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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 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I am very sickened because of what I see in our country today. The spiritual decline, the moral decay, the rottening of our society. I mean, the corruption in politics, the games that people play at church, like people are not serious about the things of God. It’s like just a big old joke, a big dream. Just do whatever you want to do when you want to do it. It really don’t matter. Here in the newspaper, somebody put this on my desk this week while I was gone.

I came back, I read it. A guy had written an article in the editorial, a guy named Ralph Stevens. I don’t know the individual, but he says, after three years of interviews, I’m still waiting for a conservative Christian NRA member to offer a written reconciliation of his firearm views with Jesus’ mandates of nonviolence, turning the other cheek, loving your enemy and dis avialing material possession. Or is it convenient Christianity which is forsaken whenever your home, family or material possessions are threatened?

Please enlighten us.” He was answering somebody else’s argument and he says, isn’t there anybody out there that can write and explain your views on Christianity when Jesus says turn the other cheek and all those wonderful sweet things and loving your enemies and you’re not supposed to… Then if you’re a Christian, then what do you want to fire them for? It’s incompatible. How can a Christian be for the capital punishment? I mean, how can a Christian be for something like that?

And in the newspaper today, GOP governors raised capital punishment questions. Sacramento, California, capital punishment is under renewed national scrutiny. It is mostly Republican governors in most of the active debt penalty states raising questions about the system and this is due to public pressure, due to public pressure. In other words, things are changing, laws are changing and people are being swayed by public opinion. You see, the news media is making a dent. It is influencing the news media, whether it’s the TV or newspapers.

It does influence people’s ideas because somebody will say something against Christianity. And you want to work, does the Bible have anything to say or answer any of these charges? Yes, I do believe so. Here in the book of Romans in chapter 12, I want you to look there again in verse 17. The Bible had just told us that being view of everything that God’s done for us, mentioned there in verse 1, that in view of that, because of the mercies of God that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.

And then verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be it transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove or discover whether that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So God wants us to take and dedicate ourselves to Him, and then He talks about some of the gifts that He’s given to us, the helps that He’s given to us, and the way we’re supposed to live and think and all these wonderful things.

And then He makes the statement down in verse 9, let love be without dissimulation or hypocrisy Abhore that which is evil cleave to that which is good God tells us to abhor That which is evil we’re supposed to hate it But now they’re coming out with hate crimes if you hate their sin you’re guilty You’re the one that’s guilty and they’re gonna keep on and they are doing this. They’re putting pressure Upon people who take a stand against abortion or against the homosexual, you’re the one that are filled with hate now.

It is their hatred of Christianity, their hatred of God, their hatred of morality, their hatred of decent laws. That’s where the real hate is. I’m not a hateful man. I don’t try to stir up hate in anybody. I do want you to hate sin because God says so. And if abortion is murder, and I want you to hate abortion, hate murder, I believe it’s right. Now, I don’t want you to hate the person. I want you to love the person, but hate the sin.

Today, see, we were kind of getting lost about who we are and what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to let God tell us how to think. But as you read down through here, it does look like We’re supposed to be pacifists, not do anything. Well, that’s not true. And I hope that this man who wrote this article, or Ralph Stevens, will listen to my sermon today. I want you to see how that the God of that Old Testament of vengeance is the same as the ones in the New Testament.

And that there is no difference. It’s the same God. And the things that Jesus said about, you know, that they will come when you’re supposed to beat your swords into plowshares and so on. And, and peace and turning the other cheek. And what about all of this stuff? Because see, it’s in your papers and it’s making the news and it’s causing laws to be written. It’s how our freedoms will by little will be lost. But here in the book of Romans in chapter 12 and verse 17, he says, recompense to no man, evil for evil.

Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Is it God’s will that we live peaceably with everybody? Yes, it is. As much as lieth in you. Now, some people can bear more than others. Some people can’t hate very much. Some people have what they call a short fuse. Some people are long suffered, mean they have a long fuse. And some of y’all in here probably have one very short.

Now the people takes a lot to get them upset. But the Bible says here about recompense to no man anything. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. And the thing is you can give anger a room to subside before you in a moment of wrath or rage, say or do something that you should not do. And you can do that if you’ll believe that God says there in verse 19, vengeance is mine, I will repay. If you can believe that God will repay, then you’ll feel that justice will be done.

But if you don’t believe that vengeance is his and that he will repay, then yes, you will want to take things into your own hands. I had a very trying time a few years ago. I got a phone call that my son David, 28 years old, had been killed. Because a man came into his room there and took a hammer and killed him. And it was a violent death because it was a violent fight. I mean, the blood was all over the walls, all over the room, showing that it didn’t happen in one spot that my son thought for his life.

Now I have tried to relive that not because I’ve wanted to but I guess you visualize and you wonder and imagine what was going on at this time when he took the claw part of the hammer and took out his face and killed him. And the man that did the crime got four years. He confessed to the crime, showed him where the weapon was, what he had done, and I had robbed my son of his money and got four years, because they forgot to read him his rights when they picked him up.

Now I have built inside of me a little bit of a thing called anger. I want justice done so bad. I even contemplate, think about, reasoning in my mind with good logic. I’ll do what government won’t do. And then I read these verses. It says, I can’t do that. I can’t take matters into my own hands. God says, as an individual, if I take that man’s life, life, even out of revenge, then I am guilty of murder. Now the Bible says, Thou shalt not kill me, Thou shalt not commit murder.

But you see, we do things. That we should not do. And we’ll think some things that we should not think. But something that helped me deal with this anger and retaliation, the revenge part, I believe is right here in verse 19. Look at it again. and dearly beloved. Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place under wrath. In other words, give it room and let government deal with the crime. If government executes the man for the murder, then government is not a murder.

They have the legal right to execute to take a life. That’s not murder. That’s killing. And government can kill, government can legally take a man’s life legally. But you and I have not been given that right. God doesn’t want you and I doing that. But when government will not do that and do the things that are right, does an individual, a Christian, a man that loves the Lord, a man that only wants peace, Does he have a right to protect himself, his wife, his children?

I believe yes with all my heart. And I believe that it should be done in defense, but that a man should not go looking for trouble. I don’t believe that you should go and just take somebody’s life. I believe that you have a responsibility to protect. And one of the things that government is to do is to protect that right. That right that you have to protect what’s yours. And then he makes a statement here, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, say, of the Lord.

He says, how is God going to repay? That’s why government is not to be a bad evil thing. Government is a God-given divine institution. Government is just like the home God founded the home. God founded the church. And God founded government. set up government. So to fight against government is to fight against God. Government has a lawful responsibility. Otherwise you and I we would all be totally vigilante style. Would all be either lynching and mob control. That is not the will of God.

And therefore he says in verse 20, therefore if find enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. Those that wrong you, instead of you You’ve taken vengeance upon and getting even, getting even. Remember, that’s what justice is. Justice means getting even. God says, let government get even for you. They have the right, the power given by God that they can do that. You and I as an individual are not supposed to take matters into our own hands lest we say or do something in a fit of anger that’s just as bad as what was done to us.

warp our judgment and you find out that you did something that was totally wrong and maybe somebody totally innocent. But now notice what he says, for in doing so thou shalt he colds a fire upon his head. I guess you have to imagine I wonder what that is. If somebody does me wrong, if I do him right, am I doing him right because I want him to suffer more? I want to keep colds a fire upon that man’s head.

In other words, when he goes to hell, I want to get an after-shevel load. Well, I’m not sure that that’s what that’s referring to because not all of your enemies may be going to hell. Some of your enemies may be those who trusted Christ as Savior and are going to heaven. Some of your enemies might be your wife or your children. You know, families can’t turn on each other, can’t they? Love ones? Your enemies is not always those people you don’t know out there.

Sometimes your greatest persecution comes those that are closest to you. But sometimes people wonder, well, maybe this is just talking about if you’re nice to them, it works upon their conscience and their conscience is so burned and seared, you know, that, you know, it’ll wake them up and your goodness will cause people to repent. That’s a possibility because the Bible talks about the goodness of God, lead to the two repentance found in the book of Romans chapter 2. But there’s another possibility back in these days.

Everybody used to either go get water and get groceries, they’re going to get, they always sit it on top of their head. And those people could walk anywhere down the streets, busy people, everywhere, and carry things on their head. I’ve been to Israel five times. I’ve been on each, I’ve watched people, they carry things on their head. I can’t believe it. They can bounce those things like I think I got strong necks. They can balance all kind of things on their head.

Well, they also had a customer that knows, even if they was to go without fire, the coals are burned out in the middle of the night and in this cold. You see? Hot coals is something that you can also use to warm yourself with. It’s something you can cook with. It can give light. It can do so much, but without a fire. In other words, and the neighbor goes to the next neighbor and asking if they can have some of their hot coals.

The Bible says, can a man take hot coals unto his bosom and not be burned? But if you put them on your head and you can walk and carry them and they can balance the coals on their head just as easy. It could mean that what you did for them was like heaping clothes of fire upon their head. You did them a good deed. Their light’s gone out. Their warmth is gone. They have no heat. They have no and you’re giving them something.

You’re doing something for them. Now it could mean that. I don’t really know. But it is a possibility that he says in verse 21, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Now the rest of the chapter here in chapter 13 talks about the government. That God designed government. Government is a good thing. It is designed by God. He says, let every soul be subject unto the higher power. The higher power is God. And everybody is supposed to be in subjection.

Children are supposed to be in subjection to their parents. And the mom and dad pose to be in subjection to God. And that’s the way God designed it. But see, today we have parents who don’t want God. kids, they don’t want parents telling them what to do because they see the hypocrisy. And so we have children a day that are not disciplined. And so what’s to stop a 13 year old kid from wanting to pick up some gun and out of a bit of anger, pick somebody’s life?

Or not because it’s out of anger, just out of curiosity, just so they can watch somebody die. And so the problem is not the weapon. The problem is what’s wrong with a person. You say, why? I got guns. Ain’t kill nobody yet Guns not the problem Have I ever been angry? Yes, I have been I ain’t taking nobody’s life yet and I feel that I had any right to I’ve had But I haven’t even fired at a person. I Don’t recall ever threatening a person But I I have a gun and I believe that I know how to use it And I believe I have the right to use it and No, I don’t believe in What people are trying to influence others into believing?

Well, if you’re Christian if you’re Christian You’re not supposed to Take somebody else’s life You’re not supposed to want to do that and you shouldn’t be for capital punishment and all these things and seem like there’s no compatibility But when you understand it There really is How that what Jesus said? What the law says? It is right. So therefore our laws have the right to do whatever God’s law says they can do. The question is, is human government ordained of God?

Yes, it is. God designed government. He’s the one that says that He raises them up and he puts them down. I believe that God started the nations of Babylon, Israel, all those nations that there are in the world today. God causes them to rise and God causes them to fall. God says he’s the one that sets up kings and removes kings. He does all of that. Does God ever take life? Yes, God does take life. He has the right.

God is the author of life. It is divine creation. God takes lives in judgment for sin. Let me give you a point. Jesus 38, God took the lives of two sons of Judah. God calls of the earth to open up her mouth and swallow Coron Nathan in Abraham. God smites user because he had put forth his hand and simply touched the ark and God took his life. Now God did not commit murder. God executed justice and judgment to kill is not the problem.

When it says in the book of Exodus in chapter 20, thou shalt not kill, I mean, thou shalt do no murder. But because government has the right, the authority by God, to take the life of those who take life, that’s the law of government. But we let compassion and sympathy shadow over our minds and are clear thinking that we don’t seek clearly like we ought to. And therefore we work under that emotion that we can’t have none of that.

I’m going to tell you what I believe the book teaches. I don’t worry about public opinion. You see the right or it’s wrong. It’s the book. And so we have here in God’s words and things that he has mentioned. God had 185 Assyrians killed. God killed the firstborn of Egypt. God killed Ananias and Sepharth, for one thing, what do they do? They lied. But that’s not murder. And God has given the government the right to take a life that is not murder.

When a judge brings down a sentence that a man must die by execution, the person who actually cares out the execution, they’re not guilty of murder because they’re doing it under the umbrella of government, a divine institution set up by God. When a man goes to war and he has to fire a gun and take a man’s life, he is not a murderer. King David as the king of Israel went out to fight the enemy. And more tattoos were killed.

David was not a murderer. But when David as an individual took Uriah and had him killed, because to cover his sin as an individual, he was an actinist king, he was actin as a man, individual. He had no authority to do that and God got him for murder. Says thou art the man he was guilty of murder, but look at the thousands that he had killed One when it’s in the offices of a government divine authority But as an individual no you don’t have that right and just because somebody makes you mad Does it mean you have the right to take your gun and go blow them away?

That is sinful that is murder Thou shalt do no murder That is wrong Is all killing murder? No. Killing by an individual is prohibited. Killing by a nation is permitted. All murder is killing, but all killing is not murder. You can take a life unintentionally. God says that’s not murder. The Bible says to kill a thief is not murder. Does God authorize human government to take life? Yes, Genesis 9 verse 6 to take a man’s life in capital punishment is not murder.

All these people have to do is read the law. Here’s the law. Go by the law. If not, our country will get to where we only make laws based upon public opinion. And it is our humanist educators that are shaping the minds of the next generation. And as long as they can do that, they are going to, by public opinion, form the laws that will strip us of our Christian heritage. It will destroy our families. Right now, there’s car makers now are beginning to go ahead and have benefits for gay couples.

I told you it was going to come. The day will come when you can’t deny renting your house to somebody because of their sexual orientation. I believe if that’s your house and you want to rent it, you want to build a rent your house to whoever you want to rent it to, but whatever amount you want to rent to, and it’s nobody’s business. This is America. Remember that? We’re not on the socialism. We’re not a communist country. I’m entitled to my thoughts.

There’s a woman on radio. I never listened to her, but people tell me there’s a woman on radio, a Laura something, Sleson, whatever it is. And she is being canned in a lot of places and being dropped by supporters because she’s taken a stand for the home. And she’s called a racist and a bigot and everything you can think of. And all she’s saying is she doesn’t believe that the gay lifestyle is constructive to the family. It’s destructive. Well, blessed be God.

I believe that too. I believe the Bible. And I guess as long as I believe the Bible, I’m going to be an oddball. Then let me be an oddball. I believe that the Bible is true. I believe it tells us how to live. And if you understand it, you’ll know how to deal with all of your inward feelings of hatred and the anger, the bitterness that you can have, because you can surrender your vengeance to God. God, I’m going to put that in your hand.

You said, I will repay. I believe you. I don’t know when and I don’t know how and I don’t really care. That’s your job and you’ll work through government. And if government don’t do its job, then they fail and you’ll deal with the government. But my hands are clean. Now either I can accept that or I can’t. Either I can believe the Word of God or I can’t. And I told the man that killed my son because I had it on video and put it into the courtroom.

It was 20 minutes long. He had to sit there and the judge made him sit there and listen to my whole 20 minute message. And I told him on the tape. I’ve never met you. I don’t know you, but you killed my son. You admitted to that. And I believe that under the law of our government, you should be punished to the maximum that you should give your life. But you won’t have to suffer. They won’t require it. And I said, you may escape justice down here, but I believe in a court of divine justice where you will not escape.

So you’re escaping right now as only temporary. But as an individual, myself personally, I forgive you. I’m not going to seek revenge. I’m not going to do you harm in any way. But I want you to trust Christ as your Savior, because if you don’t, you will spend any eternity separated from God in Hell. And God loves you, and so do I. I told the man that on video. and they played it in the courtroom. And I don’t know what will all transpire happen, but I know that if God’s Word can sustain me, it can sustain anybody, it can keep you from having the vengeance that you want to get even with everybody for things, and just go ahead and do right.

Well, where does it come in then with the right to have a gun or a sword? And this thing about turning your other cheek, how do you harmonize all of that? I’m so glad you asked, but I don’t have time to cover that this morning. This hand represents you and me, and this represents sin. You and I, we’re sinners. God loves sinners. We’re all sinners. You say, well, I ain’t never murdered nobody. The Bible says we have broken all the law.

If you offend in one point, you’re guilty of all. So which is the worst? Well, the first one says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. Do you do that one? So you already broke that one. There’s nobody does. Thou shalt not covet, be honest. Thou shalt not lie, be honest. This is you and me. The Bible says to pay for this sins, eternal separation from God in a place called hell, but God loves us.

He wants us to go to heaven. To go to heaven, we have to be perfect, His righteous is God and nobody’s perfect. We’re all sinners. God said we can’t save ourselves. We need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sins. He our sins separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for them across, and came back from the dead. Said if we believe He did it for us, He’d put the payment that He made to our account.

We go to heaven on what He did for us. There’s no tricks to that. That’s the best news in all the world. If you will accept Christ as your Savior, believe in that He died and paid for your sins. God will save you from hell, give you eternal life, and you’ll go to heaven on what He did for you. Let’s pray Shout out. 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, 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 4 2011 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. Cada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.