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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

One of the things that helped me throughout my Christian life is having people that I I believed knew the book and I trusted them. Betty’s dad who led me to the Lord knew the Bible. Now he didn’t know everything about the Bible but he knew enough to get me started in the right direction. And he was set up a lot of nights and he was sitting there and teaching me the Bible. See I didn’t know this Bible story. I didn’t know a lot of, I didn’t know anything about it.

I didn’t know there were books in the Bible. I was 18 years old. I didn’t know that with John 3, 16 in the Bible. I didn’t know there was a gospel of John. I didn’t know any name of any book in the Bible. I didn’t know there was an Old Testament, no, I didn’t know the Bible. People say, you’re born here in America, you’re probably going to know what? Yeah, no, but I didn’t. But he was spent night after night and he would teach me the Bible and I listened to him.

So this old man taught me a lot of wisdom about how to appreciate this book. He nailed it into my mind on this eternal security. And he would hammer that all the time. And he’d talk about blessings, chastening. And he would always warn me, blessings, chastening. And he would teach me. And I’d listen to him. And I had a difficult time applying some of his stuff, but I believed it. He would show me in the Bible. And I would learn it.

And I started marking. But I got some good understanding. When I went to Florida Bible College, I set myself into a position where I could have a multitude counselors, people who were wise concerning the Bible because I knew if I want to be strong in the Lord I got to be strong in wisdom and if you’re not strong in wisdom and understanding you cannot and will not be strong spiritually it can’t happen. So by going to Bible college and allowing those godly men who knew the book, feed me, put into my mind every day, four to five hours a day, not count and study time and preparation time and memorizing time.

That was four hours a day to five hours a day for four years straight. And I had no time for personal enjoyment. I didn’t have any time for none of that. I didn’t play any golf. I didn’t I didn’t go to the beach. Maybe I’ve met three or four times in the whole four years that I was there. I studied and I worked. I studied and I worked. That was my life of four years. I didn’t even get time to spend time with my kids.

Because I knew that I could have forfeit all of that and just spend time with my kids. That would have been great. But what kind of a dad would they have had? They wouldn’t have had a good dad. have had a good dad because I’d have done whatever I thought was best to let the wisdom of the world guide and protect me and do whatever I could do, but I’d be so limited. But I saw to it that all my kids knew the Lord.

I tried to teach him what to do, it was right. I tried to be a good example because of what I was learning. And I have since those days been trying to serve the Lord, but you’ve got to have a certain amount of strength in order to do that. But that’s strength to withstand the trials that you go through, the tribulations, the heartaches, everything you name it, you’ve got to have a certain amount of strength that comes because of what you know.

So by surrounding myself with some godly teachers and they would pour into me day after day after day, I said they’re not listening. They’d teach this verse and they’d give an illustration and it’d be about everything. And some of the stuff they taught, I thought, I don’t need that. I don’t need that. I don’t need that. I’ll find out later everything they taught me I needed. I’ve used just about everything I’ve ever learned. And it was one verse that Ray Stanford had us learn, and I have no clue why.

But I learned the verse and memorize it anyway. Enter thou unto thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee and hide thyself’s at work for a moment till this thing can be overpassed. But I memorized the verse. I had no clue what the world meant. I still don’t. But anyway, we’re moving right along. You’ll get out through here and he makes these statements and he says, now, the day will come. Look what he says here in verse 26. I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when your fear comes, because your fear will come. In other words, like Job says, what I have feared has come upon me. What I have feared has come upon me. And so, evidently, Job was afraid for his wife. He was afraid about his health. He was afraid about losing his kids, about losing his wealth. All the fears that he had come upon him. It means that you can gain a lot of things and love the Lord but still have fear of what you can lose.

God had a lot of lessons to teach him. He said, now you can either listen to me now or you’ll wish you had listened to me later because sooner or later, see, your foolishness will get you into enough trouble and you won’t have the answers and you’re going to come crying to me and God says, and I’m going to laugh, because you didn’t listen and learn the things that you could have learned when you should have learned them, because if you learned the wisdom now, those at wisdom and understanding is the answers to the future problems.

The problems are going to come, theirtaboola troubles that are going to happen, and God says prepare, so you know that the arrows are on their way. So you prepare, so whenever this happens, you can stand. When that happens, you can stand. Have you ever seen people totally fall apart? Why? Why should a Christian fall apart? Isn’t he put together any better than the people of the world? There’s people in this world who are put together better than some Christians.

They can handle their problems better than some believers because they worry, worry, worry, worry, worry, and they live in fear. Now listen, something is missing. To be spiritually strong, take something. That’s what I want to show you tonight. See what he says in verse 27, when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distressed, get to distress and anguish, comeeth upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated what?

Knowledge could have kept that anguish and kept that distress from being that. So something that you don’t know has brought this on. Inners is not bliss. ptr is a price to pay. So he says, I’m going to teach you a few things and this is what you need to know. That’s why the study of the Word of God is so important. Notice in chapter 2, where it makes a statement in verse 2, so that thou incline thy ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding.

See more people are so interested in trying to make a living, but they never learned how to live. This is the book that teaches you how to live. And if you know this, you can learn how to make a living. But you can learn how to make a living and never learn how to live. What to live for? And so there’s sorrow when you make money. There’s sorrow when you keep money and it can be sorrow when you lose money.

It’s all can happen. So the things of the world are hard to get, hard to keep, and great sorrow when you lose them. So the Lord says, I want you to learn this verse. And look in verse 4 what He said. And verse 4, if thourah seeketh her as silver and search it for her as forhead treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. You must seek after this wisdom like men would seek after silver and gold.

I knew that I would rather have this knowledge than be a doctor or a lawyer or just to make millions of dollars and all that. Yeah, but if you didn’t know the will of God, what’s the value? Who cares? Lost people can attain the wealth of the world in most cases they do, and it didn’t take any knowledge of God to do it. So now, why should I live my life for the same reason that a lost man lives for?

I’m a child of God. I’m different. Therefore, I wanted something better. I wanted something different. Now look there in chapter three and verse five. You’ve heard these verses before, but look what he says. In verse five, trust in the Lord with half a heart. All line heart. Lean not until I own understanding. Don’t lean unto you. Don’t trust yourself. Well, I don’t need to study the Bible. I don’t need to go to church. I don’t, every church server somebody misses, they’re given up a piece of wisdom that would have helped them in their Christian life and made them stronger.

I’m serious. So there’s not everybody is as strong as they ought to be. There are some that are stronger than others. True? And there’s a lot of Christians that are very weak in the Lord. Cardinal minded, materialistic minded. Not as many as are spiritually minded. In verse 6, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

Let’s see if people won’t obey this. Be not wise in your own eyes. In the words, you become the judge of your own life. I’m smart enough. I know what to do. I don’t need God. I don’t need to study the Bible. And you’d be surprised how many opportunities for eternity they’ve lost because they weren’t wise enough to take advantage when those opportunities came their way. Now, you want to be happy in life, of course. So let’s look very quickly in verse 13.

Happy is the man that finds it what? Silver and the man that get it gold. Is that what it says? Verse 13, happy is the man that finds wisdom. The man that get it understanding and here’s right, for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain they’re all done finding them because you can buy more with it. You can get more things the last for eternity than you can if you have silver and gold.

Silver and gold can only buy for what’s here. What about wisdom and all. In verse 15 she is more precious than rubies. All the things thou can’t desire are not to be compared unto her. Lift of days is in her hands and in her lethen it riches an honor if you only had wisdom. So if you’re going to get anything, get wisdom. So in chapter 4 and verse 7, wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding.

Why? In verse 8, Exalt her she shall promote thee. What do you want out of life? Most people live their whole lives and they totally mess it up. Now take a Bible and look in the book of Proverbs in chapter 8 and verse 14. And look in verse 14 and see what it says. Council is mine and sound wisdom. Now get these next two statements. I am understanding. Who do you think it’s talking about? I am understanding. Who is this wisdom?

Wisdom is not a thing. Wisdom is the Lord. Wisdom is the Lord. And that’s why he says in verse 7, I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me. He says in verse 14, I am understanding now, look at the next three words, I have, what’s the next word? Strength, I have strength. There’s strength in the Lord. If you’ve heard the song goes the joy of the Lord is mine. Huh? Strength. That’s what it is.

So the closer you get to the Lord, and learn how to yield on the Lord, the more strength you’re going to have, but it comes from understanding how God works in your life. So that you don’t get mad and bitter at God if things don’t go your way. Who cares if it doesn’t go your way? Big deal. Get a grip, suck it up, get on with life. Stop laying in mind and pining and moaning and groaning and complaining. God hates that and meringue and stuff.

Everything goes wrong. Nobody loves me, having pity parties. They look like them in baptized and lemon juice. Now, all this is so very, very important as he runs it down through here. Now, look in chapter 11, look in chapter 11 of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 11 and look in verse 14. He got on the line, he says, where no counsel is the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. In other words, you get more minds on a subject.

Whenever people see me around here and they think I make all the decisions, Yankee makes all the decisions right. No, I don’t. I might have found these pews, but I took it to the board whether or not we ought to get them or not, because I don’t write checks. I don’t touch the money. I don’t take up the offering and I don’t deposit the money. I don’t count the money. They do it and I don’t want to touch it.

I like it that way. That way I don’t know who gives what. I don’t care who gives what. I want to treat everybody the same way. But I would say this. I try to persuade if I can. Whenever we want to make certain decisions, I’ll always get a hold of the board. I said, what do y’all think? What do y’all think? What do y’all think? We’re making some decisions about the guys. going to be graduating. You know what Bob does?

He asked me your opinion. He wants to know, Peter and model, what do you think? Then we’re together in the office today, going through things, thinking things through. Because there’s more wisdom in council, multitude of council, but not just anybody, we don’t ask the guy off the street. What do you think we ought to do about this? No. No. Whenever we ought to make decisions from the church, Whatever money we give like to the missions until I get, it’s all done by a board decision.

Because I can have an idea, and then we get the guys together, and then we vote and talk and something like that, and some things I get, some things I don’t get to do. I’m not, no matter. But we got people that, you get them together, and then you have the Deakin Board, they’re like an advisory board, sometimes we get together with all the Deacons, and we talk about things and say, what we’re gonna do. So we make decisions.

That way, you see, you’re sharing the load. Don’t think you know it all. Ask for advice. When you get lost going down the highway, ask somebody if you’re on the right road. I hardly ever do that, because my wife already knows if I’m on the right road or not. But she knows more than I do. But a lot of times, I have no clue where we are. Are we going the right way? Sometimes I have left here, and I’m going home.

I’m going home. And lo and behold, I’ve never been here before. I wonder where we are. And it’s the same street that I go down every day for the last five years. But I don’t look at the houses. I don’t pay no attention to that. If all of a sudden God just sit me down on the road in those houses and I gotta look there and see where I am, I would not know. I just know that if I go straight on this road, I’ll come into waters or I’ll come into this road or the Hillsboro.

I don’t see it. That’s not where I am at. My mind somewhere else. Yes. And so I don’t always think the way everybody else thinks. And I walked in the house one day and she said, did you see what I did? I looked around carefully, call I know this is critical. And I couldn’t see anything as she had done. Oh, I mean, what does she do? And I don’t know. Right now, I don’t even call what it was. But it was something.

It was important. She moved something. And she did something. I have no clue what it was. So other people can know things and remember things and learn to seek counsel. The guys that come to college, they’re coming here because they’re seeking a multitude of counselors so that a few years they’ll be wiser because they know more and understand more and for the rest of their life, they may be able to compliment the knowledge by the wisdom of their decisions.

So we pray so. Look in chapter 11, and where he has here in this verse 14, where no counsel is the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Now look in chapter 24, chapter 24 of the book of Proverbs, 24. Now look in verse one. And verse one says, be not thou envious against evil men. Now that’s easily said, but very difficult to put into practice. Because we see what people have, we see what people can do, we see their talents, their ability, we see their wealth, and it’s so easy to collect, isn’t it?

You look in the mirror and say, Lord, you did this? You could have done better, I could have done better if I was God. And so you may not like what you’re saving. Look what he says. Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. For their hard studies, destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. Now get this, through wisdom is a house building. Now this is why you’ll find out in chapter 7, it talks about the wicked woman of the world and how it destroys the man, which is talking about a man who seeks the wisdom of the world.

Chapter 9 talks about the woman who builds upon a foundation and that’s the wisdom of God. So chapter 7, the wisdom of the world, chapter 9, the wisdom of God. And so a person reveals their wisdom by the decisions they make. And so if you want to be strong in your Christian life, you’re going to have to study the wisdom of God, which is the word of God. And no to what he says, through wisdom is a house building.

And remembering the New Testament in the book of Matthew chapter 7, the wise man built his house upon a rock. And this is what he says, if a man here the sayings of mine, I will liken him unto a man who builds his house upon the rock. And the foolish man builds house upon the sand and that’s the human wisdom and the godly wisdom, totally different. So that same teaching is brought out here in the Old Testament and by understanding it is established and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Do you realize that when you serve the Lord you rich? You’re laying up treasures in heaven. You ever hear people talk about your portfolio. I told anyone that says, what’s a portfolio? Whatever our portfolio is. I guess it’s supposed to be a record of what all your money you got in stocks and bonds and silver and gold and all that kind of stuff. I got a file, you know a paper file and you put paper in. But when you serve the Lord, your land of treasure in heaven that you cannot lose.

Everything in in this world you can lose. So you have to be careful. In verse 5, a wise man is strong, a wise man is what you are on the line, that’s what we’ve been talking about. Who is strong? We started off in the book of Ephesians, how to be strong, how to be strong, be strong, therefore, and therefore, if God wants us to be strong, then we should be strong, strong enough to do the thing that God wants us to do, strong enough to stand against the wows of the devil, be able to defeat the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and the lust of the eyes.

Are you strong enough to fit the battle? Because you and I are in a battle. It is a war. And when you study Ephesians in chapter 6, it’s talking about studying and preparing for the war and all the armor that you need to put on, protect yourself. That’s why it says in verse 6, For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy what? War. The Christian life is a war, and you’re learning how to prepare yourself in order that you can be strong enough, because don’t you want to win?

Do you want the old devil to have victory over your life? And whenever you die, how shameful it will be, then look at the Lord and says, Lord, I just wasn’t strong enough. And the Lord says, I gave you all the power you needed. I gave you all the wisdom that you could have used. You did not avail yourself. I says, you’re weak by choice. Weak by choice. Because you’re strong by choice. You see, God doesn’t love one person more than He loves another one.

He loves all the lost the same. But once you’re his child, he loves all of his children the same. But some of God’s children will apply themselves. Some of God’s children will not apply themselves. It’s an individual choice that you make. And that’s why he says, for by counsel thou shalt make thy war and get this, and in multitude of counselors, there is what again? Safety. Seeking Godly counseling, seeking wisdom. And verse 7 wisdom is too high for a what?

For a fool, he cannot attain it because he’s the fool. Look in verse 9 the thought of foolishness is what? Sin. Wisdom is too high but the thought of foolishness is sin. It is a sin not to be wise, a sin not to be strong, sin not to understand. And that’s why so many of God’s children are so weak in their Christian life. Now look in verse 10. Because verse 10 also goes all the way back up there to verse 5 and the word strength.

See here in verse 10, if thou faint in the day of adversity, how strong is your strength? Thy strength is what? It’s small. That’s why you faint in the day of adversity. going to have adversities? Are you going to have problems? Heartaches, tribulations. How are you going to stand? If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. That’s why you fail. You don’t fall because well, God gave me more than I could handle. He never gives you more than you can handle because God knows what you could have learned in the time that He’s given you to be strong enough to handle it.

He said, I told you this arrow of problems and sorrow was on its way. And I gave you time to learn that whenever you learned in that distress and anguish comes, you’ll be strong enough to stay true and keep on going. Like that little song says, I’ll be true, precious Jesus, I’ll be true. Anyway, those are my thoughts for tonight. Look at me, this sin represents you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us.

We’re all sinners, but God loves sinners, aren’t you glad? He loves us, but He hates what we do wrong and because we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned. And God said, He loves us, wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We need a Savior. God says, you cannot save yourself. So this hand represents Jesus Christ who’s God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin, because our sins separates us from Him.

So Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, but He took all of ours. Patreons and lacrosse came back from the dead. And God said, if we believe He did it for us, He would put this payment our account, we go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. There’s a certain amount of knowledge in this and wisdom in this. So if a person would believe this simple little message, you know how powerful this message is? It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.

Let’s pray shall we? It has bow nice clothes and if you’re watching tonight by internet, Right where you are, the only thing you can do is to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can’t earn eternal life, you can’t work for it, it’s the gift of God. The only thing you have to do to go to heaven is believe that when He died, He died for you. He paid for your sins. See the reason I’m going to heaven is because I don’t have any sins to pay for Christ’s pay fall of mine, but He did it for you too.

But He put that payment to my account because I believe He did it. And if If you believe it, he’ll put that payment to your account, and you can know that you’re going to heaven. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I pray that you will, and on the screen it says, yes, I’ll trust Christ, it’s my Savior. And bring it if you will, I pray that you’ll do just that. Let us know.

Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all that you’ve done for us. We do pray especially for these that we’ve mentioned, and how many of them, Lord, are in great need of prayer, and we ask now your blessings upon you, and everyone that’s here, that was not able to be here, that was better beyond vacation this week because school would be an honor. Just bless each one. In Christ and we pray. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus.

The dinner is a family-style, Calvary Dish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes. Each month, you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030, and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church, where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. 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. Cut 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.