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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.

We had mentioned this morning over and over again in some of the statements that we made There’s a cause, there’s a cause. Now I want to kind of say a few more words about that because there’s a reason why God does what He does. Sometimes our difficulty in the Christian life is believing that all the things that happens to us, there’s a reason for it. And sometimes we know that we think to ourselves, there’s got to be a reason for this because this just can’t happen.

There has to be something behind this. And sometimes you’ll draw closer to the Lord because you want to know and you won’t God to reveal some things to you. You’re going to be a lot of hard things in life that you’ll go through. The only thing that I’m glad of is that I don’t probably have as far to go as I’ve already come. Some of you all may have as far to go as you’ve already come. if you may have further to go, then you have come.

Don’t that make sense? potion I don’t believe I’ll probably make it past 100. Now, there’s a possibility. So, you know, I’ve already done a live most of my life. 70 years of, you know, I’ve done already got that. If there’s 80, says then there’s hardly can sorrow, but still we fly away. So one of these daysapego fly away, and you will too. We’re all going to fly away. But understanding that there’s a cause that we’re supposed to lose ourself in, but finding the right one.

Isn’t it true that living in America, there’s so many things to do. There’s so many things to be, so many places to go. The other day I was looking at the map of the world and I thought, no, I’ve been to Israel six times, Egypt a couple times, India a couple times, Trinidad a couple times, Mexico a number of times, of course Alaskan, Hawaii, all over the United States. But then I looked at the map and I said, I haven’t been nowhere.

You realize how big this world is and how many countries there are and how many people there are in this world. And how many things that you’d like to see and do will never live long enough. If it was going to be here a thousand years, you could just take your time and just travel the whole world and get to everything. life isn’t long enough. And so by the time we’re old enough to figure out what we’re doing or have enough money, we’re too old to do anything.

Have you noticed that? Yeah, yeah, you noticed that. So you think, man, I wish I’d know now, I wish I’d know not what I was a teenager. Then I’d have been smart. I wouldn’t have made all those mistakes that I made. Could have made so many better decisions, but we only get one trip through life. No reruns, no instant replays just one trip through. And sometimes we kind of mess up here and there. But I’m glad that God is a God of forgiveness and a God of second chance, third chance, fourth chance, fifth chance.

So God has been good to us. I want you to just look at the first little statement here about the scripture Exodus in chapter 9 verse 16. Just look right there in your notes. And in very deed for this cause, I raise the, for to show in the My power and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth. So God is talking here about a man named Pharaoh and going to raise him up. But how God raised him up was forcing him to make decisions.

Now God knew his heart, but some people just are naturally rebellious to the Lord. And he talks about how that God can change us a one vessel to another. Vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. So I want you to take your Bible real quick and look there in in the book of Timothy chapter 2. Timothy chapter 2.

And look there in verse 19, where in verse 19 of 2 Timothy chapter 2, page 1280, he says, nevertheless the foundation of God stand to sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His. Now when he talks about in verse 18, overthown the faith of Son, you’re not safe and secure because you kept on believing right. You’re safe and secure because God gave his word. God knows who you are. And so he says here, let everyone that name it, the name of Christ, oh my stars, look what that says, depart from iniquity.

Now some people would say that means turn from sin, which is about the same thing. So is it God’s will that his children turn from sin? Yes. but not to be saved, not to stay saved, because we already have a sure foundation. We already have a seal. God knows his children, but he says it for a reason. He uses the illustration of in a house, you’ve got vessels of all kinds. In verse 20, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor, some to dishonor.

If a man’s therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor.” So whether you are a vessel of honor or a vessel of dishonor is your choice, wouldn’t you say? Wouldn’t you agree with that? If a man purge himself, he can be a vessel of honor. Well, if he doesn’t, then he becomes a vessel of dishonor. So whenever you read over there in the book of Romans in chapter 9 about the vessels of honor and the vessels of dishonor vessels of wrath vessels of mercy well it’s because of your choice Moses made the wrong decisions therefore God is free to use him as a vessel to bestow his wrath upon and he did so and if you as an individual choose to serve the Lord after you’re saved God will use you as a vessel of honor and bestow his blessings upon and his honor upon.

So you see, you’re the one that determines what God does when God has limited himself to your obedience. So God says, what he’s going to do with you, lot depends upon what you do with what he told you to do. Your obedience or your disobedience. So there’s always a reason, there’s a cause behind it. So if you want God’s blessings, do what will cause God’s blessings. You want rewards in heaven, do what will cause you to get those rewards.

If you don’t, you’re not going to have them and it’ll be because of you not making the right decisions. Take a Bible looking Matthew in chapter 19. Matthew in chapter 19. I often have people that will ask me questions, they’ll call me on the phone and they want me to perform a wedding for them. And I will say, well, when would you like to get married? And they’ll say, tomorrow. And we got a problem. And they’ll say, this Saturday or next Saturday or, you know, sometime along that.

And I say, well, I usually never marry anybody unless I’ve canceled them. Maybe three, six months. And I says, don’t usually do weddings that often. And I says, there’s nothing in the scriptures because I sometime they’ll argue with me. me. I said, well, I love nothing in the scripture. It says, the preacher has to perform a wedding. There’s nothing that says, I got to perform a wedding. So it’s my choice whether I do or I don’t. And so I said, since I don’t know everything about everybody, I’d sometimes just rather not do it.

So there are only a few people that I marry. And that’s because I will maybe know a little bit about them. And I also make a flat rule that I don’t marry anybody. It’s every been married before. I I just don’t want somebody to have two living husbands or two living wives. And I get criticized for that. That’s, well, I didn’t rank the Bible. I just tried to go buy it. But understand this, regardless of what I’ve done, me and Betty ran away and got married.

Therefore everybody ought to run away and get married. No, just because I did it, it didn’t make it right. We did it, but it wasn’t right. And I have begrudged it for 55 years that I stole a woman away without her dad and mother freely given her to me. I should have won them over. And I’m not sure about her mother if I have yet, but you know it’s pretty close. She’s in heaven now, so I think everything will be alright.

But I don’t tell people, do like I did, if what I did wasn’t right. I’m still supposed to teach what’s right, not teach what I did or didn’t do. And so when I try to teach what the Bible says, this is what the book says, this is what I go by. So he makes a statement here in verse 3, The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every what?

for every cause, for every reason. And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female. And he says, for this cause, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they to shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more to but one? What therefore God hath joined together let no man put a son during this, he’s a judge.

What does it say? No pain put us in. There’s no if Andrew Butts. I mean, it’s just plain. But then they come back, well, what about Moses? Didn’t Moses give a bill of divorce but in the Old Testament? Well, yes he did. Well, why? Well, because of the hardness of their heart. It’s kind of like this. Wouldn’t it be neat if everybody just did the ideal thing, but we don’t always do the ideal thing. Have you ever messed up in your life at all?

Never make wrong decisions. Something you like to do over again, but sometimes you can’t go back and do anything over. So I have a verse in here that I wanted you to look at because I believe that it is so very, very important. And that is in the book of Psalms 78, look in Psalm 78, 78 Psalm. Now we know that when they were taken out of the land of Egypt, across the Red Sea, into the wilderness. There were times they got thirsty.

They even went three days without water, I guess I’d have been thirsty too. I’d have thought, you know, I’m gonna die one of these days if they don’t hurry up and give me some water. And they had to wait on the Lord to give them some food. So he gave them some manner from heaven. And so you just thought, well, everything’s fine. Now they got all the water, they got all the food they can eat. But there was something they wanted beside that.

What was it? They wanted some meat to eat. So you’ll notice what he says here in, let’s just start to in verse 25. See the first word? Because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation. Though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven and had rained down manner upon them to eat and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food. He sent them meat to the fore.

He caused, he caused an east wind to blow in the heavens and buy his power. He brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust and feathered foul like as the sand of the sea. And he let it fall in the mist of their camp round about their habitation, and so they did eat. Now why were they doing this? Because they wanted some meat to eat. And God’s, why don’t you satisfy what I’m giving you?

Evidently not. We remember the leeks and the onion and the garlic. And you brought us out here in this wilderness and given us this little crack of bread and they wanted some meat to eat. Now was God upset with them? Yeah. did he permit them to have some meat to eat? It wasn’t what God wanted, but God permitted it. You’d be surprised that if you will not go God’s way and do what God wants you to do, will God permit you to go contrary to His will?

But are there consequences? You know there is. So there were consequences to this. So He says here in verse 29, So they did eat and were well filled. Yum, yum. For he gave them their own desire. Was that say? He gave them their own desire. Now some people desire to get married. God doesn’t make it get married. And then some people desire to get divorced. And the Bible says in the book of Malachi, God hates divorce. And God will permit people to get divorced.

God will permit people to get remarried. But don’t think just because he does permit doesn’t mean that that’s always the best. Even though sometimes we have the right to get married. All these college kids they all have the right to get married. Now, whether they got the wisdom to get married, now that’s a different story altogether, wouldn’t you say? Just because they’re old enough doesn’t mean they’re wise enough. Now they’d be me wise, but they can’t afford her. But God doesn’t force or make us, so we make choices.

So if you decide to get married, understand there’s more problems than when you were just single. Now you’ve got to think about the one you married. You’ve got to meet those needs. and you’ve got to try to protect and provide and all those things. So it’s a responsibility. It’s increased. It was one, now there’s two of you. And then it could be one little, two little, three little Indians. It could be a whole bunch more. You’d be surprised how problems can be multiplied.

I mean, you know, opportunities can be multiplied. But if you’re going to do it, understand that. and if you accept those responsibilities, fine go for it. And if you decide to get divorced, there’s going to be consequences that’s going to lead to other decisions that you might make. And it may not be the wisest decision, but it can be a decision and God can permit it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the wisest or the best. And usually, like he says in the book of Matthew, chapter 19, It’s because of a hardness of heart.

People will not submit and do what God wants. They don’t love each other the way they should for whatever the reasons. And so I don’t always know who’s the innocent party. Everybody tell me, well, I’m the innocent party. Well, now I don’t know about that. You may be. That’s fine. I said, but regardless, does it mean that just because you can, you should. And then when they do, it’s, well, there’s always somebody else who comes along. So they get remarried.

So you can do that. But understand that when you marry, you’re bringing in not just the person you’re married, you’re bringing in the people that you were married to into this marriage. You may not think so. I’ve been doing this a long time. Now you’ve got additional families that you’re bringing because you don’t just marry her, you marry her whole family and all of their friends. And you’d be surprised how wonderful it can be or how horrible it can be.

But if you are willing for the consequences, that’s fine. But some people can’t handle the pressure, the problems. And so it doesn’t always work out the best. They want it to. They desire it to. But sometimes God will let you have your desires. But sometimes we say, well, it was the Lord’s will. It may have been. Only ones that knows that for sure is going to be you and the Lord. I try not to get into it. People are free.

You can do whatever you you believe God wants you to do. But I’m just saying there’s going to be additional problems that you’re going to have. So God says there’s a cause. When you do this, it’s going to cause something else. It’s cause and effect. It’s going to affect some things. And some people cannot handle all the changes, all the pressure. And sometimes there’s some people that are blessed that can go through life and not have to get married.

And if you can do that, as Paul says, I would that everybody was just like me. Now whether or not he had to get married to be part of the Sanhedrin and she died, we never know or heard anything more about it. So I don’t know. But anyway, look at the next statement. John chapter 12 verse 27. Now this is a very important scripture and I want you turned there to the book of John in chapter 12. John chapter 12, John chapter 12, you notice it says here in verse 27, now is my soul trouble.

Jesus is speaking. What shall I say Father say me from this hour but for this cause came I into this world or under this hour. For this cause. This is why I came into this world. For this is why I was born. I was born for this hour. Now, I want you to look up there in the verse 24 where he talks about except a corn of wheat fallen to the ground and there’s that word die. You ought to circle it or underline it because he was born that he might die and he’s teaching him something here an illustration about a grain of corn that dies, unless it dies, it abides us alone.

But if it died, bring the fourth much fruit. And then he says down here in verse 32, and I, if I be lifted up, is also talking about how he was going to die, because he says there in verse 33, this he said, signifying what death he should die. So the death of the corn… He is talking about his death, and many people have been blessed. He says, but this cause, I came into the world to die so that there could be a multitude of people that will be blessed because of what I do.

Now, whatever it is God wants you to do, and if you do it for his cause, I believe there will be a multitude of people that will be blessed because you were privileged to live in this world. Wouldn’t it be a shame for you to live in this world for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years, and you didn’t influence anybody? You didn’t influence anybody for the cause of Christ. So you’re here and the power of your life is revealed by the influence that you have in the lives of other people.

And you want to do that because that is so very, very important. Now look there in John chapter 18 and verse 37. verse 37, John chapter 18, just turn a couple pages to your right and you’ll see this, John chapter 18 and verse 37, when Jesus was standing for Pilate, he says, Our Thalah King? He said, you said it. He says in verse 37, Pilate, therefore, said unto him, Our Thalah King, then Jesus answered, Thal says that I am a king.

You’re the underlying statement. Jesus said this, it is so important, it is so powerful. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world. Now he’s on the day of his execution and this is what he has to say. This cause, this day for this end, for this purpose was I born. Could you say that I was born for a purpose? I mean you’re saying this to yourself. I was born for a purpose. For this cause I live.

What is your reason for living? If you could put it down in one sentence, my purpose in life is what is it? What is it? Now you’re going to have to give a count and so alive when we get to heaven that’s what was my cause. Because that is what’s going to cause my effects in life. Cause and effects. I did this because I knew what my purpose in life was. I did it for the Lord. I did it for reaching soul.

I did it for the gospel’s sake. I did it for Jesus’s sake. But why? There’s got to be a reason. And so that’s why you and I should sit down and examine ourselves every once in a while to see in my own course. Am I doing with my life what God wanted me to do with my life? And so he says here in verse 37, to this end was I born, for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth.

Isn’t that what we’re doing? Isn’t that really the purpose of our lives? That’s what we’re doing. We’re bearing witness of the truth. If telling people the truth, we are all sinners. The wages of sin is death. You must be perfect to go to heaven. You cannot earn eternal life. Christ paid for our sins. King back from the dead. If we would believe, we can go to heaven when we die. Those seven little statements is the truth of the gospel.

And I believe it’s so important. of the next statement there in your note. Romans 1, 26 says, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Now you can read that whole chapter, the first chapter of the book of Romans, and it says, for this cause, because you see they did not want to retain God in their knowledge. They didn’t want to think about God, and when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened and they made the Creator like a creature and brought God down to be like nothing more than a man.

And so man became God. And so God let them do whatever they want to do. The same thing when a lot of other people’s lives is God can let you do whatever you want to do. You can live any way you want. I can live any way I want. I just chose to live a godly life. You can choose to live a godly life. I’m glad we got the freedom. I got the freedom to mess up my life too.

And everybody makes choices, decisions. But there’s consequences to our decisions. Now, turn to the book of Romans in chapter 15. You’re right there. Romans in chapter 15. Romans chapter 15 kind of gives us an idea of what it’s like to read and to study the Old Testament because it’s for us to understand and to learn. For the Old Testament was written a four-time four-hour learning for our learning. And you’ll see that there in Romans in chapter 15 and verse 4.

For whatsoever, things were written for time, were written for our learning that we, through patience and conflict with the Scriptures, might have hoped. So we read and studied the Old Testament, so we’ll see the testimonies of individuals, stories of people’s lives, and how they responded to what God wanted them to do. And if they obeyed what happened, and they didn’t obey what happened, because there’s a reason why God did what He did. And so there’s reasons why people do what they do.

If you serve the Lord, there’ll be a cause. And if you don’t, there will be a cause. There’ll be a reason why you don’t think it’s that important. If you win souls, there’ll be a reason. If you don’t, there’ll be a reason. There’s always a reason why we do what we do. So here he says in Romans 15, and I want you to look down there in verse 9, look in verse 9. Verse 9 all the way down to verse 12.

three verses, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy as it is written, for this cause I will confess to the among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. In the Old Testament, the Scriptures kept telling us over and over again how that salvation, yes, is of the Jews, but that the Gentiles are not going to be left out, that the Messiah also died for the Gentiles. and that they can be saved just like anybody else can, and therefore it says over and over again, that in Him shall the Gentiles trust.

So there’s only be one prophet out of Israel that the Gentiles have ever trusted in, and that just happened to be Jesus Christ. So you look what he says here in verse 10. And again he said, rejoice ye Gentiles with his people. And again praise the Lord all ye Gentiles and laud him all ye people. And again Isaiah said, there shall be a root of Jesse and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. So is the scripture telling us in the Old Testament that there’s going to be somebody from the root of Jesse that’s going to rule over the Gentiles.

And it’s right there. I wonder who it is. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ himself. 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. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.