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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 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.

Take your Bible and turn it with me to the book of Second Corinthians. 2 Corinthians in chapter 2. There’s one verse there that I’d like to reflect on. Because it seemed like it must be very important to know and understand that the devil will do whatever he can to deceive us, to trick us, lie to us. Whatever it takes to destroy us, he wants to destroy your faith in God. He wants you to love the world and not love the Lord.

And the more you want to serve the Lord, the more the devil is going to work on you. So it’s not going to be a free ride. He makes a statement here in verse 11, less Satan should get an advantage of us. So that is the words, there’s always a battle going on and he’s trying to get an advantage. The things that you and I do are attitude about things. We can give him an advantage. I was listening to Phil Myers talk the other night at the little Christmas party we had.

And he was talking about when he was in college doing wrestling. And so when you do college style wrestling, you’re always trying to get an advantage over your opponent. And when you get down in the crowd’s position, sometimes they, when they get a hold of your arm and they put the arm around you and you’re there on all fours knowing you got to who moves the fastest first and you’re trying to get an advantage. And so sometimes you want to clamp your hand on his and then roll before he can pull your arm and throw you forward, grab a hold of your leg and jump you up.

So there’s a few things that can happen to you, but you’re trying to find out what is the advantage. The devil knows how to get an advantage of us. He can watch your expressions and tell when you’re discouraged. I mean if other people can tell when you’re discouraged, couldn’t he? Then he could read your face, listen to the words that we say, knows how we think and feel. Not because he can read your mind, but because our countenance can be read.

Sometimes I’ve even hated to say my prayers out loud because I don’t want the devil to hear me. Because I think I don’t want him to know all these things. So I guess there’s a time for going into your closet. I mean, just between you and the Lord and just talking to the Lord. And he makes a statement here. For we are not, look at the last part of this, for we’re not ignorant of his devices. Now, if you are ignorant of his devices, you’re in a heap of trouble because you will not be able to discern the snares of the devil.

And then in chapter six of the book of Ephesians, it tells us about putting on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wows of the devil, the tricks, the snares. In other words, the devil is always trying to figure out how to trap you. It’s just like sometimes you listen to these politicians and you want to have some of these women purposely try to trap some of these men. Well, I don’t know, but it seems like some of these men are trying to figure out ways to trap some of these women.

And so I think they con each other. But people are supposed to watch themselves And they said, well, he conned me into going to his room in the middle of the night and I thought, what are you doing there? Why would you go? And so well, I didn’t want to lose my job. Well, dumb, dumb. There’s traps. Satan works on people, be wise and understand that. So I want to take a look at the past, and then we want to look at the future.

and then we want to look at the present. Because if you know how things started and you know how things are going to end, you know in the middle, why in the world would you want to follow a loser? Somebody that’s gonna lose. And buddy, is he gonna lose? Now look there in your Bible to the book of Ezekiel chapter 28. So look at Ezekiel chapter 28. And of course we’re talking here about the king of Tyre. But behind the scenes is what we’re also looking at.

Because the devil uses people. And just like the antichrist that’s going to come up on the earth. Well, we know that he receives his power. as he says in the Revelation chapter 13 from the devil himself. And so you don’t see the devil, you don’t see his angels, but the Bible says he’s working and he’s worked behind the scenes. When you know that, you don’t have to say, well, I don’t see the devil, he must not be here tonight.

Well, he’s a spirit. You can’t see him. God’s a spirit. You can’t see him. Does that mean neither one of them exist because you don’t see them? No, they’re real. Very, very real. And so he says here in verse two, Son of Man, say unto the Prince of Tires, thus saith the Lord God be cause, dine, heart is lifted up. And thou hast said, I am a God. I said in the seed of God, in the mist of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God.

Though thou set dine heart as the heart of God. Behold thou art, why is there than Daniel, there’s no secret that they can hide from the… So you’re talking about, yes, a man, it’s a king, but also behind the scenes there’s somebody that gives him his power and his wisdom. And it’s the wisdom of the devil, not the wisdom of God. So when it comes to this life, there’s a lot of things that can be done by the power of the devil, behind the scenes, and he uses people.

But he goes through and he makes some statements here that I want to show you. Look at verse 12, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyres and send him, thus saith the Lord God. Thou sealeth up the sun full of wisdom and perfect and beauty. Now I believe he’s talking about the devil here, Satan himself. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God. And I do believe there’s a good possibility that Satan was in the garden before they ever committed their sin.

And he was there, and he had not yet rebelled against the Lord. But right after this, yes, he rebelled against the Lord and does his dirty little devilish deeds. He says, every precious stone was thy covered, the Sardits and the Topaz and the Diamond, the Barrel and the Onyx and the Jasper and the Sapphire the emerald and the carbuncle and the gold and the workmanship of thy tabris and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created.

So the devil I believe is a created being. I believe he is an angel. Thou art the anointed cherub that coveteth, and I have set thee so. Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee. So I believe that the devil before was called Lucifer and he rebelled against the Lord and deceived Adam and Eve.

But the Bible doesn’t say that Adam was deceived, but he definitely was. And so there’s a lot of damage that was done and so they come along and say, well, are you the one that deceived the nations and caused the mighty ones to fall and all that? Well that was about the devil himself. Now turning your Bible to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah 14, don’t try to figure out all the things in the Bible all at one time because it won’t happen.

You’ll get a little bit here and a little bit there, but you know the descriptors cannot contradict each other so you try to put it together. But look what he says here in the book of Isaiah chapter 14 and then verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? Son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground which said, weak in the nations, how did it happen? How did it happen? How in the world did you fall?

Why would you do what you did? Look at all the damage that’s been done. But he just wanted one simple little thing. He said, I just want to be like the most high. I just want to be God. What’s wrong with that? What do you think people are doing when they have that same rebellious nature that the old devil has? That’s why he says, you are of your father, the devil. He was a liar from the beginning of murder and you’re just like him.

You’ve got his all sinful nature, a very rebellious nature. You know the devil can lure you. And the next thing you know, you say, I’ll never do that. And the next thing you know, there you go. And you’ve got to be careful. The devil knows how to work people and to deceive people. He says in verse 13, for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will assault my throne above the stars of God. I will set up also upon the mouth of the congregation, sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the cloud, and I will be like the most high. Now we can get into a lot of stuff and spend a whole certain, but I’m just trying to show you that Satan fell. He was lifted up with pride. And that seed of rebellion, well, you know, misery loves company. And so he planted the seed of rebellion by getting a woman to yield. And he tempted, and that’s what he does. So look at number three down here, for the future, for the future.

We’ve been studying a little bit of this in the book of Daniel in Revelation in our prophecy class. And so I want you to take very quickly your Bible and turn to the book of Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12, so that you understand, yes, the devil is real, he’s just as real as God, and he has an agenda, and you are it. So in Revelation in chapter 12, you’ll notice there in verse 3, there appeared another wonder in heaven, behold a great red dragon.

Now this great red dragon, you say, well, who was that? Well, I’m glad you asked. Look down in verse 9. And the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan got a ball in one place so that you don’t have to worry about. So when you see one you know that’s who he is. And he says, which deceiveth almost the whole world? The whole world. Now does that mean even you and me? Well that include us.

Well I’m glad that doesn’t include me. Might include you but it doesn’t include me doesn’t. Do you think the devil, now have we got to the place where we have deserved the attention of the devil himself, or you think maybe a lot of his little demons. It may not him be impersonal, but he’s after you. And there’s little demons that are running all over the place. Probably could be some in here tonight. You could have brought some of them.

I don’t know. But he says, which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into the earth, his angel recast out with him. Now I believe this part is in the middle of the tribulation period. He comes down and gives the beast all of his power that he wants looked there in Revelation in chapter 13 and notice what he says in verse 4 Excuse me. Let’s look at there in the last part of verse 2 He says and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority Now the devil does this but he does it behind the scene now you’ll read about the beast and the false prophet but the beast in the false prophet is not the devil because the beast in the false prophet are put into the lake of fire a thousand years before the devil gets there but he says he has great power in verse 4 and that he worshiped the

dragon which gave power unto the beast and worshiped the beast so the devil is alive and well on planet earth and there’s a lot of damage just being done I I believe that there’s a lot of things that are happening in our country and we’re finding out the results of some of the sin. I think some people thought they’re going to get away with things forever, but you know, something come home to roost and it’s really turned out a lot of dirt in our politics, but it’s not just there.

It’s also in the people that helped put them there and a lot of wickedness going on. Now take your Bible and turn over to the chapter 19, Revelation chapter 19. And you notice that when Christ returns to the earth in power and great glory to the earth, there’s going to be the battle of Armageddon. And at the battle of Armageddon it says, in verse 19, I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse in against His army.

So whenever we go back into Volkad Angel, you read chapter 2, chapter 7, you’ll find out it talks about 10 toes, 10 horns, 10 crowns, 10 kings. They’re all referring to the same group of people that will be here when Christ returns and powering great glory. He is the stone that’s cut out of the mountains that hits the 10 toes and that’s the Battle of Armageddon and he sets up his kingdom upon the year. So that’s what’s going to happen.

So in verse 20… The beast was taken and with him the false prophet that worked miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and then that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. So the beast and the false prophet, they’re not the devil, but the devil gave him the power and they are cast into the lake of fire. And then it talks about in chapter 20 and the angel, came down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit in the great chain in his hand.

He laid hold on the dragon that usurped, which is the devil and Satan. So we know the dragon, the serpent, the devil and Satan saw the same one, bound him a thousand years. Now why is he bound for a thousand years? Because Jesus Christ is going to set up His kingdom upon the earth for a thousand years. And no one is going to be able to say, well, the devil made me do it because the devil is not going to be here.

But people are going to be born during the millennium, a thousand year reign, and they will have a still, a sinful nature. But we will be here in glorified bodies. Jesus is going to be here. David’s going to be here. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from the book of Matthew and chapter 8. They’re going to be here. So these Old Testament saints are going to be here. The church, we’re going to be here. So it’ll be an easy time to convince everybody that they ought to trust the Lord.

And it’s going to be just as difficult then as it is now. Because people are going to be just as hard-headed. And at the end of this thousand years, Satan is going to be released and he deceives those people that have never trust the Lord and lead the rebellion against the Lord at the end of the thousand year reign. Now where do they come from? Evidently not everybody believes and it’s just going to be how are you going to convince somebody now?

Now years and years ago there used to be a garden of Eden and then everybody got real bad and then there was all these problems and blah blah blah and in Christ came he died on the cross paid for sin and all and you have all of that there and And they just, how do they know? Why should they believe it? They’ll have it just as hard a time taking it at as Jordan and believing it. Oh, as far as they know us glorified bodies were just some people who came from some other planet.

And we came here from, well, we did. We came from heaven, didn’t we? We got glorified bodies, didn’t we? So it’s gonna be wonderful to be here, that’s for sure. But now notice what happens. In verse two, the last part of it said, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, shut him up, set his seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more. So he’s not gonna be able to deceive till the thousand years should be fulfilled.

And after that, he’d be loosed a little season. Now look there in verse seven. Verse seven says, and when the thousand years are expired, boy that didn’t take long did it. It just started in verse four and verse seven, we’re already through it. But you’ll notice that in between there, the first resurrection of those who are believers, the second resurrection has no power, they’re not believers. And so they will stay where they are, but those who have been killed during the tribulation period and beheaded, they are gonna be resurrected, they’re gonna be here during the millennium.

And then he says in verse seven, when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. Gog and Maygog, which Gog is the prince and Maygog the land, to gather them together. And this is mainly from Russia, but I believe there’s gonna be another war with Russia before this toward the beginning of the tribulation period. Instead, anyway, to gather them to battle the number of whom is the sand of the sea.

Look how many people that could be? They could be a lot of people. And they went out on the breath of the earth, compass the city of the saints about the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them in the story. But I didn’t word that day long did it. Well, you know, you get to the end of it, it just seemed like things just rushing through. Remember what I said though? All those little streams in the mountains.

And lo and behold, they all come together into a mighty rushing river. I mentioned to the college kids today, I says, when you start thinking about some of the prophecies in the scripture, and you realize that they really are a miracle, and I says, just take for example, we had 10 students. If it was in the middle of the night, there’s total darkness in here. Nobody could see anything, not one speck of light, but I gave each one of them a bow and arrow.

And I told him that there’s a target that I’ve got set up. And I want everyone of y’all to hit this target. But you’re not going to have any light. You’re not going to know what direction it is. But I want you to hit the bull’s eye. So 10 people in a dark room with a bull’s eye, one of the odds of every one of them hitting that bull’s eye. You think it can happen? I don’t think it’s going to happen.

But when you talk about Jesus Christ, here’s all these prophets in the Old Testament over a period of about 1500 years and they’re all shooting these prophecies, these truths, these arrows. In many cases they don’t even know who it’s about. It says that they studied the Scriptures, searching what time it was talking about. So if you don’t know the time, how do you you know the Lin in order to hit the target and suppose there’s 300 of these arrows all flying and they have to hit the bull’s eye and that bull’s eye is Jesus Christ himself.

Every one of those prophets he is the spirit of prophecy. You’ll see that right there in the book of Revelation in chapter 19. He is the fulfillment of all of the prophecies and phew phew phew phew phew. Here’s all these prophecies from all these years and they They got to be fulfilled in one person. Now what’s the odds of 300 in the dark? And don’t you know where the target is it? Or in some cases, who it is? But different arrows, different truth coming and hitting the target.

Just think at the cross of Christ. How many prophecies was fulfilled just by Him at the cross? At that time, truly a miracle. he is the fulfillment of all of these things. And so he says here in verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire in brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. Now how long is the beast and the false prophet been there? At least a thousand years, right? So that didn’t mean that well they just went there and got burned up and that’s all they’re all gone.

No, a thousand years has passed and they’re still there. And now it says in the last part of that, where the bees in the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for how long? Forever. Now, they say, well, it’s just the smoke of their tormentor sineth of. So you’re going to torture a smoke for a billion years? Forever? The smoke is going to be tortured. I don’t think so. I think it’s talking about the people. Now, that’s the past and the future.

Now, let’s take a look at the present here because it’s a very simple thing in time in which you and I live. Now, I want you to take your Bible and turn to first John chapter two. First John in chapter two. There’s something here that, you see, when the Lord’s talking about you’re a walk with the Lord, you’re fellowship with the Lord, And you can say a lot of things, but that doesn’t make it true. He that saith, he walks in the light, but he doesn’t.

You can say you walk in the light. You can say you love the Lord. But if you don’t live like you love the Lord, nobody should believe that you love the Lord. So there’s a lot of things in the book of 1 John that kind of lets us know to do you love the Lord or do you love the world. This is what he says. Look what he says in verse 15, love not the world. Okay. What does the devil want you to do?

Now the Lord wants you not to love the world. So you think the devil wants the same thing as God wants or he wants something different. Love not the world. So the devil doesn’t want you to love the Lord. He wants you to love the world. Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world because the world and anything in the world is temporary. That’s why we have down here in your notes here, the lust of the eyes, material things, because of what you could see.

Lust of the flesh, they’re temporal things, things that satisfy the flesh. And the pride of life is the praise, the honor, and the glory, but remember all those things are temporary because people can give them to you and people can take them away. But if you’ll serve the Lord, then God said, he’ll give you praise, honor, and glory, but he won’t take it away, it’ll last forever. So you can have something that lasts forever that comes from God, or you can trade all of that off and the devil is gonna try to say, look, get it now, get it now.

Now, remember. The devil offered Jesus Christ the world, all the kingdoms of the world. And he passed. He offers us little trinkets. And we give up all that eternal stuff with the little trinklets of this life. So he says here, for all in verse 16 that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world will pass away.

And the lust thereof. But if you’ll do the will of God, it’s something that you will have all the days of your life. You’ll not waste your life. So the things of the world are going to pass. The things of God will not. And that’s why you want to put the Lord first. Look at letter B under number two. Satan desired to sift away our character. Just quickly take your Bible and turn to the book of Job. The book of Job.

Chapter one, Job chapter one, the first two chapters is very important. Satan is mentioned 13 times in just those two chapters, 13 times. Job was a man of great integrity. He was a godly man, but he had 10 children, and I believe he was worried about his kids. It might be that his children were not as godly as daddy was. I don’t know. But the Bible also makes a statement of a good job with that which I have feared has come upon me.

He was afraid of losing his kids and he lost his kids. He might have been afraid of losing his wealth. He could have been afraid of losing his health and he lost his health because what you’re afraid of means that’s not what you’re trusting God with. So you can lose that which you’re not really trusting the Lord for. Trust the Lord, but if you live in fear of what you can lose and you’d be surprised all the things you might lose.

But anyway, he goes through here and talked about what a godly man that he is and then it says down here in verse 5, and it was so when the days of their feasting was gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning, offered, burned offerings, according to the number of them all, for Job said it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus did Job continually. Now he didn’t say that they did, but he said, they might have, and if they did, I’m gonna offer these sacrifices for them.

But what happens to those kids? Well, let me tell you. In verse six, they came a day and understand this, it doesn’t matter what going on today, there will come a day down the road. There’s always a day coming when things seem like they’re falling apart. There’ll come a day when it seemed like, you know, somebody else is in total control. Have you ever got out of bed and started doing things and then I need to go back to bed and try this all over again?

I’ve had a few days like that. I should have stayed in bed that day, never even got out of bed. Sometimes I’ll come over here and I’ll work all day and I can’t think of one thing I got done. What did I do today? I was here, I spent all day, I can’t remember what in the world did I accomplish. At some days you’re going to find out. Satan is also working behind the scenes and he can tear down all the things you’re trying to build up and it don’t take much.

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, then 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 850227 5325.

That’s 850227 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. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.