we complain? We don’t complain. And you’ll read that in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 10 because they murmured God sent snakes among them.

And these were examples for us that we will not do the same thing. But lo and behold, we do. And so those things are mentioned there. Let’s go all the way over there to the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers, Chapter 27. Numbers chapter 27. You’ll see that there’s many scriptures that God refers to them as these people that see that in verse 14. You have rebelled against me. You rebelled. In verse 15, and Moses spake unto the Lord, say, and let the Lord and get this, the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them.

and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in, get this, that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. There’s many people today that have no shepherd. They don’t know what to do and how to live. Can you believe this? The other day when I was talking to that girl, down there at the beach. And we just got in and got out of the little boat and my grandson says, Papa, you need to talk to her.

So I proceeded to talk to her. And I asked her the question. I says, are you sleeping with this man? She said, yes. I said, you know that wrong, don’t you? It is. It is. I thought, don’t you know that? Evidently? She never, she didn’t think about it. I think it’s a lot of people, they just do what they do because that’s what they want to do and they might not have been anybody that ever taught them, you know, that’s wrong.

Or they get to the place where, you know, well, everybody doesn’t. And they’ve never been around somebody that says that’s wrong. Well, by the time I got through talking to her she knew that’s wrong. But some people have no shepherd. And a lot of people go astray and when you go astray you go your own way and you get into more trouble. This is why why do you think the devil wants to keep as many people as possible from coming to church?

Because you don’t have to hear the word. If you don’t hear the word you won’t stay as sharp, you won’t stay as keen, you will not be as discerning. And you’d be surprised. He can lead a person because they have no shepherd. So a lot of people, they may trust Christ as Savior, but never talking to the doors of the church, never getting involved, never doing anything. But there’s a price to pay. Ignance is not bliss, that’s for sure.

Now go back there to your Bible, Hebrews chapter 12, and realize that God is going to chaste and he’s going to chase in every one of his children. And in verse eight, but if you be without chastisement, where of all are partakers, then are you bastards or illegitimate children, and not sons. So God chases all of his children. 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, 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. 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.