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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.

Good to have you out here today. I wanna talk to you about a few things and maybe help you to remember. Can you recall what was it that brought you to Christ? Did God have to hit you over the head with the two before? Did he have to bring a crisis in your life? Or even after you trusted the Lord? Has there been times in your Christian life that whereby you’ve drifted from the Lord and God had to get your attention?

You had to kind of give you a wake-up call. Can you remember that? And you said I’ll never do that again. I’m gonna walk with the Lord from here on Has that day come where you’ve determined in your mind? I am determined. I’ve made up my mind. I will serve the Lord How you doing? How you doing? Because you see There’s a time coming in the future. We’ll have to give an account to the Lord for everything that we’ve done good or bad.

Now our sins are taking care of, but God says that we’re going to stand at the judgments of Christ and be rewarded for what we’ve done. Something lost of what we could have had. So every day of our lives is affecting eternity. We learned a statement in college years ago, your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. So would you take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Amos, the book of Amos, this is on page 936 in an old school for a reference Bible or in one of the Bibles that’s in the pew and funny over there.

And turned to the book of Amos in chapter 4, page 936. As you know, God, He loved His people. He loved the nation of Israel. He wanted to use them for His honor and for His glory. And there There were times when they weren’t, well, too honoring of glory. And God had to deal with them. He was on the verge of really destroying the whole nation. Gonna have them taken into captivity. All these things were done. They were warned.

But some people just never get the message. They never get that wake up call. They just don’t listen. Don’t pay any attention. living in a country today where I don’t know if God’s people really understand the seriousness of us living right. It really doesn’t matter too much about how dark it gets. It’s just are we shining the way we should. This is the perfect time for us to want to be used by God because the opportunities are unlimited. The world needs us.

The world needs a good Christian example of somebody who has confidence in the Lord walks with the Lord and wants to be used by God, the world doesn’t have the answers. But we do. So here in the book of Amos in chapter 4, I want you to look in verse 6. And I have also given you cleanness of peace in all your cities and want of bread in all your places. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord?

In other words, I’ve even brought famine upon you. You think, well, that would get you to come to me. He says that that that didn’t work. You’d be surprised how many times the preacher may say certain things as a warning. No, don’t do this. Don’t do that because it’s going to hurt you. Anytime God says, don’t do something if he calls it’s going to hurt you. And so you tell a little child, I’ll put you hand in the fire.

Why? Because I don’t love my child. No, because you know the fire is going to hurt him. So when God says, don’t commit adultery, it’s going to hurt you. Don’t lie and steal and cheat because it’s going to hurt you. All those things that are sinful hurt somebody. You say, well, long as it doesn’t bother me, it bothers everybody. Sin is like a disease that you catch. And you have an old sinful nature and it’s hard to refuse. And everybody stirs up that old sinful nature in somebody else.

Are you that just get angry and you can make somebody else angry? Get discouraged and you can discourage somebody else Walking to sin and you can get somebody to follow you But it also works the other way look what he said in verse 7 and Also, I have withholding the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest and I caused it You ought to underline those little statements. I caused it to reign upon one city cause it not to rain upon another city.

One piece was reigned upon and the paster were on it reigned not withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water but they were not satisfied yet. Yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord? Look what I’ve done to try to get your attention. You see because you and I can’t see God. Does it mean that God is not working. If these scriptures are true, things are not happened by accidents. There’s a lot of things that God is doing and working in your life.

You just sometimes don’t see it. And God may want you to do something wonderful for him, but you won’t listen. You won’t give him a chance. Sometimes you start wandering away from the Lord and it seemed like so far so good, like the guy that jumped off the Empire State built him. So far so good. But you knew he had an appointment with the concrete. God says there is an appointment coming. God will deal with us. We’re not free to just do whatever we want to do without consequences.

As I’ve said before, we are free to rebel against God and God then is free to chastise him, however he pleases. Sounds like a pretty good deal. You can live any way you want and God can chase in you any way he wants. So therefore I think it would be wise to serve the Lord. I would rather have his blessings than his chastening. What else he says to him first time, I have smitten you with blasting and mildew with your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increase.

The pom-a-worm devoured them yet have you not returned to the me say, after the Lord, you still won’t listen. And God says, when you came into the land, if you’ll serve me, I will bless you. I’ll take care of your enemies. I won’t put any of the diseases of the Egyptians upon you. What a healthcare program. Obamacare is nothing like this.

And it wouldn’t have cost him anything. All you had to do was just serve God. But when you don’t serve God, God sends all kinds of diseases upon the people, all kinds of problems. And buddy don’t we have it today? I could get lost right on this subject, but I’m not going to do it. Look at verse 10, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, and your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses and made the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils, yet have you not returned to me, say, the Lord, you see, the one thing after the other, what would it take to bring you to God?

Now, see, if God does this to Israel, God teaches us examples in the Old Testament about how He works in our own lives. You see, God is very patient with us, but He gives us warnings. And sometimes if you don’t hate it, and then all of a sudden, And then you want to, what happened? Listen, you stumble before you fall. You don’t just fall, you stumble before you fall. Oh, I’ve got to understand. There was a trail you took before you got there.

There’s things that you disobeyed before you got there. There’s things that you watch in places you go, friends that you have, that influence, the next thing you know, I don’t know what happened. Oh yes, you do. Try to remember. Try to remember. You’ll never become a drunk if you never take a first swallow. I ain’t never seen a person become a drunk they didn’t take a drink first. You? I’ve never had a drink of a strong drink in my life.

Therefore for 71 years I’ve never been a drunk. You see, you have to do something in order to accomplish that. You don’t have to do some things just because, well, everybody does. Everybody doesn’t. No, that doesn’t satisfy. It’s an addiction. And everybody is addicted to something. I became addicted to the cause of Christ. God and His Word got a hold of me years ago. And I wanted to serve the Lord. I watched enough people Mess up their lives and I thought now why should I do the same stupid thing they’re doing?

If you think I want to be different Then be different Serve the Lord. There’s no competition there Most people aren’t they just play little games even people that just go to church even bring a Bible occasionally Even once in a while they’ll even say, Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub. Yeah, God. And you’ll think, well, that’s the end of my prayer life. Y’all look down to that little crack. Bress us while we eat our snack. Amen. John Ben shot a rooster, killed a hen.

Chicken dad and rooster cried, and then she satisfied. And there you go. And that was in the depths of your spirituality. Well, so the Lord says here in verse 12, therefore, well, I do unto the O Israel, because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet God. In other words, as last resort, and you’re not gonna listen to me, prepare to meet God. Did you know that all of life is preparation to meet God? You’ve never met him yet.

We know him from the Word of God, and except Christ is our Savior, we can have an eternal life and know that we’re going to heaven. But one day, face to face, we’re gonna meet God. It’s appointed unto every man wants to die and after this, the judgment. That’s a judgment coming. Now, I don’t have to worry about the great white-grown judgment, that’s for the lost man. But I am gonna have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ, where I will be rewarded for what I’ve done and suffer the loss of what I could have done and didn’t do.

So the Lord kind of tells us all these things. Now, I want you to take your Bible and to make sure the book of Jude in verse 14, the book of Jude, all the way over there in a no Testament, believe it or not, the book of Jude, verse 14, a brief little comment, just a brief comment about a man named Enoch, man named Enoch. You often wonder, I wonder what happened in Enoch’s life that caused him to be so dedicated that he had the testimony that he pleased God And God took him a man that didn’t physically die Walking along and all of a sudden he disappears What’d it be awesome?

Just walking along And gone But what he says now you would know this if you read Genesis that you’ll notice this in the book of Jude and He says they’re in verse 14 Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000s of his saints. And then he tells them why he’s coming with 10,000s of a saint, and he’s going to execute judgment upon the earth. People are not going to get away with murder.

God is a righteous God. He’s just. If it was just justice that we wanted from God, all of us would die. So God balances that justice with love and mercy. And because of his mercy, we’re not all consumed. Now, take a Bible and go to the book of Genesis in chapter five. Genesis chapter five. And you’ll notice there’s a couple things before the flood, the great flood upon the earth. People were born, they lived to be of great age.

71 is not a great age, just thought I’d throw that in there. These fellows lived a long time. I mean, long time. Lewis says they’re in Genesis chapter five. See there in verse five, and all the days that Adam lived, 930 years, 930 years. How would you like to live nine? 130 years. Man, that’s a long time to live. But then what happened to him? He died. He died. Still died. And you’re good on through here and you look at this little verse 8.

And all the days of Cephal are 912 years in, he what? He died too. In verse 11, and he died. Up in verse 12, a 14. And all the days of Canaan were 910 years. Ah, he still croaked. He died. How long do you want to live? You’d be surprised how long we want to live. We’re not stretching out there as far as we can, and we can get to 70. Wow, I got 70. Man, if I can just make it to 80.

And it says if you do make it to 80, more heartache and more sorrow, and then you still fly away. Psalms 90. You’re still going to what? You’re still going to die. So the question is, where are you going? When you die, that’s the important thing. thing. I know that I have eternal life. You say, how do you know? Because I’m so good. No, no, no. It’s because God is so good. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to down the cross to paper, all those things that I’ve done in my whole life.

From the time I’m born to the time I died, He’d paid for all of my sins. All I have to do is believe He did it for me. And He would put that payment to my account. I go to heaven on what Christ did. You don’t earn it. You don’t don’t work for it, you can’t buy it. Now that’s preparing to meet God. So regards to how long you think you’re going to live. And even though you taught to live a good clean life, you’re still going to die.

There’s still gonna be judgment. And are you prepared to meet God? Prepared. So all of life is preparation to meet God. So I know I’m going to meet him at the Jesuit seat of Christ. Some are going to meet him at the Greywhat throne judgment. But I want to be prepared and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So he may come today, and if he does, the Bible says, my little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Because I believe a lot of Christians are going to be ashamed that they did not do with their life what God wanted them to do. As a pastor, my only dream for you is to do exactly what you know God’s Word says you ought to do. That’s all. And I simply want to help you get there. there at this verse see there a man had a son and his name was Enoch. Verse 21 says an Enoch lived 60 and five years in begot Methuselah.

You ever heard of old man Methuselah? Now he’s supposed to be the man who lived the longest! 969 years. That’s almost 900 years longer than I have lived so far. I don’t know if I’d want to live that long. But it says, he was 65 years old and he had a kid. And it makes this statement. In verse one, do Enoch walk with God after he begat Matusla. Now, I know he didn’t say he walk with God before he had him.

It was after he had a son. And think about his son and the name of those love is when his dead judgment will come. So whenever you figure that at the time of his life at the end of it the flood came. Something got a hold of Enoch because he lived another 300 years because he walked with God and see in verse 23 and all the days of Enoch were 365 years. That’s all he got 365th. The other guy got 900, another got 900, another got 900, and his son got 900, and he only got 300.

Boy, he got robbed. He got to go to heaven without dying. I would rather go to heaven and not live long. Then to live long and go to hell. But every man is going to live, he’s going to die. And are you prepared to meet God. Are you prepared? Was it because he had a son that did something to him? I think family sometimes, my husband and wife, and they just always had each other than God will bless him with a little precious little child.

And that precious little child can cause a dad to wake up and says, you know, I need to be the right kind of a father. That mom says, you know, I need to be a good mother for my baby. And something brings them together, come and wakes them up. Maybe they see a dream for that child and they want God to help them. And so they dedicate their lives to raising their children and the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.

You remember you did that, and then after a few years you became a bad testimony to your kids. When you didn’t walk with God and you went astray, you’d be surprised how many do that. What would it take for God to bring you back to him? Did you know that God can take your wife? God can take your kids. God can take your husband. God can take anything. See, God is free to do whatever God wants to do. But everything God does is for a reason, for a purpose.

Don’t ever think that regardless of what happened in life, that God doesn’t love you. He does love you. He loved Israel and he says, I did this and that didn’t help. I did this and that didn’t help. And it seemed likeollow just no end to it. All these things happen. Take your Bible, look at 2 Chronicles, Chapter 26. 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles in Chapter 26. In chapter 26, there was a king that wasn’t doing too well, he didn’t messed up.

His name was Josiah and he was about 16 years old and he was made a king and hidden and done a pretty good job but in verse seven says in God helped him against the Philistines. So he did a few things right. And he was a little on the zealous side. He did some things he shouldn’t have done. Look at verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. He got too big for his britches.

He got to the place where I’m the king and I’m not a priest, but I’m going to do the work of the priest. I’m going to go in there and grab ahold of the horns of the altar and I’m going to do this.” And they told them, he said, you’ve got no business in here. You’re overstepping the boundary bud. This belongs to the priest. This is their office. This is what they do. That is not your job. And he defined them.

He’s going to do it anyway. So he says, for he transgressed against the Lord his God, went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Zachariah, the priest went in after him and with him four score priests of the Lord. At 80 of them that were valiant men and they would stood, Yuziah the king and said unto him, it pertaineth not under the usiah to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priest the sons of Aaron, that the priest the son of Aaron that are consecrated to burn in sin go out of the sanctuary.

Well thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. You are in the wrong place, during the wrong thing it’s not your responsibility. Get out of here. You ever heard of been hard-headed. Set in your ways and that God can’t get through to you and he’s gonna have to take a two before to you. Did you know, wait a minute, listen man, if you’ve got a hard-headed husband, turn him over to the Lord. He’ll do a better job than you ever will.

Don’t you try to straighten him out, just let God, Lord, he’s all yours. Have fun. And I can guarantee you, God will. God can deal. Look what else he says here. Down here in verse 19, then Isaiah was wrought. That means his countenance was changed. He was angry, mad, upset. And he had a censoring his hand to burn incense. And while he was rough with the priest, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priest and the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar.

And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leopress in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence, yea himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him. The Lord smitten him. Now did that have to happen? All he had to do was do right. But he brought this upon himself. You ever heard the story about you know Jonah and the whale? He brought that on himself. You see, God told him to go to Nineveh.

He says, I will not. He ran. And when he ran from God, did he get away from God? God sent a storm. God sent a big old fish. took him to the depths of the earth. And all kind of things that God did, but it didn’t have to be that way. You’d be surprised how many things probably that you have had to go through and face in your life. It didn’t have to be that way because, but you made some bad decisions.

You see, when you sow wild oats when you’re young, guess what you’re going to read when you get older? Wow, those. Except the law of the harvest is you read more than you sow lots more and you’ll read later. thing. So when you sow wildos, when you’re young, you’re going to rewildos when you get older. And a lot of older folks are suffering the consequences of decisions they made when they were not in the will of God. And then they pray for a crop failure.

And it don’t work that way. God says in the book of Galatians in chapter six verse seven, be not deceived. God is not mocked whatsoever. A man so of that, shall he also? You see, you’re reaping what you sow. You want peace, so peace, you want love so love. You enjoy so joy. But you sow to the flesh and you’re going to have the flesh reap corrupt. It’s going to destroy your life. They can destroy your family. They can destroy the church and also a nation.

But it says there in verse 21, and you zia the king was a leper unto the day of his death. Now, it makes a statement in verse 22 that some of this is talked about by the prophet Isaiah. So go to the book of Isaiah in chapter one. Isaiah in chapter one. It’s amazing that now Isaiah is looking at the nation of Israel and he sees the same thing as the nation that he saw of Isaiah. The leprosy was incurable.

Now he looks at Israel and their problem is incurable. He says, from the soul of your foot to the top of your head. See there in verse five, why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is spain from the soul of the foot, even unto the head. There’s no soundness in it. And spite of all of that, spite of how bad it is, He says they’re in verse 18.

Come now, look at verse 18, very good verse. Come now and let us reason together, say, as the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be written like crimson, they shall be as warm. And then he says in the very next verse, if you’ll be willing and obedient, God says, look what I’ll do for you. But you’re bringing these things upon yourself. It’s not what God wants. God doesn’t enjoy beating his kids, spanking his kids.

He wants us to be, have an enjoyable life. He said, even pray for those that are over us that we may lead a quiet and a peaceful life. But sometimes the things that we do, we create the very turmoil we despise because we don’t trust God. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader Then look no further than Florida Bible College of Tampa, with traditional and online classes taught by instructors with years of experience.

Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you. To learn more, visit online at floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. It’s 850-227-5325. 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. He told it today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.