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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I have several things that I want to talk to you about today and I don’t know if I’ll I’ll get it all covered, but I’m going to try. This fall, I am going to be teaching the class on prophecy, prophecy one. Many people think they know a little bit about some of the things in prophecy, but today is only one lesson. There’s 30 lessons in college, so you don’t get all of it today. You only get a sample. But I think you need to see what God means when He talks about this big old word eschatology.

You know the study of future things the end times and we all want to know these things. But in the study of these future things when we talk about eschatology we’re talking about the study of future things from our point forward. You see there in Revelation chapter 4 and in verse 10 it says the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne and worship Him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne.

So you can see a picture of these twenty-four thrones and people that are bowing and casting their crowns down before the Lord. Now we don’t know if that’s what we’re going to do or that’s what they did. But when we get our crowns, I don’t know what we’ll do with them. Are we going to wear them? Or is it a position of honor? All these things, some of the things are not all totally revealed. In Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11, it says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hath created all things and then get this for thy pleasure they are and were created.

So we know that God created for His pleasure because it pleased Him. So people in life are spending so much of their time trying to figure out how to please themselves. And you always come up empty because you’re never totally pleased consistently all the time because desires keep changing. And the thing that satisfied you before doesn’t satisfy you anymore. But God says we were created to please Him. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone tried to find out, well, what pleased?

is God. That’s why we were created. And if you understand that, it’ll help you to understand the purpose of your whole life. Now, when we talk about prophecy, prophecy could be all the way back here from the very beginning when God gave prophecy. So prophecy is not just what’s ahead of us. Prophecy is what was prophesied from the beginning all the way down through time. And yet there are some things that are in the future that we’re going to look at this morning.

The God-given ability of a prophet was to receive divine revelation and declare it to God’s people in their own language without air from their time forward. So one fourth of the Bible is pre-written history, history written in advance. And he tells us in 2nd Peter chapter 1 in verse 20, knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. In other words we don’t take a verse out of context. It doesn’t stand alone. Prophecy is in context and sometimes you need the whole chapter, sometimes you need the whole book, sometimes you need the whole Bible.

But scripture is to be taken in context. And he also makes the statement, for the prophecy came in not an old time by the will of man. But as the scripture says, holy men of God, as they were moved or guided along by the Holy Spirit. So prophecy was not given by somebody, just having a nightmare and wants to write something. The Scriptures come from God, and that they wrote the Scriptures, and many of the Old Testament prophets studied the Scriptures, trying to discern between the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, meaning they did not always understand everything that they wrote, but they were commanded to speak and to write what God told them to write.

The test of a true prophet, we always go back to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 18, where Moses made a statement about a prophet that would come in the future that would be just like him. It’s a reference to Jesus Christ. And he says, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. So Jesus Christ when he came, he made the statement, I speak not my own will, but that which I have seen from my Father, and what I hear from my Father, that which I have declared.

And Deuteronomy 18, verse 22, when it says, when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing fallen out, if it doesn’t happen, it’s not true, then you have to worry about that. But God puts a curse upon those who say God said, and God didn’t say, because God’s word is so important. And by the time we get through you’ll see how important it is that we believe what God really does say. It is so important.

You see a true prophet worships the L-O-R-D, all caps, meaning Jehovah. If their God is not Jehovah, they are not a prophet. Mohammed was not a prophet. Allah is not God. Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, he is God. And there is no other God. So I’m not afraid to say that because that’s the truth and it’s the word of God. that a true prophet was always 100% true. It’s not almost, it is pure.

What God tells us is going to happen will take place. So biblical prophecy, trying to be accurate, trying to hit the point, making sure that we’re sure of what we believe. And we’re always got some people called date centers, they are determined that Christ is going to come on a particular day at a particular hour, and then we have those who say they haven’t got a clue. We don’t know, we’re positive. There are some things that God put in His Word that is general information that we can come close, I believe, and understanding of what the signs are.

So we will look at those signs. The cross is the center of all history. History is His story. It’s what happened before Christ and it’s what happens after Christ. But this is where we begin because, see, this was prophesied in the Old Testament. And when Christ was here, He is also called a prophet. He is a prophet, a priest, and a king. but when Christ came and died on the cross, really, who crucified Jesus Christ. Now we know the Father said He did.

The Son said He did it Himself. He was also by the Spirit raised from the dead, but He also says that the Jewish people whom by wicked hands have taken in slain, the Romans crucified Him, but in all reality it was you and I. It was our sins that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross because He died for us in our place. So He proved His love for us by paying for our sins. And the reason He paid for our sins is because He didn’t want us to have to pay for our sins.

So Jesus Christ did this for you so that you and I would not have to go to hell and pay for our sins, He did it for us. He came back from the dead and the only thing He wanted was for us to believe that He did it for us. Eternal life, going to heaven, is a gift of God. I should say it is the gift of God. There is no other way that a man can be saved. So what is a neck prophetic event?

In our time that we would look for to take place. You see, this is where we are right here. This is the church age. This is where we are. The next thing to happen is for the rapture to take place. This is when we are going to be caught out of this world. Therefore, everybody always wants to know what kind of, you know, signs you’re going to have. But now understand the purpose of studying prophecy. Why is God’s Word so vital?

Because if you don’t go by what God says, you’re left to man’s own imagination. There’s a lot of people that are worried today because of all the things they see taking place in our world. But if you know prophecy, prophecy can bring a lot of things to you that nothing else can. And I’ll show you what I mean. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 16, he says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It means it’s God breed.

God has breed out his word. into the prophets and they breathed out into the scripture. So we’re using words that came from God. This is God’s Word. It is a living Word. And he says this and is profitable for doctrine. That means to know what is right. For reproof. So you’ll know what’s wrong. For correction. How to make it right. And for instruction in righteousness, how to teach it right. You see, this is why you and I need to know the word of God because without the word of God, you cannot properly discern right from wrong.

You can’t, impossible. And this is why we need to know what the word of God says. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 17, that the man of God and the only thing that makes the difference between the child of God and the man of God is the word of God that lies in between. So the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished. These are the tools that he needs to fight with. Because in this life, in this period of time, we are in a battle.

It’s a battle for the souls of men. And our success in our defeat starts and stops right up here in the mind. So we study the word of God, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So you studied that you might be a workman, that you can divide, understand what the word of God says. So these are the tools that we might be able to do the things that God wants us to do, all good works.

And so without knowing the word of God, you will do what you know and think, maybe believe, but do you have scripture? Do you know the book? He said, I have fought a good fight. Why? Because he knew these things. He studied these things. All scriptures given by the inspiration of God. This is what sets the apostle Paul apart from everybody else. He said, I have finished my course. I kept the faith. Now these are things that are important.

Now there’s always somebody wants to set a date. And as you can see, I’m absolutely certain that the world will end today. And you could say, I think he’s gonna come back tomorrow at three o’clock. Well, what happens at four o’clock when you’re still here? Oh, well, you’ve got to change it. But we do look forward to the Lord because we believe that when He comes for us, it will be all of a sudden He’s going to appear. And we’ll be changing a moment, the twinkling of an eye and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Now, there is a stern warning for people who want to add to and take away from what God says. And so whenever you read those scriptures in the book of Revelation in chapter 22, right before these verses, it talks about salvation and all who is a thirst let him come and let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And I will give unto him the water of life freely. You cannot and should not add to what God says is free.

If God says salvation is free, don’t add to that and don’t try to take away from what God says. If God says you’re saved by grace, don’t you try to change that. You don’t change the word of God, but believe what he says. So there’s a stern warning against adding to the scriptures and trying to take away out of the scriptures. So when you read the book of Revelation, there’s a lot of things and we won’t get into the understanding of all of these verses, but do understand this.

God doesn’t like it when people try to say He said and He didn’t say. Did you know there’s a lot of preachers today that are trying to say, God says you’ve got to turn from your sins to be saved. God never said that. Thinking and putting in people’s minds, you’ve got to go to church to go to heaven. You’ve got to keep the 10 commandments to go to heaven. And you’ve got to stop this and stop. No, you don’t.

All you need to do to go to heaven is believe that when Christ died, He died for you. He paid for your sins. You mean that’s all you’ve got to do? That’s it. Believe in He did it for you. Because that’s all that’s required. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever they leave it in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You can know that you have eternal life. Remember your obedience or disobedience to the will of God is due to your adding or taking away something from the true meaning of God’s Word.

If you trust it, Christ is your Savior. You think about it. the way you’re living your life and one of the purposes for your life is because you’re adding or taking away something from what God says. You don’t believe what He says is true? He takes up and out of it. Or you put something in that God didn’t put in. You see you will live according to your theology. We talk about theology and eccotology and eschatology. Allergy is the study of, so the study of God, the yachts God, study of the church, Echlesia, and all these big words, but it’s really broke down very simple.

It’s the study of something. And so you don’t want to add to or take away from that which God says. This affects your service, which affects your rewards for all eternity. See, one of these days God’s going to reward us when we stand at the Judgement of Christ and to be able to serve the Lord in the kingdom that God’s going to set up on this earth. And for all eternity it’s going to be affected by what you do in this little bit of time that God gives us to live.

And you don’t get a lot of it and once time is gone you don’t get no more of it. You are limited so every day of our life should be very important of what we should and should not do. Now why study prophecy? Because it proves the authority of the Bible. Because if prophecy is true, then the one that gave it must be accurate and must to come from God. So God tells us in His Word, even in the book of Daniel in chapter 9, that Jesus Christ is going to come and make a payment for the sins of the world and He shall be cut off but not for Himself.

And tell us when He’s going to die. Prophecy reveals God’s power and his wisdom, since only he knows the future. Only God knows. And so in the book of Isaiah he lets us know that he says, I am telling you these things in advance, because I know that thou art hard-headed and stiff-necked. He said, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen before it takes place. so that when it happens, you’ll know I told you so. So God has already told us everything in advance so that we could read and study His word and know what’s coming down the road.

Aren’t you glad that God has not left us in the dark? Aren’t you glad that He gave us a Bible so we can tell us all these things that are gonna happen so that we can have this joyful anticipation of the things that are coming to the road? I am looking forward to going to heaven. It means I’m looking forward to dying. I’m not afraid to die. You can’t really live until you’re not afraid to die. Some people live their whole lives are afraid to die afraid to die afraid to you realize where I’m going to be when I drop dead.

I’m going to be in an eternal state of one big long joyful day because there’s no night there. And I’m going to have a brand new body. This is starting to break down a little bit. Have you noticed that you’re you already get you started to break down. I just want to get out of it before it totally breaks down. Prophecy reveals God’s goal for us to reign with Christ. See that day is coming when you and I are going to reign with the Lord for all eternity.

Aren’t you looking forward to that? I don’t know what it’s going to be like. I don’t really care. I just know that I didn’t ask to be born but I’m here and I don’t care when I die but I want to live for the Lord while I live. Also, prophecy is an excellent means of evangelism because there’s a lot of people that I have led to the Lord or opened up doors of opportunity to talk to him because I know a little bit about prophecy.

And I tell him the things that are going to happen during the tribulation period. Scared to death. And I talk to him about hell and try to make it as hot as I can. And I try to give him a picture because prophecy is a tool that we can use. That’s why you want to study prophecy and know these things. Now, prophecy benefits the believer because it gives to them this peace and the comfort and the assurance last Sunday afternoon.

I was asked by Jacqueline to give a funeral service. At a nursing home, I guess it was, or hospitals of nursing home. And when I got there, they decided to have it in the room. And I gave the gospel, and I imagined 20, 24 people that trusted Christ as their Savior. But do you know what I can talk about? How you can know that you have eternal life, how you can know that you’re going to heaven when you’re dying.

Because it gives such peace. It gives such comfort. such assurance. I know, I know, I know where I’m going when I die. And a lot of people, they don’t know where they’re going when they die. But wouldn’t it be wonderful? See, I’ve known this for so many years. I’m not afraid because I have this peace. It’s just, I know faith, hope, and God’s presence because it benefits the person that believes on Jesus Christ. So when you trust Christ’s Savior, you can know that you’re going to heaven.

You know that you’re going to be with the Lord for all eternity. You know you’re going to get a brand new body. You know you’re not going to suffer for all eternity. You’re going to be with the Lord and you’re going to see your loved ones who trusted Christ as Savior. Motivation for service. And this really motivates me because I want to serve the Lord because I know that any day now Christ could come back in the air. And so it gives you a better perspective on life and values because you understand the importance about the things of this world in comparison to that which is eternal.

And a lot of people, Christians are going to live their life of the things of this world and God says everything in this world is going to be burned up. You’re not taking anything with you. And so if God gives you something blessed be the name of the Lord, if He takes it away blessed be the name of the Lord because these things come and go. And so we can look forward to being with the Lord. Protection against materialism and protection from liberalism.

Because see there’s people who don’t believe the Bible. And you read the book of Peter in chapter 3, they scoff at the Bible. They scoff at His coming. Where is He? He promised to come back, He ain’t come back yet. Been 2,000 years ago. Well, that means that we’re just 2,000 years closer. Right? I heard this when I was saved and I was 18 years old. Well, that was 56 years ago. I’m 56 years closer. It might be the day.

It might be tomorrow. But whenever it is, I don’t really care. But I live every day believing that the day could be the day when Jesus Christ comes back again. It’s an incentive for holy living because He says in the book of 1 John chapter three that this hope is a purifying hope because if I’m expecting the Lord to come back at any time then I want to be found serving the Lord and I don’t want him to catch me doing something I shouldn’t do.

I don’t want the Lord to catch me saying something I shouldn’t say. I don’t want the Lord to catch me being someplace I shouldn’t be. Why? Because this year produces a desire for holy living. Who? What are the signs? People always looking for the signs. Well in our lifetime During here, we don’t look for signs. There are signs of the tribulation period. God tells us all about these things. They come in the tribulation period. There are signs of the Second Coming, but there are no signs for the rapture.

Now the Second Coming, we often talk about the two phases of the Second Coming, where He comes in the air for us and we’re caught up to meet the Lord. Then there is the day when he comes back to the earth, the second coming to the earth. He came to the earth back here and now he’s going to come back here. So yes, he’s coming back, but he’s coming back here to the earth. And there’s a lot of signs that he talks about the signs of the second coming, but there are no signs for this, except when we see the things that are coming in the tribulation period.

And we know that those things are going to happen and we can see them starting to show up. It looks like it’s about 1159. This is why we should be so excited about all the things that are going on in the world. And so the next thing to happen is we shall behold him. One of these days he’s going to peer in the sky and we’re going to be changed in a moment to tweak the other eye and we shall see him face to face in all of his glory and we’re going to be just like the Lord.

for we shall see Him as He is. And the Bible says that when we’re caught up in the air, to meet the Lord in the air, we’ll stand at the judgment seat of Christ. This is a rewarding stand for all of God’s children who came out of this period of time, from Pentecost to the Rapture. We are gonna stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and God is gonna reward His children. Remember, salvation going to heaven, that’s free. But what you have when you get there, you have to earn.

Rewards are earned. And so when we get to heaven, lo and behold, we’re going to be caught out of this world. You see, am I going to be naked as a the J bird, I don’t know and I don’t care. But you might be wishing you had clothes on. Okay, so we put the clothes on. But you’ll be caught up into the air. It’s called the rapture. Ready or not, here I come. Obedience or disobedience, if you trusted Christ’s Savior, you’re going to be caught up.

This is not a partial rapture. It’s a complete rapture of all of God’s children from this earth. That day could happen at any moment. Now, if all the other things that God told is true and it will happen, This has to happen also because there’ll be a generation of people living that will never see dead. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if it was our generation and will never see death? Now I don’t mind dying but I’d rather not. You say why not?

Because I’ve never done it before. I don’t have to learn how to do everything. So I’m looking for the upper taker, not the undertaker. Now when we get to heaven and we stand before the Lord, now some people as we go through this life, some are going to plant the seed and some are going to come along and they’re going to water the seed. But it’s God that gives the increase. Only God can save the soul. I’ve never saved anybody yet, neither of you.

But when we trust in Christ as our Savior, He saved us. And then He makes the statement, every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So the day is coming, When you and I get to heaven, God is going to reward you for what you have done for him. And nobody can make you do anything for him. Nobody can make you serve the Lord. Nobody can make you do right. Nobody can make you come and study the Word of God or witnessing like that.

But there has to be something on the inside of you and it says, I want to do that. And God’s going to bless you and he’s going to reward you. See, if you don’t think, oh, this is true, then you’re gonna waste your life. You shouldn’t want to waste your life. Time is so important. Time is so precious because that is what life is made out of. Take away time, you take away life. Now, when we talk about this tribulation period, the seven years upon the earth here, that little seven-year period of time, it’s called by a lot of things.

Some people call it as the time of Jacob’s trouble. It’s the tribulation period. It’s Daniel 70th week. It’s the great tribulation. It’s the Second Coming. It’s the rapture. It’s the amillennial and postmillennial and premillennial. It’s revelation. It’s pre-trib. It’s post-trib. It’s mid-trib. It’s partial-rat. You’d be surprised how many different views there are on that seven-year period of time. I have never seen a seven-year prepare the time. So called, so many things and how so many people get it all balled up.

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 it that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep in looking up.