Bibleline Radio Show – 2018-08-31 – Hearing The Voice Of God


Transcription:

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible and turn it to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis will start there. What would you look here in chapter 3? A lot of people say in a lot of things. You see, God told him something, and so he says, don’t eat the fruit of this tree, and the woman, she said something, and the devil, well, he said something. At him, well, he said something. And because all of them say in something, well, God said something too.

And it just, there’s no end to it. A lot of voices going onPrevious and there was a time when Adam and Eve could walk in the garden of Eden and the voice of the Lord would come along and talk with them and they heard his voice. And it says, Ziner in verse 8, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord they were running from the voice of the Lord.

God asked the question. That’s a simple little question. He just asked question like, where are you? Now do you think God knew where he was? God knew where he was, but he wants them to know that he knew where they was, but he wants you to realize where are you? If God was to ask you, where are you right now in your spiritual life? Where are you? God already knows. He already knows. He also says in the book of Corinthians, talking about examine yourself, whether you’re in the faith, whether you be at a apostate or not.

Where are you? What is your state? What’s your state of mind? How are you doing? How are you doing emotionally? How do you do socially? How you doing financially? Just how you doing? If you’re ever here, most people ask How you doing? Fine. How you doing? Fine. Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine. And probably nothing’s fine, but everybody just says fine. Because we know that most people don’t really want to know in the first place. Fine gets them off your back.

Fine tells them everything. Everything’s wonderful. I don’t have any problem with everything’s under control. But how are you doing? Where are you? And then he says they’re in verse 10 and he said, I heard thy voice. I heard thy voice. And sometimes you have to be quiet because he might speak to you in a small steel voice. And things of the world can drown out the voice of the Lord. Sound reasoning. Because you always got to think, you got to hear something.

And sometimes it’s not the literal ear that hears something. something. As you study in the book of Matthew and through the 13th chapter, I talked about all these parables, it says, let him to hat ear, let him hear. Well, everybody has an ear, but they don’t always hear. That means they don’t understand. There’s a voice, but they don’t understand it. God speaks and people don’t understand. But there’s things God wants to say. And sometimes we don’t want to hear his voice and there’s things that God has to say to us.

If you will look there in verse 17. And under Adam he says, because thou hast hearken unto the voice of thy wife. Well see, Satan also said something so he got cursed. Adam said something so he got whooped. And he listened to what the woman said so he got whooped and the woman listened to the serpent, so she got whoop. It seemed like people listened to the wrong voices. There is the voice of God. Wouldn’t it have been different if they had simply listened to the Lord’s voice?

You realize how different things would be. Do you realize how different things would be in your own personal life? We can always find so much thought with Adam and Eve and what they did. But here we are, we can make choices too. And do we always listen to the right voice? Not necessarily. Look what he says in Genesis in chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4, the Lord in verse 6 said, under Cain, why are thou wroth? Or why is thou counting this fallen?

Did Cain hear the voice of God? No, he heard it, but did he listen to it? No, he didn’t listen. He had ears, but he didn’t hear. He didn’t understand what God said, or if he understood, he totally just rebelled against God. Is there a price to pay? Look what happens when you don’t listen to what God has to say. Now, nobody can make you study the Bible because what is the Bible? The Bible is the word of God.

So that means the word is the voice of God. So when you want to hear the word of God, you have to study the voice. The voice is the word. So when you study the word, you’ll hear the voice of God. That’s why you’ll hear some people say, I, God called me to preach. What did they do? Come on their cell phone. How did he call you? Well, because you heard the word, you heard the word and you understood the seriousness of the situation and you wanted God to use you to make a difference.

Not everybody hears. Not everybody understands. Not everybody’s on the same page. Did you know you can come to church for year after year after year and not hear the voice of God? You’re in the right place. See, you don’t hear. You don’t understand. You don’t really get it. Some people do. Some people don’t. But it’s a personal thing. Nobody can make you understand some things. It all depends on what’s on the inside. What do you want? But Lewity says they’re in verse 10, and he said, What has thou done?

Talking to Cain, who slew Abel. The voice of thy brother’s blood cryeth unto me from the ground. The voice of thy brother’s blood. Now, whether or not the bloods land on the ground and it’s crying out, I don’t know. But the person that was killed probably cried out. But the Lord heard the voice. God can hear our cries. Now whether God will answer our prayers when he hears our voice, and the voice may not be audible voice, it could be a mental thought.

But it’s the same as the word. You talk to God through prayer and God can hear your prayer. God hears the word. He hears your voice. And so there are consequences. And so whenever we speak, as he makes a statement in the book of Matthew, and I think it’s chapter 12 where he says, every idle word shall be brought into judgment. If idle word. So does he hear your voice? Oh, he hears. Take your Bible and turn all the way over to the book of John in chapter 1, the gospel of John in chapter 1.

Now we know that the word of God tells us in John chapter 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Now look in verse 14 and the word was made flesh. It means the voice of God made flesh. We talk about the word. We’re talking about his voice because see you and I we don’t actually hear the voice of God as they heard when they saw Jesus.

When Jesus spoke, he was the speaking word, but we don’t hear that voice. We hear the written word. So as we study the word of God, we’re hearing the voice of God. And a lot of people who don’t study the word never hear his voice. And if you don’t hear the voice of God, you don’t know what to do. You won’t understand. So that’s why every child of God should study the word in order to hear the voice. God speaks.

Do we hear and do we understand what he says? So Jesus came into the world. He was the voice of God. And if you heard the voice, you know what God thinks. And not everybody hears. And over and over again, he kept talking about he that hath ears to hear. He that hath ears to hear. In other words, those that want to understand, you want to know, listen to what I’m saying. He that hear it, these sayings of mine.

Oh, everybody was sitting there talking to, heard what he said, but they don’t always understand. But what I want you to see that in the verse 14, The word was made flesh. dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Fatherful of Grace and Truth. Now they asked John the Baptist, who are you? Remember from the Old Testament to the New Testament, there was about 400 years of silence. There was no voice, no new word was given.

Silence. And then lo and behold, are the clear blue sky unwalks a man named John the Baptist. They say, who are you? He says, I’m just a voice in the wilderness. See what it says here in verse 23, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Now, if everybody was doing what John was doing, then his voice wouldn’t have been any different than anybody else’s voice. what he had to say if everybody was saying that wouldn’t have been any different and therefore nobody would have paid him any attention.

But after 400 years, all of a sudden here’s this guy that shows up and he starts preaching. The kingdom of heaven is at hand and prepared the way of the Lord and makes straight as past and so forth. The Lord’s coming and he told him that you need to believe on him and I’m not even worthy to deny her in Thai shoes. He’s coming. So I’m just a voice, but a voice that has a message. And some people heard what he said and some people didn’t hear what he had to say.

What he says there in verse 29, the next day John C.F. Jesus coming unto him and said, this is what he said. This was his voice. He says, Behold the Lamb of God which take it the way the sin of the world. Pretty important message coming from that voice. Did everybody you think understand what he said? I doubt it. But what a wonderful individual to point to Christ. Jesus Christ is the voice. He’s the one that everyone ought to hear and everyone ought to listen to.

Take your Bible and term editor to the book of John in chapter 10. chapter 10. I would you look there in verse 3. In verse 3 it makes this statement. This is a course on the good, the good shepherd. He says there in verse 3, to him the porter opened it and the sheep hear his voice. He called off his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. But sheep learned the voice of the shepherd and they will hear and he says in verse five, a stranger they will not follow.

Look what he says down here in verse 16. Verse 16 and other sheep I have, which are not of this form, them also I must bring that they shall, and you ought to underline these three little words, hear my voice. Not everybody hears his voice, Because he says a little bit later, he says, there are some of you that you do not hear my voice. It means you don’t understand what I’m saying. That’s why you don’t believe on me because you don’t understand.

And he makes a statement in verse 17, therefore, that my Father loved me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” And of course, in verse 19, everybody believed him. There was a division, therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. Many of them said he hath a devil.

He’s mad. Why hear ye him? So evidently they heard the word, but they did not understand. Others got parts of what he said, and some understood that he was claiming to be God, and they just couldn’t believe it. He says, won’t you believe me for the works that I do? Look what I’m doing! Not just what I say, but look what I do. No man can do what I do. Sorry, it says in verse 21, others said these are not the words of him that have to devil the words.

They listened to its word. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication and it was winter Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him How long does style make us to doubt? In the words we doubt because it’s your fault Why don’t you speak clearly? They’re saying to Jesus, why aren’t you clear? Tell us plainly. Are you the Christ or not?

Verse 25, Jesus answered them, I told you, you believe none. He said, I did tell you, but you don’t believe it. The works that I do in my father’s name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you’re not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. Now he makes a statement in chapter 7 of the book of Matthew about I know them. Remember there were some who, Lord, open unto us.

Look what we have done. We have preached in thy name, and we have cast out devils in thy name, and done many wonderful works in thy name. And he says, depart from me, I never knew you. See, he knows his sheep, and he says his sheep know him. So you see, whenever you hear the voice of the Lord, that’s why it’s even mentioned in Thessalonians about going and preaching the Word and being called by our gospel. See, when we tell people how to be saved, how to be saved is God talking to them.

And that’s why when we tell people that this is what God said, it better be this is what God said, it’s not good to say, God said, and God didn’t say it. But this is what God said. And all you have to do is to believe it, and some people will, and some people won’t. Now go back there to the book of John, the Gospel of John, and look in chapter 5. Now nobody talked to the woman, he had made the statement to her, if you knew who it was that saved her, they give me to drink.

And thou would have asked, and he would have given, so he’s giving her the word. He gave her the word. But now notice here in chapter 5, and you’ll notice there in verse 24, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that, and there’s those through, hearth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, half everlasting life. You see, this is what he’s talking about in the book of John chapter 10. If you hear the Word, you follow that Word.

And what did that Word tell you to do? Come unto me. Come to me. You’ll read that also in the book of Revelation where he talks about the Spirit says come, the church says come. And all that will drink of the water of life freely let him come. So when you hear the voice, you come to Christ. There is no one else that can save you. So out of all the religious leaders, I chose Christ. I heard his voice.

I trusted him as my Savior. I have eternal life. And here he makes his statement, he that heareth my word and believe it on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, never be condemned, but his paths from death unto life. 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that hear shall live. Hear the word of God, and they that hear shall live.

Some people will and some people won’t. That’s why I’ve learned a long time ago how to rest in the Lord. I can’t make people see. I can’t make people hear. I can’t make people understand. All I am supposed to do is to present His Word and let His Word do its work and let people come and go based upon what they hear and understand about what God said. Therefore, there’s no pressure on me to try to make anybody do anything.

And there is a great piece, relaxation, and understanding that. Otherwise, we try to make people do things and it can wear us out trying to make people do what they don’t want to do. Isn’t things in life a lot more enjoyable when people do what they do because they want to do it? How would you like to be the preacher and and try to make people come to church. Will it work? It won’t work. Make you get involved. It won’t work.

Can’t make you. I have to win you with the word. And if the word don’t work, it won’t work. Because then only you do it just because, well, don’t preach or ask me. That’s wonderful, but when you get mad at me, you guess what you’re going to do? You’re not going to do it. But if you do things because of the Lord, people can come and go. They can say whatever. But you heard His word. And I want to do the will of God for my life.

And so you listen to Him. And you’d be surprised the difference it can make in your life. Because there’s some things you can’t make happen. And you don’t want to make it happen. You want to let things happen and you want God to use you and let it go. But in this verse, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that here shall live. Now when he says hear the voice and the dead look all the way down here now in verse 28, look in verse 28.

Marvel not of this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves. You’re on the land those three little words. Here is voice. So here is voice. And shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life. They that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. So there is going to be a resurrection and even though you don’t see it here but there’s a resurrection separated from the other resurrection by over a thousand years.

But some people might have trouble with that. They that have done good, and they that have done evil. Uh oh, uh oh. Now we got a problem. Because you see, then, according to that, those that have done good get to go to heaven, and those that don’t go to hell. See that? There’s a verse right there, I said that. But now notice, when he says here, Remember up there in verse 24, He that hereth my word and believeth on him that sent me half everlasting life.

Then in verse 25, very, very I send you the hours coming and now as when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that here shall live. So now down in verse 28 and 29,letes got a resurrection and everybody in the graves are going to hear the voice of God. There’s going to be a resurrection of the good and the resurrection of the bad. So who are the good and who are the bad? Those that have done good or good, those that have done bad or bad.

Interesting. Look there in John chapter 3. John chapter chapter three in looking verse 18. John 3 18 says, He that believeth on him Christ is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already. Now why is he condemned? Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the condemnation that light has come into the world. Men love darkness because their deeds are evil. Verse 20, for everyone that get verse 21, 20 and 21, everyone that doeth evil, hated the light, neither come to the light.

So the ones that do the bad, the wrong is those that do not come to the light. And verse 21, but he that doeth truth come to the light. See, there’s a choice. those that believe and they come to Christ as though that don’t believe and they don’t come to Christ. And the resurrection is going to be those who believe unto life and those that don’t unto eternal death. So there’s, yes, there’s going to be a resurrection. Well, what is that good thing?

The good thing that any man can do is to trust Christ. And the evil thing that any man can do is to reject Christ. So everyone should hear the voice of God and do what God wants them to do. Look there in chapter 8, very quickly, chapter 8. And there’s just a verse here that I want to kind of run by in. He says, in verse 42, Jesus said unto him, unto them, if God were your Father, you would love me.

For I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself. But he said me, why do ye not understand my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. You’re not listening to what I’m saying. You see, have you ever talked to somebody like a Jehovah’s Witness? They’re like Mercury. You mash it down here and they pop up over here. You mash them down here and they pop up over here. They’re not listening to what you’re saying. They’re trying to figure out a way to combat what you’re saying.

They’re thinking of the next verse they’re going to go to. You see, they have certain things in their mind of where they need to go and you don’t sometimes, they can’t stand it when you break into their train of thought. Because you see, they learn how to do it. do things according to topics. You speak about hell, only going to wait for some hell. But they’ve got to go in a sequence. When it comes to serving the Lord, you and I are supposed to present the Word, but you can’t make people understand.

You can try all the illustrations and so forth, but there has to be something on their side where they want to know truth. when he talks about us being the salt of the earth, it means that we try to do things in such a way to create a thirst into people’s minds where they want it. And so a lot of times I will show them 1 John 5, 13, you can know you have eternal life. I said, do you ever know that before?

No. Making them thirsty, giving them some salt. So that’s why I said, let your speech be seasoned with So say it in such a way you’re trying to make people thirsty, where they want more. Wouldn’t it be great if every preacher knew how to do that? I’m still trying to figure it out. What do people want? What do they need? How to make them thirsty? Where you desire and you can’t get enough and you want to learn as much as you possibly can.

But anyway, he makes a statement here, even because you cannot hear my words. Do you believe that we’re going to have people come to church here in just a little bit? They’ll sit here, but do you think that everyone that comes is going to actually hear what the preacher has to say? Oh, they may hear words audibly, but do you think they’ll understand? So that’s why you try to say words in such a way that people can understand for those that really want to know.

And so you want to try to be a blessing. So as you live your Christian life, remember there is the voice of God. And you know that along with the voice of God, just like in the Garden of Eden, along came the voice of Satan. Whenever God wants you to do something, his word will speak to you. That’s why you learn the word, you memorize the scripture, and the Bible says the Holy Spirit will bring all things you’ll remember what whoever I’ve said unto you.

So he can’t bring it to your mind if you haven’t put it up there. The Holy Spirit leads you by the word of God. So you hear his voice. But along with that, you know there’s a devil and he will speak and sometimes he will speak through other means like other people. And they always seem to say just the right thing to just take all the steam out of you to take away that positive attitude, you know, that dream that you have, whatever it is you want to do, and there’s always somebody walking around with a cold bucket of water, and they’re just trying to find somebody they can throw it on.

And that’s why you’re going to have to be very careful and you listen to what God has to say and you just keep getting up, keep doing what God wants. 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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.