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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.

Look what he says here in verse 11 of chapter 2, Matthew chapter 2. In verse 11 he says, and when they were come to the house, because see by the time the wise men got there, they didn’t come to the manger scene. That was, this was not a manger, this was at the house and the child was about two years of age. And he says, and they saw the young child, and they were in the house. when they come into the house.

This is not outside the house at a stable in a manger, in all the animals. Now that’s the way we see the mangers scene, but that’s really not the way it happened in the Bible. But look what he says, and they found the child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him, and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincent, and murk. And get this in verse 12, 12, being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod.

Why? Didn’t Herod say, when you have found the child, bring me word again that we may come and worship him also? Do you really think that he really wanted to worship him? There’s a God in heaven that knows that Herod had evil in his man. And so God calls them to, see, if God didn’t intervene at times in people’s lives, you’d be surprised what would have happened. There’s time God may intervene in your life. Did you ever want to go someplace and get there quick and it seemed like everything goes wrong?

The car breaks down? The radiator messed up? And you think sometimes, Lord, that didn’t have to happen. I mean, surely that didn’t have to happen. And yet God knows what He’s doing. You and I will enjoy life if you just learn to enjoy the ride. Don’t pick God apart. Don’t try to make God explain everything to you. Enjoy the trip. It’s part of the trip. I’m on a vacation and something happens goes wrong. Enjoy the trip. Not just the destination.

It’s like life. Enjoy life. Well, when I get this, I’ll be happy. When I get that, I’ll be happy. Like, it’s at the end of this. No, I don’t want it at the end of anything. I want to enjoy it as I go. I have really enjoyed my life. I was telling Betty this the other day. Well, I was telling her the day. I says, I don’t know if you really think about it. I don’t know all the time.

I says, but you stop and think, honey, we have pretty good health. And God’s given us a good ministry. And we’re sitting here eating some good food. And we’re here in Tampa, Florida. And we’re can drive down here and overlook the bay, drive a little bit further, you can see the beach. And just look how good God’s been. You don’t realize they’re having 18 degree weather up there. We’re down here with a sunshine almost all the time. Isn’t God good to us in our old age, if you want to call 70 old age?

I don’t. I think we’re just hitting to the top of the peak, and it could last for a long time, the top of this plateau. One day, and this is the truth, I was going through Louisiana. And every once in a while, I like to stop at a golf course and just play around the golf. You know, I kind of have to exercise a little bit and enjoy some things. There’s a lot of things I don’t do, but this is just one of the things I enjoy.

So I got out of the car, and I went in there and I paid, and I went out there and put my clubs in the back of my little golf cart, Thank you. And this one little old man walked up to me and says, they told me to join you. Oh, okay. I says, you’re walking? Yes. You’re carrying your bag? Yes. I thought this little old squirt is walking and carrying his bag. And here I am, riding in a golf cart, and I’m out there for my exercise.

I hate it when somebody puts me on a guilt trip. But this guy hadn’t said anything really wrong, but it sure bothered me. So I said, well, if you’re going to walk on, I might as well walk to. That was a dumb thing to do. But anyway, I said, okay, so I got my club. My bag weighs about 10,000 pounds.

So we went to the first tee and this guy, little old man, I mean, little old dried up P. Vine and he got up there and he put his ball down there and he come back and he hit the ballustomed he never looked up to see where it went he just hit the ball and then he put his club in his bag and then he stepped to the side and he went like this and well he had hit it about 150 yards right down the middle but I’m gonna take his kid guy to school it’s time for him to go to school I took out my driver I’m a young whopper snapper I killed that ball and it went did you know the harder you try to hit the ball, the more crooked it goes.

That’s the truth. I couldn’t, for some reason, I could not hit a straight ball. And this guy was just hitting at 150 down the middle. Do you know after about three or four holes, I was like, this guy’s beating me. The guy is beating me. This old man is whooping me. I was so humiliated. So the harder I tried to worship. I got I feel like I couldn’t even hit the ball at all. I couldn’t even putt. So I hit a one hole.

I put it out there a long ways right in the middle and I went over there and got my clubs and I went He got up there. He didn’t say a word and I know he didn’t want to hit it no more 150 yards He ain’t hit it no more 150 yards since we started and he just hit it same way He hit it, took his club, put it into the bag. And that ball just went out there and it hit the cart path.

And bounced, and bounced, and bounced, and bounced, and bounced. And it came off the cart path and he was just a couple yards right in front of my ball. You realize that whenever we finish nine holes, he says, I’m going to get this guy on the next nine, I’ll get him on the next nine, because I think he’ll get tired. I’ll get him on the next nine. He says, this is all I’m playing. I thought, don’t quit. You can’t quit.

But he quit. And then he got through, he says, you know, he says, he says, I’m 98 years old. I said, you what? He said, I’m 98 years old. And then he started to walk off and he turned back and looked at me. He says, and I’m blind in one eye. I wanted to wrap that driver around his head. I didn’t even witness to the guy because he was golfs. And I thought, I’ll get him on the back nine.

I know I was playing again. I was fit to be tied. I am forever the loser to a 98 year old man that was blind in one eye. That is humility when somebody can humble you in such a way. But look what he says here. You have to have sometimes God intervene to teach you something you may not want to learn. Do you realize that was probably 30 years ago, and I will remember that story for the rest of my own natural life?

In verse 13, when they were departed, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, Then arise and take the young child and his mother and… Flea into Egypt and be thou until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. So does God know what Herod wants to do to this young child? Yes. So God had to intervene into Joseph’s life through a dream and tell him, says, look, you need to flee.

Now, that means that Joseph and Mary, look after all they’ve had to go through, and getting down to the place where the child was finally born. And then they’re a couple of years, now he’s got to flee again. Because now they know that there’s a child and he’s to be the king of Israel. And Herod is after him. So he tells them that they’re gonna have to leave and go it down into Egypt. Now look what he says here in verse 15.

and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet that we read while ago, over in the book of Hosea, chapter 11, and verse 1, where it makes the statement, out of Egypt, have I called my son. Now when we read that verse in the Old Testament, we probably would never have gotten that truth out of that verse. But because it’s quoted here, and yet it happened back there.

And yet out of Egypt, have I called my son, but we always think, well, that’s whenever God brought Egypt, I mean Israel, out of Egypt, and it did happen. But you see, there’s more to it than that. That’s why when you read the study of the Bible, sometimes you think, well, now I understand what it means. And then you go back and you read it again and you’ll get more out of it than you got the last time. You can read it again and get something outside of it.

There’s no limit to the knowledge that’s hidden in these scriptures. It’s a treasure house. God says, search for his wisdom as a man would search for silver and gold according to Proverbs in chapter 2. It’s an awesome book. Looking for 16, then Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men was exceeding, well, didn’t God know that, look, you know, if you wise men don’t go back to see Herod, you’re going to make him mad. What seems like everybody makes Herod mad.

And he wants to kill. So he killed a whole bunch of little babies. Look at this. And so he sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coast thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently acquired of the wise men. Didn’t God know that Herod would kill all those babies? Why would God let it happen? He could protect his one son by sending him down into Egypt and let how many other babies die.

Were there hundreds of them? Was there a thousand of them? Who I don’t know. I don’t know. But the Bible talks about it and it’s mentioned in the Old Testament. Rachel weeping for her children. Looking for 17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, in Rehma was there a voice heard, lamentations and weeping and great morning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not. Now just hold your place right here but look in the book of Genesis in chapter 35.

Just real quick, in Genesis chapter 35, Genesis chapter 35. And look there in verse 16. It goes all the way back to even something like this. It’s not one of the notes that you find there but in In the book of Genesis in chapter 35, looking verse 16, and they journeyed from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephra, and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. It came to pass when she was in hard labor that the midwife said unto her, fear not, thou shalt have this son also.

And it came to pass as her soul was in departing before she died, that she called his name Beoni. Then his father named him Benjamin. In verse 19 Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephra which is Bethlehem. Now remember in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, though there will be little among the thousands of Judean, out of the Bethlehem Ephrata. The same place Rachel Bethlehem. The weeping and there’s a lot more that goes into all these scriptures that reveal so many things that we do not see on the surface.

That’s why you can forever study the Word of God and never come to the bottom of it. It is truly a treasure house of wealth. Go back there to the book of Matthew. And now when talking about Rachel weeping for her children. Now that’s a scripture that’s found there in the book of Jeremiah chapter. 31. I referred to it, I believe this morning in Sunday school, so we won’t look at it at this time. But now, look in verse 19, when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in another dream to Joseph in Egypt.

You know, it’s almost like if you would go back there and remember the story of the other Joseph in the first book in the Old Testament and the Joseph in the first book in the New Testament. And you can see some of the similarities and things. You know even this Joseph who was supposed to be the father of Jesus. And we know he wasn’t but he was still a good man. He was a just man. He was a righteous man.

He was an obedient man. He was a faithful man. And yet he would take and leave everything that he had and take his wife and his child. And he obeyed the Lord and went down into Egypt and stayed there until Herod was dead, and then he came back. And then the Lord had to peer to him again in a dream, not only when to tell him to come back, but another dream in verse 22, where it says in verse 21, I want you to see this, and he arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel.

But remember, they came out of Egypt. You will bring my son out of Egypt.” Look at the last part of verse 20, verse 20, saying, “‘Arise, take the young child and his mother. Go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.” See, God knew they would try to kill this baby. Well, I mean, it’s just one little old baby. What can this baby accomplish? Isn’t it amazing that if Jesus Christ was not the Son of God?

Why does almost everybody in the world know this child? Everybody knows the name of Jesus, just about everybody. And all the nations of the world, good or bad. Look how many churches there are that bear his name, and how many Christians that say they know him and bear his name have been a Christian, and claim it to be a Christian. if Christ is not anybody but other than just a man. And yet he didn’t live very long. He only lived to be about 33 and a half years old.

He never wrote a book in his lifetime, and he never left the land of Israel. He didn’t travel the world. And look what he’s able to look at the reputation of this man. There’s more songs about this guy than All the others all put together. More books written about this one man. He says that if all the things that he has done were written in a book, the libraries of the world could not contain all the stuff. And we think we are really understanding the Bible.

Do you think you really know the Bible? I don’t know nothing compared to what’s in this book. one day we’re going to find out what the Bible had to say and how much is not even seen and taught. This is one deep book and it’s loaded with wealth that we won’t appreciate. I don’t think in this lifetime. Look in verse 23 and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth but he was warned of God over and over and God spoke to him in a vision.

He had a dream. He had a dream. You ever have a dream? I have dreams about what I like to do with my life. And then God has something He wants me to do. And sometimes they don’t agree. Sometimes I have lived long enough to see that things I wanted 20 and 30 years ago comes back around and it just blows my mind sometimes. How that God will give me what I’ve thought about and talked about years ago. Remember the little story about Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth?

And how that they had prayed for this child and God said, I’ve heard thy prayer. Oh, well, Lord, I prayed that 30 years ago about this child business. And isn’t it a wonderful story? I mean, when you stop and you think and you sense all these things and you can begin to enjoy reading and studying about it, because you don’t know what you’re going to come up with next and what God’s going to say, hey, did you ever see that word before?

Did you ever think about this? And you’ll learn some great new truth from what the Word of God says. But Joseph was used greatly by the Lord. I want you to look at a verse with me. Look in Matthew chapter 13. You’re right there in Matthew. You’re looking Matthew 13. Matthew 13, and look there in verse 53, verse 53. In verse 53 it says, and it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, He departed thence. And when He was come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue in so much that they were astonished.

Now He’s back in His hometown. He’s back in his own country, you know, where he was raised in so much that they were astonished and they said, wince, dust this man, this wisdom and these mighty works. Verse 55, is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? I mean, who is this guy? Where did he learn how to do all of this stuff? Because Jesus, didn’t do anything until it was time when he had 30 years of age.

And look what he says in verse 50, say, and his sisters, verse 55, his brothers, and he says in verse 56, Winston hath this man all these things. Where did he learn all of this knowledge? Remember even when he was only 12 years old, Jesus was able to astound the doctors of law and give him a Bible education. Wouldn’t you have loved to have listened to him when he was only 12 years old and he could have stoned them?

I think it’s awesome, I really do. Look in John 642, John chapter six, John chapter six at verse 42. It says in verse 42, and they said, they said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph? See, it doesn’t say here as supposed. This is a fact that they believed. So if he was the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, well it appears that maybe Joseph is still alive. How is it then that he said I came down from heaven?

We know his mother and father. But see, they didn’t know that Jesus was born of a virgin, but he was born of a virgin. So Jesus was not just your average day kid. What would have been like, do you think, to have Jesus born into your family? And then find out later, he was the Son of God. He knew my mind. You know the Bible says that his own brothers and so forth did not believe on him until, I believe it was after the resurrection, scary stuff.

But nobody was able to find anything wrong with him in his life. Have you ever wondered, I’m going to Jesus ever got a spanking. You know, if he did, they must have been wrong because he couldn’t done anything wrong. They must have thought he should have done something and didn’t do it and probably his brothers and sisters are blaming them from something I had a ton of that. But anyway, hope you enjoy the little lesson on Joseph. There’s just an awful lot of stuff about the Christmas story that you just sometimes don’t think about and it’s just usually just a typical thing.

So I thought you would enjoy you, about Mary and John the Baptist and Joseph. This hand represents you and me while it represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. Hates what we do wrong. He hates all of our sin. And the Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection. See, heaven is perfect. We’re not. We’ve come short of God’s perfection because of sin. We can’t get in in a way to sin is death.

And God says you cannot earn eternal life. You cannot work your way to heaven. That’s why we all needed a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ, He came into the world. He had no sin. He was perfect. Born of a virgin. And the reason is because he, that way he didn’t have an earthly father, he didn’t have a sinful nature. We all have sinful natures. That’s why we do wrong. He didn’t have one. And he came into the world and he took all of the sins of all the world upon himself and he died and paid for them and came back from the dead and said, if you’ll believe that he did it for you, that he would put this payment to your account.

You get to go to heaven on what Jesus said. did for you. You can’t earn it, you can’t work for it. Eternal life is the gift of God, not a works list, and you may and should boast. Well, if it’s eternal life, how long would it last? Forever. When I was 18 years old, I accepted Christ as my Savior. He saves me from hell. That means I can’t go there. I can’t go there today. I can’t go there tomorrow, because he paid for all of my sins.

I don’t have any sins to pay for. He paid for them. Do I deserve it? No, I don’t deserve it. But it just shows you how much he loved me that he did at all. It doesn’t matter how bad you’ve been or how bad you will be. He loves you that much. And if you will believe he did it for you, he would give you the free gift of eternal life and you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die.

Let’s pray, shall we? I pray that you’ve all trusted Christ as your Savior, but I don’t know the hearts of anybody. I’m not like the Lord, I don’t have that ability. But I would like to know if what I said made sense to you, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, did you understand that you’re not going to go to heaven, that you will spend an eternity? Inhale, if you don’t trust Christ as your Savior? So there’s a great penalty for not accepting Christ.

But if you do believe that He did it for you and you trust Him right now, then God said He would give you as a free gift everlasting life. Never cast you out, never lose you. Best news in all the world. In just a moment I’m going to ask for a raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you and you said in preacher that made sense to me and tonight I will trust Christ as my Savior.

And I do it with head, bow, nice, close so that no one will be embarrassed. So in the quietness of this moment is there anyone at all say yes that made sense to me. I will trust Christ as my Savior. Yes, God bless you, sir. You can put your hand down. Anyone else, just slip it up very quickly. By that, you mean, just pray for me, I will trust Christ right now. I want to be certain I’m going to heaven when I die.

I realize I can’t earn it, I can’t work for it, that it’s a gift. Would you trust anyone else? Our Father, we thank You so much for Your love for us, for all Your watch, care and Your provision, and how You move and work in our lives. Sometimes even when we don’t see it, we don’t understand. But Father, if we read the stories in the Bible, we know that there’s an unseen hand, the providence of God working in our lives.

In and through people and circumstances, we thank You Lord for the individual that indicated by an uplifted hand that they would trust You as Savior tonight. By doing so they become Your child, Your child forever, that You’ll never cast them out, to lose them, that they can know they’re going to heaven because of what you did on the cross for them. We ask the blessings upon each person here and we thank you for all that you’ve done and what you’re going to do in Christ’s name.

Amen. 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 4081 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.