Bibleline Radio Show – 2017-12-01 – Ten Things To Remember
Transcription:
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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 Bibleignmenistries.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.
God knows me. God knows me. Now you may not know a lot of people and a lot of people may not know you, but God does know you. And the scripture is Psalms 139 and verse one, Oh Lord, thou has searched me and known me. You know my heart, you know me. Now this is speaking mainly in creation. This is as God is your creator. God created you, God knows you. Now the other verse is down there in verse 14, 15.
just talking about in your mother’s womb how that God had formed you. God made you. God’s the one that decided whether or not you was going to be male or female. What you were going to look like, the cover of your hair and your eyes, the shape of your body. He fashioned that body. He said laws in the motion. But this is a God of creation. God created us. God knows you. You didn’t just happen. You’re not an accident.
You’re specially designed by God. Now I want you to look there in 2 Timothy chapter 2. You know that once you trust Christ as your Savior, you and I are born again, born into God’s family. And once you become a child of God, it’s great to be able to say, God is my Father. The Bible tells us in Galatians in chapter 4 that we are His children and we can call him Abba, Father. That’s a great thing to know.
You see, moms fail us here and dads fail us, brothers and sisters will let us down. That doesn’t matter too much. You have a new father. You’re in a new family. And one of the greatest things to always remember in verse 19, where he says, nevertheless, the foundation of God stands at sure. The foundation of God is what we are standing upon, we are resting upon. This foundation that is so sure, so rock solid, is the knowledge of God.
That God knows something and God can’t forget something and God says and gives His Word upon something and it makes this statement, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them and that are His. This is your new birth. The first one is you are known by God because God is your Creator. Now God knows you as His child. It’s great to say, I know the Lord, but it’s greater that God knows us because you and I have a tendency to forget God.
But God says He can never forget us. He fathered you. He fathered me. He is our father, our spiritual dad. Number two is God loves me. She has one thing for God to know you. It’s another thing for God to love you. Because God can know something and not love something. We know people but we don’t have to necessarily love people. People may know you and not necessarily love you. God not only knows me, God loves me. Now of course you could turn to John 3, 16 and quite a few verses on where God loves us.
But I want you to look in Jeremiah 31 and notice what he says there in verse 3. Now yes he’s talked mainly to the nation of Israel but Israel is made up of people and many times when it refers to Jacob he referred to the whole nation just like what’s going on over in Israel, God loves his people. But the main reason that the Arab nations hate Israel is because Israel is God’s chosen people. That’s it. They’re God’s chosen people.
And because they rejected their Messiah, God said they’re gonna be hated and persecuted all over the world. And they are. But now notice what he says here in verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Now if God loves you with an everlasting love, how long will his love last? This is a very difficult question. You’re to know that God loves you, but see God doesn’t love you just when you’re obedient.
He loves you even when you’re disobedient I’ll talk to Christians that because they go astray at times. They think after God doesn’t love them anymore God never stops loving his children God loves you Always believe even in the harshest of times when everything seems to be down No value to life when everything’s going against you, where you’re totally filled with despair. God still loves you, but it’s so easy to get to where you think nobody knows nobody cares nobody loves me whether I live or I die Well, I’ve been there so many times But you always have to keep in your mind God knows me God loves me Now, this is a very simple message, but it’s deep at the same time because there’s things that we as Christians seem to forget.
Now I want you to look at the last part of this verse because the last part of this verse, how does God draw you? Christ says if I be lifted up I will what? Draw all men to myself. What does he draw with? Is it a rope? Is it with fear? It’s with love. God says I am going to draw you with my love. Therefore with loving kindness, have I drawn thee? Now you and I, we should yes, we should love the Lord because we have been loved.
God loves us. How do you know God loves you? How do you know God loves you? Well, he doesn’t love me because I asked for a pink Cadillac and I didn’t get it. I know God doesn’t love me because I asked for a million dollars and I didn’t get it. I played the lottery and I told him I’d give him 10% if I won and he didn’t let me win. I proved God doesn’t love me. Well, you know how God said that he would prove to you that he loved you?
By him dying on the cross, sending his son to die for you on the cross. That’s how God said that he proved that he loved you because he did for you something you could not do for yourself. He did the greatest thing he could ever do. He gave his life. And this is what is mentioned in the book of 1 John, how that God is the propitiation for our sins, that He loved us and He loves us with an everlasting love.
And this is how He draws. Now let me mention this to you. You and I are supposed to, whether it’s with our wife or with the husband or with the kids, we’re supposed to draw them to us by our love for them. And you know the devil will take the love that you tried to give and show to somebody and The devil gets into a person’s mind and can take every good deed that you do for somebody as an expression of your love and can turn it into hate.
The very deed that’s to prove that you love, the devil can cause him to think that just you just hate me. And people can say, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. But that’s because see something else is going on. There’s a battle going on. But should you stop loving because somebody twists your love, puts a spin up on your goodness And it can always happen. But you and I are supposed to love genuinely. The Bible says sincerely.
Love one another. And we are to draw them to us because we love. And I believe that if us as a church would show people we really love them, we can draw them by our love. But if we act like we’re superior, we’re better, You’re no good. That’s not going to draw because it’s with loving kindness. A lot of people have a rough time. Be kind to people and draw them with love. You’ll get so much better and more out of them.
And even though your love may be rejected and your kindness is rejected, somebody else might receive it. So don’t stop being loving and not being kind just because somebody doesn’t respond that away. Now, number three, the thing I want you to write down is God accepts me. God accepts me. Ephesians chapter 1, we often sing that song just as I am without one plea. But that time, blood was shed for me. Just as I am, not just as I ought to be, but let me tell you this, the very day, the moment you trust Christ as your Savior because God accepts you as His child because of what His Son did for you in satisfying God’s wrath against the sin that you committed against Him.
So God accepts you. And it says in verse 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace. wherein He had made us accepted in the Beloved. Now in this life, you’re going to be rejected. There’s people that will reject you. At work you’ll be rejected. Sometimes family people will reject you. But you’re always going to go through this. It doesn’t matter. You know in your heart, though all forsake me and all reject me, it doesn’t matter because God accepts me.
because I’m in his son. I trusted Christ as my Savior, and you are accepted in Christ. That’s a wonderful thing to remember, because it’s so easy to forget. And whenever we get down and discourage, the Bible says, consider him talking about Christ in Hebrews in chapter 12, how that he endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, even the death of the cross. But he didn’t quit. And God says, do not become faint and weary in your mind. They call it so easy to do so.
It’s amazing what I’ve seen sometimes kids do, trying to be accepted by their peers. They want to be recognized, looked up to, they want to be part of the group, a part of the gang, just so they can belong to something. There’s nothing better than belonging to the Lord, and then accepted by God. You see, your status in this world doesn’t really matter too much. is just where do you stand with God? Because sooner or later, see, this world will pass away.
He says, my word will never pass away. And the day will come, we’ll stand before the Lord. That’s what counts. That’s what matters. Keep that in mind. The fourth thing I want you to write down, God will be with me. And look in Joshua chapter 1, the book of Joshua and chapter 1. Yes, God That knows me. God loves me. God accepts me. And God will be with me. Now, you can go through life and you don’t always have everybody able to walk around holding your hand.
Every one of us has to learn how to walk with God ourselves. Nobody can walk with God for you. You can’t do it by proxy. the great commission where he says, going to all the world in priesthood gospel to every creature and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, and lo, I am with you always.” Well look there in verse 9, Joshua chapter 1 and verse 9, have not I commanded thee be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee.”
You are to underline that verse. So in this world you can be with a thousand people and still feel alone. I used to go to one school up in Pennsylvania. There was three thousand students in that school. It was time that I didn’t tell like I had a friend. Like I was totally alone. I wasn’t alone but I felt like I was alone. But with the Lord saying you’re never alone. God is always with you. That’s why He should be the dearest friend that you You have.
You ought to love His Word, talk to Him, and let Him talk to you all the time. Be the closest friendship or relationship that you’ve ever had. Nobody should be more precious to you than the Lord. Now you can have a friend, but a friend can’t do all the things for you that God can do. Right down the next statement, God will not fail me. God will not fail me. God makes many promises in His Word. Let me ask you a question.
Who created the heavens and the earth? God. Who does it belong to? God. Can God give this land to whoever He wants? Yes. And if God says, I want this piece of land here, that’s going to be for Israel. Now it doesn’t matter whether anybody else likes it or don’t like it. It doesn’t matter about the United Nations. God has spoken. He says, this land belongs to you. I gave it to you. Now, notice what it says in verse three.
Every place. That the soul of your foot shall tread upon. That have I given unto you as I said unto Moses. So God is reaffirming what He said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and now Joshua. He said, I promised. And God said, all that land belongs to you. If Israel had served the Lord and honored the Lord, Israel would be a kingdom today that’s unmatched by any nation on earth. But they became disobedient and they lost it.
And I look in verse four, from the wilderness and this Lebanon. What’s that word? Lebanon. Have you heard of Lebanon in the news lately? That belongs to Israel too. But Israel forfeited Lebanon for the sake of peace. They even moved out of the Gaza Strip for the sake of peace. By them giving up this land for the sake of peace, did they get peace? No, they don’t get peace. There shall not any man be able to stand before the all the days of my life.
As I was with Moses, so in your underlined a statement, because it goes with the other one that we mentioned while we go in verse 9. I will be with thee. Now look what he says in the last part of this verse. I will not fail thee. Now look up here. God will not fail you. in your Christian life. God never fails. You see, in answer my prayer, God failed. God cannot fail. God does not fail. We may not do all that we can do.
Shoulder the blame, take the fall, confess the sin, but never blame God. The Lord, give it and the Lord, what? Take it the way. Blessed be the name of the Lord. If God gives you praise the Lord, if God takes it away, praise the Lord. Never get mad and upset and bitter at God. God cannot do wrong. God is perfect. God is righteous. Remember that. Because our serving the Lord is going to be in direct ratio to the caliber of our attitude that we have about God.
And when you have a bad sick attitude, feeling toward God because of what God did or God a loud or what God didn’t do that you think you should have done is going to affect your service for the Lord. It will affect God, will not fail. The sixth thing I want you to write down, God will answer me. God will answer me. And that Psalms 138, look at Psalms 138, And notice there in verse 3, in the day when I cried, without answered me, when I cried.
If God answered you, then He knew what produced the tears. He knew what you were going through. He knew how you hurt, how you felt. He knew the anguish of your soul. answered and get what he says in the last part of this verse and strengthen it me with the strength where in my soul. You see it’s not always God answering and giving you the things that you think you need to get out of a jam. It’s the strength of your character, the strength of your soul.
You’ve been strong enough to handle it. God does not have to do everything that I want him to do for him to be still Lord in my life. He doesn’t have to please me in all areas because God is God. He is free to do whatever He wants to do with me and should be free to do with you. He will strengthen you. He doesn’t mean you’ll solve all of your problems, but He’ll give you the strength you need to bear the problems.
Some things you want to escape from, like the temptations of the world. You want to escape from those. But there’s other hardaches and so forth that God maybe wants to you to go through and therefore God won’t deliver you from them and He just wants to give you the strength to go through them. Keep it in mind. The next thing I want you to write down is God will strengthen it man. I just mentioned about strengthening my soul but I want you to look in Philippians in chapter 4.
Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Now remember it’s not talking in this verse about Christ strengthening me. I’m going to do the things through Christ, which refers to those things. Otherwise it was said through Christ, who strengtheneth me? Doesn’t say who says which. I can do all things through the through Christ, which strengtheneth me through the things that God allows into your life or to make you a stronger person.
You may get sick, but you can get spiritually stronger. You can lose money, but become spiritually stronger. You can lose friends, but become spiritually stronger. What do you think is the most important thing in your life? Is the strength that you have in the Lord? In the book of Ephesians and chapters 6, you talked about the strong and the power of his might. That’s talking about spiritually. It’s not talking about the physical body. It’s talking about what God means to you.
And God will use those things to make you strong. And that’s why you can do all things because they strengthen you. The resistance in weightlifting is what builds your muscles. It’s the resistance. So God will send you resistance in this life, but they can make you stronger. All things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose. isn’t it easy to forget this when things happen? The next thing is God will provide for me.
Number 8, God will provide for me. Where it says, my God shall supply all your need. It doesn’t say all of your greed or all of your wants, but all of your need. Now God can very easily separate needs from greed and wants, desires, God knows what you need. God knows what I need. And our hearts prayer desire should be, Lord, meet my needs. Help me to lean upon you, to have the strength that I need to maintain the testimony that I ought to bear at all times.
My God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus. In other words, whatever it is that I need is something that God has that He is rich in. And that’s not necessarily talking about money, it’s not talking about vehicles, it’s not talking about… Now God can meet those needs, but the greatest need that you have is like Paul says, the things that I need is the strength to do the will of God. Will God give me the strength to have the right testimony at all times as long as you’re living in this life because things are going to happen.
Number nine, God will bless me. You should live under that umbrella believing that God got up out of bed this morning, if you want to believe he got out of bed, for the sole purpose of blessing me today. Why did God get up this morning? Because he’s got it in for you bud and he’s gonna get you if it’s the last thing he does. No. You and I are are supposed to believe God wants to bless me. Do you really believe that?
Do you really believe God wants you to be happy? There isn’t anybody that wants you to be happier more than God. God’s the one who designed this life. God wants to bless you. He wants to bless me. And look what he says in verse 8 of Malachi chapter 3, Well a man robbed God, yet you robbed me. But you say, where in have we robbed thee? He says in tithes and offerings, what’s a tithe, a tent, what’s offering over that.
How simple it is. In verse 9, ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me. Even this whole nation, ye rob God. In other words, you didn’t pay what you’re supposed to pay. Did you know that God, when Christ was here, used money as the thermometer of a person’s love. What you do to get it, save it, suspend it, invest it, everything it does with money, reveals an awful lot about you. God says that. So if a man makes $100, he owes God 10, as offering trouble above that.
If you don’t do what God says do, then according to the word here, you might be a little thief. And you want God to bless? He says, I have to curse you. I believe a lot of churches are under a curse because God’s people don’t tithe like they should. They don’t get like they should. Because they don’t trust God with a 90% that’s left. God ain’t gonna meet money. God won’t take care of me. God will fail me. No God won’t.
But people are afraid. And so they hold back. And they think just given to the Lord’s work is just, you know, out of their abundance, whatever they want to, just give them a little tip here and there, just trying to keep God off their back. No, God says you don’t get it. You don’t get it. You do what God says do. Then He says in verse 10, bring you all the ties into the storehouse. Now I’m not saying the church is the storehouse.
And they said this is a principle that God laid down in the Old Testament. And He never stopped that in the New Testament but says that we ought to give. I know that what God has given us. He said, improve me. The word prove me is test. Prove me now here with, say, at the Lord of Host, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
You want God’s blessings upon you? You should live every day. I want the blessings of God. Does the love of God for you and his desire to bless you? Does it do anything to that little tingling in your heart that says, I want to serve a God like that? He knows me and he loves me and he accepts me and he’ll never cast me out. He’ll never lose me. He’ll never fail me. He will answer me. God will do all these wonderful things for you.
Why not serve a God like that? The last thing I want you to look at is Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28. Number 10, God will give me rest. We all need a little rest. I’m not talking about rest of body. I’m talking about rest of soul. of the strength that we need is for the soul, for you. That’s you. And you need to have the peace of God. He says in verse 28, now we often use these verses, talking about a lost man and the heavyweight and the guilt of sin.
But he says in verse 28, come on to me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest, I’ll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me for I am meek and lowlion heart, And you shall find what? Rest under your soul, your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Do you believe that? What should you and I do when the rest of the world is falling apart?
We should have rest in our soul because we’re God’s people. God won’t fail us. He’ll never leave us. He’ll never forsake us. Doesn’t matter what happens in the Middle East or what happens in America. I’m God’s child. He knows me. He’ll take care of me. He’ll provide for me. He’ll never let me down. God’s a wonderful God. You and I are to have peace in our soul because we have trust in the Lord. This is you and me and this is sin.
We all have sin on us. God says He loves us but He hates our sin. And for you and I to pay for this eternal separation from God in a place called hell. Let this hand represent Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in a place. because he loves us, hates our sin, because it separates us from him. So what Christ did is he took our sin, paid for him to cross, came back from the dead. And God said, if you and I will believe that he did that for us, he’d put that pay-my-tire account, we’d get to go to heaven on what he did for us.
Best news in all the world, no tricks to it, no gimmicks. God does love us. Let’s pray, shall we? Every headbound, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior friend right now, just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this. I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sin, and I will trust him as my Savior. If you’ve never done it before, do it now. And if you will, would you just let me know by an uproot to the hand?
Just slip it up very quickly, but right back down. Is there any more at all? Now if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, seek to remember these things. Our Father, we ask Your blessings upon each one here, and Father, upon this message that it would help each individual to love you and to walk with you. We ask your blessings upon them in Christ and we pray. Amen. 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 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. And don’t forget to include your mailing address. And God bless you and thank you for listening to Bible Mind. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.
Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.
