This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

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. Think about that. 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 6, for whom the Lord leaventh, hate chasteeth, and scourgeeth every son whom he received it.

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, they’re being 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, in the Old Schofield Reference Bible, and look there in verse seven, in verse seven. He says, yet ye have not hearkened unto me, sayeth 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 a 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. like sheep of 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 for something that’s bad. Have you You ever had children and you try to correct them and chase them or discipline and 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 hears 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 chastening God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chafed if not? So if you’re a child of God, shouldn’t you expect your heavenly Father to chasten you?

And yes, he will. He will chasten 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 looking 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. Yea, 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 heart 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 it not. 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 the lighting yourself in the Lord.

So here in this verse, it’s important to understand you make the choice, like he says in verse 3, God makes a choice in verse 4. So a lot of things you may go through life and experience because of decisions you make that you didn’t think was going to 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 of 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.

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 thee 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 Bye. Respond to that. So you see, 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 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. Muring is the same as complaining. Ugh. 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 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’s 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 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. 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 get involved, never do 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 chase him, and he’s gonna 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 in all of his children. And he says in verse nine, furthermore, furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh. Now, why is he saying all of it? Because all the way through the book of Hebrews, There’s warning after warning after warning about leaving the true and living God, going back to the temple, going back to the log, going back to the sacrifices, going back, going back, going back, and he’s warning them. And because they’re God’s children, your heavenly Father is going to chase in you.

And so he’s warning once again. So he says here in verse 9, Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? Remember that verse we just read over there in the book of Numbers chapter 27? That he is even back there. He’s the God of all spirits. Now here he’s talking about he’s the father of spirits because we’re talking about in this family, the family of God.

And so in verse 10, for they verily, for a few days, our earthly parents would chase in us after their own pleasure. Now I never knew that they got such pleasure out of whooping me. But it says they did it for their own pleasure. Now sometimes you know you have to be disciplined in order to correctly discipline. Johnny, that’s the third time I’ve told you that you do that one more time and I’m going to whip you. So Johnny does it two or three more times and Mama never does whip him.

Is she training him? She’s training him all right. But she’s training him that when she says it the first time that means nothing. And she finally throws something down and she stands up and goes get a belt or a paddle. Now, she means business. Now, yes ma’am, yes ma’am, yes ma’am. And so you give respect. When my dad looked at me, oh, I straightened up quick. I only had to do it look at me. Have you ever had a child you could look at him and it meant nothing.

You could threaten their life. And it doesn’t mean one thing. And then some of them you can just look at them, give them the eye. They used to have what we call the evil eye. They can give you an evil eye. And she can make one eyebrow go down and the other eye go up. And this eye go up. And then when she did that, them kids knew, I’m in trouble. Show them how you do that, hon. Show them.

Show them. Show them. Turn up. They can’t see you. Stand up and turn them. They got to see what you do. See? But them kids don’t run for your life. Run this. So she could give you that look and that’s the look she gave me and it killed me, just slain me. But anyway, for in verse 10, for they, verily for a few days chasing us after their own place, because sometimes they do it because they want peace and quiet.

So they finally correct you because I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough. It’s not for their advantage or something like that, because to discipline correctly you have to always do what you say you’re going to do and when you say you’re going to do it and do it. A lot of times most parents, they don’t do that. It’s just whenever you’ve had enough. And no more of it. And I finally had enough. Well, you should have just spoke the first time.

And that was it. I had it to where my kids knew. When I said something the first time, that’s it. I’m not saying it twice. And selective hearing didn’t go with me. Now I used it sometimes today because I can’t hear it. Like this morning when he sung that song and said all those wonderful things, I never heard a word he said. I want him to write it down and put it in the middle. No. But as we’re moving right along here, look at the next part of this verse.

But he, talking about the Lord for our prophet, why does God chasing you for your prophet? He’s thinking about you. He wants the best for you. But you got to remember this. It remembers some of these things that are for us to learn and to teach other people. Well, there’s kids in camp or kids in ranch or Sunday school or wherever we got to teach people these truths that are found in God’s Word Get this that we might be partakers of his holiness.

In other words, your response will reveal his holiness or your wickedness So you are to straighten up and fly right you ever heard that phrase before Now in verse 11 now no chasing for the present seems to be joyous I’ve never had one of my kids enjoy getting a weapon. And when I was growing up, I can’t say that I recall jumping up and down with joy. Oh, I jumped up and down. But it was not with joy. Mom, I am so glad you’re beating the tar out of me.

Oh, that feels good. Can I have another one? No. We don’t like to be chastened. We don’t like to be rebuked of the Lord. We don’t like being told no. And you can’t have that. that. But God says down the road, it brings something. And if you’ll always remember that the decisions you make today down the road is going to reap something. If you sow wild oats while you’re young, what are you going to reap when you get older?

Wild oats down the road. If you sow cotton, you’re going to reap cotton. It’s whatever you sow, that’s what you’re going to reap. So he says, then most people they sow whatever they want and pray for a crop failure. But here in verse 11 now, no chasting for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless. Endure it afterwards. It yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In the words, the reason for God correcting you is to exercise his fatherly privileges of chasing it and discipline you so that you’ll be the kind of a child that God can be prouder.

And God wants to be pleased with us. It’s not just that this is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased. These are my children in whom I am well pleased. And so he says in verse 12, wherefore stop being down in the dumps. Stop being so discouraged and so in despair. If your heavenly Father has to chase in you, learn your lesson as quickly as possible. Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Whatever it is, correct it quickly. Don’t prolong it.

And I found out if I quickly said, mom, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. She didn’t hit me as long. But if I was defiant, it took a lot longer. That day I went to see Mr. Pellegrine down in the basement in the boiler room and I said, he’s not going to make me cry. He will not. He already took Nick Orange and stripped him down and took a paddle and picked him up with that paddle and slammed up against the wall.

who said they didn’t do those notes, they yes they did. I was there, an eyewitness, and I was the victim. He looked at me and says, drop them. Can you believe a teacher telling you that? I remember my sister telling me how that they were beaten with rubber hose in the boiler room. Rubber hose. Kid were scared of this teacher. I had only heard of his reputation, but now it’s for real, and this is fixing to happen. I had just declared, I’m not going to know boiler room.

Next thing I know, I’m in the boiler room. And he took a paddle and had holes in it, drilled in it. And he took that thing and he came back and buddy, he picked me clean up. And it was so hot, it was burning. I said, he’s not going to make me cry. And I grew to my tomb. And then the second one, it came loose. WOW! Did it hurt. I couldn’t sit down for several days. My little backside was blistered, buddy.

And afterwards, he even had more of my respect than he had before. I wouldn’t even look at Nick Horns. He got me in trouble. Everybody’s always getting me in trouble. I’m never guilty. They just do things and get me in trouble. But anyway, it’s the peaceable fruit that comes as a result of your yielding to the Lord. and therefore he says in verse 12, wherefore lift up your hands which hang down. The feeble knees make straight paths for your feet.

Lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, and lest it let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men in holiness without which no man can shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God. God’s gonna work in your life, but let him work. When you do something that you shouldn’t do, Let God instruct and sometimes God will rebuke you through somebody else. Sometimes it might even be the preacher up here preaching.

Sometimes it might be your mom and daddy. Sometimes it might be your husband. It might be your wife. You’d be surprised. You can be rebuked from a lot of different angles. A lot of different people. And sometimes they say things and it hurts and cuts. Just listen, just listen. You may learn something. Might make even better. And so strive to be the kind of a person God wants you to be. And you’ll find out that yes, God chases, but he chases because he loves you.

He chases you because it’s for your profit because God wants something better for you. And if you start going the wrong direction and making the decisions, God’s gonna let some things happen that maybe try to wake you up. Sometimes God can just speak in a nice soft voice and then sometimes a two before over the head. It all depends on just, are you tender-hearted or hard-hearted? What will it take? And maybe God will have to take you home and you don’t want that to happen.

You don’t want to go home in the dark because you were rebellious in the education, you want to go home because you’ve been walking in the light. And that’s why he says, my little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him and is coming. ospel or to be taken out here and you have to go to heaven and face the Lord and be ashamed and you don’t want that to happen.

Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. Now he hates our sin, but he does love us. And for us to go to heaven, we have to be perfect. No sin. But none of us are perfect. We’re all sinners. We’ve all done things wrong. And God says to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in Hell. And he says, you can’t earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven.

Nobody’s good enough. He said, it’s not by your works. that you have done. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into this world because he loves us. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die but he took our sins and died in our place. He came back from the dead and said that if we’d believe that he did that for us he would give us as a free gift, eternal life.

We go to heaven on what Jesus Christ dead for us. That’s free. That’s a gift. So our going to heaven is free. It has nothing to do with how we live. But after you trust Christ as your Savior and your God’s child, how you live will affect your life here and your eternal rewards. But going to heaven, that was a gift. And that’s what caused us to be a child of God and he became our Father. when he becomes our Father, he has the privileges of a Father.

He owns a slock, stock, and barrel. You know, this morning when we was doing communion service, and it says, do this in remembrance of mane. But what is that main thing you think we should remember? And as you study through the book of 1 Corinthians, it appears that remember, this is what bought you. This is how I bought you. I took your sins and gave my blood. I did this for you. I own you. You belong to me. And we should never forget.

Always remember. He bought me. He owns me. I’m his. And so what I do reflects upon him. Let’s pray, shall we? Let’s head bow nice close and no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I pray that you would. So if you already trust the Lord, you’d never have to do it again. But maybe you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. And so if, tonight, for the first time, if you’ve never done it before, you say, that made sense to me and I want to make sure I go to heaven and I will trust Christ as my Savior right now.

If you’ll do that, would you let me know just by slipping in it very quickly. I’m not going to embarrass you and I’ll have you forward. But right where you are. If you’re watching by the internet, right where you are, just simply trust Christ as your Savior. Believe that He paid for all of your sins. You can’t earn, you can’t work for it is the gift of God and He’ll never cast you out and never lose you. He gives you eternal life.

And you can say, I know I’m going to heaven because Christ died and paid for all my sins. I pray that you will. And if you do, right on the screen says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. Our Father, we thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us, for giving us your word and helping us to understand some of these sometimes difficult things. But they are clearing your word. We understand that salvation is always free and that service can cost us everything.

We just pray for wisdom. Give us a good week, pray for the church, and just bless all the things that are going on. Thank you for all you do for us and for our ministry here. Christ and we pray. Are you a new listener to Bible Eye? 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. 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. Taught 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.