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

Isn’t it wonderful that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, or all of humankind would have been destroyed, and you and I would have never been here? But I’ve got to just destroy it. That’s it. Every person, nobody left a life. Well, I’m glad he didn’t do that. And so he says here, now these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and Noah walked with God. See a man who walks with God has to be a man who has humbled himself with the Lord and decided to go with the Lord.

He walked with God. See, that’s important. It’s not that God said that God walked with me, but I walked with Him. Like God’s going someplace and I want to go with Him. What we want to do is we want God to do whatever we want to do. And Lord, I need some help right now. Lord, and God said, no, no, you don’t get it. I want you to go with me. I want you to walk with me. Now there’s a thing that He has here in verse 12.

And God looked upon the earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. In other words, they weren’t going God’s way. And so people think that’s not a big deal. No, everybody just does it. Just what’s the majority? God doesn’t worry about that. He said a few people and destroyed how many? So was the majority always right? You should find the direction that the majority is going in before you join the majority.

Maybe God wants us to be the individual that’s just doing what’s right because that’s what he wants us to do and the majority of people may not do that. Now, think about them turn to Genesis in chapter 19. Genesis 19 and I want you to see this. In verse 19 down to verse 22, in your Bible says, in verse 19 of chapter 19, Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy site, and thou have magnified thy mercy, which thou have shown unto me in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountains lest some evil take me and I die.”

In other words, he says, I need to get you out of Sodom and Gomorrah. God’s going to destroy this place, so he was to get his wife and two daughters and get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. And God says that He cannot destroy the place until He gets them out of there. Now Lot was not a righteous man in the sense of how He lived, but He was a just man because of whom He had trusted. So He was called a just man.

But there’s a difference in the Old Testament and you’ll find it in the New Testament between the righteous and the carnal. Just like in the New Testament we can have people who know the Lord. And so they’re God’s children. And so they’re either spiritually minded means they mind the spirit and walk with God or they’re carnal Christians and they walk into flesh. And some people can’t discern the different because it looks like it’s not that big of a deal.

But God discerns those who walk with him and obedience and those who do not walk with him as they should in obedient. So the Lord says there’s certain things that happens to different groups of people. So if you are an obedient child of God God can bless you now notice that there’s always this difference between Abraham And his nephew lot both safe men both just men but lot Look the wrong way and he went to the wrong place and he got involved in the wrong Well, wrong things.

And he says, and he vexed his righteous soul from day unto day by what he saw and what he heard. This is why pornography is wicked, it is wrong, it’s not good, it’s not godly, it doesn’t help you spiritually. But that’s where he was, and that’s what he saw. And he looked upon whatever he wanted and he thought, this is the best. And Abraham says, you just make the choice and he said, I’ll go here, whatever. But you see, there’s, there’s a lot of people in the Bible.

righteous Abraham and there’s carnal lot. And so the Bible tells us that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and he says, I need to get you out of here. He says, you’re going to flee into the mountain. He said, oh, don’t let me go to the mountain. He said, let me go to the city of Zor. So he went to the city of Zor. And what happened to his wife? And if she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, it kind of reminds me of this couple that went into the bank.

And they had a guy in their working whose name was Jesse, is what was that name? Jeffy. Jeffy, Jeffy. And a guy came in there to rob the bank and he told Jeffy, stick him up. And when he did, his mask came down off of his face. And so when happened. Well, it was Lenin and Sandy that was in there. And he right off the bat, he says, did you see my face? He said, no, no, I did not see your face.

And he pointed at gun. He said, no, I did not see your face. But my wife did. But anyway, his wife turned into a pillar of salt. And so he’s thanking the Lord for being good to him, but he says, I can’t do anything in verse 22. Haysthal, escaped the other, I cannot do anything untilthal, become the other. Therefore the name of the city was called Zor. And this is what had happened. And a lot of bad things happened in this city.

It was gone up in smoke. But he says that he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God was gracious to him. And that’s why he says in verse 19, Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. And this is what God can do for you. And I wouldn’t it be a shame if we had to suffer for every wrong decision that we do make? I don’t think we’d ever wind up serving the Lord. But God is the God of second chance, third chance, fourth chance, fifth chance.

Did God give Jonah and he was down in the mouth? But he came out all right. So just remember when you get down, maybe you’ll come out all right, but he had to humble himself. He had to admit himself and to do what God wanted him to do. Now look at page two, top of the page and turn into Bible to Genesis chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32, I was kind of amazed at how many times these verses were found in the Old Testament about they found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

And so if they needed it, and the Bible tells it in the New Testament, we need more grace. Well, maybe we do because there’s times when God can give grace to the humble. And that is a principle that God has laid down in His Word. If you live in dependence upon the Lord, He can give you the grace you need every day to face whatever you have to face. So in Genesis 32 and verse 5, I want you to look at this verse.

In verse 5 he says, and I have oxen and asses and flocks and men serving and women serving that I have sent to tell my Lord that I may find grace in thy sight. Now he’s not talking here about God, he’s talking about Esau. You see, there was a time when Jacob and Esau, they were at each other. Jacob had stolen his birthright, but Jacob before that he had sold it for a mess of pottage. Well, he didn’t think he was going to live and wouldn’t need it, but later on, he wished he hadn’t done it and then he wept with bitterness and so forth.

Anyway, you know, Mamaloo got involved into this thing and next thing you know, he deceived Isaac and well, things weren’t looking too good and all he saw wanted to do to Jacob was just kill him. It was his brother. So his brother left, went a long way, went to see his uncle Laban, and there he worked for 14 years at least. And came away with two women and a whole bunch of cattle and a little bit of everything. God had really blessed him in everything that he did.

He just multiplied. Well, he wanted to come back home because the Lord told him, says, you need to go on back now. And I will be with you in everything I’ll work out right. Well, when he got back, he was scared. He was scared because he just knew that his brother was waiting on him and was going to kill him. So he’s lived with this fear all these years. He’s still doing things and he’s having success, but he’s living with fear that his brother is going to kill him.

So he sends a messenger on up there to tell him, he says, look, you’re going to take him and go and tell him that I am. Then I’m coming. And he told him, and next thing you know, here, here comes the messenger back. He says, oh well, yeah, he’s, he heard you were coming and he’s coming to meet you with 400 of his men. Uh oh. So see what he had done is he would take some of these cattle and they would drive them.

Then behind them he would have some camels. Then behind them they’d have something else. And behind them they’d have something else. And so they had all these gifts, come bearing gifts. He didn’t want them to all be there at the same time. He’s bringing this. Oh, look what he got me. Oh, there’s some more. And here comes some more. Now what is Jacob trying to do to Esau? If he had any bitterness and any hatred, he’s hoping that all this goodness that he’s doing will melt him, and he won’t be mad at him.

And here comes another flock of this and a little of that. So he did all of these things. And so it says there in verse 7, and Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. Now in our Christian life, sometimes our distress and our grief is because of things we’ve done to cause it. But not always. Sometimes there’s people who do things to us that cause us a lot of grief and a lot of stress as we go through life. And so you want a little grace?

Did you know that even though he did some of those things And finally when he met, he saw he was so glad because he was gonna split up the party and so forth and send one group and say, in case they got this one, they wouldn’t got all of them. He says he could kill everybody. And he has this talk with the Lord. He has to have a talk with God. And said, Lord, you told me to come over here.

And you told me that everything would be well. And Lord, this doesn’t look good. He’s coming with 400 men. So he’s afraid and he’s stressed out. Don’t you think this is about time for him to maybe go to the Lord and say, Lord, I need a little extra grace. I’m worried, I’m afraid, I’m scared to death. And so… I’m worried. I’m afraid. I’m scared to death. And so he, he did just that. He went and talked to the Lord.

Looked in verse nine and Jacob said, Oh, God of my father, Abraham, God of my father, Isaac, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God that created the heavens and the earth. I don’t know how long he took him to get his information across, you know, and bragging on how great he was. The Lord which said unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee. Well, that’s what God said. But he’s going by what he sees and what he sees and what he hears doesn’t look so good.

But see, he’s running all this through his mind, but he’s thinking things that are not true. He’s believing something that’s not true. In verse 10, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou had showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I pass over this Jordan, now I am become too bond. In verse 11, deliver me. I pray thee from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.

For I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children. He has every reason to be, You know why he’s so afraid? Because of something that happened years and years and years ago. And now he’s having a showdown. And what’s going to happen? This is the Bible full of interesting stories. But there are real stories about real people, and things really did happen, and there’s consequences to various decisions. Well, later on that night, after he’d done a lot of us praying, he says that he began to rassel with a man.

Look there in verse 24, and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. And when he saw that he prevailed, not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. And I believed that later on, that still bothered him for the rest of his life. I believed that this helped make him maybe walk with a limp, and he was a cripple.

But he walked with a limp. I remember I broke my nose and it ran with a limp. What did he want? What did Jacob want so bad from God? God, that He wanted to wrestle with God. You see, there’s been times in my life when I wondered, how am I gonna get out of this? I would be down in that well so deep in that pit. When and how Lord can you bring me up out of that pit and set my feet upon solid rock and establish my going to the sizzling of 40 of Psalm?

And you begin to wrestle with the Lord. And sometimes you don’t go to sleep at night because you’re just talking Lord and wrestling with Him about certain things. I believe this is similar to something like that, the way you just, you weep and you cry out and you don’t know what you’re gonna do and you’re at the end of yourself. And so he says that this is what he was gonna do. He’s gonna wrestle with this man. And he what he wanted was in verse 26.

And he says, let me go for the day breaketh. And he says, I will not let thee go. And here’s the reason you are done the line this. except thou bless me. I want you to bless me. Of all the things and all the world as you live your life, you should want God to bless you. Every day of your life, Lord, I want you to bless my life. Now, God doesn’t so much bless this disobedience, but he does bless a humble and a contrite broken heart, where you humble yourself before the Lord and how God is going to deal with you, and he will bless you.

And so he says in verse 27, he changed his name, he changed his name from Jacob to Israel. And then he goes on here and he makes a statement in verse 29, and Jacob asked him and said, tell me I pray thee, thy name. And he says, wherefore is it that thou does ask after my name? And he blessed him there. Jacob called the name of the place, Pinyon, for I have seen God face to face, and look at the next part.

my life is preserved. He had wrestled with the Lord and got in the assurance everything is going to be alright just like God had promised. Now he has the confidence and God had blessed him but look what he says in verse 32, therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh until this day because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank. And I believe that’s important because I I’ll show you a little bit later if we have enough time for everything.

They’re turning your Bible to Genesis chapter 39. Genesis chapter 39. Now in Genesis chapter 39 it talks also about this Joseph finding grace in the eyes of the Lord. Look in verse 1. In verse 1 he says, and Joseph was brought down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the garden Egyptian, bought him out of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which has brought him down the other. And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man.

And he was in the house of his master of the Egyptians, and his master saw that, and you ought to unwind this, because the Lord was with him. And that the Lord made him prosper in everything that he did. You see, if you serve the Lord and you do right, we don’t have anything against the testimony of a man like Joseph and the man Daniel. Nothing in the scriptures that we have against their testimony in any way, but God would cause them to be blessed and God blessed others because they were taking care of God’s man.

And so he says in verse 4, and Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him, made him overseer over his house and all that he had put in his hands. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph’s sake. And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field.

Can God bless others because of who you are? Because you love the Lord and you’re doing what right God can bless others because of you. Now that’s finding grace in the eyes of the Lord because God can do this but he does it because of a person’s humility. You can blame somebody else all the time on why you’re filled with pride. It’s somebody else’s fault. No, you just take responsibility for yourself and humble yourself unto the Lord. And those that lift themselves up with pride, God will take care of them.

You don’t have to worry about them. You just go ahead and keep yourself humbled and submission to the will of God, and God will give you grace, and God is going to bless your life. And every circumstance, it doesn’t matter where they are, it doesn’t matter what’s going on, and they all had problems. Every one of these had problems, and God had grace. Now you read the same thing in the book of James in chapter 2. Now look in Genesis in chapter 47.

Genesis in chapter 47. In these scriptures talks about what’s going to happen because of the famine and so forth that it come. And in chapter 47, look in verse 25, verse 25. They know now that they’ve gotten, you know, Joseph had led his dad and these others, about 70 of them come down into Egypt and they gave them the choice piece of land. And time was getting where Jacob was going to die. But before that he makes a statement in verse 25 and they said, “‘Thou have saved our lives, let us find grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.'”

This is at the beginning. In the world they were talking to Joseph and said, you’ve saved our lives. They even called him the Lord. And he says, we’ll be Pharaoh’s servants. Well, Pharaoh’s servants, they turned into what? Pharaoh’s slaves. So after a good length of time, they became slaves. But God did a work in their life. Now, he was now starting to get old. And so in chapter 47, looking verse 29, In verse 29, Jacob now was getting to be an old man.

And his old man was a little different than us old men. Verse 20, he said, and Jacob lived in the land of Egypt, 17 years. So the whole age of Jacob was 140 and seven years. That’s a long time to live in. That’s older than you are. Then he says in verse 29, and the time true near that Israel and you ought to underline these two words. If God does not come back in the air for us, we must die.

There is no other option. So unless Christ comes back in the rapture and takes us out of here, what are we gonna do? We are gonna die. That means we’re not gonna be here forever. So He does make a request. He says, and He called in to son Joseph and said to him, “‘If now I have found grace in thine sight.” You see, whenever you find grace in God’s eyes, you want other people to find grace in your eyes.

Because God has been gracious to us, we are to bestow that grace upon other people. We should be gracious as we possibly can be. The last thing you wanna do is grow up to be a mean old man or a mean old woman. You don’t need to be mean and ugly and unkind, but need to be gracious as we possibly can be. He says that whenever you do this, so in verse 29, I have found grace and thy side put, I pray thee thy hand under my thigh.

I believe he was crippled. I believe he was helping them either to set up or to get up, I don’t know, but I believe there’s a reason for that. And he says, and deal with me, bury me not, I pray thee in Egypt. So the Lord had him as the Egyptians embalmed him and they took him back. Wouldn’t it be something that they actually could find where he has been embalmed in these? Anyway, that’s another service for another time.

But there’s many scriptures in the Old Testament deals with this, and I don’t have time to cover all of these. But you can look at those notes later on, they won’t be good for you. But if they needed it in the Old Testament, and they had problems just like you have, and they had fears just like we have. And they always wanted to humble themselves to God who could do something about it. Now, when you don’t think God can do anything about it, why not?

Don’t insult God by thinking your problems are too small that he’s not gonna be interested, or that they’re too big that he can’t solve it or do anything about it. Cast how many of you cares? Oh, don’t worry about the size of your problem. Everything that deals with your life, talk to the Lord about, pray to the Lord, pray all the time. Because everybody needs a little bit more grace. That’s why I say be nice to everybody because everybody’s having a hard time.

Be gracious. Don’t be mean and ugly and unkind with each other. Look up here, this is you and me. And this is sin. This is everything we’ve done wrong. God says that we have all sinned and we’re all in the same boat. God, he loves us but he hates what we do wrong. And for us to pay for what we do wrong is eternal separation from God in our literal fire burning hell. And the moment you die, you’re in hell, unless you have trusted Christ as your Savior.

So God wants us to go to heaven, and to go to heaven, we have to be perfect, no sin, because God will not let sin in heaven. So God says, you cannot save yourself. This church can’t save you, this preacher can’t save you. I can’t even save myself. Nobody can save you except God. So what God did was He took upon flesh and came into this world. And in the form of a man, He took all of our sins and paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead.

And when He came back from the dead, the only thing He wanted us to do to go to heaven was believe He did it for you. When you believe He did this for you, He says, He that believeth on me, hat, present and death, that very moment everlasting life, because when you accept this payment for your sins, You have a payment for all of your sins. There’s no sin for you to pay for it. He paid for it for you in your place as a substitute.

And he gives to you as a free gift, everlasting life, and you go to heaven on what Christ did. You don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you can’t buy it. That is called the grace of God for it. By grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. Best news I ever heard in my whole life. Let’s pray, show him. Every head bowed and every eye closed.

If you’re watching by internet tonight, or if you’re visiting New Orleans, or been here a hundred times, if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you just talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I don’t understand at all. But Lord, I know I’m a sinner. Friend, we all are. God’s not asking you to stop anything or join something. He just said, I want you to believe something. Believe that when I died, I did that in your place to pay for your sins, so that you wouldn’t have to pay for them.

And all I want you to do is believe I did it for you. I love you that much. And is it if you’ll believe it, he’ll give you as a free gift everlasting life. And so I’m going to ask you in just a moment if what I said made sense to you, would you trust Christ as your Savior? I’m not going to have you stand or come forward. Wouldn’t embarrass you for anything in the world. I do this with head bow and eyes closed.

Because I want to know if what I said made sense. So I’m going to ask you. And the only way I can do it without everybody else known it is I asked you just to let me know by just slipping in it real quick, put it right back down. And God said, if you’ll trust Christ to save you, He’ll give you eternal life. Is there any one of the opposite? Yes, that made sense to me. I’ll trust Christ as my Savior tonight.

And then if you’ll trust the Lord, He’ll give you the free gift of everlasting life. And when you get up to leave, you can say, I know I’m going to heaven. And it’s not because you changed anything. It’s because you believe something. You believe that God loved you and paid for your sins. If you’ve never done and you’ll do it right now. Would you just slip your hand very quickly? Anyone at all? Anyone at all? If you’re watching by internet, right on the screen says, yes, I’ll trust Christ is my savior.

I pray that you will. Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for being good to us. And Father, you have been gracious to us. And Father, we always can use a little bit more. Thank you for what you’ve done. Thank you for the ministry. For your blessings upon the things that we go on this week. Christ, thank you for everything. 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 Main.

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. Cada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.